As the holiday shopping season shifts into high gear, marketers use every trick they know to get us to buy, buy, buy. But we can resist the noise and pressure to overspend and add to clutter if we practice thoughtful, conscientious shopping habits. In episode #283 of The Clutter Fairy Weekly, Gayle Goddard, professional organizer and owner of The Clutter Fairy in Houston, Texas, examines the perils of shopping in the holiday season and suggests strategies for sticking to our lists and our bud...
The work of decluttering and organizing can be too overwhelming for one person to tackle. So we ask for help. But assistants who aren’t sensitive to our goals, priorities, and emotional needs can create as many problems as they solve. In episode #282 of The Clutter Fairy Weekly, Gayle Goddard, professional organizer and owner of The Clutter Fairy in Houston, Texas, gives advice on asking for help with your decluttering projects or offering your support or assistance to others who need it. Sh...
Sooner or later, most households will experience health or mobility issues of some kind. An injury, illness, or age-related loss of mobility will often exacerbate existing clutter problems. In episode #281 of The Clutter Fairy Weekly, Gayle Goddard, professional organizer and owner of The Clutter Fairy in Houston, Texas, explores steps we can take to plan ahead for changes and accommodations that injury, illness, or disability can necessitate in our homes. Show notes: https://cfhou.com/tcfw2...
It’s easy to get swept up and carried away by the excitement of the holiday season. But as we prepare for this busy time of family, fun, and celebration, let’s reflect on our feelings of gratitude and how they impact the way we accumulate, manage, and dispose of our stuff. In episode #280 of The Clutter Fairy Weekly, Gayle Goddard, professional organizer and owner of The Clutter Fairy in Houston, Texas, examines the role of gratitude in our decision-making and in the work of decluttering and ...
What did we do differently at times in our lives when we were less cluttered? What’s good advice for staying organized and decluttered while traveling? Is it still a “capsule wardrobe” if you just happen to wear only a small number of items? In episode #279 of The Clutter Fairy Weekly, Gayle Goddard, professional organizer and owner of The Clutter Fairy in Houston, Texas, reflects on what we can learn from our less-cluttered past and takes up other short topics suggested by our audience. Show...
Decluttering and organizing is time-consuming, emotionally challenging, and sometimes physically demanding work. If you find that can’t get it all done yourself even with the help of family and friends, consider hiring service providers to assist with the toughest chores. In episode #278 of The Clutter Fairy Weekly, Gayle Goddard, professional organizer and owner of The Clutter Fairy in Houston, Texas, explores services you can contract to help lighten the burden of decluttering work. Show n...
Our perceptions of the value of our stuff can cloud our judgment about what really supports the life we want to be living—and what doesn’t. But a focus on our values helps us ground our decluttering decisions in a better understanding of ourselves. In episode #277 of The Clutter Fairy Weekly, Gayle Goddard, professional organizer and owner of The Clutter Fairy in Houston, Texas, explores value-based patterns of thinking that lead to clutter and offers strategies for re-evaluating what we real...
People with ADHD often struggle to declutter and organize because of challenges with time management, planning, and executive function. ADD-Friendly Ways to Organize Your Life seeks to address these challenges with advice written specifically for an ADHD audience. In episode #276 of The Clutter Fairy Weekly, Gayle Goddard, professional organizer and owner of The Clutter Fairy in Houston, Texas, reviews ADD-Friendly Ways to Organize Your Life and discusses lessons we can take from this organiz...
The main bedroom should be a quiet, peaceful sanctuary where we recharge ourselves and enjoy intimate moments. But when clutter invades, visual distractions and mental noise can drain our energy and diminish the quality of our sleep. In episode #275 of The Clutter Fairy Weekly, Gayle Goddard, professional organizer and owner of The Clutter Fairy in Houston, Texas, offers strategies for transforming your primary bedroom from a stress-inducing mess into a tranquil refuge. Show notes: https://...
Clutter insinuates itself into every part of our lives: our space, our time, our emotions, our relationships. From boxes moldering in the Attic to the Zester lurking in a kitchen drawer, we must examine our lives to discard the stuff we no longer need, love, or use. In episode #274 of The Clutter Fairy Weekly, Gayle Goddard, professional organizer and owner of The Clutter Fairy in Houston, Texas, we set ourselves another alphabet challenge: to identify and discuss an organizing concept, issue...
