Make the most of February's 29 days this year with this decluttering guide! Tackle these 29 easy-to-declutter items and create a fresh, organized space to enjoy the extra day (and move into spring with a clean space!).

Conquer Counters

1. Mismatched Tupperware or containers without lids

• Sort through your storage containers, recycling or repurposing ones without mates or lids.

2. Unused kitchen gadgets

• Donate gadgets you rarely use to free up valuable kitchen space.

3. Outdated or expired food and spices

• Check pantry items for expiration dates, discarding anything past its prime.

4. Chipped dishes, mugs, and glassware

• Replace or repurpose damaged items; declutter your kitchen essentials.

Untangle Tech

5. Tech cord clutter

• Organize cords using cable organizers or ties to reduce visual and physical clutter; delete duplicates or unused items.

6. Digital clutter (duplicate photos, unopened email, unused apps, outdated software)

• Dedicate time to delete redundant photos, off-load unneeded apps, and update software for better device performance.

Funnel Fashion

7. Broken jewelry

• Repair or repurpose, or consider donating pieces you no longer wear.

8. Extra hangers

• Keep only what you need, recycling or donating excess hangers.

9. Worn out clothes, underwear, or socks

• Declutter your wardrobe by discarding worn-out items and making space for new essentials.

10. Tired shoes and sneakers

• Toss or donate shoes that have seen better days.

 Filter Funtimes

11. Dried-up or expired art supplies

• Refresh your artistic space by discarding dried-up supplies and organizing the rest.

12. Travel-size toiletries and makeup you never use

• Streamline your beauty routine by donating unused items to local thrift shops or shelters.

13. Exercise and sports clutter

• Evaluate your sports equipment, donating or selling items you no longer use.

14. Expired sunscreen or skincare products

• Ensure your skincare items are within their use-by dates for maximum effectiveness.

15. Board games or puzzles with missing pieces

• Declutter entertainment spaces by recycling incomplete games or puzzles.

16. Toys your children or grandchildren have outgrown

• Donate toys to clear space and bring joy to others.

Household Havoc

17. Expired warranties or guarantees

• Dispose of expired warranties and guarantees, freeing up space in your files.

18. Expired coupons or promotional materials

• Organize your coupons and promotional materials, discarding outdated ones.

19. Unused manuals or instructions

• Digitize manuals or store only essential hard copies.

20. Old receipts

• Shred old receipts, keeping only those necessary for potential returns or warranties.

21. Burnt-out candles

• Repurpose candle jars or discard safely.

22. Dead plants

• Refresh your living space by removing dead or dying plants.

23. Expired or unneeded medications

• Safely dispose of expired medications following proper guidelines.

24. Paper clutter

• Go through paperwork, recycling or digitizing documents to reduce paper clutter.

25. Magazine clutter

•  Consider canceling subscriptions or recycling old magazines.

26. Books you'll never read again (or never started)

• Donate or sell books that no longer serve a purpose in your collection.

27. Old greeting cards with no sentimental value

• Keep only meaningful cards, recycle or donate the rest.

28. Outdated travel brochures or maps

• Organize travel materials, discarding outdated brochures and maps.

29. Empty gift boxes and tissue paper

• Store only a few versatile boxes and discard excess, freeing up storage space.

So grab this year’s Leap Year decluttering guide (download an easy-to-read copy), roll up your sleeves, and conquer your clutter as we move into spring!

Join The Delaney of Bridgewater and Cecilia Beislier for a seminar designed to make the process of organizing, decluttering, and downsizing easy.

It doesn’t have to be complicated.

Come see for yourself with a presentation by expert Senior Move Manager Cecilia Beisler, founder of A Simpler Life Now. She assists older adults and their families with the physical and emotional aspects of moving. Learn how to manage your “stuff” and make your next move to The Delaney with ease.

Event Details

Get the right advice for rightsizing:

Saturday, March 25 • 1 to 3 p.m.

