Welcome to the first in a series of home organizer case studies I’ll be profiling on my blog!
I’ve been working with clients for over twenty years and have helped each of them find solutions to a variety of their organizing challenges. In this series, I’ll be highlighting some of the more common organizing problems my clients have come to me with and show you what we did to solve them.
Maybe you’ll see yourself in one of these case studies? Perhaps the process will motivate you to take action to achieve a similar goal? I hope you find them helpful as you navigate your own organizing journey.
Case Study: An Overstuffed Clothing Closet
Client Profile:
Mrs. B. called me to inquire about my services and how I could help her organize her overstuffed clothing closet. She informed me upfront that her budget covered three hours of my services. I went to her home for a short Needs Assessment and saw that the closet, although small, was stuffed from top to bottom.
As an experienced home organizer, I knew that we’d be ‘cutting it close’ on completing the task in three hours but if she was able to make decisions quickly, we’d be able to complete her closet organizing project in time. She was very motivated and I had a good feeling she was up for the time-crunched task.
What prompted client to reach out to Organized Artistry?
Mrs. B. was tired of being unable to find the clothes she wanted to wear on a daily basis. She was also planning a future vacation and the thought of looking for the clothes she wanted to wear on her trip was causing her stress.
Goals:
• To organize the overstuffed clothing closet so Client could find the clothes she loved, clothes that fit, and reflected her current lifestyle. • For Client to have the ability to locate clothes to wear on an upcoming warm weather vacation.
Organizing Challenges:
• Overstuffed closet • Client can’t find the clothes she needs when she needs them • Variety of sizes and seasons in one closet • Client is frustrated • Client buys more of what she is unable to find • Only three hours to complete the job
Organizing Process:
You may think that three hours is plenty of time to organize a closet–even a full one. But, in my experience, I have found it can take many more hours than that. Besides the quantity of clothes to process, the speed of that process has to do with how quickly the client can make decisions as to what to keep and what to let go of. With only three hours to accomplish our goal, we said a quick hello to each other, walked upstairs, and got down to work.
My client’s closet was in her bedroom. We used her bed as a large surface to sort and purge on (Tip: If using a bed to sort and purge items, lay a flat sheet on top of the bed first so dust from closet shelves and dirt from shoes doesn’t land where you sleep).
We started pulling clothes out of her closet by category (pants, then dresses, then skirts, etc.) and sorted them on the bed by season. I split the surface of the bed into two sides–one was for Fall/Winter clothes and the other side was for Spring/Summer clothes.
Mrs. B. and I sorted through her clothes piece by piece to determine whether they would ‘stay’ or ‘go.’ She made most decisions quickly. Any item that required extra thought went into a pile that we made decisions on together towards the end of our session.
Discoveries:
You never know what you’ll find when working in a client’s closet. Once, I unearthed a rubber chicken! This time, no chicken–but instead, I discovered that my client had amassed an extensive collection of black pants. Twenty-four pair of black pants to be exact!
To be fair, in the Northeast, the temperature can go from below zero all the way to one hundred degrees in the span of a year. Black pants of different fabric weights and lengths are a wardrobe necessity for most women.
How did I discover my client had twenty four pair of black pants?
While we were removing items from her closet and sorting them on her bed, out of the corner of my eye, I watched Mrs. B. group all of her ‘like’ clothes together by type. The pants pile on each side of her bed resembled a mountain–a dark one. She kept pulling black pants out of her closet and putting them on top of each pile.
I asked for her permission to dig into her pile of pants to start counting them and she gave me the go ahead. In counting black pants on both side of the bed, I added them up and got to twenty-four pair. I told my client the number and she couldn’t believe it. She confessed to me that there had been times when she couldn’t find the black pants she needed so she’d go to the store and buy another pair. I let her know that it was a common occurrence for people with overstuffed closets and that after we organized her closet, she wouldn’t need to do that anymore.
The Result:
After working together for three hours, Mrs. B. and I:
• Purged twelve pair of black pants. Client kept twelve. • Filled three bags of clothes for donation. • Relocated summer clothes to under the bed storage bins that client had purchased but had not yet used. • Placed the remaining clothes back in her closet by category (grouping ‘like with like’). • Separated out the summer clothes she wanted to pack for her upcoming vacation and placed them in a storage bag at the bottom of her closet.
I removed a garbage bag filled with wire hangers that Mrs. B said I could bring to my dry cleaner. Boy, was he happy to see me later that day!
Mrs. B. was exhausted and thrilled at the end of our three-hour organizing session. Her overstuffed clothing closet had been purged and re-organized, she put aside the clothes she wanted to bring with her on her vacation, and she now knew where all of her clothes could be found–including her twelve pair of pants.
It takes time as well as brain power to consider options, weigh pros and cons, and collect information. Decision-making can be stressful–you’re responsible for the outcome and your decision often affects more than just you.
It’s easier to not make a decision. But that doesn’t work in real life–especially when it comes to getting organized. If you want your home to be an organized space, it’s vital to start exercising your decision-making muscles!
Barbara Hemphill, a pioneer in the field of Professional Organizing says…
“Clutter is nothing more than postponed decisions.”
