I've been thinking about the types of people that sometimes struggle the most with getting organized. It might surprise you to hear that perfectionists are often the most disorganized. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that they don't want to get organized unless they can do it exactly right. Because they may not be able to achieve that, they never start the process of getting organized...

I was teaching a workshop recently and at the end, as I always do, I left time for questions. And as they often are, the questions were about stuff. Where do I store my stuff? How do I store my stuff? I need more stuff to organize my other stuff. Granted, I'm a professional organizer and usually what I'm organizing is people's stuff, so hearing about it is the norm. But what I also hear frequently is, "if I only had a bigger house..."

I just learned about a great way to reduce some of the clutter that comes into our homes in the form of phonebooks. In this day of internet accessibility, many people don't even use phonebooks any more. But they keep on arriving at our doorsteps, often making their way straight into the recycling bin, or gathering dust on the shelf.

What's the point of being organized? Getting organized isn't necessarily about making one's home or office look a certain way, but that's often a welcome byproduct. Being organized frees us from stress, anxiety and that awful panicked feeling when we can't find what we're looking for. And most of us would welcome having our living and working spaces transform into clutter-free, breathable places in the process.

Start Small – Don’t try and do everything at once. Pick one room or even one area within a room to begin. Once one space is organized, you’ll feel motivated to keep going.