Attack the skeletons in your closets, the gremlins in your garage, and the bats in your belfry.
First Step Is the Toughest
Patricia Coen and Brian Milford, authors of Closets: Designing and Organizing the Personal Closet, say the first, most important, and toughest step in reorganizing storage spaces is purging excess. They cite one big cause of clutter as adding new possessions without getting rid of unused things. The answer? Toss an old item for each new one. Then, be ruthless. Pitch every item not worth the storage space. Do this until you have empty space!
Analyze the Skeletons in Your Closet
What’s in there? Fling open those closet doors! What’s working in there? What’s not? What’s essential to you? What’s causing you problems?
What do you have stored in your closets? Are you keeping clothes that don’t fit? Uncomfortable shoes? Stuff for your children? Items that might become valuable one day? Gifts that you wouldn’t be caught dead wearing, using, or displaying? Do you see any patterns in what you have stashed away?
It isn’t unusual for people to keep two sizes of clothing — as long as you actually use both. Keeping garments that just plain don’t fit and shoes that are uncomfortable is different. If you can’t wear them, why keep them?
For the Kids
Keeping things to give to your children and grandchildren someday is noble. You may be saving their great young masterpieces, giving them furniture for their first home, or preserving valuable collector’s items. You may also be hanging on to things that your descendants do not want.
You may be saving things that can no longer be used due to deterioration or changing standards. The latter is especially true of baby equipment. Many grandmothers have had cribs and other baby items turned away because safety standards have changed drastically from one generation to the next.
Why are you keeping things you don’t like, unwanted gifts, and sentimental items you associate with pain? Likewise, if you don’t like something, admit it and let go. You’re the one paying for your storage space in cold hard cash.
Lay It Out
Act like a kid again. Lay out your clothes at night for the next day — everything from undergarments to silken neckwear. You’ll know what is clean, pressed (if need be), and available. Presto! The perfect outfit. When your clothes closet is organized, you can plan ahead and save precious time in the morning you would normally spend making these decisions. That’s time you can use for important activities — cartoons, exercise, or hitting the snooze alarm.
Strategize to Stretch Space
In so many homes, it is hard to rearrange one closet without affecting all of them. Julie Morgenstern suggests creating a master storage plan for closets. She notes, in Organizing from the Inside Out, that there are typically four types of residential closets: clothes, linen, utility, and entry hall. It’s important to organize all of them to make any one of them truly functional.
Take Inventory
Count the closets. Count storage spaces available inside each one — rods, shelves, and containers. Count the categories of items to be stored — clothing, linens, luggage, decorations, etc. As you are counting, assign a category to each closet. Granted, you’ll probably have to juggle things around a bit when the work begins, but that’s OK.
Change and Rearrange
A closet is one area that can be arranged and rearranged to make storage more practical. If you have only short garments (suits, pants, shirts, and jackets), double the hanging space by installing two rods. According to The Container Store’s Ultimate Closet Planning Guide, one rod should be placed 42 inches off the floor, and the other 36-42 inches above that (the lower number is for a person under 5 feet, 6 inches tall). Some closets need no hanging rods. They can be removed to add shelves. Or change the position of the rods. Try stackable boxes, bins, and drawers.
Take advantage of wall and door space for storage. Take a hint from Kirsten Lagatree, author of Checklists for Life: 104 Lists to Help You. By utilizing racks, hooks, and specialty hangers you can add space in your closet to store your shoes, ties, belts, and scarves, and create a dressing activity center to include clothing, footwear, and accessories.
Killer Question
What to do with the expensive but unused tennis racket, designer dress, or professional camera equipment? You got them for a purpose and paid good money. You have been saving them for just that reason — your investment. It’s time to cut your losses. Turn that idle investment back into cash or a tax deduction. Sell or donate it. You’ll move on to more profitable ventures, and someone else will deeply appreciate the bargain.
Attack! Keep It, Toss It, or Give It Away
Kirsten Lagatree, author of Checklists for Life, has the gung-ho attitude you’ll need to attack your closets — shovel it out, be ruthless, and be brave.