If you take a moment to think about that statement, it makes total sense.
Picture your kitchen countertops, your dining room table, your clothing closet and other areas of your home that may be cluttered. Bills, kid toys, old socks–have you been making decisions on those items or avoiding them in the hope that you’ll wake up one morning and the necessary decisions will have been made for you?
Maybe you’re putting off making decisions on items in your home because…
– you need more information or guidance before deciding.
– you need to ask another person for permission first.
– your decision may hurt someone’s feelings.
– you’re busy, you don’t have time, or it’s too emotionally taxing to think about it clearly.
By not making decisions, your belongings stay where you’ve placed them and will become clutter. They’ll keep your home cluttered and keep you stuck. Making a decision will ‘unstick’ you and move you forward.
The easiest way make a decision about physical items that are cluttering up your home is to make those decisions as easy as possible to make. Keep it simple–especially in the beginning.
How to start simply and easily? Use three words: Keep, Toss, Donate. Pick a category–shoes, books, toiletries, donation requests (or whatever is causing clutter in your home) and apply those three words to making decisions on items in that category.
Don’t think about decluttering a category or a space in your home any more deeply than that at this moment. Don’t think about where an item will live or where it should be donated to. Don’t think about how you’ll get it to the thrift shop or whether or not it will fit in your cabinet, drawer, or closet. Just look at the item you need to make a decision on and ask Keep? Toss? or Donate? Start there.
That’s your first decision–Keep, Toss, or Donate. Making that basic decision is the first step to clearing your clutter and moving you and your home in a less cluttered and more positive direction.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by your clutter, take a deep breath and repeat out loud, “Keep, Toss, or Donate.” That’s the only decision you have to make right now–Keep, Toss, or Donate. If it helps, make it your organizing mantra! Write it on a post-it. Make it your laptop’s screen saver–whatever works for you.
To help you visualize those decisions while decluttering and keep your decluttering process organized, I’ve created a free downloadable ‘Keep-Toss-Donate’ printable for you to use. Designate three spaces (or bins/bags/boxes) in the area you’re working in–one will be for the ‘Keep’ items, one for the ‘Donate’ items and one for the ‘Toss’ items. Use the printable ‘Keep’ ‘Toss’ and ‘Donate’ tags to clearly designate your spaces and decisions. You don’t want to accidentally donate your trash or trash your donations!
Start with the easy stuff–junk mail, pens that may/may not work, old clothes and shoes. As you practice using your decision-making muscles, move onto magazines, sheets and towels, and seasonal clothes. Use “Keep, Toss, or Donate” as the first step toward making space in your home for items that you want, use, and love.
As a Professional Organizer in business almost nineteen years (!) I have heard the above declarations more times than I can count. I’ve recently coined a phrase I offer to my clients when they feel like it’s all too much:
Starting ‘small’ is the solution to dealing with clutter. De-cluttering a whole room is overwhelming. Starting small by focusing on one teeny-tiny part of that room is more manageable.
Starting ‘easy’ helps us to build our de-cluttering ‘muscles.’ ‘Easy’ items are usually ones with little-to-no sentimental or monetary value. The decision making process takes barely any brain power when we start with the ‘easy’ stuff. Once we’ve trained our decision-making muscles on the easy items, we’re better equipped to make the tougher decisions later on.
Are you familiar with the phrase, ‘The shoemaker’s son has no shoes?’ Well, sometimes I’m so focused on organizing spaces for others that I don’t focus on organizing my own! Case in point–my kid’s linen closet. OK, really it was one shelf in the linen closet…
I have two kids and they share a linen closet where I store their sheets, towels, extra blankets, and any medicine/first aid items they may need or require. When I only had one child, the shelves in this linen closet weren’t as full. Now that there are two of them, there’s A LOT more stuff.
The sheets, towels, and blanket shelves were under control but what was not was the shelf I had dedicated to my kid’s medicine and first aid items. For the first few years, I had a couple of tubes, bottles, and boxes of things that I could find easily. Then after kid number two arrived, the shelf started filling up. I could still find what I was looking for but I would sometimes accidentally knock things over and cause an unwanted ‘domino effect’ resulting in a disorganized mess.
Full disclosure–this is what it looked like:
Forget about the fact that it looked cluttered when I opened the door to this closet. Visually, it was unappealing (and appalling!) to me. I needed to block off time in my calendar to organize this spot. I knew decluttering a linen closet shelf wouldn’t take me long–I just had to create a plan and stick to it.
It was time to take my own advice to start small, start easy–just start. And get the job done…
I followed the 5 steps to getting any space in the home organized–created by Professional Organizer Julie Morgenstern in her book, Organizing from the Inside Out. This is the 5 step method I use with my clients when organizing any space in their homes. It works every time!
Step 1: The Sort
I took all items off the shelf and placed them on a nearby staircase. I sorted them by type and for the most part found that they fell into four categories: First Aid, Medicine, Nose, and Teeth. I also created a category of ‘Expired’ and ‘No Longer Used.’ to be dealt with during the next step.
