Decluttering: Knowing What You Have Saves Time

NJ Organizer, Marilyn Shain Labendz, helps lessen stress by decluttering

We all feel frazzled by the lack of time to get everything done. (Would you believe this woman's hair is actually straight)?!

All kidding aside, there is so much we can't control that makes our time management difficult. We need to look at what we can control and get to it.

Know what's in your storage spaces!

My mother in law had a great sense of value and classy taste. She often bought items on sale to "keep in case I need a gift." She accumulated quite a bit of lovely things but stored them in a tucked away crawl space way upstairs so most of the time she just went and bought something new. Waste of time/waste of space.
Keep your "gift section" in a more accessible closet.
Shop in your closet before you go out and buy more.
Review your purchases, (or better yet, the list of what you have bought) and if you haven't gifted it in a year, donate it or just give it away without a specific reason.
Just because you have the room doesn't mean you have to fill it.
Similarly, a client of mine is downsizing considerably. It took at least 3-4 "pass throughs" of her accumulated items before deciding on what she was selling, keeping or trashing.
By reviewing her stored items more regularly over the course of time, there wouldn't be the pressure of getting ready for the movers.

Know what's in your kitchen and pantry!

How many times have we started cooking a dish and we realize that we don't have a key ingredient?
It takes time to save time:
Make a note of the basic pantry items you typically use and how many you like to keep on hand. (tomato products, pasta, rice, cereals, etc).
Keep the note on the back of your pantry door, for example. As you use one item, make a note to replace it. (Preferably on your shopping list in the "note" section of your phone). How many times do I hear people on the phone with someone at home asking them to check if an item was in the pantry or not. "Honey...do we have..?).
Make a note of specialty items you saw in a recipe that you would like to make in the near future and buy them so that when the "spirit moves you" to make the dish your ingredients are at hand. Think ahead.