As a small business owner, I am faced with a lot of decisions every single day. Aside from my accountant who files my taxes every year, I’m not at a point where I need or want to hire someone to handle my bookkeeping, social media or writing. In all honesty, I love writing my blogs each week and I love getting feedback from my awesome blog subscribers as they read my weekly posts. It’s quite an ego-boost to know I’m impacting people and how they live.

Some of my clients are business owners who incur expenses when dining with clients. One tip I like to share in order to help them to separate the business receipts from their personal receipts is to encourage them to immediately to the following when they receive the receipt…

Oftentimes, my clients’ desks are covered with post-it notes and pages upon pages of notes and pens and paper clips and binder clips and important documents and unopened mail - plus their laptop or desktop computer and possibly even a printer - which translates to so much clutter. And all of the clutter distracts the brain and makes it difficult to focus on the task at hand, whatever it might be.

My clients had two junk drawers in their kitchen, one in their bedroom, and two in their office - that’s five total. In each those junk drawers was absolute chaos! Since they could never find what they needed when rifling through the drawers, they were constantly running to the store to buy various items.

In 2014, the average person celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah, and/or Kwanzaa spent more than $750.00 on gifts and holiday decor. Many people feel stressed out as they try to come up with the perfect gifts to purchase for their family and friends. Ironically, a recent CBS News poll found that one out of three of Americans think they have too much stuff.

The primary closet can easily become overstuffed with clothing. I recently worked with a client who struggled with this issue.

One of my clients had accumulated the equivalent of two closets full of clothing and squeezed them into her single closet. As we worked together, she managed to let go of about half of her blouses she didn't like or hadn't worn in years and freed up space in her closet.

Two years ago, this little business o’ mine was just a twinkle in my eye. When I gave birth to her in January 2014, I had no idea what was in store for me. I knew it would be exciting and terrifying, but I didn’t anticipate the past two years being the craziest roller coaster ride I’ve ever experienced.

My job as a professional organizer isn’t just about putting things in bins and containers and then slapping a label on each. When a client initially contacts me, they are overwhelmed with their stuff, they are stressed out, and they are incredibly frustrated.

Two years ago, before I started my business, I thought long and hard about a name that would best represent what I do. When I came up with the name “Live With Less” it really spoke to me the way I hope it speaks to clients who need my decluttering services.

My bargain-loving client would visit Marshall’s and TJMaxx at least once a week and never leave without at least one bag of purchases in her arms. During our sessions, she became more and more aware of the items she already owned, and she recognized that buying more stuff to add to her already-cluttered home wasn’t the answer.

Today I’m grateful for…

Today I am grateful for…

Today I am grateful for…

Happy new year, peeps! I'm a big believer in writing down your goals, so here's a snippet of my goals list for this year. (And yes, this list could also be considered my new year's resolutions, but I prefer goals to resolutions. It's just semantics, yes, but it's how my brain works.)

Nearly one year ago, I took a giant leap of faith by deciding to do professional organizing full-time. In order make it happen, I handled all of the tasks that come with starting a new business: writing a business plan, determining a business name, filing paperwork with the state, building a website, creating business cards, generating clients, yada yada yada.

Today I am grateful for…

Today I’m thankful for…

Today I am thankful for…

Remember how it feels to be in love? The butterflies in the stomach, the anticipation and excitement of seeing him or her, feeling as though you’re constantly floating on air…. I still experience those feelings with my significant other after 12 years together!