2019 marks my eighteenth year as a professional organizer and the eighth year in a row that I’ve reflected on what I learned as a professional organizer in the past year. I am sure to never repeat a lesson from a previous year.

This time of year many of us are reminded of how disorganized our greeting cards are, and this is a twofold problem: blank cards AND the cards we’ve received. When I first meet a new client with these problems, the cards they’ve kept might be thrown in a box at best, or at worst, scattered throughout the home, mixed in with current and important documents.

I know a few minimalists, and I am decidedly not one - compared to them at least. Compared to the average American though - I am certainly one. Even I have too much of some things. I like stuff too.

Friends and family give me a hard time for my pouch collection.

Serena Williams once said “Pressure is a privilege.” It revealed the perspective of difficulty as sometimes being a privilege. If this is true, then the abundance of things, even things we don’t want, could also be privilege.

Is clutter privilege?

I often see people making the mistake of overcomplicating their organizing supplies, and therefore, over-ordering. This result is piles of brand new and unused products. Meanwhile, the paper continues to pile up.

Though my trunk is a rotating door of supplies inherited from clients to pass onto others, I rely on just a few humble heavy-hitters that I order over and over again.

You may have gathered from last week’s post How long would you want in line to purchase that (again)?, and the new free Custom Order video series, that I LOVE to use questions to guide people towards finding their own inner compass when it comes to decluttering.