Getting Organized

Here are tips on getting organized from Linda Samuels, who runs OhSoOrganized.com:

• Picture the benefits. Will being more organized make you calmer? More efficient? Improve a relationship? Allow you to entertain? Make you seem more professional?
• To get rid of "important" stuff, say goodbye to everything you haven't used in a year, especially if, on the off chance you really need it, you could replace it. Take a picture of your emotionally important items and put them in a scrapbook. Find a new home for your items: e.g., have a garage sale. If you've inherited a bunch of stuff from a loved one, keep just one or two as a keepsake.
  
• Commit to a sacrosanct 10 minutes a day to declutter. Listen to upbeat music as you clean up. Monitor your self-talk: Say "This will help me live the life I want to lead," not "I hate doing this, and it's a waste of time."
  
• If needed, get an organizing buddy--"I'll help declutter you if you help declutter me."