Step 2: The Purge
Once I sorted all the items, it was easy to see what could be purged. Expired medicine was dealt with in an ecologically-friendly manner and boxes were flattened and added to our recycle bin. Papers were filed, garbage was collected and added to our household trash. I was left with only the things my kids presently use or would need in the future.
Step 3: Assign a Home
This step asks the question, ‘Where are the post-purge items all going to live?’ I knew they were going to live on this shelf in the linen closet so this step was pretty easy to breeze through. After the purge, I placed each grouping of the remaining items back onto the shelf by category until I could complete Step 4.
Step 4: Containerize
I was certain I wanted to use some kind of drawer system to store the medical/first aid items. Quick and easy access to meds and first aid supplies is key when your child is wheezing, sneezing, or bleeding! I measured the height, width, and depth of the shelf and took to the internet to locate a product that would work.
A brief search led me to the Small Tint Stackable Storage Drawers from The Container Store. They were colorful and just the right size to fit two-stacked one on top of another on the linen closet shelf. Lucky for me, I live in driving distance of their location in Paramus, NJ so I hopped in my car and set out to get one step closer to completing my small and easy organizing project. I chose blue and orange because my boys like the NY Knicks and tolerate the Mets because their dad is a life-long fan.
I brought the drawers home, filled each drawer by category, and placed them on the shelf. Organizing success!
Step 5: Equalize
(also known as Maintain)
This is the step that comes after the organizing is done and systems are in place. Every so often, depending upon the how often you use the items, it is necessary to do what’s called ‘maintenance.’
In this case, every few weeks, I peek in the drawers and take inventory on meds, flossers, band-aids, and lip balm. I straighten up other items on the shelf such as shampoo bottles and hand sanitizer and make room for anything new that my kids have started using (deodorant–yikes!). Decluttering a linen closet shelf or any space in your home won’t take long if you keep up with maintaining it!
You may notice that I did not add any labels to the outside of the bins. I tossed the idea around but since the drawers are translucent, it’s fairly easy to see their contents without opening the drawer. As my kids become more independent and access the items on their own, I may choose to add labels. But, for now I like how seamless and colorful it looks when I open the linen closet door.
Not every organizing project has to be on a grand scale for it to make a positive impact on your life. Some are as small as a drawer, a shelf, or a corner of your desk. Even organizing your wallet, your car’s glove compartment, or a bucket full of batteries can save you time, money, and space. Regardless of the size of the project, block off time on your calendar, follow the five steps, and start. Start small. Start easy. Just start.
What small and easy organizing project will you start this week?
If there’s one thing I hear over and over from my clients and others, it’s that one of the most challenging parts of getting organized is starting. Many people don’t know where or how to start. And we all know what happens when you don’t know where or how to start. You.Don’t.Start. (Insert sad face here)
I want you to start! And I want you to succeed. But there are a few steps you’ll need to take before you can even begin to contemplate setting an organizing project in motion. Don’t toss anything in the trash. Refrain from buying cute bins and baskets. Read on.
In order for you to get organized and stay organized, it’s necessary to ask yourself two important questions.
What is my WHAT?
and
What is my WHY?
Yup. Ask yourself those two questions. And grab either your phone or paper and pen to help you remember your answers. Let’s start with ‘your WHAT.’
Your WHAT = What do I want to get organized?
Is it…
-your clothing closet filled with multiple sizes?
-your basement filled with thirty years of accumulation?
-your overstuffed file cabinets?
-your overstuffed kitchen cabinets?
Coming up with answers to ‘What is my WHAT?’ is the easier of the two questions to answer. Your WHAT is the part that is usually easy to determine because you come in contact with it all the time in your home. You see your WHAT on a daily or weekly basis so it’s easy to name. Write it down.
Next, consider your WHY.
Your WHY = WHY do I want it to be organized?
also know as…
WHY do I want to get my ‘WHAT’ organized?
This is the more challenging of the two questions. Asking yourself WHYrequires that you dig deep for answers. The answers may not be simple ones and may require the examination of past habits and patterns as well as the reflection of past decisions and choices. Pay attention to your feelings and take time to understand them. I know–easier said than done. But, being honest with yourself and your struggle to get organized will benefit you short-term and in the long run.
Let’s get back to figuring out your WHY…
WHY do YOU want to get organized? You might say…
“I’m tired of running late because I can’t find the clothes in my closet that fit me. I want to organize my closet in order to be able to get dressed in less than ten minutes. I want to look good and feel good and not start my day off stressed out anymore.”
or…
“I’ve been spending a lot of money in credit card late fees. I want to create an organized bill paying system so I can pay my bills on time, stop wasting money, and eventually raise my low credit score. I can’t save for a down payment on a house if I’m letting money slip through my fingers. I’ll never be able to buy a home if my credit score prevents me from getting a mortgage.”
or…
“I’m exhausted from always running to the supermarket at the end of my work day. I want to organize my kitchen cabinets for meal planning. I don’t want to do the ‘5 o’clock scramble’ anymore! Knowing in advance what my family and I are eating for dinner will save me time and money and may even help me eat more healthily and lose weight.”
