Home Organization, The Smart Guide ~ Make Room for Yourself in Your Home
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About this ebook
Has the accumulation of muck moved you out of your home? Has all that unused stuff robbed you of a truly good night’s sleep? In a recent stress management article on the website about.com, Elizabeth Scott, M.S, suggests you are not alone. According to Ms. Scott in a poll conducted on the about.com website, over a third of their readers avoid going home because of the overwhelming mess and don’t know where to begin cleaning. In contrast, less than 10 percent say their homes are clutter-free. If you fall into this majority and feel stress while at home then Home Organization ~ The Smart Guide is your antidote!
We live in a society of over-consumption but the accumulation of stuff doesn’t stop there. As noted in the above poll, we hang on to the unnecessary and this causes stress. And stress will make you physically ill, not just mentally confuse you. There is a way out and sometimes we just need a set of directions to rebuild our lives. In Home Organization ~ The Smart Guide I offer simple easy directions that guarantee successful results to move out your muck! But more than ridding your house of muck, you will find a transformed life filled with joy, peace and harmony!
If you are tired of buying things you already have, letting projects go unfinished, and/or are feeling overwhelmed with the task of ridding your home of excess, it is time to take affirmative action and you need a plan. Home Organization ~ The Smart Guide offers you that plan. Room by room, it outlines easy and painless steps that put you back into your life! It also includes 'real life' before and after organizing photos. As you read and implement the professional organizing ideas and tactics in the chapters ahead, you will find relief from the stress of being in your home. You might even find a little extra money (or lost gift cards) for a special dinner out to celebrate your new freedom!
I want to reassure you that once my clients have faced down their reluctance and implemented my plan, they begin to breathe again. Imagine leaving a day of stress filled work to arrive home at a place that offers you solace, peace, and some well-deserved R&R? You have the power to make that a reality. You have the power to make that space available. Invest in your life, purchase Home Organization ~ The Smart Guide today!
Kathi Burns, CPO
Kathi Burns, CPO® is a Certified Professional Organizer, Image Consultant, Speaker, Trainer and the Author of How To Master Your Muck . As the founder of addSpace To Your Life! she is known for her remarkable ability to help people realize their dreams by showing them how to remove the “muck” that blocks them from achieving their full potential.As a sought after speaker and corporate consultant, she helps streamline systems within Fortune 500 companies including Intuit, Logitech and Hewlett Packard.As a Board Certified Professional Organizer, Kathi develops organizing systems for homes & offices that maximize space and minimize clutter. As an image consultant, Kathi re-wardrobes clients who want their wardrobe and image to match their full potential.Featured on Good Morning America, Kathi serves as a special correspondent for FOX and NBC Morning News. She is also a regular contributing expert to Woman’s Day and Better Homes and Gardens. Her syndicated advice column has appeared in the Huffington Post and offers candid and practical solutions to questions about image, wardrobe, organization and time management with candid and practical solutions.
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Home Organization, The Smart Guide ~ Make Room for Yourself in Your Home - Kathi Burns, CPO
HOME ORGANIZATION:
THE SMART GUIDE
Make Room For Yourself
in Your Home
By Kathi Burns, CPO
addSpace To Your Life!
Copyright 2011 by Kathi Burns
Smashwords Edition
Lemongrass Publishing™
PO Box 232066
Leucadia, CA 92023-2066
www. LemongrassPublishing.com
Copyright ©2011 by Kathi Burns, CPO®
addSpaceToYourLife!
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of nonfiction. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of nonfiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
Smashwords Edition License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.
HOME ORGANIZATION, THE SMART GUIDE ~
MAKE ROOM FOR YOURSELF IN YOUR HOME
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE
PART I: DISORGANIZATION AND MUCK HAPPENS
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1:
STUFF: IT’S ALWAYS BEEN WITH US!
CHAPTER 2:
API: YOUR ADDING SPACE INTENTION
PART II:
GETTING ORGANIZED AND ADDING SPACE: ROOM BY ROOM
CHAPTER 3:
CLEARING KITCHEN MUCK
CHAPTER 4:
BEDROOM MUCK: BE GONE
CHAPTER 5:
LOOK, WE’VE RECLAIMED OUR LIVING ROOM
CHAPTER 6:
BATHROOM MUCK: HEY, THERE REALLY IS A SINK HERE!
