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Menu
  • About
  • Services
  • FAQ
  • Blog
      • Editing
        • Difficult Decluttering
        • The Ditch-it List
      • Cleaning
      • Organizing
        • Kid Simply
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        • Time Management & Simplicity Strategies
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        • Simply Interiors
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Posts by Annie

5 Ways To Make Small Talk Simpler (At Holiday Parties & Anytime)

By Annie | December 9, 2015 | 1

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2016 Planners For An Organized New Year

By Annie | December 8, 2015 | 3

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Monday’s Meditation: On Toothpaste & Awareness

By Annie | December 7, 2015 | 7

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Spotlight On Taylor Jacobson Interior Design

By Annie | December 3, 2015 | 0

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9 Accessory Holders For Dapper Dudes

By Annie | December 2, 2015 | 0

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5 Ways To Escape Clutter This Holiday Season

By Annie | December 1, 2015 | 2

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Monday’s Meditation: On What Belongs To You

By Annie | November 30, 2015 | 0

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5 Ways To Live More Simply This Thanksgiving (Or Any Other Day Of The Year)

By Annie | November 25, 2015 | 0

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Organizing Product Favorites: November 2015

By Annie | November 24, 2015 | 1

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Monday’s Meditation: On Beaches, Going Barefoot, And Giving Thanks

By Annie | November 23, 2015 | 0

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Welcome

Annie Traurig was born with the ability to see order through clutter. As a child, she spent playdates organizing friends’ closets and packing their duffle bags for summer camp.

