Calgary Fall Home Show: How to clean up your act

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Downsizing to smaller digs or clearing space for a home renovation can strike fear in the hearts of even the most organized individual. It’s a big job and a major issue for people, says Angie Smith of Tidy Matters Professional Organizing, a company she owns with her sister, Pam Gilbert.

“Things accumulate so quickly. People hand things down or they get you gifts, and you hold onto them. Online shopping was huge during COVID. It doesn’t make you a bad person because you’ve accumulated things,” she says.

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Smith and Gilbert left their respective professional careers to become certified organizers and founded Tidy Matters in 2022. It was Smith who led the charge, inspired to help people simplify their lives by watching The Home Edit, a Netflix series in which designers contained their clients’ clutter in some fairly stunning spaces.

“I thought we would go out and make all these beautiful pantries, but when we started working with clients, everything changed for us. People were so grateful. We reduced their stress and lifted weight off their shoulders,” Smith says. “When I fell in love with The Home Edit, I didn’t realize that part of it. I thought it was just going to be fun. But we change people’s lives, and we have such a passion for it.”

The sisters will offer plentiful advice on how to deal with an overabundance of possessions during their Main Stage presentations at the Calgary Fall Home Show, running Sept. 27 to 29 at the BMO Centre, Stampede Park. They’ll cover how to approach downsizing, how to decide what to keep, what to get rid of and where to store everything of importance after the move. On the renovation side, especially when the purpose of renovating is to create more room in the home, Smith and Gilbert will offer tips on how not to fill that marvelous new space with more stuff.

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“We’ll be throwing out questions — what to ask yourself as you’re going through the process. One of the biggest challenges is dealing with anything sentimental because of the emotions tied to it. It’s pretty easy to throw out a bag of expired food. But the guilt of getting rid of something they spent money on or that people gave to them or that meant something to someone else — that’s the toughest,” she says.

Not only do people deal with guilt, they’re also experiencing shame, which leads to procrastination about dealing with their stuff. Everyone has a Monica’s closet, Smith explains, referring to an episode of the Friends television series when Chandler discovers that the meticulous Monica has a secret closet of disorganizational horror. Decluttering and putting everything in its place is not about perfection.

“We hear from customers all the time, ‘please, don’t judge me.’ One of the stigmas that we want to get rid of with organizing is the embarrassment that people feel,” she says.

From a seasonal perspective, a good place to start downsizing or organizing prior to a renovation is the garage. This is the place that things go to die. Just throw whatever in the garage, shut the door and not look at it, Smith says.

The Tidy Matters sisters will expand on that topic and more during two Main Stage appearances at the Calgary Fall Home Show. For show times, visit calgaryfallhomeshow.com.

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