What comes to mind when you read the title, “How to Improve Your Life by Ridding Your Life of Stuff”?

As one year comes to an end and a new one begins, most of us inevitably ponder the following:

• Make resolutions
• Set goals
• Decide to live more simply and economically
• Get rid of stuff and organize what’s left

Truth be told, none of the above is very sexy. But every December and January we are challenged with how to improve our lives in one way or another. Let’s focus on the last point: Get rid of stuff and organize what’s left.

Improve Your Life by Ridding Yourself of Stuff

How is your life improved by getting rid of stuff?

Clutter causes frustration. When you get rid of stuff, you get rid of the frustration that goes hand-in-hand with it. And you make way for living peacefully and efficiently.

Have you ever felt a wave of anxiety hit you at the thought of someone stopping by unexpectedly? Keep sinks, flat surfaces, and floors free of unnecessary stuff, and say goodbye to anxiety whenever the doorbell rings.

Rediscover useful stuff you need and throw out or donate the rest. Not only will you avoid spending money unnecessarily by buying duplicates or triplets, but you’ll also improve the lives of others who truly need the stuff you don’t use.

Are you building more shelves and buying more boxes to put stuff in? If so, clutter has taken over! Getting rid of stuff saves money on storage and frees up space to enjoy.

Clutter also creates an unsafe environment. Accidents are more likely to occur when piles of stuff are everywhere. Stuff crammed on the top shelf of a closet can fall and land on your head. Piles stacked on the floor can cause you to trip and fall. Reduce the clutter and create a safer place to live in.

Sell unwanted, valuable belongings you aren’t using and make some money to pay a bill or finance a home project.   

How to Rid Yourself of Stuff That’s Taking Over

1. Start small. It’s easy to get overwhelmed and stop before you even get started. But if you pick one closet or area, declutter it completely before moving on to another space, you’ll be enjoying a clutter-free environment before you know it.

2. Make decisions quickly. Don’t overthink what to “Keep,” “Throw Out,” or “Donate.” Here’s a rule of thumb to help you decide what to keep: keep only the items you have used in the last three months and items that are heirlooms or keepsakes. Throw out or donate the rest.

3. Ask questions. With each item, ask yourself these questions:

• Do I still use this?
• Is this an heirloom or a keepsake?
• Is this in usable condition?
• Would someone else use this item?

Improve Your Life and Keep It That Way

The average household is overrun with unused belongings and stuff. Getting rid of stuff to improve your life is a time-consuming and tedious process. But once you’re rid of everything that doesn’t serve you and you’ve organized what does, a stress-free home environment is easy to maintain.

Is it time to improve your life with a new home? When you’re decluttered and organized, moving is a piece of cake. And when the time comes to sell your home, call me, Charles D’Alessandro, your Brooklyn Real Estate Agent with Fillmore Real Estate at (718) 253-9600 ext. 206 or email [email protected]. I’d love to help you find the perfect place to call home.

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Charles D’Alessandro
Your Brooklyn Real Estate Agent
718-253-9600 ext. 206

Whether you are or are not planning to sell, there’s something about a fresh start each January. Everyone selling, moving, or staying put can appreciate the peace of mind a clean slate offers. So welcome the fresh start decluttering, downsizing, and organizing gives you or a loved one you are a caregiver to. There’s no better time.

Great Benefits of a Fresh Start at Home

There are three “things” a fresh start at home gives to everyone who pursues this rewarding task: improved relationships, more productivity, and happier, healthier life.

For example, when you come home to clutter, how does that make you feel? If stuff is everywhere, feelings of depression, defeat, anxiety, and irritation usually take hold. Less stuff to push to the side, fewer dirty dishes, and less to trip over makes your home visually appealing and you just simply feel better. And peace of mind is the biggest and best benefit of a fresh start!

Here are some other great benefits you can have when you declutter, downsize, and organize your home:

Money

Simply, if you don’t spend money, you have more money. So, next time you go shopping, if you don’t absolutely love it, put it down and move on. Plus, the less you spend your money on, the less you have to make room for in your home. Storage systems or storage space rentals can cost you a pretty penny and fast.

Space

When you keep only what you need or want to keep, the space you have to store it is ample and sometimes more than enough. And storage space is valuable to the home owner and potential buyer.

