Life is hectic.

But when you throw a major life event like a wedding in the mix, it can get downright nutty. The logical question for practical and busy people is: how can I plan for a memorable wedding without it becoming all consuming? At Buttoned Up, we are huge believers in applying the 80/20 rule to event planning. If you aren’t familiar with the 80/20 rule – it basically states that, in anything, a relatively small handful of things really contribute to the desired outcome – so focus energy and attention on them and worry less about all the rest. Getting clarity on the “must-do’s” versus the “nice-to-do’s” is critical to getting organized and keeping your sanity in the run up to the big day. In that spirit, we’ve put together some tips on how to use the 80/20 rule to plan for your upcoming nuptials.

1. Ask a Question.

Looking for ways to make your actual wedding ceremony more special? One of the best-known ways to trigger your imagination is via free association. Find five married people whom you admire and ask them one, simple question: what was the most meaningful part of your wedding ceremony? Use their perspectives as a jumping off point for ideas on what’s really important and how to make your own ceremony special.

2. Decide Where to Stand Firm.

Weddings are one big up-sell opportunity for vendors (e.g. it is the most important day of your life…you wouldn’t want to go without x,y,z). Simply knowing where you won’t be up-sold and where you will allow a little of it can make a huge difference in your ability to stick to your budget. Given the input from others you gathered in step one, identify the things that you won’t scrimp on and the things you will. Then head online and take advantage of some amazing budget tools. The website TheKnot.com has great budget worksheets, which you can find on their site under the tools tab.

3. Skip the Musical Chairs.

Few things cause more pre-wedding angst than seating charts. Are Uncle John and cousin Becky still feuding? Will your conservative in-laws balk at sharing a table with your free-spirited family members? Will a college acquaintance be angry she isn’t seated at the same table as other, closer friends from school? When you consider that the typical guest will only be seated for about 1 hour of a 4 hour event, is it really worth wringing your hands over? No. Open seating is a stress-free option for hosts that is often more enjoyable for guests, because they get to choose their own dinner companions. If you must structure the tables somewhat for catering purposes, simply assign table numbers, don’t try to orchestrate who sits where at each table.

4. Don’t Skimp on Photos.

It may sound a little cliché, but the day itself goes by in a flash. Many brides say that they didn’t really experience their wedding until they got the photos back. Get a good photographer to document the day. Be sure to look for someone who has the ability to capture unscripted feelings and moments. Those are the ones you will cherish.

5. Food Is Love.

Food isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when someone says “wedding.” But, with a cost per guest of anywhere from $35 to well over $100, food is typically one of the biggest, if not the biggest, cost drivers for a wedding. If you are getting married at home or at a private residence, instead of opting for the same old chicken or steak routine, consider asking friends and family to give you the gift of food. Rather than buying a standard-issue gift from a registry, they can sign up to make a dish (with plenty of love, of course) for the big celebration. We know it might sound a little bit crazy – a pot luck wedding? But they can be just as classy as any catered affair. The key to pulling it off is getting organized and planning. For example If you prefer to have a bit more control over the menu, enable guests to “register” to make a certain number of servings of a particular dish (e.g. Caesar Salad, Lemon Risotto) or of a particular kind of dish (e.g.appetizer, salad, main dish, dessert).

6. Divvy Up the Thank You’s.

Sending heartfelt thank you notes is the perfect and perfectly appropriate way to complete your wedding celebration. Unfortunately, many brides take responsibility for the entire list, which means two things: (1) grooms don’t have any opportunity to express gratitude for gifts received, and (2) it takes twice as long to get through the list. Try this: the day after you return home from your honeymoon (or the wedding), make a master list of all the presents received and divvy up the thank you responsibilities with your spouse. You can divide the list logically by ‘guest of the bride/guest of the groom,’ by gift type (e.g. place settings for her, kitchen gadgets for him), or any way that makes sense for the two of you. To keep yourselves honest, set a deadline for thank you notes to be completed and establish a bounty, say of $5, for each uncompleted note.

