Selling your home? Downsizing? Decluttering? Minimalism is a great idea, but it’s hard to accomplish with a family, pets, jobs and busy lives. Learn tips and tricks to help you plan your project. Karen’s stories bring the process into your living room and make it real.

The Organizing FormulaAfter working as an organizer for several decades and reading hundreds of books, I realized early this year that I was over-thinking “the” formula for organizing.

All my thinking was creating clutter.

I surrendered to the organizing process and let go of all of the reasons I’d manufactured about what it meant to be organized.

And then Life gave me a chance to test out my new non-theory.

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FlowTexting saves time and increases productivity, right?

I resisted it, in spite of it being a popular method of communication. I preferred talking with people on the phone or sending email. Articles about tech and social media trends kept telling us how to multi-task and get more done.

So I started texting. It’s useful when attempting to communicate with people who never answer their phones and keep their voicemail boxes full. I try a few times and then send an email telling them why I tried calling them. And send a text to tell then to read their email.

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Process This blog entry wrote itself. It started as a whisper during my childhood in a family of collectors. I started organizing at age five and researching why people get buried under their stuff in my twenties

My quest continued throughout my work. All of it, regardless of what I was actually doing, involved homes, families, stuff and conflict. I saw distress, problems and crises. In 2014, I was ready for a solution. I wanted to provide tools that people could use to change their lives. I wrote my workshop and gave it biannually.

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WhyOnce you’ve determined that you’ve got the legal right to clear the house out, and you have talked with all the people associated with the house and the results of the clearing process, you next look at the emotional aspect of this process.

Then plan blocks of work time. The more systematic and automated this process is, the easier the whole process may be.

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