Yesterday my sweet Celestine, 6 years old, had a playdate with her new best friend Carissa. I love it so much when I can have a glimpse of what’s going on in my kids’ own personal life: seeing Celestine make silly jokes with Carissa made me laugh and made me so proud of my sweet little princess… And meanwhile, you know what? I made a new friend too! Carissa’s mother was there and we talked about, can you guess…yes, about organization! Carissa’s mother is a working mom, feeling stressed out by the lack of time to take care of the basic needs of her family…

Moms, I think we all can relate 🙂

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Today, let’s talk about How to Declutter.

First of all, let me tell you that you’ll find a zillion different methods to declutter on the web and in self-help books about home organization. Each different decluttering method will have an exotic name or acronym, such as C.P.R (Categorize, Purge and Re-arrange) from Debbie Lillard, or S.T.O.P. (Sort, Toss, Organize and Put away) from Cynthia Ewer.

And this was even before the era of the Organizing Queen of All, our dear Marie Kondo, with her world-famous book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, and her KonMari Method. Lately, the trend revolves more about The Minimalist Game, featured by theminimalists.com, in which decluttering is gamified and shared on social media using the #minsfame hashtag.

Aren’t you feeling lost already? I certainly am.

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This post is the introductory post of my series about decluttering and Tidying up your space.

Reading a decluttering how-to always makes me feel kind of light-headed. Why should we declutter anyway?
What and how to declutter exactly? And how on earth am I supposed to find the time to declutter, when even taking a shower AND putting some make-up on seem the biggest achievement of my week?

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To help you transition to a smoother everyday life, I decided to launch a new concept of Organization Kit.

I have a whole bunch of different kinds and you can now find them in OhContraireBoutique on Etsy.com!

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When I think about my vacation, I definitely don’t want to think about organization at all!!! But what if one or two tips and tricks could change your whole experience this summer?

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It’s a Saturday morning and I’m not fully awake : sitting in my kitchen, snuggling a kiss in my 5 years old’s neck and sipping my usual decaf absentmindedly. As my too-hot decaf awakes me a little bit, I suddently notice several things : my boys are fully dressed, the breakfast table has been cleaned up, the dishwasher is empty. Then my oldest comes to me and says with a smile : “Mom, I just finished my homework for the weekend, can I begin my screen time please ?” I smile back to him, isn’t a perfect Saturday morning? God bless reward systems!!!

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It’s New Year’s Eve!! Isn’t it amazing how fast this year went?

In 12 months, my life has changed in so many ways : a sweet new baby boy, our move from France to the US, new friends for me and the family. What a year! Hum… let’s see, did I see it coming ? Not at all. And I had many resolutions for the new year, back in December 2014. You can guess I had some difficulties keeping them throughout the year – what about you?

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Yesterday, a dear friend of mine asked me to help her with her routines.  It made me wonder: are routines really such a good tool for us?  We already struggle with our kids’ routines and our own busy schedules.  Do we really need to add more structure to our already overscheduled lives?

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Tonight I feel as if I was a fairy. With large and airy wings… and most of all a very-very efficient magic wand. Do you want to know what my magic wand was today ? It’s the “very-old-but-always-in” book by Julie Morgenstern : “Organizing from the inside out”. Ok, I hear you, I MAY be the last person on the planet to finaly discover this book. It changed the life of so many people before me.
When I read this book a week ago, I knew immediatly I had found at least what I was looking for, for so long : a process!!! So I did what I do best : I took notes and then….made a printable!!!!

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