The Delaney of Bridgewater

901 Frontier Road
Bridgewater, NJ 08807
TheDelaneyofBridgewater.com

RSVP by March 22 to (732) 253-4101

Hurry, space is limited.
Refreshments will be served.

Please feel free to download the flyer and spread the word!

“Are you thinking about selling your home? Maybe you thought you’d be in your home for a long time to come. Perhaps you thought your grandchildren would play on the same swingset your kids played on . . .”

Home sells for $100,000 over the asking price.

Home sells without ever hitting the market.

Home receives 56 offers in 30 seconds.

OK, maybe not 56 in 30 seconds, but it doesn’t stray too far from all we have been hearing: there is a significant dearth of available homes for sale. Any of these headlines could be written about any number of markets in the country, but our market here in North Jersey seems to be one of the hottest of them all.

Are you thinking about selling your home?

It’s a little bit of a scary prospect. Maybe you thought you’d be in your home for a long time to come. Perhaps you thought your grandchildren would play on the same swingset your kids played on, and sleep in their bedrooms when they came for long weekend visits. 

But every day, reading about the shortage of inventory for homes in your area gets you wondering if this is a really smart time to sell. 

Hmmm.

I spoke to a few home-selling experts in BIG (Believe, Inspire, Grow), a networking group for women entrepreneurs I belong to for some of their professional guidance.

Specifically, I wanted to know if my clients are thinking about selling, how much streamlining of their “stuff” and home prep is required to get the house to move, and if they did decide to move what would make them be an attractive buyer to the current owners of their next home. 

Sell Your Home “As Is” or Fix Up: A Real Estate Agent’s Perspective

Lucy Thompson, of Keller Williams Realty in Summit, NJ says that while it is still a seller’s market, the amount of work done to prepare a home for resale directly impacts the selling price.

“It boils down to what is more important to the seller — the maximum price achievable by pulling out all the stops or the average price achievable by leaving buyers to use their imaginations,” she says.

“There is a direct correlation between the prep work done and the rewards,” Thompson said. “Sure, you can leave everything ‘as is’ and look ‘average’ on the market and still find multiple buyers and perhaps achieve over list, or you can go all out and declutter, clean out, touch up painting where needed, spruce up older parts of the house, and fix red flag items before photographs are taken and showings start and, as a result, achieve astounding results, leaving no money on the table at closing.”

Regardless of what you may have heard, it is always a beauty contest and a price war, and you don't want the buyer to start asking for credits or work to be done when they feel they are already paying way more than they expected, Thompson said.

“It is nearly always better to invest time and money up front and get ready for listing rather than leaving things to chance and neglecting, at your peril, things that make buyers wonder what else is going on ‘behind the facade’,” she said.

Getting Mortgage Ready: Tips from a Specialist

What if you are on the flip side of the sale? You have your house all ready to market  and need to find a new place to call home. What can you do to make yourself look the most viable to an active home seller?

Cathy Maloney of Guaranteed Rate Mortgage in Chatham, NJ also suggests taking the time to do some “prep work,” although it is a different kind. 

She suggests that buyers not only secure a preapproval letter from a mortgage lender, but an actual mortgage commitment to make them as strong as a cash buyer. 

“All you will need is a sales contract and an appraisal to close because you can show the seller that you have your financing all set and approved and underwritten and you’re as strong as a cash buyer,” she says. “Instead of showing your bank statement that says you have $1 million, you can show a mortgage commitment that says the same, which will help people choose you.” 

So there you have it. It’s always better to do all of your prep work and not allow “chance” to figure into the equation.

Give me a call if I can help you tackle the decluttering process, whether you are getting your home ready to take advantage of this market, or just want to live more comfortably in your home. Either way, I can help you achieve A Simpler Life Now.

And here we are again — the beginning of a new year.

If you have been following some of my advice in this blog space, then many areas of your house have been streamlined, either in preparation for a downsize or just so you can live more comfortably in your space.

