Confessions of a Professional Organizer - Cleaning Out My Junk Closet

I am ashamed to admit that I, a Professional Organizer, had a junk closet up until this past weekend.  I always tell my clients that everything should have a home and that after each use you should return it to its home.  Unfortunately I was not practicing what I preached.

The closet in my guest bedroom was packed full of stuff.  It was like an abyss.  After I put something in there, it never back came out.  It was embarrassing.  I decided on Saturday that I needed to clean it out and see what was in there. 

Following good home organizing form, I pulled everything out of the closet so I could see what I had.  I had more purses than remembered ever owning. I had a stack of old bed linens. I had discarded coats and shoes.  I had envelopes and envelopes of developed film (remember when we actually developed film?).  I had the evidence of a failed attempt at scrap booking.  I had all sorts of stuff that I hadn’t seen in years and would never use again.

Most of it was easy for me to discard.  I put those into two piles – throw away and give away.    I immediately took the give-aways out to my car and the throw-aways out to the trash.  By the way, I filled an entire garbage can with the throw-aways! 

The one sticking point for me was all of the purses.  I typically carry one purse all of the time because I’m always afraid something important will be left behind.  But I loved all of these purses and they still looked practically new.  They wereall different sizes and colors.  You never know when you may need a red patent leather cross-body bag!  So I decided to fill one (and only one) storage tote with the purses that I liked best.  After agonizing over the process of choosing, I packed up the winners and added the losers to the donation pile out in my car.

Finally, I put the new contents of the closet back in – all properly stored so I will be able to find them again when I need them.  I realized when I was done that everything does in fact have a home.  All of the things that seemed not to were things I didn’t need any more.  If I had made that decision before I dumped theminto the abyss, I would not have ended up with a junk closet.

I’ve made a resolution to keep this closet organized and to make thoughtful decisions about what I do and do not need on a daily basis. 

Ellen Miano is Professional Organizer in Foxboro MA. For more information see her website at http://www.OrganizingMA.com or contact her directly at 508.641.0521.