What does organizing guru Marie Kondo have to do with LinkedIn profiles?

Starting with The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Marie is the author of four best-selling books. She “helps people transform their cluttered homes into spaces of serenity and inspiration.”

Many of her clients say she changed their lives for the better … gaining clarity about their life’s mission, improving relationships and accomplishing long-languishing goals.

If decluttering your surroundings can change your life, think what decluttering your LinkedIn profile can do for your career.

By focusing on the essential and eliminating the non-essential on your profile, your best attributes will stand out. People don’t have to spend precious time figuring out who you are, what you do and where you’re heading in your career.

As you establish an all-star profile, fixing these three mistakes can clean up and bring clarity to your LinkedIn profile.

• Keeping content more than 10 to 15 years old

Most content that’s not from 2000 or later is likely irrelevant. It can safely be removed from your profile. This makes more room for your recent accomplishments to stand out and point the way toward your future.

There’s no need to keep positions more than 15 years old. If the experience was formative to your worldview today, you can mention it (briefly) in your summary.

There’s no need to keep graduation years from college. If it’s been more than a decade or so since you graduated, you can take off the dates.

As the world continues to changes more and more quickly, removing dated information will become even more important. This keeps the focus on what you’re learning and doing now.

• Including content not relevant to your future

What do you want your next job to be?

You can use that question as a lens to decide what content is relevant to your future and what can be deleted. Look at all the sections of your profile and remove the extraneous.

Here’s an example. Recently I deleted that I’m a senior professional in human resources, or SPHR. At one time I reported to a Chief Human Resources Officer (one of many awesome bosses, BTW) and the credential was valuable to my work.

It wasn’t an easy test to pass. There were prep books and flash cards and practice exams. That’s why it was slightly painful to take it off my LinkedIn profile.

But my current work in marketing and communications is my future. The SPHR designation is now extraneous. I comfort myself knowing I’m well schooled in HR, which is ever valuable in leading teams and coaching people. But it’s no longer a credential that needs to be highlighted.

Another place to pare down is your endorsements. Choose the skills that most strongly support your current and future professional direction. Delete the ones that don’t.

Although I appreciate the people who endorsed me for “project management” and I like to believe my skills are strong in that area, it’s not something I want to be known for.

By removing the endorsements for non-essential skills, you’re making your most relevant skills stand out.

• Sharing anything too personal

LinkedIn isn’t Facebook. There’s no need to share your birthday in your contact information. Do you really want to get happy birthday messages in your LinkedIn feed?

While some could make the case that wishing people a happy birthday in LinkedIn is a good way to touch base with your connections on an annual basis, there are better ways to do that.

The best ways are to comment on people’s LinkedIn content, share information that will be of interest to individuals in your network, and offer to introduce people in your network who could benefit from knowing each other. On introductions, be sure to ask first if both people are open to it.

What other mistakes do you see in LinkedIn profiles?