Lagatree says you’ll need all the space you can get. Pull out all your stuff — the good, the bad, and the ugly. Sort as you go, says Morgenstern. Make piles on the bed or the floor, according to what makes sense to you by type of garment or accessory, by category or function, by size, color, or pattern — whatever works.
Know that there will be surprises (pleasant and otherwise). Steel yourself to keep moving. You can wallow in your feelings later. Be tough. Toss the obvious junk. Remember that he who hesitates gets lost. Get tougher, and give away anything that you aren’t sure about.
Ask for Help
Have a trusted friend (preferably one with a sense of humor), your children (if they’re willing), or a wardrobe consultant help you go through your clothes. You’re guaranteed to lose the 80 percent of your clothes that you don’t wear because they’re too small, too big, the wrong color, out of style, or just plain strange. You know what we’re talking about — the disco clothes you can’t get into (and shouldn’t be caught dead in!), the leather pants your ex gave you, and the ripped flannel shirts.
You’ll be amazed at how much comes out of even a small closet. Resist the temptation to get it all back in there. Keep only what you love and use. Reassign items that are not a part of the new activity center.
Modern Problems
Our modern Western world certainly has given us many more things to organize, but staying clutter-free isn’t a new challenge. In 1861, Isabella Mary Beeton wrote The Book of Household Management and coined the phrase, “A place for everything and everything in its place.”
Assign a Home and Containerize
Start with your front door. Morgenstern notes in Organizing from the Inside Out that the front entry closet can be finished in less than a day and show dramatic, visible results. She relates the story of a client who needed her entire house organized. The entire project would take Morgenstern nearly a year. She started with the front closet so her client could feel successful in one day and be inspired to move forward.
Closet success can be yours, too. Even if, without an entry closet, you need an activity center for holding clothing and accessories to protect you from the prevailing weather in your area. What else is dropped at your door? Keys? Briefcase and backpacks?
No Closet Required
A coat closet requires long hanging space. No closet? How about a coat tree? An attractive bank of hooks installed along the wall? An umbrella stand is handy. Who says you can’t have a shoe rack in the entry closet? Many families have adopted an Asian tradition (and a cleaner home) by providing a mat or tray for leaving all shoes at the door. Make it easy for everyone to put away inbound or outbound items right near the door. Provide a key tray or hook near the door and never go looking again.
In other closets, go vertical and see what you have with clear stackable containers for items not used every day. Use affordable specialty products. Coated wire baskets hang under shelves and shelf dividers to help soft items stay neatly stacked. Try hanging garment bags for out-of-season clothing and those with compartments for sweaters, shoes, and purses.
Think about custom shelving. Many retailers will help you design a closet. You provide the measurements and inventory list. They provide the design and materials for you to install. Many systems allow you to double or even triple usable closet space. The investment adds value to your home and time to your life.
Play It Again
Being organized is a series of habits learned by repetition. Soon it becomes natural and unconscious. You’ve learned a lot of skills the same way — walking, counting, reading, writing, playing a sport or music you love, cooking, and driving. The list goes on and on. Think of all the skills you have mastered and the rewards gained because you learned basic skills like organizing.
Equalize: Daily Hang-Ups and Seasonal Sorts
Let’s face it. We all have days when we are too tired to do anything but step out of our clothes and into bed. Getting organized can make those days fewer and farther between. Create a new habit. Make daily time to put your keys where you can find them, hang up your suit, and put the dirty clothes into the hamper. What’s that? Your partner drops clothes in a trail, on a chair, or misses the chair completely? Put a hamper or basket right where the clothes usually fall.
Losing keys is my problem. After locking two dogs in the car with the motor running, I decided that it was time for a change. Keys now go in my right-hand pocket. A second set goes in my purse. I’m not telling where the third and fourth sets are kept.
The point is that small organizational problems can get out of hand (quickly), but you can take small daily steps to help you stay on track.
