Activity Zones: Grouping items together that serve a specific purpose in a close area

Aesthetic: A look that is designed to give pleasure or has a pleasing appearance.

Archival Quality: Conservation materials and techniques used in the preservation and storage of rare and old materials.

Assigning A Home: Deciding upon a single, consistent home for each item or group of items in a space.

Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD): A chronic condition categorized by attention difficulty, hyperactivity, and impulsiveness. Individuals with this condition often have trouble getting organized.

Clutter: A confusing or disorderly state, or a collection of things lying about in an untidy mass.

Clutterers Anonymous: A twelve-step recovery program that offers help to the true clutterer, who is overwhelmed by disorder.

Collectibles: An object suitable for a collection, usually any of a wide variety of items collected as a hobby, for display, or as an investment whose value may appreciate.

Common Area: An area of the home that is used and shared by all members of the household.

Conservator: An individual who cares for, restores, and repairs collectible objects.

Containerizing: Using containers to keep like categories of items grouped and separated within their assigned homes so that retrieval, cleanup, and maintenance is simpler.

Containers: Anything that can be used to separate and group a similar group of items for an organizing purpose.

Dead storage: storage reserved for items that are no longer needed for immediate use but that are still required for records.

Chronic disorganization: Having a history of disorganization in which self-help efforts to change have failed, an undermining of current quality of life due to disorganization, and the expectation of future disorganization.

Donations: Items that can be given to a charitable organization for reuse, reselling, or recycling purposes.

Downsizing: The process of transferring into a space with less storage, space, or functional ability than the space that was previously occupied.

Ephemera: Documents published with a short intended lifetime.

Equalizing: The process of maintaining and adjusting an organizing system as is operates over time.

External Realities: Environmental realities beyond your control that limit how organized you can be.

Feng Shui: An ancient Chinese practice of living harmoniously with the natural elements and forces of the earth.

Filing: A method of storing paper information for future use in a way it can be easily found and retrieved.

Flexispace: A space or room in the home that can be utilized for any function as needed.

Garage System: A complete garage organization and storage plan.

Grouping: Collecting items with a similar use or purpose together in one area or container

Habits: A settled tendency to behave or respond in a way to a stimulus or situation that is difficult to change.

Incomplete projects: Projects that have been started at some time in the past and have been untouched or restarted for a significant period of time, often causing anxiety or filling usable space.

Labeling: The process of applying symbols, pictures, or words to an item or group of items for faster and clearer identification.

Life Transition: A psychological or physical process by which an individual transitions into a new situation as a result of the planned or unplanned events and changes that occur throughout life.

Logical Sequencing: Positioning similar groups of items near each other for easier retrieval

Maintenance: The ongoing process of applying organizing skills to keep an organizing system functioning in the manner that it should.

Marie Kondo: A Japanese cleaning consultant and developer of the KonMari method of tidying and decluttering.

Memorabilia: Mementos and souvenirs representing a memory or time worth remembering

Miscellaneous: A category in organizing used to described things that do not fit into another defined category; often misused.

Modular furniture: Furniture made up of independent units that can be combined into flexible formations.

Niche: A recess in a wall (may be used to house decorative objects).

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD): A neurobiological disorder characterized by recurrent, unwelcome thoughts and repetitive behavior.

Organizing: The process by which we create environments that enable us to work, live and relax exactly as we would like to. Being organized has less to do with the way and environment looks than how effectively it functions.

Packrat: A person who holds on to huge quantities of paper, reading material, and belongings that can go back many years.

Perfectionism: A situation in which an individual desires to achieve perfection in their organizing efforts, often leading to procrastination and further disorganization.

Private Area: An area of the home that is to be utilized by one member of the household

Procrastination: The act of delaying or postponing a task or action that needs to be accomplished to achieve a desirable result.

Professional Organizer: An individual who designs systems and processes using organizing principles to help clients take control of their homes and lifestyles.

Psychological Obstacles: Hidden, internal forces that make you gravitate toward disorganization, no matter how much you crave control.

Purging: The act of donating, throwing away, or otherwise eliminating unnecessary, unfit, or unwanted items from a space.

Repurpose: Using an item for a different situation than was originally intended by the creator or manufacturer.

Self-storage facility: A property designed and used for leasing individual storage spaces. Charges are determined by the size of the room, per month.

Sentimental Attachment: The act of infusing an item with a large amount of personal meaning; connecting an item to another time, person, or part of themselves.

Shared space: A functional space that is used by two or more members of a household or team.

Single-function storage: Placing only one category of items within a single container to prevent confusion.

Sorting: A process of putting items with similar functions into groups

Sustainability: The ability of an organizing system to be maintained an adjusted through changing needs and stages.

Technical Errors: Simple, mechanical mistakes in your organizing system that can easily be fixed.

Thrift Shop: A shop that sells secondhand goods at reduced prices.

Time management: the ability to use one’s time effectively and productively to achieve the goals and maintain the lifestyle that one sets to achieve.

Vertical Space: The space above the head and high along the walls. Utilizing vertical space in an important element of storage planning.