Organize Blog » Take Contol and Lose the Clutter…For Good

Take Contol and Lose the Clutter…For Good

It’s almost half way through the year and there’s a good chance some of us need a pep talk to get back on track with our resolution of getting organized. Well don’t fret! There is hope. One of my favorite organizers and founder of the ClutterDiet.com, Lorie Marrero, is here to give us real-life tips and advice that are easy to implement and will help shed the clutter for good. Read below to get the full interview and the skinny on how to take control of your home and life…

The Mrs. Organized Interview with Lorie Marrero

1. Tell us about yourself and how The Clutter Diet began.
My story starts like so many others in my industry—I saved up my allowance to buy a label maker when I was ten years old, and I have always enjoyed figuring out ways to save time and energy for myself and other people. I started my business locally in Austin in 2000, and grew with a team of employees and expanded to San Antonio. In early 2006 I realized that I wanted to reach the millions of people who need our services in person but either cannot afford it or want to do much of the work themselves. I went to an internet marketing seminar and got lots of information, and on the way home I was staring out the window of the plane trying to clear my head when the lightning bolt hit. We could be like “Weight Watchers” for your house! I pulled out my notebook and wrote about 20 pages of notes of how the program would work, and about a year later we launched the website. We are the world’s first “virtual team” of Professional Organizers, giving people expert help for the price of a pizza.

2. Tell us your definition of what it means to be organized.
Some people confuse being organized with being perfect. Some people confuse being organized with being neat. Neat people can be disorganized, believe me! What we teach people is that you should strive to be N.E.A.T.E.R.:

Not perfect, but…
Effective- doing what works best
Always improving
True to your style
Efficient- not wasting time and energy
Ready for anything- being prepared for life

3. Organization is not just an idea or a hobby, it’s a lifestyle. Tell us how someone can begin to implement this concept in their everyday life.
Definitely one of the mistakes we see people make is that they treat being organized as some kind of destination, instead of the continuous journey that it is. There is no perfect place somewhere over the rainbow where things will just stay organized by themselves. Just like dieters know, there is no such thing as successful “crash diet”– you have to make permanent changes in your eating habits to keep the weight off. So you want to start by adding new habits a little at a time and building on them. The absolute best thing to help someone get started is objectivity. If you can get a friend or a professional to take a look at what is going on, you’ll be miles ahead having their fresh perspective on things. People have been looking at their rooms and their stuff for too long and have lost their objectivity.

4. I’ve heard a lot of people say that once they feel organized, it doesn’t last. They find it difficult to stay organized. What are some ideas, systems or habits to recommend to the readers on how to eliminate the clutter for good?
Think about what is continuously flowing into your life—things like groceries, mail, paper from work or school. Make sure everything that flows in has a good system to also flow through and out! For example, we teach people to think of their mail baskets the same way they think of their kitchen sink. Most people have a tolerance for how long they leave their dishes to collect in the sink. Some people can leave them for a couple of days, and some people can’t stand to go to sleep at night with anything left there. Have this same kind of tolerance threshold for your mail. You must deal with it, the same way you must deal with your dirty dishes. Process the mail regularly and be very decisive about what to do with it next.

5. What are some resources that lend aid to getting started and breaking though the clutter barriers?
For many people getting started is in itself the hardest thing to do—breaking out of the inertia but being paralyzed. We recommend using a timer and trying a time increment that sounds reasonable to you, maybe 15 minutes or maybe 30 or 45. Give yourself permission to stop when it rings. What you’ll probably find is that momentum takes over and you want to keep going!

6. It is that time of year again when people start the Spring Cleaning process. What are some tips and pointers to help get the readers geared up and ready to tackle the dirt, dust and clutter?
We always say that having a party is one of the very best ways to get yourself in gear. Spring weather is great for something casual and fun—invite people over and see how motivated you get when you realize there will be people roaming around your house! This is how I get my patio furniture cleaned every year. 

7. In your new book, The Clutter Diet, you talk about different ways to prevent clutter, including the way we spend money. This is very important considering the current economic crisis. What are some ways we can change our spending habits to cut the clutter in our homes?
Awareness is the first step in making any kind of change. Be very aware that any clutter currently in your home is the result of your purchasing, acquiring, or allowing that clutter in the door. As your awareness grows, you will be more careful about what you bring into your home, and that makes you more careful about what you spend. And getting organized is in itself a money-saving activity, since you gain visibility to what you own and are unlikely to buy duplicate items thinking they are lost or forgetting that you have them. On our site we offer a bonus item when you sign up for our free newsletter, which are these printable wallet reminder sleeves that you can use to store your credit or debit cards. Printed on them are the five important questions you should ask before purchasing anything—and they’re right there to look at before you use your cards to spend. www.clutterdiet.com/freetips

8. What helps guide your creativity and inspiration when helping a client get organized?
I try to listen very carefully to clients to understand their goals, their personal styles, and how their brains work. I am probably not going to push a very “left-brained” solution on someone who is creative and artistic, for example. I consider each project a problem-solving endeavor and a puzzle. I find I have to “wade into” the project before I have all of the answers. Having objectivity is very important to that process, because I can see things that the client “can’t see” any longer.

9. With all your experience and knowledge gained over the years, are there any specific products you would recommend that would be helpful with getting organized?
One of my favorite things is something you carry here at Organize.com—a very simple little undersink shelving unit that you hand-assemble right inside the cabinet. I have made use of lots of wasted space with that product in many people’s bathrooms. I also love a good old fashioned set of overdoor shoe pockets-the clear kind. There are so many uses for that versatile product, beyond shoes and into Barbie dolls, Beanie Babies, and even jewelry or other accessories. And of course, I can’t resist recommending our own Simple Division® Garment Organizers to help you organize your hanging clothing!

10. Can you give us the scoop on what it takes to be a professional organizer and how someone can go about becoming a certified professional organizer?
Being a Professional Organizer is about much more than just knowing how to organize things. You must be good at organizing other people’s things, not just your own, and that means being able to communicate effectively and gather information that is important to making the project successful in the long term. It’s about consulting, not just sorting stuff. I also tell people all the time that you must be a good business person and realize that you wear a lot of different hats to be able to have a successful organizing business. You can learn about becoming certified at www.certifiedprofessionalorganizer.com. Certification requires a large number of work hours in the field along with educational requirements and passing an examination.

11. Do you have a favorite organizing story to share?
Yes! We once worked for a famous entertainer in Las Vegas for almost a week, working at all hours backstage while shows were going on and everything. We were doing things like designing tour cases that would hold a filing cabinet and talking about how to locate and catalog stage props and collections of all kinds of unusual items. It was truly the Mount Everest of organizing projects and we loved it!

I would like to give a very BIG thank you to Lorie for lending her expert advice to the readers and for taking the time to be our special guest for the month. Check in frequently for more from Lorie over the next few weeks