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Please note:

Anything beyond the actual item you wanted to procure can qualify for the extraneous elements list, including:

-FREE SAMPLES
-retail packaging
-branded bags, bows and ribbons
-various attachments and parts that are part of manufacturer sets
-et al.

If you need help not falling sway to this effect, ask yourself:

1.what is the ACTUAL item I purchased here?

2.What has been included to elevate my experience of opening that item?

3.And: what has been added into the bag/box by the retailer that serves their interest more than mine?

Yes, especially luxury goods come along with elements that are made to feel like more just what they are. Those brands want you to have an EXPERIENCE with opening their goods, which means they go to great lengths to convince you their bag is more than just a bag, their tissue is more than just tissue, and so on.

Their means of delivery does not need to dictate what you define as important and keep-worthy.

Their attempts to seduce you into purchasing more by way of introducing other samples of things they sell does not need to influence you.

Eyes on the prize. Not the fluff.

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#professionalorganizer #declutter #shoppingaddiction #homeorganizer

Attention is the intersection of time and energy, which makes it a highly precious resource. Yet so many of us (myself included!), don’t treat it as such. We act frivolously with our attention. We give and withhold it without intentionality. And then we wonder why what we desire isn’t showing up for us.

Where our attention goes, energy flows. What we pay attention to is what we expand in our lives. What we neglect dissipates and devolves. Focus acts like a magnifying glass, making what we put under it appear larger.

When we ignore the state of our homes, the spaces become cluttered and disordered. When we give our attention to our relationship with material belongings and our organizational systems, we create the nurturing environments we need to thrive.

When we ignore our health, we sow seeds of disease and physical and mental discomfort. When we give our attention to our wellbeing–to nourishing ourselves well and committing to a movement practice–we experience vitality.

When we ignore our relationships, we feel disconnected and lonely. When we’re attentive to the people who matter to us, prioritizing them through phone conversations and time spent together, we feel connected and fulfilled.

Nature blooms with the attention of the sun, and we grow, create, and manifest what we desire by focusing on forces and sources that move us forward.

If you’re feeling unsatisfied, discouraged, or depressed as this new year begins, I encourage you to examine where and to whom you’ve been giving your attention. Ask yourself whether you’re been directing your attention towards entities that fuel and inspire you, or to ones that have you perpetuating thoughts of comparison, inferiority, judgment and blame.

Our attention is, like all aspects of being a human, limited. We don’t have infinite attention to spend in a day. We’re required to be discerning in order to create a life that’s rewarding.

[Calendar designed exclusively for @livesimplybyannie by @ariel_marko]

Live Simply has been transforming spaces for over a decade. This year, we upped the ante and committed to delving deeper than ever before with our clients, ensuring we resolve the root causes of clutter and, in the process, truly change lives.

This method is about so much more than color coding and folding. We create the space for you to safely examine your habits and behaviors, to realize the ways you’ve been using material belongings as a means of distraction, to achieve faux-fulfillment, or to create the illusion of security. We empower you to choose for yourself what matters, which can mean liberating you from a lifetime of learned patterns.

We design systems that streamline routines and eradicate the stresses of overwhelm and over-consumption. And we insist that you nurture yourself with the beauty of clarity and order, knowing that what you interact with on a daily basis has a direct effect on your overall experience of life.

We can’t wait to work our magic for you in 2023. 💫

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#professionalorganizer #decluttering #homeorganization #getorganized

Those photos you see of perfectly organized EXCESSIVELY filled spaces ought to be, for most people, considered an internet mirage. They exist for the purposes of luring you in, of selling you the fantasy that excess is the state of being to aspire to, and that a shit ton of stuff is magically easy to manage if only it is color coded.

If it’s just you out there, leading the orderly-home-charge bravely albeit on your own, please know that there’s nothing wrong with you if you’re unable to consistently and perfectly wrangle an official shit ton of stuff. Rather, the chips are stacked against you until you make the amount you own realistically manageable for you. Given the givens of hours in days and jobs and families and your rare escape to the pedicure chair.
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#professionalorganizer #celebrityorganizer #homeorganization #decluttering

You heard it here first, folks: just ask!
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#giftideas #giftgiving #holidaygiftguide #professionalorganizer

I know firsthand the ways challenges great and small are responsible for important growth. Still, I’m invested in creating ease because I know that the more freed up each of us is, the more capable and contributory we are.

