Professional Home Organizing – Page 5

Professional Level Decluttering

Posted on April 25, 2023January 3, 2025 by jillmoore

Have you ever wondered about professional level decluttering? Do you ever wonder what if a Professional Home Organizer, like myself, showed up at your house right now there’s a handful of things they’d immediately throw out without a second thought. Interested in what those things are? Keep reading!

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Top 5 Items to Declutter

Item #1: Flimsy Kitchen Utensils

You know what I’m talking about. That spatula you bought from IKEA when you moved into your first apartment. Promotional mugs. The cheap wine openers you’ve collected from holiday parties. The knife you got at Target that bends every time you try to slice an apple. If the utensil doesn’t serve its purpose…then it no longer serves you. Time to go!

Item #2: Clothes That Don’t Fit

Like everyone on the planet, I have been many different sizes in my life. If my team and I have organized your closet, then you know that we call these clothes “bullies”. We always ask our clients, “why would you want bullies in your closet? I want my wardrobe to make me feel good about the way I look today.” Even if I get to some magic number someday, it’s going to look different. Because time & gravity.

Item #3: Broken Items

Have you ever had the intention to fix a broken toy, mend a garment, fix an appliance and then life gets in the way? Before you know it, 6 months have gone by. The item is either long forgotten about, or has been replaced by now effectively making it “clutter”. Let it go and move forward.

Item #4: Long Ago Expired Items

The expiration umbrella has a lot of items under it. I’m talking food in the fridge, spices in the cabinet, medications in the bathroom, even makeup on your vanity. If it’s expired, or you didn’t even like the product, toss it. If not for the sake of decluttering, then for the sake of bacteria.

Item #5: Paperwork & Cards

We live in a magical time where we can stop paperwork from flooding our kitchen counters. Sign up for electronic billing, statements, news. Any time you have the paperless option, take it!

Go through your file cabinet and toss (or shred) expired policies, long ago paid bills, and even greeting cards that are just signed “from Bob”. Listen… if Bob couldn’t be bothered to write a meaningful message about how special you are to him, it’s ok to let that greeting card go. Keep the ones with meaningful messages in a memory box. If there are cards from people who are no longer in your life, it’s ok to let the card go to the wayside.

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It can be daunting when you start the huge task of decluttering your home, especially a a professional level of decluttering. However, there are some things that can be tossed (or recycled) on sight. If you need additional assistance with decluttering your home, we’re here to help.
Happy decluttering!

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A Good Time to Declutter

Posted on April 25, 2023February 27, 2025 by jillmoore

Do you ever just feel it in your bones… it’s a good time to declutter. This past weekend was an unusual weekend… It was the first time in a very long time that I was not working on Sunday. And what will I be doing on this day off, you might wonder. Perhaps sleeping late, or going to brunch. Maybe getting a long overdue mani/pedi?

None of the above. It’s a good time to declutter my own house, of course. Believe me when I say that it’s been a while and is overdue. Even as a Professional Home Organizer, sometimes time can get away from me. We’ve recently had to have a series of unwanted home repairs and in tending to these items, we’ve been forced to pull all the stuff out that had been lurking in the forgotten corners of my attic, garage, and trickling residually throughout other areas of my home. And now that a lovely pile of “stuff” is sitting in my guest room staring at me, I have no choice but to declutter it because before I know it, summer guests will be coming my way.

As I was looking at the pile and thinking about how these items had been shoved in the corner totally forgotten about, I can hear myself in my head saying the same thing that I tell my clients on a daily basis…If it’s been sitting in a corner totally forgotten about, you probably don’t need it. Old storage bins from my college days, a mountain of bedding from when we used to have 15 friends come and stay with us all at the same time at the beach YEARS ago, all kinds of miscellany that I can absolutely live without, various travel bags that don’t fit our travel style anymore.

But here’s where it gets tricky. Although those things may be easy for me to say goodbye to, there is one item that has somehow escaped many, many decluttering sessions over the years. And that item, is my bicycle. That I haven’t been on since about 2009. Somehow it made the cut in the move from Virginia to North Carolina, and has been hanging dutifully from a hook in the rafter since. I’m not sure why this one item has survived all the decluttering. I’m not sure how much longer the bike is going to remain there. I know I should donate it to someone who enjoys riding bikes so it can have a little more love in its lifecycle. I see some soul searching in my near future to figure out what the right course of action is for me & my bicycle. And sometimes, even a Professional Home Organizer has that one item that we might not be ready to turn the page on.

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If you need help with your decluttering journey, we’re here to help! Are you local to Winston-Salem, North Carolina and surrounding areas? Contact Organized Jill to schedule your complimentary consultation.