The beginning of a new year is a great time to assess your living areas, including your kitchen. Look around — has some of that clutter snuck back up on you?

It is just so easy for this to happen — please don’t think ANYONE is immune, including me.

Why do we let the clutter build up, and what should we do about it?

Keeping things we like around us is comforting, even if we have way, way too much of it. Cozy throw blankets. Aromatic candles. Well-loved books. Kitchen gadgets. These are the things that soothe us. But when the sheer amount of our loved items gets out of control and starts living in piles, the comfort becomes stress.

And then there are all those holiday gifts. Ones where the gift giver was so spot on, that it was something you just bought for yourself. Or ones where you might think that the gift giver never actually met you before!

We discussed the boxes of holiday decor that never make the cut. Resist the urge to pack it away again. Make an appointment right now for a local charity — like the Vietnam Vets — to come and retrieve these and other things you can part with. Just chose a date from their interactive calendar and set the stuff out early that morning. They will even leave you a receipt for tax purposes.

Pat yourself on the back for using all the at-home time during the pandemic to attack those junk drawers, scary closets, and seemingly bottomless attic and basement areas. Goodbye lidless Tupperware! Even the fridge was a project we took on together. Begone, soup greens from the Bush administration. (No judging if it was even the first Bush!)

But don’t rest on those laurels. This next go round should be a bit easier since you have gone through it all recently.

Start with the “what-if-I-lose-those-10-lbs” wardrobe items, and progress into the heels that were oh so cute — and expensive — but hurt each time they were worn. Gift or donate. Have you again accumulated take-out containers? Update some stained ones and recycle the rest.

There’s no need to fill up all your storage areas 

People tend to fill up their storage area with as much as it can handle. This makes it harder to find exactly what you are looking for, whether it is that purple scarf hiding among dozens of other scarves, or the warranty information for the smart TV.

So why do we have three unopened ketchups in the pantry and four packages of new panty hose (when was the last time that we actually wore pantry hose)? Is the fear of “running out” of something so great? Is it because the sale price was too good to walk away from? What would actually happen if we ran low on extra toothbrushes?

Is it because we just know that as soon as we get rid of something we will discover we need it? Right away?

It’s probably a little bit of all of that. And developing a reasonable approach to tackling the clutter is the only way it will get reduced.

Whether you do a room at a time or focus on a category like books or purses is up to you. Don’t start too large. Doing one dresser, or even one drawer in a dresser, is a perfectly good starting place. 

The professionals at A Simpler Life Now are really, really good at helping you figure out what to keep and what you really don’t need anymore. Please let us know if we can help with your projects.

Most people have too much stuff, and, honestly, a lot of it is, well, garbage! 

Do you have a complete set of House Beautiful magazines from the 1990s? How about the turmeric that you bought for a curry recipe you never got around to making a few years ago? 

The first step in getting ready to sell your home, or even just to organize it for you to live more comfortably yourself, is to pack up and toss some of the items that have outlived their usefulness.

This list is a great starting place to identify items that are eating up valuable real estate in your closets, kitchen cabinets, garage, attic, and basement. The amount of space you can find by just tossing out excess bags and boxes can be so rewarding. 

20 Items To Toss Now

1. Twist ties

2. Supermarket plastic bags

3. Old magazines

4. Bags of socks that don't match

5. Books of matches

6. Take out plastic containers and mismatched other Tupperware

7. Bags, bags, and more bags 

8. Old trophies 

9. Expired medications, sunscreen, and makeup

10. Old expired spices 

11. Outdated college books 

12. Old paint cans (by the way if the paint is dried up, the paint can go in your trash —  if not dried up, open lid, add cat litter and then toss when dried up)

13. The drawer full of Bed Bath & Beyond (or other expired) coupons

14. Duplicate or fuzzy photos

15. Bank statements and utility bills that you will never need to refer to

16. That yellowed pile of recipes that has been growing but you never look at

17. Everything that has been sitting in the “to-be-fixed” pile: the broken mug, the costume jewelry with the broken clasp, the sunglasses with the missing arm

18. Pens that dried up

19. All the cheap, branded stuff you picked up along the way but won’t really use, particularly because you have better versions of it, like tape measures, frisbees, sewing kits, magnifying glasses

20. Craft projects that you started but will never resume — the half-hooked rugs, pieces of tile for the mosaic project, assorted colored sand — you get the idea!

