Resolving the Clutter

New Year's resolutions - whether you actually make them or not, they always start to creep into our consciousness. Often it's about losing weight thanks to all the delicious holiday treats that we've been snacking on for the past month, but one that makes the list quite often is cleaning out the clutter in our lives.

Sometimes it's your office, but more often than not, it's our home. And if you have wonderful children living with you, clutter becomes even more painfully obvious when they try to put away a new batch of Christmas presents. OK, OK, we can't blame it all on them. Nevertheless, getting rid of things you don't use or need, and organizing what you do, is a task that doesn't resolve itself. It takes planning, and let's face it, lots of work.

Some tips from the experts suggest starting small, baby steps. We all have grandiose ideas in our head, but accomplishing even the little things is just as rewarding and more likely to motivate you to keep going rather than tackling a big project all at once that never gets finished. It's amazing what a simple hall closet can do for your self esteem. And while The Container Store and IKEA haunt our dreams as the meccas of organization, simply putting things into labeled shoe boxes work just as good when our budgets don't quite match our vision.

And if all else fails and you realize that you have simply outgrown your home and it's time for a new one, I'd be more than happy to help you. My name is Carol Wolfe and nobody does it better.