I Just Need Bigger Pants!: Small House Organizing

January 10, 2012 in Apartment Organizing, Closet organizing, Home organizing, Organizing Tips | No comments

Oftentimes, while working with my clients to help them get organized, my clients say they could be organized if they just had more space (read “bigger house”). But isn’t that kind of like saying, “I’m not getting fat, I just need bigger pants?!”

Sure,a bigger house,or bigger pants,is one way to temporarily mask the problem at hand. But before you know it, the bigger house will be full of stuff too. Many of us professional organizers tell our clients that they need to learn to live and be organized in their current space before they go on to a bigger place. I think this is the only way to learn how to get and stay organized.

So how do you make your too-small house work for one or two more years? Go for the low-hanging fruit! Taking on those obvious problem areas can really make a big impact. And getting organized, and the maintenance of the newly organized spaces, is a whole lot less expensive than a new house or remodeling.

Invest in some organizing as a way to save your sanity, and maybe your marriage too!

9 ways to make your current home fit your family without remodeling:

1. Make more space by purging ruthlessly. (In case you’re not sure…”ruthlessly” means without pity,compassion;merciless!) Start with the most cluttered and most used rooms. Please donate and then recycle as much of the unneeded items as possible. Not sure where send the stuff to? Check my web site tips for an extensive list of options. Donation and recycling options
2. Increase functionality of each room by defining how you use it. Keep only the items associated with that use in that room.
3. Maximize the storage space you have by going vertical. Add a second hanging bar, an old dresser or shelves to a closet, attic, basement or garage. Adding these will also make access more convenient.
4. Invest in custom or semi-custom closet systems. One hanging bar and one shelf does not qualify as a closet system! This closet uses the vertical space by hanging storage on the doors and by having two rods for coats.
5. Use doors and walls as storage space.
6. Because the kitchen is the hub of the home, spend a bit of time here. Keep frequently used items in prime real estate,store the other stuff in the back or in another storage area. (Who really needs daily access to all 20 wine glasses?? Well…maybe keep just a couple glasses nearby!) You may want to invest in roll-out shelving for your lower cabinets or pantry. This will increase the accessibility of this space significantly.
7. Rotate seasonally. For example, bring out the roller blades and baseball gear in the summer and store hats, boots and winter coats in the basement.
8. Customize your entryway with the storage you need. Add shoe storage, hooks, closet system or an armoire to eliminate the heap of stuff at the door. While you’re at it, set a 2-pairs of shoes limit, per family member,at the door! See some great entryway photos here.See another great entry/laundry area here.
9. Consider off-site storage as a last resort. Really assess whether is it worth paying $600 a year to keep your college furniture! (Refer to tip #1.)

Share your great ideas with us! Do you have a gem of a way to make your small home work for you?

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Are you a “resolution-ist” or a “lifestylist”?

January 3, 2012 in Healthy living, Home organizing, Organizing Tips, Time management, Uncategorized | Permalink

Every year at this time there is much talk of making New Year’s resolutions.  Heck, even my 8-year-old son said he was making a resolution this year.  (And, by the way, his parents would be very happy if he kept his resolution!)  But I see a problem with resolution-making.
Let’s use the health club as a perfect example of resolution-ist behavior. Every January, my health club activity level soars on about January 2nd. The parking lot is crammed, all the treadmills are full, you now have to get to spin class 30 minutes early so you can get a bike….Very inconvenient for all of us who are regulars at the gym!  But by February 1st, if not sooner, life at the gym is back to normal.  All the newbies are gone and we’re back to seeing the familiar faces we always see there.
So why do all the resolution-ists drop out within a month?  Because they haven’t made a lifestyle change.  They simply got fired up to accomplish their goal of being more healthy but didn’t have a plan.  It can be easy in the beginning of a new resolution to be highly motivated but then regular life happens, a cold, a trip, work, kid’s activities, etc. The next thing you know you’ve skipped a week, ate a bag of cookies and you figure you might as well give up!  Oh well, we’ll get ‘em next year, they say.