Time

The less stuff you have in your home saves time. How? Because you have less to clean and less to clean around. Cleaning stuff takes time. And cleaning around a lot of stuff takes time, too. What about the time you spend just looking for something that you can’t find because there is so much stuff to look past to find it? That’s exasperating! Also, if you’re downsizing, there’s less stuff to pack and move to your smaller home.

Doing What You Love to Do

And that brings us to yet another great benefit of a fresh start. When you aren’t spending valuable time cleaning or unnecessarily looking for things, you have more time to spend doing what you love to do and with those you love to things with.

Stress

Less stuff means less stress. Cluttered homes cause stress, anxiety, and claustrophobia. Clutter also causes feelings of overwhelm, helplessness, guilt, or shame. If your home is a “mess,” how do you feel when someone stops by unexpectedly?

Pick a closet, drawer, one flat surface. Here’s how to get started on your fresh start and a stress free life now. No, you won’t be organized right away. But keep at it, one closet, drawer, or flat surface at a time. And remember, don’t move on to the next project until the one at hand is finished completely. Then before you know it, you’ll be done with your home (or even Mom’s) enjoying more space, time, and peace of mind.

Do you plan to stay in your Brooklyn home or are you thinking of selling? Decluttering, downsizing, and organizing to enjoy a fresh start now also prepares you for a stress-free move later. And that’s another benefit you may not have considered.

For suggestions and referrals for decluttering, downsizing, and organizing, call Charles D’Alessandro, your Brooklyn Real Estate Agent with Fillmore Real Estate at (718) 253-9600 ext.206. Or you can email him at [email protected].

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 Charles D’Alessandro

Your Brooklyn Real Estate Agent

718-253-9600 ext. 206

[email protected]

In the previous blog post, I challenged you to organize your space in the next 30 days. I also introduced the possibility of being completely organized in one month. How? By spending less than 60 minutes a day organizing your stuff for 30 days. Did you take on the challenge? How organized are you after the first 14 days? Do tell (in the comments below). Organizing your space yields great personal satisfaction. So keep going. Work through the next 16 days listed below to reach that personally satisfying state of accomplishment called “organized.” It will be worth it!

Organized in Less Than an Hour a Day: the Last 16 Days

Take the time to put your plan to get organized into action every day for another 16 days, and you’ll be organized by month’s end. Here are the next 16 steps, one step per day, for less than an hour a day, to reach a personally-satisfying goal.

Organized in the Living Room

Day 15. Gift or Donate Stuff on Your Shelves

Knickknacks, books, and stuff you’ve compiled over the years are probably taking up valuable space on shelves in your home. Donate those books you’ll never read to the library. Get rid of what doesn’t absolutely delight you. Now arrange the few items that do bring joy in ways you’ll love to look at every day.

Day 16. Control Your Cables

Tame the maze of cables behind your entertainment center. It’s easy to do. First, create ID tags made from bread wrapper tags or cable ties for each plug. Then, bundle the mayhem with Velcro strips or run them inside a heavy-duty paper roll center from newspaper end rolls. You could even paint it black to match the cables. Corrugated wire looms are a great idea, too.

Day 17. Switch Your Hangers

Slim hangers that grab your clothes well use less space and keep your clothes on the hangers. It’s worth switching all those bulky hangers to skinnier ones. And while you’re at it, go ahead and pitch or donate the clothes you haven’t worn in a year.

Day 18. Give Your Accessories a Place

Belts, scarves, purses, and hats organize well in bins or clear, stackable boxes with lids. If your belts and scarves have a home in a drawer, you can roll them up and organize them in a drawer lined with dividers. A simple series of hooks will work well, too.

Day 19. Claim the Space Under Your Bed

Storing out-of-season clothing under your bed is ideal. But when you’re not wearing those clothes when they are in season, it’s time to donate them. How much storage space can you claim by booting those old clothes out from under the bed?

Organized in Your Office

Day 20. Declutter Your Workspace

When my workspace has too many things in addition to my to-do list, my thinking gets cluttered. A workspace with minimal items on it helps me gain clarity and allows me to focus on the task at hand.

