In all the places you have been in the world where would you revisit? My choice would be Italy because of all the beautiful things there and I liked the “old world feeling” in the Cinque Terra.

I am not heading to Italy any time soon but I did revisit my “pantry”. It is more like a glorified cupboard it is so small. is easy when revisiting organized cupboards, closets etc. about every 3 to 5 months to get rid of clutter that has found its Clutter controlway into these spaces.

Because I do try to keep the pantry organized there were just small things I had to do to get rid of clutter. Some of the cans that I had too many of for this space I took to the storage room. I put all soups back together. I rearranged the bottom shelves so they could hold items that belong there.

I tossed some old cereal and checked expiration dates. Just by spending 7 to 10 minutes clutter control was so easy to do as it hadn’t gotten out of control.

What is your favorite secret to clutter control?

Marilyn Bohn is an energetic, lively, compassionate, hard working and creative organizer. She was born to organize! Before becoming a professional organizer she worked professionally in diverse environments. She is involved in her community, providing her clients with a broad base of experience and knowledge.  She is a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO).

This is written by a client who wants to remain anonymous.

I have so much stuff under my bathroom sink I decided to take Marilyn’s advice and clear the clutter, even though I thought I needed everything that was there. I also thought I knew everything that was there.

I was surprised to find 12 new tubes of toothpaste and more pedicure supplies including dried out polish than I can ever use.

It is now organized and I can find everything. I put likes together and even though it doesn’t look like I have any more room all like things are together and I know what I have and it looks better. I feel better too because I finally took the time to clear clutter that kept piling up.

From Marilyn: Thank you for sharing your story with us. It is amazing what you find when you clear clutter–then you can see what you really have.

Marilyn Bohn is an energetic, lively, compassionate, hard working and creative organizer. She was born to organize! Before becoming a professional organizer she worked professionally in diverse environments. She is involved in her community, providing her clients with a broad base of experience and knowledge.  She is a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO).

Who would have thought? We needed some space for other things on a book shelf so I said I would help by clearing off some old VHS tapes. Well one thing lead to another and getting rid of clutter really had a mind of its own.

Not only did we clear out movies we kept “because we’ll watch them someday” but haven’t in over three or five or six years but we cleared clutter from the under the bed containers too. Craft books are also being donated that haven’t been opened in over five years. One book shelf is almost bare.

After seeing at how nice the shelves looked we said “why didn’t we take a before picture—who would have thought there would be such a big difference”? I recommend always taking a before and after photo of organizing projects.

We will get rid of more clutter as we have set a goal to watch some movies in the next two weeks and then getting rid of them and if we don’t watch them in that length of time just getting rid of them. There are some family videos that we will have transferred to a DVD so it will take up a lot less space.

Wow! Getting rid of clutter sure feels good! Do you agree?

Marilyn Bohn is an energetic, lively, compassionate, hard working and creative organizer. She was born to organize! Before becoming a professional organizer she worked professionally in diverse environments. She is involved in her community, providing her clients with a broad base of experience and knowledge.  She is a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO).

Is clutter control hard for you? Do things just get out of control before you can even turn around? I was chatting with my daughter last night the one with young children and she was saying from the garage to the house there is always so much stuff to bring in and then there is clutter everywhere. (For one thing that is an exaggeration—we may feel like clutter is everywhere, but stop and give yourself credit—there will be some where there is no clutter).

We started talking about each separate thing she always has to bring in from the car and came up with a plan. One thing that is a necessity to control clutter is to have things available to stop clutter in its tracks.

•Have garbage cans handy to toss trash so it doesn’t even get in the house.
•Designate a bag for the “stuff” that has to come back in the home like Sippy cups, water bottles, toys etc. Then after unloading it, hang it on the door knob to remember to take it back to the car.
•Limit the amount of toys or other things that are taken to the car in the first place. Maybe have car toys that actually “live” in the car that the kids can play with only in the car.

