Need Help Getting Organized?

We don't stop to think about it, but we own thousands of things.  They're all stored neatly (or perhaps, not so neatly) in closets and cabinets and crevices.  Some are hiding in plain sight.

The cumulative weight of these possessions may not be a bother until we start to think about moving.  We'll need to undertake a major decluttering effort to prepare our home to be "show ready."  Then there's also the practical matter of paying someone to cart our "stuff" to our new home.  Is everything we own truly worth the cost of transport?

Probably not.  We know we need to streamline, but where to start?

If you're stuck, help arrived this week in the form of Marie Kondo's new Netflix series, Tidying Up, in which the petite Japanese dynamo visits eight families in a variety of predicaments:  from how to make room for another baby, to downsizing from a 3000+-square-foot home into a modest apartment, to learning how to get past the crushing sadness after the death of a beloved partner so you can begin to move forward again.

Even when confronted with seemingly insurmountable "mountains of stuff" in the homes she visits, Ms. Kondo remains unfailingly calm, kind, helpful, and compassionate.  She never loses her cool, even when the stress her clients are feeling is palpable.   She simply teaches them her trademarked techniques to coax order out of chaos.  It works.

As those who've read Ms. Kondo's best-selling book, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, know, her advice is to keep only those items that "spark joy," while relinquishing or rehoming the rest.  The people she helps in Tidying Up are, like many of us, trapped by their clutter.  One of them describes it as a "big block."  Indeed.

Whether you're planning to sell your current home or enjoy it for many more years, there are lessons in Tidying Up that can make your home a more accessible and more relaxing place to be.  And after watching a few episodes, you'll undoubtedly feel a bit better, knowing that you're not the only one who struggles to keep things neat.