Cut The Clutter

01/18/2025

This closet was designated for “kitchen overflow” by my clients, but it eventually became a dumping ground for anything in the apartment that didn’t have a home. As with any organizing project, the first step was to empty the closet and sort all of the items by category. Next, abundant purging decisions were made, resulting in 4 bags of donations. Finally, all remaining items were put away to create a beautifully functional space.

Note: if you’re thinking about working with a professional organizer, but are afraid you don’t have the time to commit to the process, keep in mind you don’t necessarily need to be involved 100% of the time. I worked on emptying and sorting this closet for 5 hours while my client was at work, and then she came home, made some purging decisions, and went back to work at her home office, fielding occasional questions from me.

01/18/2025

I’ve been itching to get my hands on this linen closet since I started working with this family a few years ago, and the day finally came this week! It wasn’t as straightforward a project as it might seem... the contents of this closet had ties to 2 bathrooms and other areas of the apartment, so it entailed examining all of the affected areas in order to provide some comprehensive TLC.

8 bags of purged items and 8 hours of work led to a functional space where everything is easy to see, find and access.

No additional money was spent on organizing products; I reused whatever the client had on hand.

11/29/2024

05/30/2024

These closets are a good example of what happens when you move while pregnant, already have a toddler, and don’t have time to set things up properly. Fast forward to two years later and it was time to bring in the pro!

Over 7 hours, we purged about 15 bags of clothing and trash from these closets (they are deceptively big: almost 3 feet deep!). We then binned up less frequently used items by category (e.g., memorabilia, clothes for the youngest child to grow into, travel, off-season clothing, etc), and labeled all bins to take the guesswork out of what’s what.

The result? 2 functional closets that you can actually walk into! Bonus: we were able to reuse bins that the client had, so no additional money was spent on product - yay!

The last photo in the slide is from about an hour into the session. I think it’s important to remember that things usually get messy before they get better when it comes to organizing. Don’t get discouraged mid-project! I promise if you see things through to completion, you’ll be just as wowed with the result as my client was today.

05/07/2024

Today I tamed a kids’ bedroom that doubles as a playroom. The goals for the room, shared by 2 sisters under the age of 6, were as follows:

1. PURGE anything that wasn’t’ needed! (Always the first step!)
2. Implement a system so that toys and games are easy to find AND put away.
3. Create a large chunk of space in the center of the room so the girls have a designated area in which to play.

Over 5.5 hours, we generated 6 bags of donations and several bags of trash/recycling. I created zones for characters/animals, dress-up, pretend play, boardgames/puzzles, and building. The end result was bedroom bliss!

My favorite part of this job? Aside from the colored cubes I purchased for the cubbies, no additional $ was spent on organizing products; I was able to repurpose lots of old storage containers the client had available, which saved a bunch of money!

03/25/2024

These 2 master bedroom closets and a coat closet had my client feeling blue. In 7.5 hours, we were able to make all 3 of them functional and serene. The closets no longer stress my client out, and getting dressed is something she looks forward to instead of dreading!

We purged about 6 contractor bags worth of clothing, along with 6 “take back” bags by for textile recycling. An added bonus was that my client had a ton of bins available (from previous organizing attempts), so no additional money was spent on products!

12/06/2023

Friendly reminder that accepts textile recycling AND they’ll give you a coupon towards a future store purchase as a thank you just for dropping your stuff off. I called their customer number today to reconfirm that this program is still in place and the answer was a resounding YES, but please double check with your local store before you schlep all your stuff there.

Details at https://www2.hm.com/en_us/sustainability-at-hm/our-work/close-the-loop.html

11/27/2023

11/26/2023

Things have been so busy in the world of organizing, I didn’t have a chance to post this on October 1st, which was the date 15 years ago that Cut The Clutter was born! Thank you everyone, especially my clients past and present, for your continued support and referrals. I am eternally grateful to you, and consistently amazed by your kind words and endorsements!

09/22/2023

Today I had the privilege of meeting the world’s most famous organizer, Marie Kondo. Thank you The Container Store for hosting such a wonderful, joy-sparking event, and for including me on the guest list!

06/14/2023

Modern open concept kitchens in NYC apartments pose SO many challenges, because you essentially lose an entire horizontal bay of upper cabinetry and are usually left with only 2 upper cabinets on either side of the range hood. (If you’re lucky, there is no range hood and you get a bonus cabinet over the stovetop.) Anyway you slice it, there’s never enough space for dishes, glasses, food, small appliances and everything else that belongs in a kitchen.

The kitchen pictured here is in an apartment in which I spent 3 full days over the last week (tackling the whole home). Food prep items/cookware were spread out across the laundry closet (directly across from the kitchen), linen closet, living room, home office AND kitchen. 3 tiny drawers were crammed with food prep utensils. Larger drawers had wasted vertical space. Everyday cutlery was living on a shelf in the living room. In short, it was impossible for my client, a chef and recipe tester, to get anything done in her domain!

Because she did an amazing job of purging kitchen items, we were able to consolidate everything into the kitchen and its adjacent space. Food prep tools are now in one area of the kitchen for easy access…no more running around the whole apartment to whip up culinary creations! We gained a shelf and 2 drawers for pantry items which enabled us to clear clutter off the counter. She now has a space that inspires instead of causing stress.

I unfortunately didn’t take the best before/after photos (some of them are actually in-progress/after photos), and for some cabinets and drawers, I didn’t take any before photos at all. Sigh. That’s what happens when I get so excited to tackle a space that I just jump right in! Hopefully you can get the gist of what went down from the pics I did snap. Linen closet in-progress/after photo is included so you can see 1 of the 2 shelves of kitchen appliances that used to live in it. (All small appliances now live on a wire rack in the laundry closet, not pictured, across from the kitchen)

05/30/2023

My client's children (ages 6 and 3) don’t share a bedroom for sleeping purposes, but a majority of their free time is spent in the eldest child’s bedroom (pictured), which doubles as their playroom. Toys/games/costumes were spread out across both of their bedrooms, plus there were extra kids books in the living room (even though they don’t get read out there). The kids' current favorite vice is dress-up, but most of their costumes were inaccessible to them.

In short, both of the bedrooms were driving my client bananas. She couldn’t figure out how to set things up functionally and intuitively for the kids. Luckily I had a ton of space to work with for this one PLUS she and her husband are very mindful about not letting too many games and toys into their home, which meant there wasn’t an overabundance of things to make accessible.

I started by pulling out all of the toys/games/costumes from both bedrooms and grouping them by category. Once that was done, I setup all of those items by zone (e.g., games, puzzles, pretend play, building, everyday art, etc.). THEN, I was able to organize the kids' clothing in their respective bedrooms without having it mixed in with their playthings. This makes all of their daily activities (getting dressed, playing, art, etc.) much easier for them.

BONUS: No additional money was spent on organizing products. I was able to reuse whatever bins the client had on hand.

In case your interested, the toy storage furniture is from and the closet systems are elfa by .