According to a Business Insider projection: People would take one hundred billion more photos than the prior year.

And that projection was for 2017.

Five years ago.

One hundred billion more photos.

Before smartphones, we didn’t carry around cameras 24 hours a day. I can list the top five photos that defined my childhood on one hand. Don’t ask me to choose the top five photos of my daughter’s first month of life.

While the number of pictures we snap is staggering, it’s so great, right?! Who cares if I blink anymore! Snap another! Sun in your eyes? Let’s just adjust our position and let the camera do the work (#portraitmode). I love love love what smartphones now offer us.

8 Tips for a Digital Declutter

Alright, you may have tackled the clutter in your closet or plight in your pantry, but what about the chaos on your computer? Your ever-growing email inbox? The photos on your phone? You all know what I’m talking about...that little red bubble indicating the number of notifications we have for an app that just seems like it’s constantly growing. Believe it or not, this adds to our stress level more than we realize. So, how on earth do we tackle our technology?

Lucky for you, I’ve got 8 tips and tricks to help you declutter your devices!

The Ultimate Guide to Organize + Stylize Your Dorm Room

Now that the littles are back in school, it’s time to prep for sending your older ones off to college! Whether this is their first year leaving the nest, or they’re returning for yet another fun year on campus, these tried + true tips are sure to help get them started off on the right foot!

With Maria as a professional organizer, and myself as a recent college grad, we have put our heads together to compile what we deem the ultimate guide to organize + stylize your dorm room. Here are a few tips from the pros…

5 Tips for Keeping Your Organized Space Looking Fab + Fresh

Alright, you’ve tidied your space and donated items that you no longer need...now what? You may be thinking, “Maria, this is the part where we pop the bubbly and relax, right?” By all means, yes! However, there’s still one more thing to tackle...how do you keep it this way?

This may sound daunting, but trust me! It’s not that hard, especially after we’ve taken the time to put a customized system in place, and will actually make your life much easier. I’ve laid out five tips for keeping your organized space, well...organized!

How in the Heck Do I Organize My...Kid's Mementos

Over the last few years, I have helped a ton of parents make decisions on what is worth saving for their kids. We’ve tackled clothes, artwork, mementos, cards, teeth, locks of hair, you name it…

This last year, I also realized that I may be more sentimental than I had originally thought as I made decisions about what to hold onto for each of my kids throughout their first year of life. Yes, that first lock of baby hair was absolutely kept! On the flip side though, the vast majority of things were not. They’ve been donated to other families who can put them to good use right now, rather than collecting dust in my basement for the next 25 years until I can pass them off to my kids. And for that, I’m feeling pretty darn good.

Organizing Printables | A Stay Home Safe Gift for You

If we’ve ever worked together, than today’s resource probably looks familiar! Whenever I’m starting a new project with a client I pull out my handy organizing printables, which help keep track of which pile is which (because those piles can get pretty large after awhile).

I wanted to share this resource with each of you, because you may find yourself with a few minutes to tackle an organizing project of your own while we stay safe at home.

If you have the space, consider dedicating a portion of your garage for donations, or a spare closet for items that you intend to sell. Recyclables and trash can be dealt with as you go. And for those items that you wish to keep, take care of them! Put them on display, use them for more than a special occasion, tell stories about the items to your kids. Don’t let them collect dust or be boxed away for another time. Your future self with thank you!!

How in the Heck Do I Store My...Holiday Decor?!

This time of year, one of the most frequently asked questions in the world of organizing is something along the lines of…How do I store my wreaths?! Is a bag or box better for storing my tree? What on earth do I do with all of these ornaments?! Is it normal to spend 5 hours unraveling Christmas lights each year?

So today, I’m sharing some of my favorite hacks and the products needed for organizing your holiday decor just in time to take advantage of those big SALES starting on December 26! And better yet, a lot of these solutions utilize items you might already have on hand.

