Sarah Parisi organizes people’s closets, kitchens and drawers for a living, but she’s more often helping clients declutter their lives.
Chicago-based professional organizer Parisi’s approach is less about labels and aesthetically pleasing storage bins — though that can exist, too — and more about the psychological approach to organizing homes because that’s where the mess starts.
“We want [clients] to think about their schedule, their relationships, their friendships,” Parisi told Homes.com in an interview. “If someone’s bringing them down or something isn’t adding value … that is clutter and you can change it.”
Parisi began The Clutter Curator in 2016, before Marie Kondo hit the Netflix screen or The Home Edit team urged viewers to color-code and label everything. Parisi says those approaches are on two ends of the decluttering and organization spectrum, and rather, the entire concept can live in a gray area without specific, necessary rules.
Parisi and her team of five ask questions throughout the process: Where did clutter first come into your life? Many clients point toward growing up in homes full of stuff or with parents who held on to things. Others feel guilty for tossing items that will eventually sit in a landfill.
“It’s understanding why we do what we do, and then addressing it once we have that knowledge,” said Parisi, who encourages people to declutter and then form habits on the front end to maintain a decluttered life.
Parisi’s career began in interior design in college, where she realized she enjoyed editing spaces more than curating from a blank slate. She stuck it out, working in corporate interiors before reaching a point where she needed to pivot for her own well-being.
Moving to Chicago coincided with the launching of The Clutter Curator and training to become a holistic health coach with the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, which gave her more tools to understand the role emotions and experiences play in a person’s clutter.
“I think a lot of people just need the authority to let go of things. The hope is then they will carry that after we leave to continue building that muscle and being honest with what they want,” she said.
Here are Parisi’s approaches and tips for decluttering homes and living a decluttered life.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Can you explain your connection between clutter and well-being?
We’re in a season of excess, and we’re constantly being marketed to buy more, or this will get you organized, or this will make you healthy.
I find that if you simplify your home, you will achieve your goals. You don’t need more. You need to look more internally and have a space that feels good because if you’re trapped, cluttered and stressed, that goes into everything else throughout your day.
If you have a kitchen that you can’t make your coffee in or get your breakfast easily, or there’s always dishes in the sink, all of that is triggering to you. You feel like you’re failing and ashamed. If all those things beat you up in your own home, it’s hard to do well outside of the home. You can have a home that’s telling you you’re awesome all day, that’s pumping you up to do bigger and better things.
You start with clients in a place that’s most overwhelming to them. What’s the most common place in the home to start and how is it tackled?
The kitchen and primary bedrooms. Kitchens have food that we’re constantly adding to. For some reason, we feel like we need a fully stocked pantry all the time. We go to the grocery store multiple times during the week, so we never eat through our pantry. Then I come in and get rid of all the expired food. It’s a vicious cycle.
Really, you should try eating through your pantry every six months. Otherwise, you’re just a grocery store hoarding excess.
Be honest: What do we cook on a daily or weekly basis? What are the key items you want in your space? What are the items you keep buying out of habit?
We get into loops and don’t even realize it.
What’s the next step?
We’re pulling everything out. It’s not about what needs to leave — there’s a portion of that — but it’s about reacquainting [clients] with their stuff. The hope is after we work together, you’re using your stuff and you’re excited. A big portion is remembering our inventory and removing the excess that isn’t serving us anymore.
You can see your habits. Maybe it’s a closet, and you didn’t realize you have 15 black sweatshirts. Every time you go to the store, you’re drawn to it, but now let’s get uncomfortable with not feeding into that.
Tell yourself you have some at home, walk around the store and leave without anything, then work on building that muscle. That dopamine hit that you get from buying the thing quickly dissipates when you get home and there’s nowhere to put it.
Some of your sessions last six hours up to a few days. What can people do daily to declutter and organize?
It takes 15 minutes. If you’re someone with a crazy schedule, then every Sunday, spend 15 minutes putting away everything and resetting the space. It’s not going to be perfect. There has to be maintenance. You want to make it so it builds into your routine, so you don’t even have to think about it.
When is it a good time to declutter and organize?
Before holidays or birthdays, when excess is coming in, is a great opportunity to do more of a deeper dive and remove things.
Think about when you have more coming in and how you can remove items beforehand, so you prepare. If the seasons are changing and you’re going to go shopping, first do a sweep of your closet. Remove the excess, remember what you have, and then when you’re shopping, you’re buying something unique or something adding value to your wardrobe.
We’re going into the fall season, so end of October and early November when holidays are coming. You can share your items on local Facebook groups to get it out to people who will be gifting that season.
What tips do you have for someone moving into a new home or selling their home?
Do the things that you would do before you sell now so you can enjoy them. Repaint so you can enjoy it. Our clients will have us come in to help prepare their home for selling and they’ll declutter, they’ll get everything perfect, and say, "Why didn’t I do this last year?"
When you declutter to get your home ready for selling, you have a clear view on what type of storage you need or what would be really valued in a new home.
I think it’s a good exercise yearly to say, OK, if I was going to list my home, what would I do now? And go around your home and declutter in that way.