Whatever your WHYis, write it on a post-it and hang it somewhere you’ll see it often. Make it your screen saver or your phone’s wallpaper. Keep it on a card in your wallet. Don’t lose sight of it. During the organizing process, you might feel stuck, frustrated, or overwhelmed. Go back and look at your WHY.
Your WHY will focus you and keep you on track to complete your organizing tasks.
Your WHY is there to remind you WHY you’re working hard to get organized.
Your WHY will motivate you to move forward towards your personal organizing finish line.
Just by knowing your WHAT and your WHY, you’re ready to take the next step on your path to a more organized life.
What is your WHAT and what is your WHY?
Click the image below to print a *free* worksheet to help you think about more than just your WHAT and your WHY!
I’ve spent the last few months blogging about meal planning and organizing to reduce stress and to keep ourselves safe so I thought I’d shift direction a bit and keep things light. We’re still in the midst of a global crisis. Life is stressful. We could all use more than a few yuk-yuks on a daily basis.
Years ago, I wrote a blog post that included funny organizing cartoons I had seen circulating on social media. I still share that post regularly–knowing in my heart that by sharing it, I’ve made at least one person in the world smile.
In this post, I’ll be turning to my experience as a Professional Organizer for some laughs. I love helping people get organized. I do my best to keep our organizing sessions light and fun despite the sometimes sad and overwhelming reasons why clients have called me to their home.
The more often I work with a particular client, the easier it is to predict what will happen during our organizing session. But, there are times when I have no idea what we will unearth while sorting or what will happen to me while purging. In that vein, allow me to share with you three funny organizing stories that happened to me on the job…
Story #1: Closet Organizing is Not for Chickens!
After a personal loss, a client had called me in to help her organize her clothing, drawers, and closet. She had engaged in some ‘retail therapy’ and decided it was time to get her closet under control. It wasn’t a particularly large closet for the apartment she was living in but it was deep–and you never know what you’ll find ‘in the deep!’
We pulled out a ton of wire and tubular hangers and sent them to the trash along with dry cleaner wrappings and random items. The mood was a bit heavy at times but my client appeared happier as her closet became more empty.
Then, for the first time during our session, I heard her laugh. She came out of the closet and in her hand was a giant rubber chicken! She told me the story of how she came to own a rubber chicken (closets contain so many good stories!) and she gleefully gave it a bunch of squeezes to cause it’s eyeballs to pop out of it’s head. She was smiling! The chicken was not…
After some thought, she decided to purge the rubber chicken from her life and sent it hurling towards the garbage can. She must not have remembered that the rubber chicken had a voice box in it because when it hit the can, it squawked, “BOK BOK BOK BOK BOK BOK BOK!”
We looked at each other and burst out laughing! She ran to the can, grabbed the chicken and gave him another good throw and again upon contact it squealed, “BOK BOK BOK BOK BOK BOK BOK!”
Back into the closet we went with a lighter mood! Out came pants and blouses to try on and a pair of old sneakers to purge. At my client’s request, I tossed the sneakers in the can and an unexpected, “BOK BOK BOK BOK BOK BOK BOK” rang out from the depths of the trash. The chicken lives! After that, my client became ‘the tosser’ and thanks to that rubber chicken, our closet-purging session was more fun than a barrel of monkeys…er, chickens…
Story #2: ‘Watch’ What You Throw Away!
I have worked with many clients overwhelmed with kid toys. For jobs like these, I bring my super-duper thick black contractor bags–not only because they hold a lot, but because little children won’t be able to see that their parents are purging their toys!
My client had three daughters and was looking to pare down some of their toys while they were in school. We sorted and started purging Beanie Babies, dress-up clothes, and lots of little things like Polly Pockets, Barbie accessories, and Happy Meal toys (thank you, McDonald’s for keeping Professional Organizers in business…). My client left the room for a moment to get a drink. I took a look at my watch to see how much time was left of our appointment and noticed that my watch was no longer on my wrist! It was a dainty, gold-toned watch–a gift from my parents. A watch I really should not have been wearing ‘on the job’ but it matched my outfit so nicely so how could I not wear it that day? The clasp had not been ‘clasping’ perfectly for a few weeks but like I said, it matched my outfit really well…
I scanned the area around me–no watch. I shook some large stuffed animals and sifted through the shag carpet beneath me–no watch.
And then, I realized where it could be. It was in the three-quarters filled contractor bag–with all the Beanie Babies, dress-up clothes, and little toys inside.
I start sifting through the bag. No watch. I thought to myself, “It must have sunk to the bottom of the bag.” You can only imagine what I muttered next under my breath…
When the client came back in the room, our conversation went something like this…
Client: “I can’t believe we filled an entire trash bag with toys!”
Me: “It is quite full! I’m going to close it up and start a new trash bag.”
Client: “I’m ready to fill another one!”
Me: “Great–I’ll grab one. By the way, something happened that has never happened in all the years I’ve been working as an organizer. My watch fell off while we were working and I think it is somewhere at the bottom the bag!”
Client: “Oh, no!”
Me: “Oh, YES!” Would you mind if I took the bag home with me? I would be more than happy to put the bag out with my own trash after I find my watch.”