Why wait until you are ready to move to reclaim all this space? Do it now: pack up all these items and don’t look back when you dispose of them.

It’s hard getting rid of sentimental items and articles of clothing. But some stuff in our closets holds no sentimental value at all. Even still, sometimes it is hard to recognize items that should be trashed. Give me a call if you want some professional help.

Books are memories. Who we are. Who we were. Who we wanted to be. Who we became.

If you visit someone with a well-stocked library, you can “read” their book shelves like you are reading their biography. There are the books on pregnancy; on parenting; on study skills; on choosing a college. A section on travel. The hobby sections — gardening, photography, learning a new language. Shelves and shelves of books that were read by book clubs.

It’s possible to cobble together the stages of someone’s life by looking through the books in their home library. 

Often one of the hardest tasks of my business is helping people edit their massive book collections, most which have taken decades to accumulate. Usually, there are books lurking in places beyond the main collection — books on nightstands, books used decoratively, books on the shelves of the bedrooms, books in the office. Even boxes of once-loved books in the attic that were stored away for the next generation.

The reality is, that when we are thinking about downsizing, saving, moving, and storing books for our children and grandchildren is not the smartest use of valuable shelf real estate. And if you have stored away a book, you are probably not going to read it again yourself. 

More and more books are now read on a kindle-type device, or even on a phone. Penguin Random House reports that 20 percent of Americans have read an ebook, and 60 percent of those ebook readers are under 45. So if you want to share your love for Anne of Green Gables or Little Women with your granddaughter, she will likely want to read it electronically.

Downsizing Your Book Collection

So, how do you pare down that collection to get ready for your move?

The straightforward answer is to keep only your absolute favorites and donate the ones that don't serve you any longer for someone else to enjoy. 

• Start by taking all of the books in your home and putting them in one central place. 

• Just like with your clothing and treasured keepsakes, create piles — keep, donate/give away, and toss. Use a sharp paring knife! 

• When downsizing, paperbacks really should not make the cut. 

• Neither should books that may have been stored in a basement and might be mildewed or damaged. 

• Any books that might have actual value — like first editions — that you aren't sentimentally attached to can be taken to a book dealer or auctioned off on eBay.

• Cookbooks are a whole topic in itself. If you use them, great, but if you find yourself looking online more and more for recipes, donate these as well. 

• College textbooks belong in the same category. They are most likely outdated, and more and more courses use online textbooks. Put these in the donation pile.

If you're anything like me, you will probably uncover a large number of books that you never got around to reading. Do you really think you will? If not, put them in the donate or giveaway pile. 

Contact me for some help with minimizing your book collection. I can make it less of a daunting task.

Try approaching one room at a time. Or take a page out of the Marie Kondo journal and address all your books one day, housewares another.

Remember the beginning of the pandemic when organizing was de rigueur? We were all on such a roll! Then summer came around, and things got somewhat congested again. Piles grew back like weeds. To-do lists increased in length. The organization fire that was lit earlier on somehow burned out.

Now, it is overwhelming to look around the house and see the mountain of holiday decorations that need to be rehomed and the Amazon boxes that need to be refilled with purchases that just didn’t work.

While the new year is still new, recommit to streamlining and downsizing, particularly if you have made a resolution to prepare for a move later this year and want to get a jump on it.

