Robin Stankowski says she was born to organize.

“I have always kept things neat and orderly,” she said. “I see things and I am always looking to make them better.”

Stankowski started out with a degree in industrial organizational psychology and spent her early years working in human relations. But she always knew that there was a way to take her passion for organization to another level.

In 2003, Stankowski began a part-time business helping people organize. By 2014, she had returned to her roots in Bethlehem and took the leap into running RLN Organizing full time.

Recently, Stankowski addressed the Carbon Women in Business at a luncheon at Nick’s Lake House in Lake Harmony.

Stankowski told the packed house that clutter doesn’t discriminate.

“It can be a big fancy house or a simple home,” she said. “It doesn’t matter, clutter can just take over.”

Stankowski’s offers three levels of service to her clients.

“There is a high-level consultation, which takes about an hour. I meet with the client, I look at the space, and I return with a plan,” she said. “There is also a hands-on level where I work side-by-side with the client and I offer maintenance as well.”

Stankowski charges $50 an hour for her services but says it is very hard to estimate what a job will cost, especially at the hands-on level.

“Everybody is different,” she said. “Ultimately you make the decision as to what stays and what goes. And that can be time consuming. Sometimes people need to be talked or told to just throw it out.”

During her presentation, Stankowski gave a lot of good advice on decluttering your life. The greatest one was simply to start small.

“Set aside 20 minutes or just one small task, do it and move on, do it again the next day. It adds up and it won’t overwhelm you.”

One point that Stankowski stressed was not to tackle a big project as a whole. Rather take a section or a smaller task within the project and complete it. She also warned against just moving something from one place to another.

“Use things you already have, repurpose storage containers and don’t run out and buy organizing supplies without first determining what you need and make sure you measure before you buy so you are not just adding to the problem by buying something you won’t be able to use.”

Stankowski stressed that organizing needn’t be an added expense.

“There are pages, including mine on Pinterest dedicated to organization,” Stankowski says. “Also, label everything you store, but you don’t need an expensive label maker, you can use a permanent marker and duct tape. I have found through my own experience that not all Post-it notes are the same.”

One of the areas in every home that can become a nightmare is what Stankowski refers to as the “command center.”

The command center is where mail and receipts end up in your home. Stankowski suggests you set up a “landing zone” at the command center for items that need to leave the house. Items such as library books or goods to be returned to the store, rented DVDs, dry cleaning or even donations. Keep this near your keys and your purse so that you see it when you are leaving the house and are more likely to take it with you.

Also, sort through the mail, set up a schedule for what needs to be kept and for how long, what needs to be shredded and what can be tossed.

Another way to unclutter your life is to reduce junk mail. Stankowski suggests setting up a free account with www.dmachoice.org to remove yourself from direct mailing lists. You can opt out of receiving catalogs at www.catalogchoice.org and you can stop credit card offers for five years by calling 888-5-OPT-OUT.

There are similar programs available to reduce clutter in your email according to Stankowski.

She also gave some simple tips for organizing your bedroom closet. If you haven’t worn it for over a year, you should consider donating it. Also, if you love it, turn the hanger backward. If it stays that way, maybe you don’t love it that much.

A great tip for organizing your garage is to use vertical space. By hanging things on the walls, you free up the floor space so that you can use your garage to store your car instead of just your stuff.

Stankowski offers tons of free advice if you log onto her Facebook page at RLN Organizing or her Pinterest at organizer_robin. She also has a blog which is frequently updated at rlnorganizing.blogspot.com.