It's Not Perfect. It's for ME.

Last night during Declutter With Me LIVE, we were all working on completely different things.

One woman tackled her craft supplies.

Another cleared the desk at her parents’ home. She’s been going back and forth between New York and Florida as she prepares to sell their house, and while she’s in New York, the mail, papers, and other stuff of everyday life keeps piling up in Florida.

Someone else didn’t touch a single physical object.

She decluttered her computer, deleting duplicate files, photos, videos, and all that digital stuff we keep because we’ll “deal with it later.”

And me?

I finally tackled the shelves in my office.

When I took over this room and turned it into my office last year, I got it mostly where I wanted it.

Mostly.

Those shelves never quite worked for me.

And here’s the important part: I didn’t need to organize them better. I needed to make them work better for ME.

I’ve talked before about my need to have things visible.

There are organizers who will tell you to put everything in containers, tuck things behind closed doors, clear the surfaces, and create a beautifully streamlined space.

And that might work wonderfully for you.

But remember, I’m not an organizer.

I’m the woman you call when you need help lovingly letting go of the clutter that’s taking up your time, space, and energy. The calendar clutter. The digital clutter. The physical clutter. And, most importantly, the mental and emotional clutter underneath all of it.

For me, out of sight really can mean out of mind.

If I tuck everything away because it looks prettier, I forget what I have.

But there’s another problem too.

If “putting something away” means opening a cabinet, pulling out a container, taking off a lid, finding the right spot, putting the lid back on, and putting the container away...

I’m probably going to think, I’ll do that later.

And you know where it goes in the meantime?

On my desk.

Then another thing lands there. And another.

Suddenly the beautifully organized system that was supposed to prevent clutter is actually helping me create a pile.

I need putting something away to be ridiculously easy.

So take a look at the photo/video.

Is it Pinterest-perfect?

Nope.

But it’s perfect for me.

I can see what I have. I can easily grab what I need. And when I’m finished with something, putting it away takes about two seconds.

Which means I actually DO put it away.

And yes, you’ll notice that my world is not paperless.

I like pen to paper for a lot of things. I print things. I write things down. That works for me.

But there’s a whole lot less paper than there used to be. Once upon a time, I had an entire filing cabinet full of stuff.

I don’t anymore.

And THAT is what I loved about last night.

One person needed to make her craft supplies more manageable.

One needed to reclaim a desk in the middle of the enormous job of clearing her parents’ home.

One needed to clear digital space.

I needed shelves that worked with my brain instead of against it.

Nobody needed to work on the same thing. Nobody needed the same system. Nobody needed to finish everything.

We each needed to figure out what was taking up space, make some decisions, and create a little more room to breathe.

Because decluttering isn’t about making your home, office, computer, or calendar look like somebody else’s.

It’s about creating systems that support the way YOU actually live.

Sometimes Lightening UP! means letting something go.

Sometimes it means realizing you’ve been following someone else’s rules for what “organized” is supposed to look like.

And sometimes it means looking at a shelf that would make a minimalist twitch and thinking:

Yep. That works for me.

Want to experience it for yourself?

Join me for the next Lighten UP! Declutter With Me LIVE on Wednesday, October 28 at 6:30 PM ET. Bring one thing that’s been nagging at you, and we’ll actually work on it together.

Register HERE

And if you’re reading this thinking, Melanie, it’s not just one shelf. Or one desk. Or my computer. There’s just too much taking up my time and my headspace...

That’s why I created Lighten UP! The Clutter-Free Mindset Method.

Over 12 weeks, we go much deeper into the physical, mental, emotional, digital, and calendar clutter that’s consuming your time and energy.

Because clearing a shelf can give you some space.

Changing your relationship with everything you’re carrying can give you back your time, clarity, confidence, and calm.