The Inspired Office

The Inspired Office Uncover your *own* unique organizing style!
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I ❤️ organizing paper and I ❤️ cats and sometimes the two come together! My client today was a fellow and captured thi...
09/13/2022

I ❤️ organizing paper and I ❤️ cats and sometimes the two come together! My client today was a fellow and captured this precious moment.

Working with Personal Stylists Lani & Kyle of yesterday was the closest I’ve come to working with my own Professional O...
11/03/2021

Working with Personal Stylists Lani & Kyle of yesterday was the closest I’ve come to working with my own Professional Organizers! Even we Organizers have blind spots, and I sure did in my closet. I’ve known Lani personally for ages, but had never unleashed her on my closet...
Pic 1. They had me trash all of my shoeboxes 🤯and I so appreciated that Lani just Did. It. For Me. Even though I’ve spent my entire career digging in and doing things for people, I guess I never experienced the joy and gratitude that comes with someone just making it better in front of your eyes. I had been storing shoes in boxes my entire life! 😱She was rightfully perplexed by this. No boxes = so much more space, given I have lots of shelving for shoes. Life-changing.
Pic 2. They didn’t have me donate as much as I expected, but it was far more than I could have pulled out on my own. I rode the wave and made some deep cuts after they left.
Pic 3. I brought them in since I love my clothes but never have anything to wear. Official “outfits” are a challenge for me. They pulled together about 2 dozen winter outfits from what I already own and I’ve already ordered the versatile Avenue blazer they insisted on. 1 thing in, 10 things out!

All too often, when getting organized, the focus is on what should go. This can be hard - even “paralyzing” as many of m...
09/01/2021

All too often, when getting organized, the focus is on what should go. This can be hard - even “paralyzing” as many of my clients tell me. There are other mindsets that can feel gentler and more helpful.
What if you were instead guided by a quest for what is good, loved, useful, beautiful? Everyone has these items. They rise to the top and light up with each bit of unnecessary that goes out.

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I found this in an old email to a client and it echoes a sentiment I’ve shared many times over the years. No matter wher...
08/17/2021

I found this in an old email to a client and it echoes a sentiment I’ve shared many times over the years. No matter where you are in your organizing journey, it’s possible to feel relief. No matter how much you have to sort, it’s possible to feel hopeful from where you stand.
Sometimes a client’s project might take dozens of hours before we’re “finished," but I love seeing them find a sense of hope just an hour or two in!
Once they've uncovered more space than they’ve seen in a while, or set out a few boxes for donation for the first time in ages, the joy of organizing creeps in. This happens all the time!

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This decorative white elephant was given to me at a recent white elephant gift exchange (get it?). Cute but, it came wit...
08/17/2021

This decorative white elephant was given to me at a recent white elephant gift exchange (get it?). Cute but, it came with a broken ear. I didn't have it in me to trash it or donate it broken, so there in the foyer it sat...and sat... I was stuck in decision paralysis (to fix or not to fix?) and guilt (should I just add it to the landfill?).
Clutter takes many forms. Oftentimes, each frustrating item is in our face or lurking in a corner for a "good" reason. I had walked by this dang elephant multiple times daily for about a month.
I finally fixed it. It took the patience of a saint and about a hour, just as I feared it would. Do I recommend that you too take an hour of your life to mend your versions of the white elephant? Maybe, maybe not.
I do recommend you do what it takes though to move that piece of clutter along. For me, taking an hour of my life was the path of least resistance. 😩For you, maybe trashing it on day one would have been. Letting it sit in stasis as I did, for as long as I did, is certainly not the right answer.
In the end, my lovingly repaired elephant found a home on my sister's office shelf. Right before I gave it to her I took this pic thinking that the elephant might want its story to be told.
Do you have a logjam of broken items that are lying around because they need to be fixed in order to be put away or donated? Can you pinpoint an exact time within the next week to deal with them? Maybe the things need mending, washing, or a trip to the hardware store. If you can't do it within the next week, is letting go of it as-is something you can live with? Please share below!