Staying on top of all of your valuables is a difficult task.

With hurricane, tornado and fire season coming up, however, it’s a good time to take stock of exactly what you have in your home. Itemizing valuables isn’t necessarily on the top of anyone’s ‘To Do’ list, but when something unexpected happens, such as a natural disaster or a burglary, you need to have documentation of what you own in order to get properly reimbursed. Determining exactly what to catalog is often the most overwhelming part of putting together a home inventory, since the sheer number of things you own seems insurmountable, or you may think what’s valuable to you may not seem valuable in the eyes of an insurance company. Unfortunately, delaying getting organized only sets you up for a bigger disaster should something unforeseen happen.

Alicia on ‘Getting Insured’

‘First things first: get insured! Homeowner’s or renter’s insurance typically covers the market value or the replacement value of your house and its contents. It can be difficult to put a dollar figure on household furnishings, and it’s tempting to estimate low to avoid big premiums. However, if unique or expensive possessions are stolen, broken or damaged, you’ll be happy to get financial compensation. Also, be sure to review the amount of homeowner’s or renter’s coverage you have every year to determine whether it is too much or too little for your current needs. (In other words, be sure that new plasma TV is insured!)’

Sarah on ‘Overcoming Inertia’

‘As always, the hardest part of putting together a list of your valuables is just getting started. The best way to get the ball rolling is to break the task down into bite size chunks that aren’t as overwhelming. Break it down so you are only focusing on one room at a time, and do maybe one item per day for the next 30 days. A great organizing tool is Buttoned Up’s Valuables.doc, available at Target, which separates the lists by room (dining room, bedroom, kitchen, etc), and has pre-formatted pages for listing item descriptions, purchase information, and replacement costs.’

Some valuable tips on cataloging your valuables.

#1. Some Is Better Than None
Not only is it better to have an incomplete inventory than no inventory at all, but it’s also a fair bet that your inventory will change over time- so a ‘perfect’ list won’t be that way for long. So ditch that devil on your shoulder; don’t let the thought that you must have a totally comprehensive list stop you in your tracks.

#2. Apply the 80/20 Rule
Get momentum working in your favor by focusing your energy on the most important items. There are likely to be a relative handful of items that represent a disproportionate share of the value of your cumulative items. Catalog those items first, You can always fill in the smaller items once you have the basic list in place. A good rule of thumb for selecting which items to catalog is to focus on those items worth at least $500 and those items that cannot be easily replaced or have sentimental value.

#3. Start a Master List
Walk from room to room and jot down all those items in each room that you would want to replace after a fire, flood, earthquake, tornado, hurricane or burglary. You can create one master list or one for each room, whichever seems more natural to you. You the list(s) as your own personal catalog of the items you need to catalog in more detail. To lighten the load, consider breaking the list in half and asking your spouse/partner to catalog half the items.

Life is hectic.

But when you throw a major life event like a wedding in the mix, it can get downright nutty. The logical question for practical and busy people is: how can I plan for a memorable wedding without it becoming all consuming? At Buttoned Up, we are huge believers in applying the 80/20 rule to event planning. If you aren’t familiar with the 80/20 rule – it basically states that, in anything, a relatively small handful of things really contribute to the desired outcome – so focus energy and attention on them and worry less about all the rest. Getting clarity on the “must-do’s” versus the “nice-to-do’s” is critical to getting organized and keeping your sanity in the run up to the big day. In that spirit, we’ve put together some tips on how to use the 80/20 rule to plan for your upcoming nuptials.

1. Ask a Question.

Looking for ways to make your actual wedding ceremony more special? One of the best-known ways to trigger your imagination is via free association. Find five married people whom you admire and ask them one, simple question: what was the most meaningful part of your wedding ceremony? Use their perspectives as a jumping off point for ideas on what’s really important and how to make your own ceremony special.