Give It a Month
Daily maintenance need not be drudgery for you, although it may seem that way in the beginning. Give yourself a month. Take care of one equalizing activity every day. Try emptying your pockets onto a tray or basket (or you could get fancy with a dresser valet box) every day. Throw away the trash. Toss extra change into a dish. Count your money and organize it according to denomination. Make sure your keys are there (or on the hook by the door). Put receipts in one place. (One of the top 10 complaints I hear from wives is that “he” can’t find receipts when it’s time to file expense reports.)
Seasonal sorts are simply daily equalizing taken a step further. Go through your clothes or sporting goods and get rid of anything that didn’t work this last season. Pull out the next season’s gear and evaluate. Take time to get rid of anything that no longer works. Move things around so they are accessible, usable, and enjoyable for you. Just like anything else in life, each time you change seasons it takes less time and gets easier.
Teamwork
Deep storage spaces like attics, garages, and basements are usually big organizing projects. You’ll need help. Ask for it. Everyone in the family can help out. No family? Give friends and neighbors a reason to chip in (or hire out). Establish the ground rules — sort, purge, clean it up, consolidate items into activity centers, and contain them. Give even the smallest tyke a job. Provide food and drink. Celebrate when finished.
Analyze That Animal
So, you’ve got gremlins in the garage, bats in the belfry, and who knows what lurking in the basement. Welcome to the club. You aren’t alone. With a little help, though, you could be singing a happier tune and able to park your car in the garage.
You know the drill by now. What’s working? Are you already able to park inside all the time? Can you find your tools every time you want a wrench or a screwdriver? Maybe you’ve already finished your closets and stashed your off-season outfits.
How about the flip side? At this writing, I have 106 inherited family paintings and their shipping crates in my garage. This is seriously not working. As a professional organizer, I have seen everything in attics, basements, and garages from antique tables to vintage vinyl — including a huge number of mechanical mysteries in pieces on the floor. What’s not working out in your deep storage places?
What items are essential to you in those spaces? How could or should those deep storage spaces be serving you? Note the word “serving.” When your space is cluttered and unmanageable, it is ruling you. Now it’s time for you to regain control.
Why Do You Want to Get Organized?
You like that control, right? Would the attic, basement, or garage hold your hobby projects? Give you a place to store the things that are now in your closets and scattered throughout the house? Maybe you could even gain a quiet place to retreat when necessary.
You’ve got your work cut out for you, and you’re apt to run into a problem or two. Morgenstern talks about two common problems in Organizing from the Inside Out. First, people tend to put things in the garage, attic, or basement without thought to where it should go. How many times have you said or heard, “Oh, just put it in the garage.” Second, you may stop using things but are still sentimentally attached to them. Where do you think they end up? With everything else jumbled together in your deep storage.
Setting Aside the Goods
As you are sorting, there will be items to be legitimately saved for the kids, charitable donations, or a garage sale. You will want to create a temporary activity zone where those items can rest. Garage sale items can be pre-sorted into sale categories without any real extra work. Use boxes and label clearly. Allow a little extra room since family, friends, and neighbors may want to add their pre-priced items to your upcoming sale.
Strategize
Decide to decide. What are you going to keep in your storage spaces? You can use the furniture or shelving that you have to break up the room. By moving these items off the walls, you can define separate activity centers, and create aisles for moving in between each area.
Go Vertical
Deep storage areas are great for going vertical. Shelving can be installed near the ceiling for little-used items or electronic equipment boxes (you’ll need these if you ever have occasion to return a stereo, video, or computer component under warranty!). Line walls with shelves. Even narrow shelving created between wall studs will serve to hold a ton of items like car wax, oil, and bug spray.
Tool Time
Tools keep a home happy. Try hanging a picture, fixing a leak, or taking apart a child’s toy without tools. You’ve got to have your tools handy at all times. If you are good with tools and have a workshop of some sort, you probably have pegboard and lots of little drawers or containers for drill bits, washers, nails, screws, and other hardware. Walk through a good hardware store and you’ll get the picture. Hang it up, and sort like with like.
Garage Sale Here!