Day 21. Feed the Shredder

Make sure you’re not wasting space with years of old paperwork. Shred all that is over seven years old. Consider digitizing paperwork to create more space. And don’t just throw your old paperwork in the trash. Shred them to ward off would-be identity thieves.

Day 22. Organize Your Files

Once you’ve shredded all your old paperwork, tidy up your files. It’s the perfect time to do so. Organize and label them clearly. Use colorful folders to help you organize them by theme.

Day 23. Free Up the Drawer Full of Electronic Stuff

Do you own a drawer full of black cords you have no idea what they are for? Does it contain chargers and oddball electronic things, too? Take the mystery out of it and pair the items with what they work with IF you still have what they work with. Otherwise, throw them away. Why let dead and useless stuff take up valuable space?

Organized in Your Bathroom

Day 24. Throw Out Expired Personal Care Stuff

Check for expiration dates on cosmetics, skin care products, medicines, and even hair care products. If they’ve expired, throw them out.

Day 25. Claim Space Under the Sink

Because most of the items that end up under the sink are out of sight, they go out of mind. Pull out everything. Discover cleaners, tools, and gadgets that are still useful and use them. If they’re not useful or you can’t figure out why they were saved, discard them. And when you put what is still useful back under the sink, put it all into bins. It will be easier to take out and put away your under-the-sink stuff.

Day 26. Hang a Shelf

Mom always told me, “Get it off the counter and onto the wall.” There is lots of storage space on a wall that is often overlooked. If there is space for a shelf, and a shelf would solve a storage problem, by all means, hang a shelf there. I like the idea of hanging a ladder with wire baskets hooked on the rungs over the toilet for storing toilet paper, guest items, towels, washrags, and such.

Day 27. Reduce the Number of Towels and Linens

There are the towels you use every day and the towels you use for soaking up spills and cleaning the car. But how many of those old towels and rags do you really need? Donate most, if not all, to a local animal shelter and throw the really bad ones away. Same goes for pillowcases, napkins, dishtowels, pot holders, and such.

Organized in a Closet

Day 28. Install a Shoe Organizer

Hanging shoe organizers solve more than just shoe storage problems in a closet. Scarves, mittens, cleaning supplies, craft supplies are just a few of the things a shoe organizer can be good for. You can even cut them to custom-fit inside a cabinet door.

Organized in Your Garage (if you have one)

Day 29. Organize Your Tools

Finding the right tool for the right job should be a “piece of cake.” Wasting time looking for a hammer or the right screwdriver is frustrating. Arrange your tools on a pegboard and always put them back in their original spot.

Day 30. Enjoy Your Organized Space!

Now, sit down with your favorite beverage and ponder on what you have accomplished to get and be organized! As you put everything you use back in their places after each use, you’ll find that cleaning is actually easier to do. You’ll also find more time to plan and paint your bedroom or sew curtains for the kitchen window and door or do a bit of landscaping or ….

Space in your brownstone or studio apartment is a precious commodity. Make the most of it. Purge, sort, organize your space and keep it that way.

Organized space helps potential buyers fall in love with your place when selling. If you’re ready to enter the real estate market and list your home, contact Charles D’Alessandro, your Brooklyn Real Estate Agent with Fillmore Real Estate. Call (718) 253-9600 ext.206 or email [email protected] today.

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 Charles D’Alessandro

Your Brooklyn Real Estate Agent

718-253-9600 ext. 206

[email protected]

I challenge you to organize your space in the next 30 days! Organizing the place you call home is an action-packed self-improvement project that yields great personal satisfaction. But how do you move past the feeling of overwhelm and what feels like an insurmountable undertaking? In order to organize your space, you actually need to first organize a plan. For without a plan, you won’t reach that personally satisfying state of accomplishment called “organized.”

Organize Your Space in Less Than an Hour a Day

Say what? Organize your space in less than 60 minutes a day? Uh huh. And when you take the time to put your plan into action every day for less than 60 minutes every day, you’ll be organized in less than a month, too. “How,” you ask? With this 30-day or 30-step plan.

Organize Your Space in 30 Days: the First 14 Days

Day 1. Just Begin

Eat the frog first. Start with whatever it is that annoys or stresses you most. Tackle that paper pile in your office, no matter where it landed. Get rid of or put away the pile of clothes on your bedroom floor. And all that “stuff” on your counter in the kitchen? Pick up just one item, and put it in its place. Then, move to the next item. It’s amazing how simply starting on what feels so overwhelming will set you in motion on a path to completion.