Client: “Sure, I hope you find your watch!”
Me: “Me, too! I am so embarrassed–thanks for understanding!”
I got home and immediately emptied the bag of toys onto my floor. It was a ‘needle in a haystack’ moment but sure enough, there was my watch–the persnickety clasp caught on the hem of a Barbie evening gown. Now I wear a FitBit on the job–whether it matches my outfit or not…
P.S.: I can’t organize and purge kid toys any more without thinking about what happened to the toys in the intro of Toy Story 3. THIS is why I use black trash bags for garbage and white garbage bags for donations!
Story #3: Bubblicious Booty Surprise!
A client called me to help her organize her unfinished basement. When I work in a basement, the idea of wearing a ‘cute outfit’ like I did the day I lost my watch is just not practical. Yoga pants, sneakers, and layered tops depending upon the weather help keep me comfortable and able to move around easily.
The basement was large with many ‘basement-friendly’ items that required sorting and purging. After working in one spot together for an hour, we decided to split up and ‘divide-and-conquer.’ She chose to sort her bins of wrapping paper and I was asked to sort out the laundry area on the opposite side of the room.
Despite the size of the basement, the laundry area was small and crowded. I stepped carefully, noting the items on the floor and most of what was around me. I took a few steps back to avoid some hangers near my feet, then heard a hissing noise. I quickly turned around hoping I wasn’t going to find a pet snake! I checked–no snake. (It’s not easy to surprise a Professional Organizer–we’ve seen A LOT…)
Almost immediately, I felt a cool sensation on my backside that quickly turned cold and wet. And uncomfortable. I figured I must have made contact with an open container of something on the shelf behind me. A quick scan of the shelf revealed that somehow I had backed myself into a can of Scrubbing Bubbles that was lying down minus it’s cap. A quick scan of my backside showed a large clump of white foamy bubbles against the black (and non-waterproof) yoga pants I was wearing that morning. Ugh!
I spent the rest of the organizing session trying to avoid turning my back towards my client and then had to drive the half hour home with a wet (but no longer foamy) backside! To this day, I STILL have no idea how I backed my backside into an open can of Scrubbing Bubbles. It’s one of those events that you could try and recreate through the magic of physics, geometry, and a computer program but it still might not yield any answers. I can look back and laugh now, but I wasn’t laughing then!
Are you smiling? Did you laugh at my stories? Good! Then my work here is done. When organizing your home, watch out for chickens and snakes and keep it light and fun. Emphasis on the word FUN.
Do you have a funny organizing story? I’d love to hear about it in the comments section below!
Color–it’s not just for those who like rainbows–it’s for organizing, too!
Color coding is a system that organizes information, offers the eye instant recognition, and reduces the time searching for items your need–all useful when organizing a home, home office, or one’s schedule.
But, you don’t have to have a degree in art to organize with color. Here are some items found in the home that can easily be organized using color:
Papers
Are your piles growing as you sleep? Can’t find certain papers when you need them?
Start the color coding process by sorting your papers into different categories (such as finances, school, house, etc). Then, select a different color for each category. Hanging files and manila folders come in a rainbow of colors and can help you reduce the time spent looking for a particular document. If you designate ‘green’ as your color for ‘financial’ papers, you won’t waste time looking through yellow or blue folders for your last 401K statement.
If you’re not interested in spending money on colored folders, Avery makes adhesive colored circles that can be placed on hanging files or folders and have a similar effect.
Clothes Closet
If you look in home stores, you’ll find that hangers come in practically every color imaginable. Use colored hangers to differentiate the various types of clothing in your wardrobe. For example, hang work clothes on white hangers, work out clothes on blue hangers, and cocktail attire on purple hangers. If you keep up the system, you’ll never show up to the office in your yoga pants…
Let’s say you’re like me and you prefer to hang your clothes on crystal hangers. You can either tie a colored ribbon around the hanger or use those Avery colored circle stickers discussed above to differentiate between different clothing types.
Children
If you have more than one child, pick a specific color–that will be the color that will identify them. Some children’s items are easily organized by color: clothes, shoes, puzzles, sports equipment, backpacks, etc.
For example, ever wonder which of your kids left the wet towel on the bathroom floor? Assign each child a different colored towel and you’ll know who the culprit is very quickly…
Are you a busy family trying to keep track of everyone’s schedule? Color coding appointments on a calendar (planner/wall calendar/digital) is a quick visual cue to help you figure out which child has to be where on a particular day.
Computer
Is your desktop a jumble of files? Is your inbox filled with emails? Use color to save time and create consistency.
Color coding files by project enables your eye to focus when juggling multiple projects. For instance, label all files related to ‘The Smith Project’ (as well as it’s folder) a particular color. Time spent looking for documents or emails related to ‘The Smith Project’ will be drastically reduced if they are all the same color.
Color coding email messages can alert you to a message from a particular person (green = your boss, red = your spouse, blue = your kid’s school). Many email programs come with this feature–you just have to create the categories, enter the email addresses, and choose their corresponding colors.
