Cut The Clutter

These closets are a good example of what happens when you move while pregnant, already have a toddler, and don’t have time to set things up properly. Fast forward to two years later and it was time to bring in the pro!

Over 7 hours, we purged about 15 bags of clothing and trash from these closets (they are deceptively big: almost 3 feet deep!). We then binned up less frequently used items by category (e.g., memorabilia, clothes for the youngest child to grow into, travel, off-season clothing, etc), and labeled all bins to take the guesswork out of what’s what.

The result? 2 functional closets that you can actually walk into! Bonus: we were able to reuse bins that the client had, so no additional money was spent on product - yay!

The last photo in the slide is from about an hour into the session. I think it’s important to remember that things usually get messy before they get better when it comes to organizing. Don’t get discouraged mid-project! I promise if you see things through to completion, you’ll be just as wowed with the result as my client was today.

Today I tamed a kids’ bedroom that doubles as a playroom. The goals for the room, shared by 2 sisters under the age of 6, were as follows:

1. PURGE anything that wasn’t’ needed! (Always the first step!)
2. Implement a system so that toys and games are easy to find AND put away.
3. Create a large chunk of space in the center of the room so the girls have a designated area in which to play.

Over 5.5 hours, we generated 6 bags of donations and several bags of trash/recycling. I created zones for characters/animals, dress-up, pretend play, boardgames/puzzles, and building. The end result was bedroom bliss!

My favorite part of this job? Aside from the colored cubes I purchased for the cubbies, no additional $ was spent on organizing products; I was able to repurpose lots of old storage containers the client had available, which saved a bunch of money!

These 2 master bedroom closets and a coat closet had my client feeling blue. In 7.5 hours, we were able to make all 3 of them functional and serene. The closets no longer stress my client out, and getting dressed is something she looks forward to instead of dreading!

We purged about 6 contractor bags worth of clothing, along with 6 “take back” bags by for textile recycling. An added bonus was that my client had a ton of bins available (from previous organizing attempts), so no additional money was spent on products!

Friendly reminder that accepts textile recycling AND they’ll give you a coupon towards a future store purchase as a thank you just for dropping your stuff off. I called their customer number today to reconfirm that this program is still in place and the answer was a resounding YES, but please double check with your local store before you schlep all your stuff there.

Details at https://www2.hm.com/en_us/sustainability-at-hm/our-work/close-the-loop.html

Things have been so busy in the world of organizing, I didn’t have a chance to post this on October 1st, which was the date 15 years ago that Cut The Clutter was born! Thank you everyone, especially my clients past and present, for your continued support and referrals. I am eternally grateful to you, and consistently amazed by your kind words and endorsements!

Today I had the privilege of meeting the world’s most famous organizer, Marie Kondo. Thank you The Container Store for hosting such a wonderful, joy-sparking event, and for including me on the guest list!

Modern open concept kitchens in NYC apartments pose SO many challenges, because you essentially lose an entire horizontal bay of upper cabinetry and are usually left with only 2 upper cabinets on either side of the range hood. (If you’re lucky, there is no range hood and you get a bonus cabinet over the stovetop.) Anyway you slice it, there’s never enough space for dishes, glasses, food, small appliances and everything else that belongs in a kitchen.

The kitchen pictured here is in an apartment in which I spent 3 full days over the last week (tackling the whole home). Food prep items/cookware were spread out across the laundry closet (directly across from the kitchen), linen closet, living room, home office AND kitchen. 3 tiny drawers were crammed with food prep utensils. Larger drawers had wasted vertical space. Everyday cutlery was living on a shelf in the living room. In short, it was impossible for my client, a chef and recipe tester, to get anything done in her domain!

Because she did an amazing job of purging kitchen items, we were able to consolidate everything into the kitchen and its adjacent space. Food prep tools are now in one area of the kitchen for easy access…no more running around the whole apartment to whip up culinary creations! We gained a shelf and 2 drawers for pantry items which enabled us to clear clutter off the counter. She now has a space that inspires instead of causing stress.

