Article from March 2018 Woman's Day - Project Declutter - Get Organized,

I spotted this article in the May issue of "Womans Day" as I am a subscriber (except I didn't renew any subscriptions this year to any magazine as part of my declutter).

The article is by a professional organizer Lorie Marrero and it does have some useful tips but some that will just not work for me personally, such as:

• Use office supplies like plastic letter trays.  While the tip to use a plastic letter trays to stack meat and bags of vegetable might work for my freezer, I don't have enough space in my fridge. 

I rarely buy packaged meats and when I do have a plastic bins from the Dollar Tree.  I keep bags of vegetables in the crisper drawer and have flat plastic baskets that I would put a few steaks or other meats into.

• Use bright colored bins for items near spoiling or close to their "best" date.  This might be useful for some people but I just try to move it to the front. 

• Sort mail once a week.  Practice a method she calls "ART" to manage incoming mail by picking a day, such as Saturday and sort by Action (need to do something), Reference (to file) T (trash).  In concept I think this is genius, but from past experience I find the best way to handle it is to sort it immediately or it ends up in a shopping bag and becomes clutter.

• Customizable inserts for junk drawer.   Great in theory, but I tried something similar using small boxes as everything has a place and know how to find it and how much you have of something; however, I found there can be a lot of "dead" space and  stuff that I am not sure how to classify, so ended up pulling the small boxes out so I can cram more stuff in the drawer, but try to keep in an order that makes sense to me, like pens in the front, scissors on the right side.  Part of the appeal of the junk drawer is that it is a catchall; I think the key is to not have more than one in your house.

• Keep nail polish in a zippered bag.  I counted 19 bottles of nail polish that I keep on a small ledge alone.   I am trying to find someone who will want ones that are still good that I am not wearing and pitch anything outdated, but it does not take up a lot of space and wearing nail polish cured me of biting my nails.

I guess part of my problem with clutter is that I am set in my ways, but still plan on pursuing and trying to embrace new ideas; like:

Useful tips I am planning on adopting:

• Tuck away twist ties or other frequently used items in mint tins.  I love Newman's Own Organics Mints and this is a great way to repurpose them, but will need to label them.

• Before stashing, think if there is a better "home" for it, like a different drawer (or in my case, a different home that is not my house).

• Add purchase dates to beauty/personal care items.with a permanent marker.   Will be a great way to keep track of how long I have had something.

• Keep daily beauty products in sight and keep ones that aren't under the sink (after I declutter that area). 

• Plan a menu.  With working full time and it just being me now at home since my son moved out, I eat out a lot and rarely.cook.  This is probably going to be a different 100 day challenge to start cooking more and eating more healthy after I finish this challenge.

Lorie Marrero does have a channel on Youtube channel on declutter (although it sounds like she closed down her website in 2017 to pursue other thing so no new content will be added).  I subscribed to her channel after finding this article.  She has also written a book on the subject, which I might check to see if our local library carries it. 

What tips from the article did you find useful? Do you have any declutter tips, books or videos to share?  If so, please feel free to leave the information in the Comments.