Holiday Decorations
It is not uncommon for stores to carry plastic bins and tubs that come in colors corresponding to a holiday. Try purchasing orange bins for Halloween decorations and costumes storage. Red and green do the trick for Christmas, blue for Hanukah, and pastel colors for Easter egg painting supplies. It’s SO much easier to find a colored bin in an attic or garage!
Why not bring some color into your life? Using color as a part of your organization plan will save you time, money, and stress in the long run and just think about how colorful (and organized) your life will be!
Tell me–how do you get organized with color in your home?
There are no cave paintings to prove it but I suspect the first shelf was commissioned by a frustrated cave woman.
The conversation probably went something like this:
Cave Husband: “Honey, I’m home! I brought berries and bagged another buffalo!”
Cave Wife: “That’s nice, dear but this cave has no storage. Stop hunting and gathering and start building me some shelves!”
Though shelving is standard in homes today, it can sometimes feel pre-historic. That’s because pre-fabricated and pre-installed shelves don’t always fit our specific storage needs. Some of the problems with shelves are that they are:
– too shallow
– too deep
– too high
– too low
– can’t be adjusted
If you have some of these shelving issues in your closet, pantry, cabinets, or garage, here are five products to transform your shelves into a custom-designed (and organized!) wonderland:
Shelf Dividers
Shelf dividers prevent stacked items from toppling over. Use dividers to separate piles of sweaters, tablecloths, or towels. You can also use them to create ‘parking spaces’ for your handbags. Dividers come in acrylic, plastic, or chrome (depending upon your style and budget).
I reviewed this product for STORABLES last month and I use them in my home. Take a peek…
Under Shelf Basket
Clustering small items on shelves leaves you with dead space above it. The Under Shelf Basket solves that problem by creating an area in that ‘dead space’ for storage. It creates the perfect spot for storing dishtowels and washcloths in a linen closet, small canned goods/spice packets in a pantry, and food wrappings (like aluminum foil and waxed paper) on a cabinet shelf. Helper Shelf
I love Helper shelves! I have over ten of them currently in use in my own home. They turn wasted shelving space into prime real estate for dishes, canned goods, or any stackable item. A helper shelf offers two levels of storage–below (for small items) and above (for larger items). Pull Out Shelf
If you’re tired of rummaging for items at the back of your shelves, consider a sliding shelf (also known as a rolling or pull-out shelf). It pulls out so you can reach what you need that lives in the back of your shelving/cabinet and then pushes right back in. Great for items that are heavy and not often used.
Lazy Susan
This product is perfect for those hard-to-reach corners in a cabinet or shelf. You can purchase a lazy susan with one or two levels depending upon your needs. In my home, I use them for vitamins and spices–both located in tight cabinet spaces. Spinning the lazy susan to reach and retrieve what I need makes my life a whole lot easier!
Use any of the above products to optimize your home’s shelf space. When your spouse calls to tell you he’s bringing home berries and buffalo–you’ll be prepared…
Which product would you like to try on your shelves?
Normally, I do product reviews of organizing tools I use in my work and personal life but today I am writing my first Sponsored Post! The lovely folks at Storables contacted me a while ago and asked me to review a product of theirs–my choice. Hmmm…what to choose? This was like letting a kid run wild through the aisles of Toys ‘R Us…
I had so much fun perusing the pages of their website. My pick? A product I had never used before–a shelf divider. Today’s ‘Cool Product‘ is: Storable’s Large White Shelf Dividers. I am doing this review in exchange for the product and a gift card.
Big thanks to my sponsor, Storables for reaching out to me with this opportunity. All words, opinions, and photos are my own.
If you’ve been following my blog for the past year, you’ve read that I just went through a major home renovation. We have a lot of new closets (yay!) so when Storables told me I could review any product from their website, I gravitated towards the ones that would work best in a closet. I had always seen shelf dividers similar to these in pictures and thought they were pretty ‘cool’ so I selected their Large White Shelf Dividers. A great idea–that is until they arrived and I realized they were too big to use in my clothes closet as well as my husband’s. Oops. (They do come in a smaller size in Chrome.) I’m a stickler for measuring but I think my excitement got the best of me…
But, have no fear! I found many uses for this product in my home besides my clothing closet. All I did was use some ‘out-of-the box’ or in this case ‘out-of-the-closet’ thinking.
Here are four ways the Large White Shelf Dividers from Storables worked brilliantly in my home:
My Son’s Closet
The kid has a lot of sweatshirts. Piling them more than 4-5 high is useless because they’re just going to topple over. Enter Storable’s Large White Shelf Dividers. This product makes it easier for my son to put away his own sweatshirts. Wait, did I just say that? Ha ha ha! I must be dreaming…he’d prefer to pile them on his chair instead. Not folded. Ummm…thrown over the chair. OK–this product is for me, not him–I freely admit it! It’s going to make MY life easier!
My Purses
I’m pretty practical–I don’t have a huge collection of purses. I use the same purse everyday for Fall/Winter and a different one for Spring/Summer. I own a few larger ones for carrying more and a few dressy ones for special occasions.