I unfortunately didn’t take the best before/after photos (some of them are actually in-progress/after photos), and for some cabinets and drawers, I didn’t take any before photos at all. Sigh. That’s what happens when I get so excited to tackle a space that I just jump right in! Hopefully you can get the gist of what went down from the pics I did snap. Linen closet in-progress/after photo is included so you can see 1 of the 2 shelves of kitchen appliances that used to live in it. (All small appliances now live on a wire rack in the laundry closet, not pictured, across from the kitchen)

My client's children (ages 6 and 3) don’t share a bedroom for sleeping purposes, but a majority of their free time is spent in the eldest child’s bedroom (pictured), which doubles as their playroom. Toys/games/costumes were spread out across both of their bedrooms, plus there were extra kids books in the living room (even though they don’t get read out there). The kids' current favorite vice is dress-up, but most of their costumes were inaccessible to them.

In short, both of the bedrooms were driving my client bananas. She couldn’t figure out how to set things up functionally and intuitively for the kids. Luckily I had a ton of space to work with for this one PLUS she and her husband are very mindful about not letting too many games and toys into their home, which meant there wasn’t an overabundance of things to make accessible.

I started by pulling out all of the toys/games/costumes from both bedrooms and grouping them by category. Once that was done, I setup all of those items by zone (e.g., games, puzzles, pretend play, building, everyday art, etc.). THEN, I was able to organize the kids' clothing in their respective bedrooms without having it mixed in with their playthings. This makes all of their daily activities (getting dressed, playing, art, etc.) much easier for them.

BONUS: No additional money was spent on organizing products. I was able to reuse whatever bins the client had on hand.

In case your interested, the toy storage furniture is from and the closet systems are elfa by .

I got to work with one of my favorite client couples a little over a week ago! Changes to their work schedules and daily routines meant revamping the setup in their 2-bedroom Hoboken apartment. Husband, who wakes up at 5am for work, already had most of his hanging clothing in the second bedroom closet (not shown), but half of the dresser in the master bedroom (not shown) was still dedicated to his underwear, socks, gym wear, etc. Wife, who wakes up later than him, and now works almost exclusively from home, previously created a small desk area in the master bedroom (also not shown), but there was no storage for her everyday files and office supplies. Additionally, now that the master closet was all hers, it needed to be rejiggered, with special attention paid to problem areas (like poor access to sweaters).

1 eight hour session, 6 bags of clothing purged and 2 of bags of trash paved the way for uber functional spaces! The master closet now provides easy access to everything my client needs on a frequent basis. The dresser drawers that were vacated by her husband’s clothing now act as office storage, so she can keep her desktop (and her mind!) clear. And now husband can get dressed all in one place in the morning instead of zig zagging around the apartment. Heck, we even had time to swap out old nightstands for new ones AND deal with the potpourri of items that were hiding inside the nightstand drawers.

No additional money was spent on organizing products, as we were able to reuse what they already had.

I love happy clients, especially those who want to talk about their happiness on Yelp! 🥰

This art station in a playroom was inspiring chaos instead of creativity. After sorting and purging, and with the help of some small organizers the client already had, I was able to whip the space into shape. Now her budding Picassos can create masterpieces in a snap. Swipe ➡️ to see the after photo!

This walk-in closet hadn’t let anyone walk into it in over a year, and its owner finally got fed up and called in the expert (that’s me 🤓). My client did her pre-work in the form of getting the laundry done (4 giant bags of it) so that we could review her wardrobe comprehensively and make smart decisions about what to keep and what to toss. 7 hours, and 7 bags of purged clothing/accessories later (plus a couple of bags of trash), and we were able to fit everything in the closet, all while assigning prime real estate to the items she wears most often. The only new organizing products used for this project were the shelf dividers (from ); I reused the plastic drawers and bins she already had on hand.

We love happy customers!

14 years ago today, my company Cut The Clutter was born! Thank you everyone, especially my clients past and present, for your continued support and referrals. I am eternally grateful to you, and consistently amazed by your kind words and endorsements!