Throughout my decade+ in business, I’ve seen firsthand how people can begin to believe that they are unworthy or incapable of having ease in their lives. Some have been struggling for so long they can’t imagine another way. Some have adopted a victim-complex that tells them life is perpetually working against them. Some desperately crave ease but need to have the ground laid out for them in order to fully believe.

As a proponent and student of ease, I’ve noted the common threads that run through those that have ease in their lives.

If you are one of those people, you do the following:

You edit and organize so that you’re clear on what matters to you most and a task as basic as finding a sock is an experience entirely free of struggle.

You design your days thoughtfully, you invest your time wisely, and you say no easily.

You move your body daily so that moving through your days is easy.

You express gratitude for all that you have available to you.
You take action to solve problems without allowing them to fester and grow more overwhelming.

You forgive where you can, you make peace with what cannot be changed, and you release the desire to rewrite the past.

You accept that life is change. You participate in, rather than resist, the natural progression of life.

You love yourself. Your chief aim is to aspire to be the very best, most authentic, least bullshit version of you.

You know that the point of this strange experiment is to enjoy it, to laugh, to give and receive love, and to relish every ordinary moment.

If you haven’t had it easy up until now, I hope you know you’re worthy of feeling like life is working in your favor and that what you desire flows to you effortlessly.

I hope you know that ease is just around the bend of the struggle-path you’re grinding down.

It’s your reward for effort spent, and for puzzles solved. Sweet relief is on its way to you. The hollows where pain has been are the pockets ease will fill.

Bathroom before and after.

Our client’s newly remodeled bathroom is beautiful, and we were thrilled to help them make it equally functional. Pretty and smart. It’s the bathroom bring-it-home-to-your-parents whole package. Only don’t do that, because your parents will be all, “Why did you do it like that?” And “What’s this cream for?” And, “You got rid of what!!?? You shouldn’t have done that.”
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#professionalorganizer #bathroomremodel #organizationideas

I am beyond honored to get to share the story behind my life’s work in the fall/winter 2023 @tracyandersonmethod Magazine, The Clarity Issue, available for download now and on newsstands nationwide including Whole Foods, Barnes and Noble & Hudson News. This publication is truly special and a labor of love from a woman (and company) whose mission remains moving us all in a better, healthier, more enlightened, and more clarified direction. Thank you @tracyandersonmethod @stevenbeltrani for all that you do for body, mind, and soul.🙏🏻💕

P.S. Timing is a wild, universey thing. I was asked to write this piece at the end of May. It was the first time in years I’d really sat down and told my (and my mom’s) story. The opportunity to explain my arc from the chaos of chronic illness to becoming a teacher of Simplicity came just weeks before my mom would unexpectedly pass away. What strikes me most is that all I wrote remains true—she still isn’t contained in her things (people never are), and her essence shines more radiantly than ever before.💫

Anyhow, go read the magazine. It’s a bit of magic in a noisy world.

Crossing our fingers we’ll be adopted into this family. Also, children’s clothes are infinitely more delightful than adult clothing. That’s all. 🤞🏻
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#professionalorganizer #kidsimply #kidsclothes #closetorganization

In the karmic equation that rules our lives, intention is the cause that ultimately creates an effect.

When we consciously set an intention, we align ourselves with our authentic purpose and desire. On an unconscious and conscious level, we put forth the energy that’s required to bring about our intended outcome.

Without intention, we’re like aimless waifs, living to accomodate the needs of others before ourselves. We compromise our self worth, say yes to others when what we really want to say is, “Oh, hell no!” and hatch rootless ideas without considering the impact they’ll have.

Living with a lack of intention means we constantly find ourselves in scenarios we don’t really wish to be involved in, or committed to endeavors we’re not really passionate about.

But when we harness the power of intention, we purposefully design our lives, contribute meaningfully, and communicate effectively. The quality of our intention, or our energy at the outset, is the key. If we’re anxious, or desperate, or seeking some shortcut, what we’ll ultimately experience are outcomes that mirror those emotions. If, for instance, we’re overly anxious to secure a business deal merely because we’re desperate for the money it will provide, the result of that arrangement will in some way produce anxiety and scarcity. If, on the other hand, we bring love, excitement, and genuine enthusiasm to a project–if we take time to consider our intention behind that project–the effect we experience is bound to be in line with our initial energy.