If you have enough stuff and stamina, a sale is for you. To make top dollar in the least amount of time, you’ll need to have plenty of clean merchandise that is organized and priced right. Be ready to bargain. Be sure to advertise in a local paper, put up signs, get plenty of change, and arrange for help. Be sure to have at least a couple of boxes that veteran “junkers” can sift through.
Keep, Toss, Give, or Have a Sale!
Memorabilia can be saved. In fact, Morgenstern says she is a firm believer in the importance of saving objects to trigger joyous memories. She cautions us to be selective. Refrain from keeping more than you can store and enjoy. Save the best in containers organized for happy trips down memory lane.
If you really have a lot of items to toss, you might need to make special plans for disposal. Some communities set restrictions about the amount of trash that can be put out at one time or charge a nominal fee for going over the limit. If you live in a rural area and must haul your own trash, consider how you will get it to the dump and what the fees might be. Please be considerate by taking care of your trash responsibly.
Give It Away
Getting rid of excess personal belongings lightens your load in more ways than one. Giving to others is a wonderful way to lift your heart. Choose someone you know or a worthy charity that you can support to receive your still usable goods. Some will even pick up items for you, and any reputable charities can give you a receipt for tax purposes. You’ll need to call well ahead of time to schedule bulky items.
A sale is a lot of work, but great motivation. Done right, it can actually give you a small cash prize back for all your hard work. You’ll need to find out whether or not your neighborhood or local government puts any restrictions on household sales. The IRS doesn’t care as long as you don’t make a habit or a business out of it.
Contain It
All kinds of basic and specialty containers are available to be used in deep storage spaces. The resource pages in Lesson 3 of this course contain the names of several retailers offering effective containers. For storing hobby and sporting goods, take a look at http://www.racorinc.com. Racor makes ProStor and Racor specialty racks, including the Hoist Monster for bikes.
Herding Stuff Home and Keeping It There
Avoid jeopardizing all your hard work (remember, it’s going to take a while to organize deep storage space) by herding your possessions into the best possible homes. Then, keep them there.
Morgenstern suggests storing like items together. This enables everyone in the family to see how items are stored and understand the logic behind the system. Seeing is believing, and understanding makes for adherence to the rules.
Go vertical, but don’t put things out of reach. Stack, but keep the piles manageable so you don’t knock them down or tear them all apart once you start retrieving items. Keep it simple, and make it easy.
Get Something Sturdy
Make sure your containers will take the rougher environments of the attic, basement, and garage. Your location may get down well below freezing or up to sizzling triple digits. You may also be battling moisture problems, critters that come to call, or dust seeping in from every angle. Choose your containers for their ability to hold what you want and keep out the elements.
Use creativity. Morgenstern suggests a tall trashcan as a great home for baseball bats and hockey sticks. Consider bike racks, plastic storage bins, and archival quality photo shoeboxes, just to name a few.
Keep frequently used items up front where you can get at them easily, and train everyone, including yourself, to put them away at the end of the day or when finished with them.
This lesson has explored ways to reduce clutter in your innermost storage zones, and enumerates ways to determine what things you need and love, and what you should find another home for.
Assignment: Streamline Storage
Step 1: Be Aware
Step outside your home through the front door. When you come back inside, take a good look around. Open your eyes to see how the entry looks to an outsider. Make note of what you do when you return home each day after being out in the world. Do you drop the mail, set down keys, or sit down to talk to your animals?
Step 2: Analyze and Strategize
Open the closet that serves as your front, entry, or coat closet. If you do not have such a closet, look at the area where you keep jackets, umbrellas, and hats. Analyze and strategize this storage area. What’s working? Not working? What items belong here? What items are essential in this area? Is there something that is stored elsewhere that should be in this closet? What reason do you have to organize this area? Are there any obstacles in your way? When can you schedule time to organize this closet? It will probably take you less time, but allow yourself eight hours. Put it on your calendar — or do it now.
Step 3: Attack and Admire
Attack the closet. Start by taking everything out. Then sort and purge. Take short breaks when you need them. Stand back and admire. When you are finished, make an appointment with yourself to take care of the trash, recycling, and items for donation.