Clearing clutter is really two jobs: reducing the backlog of accumulated stuff and cultivating habits to keep the mess from getting worse. The more effectively you handle ongoing maintenance, the more energy you’ll have to devote to the backlog project. In episode #273 of The Clutter Fairy Weekly, Gayle Goddard, professional organizer and owner of The Clutter Fairy in Houston, Texas, suggests a dozen five-minute maintenance tasks as the foundation for a clutter-prevention workflow. Show note...
What are we supposed to do with art and craft projects after we’ve finished them? How can chronically cluttered people learn to be comfortable in a decluttered space? It’s time for another “Ask Us Anything” episode! In episode #272 of The Clutter Fairy Weekly, Gayle Goddard, professional organizer and owner of The Clutter Fairy in Houston, Texas, answers viewer and listener questions and discusses short topics suggested by our audience in our surveys and social-media channels. Show notes: ht...
We often endow items we receive as gifts with a special status in our decluttering decision-making. But even gifts become clutter if we don’t love, need, or use them! In episode #271 of The Clutter Fairy Weekly, Gayle Goddard, professional organizer and owner of The Clutter Fairy in Houston, Texas, explores the complex issues of decluttering gifts and offers clutter-conscious approaches to giving, receiving, downsizing, and regifting gifts. Show notes: https://cfhou.com/tcfw271 The Clutter F...
Do your efforts to declutter conflict with your calling to live a brilliant, original, and creative life? For artists, craftspeople, and hobbyists, the stuff in our homes can stimulate our imaginations at the same time it stands in the way of our freedom to create. In episode #270 of The Clutter Fairy Weekly, Gayle Goddard, professional organizer and owner of The Clutter Fairy in Houston, Texas, explores how our stuff can both inspire and stifle creativity and offers strategies for making spa...
Other people can be valuable companions in our decluttering and organizing journeys, or they can interfere with our best efforts. We have to be careful and mindful about who gets a say in our decision-making. In episode #269 of The Clutter Fairy Weekly, Gayle Goddard, professional organizer and owner of The Clutter Fairy in Houston, Texas, discusses people who influence our organizing process and offers strategies for working with—or around—those whose choices impact the clutter in our lives....
The effects of aging can add significant challenges to the work of managing our clutter. But decluttering and organizing our spaces yields lots of benefits for older people, such as greater ease of movement, improved safety, and increased mental clarity. In episode #268 of The Clutter Fairy Weekly, Gayle Goddard, professional organizer and owner of The Clutter Fairy in Houston, Texas, continues our discussion of ways in which aging complicates our organizing efforts and the many benefits of r...
The effects of aging can add significant challenges to the work of managing our clutter. But decluttering and organizing our spaces yields lots of benefits for older people, such as greater ease of movement, improved safety, and increased mental clarity. In episode #267 of The Clutter Fairy Weekly, Gayle Goddard, professional organizer and owner of The Clutter Fairy in Houston, Texas, explores ways in which aging complicates our organizing efforts and the many benefits of reducing our stuff t...
You’ve done the tough work of decluttering, and now it’s time to organize the treasures you’ve decided to keep. If putting stuff away is the part of the project that trips you up, this week’s show is for you! In episode #266 of The Clutter Fairy Weekly, Gayle Goddard, professional organizer and owner of The Clutter Fairy in Houston, Texas, discusses how to corral your collections with a few of our favorite products and creative organizing solutions. Show notes: https://cfhou.com/tcfw266 The ...
A viewer asked, “Can you define the term ‘organized’?” The dictionary definition leaves us a little cold, so we’ll suggest one that works better for our audience! We’ll also talk about how to respond to people who pooh-pooh your decluttering efforts. In episode #265 of The Clutter Fairy Weekly, Gayle Goddard, professional organizer and owner of The Clutter Fairy in Houston, Texas, answers viewer and listener questions and discusses short topics suggested by our audience in our surveys and soc...
Have you struggled with clutter for years, but keep feeling like you’re right back at square one? Maybe it’s time to take a critical look at the beliefs, assumptions, and routines that aren’t getting the job done. In episode #264 of The Clutter Fairy Weekly, Gayle Goddard, professional organizer and owner of The Clutter Fairy in Houston, Texas, examines habits of thought and practice that keep us stuck in clutter and suggests strategies for bringing radically honest change to the work of decl...