Top Ten Dorm Room Must-Haves

My eldest child will be moving back to campus next month to start her sophomore year. Just over a year ago, we were up to our eyeballs in Pinterest and other websites with tips on what students need for their dorm rooms. First off, let me just say that, unless your kid is rooming with two friends and they have completely coordinated their color scheme and décor—or they’ve got a single room—there is no way their room will ever look like a Pinterest board!

A dorm room is going to be their home for nine months, so it should reflect their personality, be practical but comfortable, and not too cramped—a place they’ll sleep, study, eat, and socialize in. Most likely the university will provide the minimum: a bed, a desk, and a chair. Everything else is on you.

Here’s the “Top Ten” list of items that are beyond the basics (e.g., bedding).

College, college students, dorm organizing, dorm room, dorm room must haves, must-haves

5 Things You Need to Know Before You Move

Moving can be stressful and disruptive, so if you have a move on the horizon – use these five strategies to save yourself a lot of headache! Recently, my family moved to a new house just minutes from our home town. Here are some of my biggest take-aways for making any move easier.

Declutter Way Ahead of Time

Who wants to pack and move old and unwanted items and outgrown clothes? We certainly did not!

We began decluttering several months before our move. Over time, we decluttered every space in the house. I worked with both of my sons individually and donated old toys and clothes which no longer fit. When we were finished, their bedrooms

decluttering, Dolly.com, moving, U-Haul

7 Reasons You Might Need to Hire a Professional Organizer

When it comes to organizing your home and your possessions, it can be hard for anybody to know where to start and the best way to go about making your house work for you. With all the various stresses of life, like moving home and having children (or anything that requires deep forward planning with time), it can be hard to even find the time to begin the process of organizing your home.

Professional Organizers are a great option for people who need a little bit of extra help with the process of organizing their things. Whether those things be a reorganization of the interior of your home entirely or having assistance organizing stacks of important paperwork, professional organizers can make the process much easier.

Here are seven reasons you might want to hire a professional organizer, and some ideas of what they can do for you.

1. You Want To Declutter, But Don’t Know Where to Start

Without even getting into situational specifics, if you feel that you are having a hard time even starting the organization process, a simple and short meeting with a professional organizer can help you to plan out your moves and come up with ideas for decluttering efficiently. A professional organizer can still help with the process itself, but they’re available for advising on organization projects as well!

2. Reorganizing the Whole Home

When changing around the interior layout of your home, you should probably be thinking

decluttering, moving, new baby, paperwork, Professional Organizer

Moving? 6 Reasons Why You Should Get Help from a Professional Organizer

Whatever the reason for your move, the process of moving is at once exciting and overwhelming. You may be managing a long to do list to get your home ready for sale. During the moving process, it can feel like a thousand different pieces are moving at the same time, all in addition to the demands of your daily life.

Working with Simplify Experts, we can help with every step, manage the move

moving, moving services, unpacking

Forget New Year’s Resolutions, We Celebrate you Today!

We celebrate the clients of Simplify Experts

I began writing this blog about New Year’s Resolutions. I was going to encourage you all to declutter, organize, simplify. Then I remembered that New Year’s Resolutions don’t actually work for the majority of people who try to set them. So, I began to write a blog about all the reasons why New Year’s Resolutions don’t work and tips for setting better, S.M.A.R.T. goals. That might have been nice, but let’s face it, it is the holiday season and you don’t need to be reminded of all the things you are NOT doing.

So instead, I would like to CELEBRATE YOU and what you HAVE accomplished this year; all of you, our amazing clients, our dear followers and our friends!

You have made it through 2017! I am going to say it, it’s been a doozy of a year. But, you have tirelessly nurtured and supported your family. You had fun but of course there were ups and downs. You learned, you took risks, slogged through, and rocked it. You know, normal life stuff…

filing system, moving, New Year, new year's resolutions

Thrilled to be listed as one of the 10 Best Seattle Professional Organizers

Local Seattle Reporter Stephanie Yoder helped Sparefoot find the top recommended professional organizers. Stephanie’s focus of the article was on moving skills that is a task that we at Simplify Experts take on with gusto.

moving, sparefoot, top 10, unpacking

My college student just returned home for the summer. How am I supposed to fit all of their dorm room belongings back into our home?

Before you bring everything back into your home, now is a good time to go through and assess what is really necessary and needed. Encourage your child to sort through their clothing. Was it worn during the year away? If not, now is a good time to let it go. Freshly launder all dorm bedding and then store and label in containers for the summer. Create a “College” storage container for items that will not be used during the summer, but are used during the school year, such as mugs, shower caddies, school supplies, etc. Larger items like dorm refrigerators, chairs and trunks can be easily stored and labeled out of the way in a garage or basement. Doing all this right as your child returns home will make the transition to pack up again at the end of summer all the easier!

dorm organizing, moving, school supplies