In this interview, host Sean talks with professional organizer Lisa Woodruff about a framework she uses to help people become organized. Woodruff outlines three progressive stages: (1) Overwhelm – recognizing that clutter reflects life chaos and the need to start by discarding items you no longer need; (2) System Creation – after decluttering, establishing routines, checklists, and simple processes (e.g., morning checklists, errand lists) to keep the space orderly; (3) Maintenance/Repair – continuously monitoring and fixing broken systems, similar to maintaining a healthy weight, to prevent relapse. Woodruff shares personal examples of using checklists for errands and returns, emphasizes the importance of a supportive buddy or professional help during the overwhelm stage, and promotes her ongoing resources: the blog Organized365.net, e‑books, and free monthly workshops in Westchester. The conversation is conversational, supportive, and aimed at motivating viewers to apply the three‑stage model to any area of life, including health and home.
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Hey guys.
Hey, what's up, Natalie? Yeah, the new year can bring a new you, and one way that you can make that new change is getting organized. Here to help us now is professional organizer Lisa Woodruff.
Hi, Sean.
Hi. Happy New Year to you.
Happy New Year.
This is what I like about Lisa. Lisa shows up and she organizes our interview because this actually is what we're going to talk about. So I know what I can talk to her about. It's all formatted. So let's start with the first topic, which is organizing. Overwhelmed. A holiday season, New Year's can bring a little bit of attention and stress. How do we handle that as being organized?
Okay, so the thing I wanted to talk to you today about is a lot of people will set the expectation this year that they're going to get organized. And there are really 3 levels of disorganization or organization, however you want to look at that. And the first one is overwhelmed, and this ties in so nicely with the last segment because when you are overwhelmed, You don't even know where to start, and so you need somebody to help you. That's a lot of times when people will call me as a professional organizer, or they'll get a friend and they'll make a buddy plan to get organized. And this happens really quickly. A child gets sick, you get divorced, you lose your job, and all of a sudden your life spins out of control, and you could see that in the clutter in your home.
Very good. Yeah, and especially starting a new year, you want to do a new track.
Right.
You want to go to something new that you can do. And going to—
talking about systems and clutter control, what is something that folks can be Okay, so when you're overwhelmed, your number one goal is to just start to get rid of the things you no longer need.
Right.
And once you get rid of enough things, then you're left with what you want and what you need, and you go into the second stage, which is to create systems that will help you. Like let's say that your morning routine is chaotic, well then once a lot of the clutter is gone, then you can create a smoother morning routine that will be more organized and save you time. And then you go into clutter control because Things keep coming in, so you have to keep making things go back out.
Okay. What do you do in your life if— I know you probably don't have much clutter in your life because you have so much control on it. What are some practices, some specific practices that you do? Anything, examples or anything like that?
Okay. So I've been in all of these systems. I'm moving into this one, which I'm really happy about.
Okay.
Good. But I've been very, very overwhelmed, and I've created a lot of systems. So like morning checklists help me. I ran errands on the way here. I had a whole list of all the different places I needed to go to make sure all the returns and all the receipts receipts were in the bag when I left the house and I had the credit cards that I needed to get those returns put back on the credit cards. So when I was out, I could actually accomplish the list. So systems like that.
Yeah, I do the same thing too. I feel that it's nice to be able to check that off, right?
Right.
So you make the list and then you feel that, that power of completion, that you're succeeding in it.
Right, and the list itself helps you prepare to actually accomplish the list. If you just leave and say, I'm going to do returns, but you don't make a list, Well, maybe you do 50% of them because you forgot that receipt and you didn't have the item with this receipt and you didn't have everything you needed.
Thus comes the organization. Okay, jumping into this one, maintenance and repair. This is where you are right now in the stages.
Yes. As of tomorrow, I have no more clutter in my home. I'm super, super excited. I've been working really hard on this for 2 years. And so now I'm going to go into 2013 and every area of my home I'm now looking at what's broken here, what needs to be repainted, what needs to be fixed or tweaked, and then just Maintaining that, like if you lose weight and you get to your ideal weight and then you just start eating cookies all day, you will quickly not be at your ideal weight anymore. Same with organization. When you get to this stage, it's not like you could just do whatever you want now. You still have to maintain these systems because your life is constantly changing.
Yeah, so these organizations, these stages are applicable to any part of your life.
Right.
So even in health as well, like you were saying, right?
Right, right. So some things that I have that can help you with that is I have a blog, Organized365.net, and I'm going to be taking you through these 3 stages in all areas of your house this year. I've written ebooks and we have free workshops in Westchester each month.
Very good. And so we can check that out right there. Your website is up, organize365.net. If you missed anything she said here, you're trying to make a difference in your 2013, check it out. Thanks so much for being on the show.