2. Decide Where to Stand Firm.

Weddings are one big up-sell opportunity for vendors (e.g. it is the most important day of your life…you wouldn’t want to go without x,y,z). Simply knowing where you won’t be up-sold and where you will allow a little of it can make a huge difference in your ability to stick to your budget. Given the input from others you gathered in step one, identify the things that you won’t scrimp on and the things you will. Then head online and take advantage of some amazing budget tools. The website TheKnot.com has great budget worksheets, which you can find on their site under the tools tab.

3. Skip the Musical Chairs.

Few things cause more pre-wedding angst than seating charts. Are Uncle John and cousin Becky still feuding? Will your conservative in-laws balk at sharing a table with your free-spirited family members? Will a college acquaintance be angry she isn’t seated at the same table as other, closer friends from school? When you consider that the typical guest will only be seated for about 1 hour of a 4 hour event, is it really worth wringing your hands over? No. Open seating is a stress-free option for hosts that is often more enjoyable for guests, because they get to choose their own dinner companions. If you must structure the tables somewhat for catering purposes, simply assign table numbers, don’t try to orchestrate who sits where at each table.

4. Don’t Skimp on Photos.

It may sound a little cliché, but the day itself goes by in a flash. Many brides say that they didn’t really experience their wedding until they got the photos back. Get a good photographer to document the day. Be sure to look for someone who has the ability to capture unscripted feelings and moments. Those are the ones you will cherish.

5. Food Is Love.

Food isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when someone says “wedding.” But, with a cost per guest of anywhere from $35 to well over $100, food is typically one of the biggest, if not the biggest, cost drivers for a wedding. If you are getting married at home or at a private residence, instead of opting for the same old chicken or steak routine, consider asking friends and family to give you the gift of food. Rather than buying a standard-issue gift from a registry, they can sign up to make a dish (with plenty of love, of course) for the big celebration. We know it might sound a little bit crazy – a pot luck wedding? But they can be just as classy as any catered affair. The key to pulling it off is getting organized and planning. For example If you prefer to have a bit more control over the menu, enable guests to “register” to make a certain number of servings of a particular dish (e.g. Caesar Salad, Lemon Risotto) or of a particular kind of dish (e.g.appetizer, salad, main dish, dessert).

6. Divvy Up the Thank You’s.

Sending heartfelt thank you notes is the perfect and perfectly appropriate way to complete your wedding celebration. Unfortunately, many brides take responsibility for the entire list, which means two things: (1) grooms don’t have any opportunity to express gratitude for gifts received, and (2) it takes twice as long to get through the list. Try this: the day after you return home from your honeymoon (or the wedding), make a master list of all the presents received and divvy up the thank you responsibilities with your spouse. You can divide the list logically by ‘guest of the bride/guest of the groom,’ by gift type (e.g. place settings for her, kitchen gadgets for him), or any way that makes sense for the two of you. To keep yourselves honest, set a deadline for thank you notes to be completed and establish a bounty, say of $5, for each uncompleted note.

We all have ever growing to-do lists.

We add items to them and check them off as they are completed. It’s great to know what you need or have to do, but what about all those things we do that we shouldn’t be? The things we do every day that kill our productivity. That’s what a “Stop Doing” list is for.

I first came across the “Stop Doing” list in an essay by Jim Collins. He stated that one of the commonalities of the companies who were able to propel themselves from being just good to being great is that they all looked at what they were currently doing that they needed to Stop Doing.

Collins also discusses how “Stop Doing” lists can relate to one’s personal and professional life in this essay:

1) What are you deeply passionate about?
2) What are you are genetically encoded for — what activities do you feel just “made to do”?
3) What makes economic sense — what can you make a living at?

A great piece of art is composed not just of what is in the final piece, but equally important, what is not. It is the discipline to discard what does not fit — to cut out what might have already cost days or even years of effort — that distinguishes the truly exceptional artist and marks the ideal piece of work, be it a symphony, a novel, a painting, a company or, most important of all, a life.

Below I created a visual of the above concept:

You need the discipline to discard what does not fit.