Put Simply: What we intend, we actualize. What we put out returns to us.

The easiest way to live with more intention is to begin each day by declaring yours. Before you pick up your phone, before you step your foot down on the floor, take two seconds to express your intention for the day ahead of you.

“Today I intend to be patient.” You might say. Or, “Today I intend to be of ultimate service to the people around me.” Or, “Today I intend to shatter the records I set yesterday.”

Channel the energy. Name your aim. Live on purpose.

[calendar designed exclusively for us by @ariel_marko]

Today would have been my mom’s birthday, if only she hadn’t gone and died this summer (Diane, you got some ‘splainin’ to do!)

My mom was joy incarnate. She made people unfurl. Made you feel like you, alone, were worth her shining for. She taught me to celebrate life. Taught me to bake cookies and decorate a birthday table, and crack up at the absurdity of her vibrancy having to live with a debilitating disease. She carried the burden of MS with astonishing grace for 27 years. At some point along the way, she became my baby. She was the most precious being I was fortunate enough to learn from. To dote on.

My mom was confident and deliciously dramatic. “What’s the name of that movie with the guy who goes to that place?” She would call and ask, and I would hear her eyes roll in slow motion with disappointment if I failed to produce the title.

She was a classic beauty, as elegant as Audrey. She made friends with everyone.

In June, she got an infection that turned out to be stage 4 colon cancer. She had days to live, they told us.

She spent the next month in a hospital bed beaming at us, her face as supple and creaseless as it had ever been. She must have known, but she seemed unbothered. She was always above the limitations of the physical world, somehow.

“You are the sunshine and we are your rays,” my sister and I told her. “So, let’s keep spreading joy,” she managed.

On the second to last day in her body, we fed her lemon sorbet and played To Catch a Thief. She turned away from the screen she hadn’t been able to see for years to whisper her closing line, “I’m having a wonderful time.”

By the next night, she had left the building.

It shatters me that I will never pick up the phone and hear her voice on the other end of the line again, make her laugh, or cook for her again. But I hear her voice inside me as my own. I will do what she would have done without thinking because who she was is so deeply imprinted onto who I’ve become. I have realized now, ironically more than ever before, the extent to which I am my mother’s daughter. How lucky I was to be born to her. To grow in her light. Though she was called home, I am still the ray to her sun.

“I wish you could have seen the shit show our kitchen was before,” our client told us, as we toured her through her Simply-ed pantry.

We assured her that we had no trouble imagining its former state (camera roll is full of about 12 years worth of them), packed up our wands and headed on our way, endlessly grateful for clients who trust us to guide them from “shit show” to “dad is going to plotz over that water bottle organizer.”
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#professionalorganizer #homeorganization #homeorganizer #kitchenorganization

Missing a couple of shelves and a mirror, but this one’s looking real pretty.😍
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#professionalorganizer #closetorganization #closetgoals

I’m going to go ahead and suggest that you need as many bags as you would use at one single time, which means one shopping trip, which means maybe as many bags as can fit in a standard shopping cart when filled, which means probably like 5. Five reusable bags. Fine, throw in the little size you like to use for lunches sometimes, and the backpack style one you like to take on hikes and you’re at 7, max. Dare you to convince me you need more.

Anyhow, the real gold star goes to the person who actually manages to remember the bring the bags on the shopping trips.
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#declutter #declutteringmylife #professionalorganizer #declutteryourhome

It makes absolutely no sense to make yourself wrong about no longer doing activities you once did for enjoyment, leisure or inner peace. Self-punishment, shame and judgment are antithetical to fun and fulfillment.

So, you once were jazzed about crocheting and went ham in the yarn aisle five years ago. Don’t love to crochet anymore? Let the yarn go.

Maybe you used to love hosting dinner parties, and bought enough tablescaping materials to make Martha jealous. Now, you’re really content to feed only your immediate family. Give up the extraneous candlesticks.

