New Year's Resolutions -- 2009 Starts Off Right With Nine Tips to Streamline Your Home and Life

"Real Simple. Real Life" Expert Jodie Watson Outlines Hints to Clear the Clutter for a New Year/New Home

Jodie Watson is the organizational expert on "Real Simple. Real Life.," a new lifestyle makeover series for women on TLC Network. She presents and implements organizational strategies and solutions that make lives easier and more manageable.

Below are nine organizational tips for 2009 that Jodie suggests will streamline the home, lighten the daily burden and provide everyone with a fresh start for the new year:

Kitchen

Get rid of duplicate or broken kitchen items. Check that all the lids fit all the containers or pots & pans and throw away any that aren't a match. You'll be amazed at how much more efficient & functional your kitchen will become by letting go of items that you seldom, if ever, use.

Pantry

Pull everything out of your pantry. Check each item and keep only those that comply with the "use by" date. Group items by category i.e. soups, pasta, vegetables and put the most used groups on eye level shelves. Consider giving excess or duplicate items to a local food bank.

Bathroom

Select the items that you use daily or at least once a week and discard any old, dried out or unused cosmetics, toiletries and lotions. Avoid overstocking bathroom items. Aim to have the product you are currently using plus one replacement for when it runs out.

Closet

Streamline your closet by gathering items categorically first. Then eliminate all the items that you have not worn in at least one year, are out of style or don't fit. These items can be donated or given away.

Kid's Toys

Sort through your kids' toys and purge any they have outgrown, are broken or have missing pieces. Categorize the remaining toys and place them in labeled bins or boxes. For younger children, it can be fun to draw representative figures on the labels. New toys that the children received over the holidays will hold special places in these arranged bins.

Paper

Start by pre-sorting the papers into broad categories such as: FINANCIAL, WORK, HOUSE, KIDS, etc. Once you have completed sorting through each category, deal with the papers right away -- one category and one pile at a time. Each piece of paper you have sorted will need to either have action taken on it, be tossed, shredded or filed. Going forward, handle paperwork on a daily basis as soon as it comes through the door. Open your mail over a trash can and immediately discard or shred anything that is unnecessary. Go to www.dmaconsumers.org or www.catalogchoice.org to permanently opt out to reduce the amount of unsolicited mailings you receive.

Handbag

Lighten your load by purging the contents of your handbag. All you really need at any given time is your wallet, keys, phone, calendar or date book, a pen or pencil, a small amount of make-up, comb and a handkerchief. The rest really can go bye-bye.

Wallet

To get the contents of your wallet organized, start by emptying out the contents and shred any out of date cards. Evaluate which cards you really need to have with you 24/7. Obviously, you will need to have your driver's license, a credit and/or debit card and any store membership cards. Your wallet is not a photo album. Keep only one or two photos of your family in your wallet to carry around with you and switch the photos out from time to time.

Garage

Here is a space you can really let go in. It's a pretty good sign that if you relegated something to the garage, you don't really need it. Baby clothes, old furniture, archaic tools or sporting goods need to go. Rent a dumpster if you need to and call the Salvation Army or other pick up services to come and collect the items that can be donated. The garage can be a challenge, but it's also an area where you can make significant changes.

Bonus

Organizing can be energetic work. How many calories can you lose when organizing your home? Probably quite a few! More if you put on some invigorating music while you work.

Jodie's organizing tips are regularly featured on RealSimpleRealLife.com and in Real Simple Magazine. She has also been featured in a ten page article in Organize Magazine for her work organizing client Sherri Shepherd, co-host of ABC's "The View."

For more about Jodie Watson and Supreme Organization, visit www.SupremeOrganization.com.