Schedule a Consultation

Getting the Band Together

Posted on April 25, 2023February 27, 2025 by jillmoore

Assembling a Professional Home Organization team is a lot like getting the band together. Everyone’s instrument has to be in tune with each other for successful outcomes for our clients. We have to work together in perfect harmony to stay on task and flow through our organization sessions. I want to shine a light on the wonderful people who I get to spend my workday with. My incredible Home Organizer team who I cannot live without. One of the most frequently asked questions that I get from my clients is “How did you start working together?” I think it’s time I shared the tale.

Starting with my original team member, Leah. When I was a brand new “baby” organizer in November 2020, I had terrible imposter syndrome, horrible fear of failure, and inability to believe in my god-given gift of organizing. So, as you do when you are new to an industry, I trolled the internet joining all the Professional Home Organizer facebook groups across the country that I could find. Shortly thereafter, I saw a post from Leah. It said “I’m an Interior Designer in Winston-Salem and I’d love to team up with a Home Organizer in Winston-Salem”. I thought to myself, “well, I’m a Home Organizer in Winston-Salem”, so I sent her a message and the rest is history.

A few months later, when I was still working my office job and moonlighting as an organizer, we came across a client who needed our help packing her home to move. Her sweet brother Jamie was there and I really liked the way that he worked with us to help his sister sort, declutter, and pack all of her important items. I handed him my phone and told him to put in his number. About 6 weeks later, I left my office job to organize homes full time and I sent him a message. Jamie is now my Custom Closet Installation Lead and truly my knight in shining armor. He even came to my rescue when I blew out a tire on the side of the interstate.

Shortly thereafter, along came Ashley. Ashley and I were Insta-following each other and she sent me a message. Ashley is a full time Realtor and organizing is a way for her to relax. From the get-go, Ashley proved that she has natural abilities to see a space and make it function to its best potential. She is so driven and is such a hard worker. Her level headedness and keen eye for business has given me excellent guidance as my business has continued to grow and develop.

I am so grateful and thankful for my home organizer team and I am so blessed to have them all in my life. I hope you all will have the opportunity to meet and work with them on projects in your homes soon. I know they will leave you with a space that you will love for a lifetime. Are you local to Winston-Salem, North Carolina and surrounding areas? Contact Organized Jill to schedule your complimentary consultation.

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How to Declutter your Home in 30 Days

Posted on April 25, 2023March 17, 2025 by jillmoore

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I am going to share with you the one thing that I know you’ve all been waiting for,
direct from your favorite Home Organizer: How to Declutter your Home in 30 Days

Before You Start

Decluttering an entire house can easily feel overwhelming, but with a few considerations you can combat overwhelm and set yourself up for success. I happen to be a decluttering expert, so you are in the right place for tips!

Set Realistic Expectations

It’s important to have realistic expectations. Each room is a mini-project and comes with its own set of challenges, which becomes a bit easier to manage when you go systematically room-by-room. If you have kids or other people living with you, then you might feel like you can never keep up, but progress is always progress and each room you declutter will continue to become easier to reset.

Items Without Homes

There’s a simple rule in the world of decluttering, “If something doesn’t have a home, it’s clutter and needs to be removed so cleaning can happen.” This can be a hard rule to live by and the decisions this forces us into can be quite rough. One method to make this a bit easier is to use bins to help sort through your homeless items. Once you’ve gone through a room, revisit this bin and see if there are enough useful items that you could make a home for, but be careful not to simply create more clutter by keeping items you don’t really need.

One takeaway in this section is to be ready to make hard decisions as you declutter.

Sorting Items

As mentioned above, it can be very useful to designate bins to categorize your items. Having these bins at the ready can help keep you in the flow of decluttering. Instead of taking that rogue toy to the playroom, just toss it in a designated bin and take those items to their home when you’re done decluttering the prioritized room.

Some good categories for your bins could be:

Keep – for items you’d like to keep, but can’t find the best home for just yet.
Move – for items that have a home, but need to be moved to another room.
Donate/Sell – for items that are still in good condition, but you haven’t used enough to justify keeping.
Trash or Recycle – any remaining items

Keep Momentum

Practice keeping your momentum by breaking each room into smaller segments. This can help you feel the progress you’re making and avoid discouragement when you don’t have time to complete a full room. As we all battle for time, set yourself up for easy wins by starting simple with a table top, a small cabinet, or a category (like shoes) that can be completed in a short amount of time. If you don’t have time to continue, then you still made some progress. If you have time to continue, then use the momentum you generated to keep going.

If you need help with your decluttering journey, we’re here to help! Are you local to Winston-Salem, North Carolina and surrounding areas? Contact Organized Jill to schedule your complimentary consultation.

Schedule a Consultation