December 2024 - Organization Pending Newsroom - Upper Arlington, Ohio
Welcome to Organization Pending's Newsroom, December 2024: Ready for the New Year edition.
This month, consider your home's fresh start in 2025, with Warning Signs It's Time to Declutter Your Home, and explore How to Design and Decorate with Color Psychology. Don't miss Upper Arlington Updates for holiday lights recycling, and Company News for a special birthday offering!
Thank you for reading! Subscribe to receive the Newsroom in your email each month, and follow Organization Pending on Facebook and Instagram for local decluttering opportunities and home organizing tips!
If you have an upcoming event, resource, or professional the community should know about, contact Organization Pending.
Warning Signs It's Time to Declutter Your Home
Need decluttering motivation going into the New Year?
Americans spend 2½ days each year looking for lost items in their home, causing 60% of us to be late or miss appointments, spending $2.7 billion to replace items we already have…somewhere. (PR Newswire. Lost and Found.) 48% of Americans consider their home at least somewhat cluttered, and 72% believe they would gain more space through decluttering - but 41% haven’t decluttered in over a year. (PR Newswire. Americans Have Too Many Things and Not Enough Money, Study Finds.) If you’re finding yourself in a cycle of looking and rebuying, frustrated by the clutter keeping you from really living in your home, know that you’re not alone and a decluttered home is within reach.
Tired of the never-ending baskets of laundry, piles of clothing on the floor? Do you want the experience of shopping your own closet daily? Declutter the items that no longer fit and those “just in case” items you never reach for - letting go of the past and ideal future self allows the present you to see the items you enjoy wearing every day. After decluttering, place an ongoing donation basket in the closet to keep up your hard work - this is especially useful for kids’ closets. Have a few items you weren’t sure about keeping? Put their hangers backwards - if you haven’t used them and turned the hangers around after a year, you can let it go.
36% of people report a lack of motivation to declutter and organize, with 29% of respondents too tired from their busy lives and juggling multiple responsibilities. (Woodruff, Lisa K, Research Studies, Organize 365®.) Walking into a cluttered room can be overstimulating, and pulling everything out of everywhere can be visually overwhelming. If this sounds familiar, schedule 15 minutes with yourself six days a week - make sure you put it in your calendar! Take before and after pictures of each session, putting them in an album on your phone so you can easily see your progress. Make sure to have a bag for trash, a box for donates, and a box for items that belong elsewhere in the home. Set a timer for 15 minutes, and start with one drawer or one cabinet - the rest of the room doesn’t exist right now! Look only for items that are trash, donation, or that would be looked for elsewhere in the home first. Piece by piece, you’ll be able to declutter the entire room, allowing you to establish purposeful organized zones with the items that remain.
Decluttering is part of every home’s regular maintenance schedule, from thorough seasonal decluttering sessions to intermittent battery or electronics recycling. Establish a single zone in the home to collect these outgoing items, and commit to keeping this zone from overflowing - when it’s full, it’s got to go. Check on your city’s website for local recycling and disposal options, or ask your neighbors on Nextdoor or local sustainable Facebook group for their favorite donation, recycling, and disposal options!
Can’t find what’s for dinner? Start with decluttering expired foods shelf by shelf, and establish a system for backstock. For bulk buying, one cabinet for all pantry backstock with one representative in the pantry helps keep this space from becoming overloaded. Have kids? Creating organized kid zones with easy-to-reach snacks and easy-to-prepare foods for older kids helps foster independence and decision making, while allowing you to easily see when favorite foods are running low. Establishing a leftovers zone in the fridge makes sure they get used first, lowering household food waste.
Are you new to decluttering? Tip 3 will be useful (don’t forget to take before and after progress photos!), as well as focusing on easy decision areas first. Start with the medicine cabinet, refrigerator/freezer, pantry, art supplies or any space in your home that has items with expiration dates. Starting with these easy decision areas first allows you to see progress quickly while building your decluttering and decision making skills, allowing you to start looking at other clutter in your home. Working on a whole-home declutter? Create a zone in the home for sentimental items, and work on those last. These items can come with many emotions, and this stage of decluttering requires the most kindness to yourself: settle down for an hour-long session with tea, face tissue and gentle music - make sure to step away and practice self-care when you need to.
How to Design and Decorate with Color Psychology
"It really is a personal decision. And while designers and color specialists and your mother-in-law can give you their opinions, what they see and feel may not be what you see and feel when that color is in the room."
As a home organizer, clients often ask me about design choices for their homes. While Organization Pending can assist with storage space or closet redesigns after initial decluttering and organizing, common household decorating choices are outside of my talents - including what could be a good color choice for the walls. While I'm happy to point clients to the right person for the job, I know many of you enjoy a DIY approach, or learning a bit more before consulting a professional.
The Organizing with Ease Podcast discussed How Color Psychology Can Help You Choose Colors For Your Home, letting listeners know what colors (or shades!) can create the right moods in each room, how to choose a color for your accent wall, and what colors could be right when shopping for furniture and other home accessories.
Red: strong emotions, danger, power, energy and determination. "It enhances human metabolism, increases respiration rates, and raises blood pressure."
Green: nature, freshness, growth, health and vitality. "Different tones of green can be relaxing, and are associated with calmness. It's considered beneficial to the mind and the body."
Blue: thoughtfulness and stillness, sympathetic, personal and peaceful. "Research shows that the impact of blue on the body is the opposite of red - blue can lower heart rates and slow the metabolism."
Orange: positivity, joy, happiness, enthusiasm, creativity, success, communication, and rejuvenation - also associated with sunshine and the tropics. "It also lessens inhibitions a bit, so when surrounded by orange, people might express themselves more openly."
Yellow: cheerful and happy - bright yellow can be an attention-getter. "Studies show that yellow enhances mental activity and heightens awareness and energy levels. [...] but be careful, because babies apparently cry more in yellow rooms."
Pink: calm, gentle, kindness, associated with youth, hope and optimism - "seeing the world through rose-colored glasses." "Stronger shades of pink like fuchsia can represent confidence and energy, but also shallowness."
Purple: luxury, power, royalty and nobility, relaxation, stability, wisdom and sensibility. "Depending on the shade, purple can evoke feelings of dignity and wisdom [for lighter shades], or wealth and extravagance [for darker shades]."
White: purity, innocence, wholeness, and cleanliness. "It's associated with new beginnings and hope, but also perfection, elegance, and serenity. It's a really blank canvas, so it evokes creativity, inner reflection, and awakening."
Black: powerful, mysterious, formality, authority, and elegance. "The negative connotations are of fear of the unknown, evil, and grief." The Organizing with Ease Podcast recommends pairing black with a metallic to add reflection and open the room back up, or pair sleek black with antique, vintage, or wood items for texture and depth.
Upper Arlington Updates
Declutter and recycle broken holiday lights in the bins at the back of the Municipal Services Center, 3600 Tremont Road, December 26 - January 31, or stop by Upper Arlington's Public Service Center - Electronic Waste Drop Off during open hours year-round at 4100 Roberts Road.
Company News
Organization Pending LLC is turning three on January 7th! Join in on the celebration and get your home organizing goals on the schedule with a special birthday offer of 25% off your next session*.
New clients: Schedule your free virtual assessment and mention OPGBDAY3 in your message at organizationpending.com/contact.
Returning clients: Reach out to Tabi via text or email with code OPGBDAY3 to schedule your next work session and redeem your coupon!
*Up to five hours, in person or virtual services.
Comments