Lesson 6:Â Streamline Storage
Attack the skeletons in your closets, the gremlins in your garage, and the bats in your belfry.
First Step Is the Toughest
Patricia Coen and Brian Milford, authors of Closets: Designing and Organizing the Personal Closet, say the first, most important, and toughest step in reorganizing storage spaces is purging excess. They cite one big cause of clutter as adding new possessions without getting rid of unused things. The answer? Toss an old item for each new one. Then, be ruthless. Pitch every item not worth the storage space. Do this until you have empty space!
Analyze the Skeletons in Your Closet
What’s in there? Fling open those closet doors! What’s working in there? What’s not? What’s essential to you? What’s causing you problems?
What do you have stored in your closets? Are you keeping clothes that don’t fit? Uncomfortable shoes? Stuff for your children? Items that might become valuable one day? Gifts that you wouldn’t be caught dead wearing, using, or displaying? Do you see any patterns in what you have stashed away?
It isn’t unusual for people to keep two sizes of clothing — as long as you actually use both. Keeping garments that just plain don’t fit and shoes that are uncomfortable is different. If you can’t wear them, why keep them?
For the Kids
Keeping things to give to your children and grandchildren someday is noble. You may be saving their great young masterpieces, giving them furniture for their first home, or preserving valuable collector’s items. You may also be hanging on to things that your descendants do not want.
You may be saving things that can no longer be used due to deterioration or changing standards. The latter is especially true of baby equipment. Many grandmothers have had cribs and other baby items turned away because safety standards have changed drastically from one generation to the next.
Why are you keeping things you don’t like, unwanted gifts, and sentimental items you associate with pain? Likewise, if you don’t like something, admit it and let go. You’re the one paying for your storage space in cold hard cash.
Lay It Out
Act like a kid again. Lay out your clothes at night for the next day — everything from undergarments to silken neckwear. You’ll know what is clean, pressed (if need be), and available. Presto! The perfect outfit. When your clothes closet is organized, you can plan ahead and save precious time in the morning you would normally spend making these decisions. That’s time you can use for important activities — cartoons, exercise, or hitting the snooze alarm.
Strategize to Stretch Space
In so many homes, it is hard to rearrange one closet without affecting all of them. Julie Morgenstern suggests creating a master storage plan for closets. She notes, in Organizing from the Inside Out, that there are typically four types of residential closets: clothes, linen, utility, and entry hall. It’s important to organize all of them to make any one of them truly functional.
Take Inventory
Count the closets. Count storage spaces available inside each one — rods, shelves, and containers. Count the categories of items to be stored — clothing, linens, luggage, decorations, etc. As you are counting, assign a category to each closet. Granted, you’ll probably have to juggle things around a bit when the work begins, but that’s OK.
Change and Rearrange
A closet is one area that can be arranged and rearranged to make storage more practical. If you have only short garments (suits, pants, shirts, and jackets), double the hanging space by installing two rods. According to The Container Store’s Ultimate Closet Planning Guide, one rod should be placed 42 inches off the floor, and the other 36-42 inches above that (the lower number is for a person under 5 feet, 6 inches tall). Some closets need no hanging rods. They can be removed to add shelves. Or change the position of the rods. Try stackable boxes, bins, and drawers.
Take advantage of wall and door space for storage. Take a hint from Kirsten Lagatree, author of Checklists for Life: 104 Lists to Help You. By utilizing racks, hooks, and specialty hangers you can add space in your closet to store your shoes, ties, belts, and scarves, and create a dressing activity center to include clothing, footwear, and accessories.
Killer Question
What to do with the expensive but unused tennis racket, designer dress, or professional camera equipment? You got them for a purpose and paid good money. You have been saving them for just that reason — your investment. It’s time to cut your losses. Turn that idle investment back into cash or a tax deduction. Sell or donate it. You’ll move on to more profitable ventures, and someone else will deeply appreciate the bargain.
Attack! Keep It, Toss It, or Give It Away
Kirsten Lagatree, author of Checklists for Life, has the gung-ho attitude you’ll need to attack your closets — shovel it out, be ruthless, and be brave.
