Here's to a simplified 2018

Happy New Year! Hope you had wonderful holidays!  We had an eventful Christmas with our neighbor’s tree falling into our backyard taking out the power on Christmas morning! 
 
With the start of the new year, do you feel energized to declutter?  If you do, excellent! The start of a new year is a great time to gain control on the clutter, tweak your organizing systems to work with your family, learn to time mange and simplify your life. Below, we go through four key ways to get you going: ​

1. Post-Holiday wrap up

• Update your holiday card list & address book from cards received.

• Label decorations according to where they go, as you put them away.

• If you find decorations that did not make the cut this year, donate.  While putting away evaluate the decorations will you want to use them again or are they very worn, ripped or broken.  The worn items trash or recycle. 

2. Updating your home decor
Putting back your everyday decor is the perfect time to evaluate your space, your style and y our items:

• Determine how you want your space to feel - minimalist, lived-in, farm-chic, etc.
• Assess your items. Do you love them? Are you displaying an object because you can't bear to part with it? Store in memory clear bin or donate and take a photo for posterity.  Have a gift that is not your style, but you display anyway? Now's the time to donate!  If you think the items you don't want are valuable, contact an antique appraiser.  Only display the items that fit with your style and/or make you smile!

3. Purge the toys! 
According to The Telegraph, the average 10-year-old owns 238 toys but plays with just 12 of them on a daily basis! That's a lot of toys taking up a lot of room! 

• Go through all the toys and pull out all those that are no longer age-appropriate.
• Pull out those ones that never get played with. Either donate or save for your next child (if that is the plan!).
• Toss or recycle any broken, toys and game, or those missing pieces.
• What toys do the kids really play with all the time, not just occasionally?  Keep the really loved toys donate the rest.
• Put like items together and label with a picture. 

4. Keep on top of the clutter

• Keep the organizing momentum going by tackling a room or a closet each week!
• Give yourself one organizing project per month or one task per week.
• Walk through your house and make a list of what needs to be repaired, painted, moved or decorated. Prioritize the list & set a time-frame.

Daunted by the donate pile? You can donate your items as follows:

• Green Drop they come to you!  https://www.gogreendrop.com/pick-up
• Junior League Thrift Store in Bryn Mawr takes stuff animals too.
• Nanny Attic
• Cradles to Crayons.

 
Have fun organizing in 2018!