Shortly after hanging up my Clean & Kemp shingle, I began to notice a pattern with my families. Kid's paper clutter. Literally everywhere. Every room. Every drawer. The garage, the car. Everywhere. This form of clutter has become such a common part of my work, I soon began calling it The Slippery Slope. The aftermath of hundreds of avoided decisions. The Slippery Slope is definitely most parent's kryptonite. We're helpless against it as though tossing out a first grade math workbook is the same as tossing out a piece of our child's soul. Hence, this feeling of helpless, passive indecisiveness means that it piles up and eventually makes its way into the far reaches of just about every space y

We all have a certain standard of living. Things we feel we have to do to not feel like a total slacker. I rarely make my bed and make no apologies. But I do like to make meals, and live in a clean-ish house. Somehow, in my brain, this makes up for the unmade bed. Go figure... I don't know about you, but my single parent-mom of a teen-chauffering kids-work from home-cook-clean-grocery shop-volunteering-laundry folding-work outside the home-no two days are ever alike-life frequently requires that I Phone It In. Phoning It In is my way of keeping up, even when I'm slammed for time, too tired, or Just Can't Even... (Am I the only one who Just Can't Even? I Just Can't Even a lot.) Cutting corner

Doing things alone is so dang boring! Join my Clean & Kemp squad and let's get this quick and easy cleaning goal done together! Does this happen to you? You come and go in and out of your house every day, la la la, and everything is fine and dandy. Beautiful in fact! Then one day - maybe because the light has shifted, or maybe because your overwrought brain is finally ready and able to take in new information - you look up and suddenly notice that there are cobwebs surrounding your front door and porch light! Accompanying this Halloween-ish scene is a light dusting of pollen combined with what I call "freeway fallout" that has drifted over and settled on all the surfaces... Ick! Fortunately

Hello! This is the final post about how to tame paper clutter and streamline your files. If you missed the three previous posts, here are the links to bring you up to speed: Easy Does It Filing System , Part 1: http://bit.ly/1NpEAsg Easy Does It Filing System - Part 2, Process Your Mail Daily: http://bit.ly/1ZBYa5f Easy Does It Filing System, Part 3: Keep It Simple Sweetie!: http://bit.ly/1WYLRkt Admit it. For many of you, filing is a one-way street. Papers flow in, but only a trickle will actually flow out. Year after year. No wonder so many of you complain of overstuffed files and suffer from anxiety at tax time! As I started to work with more and more clients on their files, I began to se

Happy Mother's Day to all of you! I just stayed up for 24 hours between Friday and Saturday with our sick dog Flora, who required all of my love, attention, worry, physical presence, and a call to the advice nurse, so I am including pet owners in my Mother's Day wishes. Flora is fine now, thank goodness! Having a child and a dog, I feel like I can say this with authority. Sick kid, sick dog. The worry is exactly the same! I am a single mother, the sole parent of a 17 year-old son. When I first became a mom, Mother's Day was a weird holiday for me. How do I celebrate? Do I buy myself a card and flowers? Shop for an expensive gift I can't afford? Take my wiggly 18 month-old out to brunch? How

Have you been following the latest trend in fashion called the Capsule wardrobe? Wikipedia defines a Capsule wardrobe as a curated collection of 33 - 37 essential high quality items of clothing that don't go out of fashion, such as skirts, trousers, and coats, which can then be augmented with seasonal pieces. This notion has been around since the 70's and is not new. More recently, though, the Capsule wardrobe philosophy has been picked up by a number of minimalist lifestyle bloggers, motivated, I'm sure, by Japanese organizing guru, Marie Kondo who challenged us to righteously divest ourselves of items that do not spark joy! So I gave it a whirl. Well, I tried anyway. I pulled everything ou

If you've been following along, I've been delving deep into paper clutter and filing. In my last post, I went over how and why to deal with your mail the moment it comes into your house. It is now time to implement the Easy Does It Filing System! My Easy Does It Filing System is centered around the KISS theory. Do you know what that means? "KISS" stands for Keep It Simple Stupid. However, seeing as I don't believe in being mean or judgmental, I changed the word Stupid to Sweetie. So much friendlier and in keeping with how I roll! Keeping your files KISS-worthy starts, in my opinion, with the actual file receptacle. Notice I didn't say filing cabinet. I'm not a fan of the classic file cabinet