Here are a few things to consider as you get your home ready for a downsize:

1. Don’t rush things. Going through decades of accumulation takes time. Create a calendar with a detailed timeline for your move so that you give yourself ample time for each task. Try approaching one room at a time. Or take a page out of the Marie Kondo journal and address all your books one day, housewares another.

2. Think about the space you will be moving to. Will you have a guest room? Will it double as an office or sewing/craft/exercise space? Will some of your furniture be just too large? The logistics of your new home determine which possessions make the cut.  

3. Think about things that you are saving just because they were expensive, and family items that don’t serve you. These are the hardest items to part with, but keeping them will not allow you to maximize the efficiency of your new space. Check with your kids and family members about what they might like, then take lots of photos of the rest.

4. Edit, edit, edit. This is where the services of a professional organizer really help (wink, wink). You need to figure out exactly what will work in your new space, and that means doing calculations down to place servings and sheet sets. 

5. Technology is your friend. A wall-mounted television can replace your old media console. Think wireless keyboard, laptop computers, and Alexa with a Spotify account for music. Similarly, downsize your books. 

6. Wall space and closets in your new home can be configured for maximum storage potential. 

It looks like it will be many months more until we will be out and about. Use this time to recommit to getting things in order. There is no better time than the beginning of the new year!

I can help you go through all of your treasures with a practiced, compassionate eye to determine what will work best in your new place so that it will feel like home right from day one.

A client, whose son played trombone when he was in elementary school, only allowed him to practice when she was out of the house picking up his sisters from their various afternoon activities because, during his earlier lessons, his screeches were so dreadful.

She told me this story as we were cleaning out some of her closets and we found her son’s old trombone practice books.

In her case, when he was done playing after a few years (and much improvement!), they just returned the instrument to the school. But it’s not always that easy.

What if your child played the piano? You spent countless quality hours with your child sitting in your lap, having him model what your hands were doing. Hours listening to your child practice from the other room while you were making family dinners. And the nerves you both had before each recital! Great memories.

But after that…well, that piano has looked beautiful in your living room or den for decades, and it has been a great showcase for all those precious family photos, but, face it, no one has played it in years, and now that it’s time to move you really need to think about what to do with it. 

Your new space is short on room, your kids probably don’t want it, and if the grandkids are learning to play they probably are using an electric keyboard. Plus, moving a piano can be quite costly. 

Once you have made the difficult decision to part with it, now what?

Lots of clients ask me what they can do with their pianos. The sad reality is that even though you may have paid a fair amount for that upright, which was once even considered a status symbol, it is worth next to nothing right now. 

We can try donating it to a church, school, or community group, but someone probably beat you to it. Goodwill, Habitat for Humanity, and veterans groups in your area might accept pianos. Pianos for Education accepts pianos for donation if they meet certain criteria.

One solution is to join a Facebook town group and offer it for free. Whoever wants it will pay for a mover to take it off your hands. A scan today of free pianos on Craig’s List in North Jersey showed offers for plenty of free pianos, ranging from uprights to Baby Grands to antique ones. “Freecycle” type websites are another great option, where old possessions get new homes.

It is wise to look for “piano wanted” listings on postings for a few months before you need it gone.

Parts of pianos can be recycled. Many of its parts--the wood, steel wires, cast iron, screws, etc, can be reused. This is usually done locally because of the prohibitive transport costs.  

If no one claims it even after you have offered it up for free, you will have to pay to have it hauled away. If this happens, we can shop around for movers. Often they charge a set price, plus additional fees for having to move it up or down stairs. 1-800-Got-Junk removes pianos, and charges based on how much room it takes up in their truck.

It’s not easy to part with an item you have loved for so many years, but once it is gone--either being enjoyed by a new generation of music lovers, or, sadly, destined for a landfill, you will feel lighter and freer and will have one less item to worry about.

Frederick Chopin once said, "Simplicity is the highest goal, achievable when you have overcome all difficulties. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.”

Together, we will help you achieve A Simpler Life Now.