My guest this week is Alejandra Costello, a professional organizer with over one million YouTube subscribers. Alejandra shared key principles for decluttering your home and getting organized. We also explore the many positive effects of tidying up, from the obvious improvement in your living space to the deeper mental and emotional benefits.

Topics we discussed included:

• The importance of having systems in place to maintain organization
• Being in the right mental space to start decluttering
• The emotions that get tied up in our stuff and our efforts to declutter
• The balance between decluttering and organizing
• The downside of having lots of storage space that allows for clutter
• The advantage of taking care of clutter sooner rather than later
• Common obstacles to decluttering
• Feeling overwhelmed by the sheer volume of things to sort through and make decisions about
• The value of focusing on how life will improve by letting go of unneeded items
• The importance of trust when letting go of stuff
• The freedom we feel in letting go of things
• The hidden costs of holding onto unnecessary clutter
• The challenges of organizing when you have children
• Having a place for everything
• Saying “no” to things that don’t serve your soul
• The attraction of simplifying
• Daily organization tasks for well-being

Check out Alejandra’s YouTube channel, where she shares countless tips for organizing every living space: Home Organizing by Alejandra.

As you’ll hear, Alejandra loves organizing and finds her work to be very meaningful, even sacred.

Alejandra Costello is an organizing coach who helps people declutter and get organized so they can focus on what matters more.

She believes clutter can get in the way of life, trigger painful emotions, and damage our relationships. But with the right tools, strategies, & attitude, she has faith anyone can get organized.

Over the past decade Alejandra has taught students in 132 countries around the world. Her instructional videos have been viewed over 100 million times. She’s been named “The Decluttering Queen” by Good Morning America and her work has been featured on HGTV and the New York Times.

Learn more about Alejandra and her work at her website.