WREATH + LINEN ORGANIZER

If you’ve got a blank wall in your storage space begging to be filled, consider using Command Hooks to create a gallery wall of wreaths. Bonus points if you organize by season! Imagine a tidy grid of wreaths with Spring on the top, summer in the middle, and Fall/Winter below. I can envision it now and it has me E X C I T E D.

Time to Toss - Expiration Guidelines for Your Favorite Household Products

Pantries and bathrooms are some of my absolute favorite spaces to organize. Why, you ask?

Well, you just can’t argue with oregano that expired in 2012 or that Cajun Shrimp nail polish that is completely separated.

Whether you are working with a professional organizer, or trying to get started on your own, these are great spaces to get your feet wet when it comes to organizing. Pull everything out, check ALL of the expiration dates and get to tossing.

Having all of the expired products discarded allows you to see what needs to be replenished, but also gives a very true picture about what products you use and which ones you don’t.

A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Most Organized Garage Yet

Garages…dirt collectors, dumping grounds, heck, junkyards. Am I right?

With Summer just around the corner, I partnered with Monkey Bar Storage to share a step-by-step guide to your most organized garage yet. Imagine a clean and clear, streamlined storage space that has this season’s items accessible, next season’s items stored away and space for your vehicle. This is the stuff of dreams, people.

I’ll hand the baton over to Olivia from Monkey Bar Storage to enlighten you on just how this can be accomplished.

12 Ways to Get a Jumpstart on Being an Organized Mom

When we found out we were expecting, I knew my organizational skills would be put to the true test. When I found out we were having twins…PHEW, game on.

So what’s a Type-A gal to do? Well, write a list of goals and things I wanted to accomplish leading up to our babes arrival. Some items were things I’d been meaning to do for years (get up to date on our annual photo books), while other came with the territory (create changing stations so that we’d never be more than a few feet from a diaper).

Below are 12 things I’m so thankful I accomplished prior to our babies arriving:

1. Find a fun way to document your pregnancy, but don’t try to do too many different things. Making moments feel special and creating traditions is something that has always been important to me, but it can be too easy to get overwhelmed with multiple ideas as we browse Pinterest and social media. Choose one type of photo to take throughout your pregnancy to document your growing bump and make a note on your calendar to take said photos on a weekly or monthly basis (or even to mark the start of each trimester).

You've Tidied, Now What?

For many of us, spring signifies a fresh start! We set to surveying our belongings, decluttering items, re-organizing what is left and finally figuring out what to do with all that unused stuff.

As a professional organizer, I find clients struggle with getting rid of items because they feel a sense of guilt – maybe you spent too much money and never used it, it was a gift from a loved one, or carries special memories for your family. The following options may help ease the burden of letting those items go.

DONATE TO A WORTHY CAUSE

There are many organizations throughout the Indianapolis area where your items can be placed directly in the hands of someone in need. Hop on over to our homepage and download the Indianapolis Donation Guide (available here when you sign up for The Minimal-List monthly newsletter).

Show Your iPhone Some Love <3

I can’t believe this LOVEly month is coming to a close! But boy, am I ready to turn over a new leaf from this winter weather we’ve been having and kick it into Spring gear.

With so much hype around tidying and decluttering, you have probably tackled a closet or two in your home already this year. But what comes after that? I think that there is something to be said about taking some of these newfound decluttering skills one step further and applying them to your technology (desktop, photos, iPhone, etc).

If any of you have started to get the screentime updates, you are probably wanting to decrease the number of minutes (okay, hours) you spend on your phone each day. Having your home screen organized will definitely give you a bit of your precious time back. So today we focus on purging unloved and unnecessary apps and finally get after organizing our iPhones.

I am going to walk you through how to purge unused apps, organize and categorize your favorites and suggest a few new apps to keep your entire life organized.

The Baer Minimalist® Blog -- Tips, Tricks and Hacks on living a more ORGANIZED + STYLIZED Life

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