In my work as a professional organizer, there are common denominators on why people need my help.  Often times, my clients have tried to get organized or may have actually been organized at some point, but then fell off the wagon.  Maybe they didn’t have a maintenance plan, a major life event happened or the systems were too complex.  Getting organized is the easy part.  Losing weight is the easy part.  Signing up at the health club is also easy.  Making organization or healthy living a way of life is the hardest thing to do.  It requires a plan!Procrastination

Using the healthy living as the goal, how will you make it a lifestyle?  Some great ways are to take a look at your calendar and block out the major activities for a typical week, i.e. work hours, sleep hours, family time, errands.  Where in your week will visits to the health club fit best?  If you can’t identify a 2-3 times a week where you usually will be able to get there, then you’re going to have to revamp the schedule. What will you move, change or drop in order to make time for this new goal?  Always delete before you add!

Another facet of our healthy living example would be eating healthy and eating at home more often.  How will you accomplish this?  You will need a weekly review of your calendar to see when you will be able to cook meals, a meal plan and a weekly trip to the grocery store to buy all the supplies you will need for the week’s meals.  Without the plan and the supplies, you’ll be ordering deep dish pizza in no time!

And this brings me to organization, of course! Having an organized kitchen and meal plan will aid in eating healthy meals at home on a regular basis.  One of my favorite books on getting and staying organized is by Peter Walsh.  I love the title because it’s catches your attention and it is true.  Check out Does This Clutter Make by Butt Look Fat. It’s a quick read and I love Peter’s direct and funny style.  He tells it like it is and sometimes that’s what we need to hear!

What lifestyle change will you make this year?  Say it out loud and make a plan!  Please share your thoughts on lifestyle goals here and feel free to ask me questions about organization and meeting your goals.

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Simple Way to Keep Tupperware in Place in the Dishwasher: Band It

December 19, 2011 in Home organizing, Organizing Tips, Product Recommendations, Uncategorized | Permalink

Do your plastic bowls fly around and flip over in the dishwasher, only to come out still dirty or full of soap?   Do

Locked and Loaded!

you try to find ways to keep your plastic bowls in place so they’ll get clean?  I love my Ziplock plastic bowls but they are so light that they rarely stay in place.  Even the heavier Tupperware bowls flip over sometimes.

I saw this at Wal-Mart over a year ago and bought it on a whim.  Band It is a clip and rubber band system that allows you to hold your plastic bowls in place in the dishwasher.  The answer to my life’s greatest problem!  I just love this product!!  It actually works really well, is simple to use and inexpensive. I also love it because it saves me time because I don’t have to rewash bowls that flipped over.

I prefer not to wash my stemware by hand but am concerned they’ll break in the dishwasher.  Now I use Band It to hold stemware in place so they don’t clank and break.

I needed a replacement set after heavy use and the Walmart by me didn’t have them anymore but they are available at Band It at Amazon.com.

Do you suffer from the same plastic bowl issue?

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How to Organize a Bathroom: DIY Bathroom Storage Solutions

December 1, 2011 in Bathroom organizing, Home organizing, Organizing Tips | Permalink

labeled baskets

You don’t have to gut your bathroom to get some better storage.  Here are a few DIY bathroom storage solutions you can do to make your bathroom organized and functional:

  • Purge all the old toiletries you haven’t used in ages.  They do go bad!  (I used some really old aloe
    Medicing Cabinet

    If you don't have space, don't buy it!

    once and it burned my arm.  Really!  But that’s in another post…)  If you purge old stuff, things you no longer need, and vow to stop buying the latest scent of every lotion and potion, you’ll have more storage than you know what to do with!