Seriously, the current state of our lives is that there is generally too much to do and not enough time. So, go through this exercise at least once and see what you can shed from your “to do” list. If you like the results, then establish a routine and do this every 6 months or a year. The point is that you want to spend your time on high impact tasks, and work that you enjoy. We have a (Not)ToDo.list pad that can help you with this.

Read Jim Collins’ full article here.
Another good article to read here.

For most of us, the thought of ‘getting organized’ can be a bit overwhelming.

Where should I start? What needs to be done? What does being organized really mean anyway? In the face of an endless list of tasks, many of us end up paralyzed by organizational anxiety — overloaded before we even begin! But in reality, you don’t need to do it all, just the small percentage of things that really matter.

Alicia on ‘Pareto’s Principle’

“In 1906, a very smart Italian economist named Pareto came up with the Pareto Principle, also known as the ’80/20 Rule’. Quite simply put, the 80/20 rule states that in any pursuit a few things (20%) really matter while everything else (80%) is trivial, so the most efficient way forward is to focus on the 20% that is absolutely critical to success and spend less or no time on the rest. Businesses all over the world use the 80/20 rule to gain incredible efficiency. Certainly, this rule applies to the world of organization and we encourage you to apply it. How liberating to think that if you focus on the few, important things, you will take care of 80% of your problems!’

Sarah on ‘Letting Go’
“In order to just focus on the 20% that matters, you really need to be able to let go of the need to become ‘perfectly organized.’ Perfection requires a superhuman effort to achieve and constant, superhuman vigilance to maintain. The risk of focusing on achieving perfection is that you miss out on life. The beauty of the 80/20 rule is that it enables you to get organized so that you can do more of what you want, not more organizing! You have enough work on your plate already; you don’t need another full time job. So let the need to achieve perfection go.’

The Section Criteria

Here are three things to consider as you evaluate which tasks matter, and which are trivial.

#1: What’s the big picture?
At first glance, it may seem as though everything on your to do list is an absolute priority. But in the long run, only a few things really matter. It’s easy to get lost in the whirlwind, so, set aside five to ten minutes at the start of the week to review your big ‘to-do’ list and at least mentally identify the four or five tasks that are most important.

#2: What would happen if it didn’t get done now?
One incredible marker of a top 20% priority is a high-impact, negative consequence if the task is not done now. If you didn’t organize that junk pile on your desk today, would you miss some bills that have to be paid by tomorrow and incur usurious late fees? If you didn’t get little Logan’s after school commitments entered into your master calendar, would you be likely to schedule over and miss important dates and events? If the implications of not getting something organized are significant, it counts as part of the 20%.

#3: How will you feel if it doesn’t get one now?
This might be the most important criteria of all – how you feel about getting it done. Will getting he task done and out of the way give you a huge lift? If so, do it first. That pile of old newspapers and magazines in the middle of the kitchen table may not be urgent or time sensitive but by taking five minutes to clean it up you’re likely to get a real boost. Focus on those tasks that will give you peace of mind and a burst of energy.

Time is our most precious commodity, especially during the holiday season when it somehow magically evaporates.

A few extra evening parties, a few extra work deadlines, a few extra places to drive the kids and suddenly life is overwhelming. On top of that, you’ve got to figure out what kinds of presents to get for everyone.

The importance of prioritizing can’t be understated. When it comes to giving presents, I have two clear cut groups: very meaningful relationships, and people I see or work with every day but don’t know all that well. To accomplish the task of buying presents on a limited budget and with limited time, I use the 80/20 rule: what 20% can I do to accomplish 80% of what needs to be done? I want to spend most of my alloted money, time and creativity getting gifts for the people that mean the most for me: my immediate family and friends.

Yet, I don’t want to forsake my boss, my coworkers, my yoga teacher, my favorite clerks at the Post Office which I visit almost every day, the checkout lady at my health food store, and several others. If I had kids, I’d want to give something to their school teachers, piano teacher, ballet teacher, day care workers, bus driver, and soccer coach.

So how do I use the 80/20 rule? I get the same thing for all the acquaintances, coworkers, teachers, and postal workers: something universally liked and meaningful to all–a beautiful nature calendar. They are not expensive, and I know the calendar on their walls will remind them of me all year round.