ABOUT LIVE SIMPLY

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Simplify Your World

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How many lip products does one person really need anyway, would you say??
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Taking the time up front to be intentional is the way to steer yourself towards calm, clarity and ease reigning supreme in your space. Impulsive, careless action (especially) in the beginning leads to chaos, clutter and inefficiency. The resources you put in at the outset determine your end result.😘 Interior design: @christinearcher9 #professionalorganizing #seattleprofessionalorganizer #organizinginspiration
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There are so many things to be upset about in the world, and not only in the world, but on the device you’re likely holding in your palm. There are twelve videos playing simultaneously on the screen and each of them might very well be triggering. Positivity doesn’t happen by accident. There is ample evidence for us to use if we’re intent on listing grievances. When we choose to notice what’s going well, acknowledge our blessings, and feel genuine gratitude for the goodness in our lives, our list of reasons to feel good expands. Like anything else, the more we practice, the more natural a behavior becomes. Life is everything at once, everywhere, always. If it’s half bad, and some of the best people we know get sick and die, and senseless hatred gets spewed, and suffering seems to be inevitable, it’s still half good. Every day we get to be here, part of the whole grab bag of life, is a reason to throw a full on party. Inflate the floats and cue the drum major. If you got yourself out of our bed this morning of your own accord, that’s a whole reason right there. If you have a job to get up for, a child to feed, an animal to take out, a purpose for being that’s big or small, that’s a Reason with a capital R. If you are able to walk yourself to your kitchen and treat yourself to a glass of clean water; count three things on your list. If you get to live in the same space and time as the people you love most, consider yourself luckiest. If you make the traffic light, list that as a reason. If you miss the light, tell yourself something ominous would have befallen you had you made it, and list that too! If you have your health, you have all the reason needed. If you have the ability to notice love and kindness in the world, it exists within you. Your not having crumpled, hardened, or become numbed by a world that is, at the very least, insensitive in its incohesion, is a reason to feel good enough to carry on. Good enough to live to see if you can find something else great worth listing. [calendar designed exclusively by @arielm_garcia ]
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Life recently… #professionalorganizer #seattleprofessionalorganizer #homeorganizing
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Pied-a-terre move-in part 2! This pass through area was the perfect spot to create an accessories closet—hanging sections not withstanding. Find a way to make it work is the name of our storage game. #closetorganization #shoestorage #professionalorganizer
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What happens when you go out of town and let Live Simply handle your move? You come home to a perfectly organized new space, nary a box in sight. #professionalorganizing #seattleprofessionalorganizer #closetorganizing
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“I feel guilty,” she says, holding what she believes to be a hideous piece of ceramic selected by her blind aunt while vacationing. “I’m ashamed at how much I spent on this,” she confesses, reviewing the wardrobe society has told her she needs in order to be accepted. “I feel like I have to keep it in case she comes over,” she says of the item given to her by her mother’s good friend who never visits. The amount of clutter women hold onto out of guilt and obligation would boggle your mind. Or maybe not, if you’re a woman, too. Feeling badly unnecessarily is not exclusive to women, but it is undeniably more common in women. Somewhere along the way, we were taught that it was our duty to feel guilty without just cause, feel beholden and trapped, and feel embarrassed by our humanity. That socialization, combined with our already empathic brains, dictate what so many of us do in our personal lives, in our homes, and with our time. It’s high time that we ask ourselves whether making ourselves unduly wrong is constructive. Who, really, is served when we compel ourselves to feel guilty, obligated and ashamed over something as benign as an undesirable vase? Why do we experience such constricting guilt when taking care of ourselves, while we tell the men in our life to enjoy their day at the proverbial range? We, too, are allowed to choose for ourselves and to hold ourselves to entirely reasonable standards while doing so. We are not here to apologize for being here. We are not here to contort ourselves in pain in order to make others more comfortable. We may have been taught by the previous generation that our job is to be small, quiet, and inoffensive, above all. This month, as classes in schools everywhere resume, we’re due for a generational unlearning. Release guilt without cause and invite acknowledgement of our emotions, instead. Release the trap of obligation and embrace commitment. Let go of learned shame and adopt, in its place, awareness. Expand into the fullness of ourselves. [calendar designed exclusively by @arielm_garcia ] #momguilt #mindsetiseverything💯 #selfencouragement
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Decluttering and getting organized before working with a professional organizer sounds so nonsensical, yet people put the pressure on themselves to do so all the same. Whether postponing seeking the help you need is due to shame and embarrassment or a sense of pride at needing to do everything on your own, you are holding yourself back unnecessarily. We are designed to lean on one another’s talents and skill sets. Any true expert has their focus on giving and supporting, not judging. #professionalorganizer #seattleprofessionalorganizer #declutteryourhome
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Chomping boxes. Getting clients unpacked, settled, and set up with beautifully functional systems in their spaces in record time is our commitment and joy. #professionalorganizing #seattleprofessionalorganizer #movingmadeeasy
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The contents of your life ARE your past decisions in physical form. Thats why editing is always, in part, a reconciliation of identity. It can also be emotionally jarring, embarrassing, overwhelming, and on—IF you approach it all from a judgmental mindset. If you allow yourself to approach editing from a place of curiosity and commitment to learn, your decisions of the past are critical information you need to improve. Be brave. Choose now. #declutteryourhome #declutteringtips #professionalorganizerseattle
