Extra Stanleys, expired medicine, and bags of reusable bags: This Philly pro organizer says to ditch them all this spring
The owner of Philly Neat Freaks shares the items she sees most often piled up in clients’ homes and her advice for organizing and decluttering your space this spring.
When Nok Suntaranon, the James Beard-winning chef at the Fishtown restaurant Kalaya, showed off her home kitchen to The Inquirer last year, she gave a special shoutout to Marlena Masitto.
As the founder and owner of the professional organizing company Philly Neat Freaks, Masitto has helped Suntaranon declutter and arrange that vital space and the rest of her Queen Village condo.
That’s also what Masitto has done for households across the city since she opened her business in 2021.
“I think about simplicity, practicality, and efficiency a lot,” she said. “Like, I want people to be able to dance around the house.”
Masitto shared some tips for decluttering and the things most people have way too many of.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What do the terms ‘decluttering’ and ‘organizing’ mean to you?
Decluttering means getting rid of things you don’t need anymore and things that don’t represent or serve who you are now. A big part of the job is the decluttering part. I find there is excess in a lot of households. When someone doesn’t know where something is, it’s so easy to purchase something that’ll show up at your house overnight. And that solves the problem in that moment, but in reality, it complicates the situation.
Now organized is a trickier definition because it kind of is whatever anyone wants from it. Like, do you want to be able to move around your house easily? Or do you want absolute perfection? It’s important to make a deal with yourself about what you want.
If I can organize any space in my house in 15 minutes or less, I am organized. And that doesn’t mean just stuffing things in the closet. It means putting things in their home.
What’s your goal for your clients?
We want to be a really big push in the right direction. I know personally that organization is never done. It’s something that you have to continually work at and prioritize. When we work alongside clients, we’re really trying to transfer skill. And we work on mindsets. There’s the really well-known one: one in, one out. If you get a new pair of shoes, another pair of shoes should go.
I hope to leave our clients with tools they can carry for the rest of their life. And if they find themselves kind of losing track, we can go in for maintenance sessions. Once a system’s in place, you can snap it back pretty easy, even if the client thinks it’s gone crazy. If we go back to clients from five years ago, I can see some things we’ve done that are still holding up.
If someone feels overwhelmed by their cluttered home, what’s your advice for getting started?
Think smaller. Like, walk around with a trash bag. Any obvious trash should go in the bag. And then clearing surfaces is pretty huge. That’ll give you that automatic gratification and may give you motion to move a little deeper.
Setting yourself up for success is important. I would encourage anyone doing this on their own to have a trash bag ready, a recycle bin really close, and a box ready that literally says, “donate.” And you could quickly put away anything that isn’t staying. And that helps just take down the overwhelm a little bit.
I love having a donation station. I recommend it to all of my clients, just a spot in the house that everyone in the house knows if they’re over something, it can just go right here. And then it’s gonna go to another person that needs it.
I really recommend finding a donation center close to you and building donations into your habit. Use one of those reusable shopping bags and go for a little walk. Chipping away at it one or two bags at a time is a really great way to tackle that.
What is it about spring that makes people want to declutter their homes?
In the winter, we sit around. We’re nesting more. So we’re ordering more, just creating those comforts. And then spring happens, the light shines in differently, and you can see your space differently. You’re getting ready for outdoor activities and action, and it makes you want to reset a little. I do think the quality of light is the majority of why we want to spring clean.
Are there certain things people tend to accumulate that clutter their homes?
The No. 1 thing is reusable shopping bags. There used to be a junk drawer in the kitchen. Now there’s reusable shopping bags filled with things. Or things do come out of the bags, but there’s just so many.
I talk to clients about this a lot: setting parameters. For my household, I have one of those small bags that holds six reusable shopping bags. And then I have two other Trader Joe’s reusable shopping bags. That’s my ideal for this house. And that’s probably too much. But I think setting a parameter around how many you have, and then when there are excess, I donate them.
I see so many outdated cords and cables. I see a lot of organizing products that might have fit the last house the person was in, but they don’t fit the current space. Or the wrong things bought and just never returned. I see a lot of samples. Makeup samples. A lot of outdated medication. And canteens like the Hydro Flasks. Takeout drink containers. They seem to have babies. There’s so many.
And I could keep going.
What’s your favorite aspect of being a professional organizer?
We help our clients get out of a position they’ve been in for years. And sometimes their whole life. Some people were never taught how to create a system. When a system’s created, they can maintain it. And that just gives me chills. I have this skill, and I can understand why you wouldn’t. And if I can give that to you, and the whole rest of your life is a little different, that’s the most rewarding thing I can think of.
Organizing can be fun. A lot of people find it daunting. But anyone can get confident and learn.
Are there any misconceptions about professional organizers?
When we ask questions, we’re not judging. We’re figuring out how to help you best and reduce friction to help create systems to support your life.
People are often apologizing to me when I walk in [their home] or asking me if it’s the worst I’ve seen. And, you know, that doesn’t even compute with me when I see a space. I’m just excited to help get them to where they want to be.