On the flip side, I have worked with clients who own 50-100 purses. And that’s after we’ve purged the ones they don’t like/need/want anymore. Whether it’s a collection made up of 5 or 50 purses, no woman wants them piled one on top of another in her closet. It doesn’t look good, piles can cause damage to a handbag, and it’s challenging to find the purse you want when you need it. See below how beautifully the shelf dividers function? These shelf dividers act as ‘parking spaces’ for purses. If these dividers work for my tiny purse collection, think about how well they’d work for someone who really likes purses!
The Linen Closet
Towels, sheets, blankets–if there’s more than one person and one bed in your household that can add up to a lot of linens. Piled high. Toppling over each other in your linen closet. Not with these Large White Shelf Dividers. The shelf dividers keep those linens piled high but not falling over onto another stack.
The Pantry
This may be my favorite use for the Large White Shelf Dividers. I use paper bags from Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s for recycling and paper organizing projects with clients. I need easy access to them and a ‘front-and-center’ place to store them. Since my recycling lives in my pantry before being taken outside, I created a space in my pantry for the paper bags. I slid the shelf divider onto a shelf in my pantry close to a wall to create the space for the bags. When I get more bags, I can adjust the divider to accommodate more. This is working beautifully and will make my life much easier!
So, if you have large shelves with spaces that need dividing or maybe you have piles of sweaters/towels/purses that are constantly topping over each other, consider purchasing Shelf Dividers (in any size or color you need) from Storables. As a Professional Organizer and a homeowner, I recommend it!
How would you use Storable’s Large White Shelf Dividers in your home?
Where I live, it’s kinda cold. And it’s the first day of Spring (insert frowny face here). As much as I’d love to start doing a little spring cleaning in my closet, I still need my polartec tops and flannel lined jeans. May have to start elsewhere this weekend…
But, if you live in a warmer climate or just can’t look at your boots one more day, then by all means start spring cleaning your clothes closet.
Here are the 5 ‘must-haves’ you’ll need for this project:
Garbage bags
Despite their name, these bags won’t all be used for garbage. Grab two colors–black, white, and a third bag can be a reusable tote. Designate black for trash, white for donations, and the tote for repairs. Why use this system? I have heard stories of people accidentally donating their trash and putting their donations to the curb because they used bags of one color.
As you are sorting through and purging clothes from your closet, place them in the correct bag. Clothes with repairable tears and shoes/handbags that need a little TLC from the shoemaker go in your tote bag. When you finish, place the black bags wherever you keep your trash, put the donation and repair bags in your car or at your doorway, and mark off a day on your calendar to drop off them off at their next destinations.
Pad of paper and pen or cell phone
As you go through your clothes, you may find that they have an old stain, they’re too loose or tight, or you just don’t love it anymore. When getting rid of garments, keep a list of items you’d like to replace. That way, when you’re at the mall, you don’t have to think about what clothes you need–just refer to your list and you’ll know exactly what purchases to focus on. Use pen and paper or your cell phone to create the list–whichever works best for you.
Bottle of water/snack
Spring cleaning a clothes closet is a physical activity. Handling some sentimental items and items with ‘bad karma’ attached to them can be emotional as well. Even if you’ve eaten a large meal before starting, I’d recommend having a bottle of water and a snack at arm’s reach. You’ll need a break to clear your head and refuel–how often you do that during this task is up to you and your needs. But, I always advise my clients to bring a snack and drink into the space we’re working on. It means they don’t have to leave the room and lose focus while we’re working.
Large flat or multiple small flat surfaces
When doing a spring cleaning of your clothes closet, it’s important to have a place to put the clothes while sorting them out. If your closet is in your bedroom, use the bed to place the garments down as you make decisions. If your clothes live in a room without a bed, use folding chairs or storage tubs to separate your clothes by category. The floor is NOT a good option unless absolutely necessary. If that’s the case, please open a flat sheet, lay it on the floor and place your piles on top of the sheet.
Time
A basic organizing principle to follow for spring cleaning or any organizing task is. ‘Make an Appointment With Yourself.’ We make appointments to see doctors and to make our hair look fabulous and we wouldn’t consider canceling them except in an emergency. Do the same with Spring Cleaning. Take out your calendar and pick a day to start. Pencil in 15 minutes, a half hour, an hour–whatever amount of time you think you can manage. Keep that appointment. You’ll be glad you did.
Are you ready to spring cleaning your clothes closet? What do you think you’ll find in your closet this Spring?
The last week of November was a busy time in my household. It was Thanksgiving. It was Hanukkah. And it was also my birthday. Lots of food and festivities. Not a lot of downtime.
But, my hubby and I chose to carve out a small amount of time that weekend to make our home more organized. The colder weather was upon us and we had to come up with a solution to a recent organization problem.
We have a front door and an entry-way closet next to that door. Coats, shoes, umbrellas and accessories are kept in that closet.
Problem: My children and I enter and exit our home most days through the garage, not the front door. No mudroom or closet next to that garage entrance door. Instead, we have a tiny laundry room with an even tinier broom closet that we converted to a storage closet years ago. We installed a row of hooks across the top and at the bottom of the closet we store shopping and recycle bags of varying sizes.