  • Add a medicine cabinet.  I suggested this to a client recently as a replacement for their large mirror.  There really wasn’t enough proper storage for mousse, hair spray and the like, even after we purged a ton.  This should be a fairly easy installation, unless there’s wiring or duct work behind it, but will likely require paint touch up.
  • Add a shelf or, better yet, a roll out shelf under the sink!  I added a shelf to my guest bath vanity and it provided a ton of extra storage for towels and cleaning products.  This was totally simple and cheap too.
  • Use baskets to group like items that are small.  Label the basket as to what goes in it.  This will keep little items from rolling around and getting lost.Lazy susan
  • Use a lazy Susan to make your supplies visible and easy to access.

What needs better organization in your bathroom? What’s the oldest and scariest thing in there?

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How Not to Get Organized!

November 26, 2011 in Closet organizing, Home organizing, Organizing Tips | Permalink

When I work with my clients, they have all tried to get organized on their own.  I can tell because there are all kinds of containers in their houses!  Why did they struggle to get organized and/or fail to stay organized?  The most common cause of organizational system failure is putting the cart before the horse, so to speak.  We get excited about getting organized and the first thing we do is go out and buy something to fix the problem, right?  It’s kind of like grocery shopping before you’ve decided what you want to cook.  If you don’t know what you’re going to cook, how can you buy the ingredients?  If you don’t know what you have to organize or where it will be stored, how can you buy containers?

We all make this mistake at times.  We recently modeled our bathroom and I was sure I was going to need a drawer system in my linen closet.  I almost went and purchased it before the bathroom was done.

No drawers needed!

Boy was I glad I saved my money by waiting to see if I needed it!  We had a tower cabinet installed in the bathroom that held tons of stuff that used to be in the closet.  Turns out I didn’t need any drawers after all.

There’s a simple process to getting organized and it starts with sorting like items together.  Kids learn this process in kindergarten.  It’s easy enough.  For my clients, often the purging comes naturally as we

pile up 20 pairs of black dress slacks together, for example.  Had we not put all the black slacks together, we wouldn’t have known we had too many black ones or unflattering ones.  We might have gone and bought pants hangers for twice as many pants as we would actually end up with.

Want to get organized and stay organized?  Please sort and purge and then see how what you have left fits into the space and containers you already have.   You may find you have all that you need!  This will save you some money and a trip to the store.   Oh ya, and remember to label your containers too!

Are you a cart before the horse person?  What interesting items did you uncover when going through your stuff trying to get organized?

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10 Ways to Prepare for Christmas and Reduce Stress:Get Organized

November 21, 2011 in Holiday Tips, Home organizing, Organizing Tips | Permalink

charlie-brown-christmas-tree

We’ve heard it a million times before.  Holiday time is very stressful!  Here are 10 ways to reduce your stress and maximize your enjoyment by getting organized.

  1. Get your holiday cards staged and ready to go before Thanksgiving.  Work on them a little at a time while doing something enjoyable!
  2. Throughout the year, jot down gift ideas on a list for friends and family.  That way when shopping time comes, you’re ahead of the game because you have ideas already.
  3. Contact family members now about clothing sizes for anybody you may buy this kind of gift for.  Keep it on the gift idea list mentioned above.
  4. Find out what your nieces and nephews are interested in currently so you’ll have a starting point for gift ideas.  When they’re young, their interests change so quickly so it helps to find out what the latest and greatest is!
  5. Review your December calendar so you can try to avoid over-scheduling yourself with parties and volunteer activities.  Prioritize your activities so that the most important don’t get left off.
  6. Start planning your holiday meals now.  Make a list of what will be served and ask party attendees to bring something off the list.  This way you won’t end up with 4 pumpkin pies and no mashed potatoes!
  7. Do a high-level decluttering of your entertaining areas of your home over the next several weeks.  Doing a little at a time will make the project seem more manageable.
  8. Start your holiday decorating the weekend of Thanksgiving.  It will be less stressful than shopping and most of us have extra time off that week.
  9. Purge unwanted, broken or unloved decorations as you take them out.  Donate what’s still usable to the Salvation Army.  When you take down decorations, do another purge and repack in ornament boxes.  Stock up on tissue paper to wrap delicate ornaments in.
  10. After Christmas, organize your decorations so they’re easier to get to and take up as little space as possible.

