The thing about clutter is that too much of it can overwhelm your space, time, and mind.

To keep things super simple this week and not add to your clutter, I’m offering up an easy to digest infographic created by SouthShore Fine Linens. It features advice from nine experts (including me, Linda Samuels) to help you declutter and organize your home.

The first tip will help your declutter your bathroom reading material. To learn more about that and all of the 9 Home Hacks From the Experts, click on this link.

Which hack resonates most with you? Do you have another favorite home decluttering tip to share? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Join the conversation!

Dynamic thought leaders are featured for the “Ask the Expert” interview series. In the past, we’ve spoken with experts including Todd Henry about next steps, Joshua Becker about fresh starts, David Allen about time management, and Gretchen Rubin about life balance. For May, I’m excited to have with us author, professional organizer, speaker, and Holocaust educator, Felice Cohen to share her insights about clutter.

Several months ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Felice when we taped an organizing segment for the “Let’s Talk With Jodi!” show, airing this June.  Aside from being fascinated by Felice’s tiny apartment living experience, I enjoyed her wonderful sense of humor and practical ideas about organizing. Before we begin the interview, here is more about her.

Felice Cohenis an author of five books, a professional organizer, motivational speaker,  and Holocaust educator. You might have seen Felice in the YouTube video of her 90-square foot Manhattan studio. She moved into that small space for one reason: the low rent allowed her to quit her full-time job and finish writing her first book. She planned to stay only one year, but something happened during that time. Her life improved. 

When the YouTube video went viral, people asked for her advice on organizing and decluttering, and praised her philosophy about “living large” in a small space. That was the motivation for her second book, 90 Lessons for Living Large in 90 Square Feet (…or more), which tells how living tiny made her life larger, but it also offers lessons on how to live the life you want in any size space.

You can connect with Felice on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, blog, or website.

Linda Samuels: You pursued your dream of moving to Manhattan and becoming a writer. To afford that life, you chose to live in a tiny space with a minimal amount of stuff. What is one of the lessons you learned about living clutter free?

Felice Cohen:In truth, I planned only to stay one year in that tiny space, but at the end of that first year, I discovered that living tiny and living with less gave me more. More time to do what I loved like writing, cycling, going to the theater, traveling. Plus, my stress went down. I no longer had to work long hours at a job I didn’t love to pay for extra space I didn’t need. As a result, my happiness went up, and I wound up staying 5 years.

Linda: In your book, 90 Lessons for Living Large in 90 Square Feet (…or more), you talk about the “Buh bye” concept, which you found helpful when you worked with organizing clients. Can you describe what it is and what made it useful?

Felice:Getting rid of stuff can be hard. We are attached to things for many reasons, some because they’re sentimental or because we think we might need them. The “buh bye” concept adds humor to what can be a tough activity. When my clients say, “buh bye” out loud as they put something into the giveaway pile or in the trash, it not only lightens the mood, but it empowers them as though they’re saying, “I don’t need you. Buh bye!”

Linda: Some of us tend to accumulate more than we release, which can result in clutter. Can you share some advice to encourage us to let go?

Felice:Start by asking yourself: “What do I want my home to look like?” Everything in its place? No piles on the counters? Closets you can open without the fear of something falling on your head? Keep that image in mind as you work. Remind yourself this is your home, you should be happy there. It’s not easy to get out from under clutter, but it’s doable. Take baby steps. Also, as we grow up and get older, our lives change, and so do our tastes and passions and goals. You might be holding onto things from a previous chapter in your life. By letting them go, you’re making room for new chapters.

Linda: What is your most surprising discovery about clutter?

Felice:About how clutter has a huge effect on people, both mentally and emotionally. Clutter can cause depression and stress. It can also keep you from being productive and happy. Many people want to get rid of the clutter, but it can be overwhelming when you don’t know where to begin. Seeing clutter also tells your brain “you should clean this up” and makes you feel bad for not doing it. The trick is not to beat yourself up.

Linda: What has been your biggest personal challenge around clutter?

Felice: I’m a very sentimental person so holding onto things from my past is my Achilles heel. Things like letters from friends and my varsity high school jacket. This stuff is still in my childhood bedroom on Cape Cod where I now spend my summers. At the beginning of every summer, when I get to my parents’ house, I spend a few hours the first weekend going through all of it. And every summer I get rid of a lot. I’m down to 2 totes from 10. Sometimes it takes us a while to get rid of stuff. Every year I get further and further from that time in my life, and it gets easier to let it go. 

Linda: Is there anything you’d like to share about clutter that I haven’t asked?

Felice:  At the end of the day it’s not about the clutter, but about you. If you’re okay with the piles and the disorganization, fine. But if you’re not, do something about it. It’s not easy, but it’s not rocket science. Put on music that gets you moving and try to get rid of 5 things a day, whether for trash or donation. After a week that’s 35 things. That’s a lot.

Thank you, Felice, for joining us. You shared so many inspiring ideas and showed us that for you having less clutter and space equated to lower stress, more happiness, and time to pursue what you loved doing. It’s clear that you understand how letting go of things can be challenging. I love your suggestion to release five items a day and notice how quickly that yields significant results. As you said, “By letting them go, you’re making room for new chapters.”

Join Felice and me as we continue the conversation. What resonates with you?