On this closet door, we installed a 4-pocket organizer from Babies R’ Us which has proved to be an extraordinarily helpful organizing product. Each of us has a pocket to store accessories and one is for infrequently used items like snow gloves.
This worked well for a while. My children were young and had little coats and my jacket fit just fine next to theirs. Now, my kids are bigger and so are their coats. They have more hats and mittens, too. With all three of our winter coats in there, the closet door no longer stayed closed. And the hooks were so high, I was the person in charge of hanging everyone’s coats.
What to do?
I had suggested a hall tree for the room adjacent to the garage which just so happens to be my home office. It wouldn’t thrill me to have coats and backpacks hanging in my work space but it was better than having them spill out of the storage closet–especially when I was doing the laundry.
My husband did not like the hall tree idea for two reasons:
1) He thought a hall tree would have looked messy. (I agree)
2) The hall tree would have to stand in the space currently occupied by his grandmother’s table which he loves and it would not fit in our attic.
So, for a while we thought about it, spent the summer leaving camp bags in the garage but then Autumn came and the problem was back. Backpacks and diaper bags were dropped as we entered the house and coats were dumped on a couch that sits opposite my desk in this room. (No picture is available–too embarrassing for this Professional Organizer to admit!)
Besides the fact that it looked terrible, it didn’t exactly instill the importance of being organized to our two young children.
Once again we asked ourselves, “What to do?”
Solution: One day, my husband looked at me and said, “What if we move the ironing board and vacuum cleaner out of the laundry room and use that space as a mudroom? I measured the space. It was 24” wide. I was skeptical but I grew up in a 5’x12′ bedroom. I knew I could make this work.
Challenge accepted!
I’ll give my husband credit for thinking of utilizing this space. I probably never considered it because my husband likes to iron despite the fact he doesn’t do it much anymore (Yes–he does laundry, too. I’m a lucky lady…). We had not hung an iron in the iron holder since our first child started crawling six years ago. It was a great iron/ironing board organizer from Rubbermaid but it’s time was up. We relocated the real vacuum to the garage with the ironing board and the toy vacuum went to the basement playroom.
I thought to myself, “Where am I going to find what I need to fit into a two-foot wide space?”
I looked in Home Goods and online and didn’t see much that would fit my tight secifications. Then one day, I was in Target and went to check out their Closetmaid collection. I’ve used their products in the past for organizing my kid’s toys and got to check out their new products at the NAPO Conference last year.
I walked down the aisle and not only did I see what would work for me, it was on sale!
The Closetmaid 24″ Horizontal Stackable Organizer
Twenty four inches wide, too! What luck! My plan was to have the boys keep their backpacks on the top shelf, store their sneakers on the middle and bottom shelves and since their feet aren’t too big, maybe there would be room for a basket to hold accessories.
Now, I needed to figure out the second half of the mudroom–a place to hang coats. There are so many hook choices out there from the simple to the whimsical. We just needed simple. And, we needed more than one set of hooks. One was to be placed at the top of the space for my coat/handbag/hat and the other was to be placed so my kids could hang and retrieve their own outerwear.
Before Thanksgiving, I attended the holiday party for the local organizer group I belong to–NAPO-NNJ. Besides a lovely dinner, we had a Yankee Swap. The table was filled with gifts and I had pulled the last number for picking. By the time it was my turn to pick, there was one gift left on the table. You’ll never believe what it was?
A SET OF HOOKS!
What else do you think Professional Organizers would bring to a Yankee Swap??? It was meant to be!
And, the person who bought the hooks hadn’t removed the price tag entirely. They were from Bed Bath and Beyond. You can’t imagine how giddy I was over a set of hooks!
The next day with my trusty 20% coupon in hand, I bought another set. I was ready for construction to begin.
We charged our electric drill, connected with our inner Bob Villa, and made Mudroom Magic. Hubby and I put together the Closetmaid shelf in less than ten minutes. We measured and hung the hooks making sure they were straight with the iHandy level on my iPhone.
Measure twice, make hole once!
My kids tried putting their backpacks on the bench–plenty of room!
Hooks were hung and so were the coats. The laundry room is tight–here’a a few pics of what it looks like now.
My kids have been using our mini-mudroom everyday–I am so proud of them! Sometimes I find my husband staring at this space with a big grin on his face. I love it, too. No more coat clutter. It looks great. It keeps us organized. Twenty-four inches of space. Challenge accepted. Challenge met. Challenge complete!
Mini-mudroom dreams do come true!
What organizing challenges have you resolved in your home recently?
A blog by Professional Organizer Stacey Agin Murray bursting with cool products, 'gotta-tell-a-friend' ideas, and a whole lotta organizing know-how. Learn more...
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About Stacey
When you grow up in a 5’x12′ bedroom, you learn to organize pretty quickly! I chose to take that knowledge and turn it into a business helping people find what they need when they need it. I’m also the author of The Organized Bride’s Thank You Note Handbook–a book that offers wedding thank you note-related organizing tips and how-to’s plus 101 unique sample thank you notes (what bride can’t use that?).
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