What’s your sure-fire way to reduce holiday stress and get ahead of the game?  Which one of these tips will you try now?

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Too Busy to Recycle? – Recycle the Easy Way!

November 14, 2011 in Donation Tips, Home organizing, Organizing Tips, Recycling Tips | Permalink

Love this! 2 Full size cans!

Here are a couple of ideas of how to make recycling easy. Put the ones that will work for you into action today!

  • After a shopping trip, but before you go around putting things away, remove all the excess packaging while standing by a recycling bin
  • Place a couple of recycling bins in rooms or areas of the house that seem to generate a fair amount of recyclables.  The kitchen is the obvious choice for most of us but consider these areas:
  • Family bathroom – for all those empty toiletries and Kleenex boxes (at least in my allergy-filled life there are always empty boxes!)
  • Laundry room or entry area – makes dumping junk mail and emptying backpacks fast
  • Home office – for the “paperless” office we all have!
  • Basement – if you have a family room here, having garbage and recycling bins on this level will make cleaning up more convenient (and it will be more likely to be done by your kids!)
  • Start up a big box in the basement or garage for odd items that cannot be recycled curbside.  This way when the big recycling events start up in the spring, you’re ready with your junk!
  • Forget the fancy recycling centers designed to separate materials.  Most curbside recycling is commingled so don’t waste your time sorting. Just separate garbage from all recyclables.
  • Remember to gather up the garbage AND the recycling bins from around the house on garbage day.

One side note: I encourage you to consider donating working items rather than recycling them.  Why not pass items along to those who need them, get a tax credit AND someone will come to your door and pick it up??  What a great deal!  Not sure who will come to your house?  Try Donation Pick Up Service and Donation Town first.  Once you’ve donated to one of local charities, they’ll keep in contact with you.

How do you make recycling easier in your home or office?  Have you found a great source for taking some odd items that the garbage service doesn’t take?  Please share with the group!

If there is something you’d like to recycle but don’t know where, ask me here and I will try to find a place.  I have an extensive list of recycling and donation options on my web site, so check there first.

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Beauty Supplies Gone Ugly- Makeup and Personal Care Products Do Expire!

November 7, 2011 in Bathroom organizing, Home organizing, Organizing Tips | 1 comment

Did you know that all those lotions, potions and makeup you have actually expire and go bad?  Yes!  Makeup does expire.  Personal care products expire.  I can speak from personal experience when I say this.  We had a bottle of aloe that was unidentifiable old and I used it on a burn on my arm.  After I used it the burn got worse because the aloe had gone bad!  The aloe actually burned my arm further!  Expired healthcare products, makeup and cleansers, etc., are dangerous.

So how long does your makeup and lotion last, you ask?  It depends. There’s a basic list on the Today Show web site.  On Burt’s Bees web site, they say that their products last about a year after they have been opened.  It is important to note that these new, all natural products like Burt’s Bees don’t have chemicals and preservatives therefore they will not last as long as the products full of chemicals.

My advice is as follows:

  • Buy small containers and only ones you will actually use.  If you’re not sure if you will like a new lotion, hair product or make up item, then buy the trial size or the smallest size available.
  • If you decide you don’t like it, there’s no sense in hanging on to it, just in case.  You likely won’t change your mind and it’s not going to get any better sitting on your shelf.
  • Do yourself a favor and unload it as soon as you decide it’s not for you.  Since it is an opened product, you cannot donate it but maybe someone else in your household would like to try it.  Otherwise, dump the product, assuming it is not medicine,  and recycle the package.  This will save you the hassle of a massive purge at a later date when your medicine cabinet explodes when you open it!
  • If you find yourself not knowing when you opened a product, especially those items that you only occasionally need, then put a small label on it that states the date you opened it.
  • Keep a copy of the expiration guidelines in the room where you apply these products so you can easily decide if it’s time for one of them to go.  Try taping it to the inside of the medicine cabinet.
  • Resist the urge to impulse buy these products.  It’ll save you space, money, disappointment and the effort of clearing them out a later date.  Believe me; I see tons of old lotions and potions at my clients’ houses.  It’s a waste of money!

