Moving on a tight schedule | More self-talk
The Clutter Fairy offers strategies for expediting your sorting and packing project when you’re under pressure to move house in a short timeframe. She also revisits self-talk for an uncluttered lifestyle.
Entries by Todd Mahloch
Resistance to organizing and ways to overcome it
The Clutter Fairy tackles the question, “Why, when I have so much time on my hands, am I still not motivated to organize?” She identifies sources of our resistance to organizing and ways to overcome it.
Keep organizing projects on track in challenging times
The Clutter Fairy discusses strategies for keeping your organizing projects on track in challenging times. She offers advice for minimizing stress and increasing cooperation for all of us who’ve found ourselves suddenly homebound.
Sorting paper to get ready for tax time
The Clutter Fairy offers strategies for getting paper piles under control in preparation for filing tax returns. She shares advice for clearing your paper backlog and creating systems to manage paper on a day-to-day basis.
Self-talk for an uncluttered lifestyle
The Clutter Fairy suggests rethinking the way we talk about ourselves and our clutter in order to shift our habits and behaviors. She also talks about more creative uses for zip-lock bags in organizing.
Organizing tight spaces | Favorite tools and materials
The Clutter Fairy offers tips for organizing tight spaces—stuffed closets, packed attics, and bulging basements. She also talks about a few of her favorite organizing tools and materials.
Alternatives to buying stuff | Digital decluttering routines
The Clutter Fairy discusses alternatives to buying more stuff, such as borrowing from or sharing items with family and friends; making use of lending libraries, rental stores, and maker spaces; and adjusting our thinking about what we need to own.
Your questions: Reducing collections | Other people’s opinions
The Clutter Fairy responds to viewer and listener questions about dealing with other people’s input on your organizing projects, reducing your collections, and more.
Digital decluttering
The Clutter Fairy tackles digital clutter—the accumulation of data beyond what we can reasonably keep and manage. She talks about common sources of digital clutter to watch out for and offers strategies for getting them under control.
The clutter life-cycle | Book review: Swedish death cleaning | Packrat heritage
The Clutter Fairy explores the “clutter life-cycle”—a way of framing the psychological issues around clutter in terms of the decision-making that happens throughout the life-cycle of a possession. She also responds to viewer feedback and reviews the 2018 book, The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning.
Declutter for downsizing | White-elephant trunk | The math of downsizing
The Clutter Fairy examines the situations that lead us to downsize and offers guidance on key areas of our homes and lives where we can look for opportunities to downsize collections. She also responds to viewer questions and feedback and offers her Tip of the Week on “the math of downsizing.”
Preserving family history | The white elephant table | Maintaining organizing momentum
The Clutter Fairy takes a deeper dive into the topic of preserving family photos, videos, and stories to pass down. We also discuss using a “white elephant” exchange to share unwanted items with people who might get more use out of them than you do, and offer strategies to keep moving—or get moving again—if you’re struggling to make progress on your organizing goals.
