I first met my friend Kathy in the Green Room at Home Shopping Network TV. She's the most organized person I know.

Kathy Peel is a Contributing Editor to Family Circle and a best-selling author.
She has appeared on Oprah, The Early Show, The Today Show, CNN, MSNBC
and more.

FlipFOLD helps Kathy and her family organize their laundry. We're thrilled that she's agreed to share her organizing thoughts in this exclusive article for FlipFOLD owners.

1. If possible, arrange your schedule to do clutter battle during one large block of time, like a Saturday. This way you'll save on the start-up/knock-down time; you'll be more serious and do a more thorough job. As you see the results, you'll gain the momentum you need to keep going.
   
   
2. Arrange for the Salvation Army of another charity to come to your house. This gives you a deadline.
   
   
3. Dress so you can put all your energy into the job. Wear comfortable clothes and tennis shoes.
   
   
4. Go into battle prepared. You'll need several types of containers: boxes labeled Give Away, Garage Sale and Store, plastic storage bins (the see-through kind are best), and a large plastic garbage bag for every room. If you think you'll be distracted by things you don't know what to do with, put them in a box, too. Label the box Questionable and give yourself a deadline for deciding where those difficult items will end up. Oh, and don't forget a small box to collect safety pins and buttons, a shoe box for random photos you find, and another box or a piggy bank for coins.
   
   
5. Start with the most cluttered room in your house. Work your way methodically around the room. Remove clutter from shelves, bookcases, drawers, tabletops, floors and walls. When you pick up and item, ask yourself these questions:
   
      (a) When was the last time it was used? Worn? Played with?
      (b) Does it deserve a space in our home?
      (c) Are there memories attached to it?
      (d) What will I do with it? Fix it, sell it store it, toss it donate it?
   
   
6. Toss or give away as much as possible. Be ruthless with things like gift boxes, grocery sacks, old magazines and catalogs, and craft materials you saved to use but haven't used. Weed out games. You don't need Chutes and Ladders if your youngest child is a teenager. Classics such as monopoly are probably worth holding on to but be sure to check for missing pieces.
   
   
7. Broken objects are also clutter - they're not useful and not decorative. (The one exception: antiques, which can often be restored for less than the cost of a new piece.) Either get them fixed of give them away to a charity that repairs donated items. Don't feel obligated to hold on to gifts. If you don't like, need or use them, treat them as clutter.
   
   
8. Use strict criteria in your closet. Get rid of anything permanently stained or badly worn. Clothes you have not put on in the last 3 years and trendy items that aren't even well made should also go.
   
   
9. Don't allow non-emergencies to interrupt your clutter clearing time. Eliminate all distractions. Turn on your answering machine, turn off the TV, and put on some peppy music. When you find the umbrella your friend left 3 months ago, don't call her now to tell her about it. Or the book that's been missing. Don't take a break now to crack it open.
   
   
10. If it's hard for you to toss things, organize a clutter-clearing party with a friend, in exchange for her helping you, you help her de-clutter another day.