CHAPTER 7:
BASEMENT . . . ATTIC . . . GARAGE:
THE TRUE TEST OF YOUR WILL POWER
PART III:
THE UNEXPECTED BENEFITS OF DE-MUCKING YOUR LIFE
CHAPTER 8:
SERENDIPITOUS BENEFITS OF DE-MUCKING YOUR LIFE
CONCLUSION
REFERENCES
PREFACE
Imagine that you have invited all +the people you know to come and live with you. What if your family, your childhood friends, your now current friends, maybe even neighbors moved into your home? What if that very private and special place you go to unwind, regroup, rest, and find personal intimacy with those you love is filled with silent bodies, walking around shoulder to shoulder and taking up space? Would you feel crowded out of your home? Of course you would! There would be no room for you in your own life!
Of course we would never move in our neighbors or relatives but I use this extreme example on purpose. The unnecessary stuff in our home is far more intrusive than undesirable guests. We can ask the people to leave. But our stuff…well, we over-identify and call it invaluable (or simply shove it out of the way) until it becomes muck.
And that muck
figuratively moves us out of our homes. Even when hidden away in our closets and our cupboards it creeps into our minds and thoughts, literally stealing our sleep and our sanity. If you are mucked up
you are not alone. We live in a society that encourages over consumption. The unfortunate position many find themselves in is that all this unneeded stuff can equate to unfinished projects and can be the root cause of disharmony within families. Muck
happens slowly, one item at a time, until we are overwhelmed with our lives, and we don’t even know why.
If you are tired of buying things you already have, letting projects go without being finished, and/or are overwhelmed with the task of ridding your home of excess, my book is for you! It offers easy and painless solutions for putting you back into your life! As you read and implement the ideas in the chapters ahead, you will find relief from stifled creativity, interrupted sleep, and more peace in your life. You might even find you have a little extra money for a special dinner out to celebrate your new freedom!
I salute your courage to go forward! I want to reassure you that once my clients have faced down their reluctance and implemented my plan, they begin to breathe with ease again. I am not kidding; they can actually take a physical breath more easily! To let go of muck is to stand atop a clear beautiful mountain in Spring and take in the wondrous world at your feet.
My mission in life is to help you climb that mountain! I wrote Home Organization, the Smart Guide ~ Make Room for Yourself in Your Home to help you find your way to a vista that rewards you with the time, space, and peace of mind that living with less brings. Let this book be a personal guide to your own mountaintop, where you will discover the life you long for and an appreciation for the life you live!
PART I DISORGANIZATION AND MUCK HAPPENS . . .
It starts when we're first born --and we're not even aware of it. So it isn't even our fault yet (honest!)! At this point it's what others do to us.
Have you ever noticed that? Disorganization in our home often begins with the accumulation of material items in our life. Think about the concept of a baby shower. Even before we're born we begin accumulating things through this ritual. Then our family discovers any number of reasons to shower
us with even more material gifts as we grow up.
Now, gifts are great, but . . . eventually our room of gifts and toys and stuffed animals morphs itself as we get older into a house of stuff --some essential and some, well, not so essential.
In Part I, you will learn not only how to prepare your house for the de-mucking
that's about to occur, but how to prepare yourself mentally and emotionally to be separated from some of the stuff
and memories of your life.
INTRODUCTION
A favorite phrase of people lately is life happens.
Life, in fact, is exactly what happens while we 're making our plans for the future. Before we have our plans setting in cement, it seems our life situation has changed --and so much our plans.
You can make a case that this is precisely what happens when it comes to our possessions. Clutter, from here on out called muck, happens.
Look around you. It's hard to believe at some point your house was empty -- totally empty to be redundant! What would happen now, if someone told you, that you had to leave it all behind, how would you react?
Could you, in fact, willfully walk away from all your material possessions right now?
That question is closely related to the one so many like to ask of people. If you were stranded on a desert island with only one item, what would it be? Obviously, it couldn't be that hand-held mixer you use once every six months for your smoothies.
And you probably