The Seven Organizing Personalities:

1. Organizing product and tip junkie. You collect ideas and buy tools, but never actually do the work. Your solution: stop buying and reading. Instead, set a timer for eighteen minutes and tackle a small project.
2. Last on the list. You organize everyone else in the house and your stuff is messy. Your solution: realize that you are setting an example for everyone else and they need to become self-sufficient. Show them how, and spend a little more time on your own stuff.
3. The keeper. You keep everything because it means something to you; you paid good money for it, it is still good, or you might use it one day. But keeping all this stuff clutters up the space and you cannot use the stuff you do love. Your solution: work on an area that has the least amount of emotion for you, and fill one bag with things you can give to a new home where they will be used and loved.
4. Last minute emergency. The doorbell rings and you run around the house scooping stuff up and tossing it in a basket or bag. Then you dump the basket or bag and greet your guests. Your solution: plan ahead by breaking up a large clutter-clearing task into small jobs. Set a timer for eighteen minutes and go to work.
5. Procrastinate about making a decision. You plan to spend some time decluttering but never seem to get around to it. Or you start, pick up an item, wonder what to do with it, then put it back down again unsure what to do with it. Your solution: give yourself a set schedule by making clutter clearing dates with yourself and writing them on the calendar. Work for a small block of time and then give yourself a reward for a job well done. You may choose to watch a television show, have a special snack, have coffee with a friend or relax and do nothing.
6. Driven to distraction. You set out to tackle an area and find something that belongs in another room. You bring it there, and while you are there, get caught up doing something else, leaving your original project undone. Your solution: focus on the task at hand by making a pile of items to deliver somewhere else. Once the project is completed, then distribute the items.
7. Perfection. You have a vision of what the space will look like, but there is no way you can live up to your high standard, so you do nothing. Your solution: choose one small area and work on it. Resolve to make it good and go back in your spare time to perfect it.

14 Ways to Start Small With No-Brainer Stuff

1. Return borrowed items.
2. Pile everything in need of repair in one place.
3. Find fifteen things you can let go of and pass along to people who need them.
4. Take out the garbage and recycling.
5. Remove unmatched things, like single socks.
6. Pick things up off the floor.
7. Take eight items from your wardrobe that are the wrong size or season.
8. Clear the top of a surface .
9. Stack all of the reading material in one place.
10. Move one big item; the piece of exercise equipment you’ve been meaning to part with, the crib your child has outgrown, or a broken chair.
11. Toss anything associated with a bad memory (leg cast from an accident).
12. Toss out expired coupons and empty bags.
13. Remove purchases from the shopping bags they came home in.
14. Part with items that are stained, too broken to repair, or can’t be used, like socks with holes, a pair of pants once used to paint in, or pens without ink.


Jamie Novak is a dynamic speaker, television personality, and best-selling author who inspires people to calm the chaos of clutter and live a life based on their priorities in a humorous and heartwarming way. Novak provides real solutions for those living in the real world. She promises never to suggest impractical solutions.

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