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Our brains, conditioned by society and governed by ego, tell us yes and no all day long. Intuition exists on a higher plane of knowing, and communicates via feelings. Feelings of excitement, curiosity, and anxious anticipation are all intuitive yeses. Feelings of obligation, guilt, drudgery, doubt: those are all intuitive nos. Intuition isn’t based on logic. It is instinctual recognition of alignment or the lack thereof with people, opportunities, and even ideas. If only that felt like enough to base decisions on. How often do we rationalize ourselves away from the truth of our intuition? Clients constantly engage in this while editing. They sigh heavily at the sight of something their intuition flashes “no” on. They drop their shoulders. They groan. And then their rational minds go to work. “Think how much it cost,” it tells them. “Think who might be offended if you let it go,” it says. “What if you need it down the road?” it taunts. Logic so often masquerades as wisdom. There is no mistaking the feeling of a true, intuitive Yes. We naturally feel a desire to claim whatever it is, wrap our arms around it, do a happy dance, and call our best friend to tell her the good news. No is often harder to detect. It’s feeling unsettled. It’s a moment of hesitation, of knowingly acting on obligation, and ignoring red flags. So, how can we get better at recognizing our subtle, intuitive No? No is the absence of a Yes. That sounds like over-simplification, until you remember the unmistakable feeling of a yes—like a dart flying deftly through the air and landing bang in the bullseye. Natural. Exciting. Definite. Expansive. No is when the dart lands anywhere else. When your hand falters as you throw. When you hem and haw and feel confusion, doubt, or indecision. When your fear-based ego interjects with countless rationalizations because you’re scared to trust your first, inexplicable instinct. We must learn to hear through the mental noise and ask ourselves, “Is it a full-on yes, or am I afraid? Am I trusting my gut, or am I inventing reasons to doubt it?” Calendar designed exclusively by @arielm_garcia #intuition #sayingnoiso
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Move or pretend you are. Clutter thrives in unchanged environments. Moving forces you to examine what you’re storing, what possessions are still serving you, and the lengths you’re willing to go in order to retain your belongings. If you’re moving, embrace the opportunity to be intentional about what you carry forward into your next space. If you’re not moving, pretend you were. What would make the cut? What wouldn’t be worth the effort? #declutteringtips #declutteryourhome #edityourlife
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Medicine cabinet, vanity, wall cabinetry; determine your storage hierarchy and place accordingly. In this bathroom, the medicine cabinet = tier one (daily essentials/ skincare), vanity = tier two (hair styling), and wall cabinetry = tier three (towels, backstock, & travel cosmetics). #professionalorganizing #organizinginspiration #bathroomorganization
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I have seen it time and time again: parents keeping things that are special and prized to them with the intention of bequeathing said things to their kids. Their kids, meanwhile, are plagued with guilt at not wanting their parents trophies, dresses, and candlesticks. Inevitably, the things we gravitate towards as children are the ones we most strongly associate with our parents. Those usually aren’t the most elaborate or tied to parental accomplishments. They’re ordinary and necessarily selective—the sweater you wear every day for a decade has a panache greater than anything you’ve been carefully storing in a box for as long with the intention of passing down. Sure, there are exceptions. And yes, there are bound to be extremely sentimental people tempted to chime in and contradict. Still, the vast majority of us desire the opportunity to create and fill our lives for ourselves. So, if you’re not keeping things for yourself first and foremost—if you’re using your children as a way to lessen the blow of letting go—ask yourself: what am I doing and why? As always, answer with curiosity and openness over judgment and defensiveness. #declutteringtips #declutteryourhome #professionalorganizer
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His closet. Men deserve sartorial sanctuaries too! We set up this one as we always do: -frequently used items placed in the most accessible spots -arranged categorically for easy dressing -accessories displayed -essentials folded carefully -designed to promote the energy of calm and clarity #professionalorganizing #closetorganization #menscloset
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When your wardrobe is edited to include only the pieces you truly need and love (that make you feel like the best version of you)… When it’s organized in a way that feels intuitive for you and your daily life, with essentials prioritized and speciality items thoughtfully contained… When your clothes and accessories are arranged to enhance the functionality and beauty of the space as a whole… Your closet is something more akin to your personal sanctuary, one that reminds you—with every time you dress and undress—that you are worthy of calm, ease, and delight. #professionalorganizing #closetorganizing #closetorganizer
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She’s high school ready 🙌🏻 #professionalorganizing #organizinginspiration #closetorganizer
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One of the most powerful yet overlooked abilities you possess is to continually invent and reinvent yourself. Whether or not you’re aware, you’re deciding who you are and who you’ll be all the time. You speak yourself into existence through the repetition of stories. I am this way because of the way I was raised. I’m such a messy person. I’m so bad at time management. I’m the peacekeeper, responsible for holding everyone together. Like cast spells, you bewitch yourself into making your self-perceptions true. Your actions follow suit. The truth is, who you are is not fixed but fluid, and the stories you’ve told, regardless of how long you’ve repeated them, are entirely mutable. Consider the fact that at every instant the entire universe is recreating itself. That you are a different person now on a cellular level than you were when you started reading this. At any moment, you can choose to harness the power of your thoughts to tell new stories. You can bridge the gap between your past and future self by probing your old refrains. I may have been that way because of my upbringing; who do I want to be now? In the past, I always reacted to these types of situations in a certain way; how do I want to respond now? I have allowed myself to manage time poorly in the past; how does the version of me I now aspire to manage their time and commitments? Editing your internal monologues then paves the way for you to adopt new truths. I am who I choose to be now. I am capable of change. I respond with intention. I have learned and grown, and I am embracing new, more adaptive behaviors. It isn’t too late–I am perfectly on time for my own evolution. I am changing for the better. I have changed. I stay open. I reserve the right to reexamine, and to change, and change again, for as long as I’m alive, and until the story I tell about myself reflects the fullest and freest expression of me. [calendar designed exclusively for us by @arielm_garcia ] #selftalkmatters #affirmationpositive #selfperception
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Getting the kitchen set up with clearly defined, intuitive and EASY systems from the get-go is the move. Ahem. #kitchenorganization #seattleprofessionalorganizer #professionalorganizing
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Mostly we work in silence, intensely focusing on the task at hand. Other days we reminisce about mall days gone by. If you can guess the store in question, you most definitely can sit with us. I mean if we ever sat we’d invite you to join us. #professionalorganizing #closetorganizing #organizinginspiration

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