I don’t spend time deliberating over what to get for every acquaintance. One stop shop and I’m done. The remaining time and money is spent thinking and shopping for more personalized gifts for the people who mean the most in my life.

Sure it’s easy for me as a nature photographer to do this since I make my own calendar each year. But I want to make it easy for you too.

As a special offer to Buttoned Up readers this week only on my website, you can buy 3 calendars and get one free.

Shhhhh. Don’t tell anyone, you won’t see this advertised on my website. But hurry, the offer ends on Cyber Monday (Nov 30th) at midnight, no exceptions. Don’t miss this opportunity to get 80% of your holiday shopping done in one fell swoop. Your acquaintances will love you, and your December is going to be a breeze.

Click Here To Order

Even if money and time are tight, you can have a wonderfully rich and full Thanksgiving. All it takes is a little organization and some willingness to let go of the need to do everything.

Sarah on “Never Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth”

“My mom is an incredible entertainer. She can cook like Julia Child, dress a table like Martha Stewart, and get people to dish like they’re on Oprah – all after a full day’s work at the hospital. It’s pretty impressive. Her Thanksgiving dinners are legendary. But for the life of her, she will not accept a bit of help or delegate, even if that means she’s up to all hours stressing and cooking in the days before the big event and running around like a chicken with her head cut off as friends and family arrive. Because she’s my mom, I just stopped asking her if she wanted help and started bringing a side dish and a dessert to her house the day before Thanksgiving. It feels great to be able to contribute, and it means that there are a few less things for her to do, which means we’ll get to see more of her on the big day. If you’re hosting the big Turkey Day this year and have a tendency to do everything yourself, give your stress meter and wallet a break by letting others help by bringing a dish, some wine, or a dessert. Not only will it save you time and money, but more importantly, it gives them an opportunity to truly share in the day.”

Alicia on “Relax Those Perfectionist Tendencies”

“The purpose of Thanksgiving is to celebrate all of those things in our lives for which we are truly grateful. It’s not a contest to see how many fancy dishes you can cook or how perfectly you can decorate the table. Before you start on the preparations for this year’s dinner, take a beat to think about the true spirit of Thanksgiving. Then relax. It’s much easier to make decisions about what to serve and how to pull it all together when you’re not putting pressure on yourself to pull off a ‘perfect’ event. You can have a wonderful celebration eating less expensive chicken instead of turkey and using paper plates instead of fancy dishes.”

Here are a few more tips for pulling off a Thanksgiving feast that doesn’t gobble up your wallet or too much of your time:

1. Make A Little Less

Do you really need 10 side dishes? And do you really need to make enough to feed 24 people when only 10 are coming? No. Sure, it’s nice to have leftovers, but the more you make, the more likely you are to end up throwing things away down the line. This year, make one or two fewer dishes and plan to make just enough for the group you have coming over.

2. Take 2 Minutes and Download Some Coupons

It has never been easier to use coupons. Before you hit the store, take five minutes and go to www.coupons.com and your local grocery store website and print out coupons for the items you know you will need to buy. No clipping from circulars, no fumbling for coupons at checkout only to find the ones you want to use have expired. Just point, click, print and bring to the store.

3. Use All Natural Decorations

Rather than heading to a fancy store to load up on Thanksgiving decorations, just head outside. Pine cones, colorful leaves and things like dried hydrangeas are free and make a wonderful decorative statement. Take a sharpie and write each guest’s name on a leaf and use it as a place setting card. Gather a handful of pine cones and stack them loosely in the center of the table as an autumnal centerpiece. Clip some dried hydrangea leaves and flowers, tie them with some ribbon and put in a vase or two around the room.

Shifting wardrobes from spring and summer to fall and winter clothes is the perfect opportunity to streamline.

