Article by Stephanie Hobby

There’s always a lightness in the air as spring approaches, and with it, a chance for a reset after the long, dark days spent indoors. As we start emerging from our homes, it’s a natural time to take stock of what you have accumulated during the last season and what needs to be refreshed.

According to professional organizers, an important step isn’t to go out and buy more bins and totes and organize it all but to take a serious look at what you love and use regularly and consider unloading the rest. Multiple studies point to the burden posed by having extra stuff: you’ll find around 300,000 items in an average American home. Over half of Americans report being overwhelmed by their belongings, and some estimates indicate that people living in cluttered environments spend over six months of their lives just looking for things. According to a study by IKEA, clearing clutter can eliminate 40 percent of housework! Who wouldn’t want a dramatic reduction in chores?

That extra time and mental clarity are exactly what professional organizers in Billings are trying to help clients accomplish. The old adage, “The more stuff you have, the more your stuff owns you,” is something they see up close and personal regularly.

“There is so much emotion tied up in stuff. Their whole body is overwhelmed. You can see it when you walk in… and by the time we leave and have decluttered and brightened the space, their blinds are open, and their whole body feels like this weight is lifted off,” said Rebecca Boyce, co-owner of The OCD Girls. “All that stuff is just heavy and time-consuming.”

“People really underestimate what their clutter does to them,” said Jamie Holiday, co-owner of OCD Girls, adding that there’s often a therapy component to a decluttering session, particularly if people are trying to part with sentimental items or gifts. It’s important to realize, however, that if someone gifted you something, they were demonstrating that they care about you and were thinking about you. By realizing that, the gift has served its purpose, and you shouldn’t feel guilty parting with something, as the gift-giver probably wouldn’t want you to resent having to hang onto that item.

The mental clarity of having a clean and organized space, where everything has a designated home, benefits the whole family.

Ellie Zwemke, owner of The Task Girls, is passionate about helping people organize and streamline their lives, whether organizing spaces, helping people run errands, or putting together thoughtful gift baskets. She graduated from MSU- Billings in 2020 with an elementary education and early childhood degree. She seriously considered becoming a teacher but opted to continue nannying for the same families she cared for during her schooling. That provided flexibility to consider other career options, and she has turned her love of tidy and organized spaces into a growing business. “I just love people and being in connection with them, so it is fun to have that side of it where you get to see different sides of Billings and connect with people at a different level,” she said.

Zwemke encourages clients not to tackle the whole house at once but to go room by room, taking stock of everything in that space and placing them into categories that can ultimately be identified with a label. For instance, if she is organizing a pantry, she will label shelves with broad categories like “Breakfast” or “Grab and Go Snacks” to reserve a space for things in those categories. Labels help maintain systems for busy families since there is no guesswork about where things should go.

She offers a free consultation before taking on a project to help clients hone in on their goals for her time before purchasing items locally to help maintain those systems. Zwemke said it is also helpful to work with a professional if you are overwhelmed, as they can provide much-needed accountability to stay focused and on track. She says that once you’ve done a thorough cleaning out, it’s very manageable to do regular “resets” a few times throughout the year. For those who want it, she offers a revisit to check progress and make tweaks to the system a few months after the initial cleanup.

The bottom line, though, is not to get discouraged. It likely took years to accumulate all your belongings; it will take time to sort through, donate, and discard them, too. To start, find small, manageable tasks you can do in set blocks, even if it’s only 15 minutes, and do something every day. You’d be amazed at how much can be accomplished when you make it part of your routine. And if you get overwhelmed, enlist professional organizers to help maximize your outcomes with a minimal time commitment.

Originally printed in the February 2025 issue of Simply Local Magazine

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