Day 2. Create a Give Away Box

Put everything you want to move out of the house in a “give away” box. And set it by the door. As you come across items you wouldn’t miss “if you lost it in a fire,” put them in that box. Once it’s full, donate everything in that box to a friend or places like Goodwill and Salvation Army Adult Rehabilitation Center here in Brooklyn.

Day 3. Make Holidays Happy

You might have decorations for every holiday. After you decorate for the next holiday, donate anything you didn’t decorate with, and separate the rest of your decorations by holiday. Then, sort the decorations for each holiday in their own clear, stackable box. When it’s time to decorate for the next holiday, you won’t waste time or energy digging through your 4^th of July decorations to find your Halloween decorations. Plus, your decorations won’t get tattered, dinked, crumpled, or worn as quickly either.

Day 4. Take Command of Your Entryway

Set up a “command center” at the door your family uses to come and go. Add hooks for coats, bins for shoes, and a mail sorter. Without hooks, bins, or a place to sort everyone’s mail, everything will “land” on the nearest flat spot available. Oh, and don’t forget to save a spot for your give away box.

Day 5. Put Your Pet’s Things in Convenient Places

It makes sense to put leashes, sweaters, water bottle/bowl, doggie waste bags, and other outside activity items in a bin conveniently near the front door. It also makes sense to put your pet’s dishes, treats, and food in their own convenient spot in the room where you feed them.

Organize Your Space in the Kitchen

Day 6. Organize the Spice Rack

Choose to arrange your herbs and spices in one of three ways: alphabetically, by cuisine, or by brand. Whatever works best for you or makes the best sense to you while you’re baking or cooking determines the arranging.

Day 7. Eliminate Unused or Unnecessary Utensils

The longer you’re married or on your own, the more utensils a body seems to acquire. Some are god-sends, and you use them all a lot But do you really need to create space for four of them?! I can’t imagine using fewer than two spatulas or sets of measuring spoons, but four can openers? If you can pare down your kitchen utensils to one or two of each, do. Then organize what’s left with drawer dividers.

Day 8. Organize Your Pots, Pans, and Lids

I speak from experience on this one. Digging around in a pile for the right lid is annoying, inefficient, and very noisy, especially when they fall. If you have pots or pans that you hardly ever or almost never use, donate them. Purchase and install cupboard organizers, like these for lids, to manage the rest.

Day 9. Check Expiration Dates

How often do you use figs or dates? Once a year? What about anchovy paste? Check the expiration dates on whatever is sitting in your refrigerator, freezer, or in your pantry. If it’s expired, pitch it. And when you need it for that annual dish you prepare, buy just enough to use for the recipe and throw the rest away.

Day 10. Sort and Stack Your Staples

Your pantry would be put to better use with airtight, stackable containers. Sort your flour, sugar, pasta, oatmeal, dry beans, rice, noodles, and other staple dry goods. Then put them in containers that are stackable. They’ll be much easier to retrieve when needed, and you’ll be pleased with the added space you now have.

Day 11. Get Rid of Unnecessary Kitchen Gadgets

Yes, that spiralizer. I have one, and I never use it. Maybe if I enjoyed eating zucchini noodles … I’m going to give mine to someone else who needs to discover why they don’t need one either.

Day 12. Just Say No to Another Coffee Mug

I have a coffee mug fetish. I collect them, on purpose. You can only use so many mugs at a time, right? Like how many times do you entertain coffee or tea drinkers 30 at a time? Keep one or two mugs per coffee or tea drinker in your family, and either donate or pack the rest. I like to change them out once a year.

Day 13. Pair Food Storage Containers with Lids

If you’ve got a container that has no lid, toss it. And if you have any lids that have no container to use with them, toss them, too.

Day 14. Organize Your Junk Drawer

Junk drawers are a necessary evil, and they exist in more than the kitchen. But wherever it is, why not organize it? How? Dump all of its contents onto a sheet in the floor. Then sort everything into piles. Add some drawer dividers to the drawer and place each pile in its own spot in the drawer.