Lagatree says you’ll need all the space you can get. Pull out all your stuff — the good, the bad, and the ugly. Sort as you go, says Morgenstern. Make piles on the bed or the floor, according to what makes sense to you by type of garment or accessory, by category or function, by size, color, or pattern — whatever works.
Know that there will be surprises (pleasant and otherwise). Steel yourself to keep moving. You can wallow in your feelings later. Be tough. Toss the obvious junk. Remember that he who hesitates gets lost. Get tougher, and give away anything that you aren’t sure about.
Ask for Help
Have a trusted friend (preferably one with a sense of humor), your children (if they’re willing), or a wardrobe consultant help you go through your clothes. You’re guaranteed to lose the 80 percent of your clothes that you don’t wear because they’re too small, too big, the wrong color, out of style, or just plain strange. You know what we’re talking about — the disco clothes you can’t get into (and shouldn’t be caught dead in!), the leather pants your ex gave you, and the ripped flannel shirts.
You’ll be amazed at how much comes out of even a small closet. Resist the temptation to get it all back in there. Keep only what you love and use. Reassign items that are not a part of the new activity center.
Modern Problems
Our modern Western world certainly has given us many more things to organize, but staying clutter-free isn’t a new challenge. In 1861, Isabella Mary Beeton wrote The Book of Household Management and coined the phrase, “A place for everything and everything in its place.”
Assign a Home and Containerize
Start with your front door. Morgenstern notes in Organizing from the Inside Out that the front entry closet can be finished in less than a day and show dramatic, visible results. She relates the story of a client who needed her entire house organized. The entire project would take Morgenstern nearly a year. She started with the front closet so her client could feel successful in one day and be inspired to move forward.
Closet success can be yours, too. Even if, without an entry closet, you need an activity center for holding clothing and accessories to protect you from the prevailing weather in your area. What else is dropped at your door? Keys? Briefcase and backpacks?
No Closet Required
A coat closet requires long hanging space. No closet? How about a coat tree? An attractive bank of hooks installed along the wall? An umbrella stand is handy. Who says you can’t have a shoe rack in the entry closet? Many families have adopted an Asian tradition (and a cleaner home) by providing a mat or tray for leaving all shoes at the door. Make it easy for everyone to put away inbound or outbound items right near the door. Provide a key tray or hook near the door and never go looking again.
In other closets, go vertical and see what you have with clear stackable containers for items not used every day. Use affordable specialty products. Coated wire baskets hang under shelves and shelf dividers to help soft items stay neatly stacked. Try hanging garment bags for out-of-season clothing and those with compartments for sweaters, shoes, and purses.
Think about custom shelving. Many retailers will help you design a closet. You provide the measurements and inventory list. They provide the design and materials for you to install. Many systems allow you to double or even triple usable closet space. The investment adds value to your home and time to your life.
Play It Again
Being organized is a series of habits learned by repetition. Soon it becomes natural and unconscious. You’ve learned a lot of skills the same way — walking, counting, reading, writing, playing a sport or music you love, cooking, and driving. The list goes on and on. Think of all the skills you have mastered and the rewards gained because you learned basic skills like organizing.
Equalize: Daily Hang-Ups and Seasonal Sorts
Let’s face it. We all have days when we are too tired to do anything but step out of our clothes and into bed. Getting organized can make those days fewer and farther between. Create a new habit. Make daily time to put your keys where you can find them, hang up your suit, and put the dirty clothes into the hamper. What’s that? Your partner drops clothes in a trail, on a chair, or misses the chair completely? Put a hamper or basket right where the clothes usually fall.
Losing keys is my problem. After locking two dogs in the car with the motor running, I decided that it was time for a change. Keys now go in my right-hand pocket. A second set goes in my purse. I’m not telling where the third and fourth sets are kept.
The point is that small organizational problems can get out of hand (quickly), but you can take small daily steps to help you stay on track.
