Whether you are decluttering your kitchen or your closet, here are a few simple questions to think about while you are sifting through your stuff. Sometimes decluttering can be an emotional process and asking yourself these questions will help you determine what’s worth keeping and what’s letting go.

1. Do I Love It? … I forgot about this award I got when I was in college…should I take a picture of it and let it go, or do I want to display it?
2. Do I Need It? … Are You kidding me, part with my hair dryer? Never!
3. Will I Ever Use It? … These black boots are cute, but I haven’t worn them in 6 years!?
4. Is It A Duplicate? … Wow, I really have three melon ballers?
5. What Is The Worse Thing That Will Happen If I Let It Go? … Ok, I’m letting go of two of my melon ballers. If I have a big melon decorating party I will just have to borrow a few more.

What questions do you ask yourself when decluttering?

Thanks everyone who submitted questions for Ask the Organizer! I will be answering them throughout my regular posting schedule. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask! Here is this month’s Q and A.

I have all my children’s artwork and schoolwork and am having a hard time parting with it…any ideas on what to save? I have tried the “save 2 a year” thing and can’t quite pare it down to that.

Oh dear, I wouldn’t be able to pare down to two a year either… in fact I save quite a bit and it takes up very little space! I sit my kids down at the end of the year and we pick out our favorites. Then we take pictures of them and let the physical paper go. Once I have enough art saved up for each child I will have a book printed out for them to flip through. How thrilled will they be to see their art published!

Here are a few guidelines to help you wade through the artwork madness…
1. If it was painted by your child, keep it.
2. If it was pre-cut pieces that your child simply glued together, toss it.
3. If your child used his or her imagination only, keep it.

As for the schoolwork, I scan the big reports the older kids do every year and maybe a couple of “great job” papers. For the younger kids, I simply save a coloring and writing sample from the beginning and end of the year to see how they have progressed.

Sometimes the kids might have a hard time with the purging of the papers in the beginning, but taking pictures of the artwork lets them know that all is not lost. This activity will help your child build that “it is good to let go” feeling.

Hello lovely Mabelhood neighbors! I have been sharing organizing tips here for some time now, and this week I thought I would do something a little bit different. I want to hear from you! Do you have a nagging organizing problem in your home or office? Do you have a persistent paper pile or old pictures stacked way too high?

Share your questions in the comments and I will feature the answer in a future post! We have covered topics like laundry, playrooms and even motivating your children to clean, but there is so much more!

Do you have any problem areas you would like to Ask The Organizer about?

So you’ve switched out the seasonal clothes and you have a donation bin but you still aren’t quite happy with how your closet is working for you. It’s still missing some of that organizational flair!

Look no further than your hangers! If you’re still sporting wire hangers, those should be the first to go. In my honest opinion they are not to be used for the long-term so send ‘em back to the dry cleaners! Wire hangers will make a closet look disorganized no matter which way you look at them.

Instead opt for plain tube hangers and stick to one color. I know some of you might want one color for business, one color for casual and so on but that might be adding more headache than it’s worth. Stick to something simple and if you really want an organized look, go all out and get wood hangers for a sophisticated looking closet!

Here is a very quick and super simple tip for controlling the chaos in your closet. Set up a donation station! A donation station is really just a bin labeled “Donate” that you store on your closet floor.

How does it work? Simple: the next time you put something on and get that “What was I thinking when I bought this?” look on your face, you simply take it back off, like you always do, and drop it in the donation bin instead of hanging it back up.

Now that your donation station is in place, take a good look at your closet. Every time you get dressed in the morning, try on something you haven’t touched in the last year or three and see if you still like it. If the sleeves aren’t quite right or it is one size to small or big… let it go instead of hanging it back up!