What’s the oldest thing in your medicine cabinet?  Do you dare use it??

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Is More Always Better? – Life the American Way vs. Italian Style

October 12, 2011 in Apartment Organizing, Home organizing, Organizing Tips, Uncategorized | 2 comments

Soaking Up Siena

I just returned from Italy and had a wonderful time traveling around with a girlfriend that I’ve known since high school.  We relaxed and soaked up as much of the Italian life as we could!  While there, we started contemplating the American way, “More is always better”.

One evening we were enjoying walking around inside the walls of Siena before a later dinner, truly Italian style.  We had wanted to get some time while in Siena to visit the shops but had spent more time wine tasting instead!  (Which is not at all a bad thing!)  As we were walking we noticed that all but a few shops were closed by 7pm.  We thought these shops could make a killing if they were open until 9 to catch the tourists on the way to or from dinner.  Why wouldn’t they be open when the tourists were out and about?

After considering this for a moment and reflecting on what we observed of Italians while we were there, we realized that keeping the shops open late would require someone to work into the evening.  Doh! (Side note, I did not see any teens working in shops like they do at the mall here at home!)  And what Italian would want to be the one to close up the shop late each night?  Yes, they could make more money and maybe the shop owner could even hire an additional employee or two and reap greater profits.

But then I thought about how their culture is not driven by money alone like I often feel we are here in America.  It seems Italians enjoy their lives, each other, their food, wine and culture and value these things over earning more Euros.  They don’t live in the “bigger is better” mentality like we do.

And this is where our desire for more money and “bigger is better” gets us into trouble.  Why not buy 2 because it’s on sale, super size it, stock up, choose the 36-pack instead of the 2-pack? We choose to buy more stuff, commit to more activities, work more hours, commute the farthest and take less vacation than most nations.  And what does this get us?  Too much stuff, too little time, exhausted bodies and minds and complicated lives hanging in the balance of everything needing to go as planned or it all falls apart!

I do subscribe to the American way at times but I don’t believe I’m as deep into it as most Americans. For example, I often say no to requests and only stock up items that will easily fit into my storage spaces.  (I am blessed with a nice size home that I keep well-organized so it makes this easier. But if you cannot fit into your current home, a bigger one will only multiply your problems!)

As I parked my car in the garage outside the walls of Siena and hauled my crap up the cobble-stone hill, I thought about my stock up shopping at Target and how I wouldn’t buy as much stuff if I had to walk it from the garage to my tiny apartment (up 3 flights of stairs, I’m sure!).  It just wouldn’t make sense.  Ahh, Italy, an eye-opening experience, as always…

Do you subscribe to the American way of more and bigger is always better?  If not, how do you simplify or downsize?

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I Don’t Get It

August 30, 2011 in Home organizing, Organizing Tips, Uncategorized | 4 comments

What is this photo selling?

I just don’t get it!  I received an Arhaus Furniture catalog recently and found the photo shown here of a media center crammed full of books.  To me, this sells clutter and shows me that this piece of furniture will not help organize my media components or display my treasures in a pleasing way.

So, what were the marketing folks at Arhaus thinking when the allowed this photo shoot to go on?  Was the product manager hung over from a party the night before and decided to just wing it??  Were they trying to be Pottery Barn, because I’ve noticed they display a lot of clutter in their photos as well?  But even Pottery Barn doesn’t jam up the furniture with this much crap!

I’m all for showing life more as it really is rather than all peachy like you see in Martha Stewart Living magazine.  But I think this is a little over the top.

What do you think?  Like it?  Love it? Hate it?  Does this appeal to you?  What am I missing?

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