Decluttering is always one of the most popular New Year’s resolutions.
Like many people, Julie Hoskow put off organizing her closet for months. But the Huntington Woods woman made a resolution to declutter.
“I got rid of six bags of clothes and donated a bunch,” she said.
Andrea Wolf, who has been in the organizing business for 15 years, said January is one of her busiest time of the year.
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“I think January is where people use it as a kind of springboard to tackle stuff that they are like okay, this is the start line,” Wolf said.
The first step is to pick a space and start small.
“Don’t aim too low, but don’t try and tackle something that you’re not leaving yourself the opportunity to kind of make sure you put it back together before you like throw your hands in the air.” Wolf said.
After you’ve decided where you’ll begin, start purging.
“Always start with a blank slate,” Wolf added. “In order to get that blank slate, that means you’ve got to go through and touch everything in that closet. You got to pull it out, you have to determine is it a keep, is it a donate or is it a garbage?”
Once you have that space, you can start organizing what you’ve decided to keep. The fourth step is putting everything you kept back in place.
“If your space needs to be re-imagined from where it was before, we can look at it with a blank slate,” Wolf said. “There’s something about it, of an empty space, that we all love. We just feel free.”
“Whatever it is in our head, that when we start to organize, and we start to have a space reflect the way that we feel empowered on top of our game, that’s the ultimate,” she added.
Experts also said the most common mistake people make when they’re tackling a project is buying too many accessories. Wolf advised not to go out and buy items that you likely will not need once you’ve cleaned your space.