Anne received her degree in Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina at Asheville where she was also a member of the university’s Division I Volleyball team. Anne is a fourth generation Charlottean and proud to call the Queen City home. Before joining the Simplicity team in 2011 Anne was the Recreation Ministries Director at her home church, Covenant Presbyterian Church for 12 years. Anne feels a deep sense of calling to the field of organizing, seeing it as life-changing work she can participate in with others. She enjoys guiding people into the realization that our lives are not to be defined by the amount of stuff we own, rather the experiences in which we engage. Anne and her husband, Jon, enjoy a full and blessed life with their son, Cody.
Favorite organizing tip: Getting organized is about shifting one’s perspective on how you view your relationship with your possessions. Until people realize that who they are has no relation to what they own, their “stuff” will continue overrun them. We are a society suffocating under the weight of owning too much, doing too much and clinging to our past. We need to learn to let go of the internal and external clutter and breathe again.
Anne came to speak to the group regarding organizing and uncluttering your house. She started out with what a day in the life is for a Professional Organizer – for her it is about listening to what her clients need and figuring out a system that will work and is maintainable. Organizing can be taught and learned but you have to make time for it. Women don’t make time and that is the key to maintain the organization you have spent so much time on creating.
We as a country spend $22 billion in storage – we have to change our thinking about stuff. The top areas that Anne helps her clients with are:
- Closet
- Home Office
- Rec/Playrooms
- Kitchens
- Garages/Attics
- Drawers
Everyone can think of a reason or an excuse as to why they have so much stuff but you have to take accountability for what you are allowing into your home. When trying to figure out where you need to start think about what area you have the most fights about and where there is the most tension. Think about finding good homes for your items to live another life. There are people that need the stuff you aren’t using – in Charlotte/Mecklenburg there are over 5,000 homeless mainly women and children.
When you organize you need to address the parts of your life you haven’t wanted to deal with.
Closets - women go through different sizes in life and change careers, determine what you use by turning all your hangers one way, and then when you wear the item turn the hanger the other way, in 6 months you will see what you use and what you need to rethink about holding on to.
Anne recommends using slim line hangers and organizing by item and color, this makes it easier for your brain to make a decision. Use clear bins and label items. The Container Store has a lot of supplies to help you organize, and helpful associates. As you bring items into your house ensure you use the enter/exit rule – for every one item in one to three items go out. It is also important to inventory what you have and create a system for kids’ toys and clothes when they have out grown them.
At the door keep all your accessories, hat, scarves etc, in one place. Have a bin with two sections, one for winter accessories one for summer, being organized doesn’t mean it looks like Martha Stewarts house, it means you know where things are and can easily use them.
Office - paper can be a bully, as much as you can go paperless. Shuffling paper around just postpones the decision, get educated about what items you need to keep and for how long for tax purposes. Ensure you organize your files both paper and digital items.
Rec/Playrooms – give up the dream of making it pretty, limit furniture and remember kids really don’t need a lot. Create zones like in a classroom, utilize the clear bins with labels and pictures to help organize. Stay away from big bins that are too deep, items get lost at the bottom. Set limitations and encourage your kids to be a part of the purging process. Make it a rule that only one item out at a time and it needs to be put back up before something else is pulled out.
Kitchens – pull everything out of the drawers and decide what you use and separate items out. Create a kid friendly lower shelf with their plastic plates and cups so they can take responsibility for themselves. Create a snack shelf in the pantry. Kids need to learn that you run a house like a community where everyone pitches in. You can use a similar trick in the kitchen that you do in closets by putting your utensils all facing one way then when you use them you flip them another way and you can see what you use and what you don’t use.
Kitchens need to be efficient, go with your instincts, don’t fall into the ‘should’ world where things ‘should’ go or how things ‘should’ work. Look at how you use it.
Pantry – Clear handled bins/baskets to see what you have and don’t have. Get rid of packaging and create zones and think vertically.
Children’s Artwork – be brutal, your child is not Michelangelo keep the things that mark a point in their life, handprints and footprints. Scan and store digitally and create books.
Old pictures – scan and create photo books
Wedding Dress – if it is in the attic you are not honoring it. Pass it on or create something out of it, tree skirt or baptismal gowns.
Overall to become a more organized person and have a less cluttered house take it in tiny bites, maybe 40 spaces in 40 days.
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