Now that you’ve reached day 14, take time to think on what you accomplished. Wow! And there are only 16 days left to completely organize your space! Don’t let what you’ve done “go to pot,” as some say. If you use it, put it away. You are creating a place for everything, so put whatever you use back in its place. Space in your brownstone or studio apartment is a precious commodity. Make the most of it. Purge, sort, organize your space and keep it that way.

Organize your space and help potential buyers fall in love with your place. If you’re ready to enter the real estate market and list your home, contact Charles D’Alessandro, your Brooklyn Real Estate Agent with Fillmore Real Estate. Call (718) 253-9600 ext.206 or email [email protected] today.

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 Charles D’Alessandro

Your Brooklyn Real Estate Agent

718-253-9600 ext. 206

[email protected]

The year 2017 is history, and the New Year is well underway. (Time stops for no man, right?) But towards the end of the year, during the holidays, in particular, were you hiding stuff in closets or in the garage to keep guests from viewing your clutter? If you were, and you’re one who does New Year’s resolutions, getting organized may be on your list of goals to accomplish in 2018. A there’s no better time than right now to resolve to get organized! But it takes action to actually make a goal happen.

Why You Should Get Organized Now

Disorganization and being surrounded by clutter causes stress. Organization instills a sense of calm. It makes your life easier and more efficient. Think about how stressed you get when you can’t find something you need when you need it. Do you remember the time you couldn’t find your keys when it was time to leave to be on time for an appointment? What about the time when you couldn’t find that report you wrote for school which was due that day? Do you remember how it made you feel? During these times of panic, you produce stress hormones which escalate the situation causing inflammation, more stress, and memory loss. As you work to get organized, don’t be too hard on yourself. Organization takes work, and it takes time, but a stress-free life is a great reward for your efforts. Instead of wasting time and energy looking for things, you’ll be relaxing or being more productive.

How to Get Organized Now

Not everyone has the same amount or kinds of space to work with. And everyone has different ideas about what organization looks like or means to them. But there are basically five steps to take when you want to get organized. Before you take the first step, zero in on one small area of one room: a counter, a shelf, a drawer, a closet … you get the idea. Start small. Bring complete order to that one small area before you move on to another.

1. Purge

Begin to get organized with a good purge. Start off easy. Throw away worn or broken items. Then grab three boxes or make three piles: keep, toss, donate. Keep only what you need, use, and love. If you don’t need it, use it, or love it, why keep it? By the way, keeping something you don’t need, use, and love because it was a gift is not a valid reason to hang on to it.

2. Sort

Divide like things with like things in the small area you want to get organized. Put items together based on what they are and/or what they are used for. For example, a hammer, screwdriver, nails, and painting tape would all be grouped together, because they are all tools or hardware.

3. Make a Place

“A place for everything, and everything in its place.” Now that you’ve organized your stuff into categories and thrown away all of the unnecessary stuff, make a place for everything. Knowing how you want to use an area will help you make places for items that belong there and remove items that don’t.

4. Organize

Most people seem to love this step! Now that you’ve purged, sorted, and made a place for everything, it’s time to purchase containers (baskets, bins, boxes). It’s easier to determine the size and style of your containers now that you can see which items should be stored together.

For kids’ art projects, memorabilia, receipts, tax papers, and warranty information purchase accordion folders, photo boxes, or magazine organizers. When memento boxes become too full, it’s time to purge them.

5. Label

With everything in its place, you should begin labeling your containers. This step helps you and your family to know how to get organized and stay organized.

Enjoy Less Stress!

“Ahhhh! Now, this is home!” How much easier will it be to care for home and enjoy life once you get organized? Our nervous systems respond negatively to stressful circumstances caused by clutter and disorganization. So say goodbye to stuff that is taking up precious space in your home and say hello to stress-free living. Getting organized can be an overwhelming task, and life happens. But when you’re organized, the unpredictables life throws at us will be easier to deal with.

Get organized! And when you’re ready to sell, call Charles D’Alessandro, your Brooklyn Real Estate Agent with Fillmore Real Estate at (718) 253-9600 ext. 206 or email [email protected].

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 Charles D’Alessandro

Your Brooklyn Real Estate Agent

718-253-9600 ext. 206

[email protected]