There are two part of organizing - functional organizing and esthetic organizing. It might seem like a small distinction, but I’ve found making this distinction allows clients to make clear decisions about their space. Instagram and Pinterest are filled with images of beautifully decanted pantries and rainbow fridges. This is esthetic organizing. (What instagram doesn’t show is the hours of work and calculation it takes to maintain those pantries and fridges.) I love doing the work of decanting. I organize closets because of the feeling I get when the work is done. The more Pinterest Pretty the result, the more satisfying the work is for me. But that doesn’t always mean the closet or pantry is actually functional on a daily basis. That is where functional organizing comes into play. When I am organizing for function, I consider things like accessibility and upkeep.

Sometimes we get so stuck trying to be Pinterest Perfect, we forget we are better than perfect with are real.

Real is dynamic and creative. That is my fancy way of saying life is messy and this shows up in our homes.

Even the media proclaimed queen of tidy, Marie Kondo, got real recently and admitted that having kids forced her to live in an untidy state.

By implementing systems, we can keep ourselves out of the storm of chaos. We can fall back on our habits and our natural tendencies while we work our way back to that rainbow.

I suggest you focus on curating your holiday decor rather than just collecting items. Curation is about spending time reflecting on who we are, and how what we own portrays who we are.

Think of folding like a hammer, sometimes it is the tool you need for your home improvement project, and sometimes it is not. Just be thoughtful and intentional about where and when you use what tool.

Let’s be honest…most of us have a “laundry chair” or side table where the laundry that has overwhelmed us lives. And we don’t let it live there because we are lazy. We let it live their awhile, so that we can use our time doing things we love a lot more than laundry. However, with a little intention, laundry can become less overwhelming.

The holidays are full of stuff — oddly shaped stuff. This can cause an organizing and minimizing nightmare. There are all these little glass balls, and strings of various things — lights, garlands, beads, ice cycles, etc. If you are like me, you probably have a few other odds and ends that just don’t fit in a standard box.

Organizing and minimizing is never done because true organizing and true minimizing is about how you think and how to respond, not about the items you own. The more of the physical labor you do, then more your mindset will change, and it will be easier and easier to manage your space with intentionality.