Do you have clutter control ideas that can help young mothers who struggle with this same problem?

Clutter control in the kitchen is the theme of my blogs this week. Here are 4 more ideas on how to get a handle on clutter control in your kitchen. When we don’t have clutter around we feel so much better about ourselves and our homes.

4 timely tips on clutter control for your kitchen:

1. Have a landing place for mail, like a basket or some other container. It is easy to move to the office or other places where you like to sort mail.
2. In a cabinet below the counter place small appliances you don’t use every day. This will make more counter space and reduce clutter.
3. Add inexpensive, under-cabinet lighting to make it easier to work, to see and to clean the countertops. Battery-powered, stick-on varieties are available at most home improvement stores. I also use this as a “night light” that the last one home at night can turn off, but it makes it cheery for them when they come home after dark.
4. Clearly post emergency numbers for poison control, neighbor’s phone numbers and relative’s numbers. In an emergency it is easy to forget even often called numbers. Write these numbers in large print so they can be seen easily. Also program them into your phone and have a list of the programmed numbers.

What clutter control have you done in your kitchen?

Marilyn Bohn is an energetic, lively, compassionate, hard working and creative organizer. She was born to organize! Before becoming a professional organizer she worked professionally in diverse environments. She is involved in her community, providing her clients with a broad base of experience and knowledge.  She is a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO).

The kitchen is the heart of our homes. It is the gathering place for special dinners, breakfasts, snacks and maybe after noon gossip (good kind of course). But with all of these activities do you need to clear clutter in your kitchen?

Her are 4 tips on how to clear clutter in your kitchen:

1. If your cabinets are so high that you have to use a stool to reach items, which can be risky, move heavier items or the things you use every day to the lower shelves. Now is the time to consider getting rid of those appliances (like a bread maker) that you no longer use to reduce clutter.
2. Use a “lazy Susan” or flat round tray that spins easily inside a deep shelf or a corner cabinet. This saves space and lets you reach items easily from the back of your cabinet.
3. Install ready-made, slide-out shelves or baskets in cabinets so you don’t have to reach to find what you are looking for. These are very inexpensive and come in white or stainless steel.
4. Keep countertops clear of unnecessary clutter. This will free up more space to work.

Happy de-cluttering your kitchen!

Marilyn Bohn is an energetic, lively, compassionate, hard working and creative organizer. She was born to organize! Before becoming a professional organizer she worked professionally in diverse environments. She is involved in her community, providing her clients with a broad base of experience and knowledge.  She is a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO).

It is so nice when someone lets me know that my advice works. As a professional organizer I give a lot of tips about organizing everything in your homes and lives. My friend Edna told me she wanted to get rid of clutter in her home and more specifically the clutter she has with her photos.

I recommend to get rid of clutter when it comes to those boxes of photos or envelops of photos or even lose photos to follow these 4 tips:

•Gather your photos all in one place.
•Set a timer and start going through your photos and get rid of the ones you don’t remember or never knew who they were. Get rid of bad pictures. You know the ones where someone looks ugly and they really aren’t or the photo is fuzzy or a picture of the sky or floor was taken by mistake. When the timer dings take a break and come back later.
•Organize your photos the way you want—by person, event, year etc. If you don’t care, that is okay. If your goal is just to get them in an album that’s fine.
•Buy a photo album where you can slip in the photos, write next to it who it is and if you want the date it was taken. Embellish with stickers if you want and voila you are done.

This method makes getting rid of clutter easy and you feel so good having your photos organized without spending a small fortune and taking up all your time.

This is the technique Edna used and she told me she feels so good to have her photos all in one place and she doesn’t have to worry about them anymore and she can enjoy them.

Marilyn Bohn is an energetic, lively, compassionate, hard working and creative organizer. She was born to organize! Before becoming a professional organizer she worked professionally in diverse environments. She is involved in her community, providing her clients with a broad base of experience and knowledge.  She is a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO).