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I met Melissa Kary Allen, owner of MKAStyle, at the Best of Main Line event earlier this summer. Wearing an off-white lacy top with matching flowy pants, chunky heels, and lots of cool jewelry, Gyll and I arbitrarily voted her ‘best dressed.’ Melissa approached our table where we learned about her services as a certified […]

Dieting, working out, and getting more organized continually top the list of New Year’s resolutions. All three, however, typically fall by the wayside by February. I have no hard science behind this, but my theory is these three tend to be the hardest to consistently maintain. There’s no shortage of advice out there but have […]

In December 2021, I took my daughters on a belated, celebratory college graduation trip to Maui. It was the trip of a lifetime. We experienced our first Luau on Lahaina beach, took a sunset cruise from the harbor, and on other evenings ate at one of the many lovely restaurants along Front Street close to […]

We are currently undergoing renovation of our primary bedroom and bathroom. This required us to move everything from our bedroom into one of our daughters’ bedrooms. This particular daughter now in her mid-twenties, conveniently left home earlier this year.  Adult kids, however, rarely take 100% of their worldly possessions with them. Said daughter’s room looked exactly like […]

Last week I finally got around to ‘swapping out my closets’. The great thing about having small closets (I tell myself) is that it forces me twice a year to go through my clothes. I donate what I no longer wear to The Wardrobe, take all my winter clothes out of my bedroom closet, transfer them […]

Moving season is upon us. ‘For Sale’ signs are up, open houses are in full swing, and my local UHaul is busier than ever. According to many sources, moving is one of the most stressful life events we will experience. These five tips, however, will help alleviate much of the stress. If you live in […]

I saw my first bunch of daffodils yesterday as I took a walk outside. They gave me a jolt of happiness and a spring in my step (pun intended!) The emergence of spring gives me renewed energy and motivation to think about projects I haven’t tackled during my winter hibernation (or procrastination depending on how […]

It should come as no surprise that The Container Store is my happy place. I can wax eloquent on the pros and cons of almost any item sold there. I know what works and what doesn’t. Put me in a home décor store, however, and I walk around in a confused daze. I am no […]

We all have them; people in our lives who, when you confess your inner struggle about holding onto something that really needs to go, coldly state, “Just throw it out. Nobody is going to want that!” Those people are not reading this blog due to obvious reasons (the title).  The rest of you dear ones, […]

Do you have a gargantuan organizing project you’ve been putting off because you don’t have time to do it? Don’t we all?  We tend to approach large projects as a task that needs to be accomplished when we have a large chunk of time. I am guilty of this mistake also, but not anymore!  Being […]

By Gyll Samson, Lead Professional Organizer, The Organizing Professionals® As parents, we all find the amount of paper that enters our home from our children’s school a bit overwhelming.  Some pieces are works of art, some celebrated first written words, some graded assignments or report cards, and some, well, we’re not sure what it is!  […]

Okay, so maybe they won’t completely change your life, but I hear you need a compelling title for folks to open a newsletter and it worked–You’re reading this! Seriously though, after more than a decade of transforming people’s homes, there are some items that really work, help maintain organization, and simply put a smile on your face […]

I have always loved fashion.  As a young teenager growing up in Northern England, I would save all my hard-earned cash from my waitressing jobs, buy a train ticket, and pop down to London to buy the latest styles on Oxford Street. Strutting around my hometown in my new togs (threads) filled me with excitement […]

We are thrilled to announce we have once again been named “Best Professional Organizers” by Main Line Today Magazine.  This is the second year we have taken home this coveted award and it’s all thanks to you who voted for us. This is a precarious time to run a small business and these awards mean […]

2020 was to have been a milestone year in the Bernstein/McBride household. At the beginning of the year, our calendar displayed a fun-filled, jammed-packed year of once-in-a-lifetime events. My oldest daughter would graduate law school, my younger daughter would graduate college, my stepdaughter would graduate high school, my other stepdaughter would turn 21.  Summer trips […]

We are now into week five of lockdown here in Pennsylvania. Most likely you’ve developed some effective work from home strategies. Here are several successful strategies we’ve implemented at our home: Create a mobile office – When your kitchen counter or dining room table doubles as your WFH area, separating work from break time proves […]

First and foremost, our thoughts and prayers are with those who have contracted this virus. We wish you a speedy recovery. For the rest of us, we face several weeks of home confinement. I don’t know about you but when I stay home for longer than one day, I tend to become lethargic and unmotivated. […]

I’m glad you asked! While the first conjures up images of hearts and flowers, the latter invokes, well, a mess. According to Psychology Today, there are seven types of love. For the purposes of this blog, however, we are focusing on “agape.” Agape is said to encompass the modern concept of altruism, defined as unselfish […]

Let’s face it, there’s a lot of stuff we just don’t want to do. My list includes anything to do with car maintenance, housekeeping, yard work—come to think of it, my list is pretty extensive. And yet, these things have to get done. We gravitate to activities we enjoy doing and procrastinate on the other […]

Hosting for the Holidays? How to Keep Your Sanity AND Make Your Guests Feel Extra Special We’ve all been there, you arrive as a guest to be greeted by a frazzled host. Not yet ready to receive the onslaught of people, the stress and tension in the home is palpable and uncomfortable.  Maybe you’ve been […]

“You’re going to make me throw out everything aren’t you?”  A question we hear regularly on our initial consultations with clients. Some expect us to charge in with iron fists (or fingers) pointing at items and demanding our clients undergo a mass purge.  Nothing could be further from the truth. Each member of our team […]

It pains me a little to say this but my kitchen storage is completely maxed out.  I can’t fit another item anywhere.  This became apparent recently when I broke my own cardinal organizing rule. “Don’t buy something for your home without first deciding where it’s going to live.” The item now lives on my kitchen […]

Like it or not, our mothers contribute greatly to how we organize, how we see clutter, how we manage our homes.  As professional organizers, we regularly encounter a mother’s influence in our clients’ lives.  Some have difficulty parting with their children’s artwork because their mother threw away all of theirs. Some clients fill their homes […]

I’m writing this from a ranch somewhere in the middle of Texas. I’m not kidding. After three fabulous days networking with my peeps at the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals (NAPO) conference in Fort Worth, I rented a car, drove a couple of hours due west and checked in to a dude ranch […]