Declutter & Downsize 2.0

01/15/2024

I tend to use the word ‘inventory’ when describing the biggest problem for most of my clients. Most folks have way more inventory than they want to manage, so decluttering and downsizing are the first steps to getting organized!!

12/15/2023

12/09/2023

Hi, all!! It’s been awhile, so I thought I would reintroduce myself:
I’m Leslie 👋 My purpose for this page is to help people create a peaceful space that truly reflects the life they want to live. I love making your home or office a sanctuary instead of the cause of chaos in your life. Recent retirees and empty nesters, new moves and fresh starts, life changes and new adventures, and everything in between is who I’m here to help. Let me know if I can help YOU!!

03/14/2022

📢 📢📢

03/09/2022

Yes!! 🧩🧸🪀

While most toy rooms are filled to the ceiling with toys, wise parents learn to limit the number of toys that kids have to play with.

03/07/2022

YES!! 🙌🏻

Before you jump into your spring cleaning, remember one thing:

11/07/2021

This is why I love helping people declutter and downsize ♥️

DOWNSIZING
My wife Catherine and I recently moved.

I realized I had something I never knew I had.

Thirty-four years ago, I carried my wife in my arms over the threshold in our home. Thirty-four years ago. From newlywed days, to witnessing our babies go from little girls to young adults.
So many great memories in every inch of every room of our home.

I didn’t think I was ready to ‘downsize.’ What an awful word. I liked walking through our girl’s bedrooms and still seeing their stuff on the walls and on the shelves. I liked our backyard. I liked imagining our kids coming down the steps every Christmas morning.

We put it on the market, it sold in a couple days, and suddenly agreements thicker than my leg were instructing me to clear everything I ever had and knew – out.

Every night I found myself saying goodbye to our backyard, to our garden of roses that Catherine would till and trim, to the sidewalk where the girls drove their Barbie cars and learned to ride their bikes, to our front lawn where we hosted tons of talent shows with all the kids on the block – and the red swing on the front porch.

We found a condo in town and started lining up our ducks of what we were keeping, and what we were tossing. We vowed, if we’re going to do this, we weren’t putting anything in storage.
I literally threw out half my stuff. Half. Half of the furniture. Half of my clothes, books. And the big one… way more than half the boxes in the attic.

The attic was more than an attic. It held our stories. Every thing in every box, every framed picture was a story.

After we gave away almost all of the living room furniture, we split the room in half and brought down everything of the girls from the attic and from their rooms.

We invited the girls over, handed them a cocktail and said, “There’s good news and bad news. We’ve saved all this stuff; your outfits, drawings, dolls, skates -- for you. It’s now yours. The bad news, whatever’s not gone by Friday at 10 in the morning, it’s getting chucked in that giant green dumpster in front of the house.”

The girls thought we were Mr. and Mrs. Satan. But they went through it, and that Friday, most of it went out the front door and right in the dumpster.

I filled the entire dining room with boxes of all my old stuff. Grade school stories and pictures, report cards, birthday cards, trophies, you name it. Boxes of old plaques and diplomas and just stuff and stuff and stuff like that. How could I throw any of this out? I may as well have been throwing me in the dumpster!

But this little jerk on my shoulder kept asking -- what are your kids going to do with all this a week after you're six feet under? They’re gonna chuck it all out!

Here’s the crazy thing. The more I threw stuff in there, the easier it got. And I started to kind of like throwing it up and over in that thing. I started to feel lighter. Better.

And we moved in a half-the-size condo – and the oddest thing happened.

It became our home.

A picture here and there on the wall, Catherine’s favorite pieces of furniture, all her knickknacks in the bathroom. We blinked, and it looked and felt just like us.

And then I found that thing I never knew I had.

Enough.

I had enough.

The wild thing was that having less – actually opened the door to so much more. More in my personal life. More in my career. More in everything.

All I have to do is look in the eyes of my two girls -- and they take me back, every time, to the most beautiful, colorful, emotional scrapbook I could ever dream of having.

All I have to do is hold my wife’s hand, and it hypnotizes me back to kissing her for the first time, falling in love with everything she did, seeing her in that hospital room holding our first baby for the first time.

It sure seems there is so much more to see, and feel, and be – if I have the courage, if I have the will to shape a life that’s just…

Enough.

11/04/2021

Is your cluttered office keeping you from your goals? Let me make your space functional so you can reach peak performance 💯

10/22/2021

Check out this article on keeping “only the best” things to make for a simpler life:

https://www.becomingminimalist.com/only-the-best/

08/07/2021

Is your home in need of a recharge before the hectic school days ahead? Check out the before and after of this home office refresh for one of my clients!! Message me for rates and details 🧹🪣🧽

06/06/2021

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Clutterfree is more than a project, it is also a process.It is one thing to declutter your home one time. But keeping it clutterfree requires healthy habits ...

01/30/2021

Have you found yourself unexpectedly turning your home into an office this past year? Let me help you organize your space and designate the way each area functions 🗂🧹 Message me if you need assistance from the organization fairy 🧚‍♀️

05/20/2018

Cleaning tip: toilet bowl cleaner with clinging bleach gel is a phenomenal tool for cleaning tile showers. Check out the before and after:

12/04/2017

Contact me this month for holiday rates!! Get ready for the holidays and the new year with an organized home 🏡

07/10/2017

Spent the weekend doing what I love 💙

06/27/2017

Not sure where to start? Schedule a FREE Clutter Consultation with me!! We can discuss where you are and where you're going on your journey to being organized 🙂