Advice from LMOI

Whenever I do an organizing consultation or I'm in an organizing session, I use a very strange example to highlight a very important rule of organizing: place it where you use it. The reason it's so peculiar is because it's meant to stand out and make...

People expect organizers to be perfect 100% of the time, but (I’ll let you in on a little secret) no one is ever perfect 100% of the time. Organizers - like celebrities - are just like everyone else: we put our pants on one leg...

In October 2018, I flew down to southern California to work with the parents of a client (that I work with regularly in San Francisco). I had met the parents before, and knew they were eager to downsize and have less to clean/find/worry about, giving...

Ok, it’s time to get real: how many of us have a small (or maybe large) stack of gift cards in our wallets or somewhere in the house, collecting dust because we never remember to use them? You can’t see my hand, but it’s up! As an...

During my trip to Kauai back in April, I made an important discovery: I actually loved picking things to do that day or in any given moment; there was something really exciting about it. As you can imagine, my life as an organizer is pretty...

When I was a kid, and we went on a family vacation, my dad would never truly unplug. He’s a businessman and always had to take work calls (this was pre-internet/email), which upset my mother the most. I never understood why he couldn’t just cut...

My life was forever changed 6 years ago when I attended (while interning for) Beth Penn of Bneato Bar’s Paperwork Bootcamp. Beth described it as a “workout for your paperwork” and boy was that spot on. She encouraged clients to bring in their mail, active files and/or...

The other day a client said to me “Well, it’s because I’m a perfectionist.” And I gave a chuckle and responded with “Well, I’m a recovering perfectionist.” Which then made me think this would make a great blog post. The dictionary defines perfectionism as refusing to accept any...