Lighten up! Tips to declutter at home or at work

Knowing that many doctors can use help getting organized, I recently interviewed my niece Lisa Myles who is the co-owner of In Order Co., a professional organizing company with locations in Kitchener and Guelph. One of their services is to help people get organized once and for all. Here are some decluttering & organizing tips that you can apply to your big cleanup, whether in the office or at home. The team at In Order start with one room and first gets rid of any big items the client can make easy decisions on, to give the client a feeling of accomplishment immediately. Then they work from one corner of the room and work their way around until the space is complete. They group like items together to give perspective on how much the client owns and help them make decisions on what to keep. As the client is making decisions on each item, they use large colour-coded bags, black for trash, blue for recycling and clear for donations to keep the process organized. The most time-consuming items are paperwork and photos, so they often set up a system for them and then assign this to the client to do separately, so as not to get bogged down early. With paper photos, they get the client to sort them chronologically then into subcategories of like items, for example, holiday photos. When the client is able to see that there are 10 pictures of the same thing, it helps them with the decluttering process. They will ask the client how many they want to keep then get them to pick their favourites and have the others shredded for them. The client can also scan them into the computer—and ignore them forever there. Just kidding! I have 47,000 pictures on my computer and four trillion paper photos in the attic. I tried to do the attic this winter to avoid COVID Cabin Fever and really enjoyed the old letters and school stuff and pictures. (I was skinny and had hair.) I took photos of the old paper photos and sent them to my kids one a day until they blocked me. Some day they will thank me for the memories and can bore their kids with them. Lisa also recommends doing a book of pictures either by year or by subject: for example, a book for each kid or a vacation book by destination. It’s a great way to enjoy photos you have rather than having them sitting in a box. With clients who are moving into a smaller apartment or retirement home after the death of a spouse and are having trouble giving up stuff, the team encourages them to donate to cancer or heart disease charities if their loved one died of that disease. They also encourage them to give clothes and shoes to homeless or women's shelters. It leaves the client feeling like their things have a purpose instead of just being dumped. Once the decluttering is finished, the team organizes the items the client wants to keep. They use a variety of organizing products and labels to help keep things tidy. Lisa says never leave stuff in piles, it will just sit there and never get dealt with. Everything needs to be dealt with! With regards to commercial storage, Lisa said it can be beneficial in certain situations, however, most of the time it seems to be a way to avoid having to go through things. People often regret taking that step, she said. In Order Co. starts with a free 45-minute consultation to find out the client's goals and values. They charge $140 per hour for two organizers. This may seem expensive, but they do everything from start to finish, including taking stuff to the garbage dump, recycling depots and donation sites. Most people feel overwhelmed and are really ready when they finally ask for help, and the cost makes people really take it seriously. Lisa likens her job to that of a personal trainer. You pay them money and that encourages you to not weasel out of exercise or cheatin' while eatin.’ It also helps the client achieve results in a lot less time. On average, a kitchen or garage takes five to six hours, a closet usually takes three hours. The clients feel wonderful afterwards. They have given to charity, maybe to their kids, and if older, they know they are not leaving their survivors junk when they die. Plus, they often find things they didn't know they had, and are so happy that they have finally achieved such an overwhelming task in just a day.

Lighten up! Tips to declutter at home or at work

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