This dining room closet acts as an arts & crafts station for 2 kids, but it was anything but user-friendly. I reused a bunch of bins my client already had and spent less than $200 on new products at to turn the chaotic space into an art supply oasis! Now the kids can focus all of their energy on making masterpieces instead of trying to unearth the supplies they need to tap into their creative minds.

This dining room closet acts as an arts & crafts station for 2 kids, but it wasn’t remotely user-friendly. I reused a bunch of bins my client already had and spent less than $200 on new products at to turn the chaotic space into an art supply oasis! Now the kids can focus all their energy on creative masterpieces instead of unearthing what they want to use 😊.

Admin reveal 😂. Couldn’t not pose for a photo at my client’s request today.

This master closet was screaming for help, and answered the call! Not pictured: mounds of laundry that had been displaced for quite some time and an overflowing dresser. The closet configuration couldn't accommodate everything it needed to as it was, so a quick run to the hardware store yielded a couple of missing closet rod sockets which allowed me to add a much needed closet rod back into the mix. That, coupled with a little bit of purging (2 big bags), really opened up the possibilities for the space. Additionally, contents were rejiggered between the master bedroom dresser and the closet, and shoes that had been littering the entryway of the house found their way onto closet shelves. Now the closet's owner, a busy mom of 2, can easily get dressed for work or weekend without batting an eye. Total time for the closet and dresser: 7 hours.

This home office closet was acting as a catch-all for everything ranging from memorabilia to party supplies. By repurposing bins my client already had (and some boxes from stationery and other items), we were able to isolate and contain categories that made sense to keep in this space, and then add like items from elsewhere in the home. The result? A closet with purpose that’s easy to maintain 🤗.

It all started with a messy closet at my besties apartment (and maybe a bottle of wine 😝).

🥰

P.S. I love dogs!

The before photos on this bathroom cabinet makeover are actually “in progress” photos, since my client was purging that area while I was working elsewhere in the apartment. Nevertheless, you can see a noticeable difference, made possible with some extra purging/rejiggering and containers from (aka the mothership).

This duplex had some, we’ll call them, “interesting” storage spaces to work with. Here’s the coat closet (notice how the left door is cut at the bottom to accommodate the stairs), and the storage space under the stairs, located directly across from the coat closet.

There were cleaning and utility supplies located in these 2 areas, plus 3 other places in the apartment. We consolidated all of those items onto the shelves under the stairs. The deep storage to the right of the shelving (where Harry Potter would normally sleep) now accommodates seasonal items and memorabilia (things my clients need to access infrequently).

The coat closet now houses winter accessories in a user-friendly solution (drawers!), along with weather-related shoes & boots. The bins above the coats contain everything my clients need for outdoor entertaining (the door to the backyard is right off the coat closet), plus grocery totes.

The best thing I heard my clients say during the exercise was that they’re excited about all the money they’re going to save by NOT buying things they already have (like lightbulbs and cleaning supplies) now that they can find everything they own :).

Here’s a bedroom closet that went from totally drab to totally fab!

It’s actually 1 of 3 closets in the bedroom, all of which we worked on to create a wardrobe solution that works for my busy client (this is the only closet I got photos of 😢). One closet had shoes and random stuff, the other 2 had clothes. I was able to consolidate shoes and work clothing into one closet (extra closet shelves FTW!), and weekend/special occasion clothing into the other. That freed up the 3rd closet to be used for linen storage and off season clothing.

We spent 8 hours sorting, purging and organizing. All of the bags you see on slide 3 were textile recycled, courtesy of (if you haven’t heard of them, check them out!).

This new setup has my client raving! (See last slide)

Fridays are for happy clients 😊.

This olayroom@closet needed a tune-up, given that it was originally set up 3 years ago, and the kids’ needs have changed since then! Zones were created for art supplies, games, puzzles and toys, and items that didn’t need to be in the closet (like gift wrap) were relocated elsewhere in the home, enabling us to spread out the closet’s contents to enhance accessibility. The best part? I only used bins the client already owned.