A "helping you organize" story

Last Monday I posted about counting how many you have of something to put in perspective your things and maybe feel inspired to let go of duplicates.

A few days after that I received an email from a reader of helping you organize who had taken the suggestion to heart and shared with me a 37 bullet point list of everything she'd de-cluttered from her kitchen. Here's a selection of items (I'm sharing with her permission.):

• a small rubber spatula (turns out we had 8 spatulas)
• a metal bread loaf pan (we have three more loaf pans)
• a can opener (we had 2)
• 3 sets of chopsticks (we have a matching set of 4)
• a pot holder - we have two, which i think suffices
• three cookie sheets (we had 5)
• laminated placemat with the presidents of the united states on it

This list warms my heart, first because it's a neatly documented list full of precise numbers, second because it shows that a simple idea (count how many you have of something) can make a big difference. This reader was happy to shed her duplicates to make room for new, greater things to come into her life.

You can do it, too.

Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by 0streussel

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

Count and de-clutter

Sometimes when we accumulate a lot of stuff we get so used to seeing it that it doesn't seem like a lot anymore. We only notice our things when they start really getting in the way. Give yourself a wake-up call with this simple exercise. Let's say you're getting tired of having no place to put your books because your shelves are all filled, or the jar of kitchen utensils near the stove is jam packed. Take a moment and count how many you have of the item. Just count them. Do you have five wooden spoons? 12? 19? 30? How many can you use at one time? Maybe three if you're cooking something complicated. Pick your three favorites and let go of the rest.

Counting something like books takes longer, but it's an eye opener to realize you have hundreds, perhaps thousands of volumes. Are they all really serving your life?

Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by cogdogblog

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com