Give It a Month
Daily maintenance need not be drudgery for you, although it may seem that way in the beginning. Give yourself a month. Take care of one equalizing activity every day. Try emptying your pockets onto a tray or basket (or you could get fancy with a dresser valet box) every day. Throw away the trash. Toss extra change into a dish. Count your money and organize it according to denomination. Make sure your keys are there (or on the hook by the door). Put receipts in one place. (One of the top 10 complaints I hear from wives is that “he” can’t find receipts when it’s time to file expense reports.)
Seasonal sorts are simply daily equalizing taken a step further. Go through your clothes or sporting goods and get rid of anything that didn’t work this last season. Pull out the next season’s gear and evaluate. Take time to get rid of anything that no longer works. Move things around so they are accessible, usable, and enjoyable for you. Just like anything else in life, each time you change seasons it takes less time and gets easier.
Teamwork
Deep storage spaces like attics, garages, and basements are usually big organizing projects. You’ll need help. Ask for it. Everyone in the family can help out. No family? Give friends and neighbors a reason to chip in (or hire out). Establish the ground rules — sort, purge, clean it up, consolidate items into activity centers, and contain them. Give even the smallest tyke a job. Provide food and drink. Celebrate when finished.
Analyze That Animal
So, you’ve got gremlins in the garage, bats in the belfry, and who knows what lurking in the basement. Welcome to the club. You aren’t alone. With a little help, though, you could be singing a happier tune and able to park your car in the garage.
You know the drill by now. What’s working? Are you already able to park inside all the time? Can you find your tools every time you want a wrench or a screwdriver? Maybe you’ve already finished your closets and stashed your off-season outfits.
How about the flip side? At this writing, I have 106 inherited family paintings and their shipping crates in my garage. This is seriously not working. As a professional organizer, I have seen everything in attics, basements, and garages from antique tables to vintage vinyl — including a huge number of mechanical mysteries in pieces on the floor. What’s not working out in your deep storage places?
What items are essential to you in those spaces? How could or should those deep storage spaces be serving you? Note the word “serving.” When your space is cluttered and unmanageable, it is ruling you. Now it’s time for you to regain control.
Why Do You Want to Get Organized?
You like that control, right? Would the attic, basement, or garage hold your hobby projects? Give you a place to store the things that are now in your closets and scattered throughout the house? Maybe you could even gain a quiet place to retreat when necessary.
You’ve got your work cut out for you, and you’re apt to run into a problem or two. Morgenstern talks about two common problems in Organizing from the Inside Out. First, people tend to put things in the garage, attic, or basement without thought to where it should go. How many times have you said or heard, “Oh, just put it in the garage.” Second, you may stop using things but are still sentimentally attached to them. Where do you think they end up? With everything else jumbled together in your deep storage.
Setting Aside the Goods
As you are sorting, there will be items to be legitimately saved for the kids, charitable donations, or a garage sale. You will want to create a temporary activity zone where those items can rest. Garage sale items can be pre-sorted into sale categories without any real extra work. Use boxes and label clearly. Allow a little extra room since family, friends, and neighbors may want to add their pre-priced items to your upcoming sale.
Strategize
Decide to decide. What are you going to keep in your storage spaces? You can use the furniture or shelving that you have to break up the room. By moving these items off the walls, you can define separate activity centers, and create aisles for moving in between each area.
Go Vertical
Deep storage areas are great for going vertical. Shelving can be installed near the ceiling for little-used items or electronic equipment boxes (you’ll need these if you ever have occasion to return a stereo, video, or computer component under warranty!). Line walls with shelves. Even narrow shelving created between wall studs will serve to hold a ton of items like car wax, oil, and bug spray.
Tool Time
Tools keep a home happy. Try hanging a picture, fixing a leak, or taking apart a child’s toy without tools. You’ve got to have your tools handy at all times. If you are good with tools and have a workshop of some sort, you probably have pegboard and lots of little drawers or containers for drill bits, washers, nails, screws, and other hardware. Walk through a good hardware store and you’ll get the picture. Hang it up, and sort like with like.
Garage Sale Here!
