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Reinvention & Money : Second Acts

9 Tips for Organizing Your Life

Kay Morrison created a thriving business helping super-busy people get organized. Below, her top tricks for decluttering your home.

By Jennifer Margulis

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#1: Attitude is everything

Morrison herself is a gal who likes a good martini and a funny joke. She says the number one thing to getting organized is to have the right attitude. "You must be ready to take this task on to make it work."
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#2 Buddy up

Do your de-cluttering and reorganizing with a friend to make it fun. It also helps you stay motivated to have someone cheering you on.
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#3 Create a timeline

Make a plan and set time limits as you work. Don’t work until you burn out because then you’ll never go back. Instead, do a little at a time and set long-term goals. This will help you stay on course and focused.
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#4 Pile it on

Sort items into like piles so you can see how much you have of one item. If you have too much of anything, purge!
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#5 Hire help

Bring in an expert to assist with the process and work with her. If you can afford it, let the professionals take on the entire task-enter The Occasional Wife.
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#6 Get see through, darling

If you have to store items in a plastic bin make sure they are clear bins so you can see what’s inside them. At the store Morrison sells peek-a-boo shoeboxes, a popular product and a great way to store shoes you don’t often wear.
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#7 Label, label, label

Even items in clear bins need to be labeled.
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#8 Empty out the house

Make arrangements to get the items you’re giving away out of the house the day you do the job. This gives you the satisfaction of immediate results and prevents you from pulling anything out and letting it keep cluttering up your life.
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#9 Buy pantry organizers

On one job, Morrison found 14 bottles of ketchup in the pantry. The poor lady didn’t know she had them. Pantries = problems. Fix the problem by investing in simple clear pantry storage containers that let you keep like items together. Read Morrison’s reinvention story here. Learn how to organize your home office here
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