I’m sure you’ve heard the question and response, “How do you eat an elephant?” … “One bite at a time.” Not that we’re eating or want to be eating elephants here, but there is a connection to be made. Managing or handling our accumulation of clutter can be daunting and downright overwhelming (like eating an enormous elephant.) However, similar to other large projects, if we break them down into teeny, tiny steps, we can quickly reduce overwhelm and progress forward.

So let me rephrase the question and response.

Q:  How do you edit clutter the simple way?

A:  One drawer and one decision at a time.

In the twenty-five years I’ve been helping my clients to get organized, I’ve seen this prove true time and again. We often start from that “overwhelmed” state. From there we work together one drawer, one surface, or one closet at a time to declutter, to let go, and to get organized. 

It’s always amazing to see how much gets edited out. Clutter has a way of collecting and being stored in deep, dark corners of rooms, containers and drawers, so that we no longer realize it’s there. However, when you begin to dig out drawer-by-drawer and corner-by-corner, it’s incredible to see what is uncovered. Even more fascinating is to see the volume of what we choose to release. 

Clutter has a way of accumulating over time. Things get stored and forgotten. Stuff remains beyond its usefulness. And since things have been hidden away, duplicate items have often been unknowingly purchased. So when we go through the editing process and realize we have 10 spatulas or 25 pairs of black pants or 40 coffee mugs, it makes decision-making and letting go much easier. Let’s be honest. Most of us just don’t need or really want 10 spatulas or 25 pairs of black pants.

To bring this back to the original question…How do you edit clutter the simple way?

Here’s one formula:

• Work in one small area at a time like a drawer, a counter top, or a closet rack.

• Group like with like as you edit. It makes decision-making easier when you can see your duplicate items together.

• Make one decision at a time. If you get stuck on one item, set it aside and move on to something else. Come back at the end of that section and decide before moving to the next area.

• Be ruthless. Remember that the less you have, the easier it will be to stay organized and find what you need. With less you will feel lighter and less encumbered.

Does this resonate with you? Have you or someone you know experienced clutter editing? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation!

As you might imagine, as a professional organizer, one of the things my clients hire me for is to help them edit the things they have collected and then organize what remains. They often refer to their stuff as clutter. By the time they contact me, they are highly motivated to release the excess (as in they want it gone yesterday.) I’ve noticed that certain motivators make the editing process easier and faster. In recent months, the five motivators described below are the ones I’ve encountered most frequently.

There are a few common threads, which make these motivators especially effective. Each motivator possesses a clear “why.” This clarity makes decision-making easier to determine which things they want or no longer want in their life. Secondly, these five motivators have deadlines, which add a time pressure or incentive to be more decisive and speedy in the decluttering process. Lastly, they all involve a significant change. While there might be some fear involved in change, there can also be excitement and opportunity, which serves as a great driver.

5 Strong Motivators For Releasing Your Clutter

1. Moving– When you’re preparing to move, letting go of the unessential, enables you to start with a clean slate in your next place. Whether you’re downsizing, upsizing, or right sizing, the moving incentive works beautifully for getting you to evaluate your belongings and excess clutter. For example, if you’re moving to a home with 50% less space, you can use that editing formula as a guide and reduce your current possessions by half. Moving, even if to a larger space, still provides a great opportunity to evaluate, edit and decide which things have meaning and which do not.

2. Cycling– For those of you that have children leaving for college, in college, or post college, you’re in the midst of this revolving door time. I think of this phenomenon as revolving door empty nesters, where our kids cycle frequently between living home and away. These transitions can be huge motivators for letting go, editing, and decluttering. These periods of time are excellent for encouraging our children to decide what should remain or go from their childhood days. They are transitioning to adulthood and to becoming more independent. It’s also a great time for parents to imagine this new stage. While some parents like to keep their kids’ rooms in tact, others like to renovate or completely change the room’s use. Kids’ rooms might be converted to guest rooms or home offices. 

3. Surprising– We’ve seen this more frequently in the last several years; Mother Nature has dealt us some not-so-great weather surprises. We’ve had floods, hurricanes, heavy snows, and high winds. Many of our homes have survived without experiencing loss of power or damage. However, due to the extreme weather, many more have experienced damage to our homes and possessions. As a result, major decluttering was necessary in order to make repairs or because our possessions were not salvageable. Having to face these damages also provided an opening to re-evaluate, which things were most meaningful and which things were not. The weather surprises forced us to declutter.

4. Ending– Different than moving, clearing out a home after a loved one has died is another strong motivator to let go of clutter. In fact, it may be a time to let go of more than just clutter. It might involve releasing an entire lifetime of collected things. The pressure to clear out a home increases when you’re trying to sell it quickly. A home no one lives in can easily become a financial drain. So while clearing out a deceased loved ones home is a highly emotional process, decisions about letting go can become clearer in this situation. Giving your loved ones things safe passage is especially important. Safe passage means that you find new homes for those things you let go of that will benefit or be appreciated by the receiver of them.

5. Stabilizing– We can experience unanticipated medical or mental health issues that quickly requires the need for a calmer, uncluttered space. Clutter can take on a draining, negative energy, especially if a person has a low clutter tolerance. For example, if an individual has compromised mobility due to a medical condition, combined with excess household clutter, this can potentially cause harm. The motivation to declutter increases rapidly when you consider it in the context of certain medical concerns. Stabilizing a space to create a safe, peaceful environment is a huge motivator.

Have you struggled with letting go of clutter? What motivates you to release those things that are no longer wanted? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Come join the conversation!