Starting your spring clean? Here are tips from Boston's 'Clutter Queen'

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We’ve got flowers and full-width sidewalks to look forward to once the groundhog’s curse is finally lifted from this land. The outdoors will appear refreshed (if maybe a little muddy). And when that happens, I like to give my home a little sprucing up too.

Spring cleaning can be intimidating, especially if you’ve accumulated little messes around the house over the winter. One of these days, I tell myself, I’ll take care of the pile of boxes in the entryway, or the salt near the door, or the expired pouches in the pantry. Tackling it easier when you know where to begin, according to Rhea Becker, a professional organizer.

Becker owns The Clutter Queen, a decluttering and organization business based in Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood. She began working as a professional organizer 25 years ago, “well before Marie Kondo and these TV shows like ‘Hoarders,’ ” Becker told me.

Alongside a handful of workers, Becker helps people from all walks of life declutter their homes. “We’ve got everyone from a college student who wants to fix up her dorm room or folks who are moving into assisted living,” Becker said. “We have people who’ve raised their kids and they’re ready to downsize. We have folks who have the tendency to hoard.”

Regardless of the situation, she says it makes her happy to help people get their living spaces sorted. “A lot of people actually think it’s crazy that we like to do this, me and my workers,” she said. “But we do. We actually enjoy it.”

I asked Becker for her expert advice for starting your spring clean — and how to find the motivation to properly declutter.

Here’s our conversation, edited for length and clarity.

Hanna Ali: What’s an easy thing for people to declutter once spring arrives? 

Rhea Becker: “Well, number one, since so many people are ordering stuff online, they have a house full of cardboard. And the boxes just sit there, taking up valuable real estate in their home and creating what I call ‘visual chaos.’ So we’ll go in there and collapse all the cardboard, get it out in their recycling. After that, people are bag collectors — they collect lots and lots of shopping bags, reusable ones. I think that those are very easy wins, to just winnow down the cardboard and winnow down the reusable bags.”

HA: How about the wardrobe? If I’m purging my closet, what should I do with things I can’t donate? 

RB: “ A lot of stuff can get taken to thrift shops.  But anything that has some damage — a button missing isn't too bad, but something that has, like, a tear in it — here in Boston, we have a fabric recycling system. They call it textile recycling. If you have something that really isn't in shape to donate, then your next option is probably textile recycling.”

HA: What’s your approach to tackling junk drawers?

RB:  “When we do junk drawers, there's often little packets of soy sauce, old takeout menus, lots of rubber bands, lots of junk. I suggest taking everything out, and if the person is capable, sorting it into categories. Writing instruments, papers, office supplies, that kind of stuff. When you make categories, it goes much more easily than trying to just randomly pick away at the junk drawer, so that's what we recommend. And most of it will probably end up in the trash. You’ll probably be left with a few pens and some tape, and maybe your car keys.”

HA: What’s an area in the home that people might forget to sweep when spring cleaning? 

RB:  “I would say the top shelf in a kitchen. The back of that top shelf is probably one of the most neglected spots in a home. Most people never reach up to that top shelf and the stuff in the back is almost inevitably going to be expired.”

HA: When I’m cleaning, I hesitate to toss things I think I might need in the future, even if I haven’t used them. That leaves me with more stuff. What’s your advice for people dealing with a similar dilemma? 

RB: “You have to strike a balance between what you really need and what you can let go of, because if you do end up letting go of things you need, that's not a very good solution.

"So I think what people need to do, and this is what I tell my clients to do before they try to declutter, is to think about what are the feelings that led them to want to declutter. Are they feeling overwhelmed? Are they feeling crowded?  Are they feeling like they can't have their grandchildren over or their significant other over because everything's too cluttered?

"Think about that and let that motivate you. In other words, don't just be like, ‘I guess I can throw that pair of scissors out.’ Instead, think more about why you're doing it.”

P.S. — Fridge coils, air filters and drains also tend to get passed over during the annual spring clean. NPR has tips for cleaning those spots and other neglected areas in the home right here.