As a general rule of thumb, we wear a very small percentage of the clothes we have in our closets, some people put the figure as low as 10-20%. So as you swap out filmy fabrics for thicker ones, take a long, hard look at the clothes you have and ask yourself: “do I actually wear this?” In addition to clothes, what else is lurking in your closets that you never use? Have each family member go through their closets (and toy chests) too and put all those unused, rarely worn items aside in a few big boxes. Once everyone has gone through all of their closets and drawers and straightened and organized them, it’s time to part with what’s inside those boxes. A great way to do that and earn a little bit of extra money for holiday spending: host a tag sale. Read on for a few tips on how to organize a successful one.

Alicia on “Planning for Success”:

“Plan the tag sale for when it makes the most sense. People generally get paid on the first and the fifteenth so pick a date very close to one of those. It can be difficult to draw crowds if the weather is too cold, so if you live in a northern area, schedule your tag sale before the end of October. Once you’ve picked the date, set a logical time window. If you know that Saturday mornings are filled with soccer games, schedule the event for the afternoon. Whatever time you choose to start, be sure you are ready to go an hour or two from the start time. If you advertise 9 am, people have been known to show up at 7 or 8. So, if you really want to start at 9, advertise for 10.”

Sarah on “Not Getting Physical”:

“If the idea of hauling all your stuff out onto the lawn seems daunting, remember that your sale does not have to be a physical one anymore. Your real items can be sold in the virtual world. You can either sell them as individual items, package them together—like a boom box with an assortment of CD’s—or turn the whole thing into one big virtual sale. Craig’s List, for one, has a section specifically for this. Just remember to charge for shipping. And if this is a new concept for you, find a friend or family member who has done it and let that person guide you through the process.”

Here a few tips to help you through the process.

# 1. The Buddy System.
If the process of holding a tag sale seems intimidating, lean on a friend who can help you let go. Friends often look at your things with a fresh pair of eyes and can tell you straight that the cardigan you are holding on to makes you look like a box. Another benefit to working with a friend: he or she may be your first customer.

# 2. Use a YUNK Box.
If you just can’t bear to part with all of your things now, put half of them in a YUNK box. YUNK simply stands for YoU Never Know. If you have not touched those items six months from now, you don’t need them and you should get rid of them. This can also work really well for children who think they are just unable to part with a toy or doll. If they see that they didn’t play with it for a long period of time without even missing it, they’ll let go.

# 3. For the Common Good.
If you don’t want to set up a tag sale of your own, consider being a part of one that could help the community. Schools, churches, and local organizations often have communal yard sales to raise money for charity. Rent a table at one that you care about and your unused items become directly responsible for giving back. This might also help you let of more stuff understanding that the more you give up, the more you are giving.

It’s funny how scribbling a few things down on a sticky note will make you feel more organized.

It’s as if just making a simple list is that first little step to getting things in order. But then look at that, you’re so disorganized, you lose your list. Or you have four separate lists going on at once, and you need a list of all your lists. Well, it turns out that even the organizational task of making a list needs a little organization. For example, a better list means, 1) keeping the right lists, 2) knowing when to make a list, 3) knowing what to keep a list of, and 4) getting help crossing things off your list. Once you’ve figured out how to make the perfect ‘To Do’ list, though, think how great it will be to cross ‘Organize ‘To Do’ Lists’ off your ‘To Do’ list.

Sarah on ‘Scattered Lists, Scattered Brain.”

‘There’s nothing as frustrating, or as easy, than losing a ‘To Do’ list. You always forget something the second time around, and it’s usually the reason you started the list in the first in the first place. To avoid this annoyance, keep your lists in one notebook or binder, so they’re not scattered, and more importantly, you’re not scattered. A pre-organized book like Buttoned Up’s CrossItOff.list, available at Target, helps you keep track of all the different ‘To Do’s’ that need to get done, all in the same convenient place.’

Alicia on ‘Help Them Help You’

‘One reason your ‘To Do’ lists may be so long is that you’re simply taking on too many tasks. A great way to cross items off is to simply ask others to do them. Granted, there are certain things that only you can accomplish, so don’t ask people to help do things that you’ll just have to go back and re-do. Instead, choose tasks that others either could do easily, or tasks they should be doing themselves anyway.’

