Michelle Passoff is the author of LIGHTEN UP! Free Yourself From Clutter (HarperCollins) and founder of a service by the same name. She empowers people to let go of what they do not want, need, use and love, and to surround themselves with what nurtures and supports them.

Prior to launching LIGHTEN UP! Free Yourself From Clutter in New York City in 1991, Ms. Passoff was a public relations consultant. She worked for leading public relations agencies in behalf of major consumer products manufacturers in the fashion, food and high technology industries. For six years, Ms. Passoff owned her own boutique public relations agency, which focused on home furnishings and fashion.

Ms. Passoff spent more than 15 years on a path of personal growth and development studying issues of being human, being a woman, being a businessperson, and spirituality. Ms. Passoff came to the conclusion that cleaning clutter of all kinds - emotional, mental, spiritual and physical - freed people to invent their future and fulfill their dreams rather than to live blindly as a result of their past or as a victim of their circumstances.

Passoff chose to change careers and focus on cleaning physical clutter to make a contribution to others. Although the problem of clutter is common and cleaning it seems mundane, Passoff saw that the results of cleaning are extraordinary and the impact on the quality of life profound.

After teaching and consulting on the issue of clutter for more than 12 years, Ms. Passoff created a course called "From Battleground to Common Ground: Cleaning Clutter for Couples" with her partner, Andre Kupfermunz. The course is Ms. Passoff's response on one of the most commonly asked questions: 'What do I do about my husband's/wifes's/partner's clutter?' Passoff and Kupfermunz lead the course in cities throughout the U.S. They also formed a company called Estate Organization and Resolution Services, Inc. (EORS), to help people of retirement age 'get their house in order' and to provide support services to attorneys, heirs and executors in the settlement of estates.

Ms. Passoff grew up in Englishtown, New Jersey, graduated from S.I. NewhouseSchool of Communications at Syracuse University, and now lives in New York City and the Hudson Valley, NY. When she is not climbing around in attics, basements, garages, closets and file cabinets, she enjoys entertaining friends, decorating, and travel.

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