Maybe you got on a big fishing kick in college and bought every piece of gear a fly fisherwoman could want or need. Now, the urge to fish is one you’re no longer familiar with. Release the lines. Let go of those waders. Be gone with the tackle box of bait.

Allow your interests and sources of enjoyment to evolve. Don’t make the mistake of pinning your identity on the activities you once liked to make time for. You are the being who lives inside your body and that is a fixed fact until you leave it. Don’t need any THING to know yourself or make it true. And you are always changing: growing, making space for new priorities, finding ways to spend your time that fit with the season of life you’re in.

Don’t tether yourself with clutter. Let yourself fly freely.
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#professionalorganizer #decluttering #declutteryourhome #organizedhome

You aren’t crazy. You just may not have been aware before now of all the ways you’ve mixed up your stuff with your emotions, or the ways you’ve tried to use material belongings to heal trauma, or how you’ve mistakenly thought the power was in an object, when it’s been within you all along.

That’s why facing old clutter feels so overwhelming. A pile of things may be a pile of past behaviors, negative mindsets, and old ways of thinking and being. Reckoning with those is no small feat.
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#professionalorganizer #organizedhome #organizingtips #decluttering

In life, there are the tasks we want to do and the ones we know we need to do. Most unfortunately, these two things often don’t overlap. Like, you know you need to move your body, but what you want to do is become your bed. Or, you know you need to create an orderly, calming environment for yourself and your family but what you want to do is anything other than edit and organize.

There are plenty of methods you might employ to motivate yourself into action. This month, let satisfaction be your lure.

Satisfaction is the reward. The fulfillment of your wishes and needs. It’s the ribbon you break at the finish line of your race. It’s the “I Did That Thing Even Though It Sucked So Much At Times” trophy.

The more of those trophies you collect, the more faith you have in your ability to follow through, and to push yourself to do what’s necessary, beneficial and worthwhile even when it’s the last thing you feel like doing. The more you prove to yourself that you’re able to show up consistently for your values and priorities, the more capable you begin to feel overall.

When you hold a desire for satisfaction at the forefront of your mind, you expand your focus beyond the potential struggle in the present moment. You become more able to envision how you’ll feel in the future. You realize that your actions at this moment are not isolated. What you do in this moment will decide whether your future self experiences the gladness and relief of a job seen through and a value upheld, or has to reconcile disappointment and frustration.

The trick is that you must be ruthlessly selective. Commit to too many tasks or the wrong ones, and you’re bound to get overwhelmed and give up before you ever get to reap the seeds of your work.

[calendar designed exclusively for us by @ariel_marko]
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#satisfaction #satisfying #motivation #writersofig

Who’s up for some weekend closet editing?!
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#organization #professionalorganizer #homeorganization #closetorganization

A hanging bar and a set of drawers or two were a totally sufficient solution for the three sisters whose closets are featured here. But the older they got, the more it felt worthwhile to utilize the spaces to their full potentials by way of building out custom closets.

Thankfully, @dreamarie.c was on the scene to wave the organization wand. Our client dubbed her an angel. I would emphatically agree.
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#professionalorganizer #homeorganization #homeorganizer #closetorganization #closetmakeover

SAY WHATEVER YOU FEEL YOU NEED TO SAY. JUST DON’T KEEP WHAT YOU DON’T WANT TO KEEP.

Listen, authenticity in relationships is always my preference. You are always allowed to speak honestly and directly with the people in your life, and I would hope that you surround yourself with people who can handle receiving direct communication.

But if someone is wild enough to believe it’s appropriate to come into YOUR home and demand that you produce the gift they gave you, I am on record as being in favor of you saying whatever feels most comfortable. They are out of bounds, and you’re allowed to respond with any damn response you please. Tell them you loathed it. Tell them it’s in the wash. Tell them you loved it but wore it out. Tell them it’s weird they remember so well what they gave you. Tell them not to gift things they’re overly attached to. Tell them to examine the expectations they’re putting on you and how those expectations hinder your feeling free. Or, ask about their Jimmy. Blame it on a kid. Best of all, blame it on me! The Organizer disappeared it! Sad day!!😭😘
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#professionalorganizer #declutteryourlife #declutteryourhome #decluttering #empoweringwomen

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