Alright, one more list of ways to make a better list.

#1. Regularity
The scattered feeling that accompanies the dozens of free-floating lists you make can be solved by a little organizational regularity. That means establishing a pattern for how often you make your lists, (daily/weekly), where you keep your list (notebook, legal pad, binder), and the time and place you write your list (Sunday night, Monday morning, etc.). Knowing when/where/and what of your lists will help keep them centralized, bith in your home, and in your brain.

#2. Follow the 80/20 Rule
The 80/20 rule states that in any pursuit, if you take care of a few important things (20%), you will solve 80% of your problem. So, when making your ‘To Do’ lists, highlight the top three most important things to do each day/week. You’ll find that by getting these done, you’ll get a better sense of the true importance of the rest of the items on your list, which you can then tackle as needed.

#3. Delegate
When you make your master ‘To Do’ list, there’s a tendency to take on the needs of the whole household. Fortunately for you, there is that whole household ready and (with some help) willing to take on some ‘to Do’s’ themselves. It is important not just to delegate different tasks to others, but also to keep track of what exactly was delegated. A notebook like CrossItOff.list contains sticky notes in duplicate so you can remember what you asked others to do.

In some of our past columns we have posted that, despite the hype, pristine closets are not necessarily a fundamental requirement for getting buttoned up.

Our point is not that straightening out your closets is a waste of time, but rather, given the typical juggling act of daily life, there are often other, more basic tasks that are likely to give you a much greater return on your time investment. Feeling like an organizational failure because your clothes and shoes aren’t color coded and perfectly aligned is a complete waste of energy. With that said, however, there are times when you simply need a catalyst, a major ‘event’ that will help you get over your organizational ‘hump’ — sort of like a shot in the arm. And in that case, almost nothing can come close to the instant gratification that comes with tackling a closet bursting at the seams with stuff.

Alicia on ‘The 80/20 Rule’

‘The 80/20 rule is certainly in effect when it comes to putting your closets in order. For example, people tend to wear 10% – 20% of their clothes 80% of the time, which means the vast majority are just taking up space. There is probably a similar dynamic at work in your linen closets, coat closets, toy closets, and/or those catch-all ‘stuff’ closets. So the first step to a neater space is to identify which 20% of things in the closet you use and which 80% you rarely, if ever (be honest!) use.’

Sarah on ‘The End Goal’

‘It’s important to keep in mind that you’re shooting for a more functional closet, not a ‘perfect’ closet; perfect doesn’t stand the test of time because sooner or later real life gets in the way. Rather than worry about achieving an end state fit for a magazine photo shoot, think ahead to how the closet is most likely to get used everyday and set your expectations accordingly. If it’s a mud closet for the whole family, the end goal should be a system that makes it easy for everybody to find or put away their things.’

Three Simple Steps to Tidy Closets

Here are three easy steps that will help you transform your closets from dumps to diamonds in no time.

#1: Sort It Out
The first step in the process, sorting, actually makes the biggest difference in taming the closet chaos. Take everything out and put it into one of three piles: keep, toss, and recycle/give away. As you plow through the clutter, stay focused on that 80/20 rule — your ‘keep’ pile should be 20% of the items and the other two piles should comprise the remaining 80%. As a rule of thumb if the item hasn’t been used in the past year, it should go in the toss or recycle/give away pile.

#2: Create a Flexible Framework
Three things matter to people when it comes to storage and closets: can I see what I’m looking for, can I reach what I need easily, and is there more than one ‘right way’ for me to put something away. Think about who will use the closet and how they will use the items in it. If some items need to be easily accessible to children, be sure to put them in a low spot. If linens are likely to be put away by different people, give each family member a shelf and label it with a brief description of their bed linens.

#3: Get Help
As you put items back in the closet, especially communal ones, ask other family members to help you get the job done. The time investment they make is likely to pay dividends because they’ll be more likely to maintain something that they helped clean up in the first place.