Help me declutter and organize

NINA MOINI: It's time to turn now to our series on Minnesota Now we like to call Professional Help. We all need a little help to get through life sometimes, from everyday questions to more complex problems.

We're asking the experts to lend us a hand. As we mentioned, today is the first day of spring. We're getting some advice on spring cleaning. Here's Minnesota Now producer Eli Roth.

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ELLIE ROTH: Last week, when it hit 70 degrees in the Twin Cities, I threw open all the windows in my house for the first time this year. And in an instant, I caught it-- the spring cleaning itch.

I immediately rushed to grab my vacuum and trusty Swiffer and spent the rest of my afternoon scrubbing, dusting, vacuuming, and mopping. I'm pretty happy with the results, but I was curious. Are there ways to make sure I'm keeping these habits up all year long? I decided to reach out to an expert for some professional help.

MELISSA KLUG: So I say that my job is 90% therapy and 10% putting things in bags.

ELLIE ROTH: That's Melissa Klug. She's a professional organizer and runs a company called Home by Eleven based in Apple Valley.

MELISSA KLUG: I actually call myself a chief clutter conqueror. So every single day, I go into people's homes, and I help them say goodbye to the things that they do not need anymore and just help them live a better life.

So that's why I say it's a little bit of therapy. But it's actually a lot bit of therapy because I really like helping people dig into, like, how did I get this way, and how can I stay organized? Because magical fairies do not come at night and redo your house. You have to keep it up. So I love to teach people new habits and figure out how they can not go back to being disorganized.

ELLIE ROTH: I wanted to ask Melissa about her tips for keeping your house organized throughout the year.

MELISSA KLUG: The first thing you actually have to do-- I mean, obviously, spring cleaning, you want to do that deep clean. You've got all these places in your house that maybe haven't been touched since we went into the fall.

You've got to get rid of the stuff to be able to do that deep clean. So sometimes-- this is going to sound crazy. The first thing that I tell people to do is just do a swing around your whole house and just get rid of cardboard, empty cardboard and things that truly just need to go away, truly need to go in the trash.

And then you have, basically, the basis of OK, what's next? And so here's what I want you to do. Here's the key to everything-- categorizing the stuff. I don't even want you to make a single decision about what stays and what goes.

All I want you to do is gather the stuff and say, OK, this is an office supply. It goes in the office supply pile. This is a piece of clothing. It goes in the clothing pile.

What most people will do is they'll get totally overwhelmed by they have a pile of stuff. And they're like, well, OK, so I have this rubber band. That rubber band needs to go over here. And then this pen needs to go over here. And then this piece of clothing needs to go here.

That takes a ton of time and energy. And you get exhausted of making those decisions. So what I want you to do is categorize all the things. And then you can say, oh, look, I have 6,000 rubber bands. I only need four rubber bands in my life.

This is a true story. I had a client who was like, hey, Melissa, how many pairs of black yoga pants are too many? Is 37 too many? Because she had counted. She had 37 pairs of the exact same black yoga pants.

ELLIE ROTH: OK, so I've categorized everything. What's next?

MELISSA KLUG: Be super ruthless. I have the four swear words of organizing. And they are "might," "could," "maybe," and "someday." We don't like to make decisions about letting things go from our house because we might feel guilt or shame. Or we feel wasteful. Or we feel like, oh, man, I wish I wouldn't have spent all that money on this thing that I never used, or this still has tags on it.

But if you use one of those words, "might," "could," "maybe," or "someday," I want you to think about, is that really something I envision myself using? Or am I just using that as an excuse not to make a decision?

ELLIE ROTH: Melissa says maintaining these habits is actually 99% of the battle. But she has tips for that too.

MELISSA KLUG: Unfortunately, every day needs to be a little bit of maintenance. I do what I call a 15-minute reset every night before I go to bed. I just cruise my main floor. I'll put the pillows back on the couch, and I'll make sure that the dishwasher is loaded. And I make sure the counters are clear.

Because then the next morning when I wake up, I'm very happy to come downstairs and not have it be a disaster. Our brains actually like order a lot. And you may not know that, right? Our brain doesn't necessarily tell us, hey, Melissa, I don't love this clutter.

But what you will see is a rise in anxiety, stress. You might snap a little bit more. If your space is out of order, your brain just automatically is set to be disturbed by that, even if you don't have the actual feeling.

ELLIE ROTH: For those struggling with depression, anxiety, or grief, keeping your house clean and organized may seem insurmountable. A primary symptom of depression is not taking care of your day-to-day tasks, including cleaning your home.

MELISSA KLUG: So what I would say is, if you're dealing with some very serious mental health issues, especially anxiety and depression, be kind to yourself. There is a lot of pressure, external pressure, that you're supposed to have a clean house, and you're supposed to do all these things.

The phrase "supposed to" is such a judgmental phrase, right? What you need to do is live the way that works for you. And if you are in a depression or anxiety cycle, I will tell you that you will feel better if you have a cleaner space. But I also understand that it's very hard to actually do that.

So what I would say is give yourself a hurdle to reach. And I want to make it very simple. Earlier when I was talking about categorizing, pick one category of things. Just say, today I'm just going to go around my house and find every shirt that isn't in the place it's supposed to be.

Or I am just going today-- today, my only job is to go around and take out all the recycling. Just pick one simple thing that you can do. And sometimes, that snowball starts to happen for you.

But again, it's really hard to do that when you're in the thick of it. So just be kind to yourself and be patient.

ELLIE ROTH: For Professional Help, I'm Ellie Roth.

NINA MOINI: Good advice there. You can hear our series called Professional Help every other Thursday here on Minnesota Now. And if you missed one, you can find the whole collection at nprnews.org.