The first time I tried to declutter my whole apartment in one weekend, I pulled every single item out of my closet at 9 a.m. on Saturday, sat down on the floor surrounded by a…

Read more →

My first apartment closet was four feet wide, about 24 inches deep, and fitted with exactly one rod and one shelf. I know because I measured it three times, hoping the numbers would change. They…

Read more →

The first closet I ever organized had wire shelving, and I loved it for exactly one week. Then I noticed my favorite gray sweater had faint parallel lines pressed into it, like a very sad…

Read more →

The day I finally emptied the cabinet under my kitchen sink, I found two bottles of the same dish soap, a sponge that had basically fossilized, a half-empty spray that had leaked into a sticky…

Read more →

The day I finally emptied my pantry, I found three open bags of brown sugar (one of them a solid brick), two cans of chickpeas I’d bought on the same trip a month apart, a…

Read more →

I once spent an entire Saturday decanting every dry good in my kitchen into matching clear containers with a label maker. Pasta, rice, three kinds of flour, a bag of walnuts I’d forgotten I owned.…

Read more →

Every January I used to throw my holiday decorations into whatever box was closest and shove it into the closet. Every November I’d pay for it. One year I spent forty minutes untangling a single…

Read more →

My friend Carla has three kids, two jobs, and a front hallway that I once described, lovingly, as “a shoe avalanche.” Every few months she’d do a huge weekend purge, the house would look amazing…

Read more →

My linen closet used to be a game of Jenga that I lost every week. I’d open the door to grab one towel, and three more would slide out, followed by a fitted sheet that…

Read more →

My sister Maya bought a 900-square-foot starter house with a one-car garage, and for the first eight months the only thing that lived in it was a pile. A bike with a flat tire, three…

Read more →