Remember that big project I told you about—helping my daughter clear clutter while organizing her storage shed?

Another idea I wanted to share is that after you have organized the bins and boxes and you have gotten rid of all the clutter (or you think you have) and you have assigned homes for everything they may need to be moved again. This applies to a storage room or any other place where you use containers.

After we had placed several containers on some shelves my daughter stood back and realized some needed to be moved because it made more sense to have them arranged differently so she could get to the ones she used most often.

So if you don’t quite know where things belong, use your best judgment and then step back and take another look. If you need to change things around that is okay. Before you know it you will have gotten rid of clutter and organized while doing it.

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).

Now that I am through with writing my book which I was working on 9 to 12 hours a day for six months I feel like I have a life again. (For those who don’t know I wrote a book for a publisher on Organizing. They titled it Go Organize! Conquer Clutter In Three Simple Steps. It will be in major bookstores in December.) So now I have more freedom I have been working in the yard.

There is one pesky weed I noticed that is coming up right in the same spot as it did last year in the driveway. All summer I pulled it out and it just returns.

I was thinking this is like organizing. Do we get rid of clutter or do we just move it from one place to another? Like my weed to we find temporary solutions instead of permanent ones which would save us time and effort?

To get rid of clutter; designate a specific place for everything in your home and when finished using an item, put it in its home. Teach your family to do the same. I find as a professional organizer people (including children) are more willing to keep things organized if they know where things belong.

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).

Stuff, stuff and more stuff. Do you have things you love but you have so much of them that you don’t even see them anymore? Do you have a collection of dolls, rocks, shells, figurines or other collections and they are in a curio cabinet or some other place but they are so packed in that you don’t really see them?

As a professional organizer as I am helping women get rid of clutter I suggest that when we have too much we really don’t see it anymore it is time to get rid of clutter and do other things with our treasures so they will not just become dust collectors.

•Rotate the items in an out of the display where they live. Pack some away carefully and bring them back out again in a few months, and pack others away that have been on display.
•It may be time to part with some of your treasures. If it is; give them to family and friends you want to have them. They could be boxed up and labeled gifts and then be wrapped later and given to them for birthdays or holidays.
•If they must be out, arrange them in such a way that they don’t look cluttered. Maybe some items just need to be moved to another place in the room.

No matter how you get rid of clutter in your home you will be happier that you did because you will start seeing your treasures again. And only you can make that decision.

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).

I have a cupboard that is only 8 inches wide in my kitchen—honest, I measured it. And as you know my kitchen is SMALL so even this is premium space. But what will fit here? Even if I wasn’t so inclined, because of my small kitchen I am forced to reduce clutter before it starts.

I use this cupboard for my storage bags. I doubled my space by adding two removable shelves. (Top and bottom) This way I can easily get to what I need and I can store more supplies in my kitchen.

On the lower shelf I have a plastic bowl I was going to recycle that holds cookie decorating supplies and I use a zip lock bag for plastic utensils I take with me when I go to homes to help others reduce clutter.

Do you have a small space that you use to reduce clutter?

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).

Show ‘N Share Week on how to store medicine:

Are your medicines in the medicine cabinet in the steamy bathroom? The humidity in the bathroom can change the potency of medicines so it is better to store them some other place. That is the latest advice from the research I have done.
It is time to reduce clutter in the medicine cabinet. Above is a photo of how I store my medicines.

Tips on how to reduce clutter in the medicine cabinet:

•Store medicines together in one container.
•Label the container
•Use plastic bags to separate different meds (cough drops, foot creams, nasal drops etc). Label the bags.
•Every 3 to 6 months check for expiration dates and get rid of expired medicines by taking them to your pharmacists for them to recycle. (It is not safe for our ground water for them to be flushed or put in the trash).
•I recommend keeping medicines separated from first aid supplies. Here is how I do it:

I have all the first aid supplies in one container and as you can see I keep the shoe polish in another container on top of this one. These three containers take up one shelf above the towels.

Again, my goal is to have my medicines and first aid supplies easily available and all together in one place. Family members who take prescription medication daily have their pills in another secure place. My goal isn’t to have it look like a page in a magazine—that would take too much work and too much time. For our life style it isn’t practical.

We would love to see your photos on how you store your meds, please email them to me at info@marilynbohn.com and we will put them in a future blog. Or leave a comment telling us how you store your medicines.

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).