But we also know how tired, worn-out, and stressed for time a new mama is. How hard it can be to get dressed each day, much less organize your life.

Here’s a tip: instead of waiting until the perfect time when all the outgrown clothes are together and sorted by size, simply have a small plastic bag in your laundry room. When you wash an item that is outgrown, stick it in the bag. When the bag is full, tie it up and date it. Stick in in your storage area and start a new bag. When your next baby comes along or when you decide to give away the clothes, simply look for the earliest dated bag, and you know that it will have the smallest clothes in it.

If so, congratulations! You are really cool!

On the other hand, perhaps your Christmas decorations are still halfway up, and starting to look a little dusty. Perhaps you still have leftovers from Thanksgiving in your fridge. Perhaps you have no idea where all your kids’ new toys are going to go because they have so many already. If that is you, then read on.

Step 1:

Give away some of your stuff. If you got a lot of new books, find some books to give away. If you got new games, give away some old ones. We got about 5 new games this Christmas. I just went through my game closet and found ten we had outgrown.

The games we really want to keep!

Step 4:

Clear out that fridge! If you have any leftovers that are from before New Year’s, now’s the time to toss them. Unless it’s chocolate. Then send it to me.

Yes, clean out the fridge.

Step 5:

Slowly catch up. Don’t spend 15 hours cleaning at a time. Do one more extra box, or one more extra area, than you would normally do in a day. I promise you (probably) don’t have an inspector coming by on January 15 who will kick you out of your house if there’s still a Christmas tree in the corner. Take your time, do it slowly. Especially if you have babies or toddlers running around. They need you more than the clutter needs you.

This kid is a good reason for me to take a break!

Step 6:

As you pack, try to make notes of what you wish you could do differently next year. If you have cards that you bought on clearance, rather than packing them in the attic with Christmas stuff, put them with your Thanksgiving stuff, so you actually have time to write them. Make a note on your calendar for next year about when you want to start working on projects and cards and gifts.

Make a list. Write your goals for next year.

Step 7:

As you clear an area of the holiday decor, check for other things that you don’t love anymore, you don’t use anymore, or you wish your kids wouldn’t play with. I know you have some toys lying around that make you trip and yell every time you see them. Pack them in your Salvation Army box and take them to the thrift store ASAP! And if it’s broken, just throw it away. I promise the people who shop at Salvation Army don’t want puzzles with 3 pieces missing or ratty jeans any more than you do.

Get your old stuff out of the house!

I have been a little puzzled as to how to implement this properly over the last few weeks, because each project takes up so much space. Finally I looked at the entertainment cabinet, which is not really full at all, and realized that I could use the space where all of our millions of movies and CDs would be if we had millions. There’s big shelves under there, it’s easily accessible to the kids, and there are doors so the clutter can hide.

So this morning I will be rearranging the movies and CDs to make room for my kids’ projects, and hopefully all of us will win in this situation.

Call us if you need new eyes to look at your frustrating areas and brainstorm new ideas!

The Client:
Sonya is a young lady without much time. She needed someone to come help her sort through her cosmetics and toiletries to decide what to keep and what to donate or toss. Her linen closet had a lot of boxes and beginnings to organization, but there were no labels and there was too much stuff.

Before: Sonya's closet needs attention.

After: The best gift is empty space.

The Solution:
We took everything out and tossed old and expired items. We donated unused and unwanted things, and put everything else back in a peaceful and organized manner. We also had a great time talking about hairstyling and pets!

Time: 1.5 hours

One thing Angela and I talked about was “some day” projects. If you are storing things for “some day”, supplies for a project you might like to do, but haven’t found the time to do it in the past few years, then perhaps you are a “some day” saver.

It’s okay to have hobbies that you love to do, but if you find yourself surrounded with items that you really don’t love and really don’t use, perhaps it’s time to get rid of some of those “some day” items. This can help you have room to do the things you really want to do!

Time elapsed: two hours

Before: There are shelves hiding that can't be accessed very well...

After: Lo and behold! The shelves have breathing room and are easy to get into!

We are excited for Mimi to reach her weight loss goal and fill up her super-organized closet with some beautiful new things!

Time elapsed: two hours

Before: Her office papers are leaking over into the creative part of her room.

After: The creative juices have room to flow in this well-lit and peaceful space.

Julie’s art studio is also the office/bill pay room, so we needed to create a visually pleasing area for her art as well as corralling all her papers and art supplies. We set in place some habits and routines to deal with the influx of papers, and sorted through her art supplies to keep only those most inspiring and beautiful.

We are excited to see what gorgeous art comes out of this new studio.

Before: Chaos is the first thing you see.

After: View from doorway: peace

On the other hand, the items Deborah has to store to teach the toddlers were overtaking her office. She was starting to feel like she was drowning in clutter, and she couldn’t find the things she needed quickly so she would have to go buy more.

Does that sound familiar to you?

Before: The piles of boxes hold treasure inside

After: All the office supplies are beautifully organized and ready to go!

We spent a half hour talking about what her goals were for the room. We decided to rearrange the room so that she could have a bit of a storage area for her boxes of supplies without them being visible from the door of her room. This combined with sorting and purging gave her office space a great makeover in just 6 hours. We were proud of Deborah because she was ready to give away items that she knew she wouldn’t need any more, and she was ready to throw away items that wouldn’t be useful to others. We made a lot of progress and her husband was happy to see the new room!

Perhaps now they can play the piano in their new office area.

Before: The piano is almost hidden by clutter.

After: The piano is ready for music!

Time elapsed: six hours

Before: Isn't it amazing how a messy floor steals your peace?

After: Keeping things off the floor is the first step to helping your brain stay organized.

Martha has impeccable taste in clothing, and when we saw her closet we knew she would be able to give away some of her clothes while still having a really nice wardrobe.  She was able to find over 50 items that she didn’t want any more, which meant she could clear off the floor, hang everything up, and store other items in her closet instead.

Remember when you sort a room or a closet that it won’t stay that way unless it’s easy to maintain. If it takes a few minutes to remember what your system is, and if you’re constantly having to explain it to others, you won’t be able to maintain it very easily. A storage solution should be second nature. If you’re having problems figuring out how to store something, call us and we can help you out!

We spent three hours organizing 3/5 of the 80 by 20 foot area (the other 2/5 was already fairly well organized).  We had three teachers in addition to myself, and three custodians hauling off all the trash.

Art/PE Area Before

Art/PE Area After

The end result was so encouraging and fresh looking! We found some items that had been lost in the shuffle that teachers wanted to use. We found a lot of items that were old, broken, or obsolete. We found about 12 boxes of blocks (evidently blocks are out of fashion this year but still valuable). We found very sturdy and well-made carnival games that hadn’t been used in years. And we found some awesome Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles wooden cutouts.

Kinder/PreK Area Before

Kinder/PreK Area After

Serene Spaces was very proud of the teachers and principal we worked with. They were all ready and motivated to get rid of all the things that were broken or unnecessary, and they were very happy to have the space organized. We were so thankful for the custodians who helped us carry all the trash to the dumpster.

Trash Pile 2

Trash Pile 1

As you can see from the pictures, we were able to make very large pathways for the fire code, and we will paint the paths so that no one stores things in those areas anymore.

Files Area After

It was a really great day!