Two updates to begin.

First: Before we left Ojai, we prepped the house for its summer hibernation. We hauled in most of the outdoor furniture that felt as if we’d just put out weeks before. We lowered the window shades and the AC. And we turned off the water filter. The house was ready to rest peacefully.

However, the local fauna caught wind of our departure. Within weeks, both a black widow spider and a rat had snuck into the garage—the rat by gnawing a giant hole in the garage door’s weatherproofing strip. And moles—tiny, cute, deviously destructive moles!—had tunneled labyrinthine trails beneath our native-planted front lawn. An exterminator and mole expert are now evicting the miscreants.

Second: Secret Strategist asked me to do a feature on a home design object that I pay a lot of attention to. My friends, where to begin!? We settled on small lamps for kitchen countertops, which I feel are a lighting design necessity so that you have a warm glow at counter-level to balance ceiling lighting, pendants, and sconces. You can read all about my small lamp finds here! And subscribe to Secret Strategist while you’re at it; you won’t be sorry.

Now to the main event:

My sister Rhonda recently decided to sell her home outside of Denver. It was filled with furniture and belongings that she and her family had collected over decades. Getting her house ready was a lot for one person, so our brother Dean, his wife Leslie, and I flew in to help her pare down her stuff and get the house staged for sale.

This was extremely hard for Rhonda; I could see that letting go of her things was somehow letting go of parts of her life. It was almost physically painful. With a few tears but mostly a determined smile, she soldiered through. I’ll share more on that front soon. But today we’re digging into a related note: organization.

Days after leaving Denver, I was back in New York to do The Great Saunter, and ended up walking 32 miles with Shauna Yule Brasseur, a professional organizer from Hingham, Massachusetts. We had a lot to talk about, and 11 hours to do it.

Shauna was incisive and nuanced about the way she approached home organization. She has built a robust business, Lovely Life Home, within just a few years and has a growing number of recurring clients, who see the work she does with them for their homes much like the work a trainer does for their fitness. After the Saunter, Shauna agreed to have a follow-up conversation, so I could share her insights and advice with you all.

If there is anything you want to know that we don’t cover below, please dm me, or share your questions in the comments or here, and I’ll do a follow-up post with answers from Shauna.

Yours in neat rows of socks, and just the ones I need,

Amanda...