Sometimes I get asked if my clients ever need me again after we're "done." Yes, sometimes they do and that's ok. I am wo...
08/09/2021

Sometimes I get asked if my clients ever need me again after we're "done." Yes, sometimes they do and that's ok.
I am working again with a client I worked with in 2012. She took both of these pictures of me 9 years apart! Back then we got rid of SO much from her two bedroom apartment. We tracked the contractor’s bags as they went out and they totaled in the dozens.
Nine years later, she called me again. She's since moved, dealt with the passing of a parent, struggled with some health issues, and found herself working at home. Her new (to me) home looks similarly to her old home, but I don’t see it as a failure at all. Order in the home doesn’t come naturally to her, but she has found it in the past. If she can’t maintain order throughout some difficult years, well hey, that’s normal.
She DID pick up the phone though. That’s not always easy and I commend her for it.
It's only natural that life, paper and more crept back in. She tells so many stories of how over the years she has heard my voice in her head telling her things such as "you deserve a nightshirt that isn't tattered!" I was honored that she welcomed me back as a birthday present to herself. 🙂🎂

Professional organizing isn’t curing cancer, but it certainly does make the world a better place. The act of reflecting ...
07/15/2021

Professional organizing isn’t curing cancer, but it certainly does make the world a better place. The act of reflecting on what we have, why we have it, and what we truly need causes us to reflect on our place in the world.
Why do we have so much?
Why are we able to have so much?
Why does so much become so burdensome?
Why is this burden sometimes hard to shake?
All of these are questions make us better versions of ourselves so we can be better for others.

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Another day on the job! Glamour shots on a website are necessary and all, but I so rarely look like that while working (...
07/11/2021

Another day on the job! Glamour shots on a website are necessary and all, but I so rarely look like that while working (or ever). This photo from Friday is more true to form.
Yes, my client and her son not only gave me permission to post this, but it was her idea and he 100% approved of me sharing it. 😀
Most of my work is offices and paper, but I still organize it all and love the change-of-scenery that projects like this provide. Organizing legos and costumes was a welcome break from to-do lists and bills. We spent three hours organizing his closet. It had been a one way street for years, with things going in and never coming out. He was a joy to work with, letting go of old toys & games left and right. I kept holding up little plastic parts with a puzzled look on my face and he knew what each doo-dad was - and let go of most of it!
I really treasure this photo. It’s more “me" than any posed picture, and encapsulates my work better than any before/after. Organizing can be full of so many laughs and joy-filled moments!

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Another day on the job! Glamour shots on a website are necessary and all, but I so rarely look like that while working (...
07/11/2021

Another day on the job! Glamour shots on a website are necessary and all, but I so rarely look like that while working (or ever). This photo from Friday is more true to form.
Yes, my client and her son not only gave me permission to post this, but it was her idea and he 100% approved of me sharing it. 😀
Most of my work is offices and paper, but I still organize it all and love the change-of-scenery that projects like this provide. Organizing legos and costumes was a welcome break from to-do lists and bills. We spent three hours organizing his closet. It had been a one way street for years, with things going in and never coming out. He was a joy to work with, letting go of old toys & games left and right. I kept holding up little plastic parts with a puzzled look on my face and he knew what each doo-dad was - and let go of most of it!
I really treasure this photo. It’s more “me" than any posed picture, and encapsulates my work better than any before/after. Organizing can be full of so many laughs and joy-filled moments!

It’s all too easy to get caught up in “being productive” while forgetting what it’s all for. I’m guilty of this too! I’m...
07/10/2021

It’s all too easy to get caught up in “being productive” while forgetting what it’s all for. I’m guilty of this too! I’m slowly leaning that sometimes something’s gotta give.
Let’s start sacrificing some productivity for presence and see what happens… Who’s in?

I just made a difficult edit - my old, thick decoupage folders! It must have been twenty years ago when I was making sma...
07/01/2021

I just made a difficult edit - my old, thick decoupage folders! It must have been twenty years ago when I was making small decoupage projects: boxes, small Ikea drawer sets, pencil cups, etc. For these I collected beautiful magazine tear-outs of luscious green imagery. In my latest file purge, they (mostly) didn’t make the cut though. In about 15 minutes, I sorted it all down to just four magazine covers!
In this collection were over a dozen vintage Gourmet Magazine covers that a client sent home with me. I had dreams of creating a beautiful collage, or framing them in a grand pantry one day. With no collaging since, and no grand pantry in sight, it was time to say buh-bye.
The 3rd photo is of the only 4 covers I saved. The last photo is of how I saved them.
Sometimes letting go of crafting supplies feels like you’re closing the door on that crafter fantasy forever. In my case, I probably am and that’s ok. There comes a point when you realize you’re taking up space for a fantasy version of you, not the real, best, or future version of you.
Can you think of any relics from past projects that need to go? Do you have 15 minutes to make some tough, but necessary cuts? Please share in the comments!

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