If you have enough stuff and stamina, a sale is for you. To make top dollar in the least amount of time, you’ll need to have plenty of clean merchandise that is organized and priced right. Be ready to bargain. Be sure to advertise in a local paper, put up signs, get plenty of change, and arrange for help. Be sure to have at least a couple of boxes that veteran “junkers” can sift through.
Keep, Toss, Give, or Have a Sale!
Memorabilia can be saved. In fact, Morgenstern says she is a firm believer in the importance of saving objects to trigger joyous memories. She cautions us to be selective. Refrain from keeping more than you can store and enjoy. Save the best in containers organized for happy trips down memory lane.
If you really have a lot of items to toss, you might need to make special plans for disposal. Some communities set restrictions about the amount of trash that can be put out at one time or charge a nominal fee for going over the limit. If you live in a rural area and must haul your own trash, consider how you will get it to the dump and what the fees might be. Please be considerate by taking care of your trash responsibly.
Give It Away
Getting rid of excess personal belongings lightens your load in more ways than one. Giving to others is a wonderful way to lift your heart. Choose someone you know or a worthy charity that you can support to receive your still usable goods. Some will even pick up items for you, and any reputable charities can give you a receipt for tax purposes. You’ll need to call well ahead of time to schedule bulky items.
A sale is a lot of work, but great motivation. Done right, it can actually give you a small cash prize back for all your hard work. You’ll need to find out whether or not your neighborhood or local government puts any restrictions on household sales. The IRS doesn’t care as long as you don’t make a habit or a business out of it.
Contain It
All kinds of basic and specialty containers are available to be used in deep storage spaces. The resource pages in Lesson 3 of this course contain the names of several retailers offering effective containers. For storing hobby and sporting goods, take a look at http://www.racorinc.com. Racor makes ProStor and Racor specialty racks, including the Hoist Monster for bikes.
Herding Stuff Home and Keeping It There
Avoid jeopardizing all your hard work (remember, it’s going to take a while to organize deep storage space) by herding your possessions into the best possible homes. Then, keep them there.
Morgenstern suggests storing like items together. This enables everyone in the family to see how items are stored and understand the logic behind the system. Seeing is believing, and understanding makes for adherence to the rules.
Go vertical, but don’t put things out of reach. Stack, but keep the piles manageable so you don’t knock them down or tear them all apart once you start retrieving items. Keep it simple, and make it easy.
Get Something Sturdy
Make sure your containers will take the rougher environments of the attic, basement, and garage. Your location may get down well below freezing or up to sizzling triple digits. You may also be battling moisture problems, critters that come to call, or dust seeping in from every angle. Choose your containers for their ability to hold what you want and keep out the elements.
Use creativity. Morgenstern suggests a tall trashcan as a great home for baseball bats and hockey sticks. Consider bike racks, plastic storage bins, and archival quality photo shoeboxes, just to name a few.
Keep frequently used items up front where you can get at them easily, and train everyone, including yourself, to put them away at the end of the day or when finished with them.
This lesson has explored ways to reduce clutter in your innermost storage zones, and enumerates ways to determine what things you need and love, and what you should find another home for.
Assignment: Streamline Storage
Step 1: Be Aware
Step outside your home through the front door. When you come back inside, take a good look around. Open your eyes to see how the entry looks to an outsider. Make note of what you do when you return home each day after being out in the world. Do you drop the mail, set down keys, or sit down to talk to your animals?
Step 2: Analyze and Strategize
Open the closet that serves as your front, entry, or coat closet. If you do not have such a closet, look at the area where you keep jackets, umbrellas, and hats. Analyze and strategize this storage area. What’s working? Not working? What items belong here? What items are essential in this area? Is there something that is stored elsewhere that should be in this closet? What reason do you have to organize this area? Are there any obstacles in your way? When can you schedule time to organize this closet? It will probably take you less time, but allow yourself eight hours. Put it on your calendar — or do it now.
Step 3: Attack and Admire
Attack the closet. Start by taking everything out. Then sort and purge. Take short breaks when you need them. Stand back and admire. When you are finished, make an appointment with yourself to take care of the trash, recycling, and items for donation.
Organizing from the Inside Out 