Start on Your Organizing Project
Yes it is that time of year, Spring is here. It is a great time to lighten your load, reduce stress and shed items you don’t need or want. Start with the most troubling area in your home. It might be your living room, dining table or even your bedroom closet. First set up several boxes or bins to receive your items as you begin to evaluate each item. Label the boxes or bins as follows 1) Donate, 2) Discard, 3) Give Back to Owner (borrowed stuff), 4) SELL (my favorite), & 5) Keep- you probably need to subdivide Keep into specific categories, ie clothing, paper, books, magazines, CD’S and any other group that you have a lot of items that you will keep.
Now begins the fun, sort through your stack or piles to determine which box or bin each item will go in. Give yourself 20-30 minutes of sorting and take a step back to see your progress. Give yourself a pat on the back for making the hardest decision – you started! Well done, if time permits continue, if not schedule another 30 minute session for tomorrow or as soon as possible. Now that you are underway with your organizing project, don’t stop, keep your level of enthusiasm high even if it means rewarding your with sweet treats or TV treats. After you have completed the sorting process of this project it is now time to consider storing your items.
Principals of Storage
Clear containers are definitely the way to go, try to keep to the same size containers, if not the same style. When your containers are uniform it brings a greater level of organization to the space/room or closet.
You should always try to store items where they will be used or needed. For example if storing hundred’s of CD’S they should be in close proximity to the CD player. By establishing stations in your home according to function it will help determine where all your various items will be stored.
Consider maximizing space in your closets with a shelving and drawer unit system. I favor elfa track system sold exclusively at Container store. You can have your closet redesigned using elfa or other spaces that are going unused. The beauty of elfa is that it can be customize to an odd size to capture all of the height and width of the space. A great feature of the system is the ability to adjust the height of the shelves or rods. This is especially important when the elfa closet is in a child’s room and the rods and shelves need to be raised.
Keep in mind, to have your clothing, papers, books, CD’s and other possessions organized you need to change some habits regarding what you need and where to keep it. How many of a particular article of clothing do you need or how many back issues of magazines do you need? Of course if you are a collector then it is important to care and catalogue your collection. Collectors are very demanding about their coins, dolls, cookie jars, vase, vinyl records or whatever might be their specialty. They therefore have special requirements for storage and display. Unlike the hoarder or plain clutterer they will sell or trade examples of their collection to accommodate new acquisitions. If you have a nice hand blown glass collection it would look great in custom made curio cabinet as whatever collection you have would need a specific display style.
It is important that all of us utilize this mentality when it comes to bringing in new items into your home. Something new comes in, something unwanted or unnecessary goes out! Trading out old for new is a great exercise to practice until it becomes a habit.
About the Author
Troy Kirschner has been a Professional Organizer and owner of ACE Space Krafters since 2001, specializing in design and installation of elfa closet systems. He is available evenings and weekends and his number one goal is client satisfaction!
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