Smart Organizing

Organizing Closets

Every closet in your home should be assigned a specific, unique function. First, go through your home/office/apartment and give each closet its “job.” Then, one closet at a time, go through and remove any items not related to its newly assigned function. As you clean, create three boxes for the outgoing clutter: donation, throwaway, and sell. One tactic I suggest is to remove everything in the closet first, and sort items as you are putting them back. (Make sure you give yourself enough time to complete the task. It takes at least 2–4 hours for a coat closet, if fully packed, and 4–8 hours for a fully packed bedroom closet.) But before putting everything away, stop and ask yourself: Does the closet need painting? Airing out? Vacuuming? Do you want to install another shelf? Repair the rod? How about adding another hanging bar and increasing your short hanging space? Or robe or hat hooks on the internal walls or door? Do you need a shoe rack? Is there enough lighting?

Once you have matched the contents to their assigned closets, you are one step closer to making items easier to locate when you need them. Next, put your most frequently used items near the front of the closet—this is your Ergonomic Storage. Store items that are rarely used in the backs of closets or in areas that are harder to reach—this is your Seasonal Storage. Also remember to group “like items” together within the closet, like sports equipment, cleaning products, or hats and gloves.

Meg Connell

Estate, Corporate, and Residential Organizing

Oakland, California

www.theorganizedone.com

Cleaning closets can be a tricky business. Good plans can go downhill quickly. You start out with high resolve to do the deed that you’ve been putting off. You lay the clothes out on the bed for examination and pull out shoes with other items that somehow found their way into the recesses of the shelves.

But then you get a phone call, grab a bite of lunch, empty the dishwasher, go pick up the kids, stop by the store, help with homework, and, exhausted, move the clothes off the bed and fall in it.

This is the story day after day until the would-be closet cleaner and the clothes are worn out from the constant moving back and forth.

What Do You Want?

There are several kinds of closets. Put a check beside the closets in your house the most in need of change.

___ utility closet—which one?

___ clothes closet—which one?

___ linen closet

___ pantry or food closet

The Bare Bones Way

Utility Closets

Tangled extension cords, lightbulbs, picture-hanging kits, these are the things that go into a utility closet. I have a super idea for organizing the utility closet, and I want to share it with you: Use clear plastic boxes. They may be shoe boxes with detachable tops or drawers that pull out. I have about thirty in my closet. They are wonderful. When I first cleaned out the utility closet, I found that the items to be put away were falling into categories. So I bought plastic boxes (frequently on sale during dollar days at variety and drug stores) and later drawer systems of a size that fits on shelves. On the outside of the boxes and drawers into which I deposited the groups of items, I attached a card naming the various categories. The labels on my boxes include:

Shoe things (polishes, laces, brushes)
Repair stuff (light switch plates, wall plugs, etc.)
Curtain hardware (hooks for curtains, plastic balls for the pull cords, curtain rod brackets)
Tape, ribbons, and strings
Lightbulbs
Soap, toothpaste, and emery boards
First aid items

Remember, the boxes must be clear plastic and the category must be put on the front either with plastic tape and a labeling gun or with tabs used for labeling in a filing system.

If you store mops or brooms in the utility closet, buy clamps and attach them to the wall. Awkward things like irons and ironing boards can be stored with special holders designed to keep them off the floor. Try to keep the floor as bare as possible. It’s easier to keep clean that way and looks much neater.

IN THE TRENCHES WITH SMART HOMEMAKERS

From Penelope:
I have recently had the house renovated and had to move out in order for workmen to get the job done. Soon after I moved back in, a friend loaned me a copy of The New Messies Manual.

Less than a week later I gave her back her copy and bought my own. I have been bringing things back into the house gradually so that I do not get overwhelmed and am trying to find homes for everything before I bring the next box in. This is not proving to be as easy as it sounds, however your “centers” idea, the labeling and the boxes ideas have proved to be very useful. Recently I established an “Electrical box” in which I keep extension cords, double adapters, lightbulbs, batteries, insulation tape and a flash light. It will soon have fuse wire, wire cutters, and pliers in it. The box is clear plastic and I have used a Dymo labeler to list the contents on the outside including the location of an extra long extension cord.

Twice lately I have been asked if I had a double adapter and once for a light bulb. I was able to find them all within seconds—in the past I was always buying new ones because I couldn’t find the ones I had already. Thank you so much for your book and the ideas in it. I dread to think what things would be like without them.

An Organizer in Process:
I have made a little progress in my bedroom this morning but, of course, the bed itself is full. I organized a small storage closet for health and beauty items, which enables me to actually put some of this sort of thing away instead of poking through my assortment of lumpy bags because “I know it’s in here somewhere!” This will be a great relief.

Clothes Closets

Why are closets such a problem? Many closets are too small for all we want to put in them. However, if you look at your closet, you will see a lot of wasted space, usually below the hanging clothes and above the clothes rod.

COMMERCIAL CLOSET SYSTEMS

The logical solution for closets that have only one bar is to install two bars, one above the other, thus making better use of more space in the closet. To put in two bars, the top bar needs to be raised. Carmen, my Cleanie friend, did this by taking out all the wood shelves and bars and replacing them with plastic coated, ventilated wire shelving. There are three advantages to this type of shelving:

You can see what is on the high shelf more easily through the spaces between the wires.
Less dusting is required, since there is no solid shelf.
You can use the front rod of the shelf as a hanging bar; the wires attached to the rod hold the clothes hangers apart evenly.

You can find these shelving systems in many stores that carry closet hardware. There are closet companies that will install them for you if you cross their palms with silver. Look under closet in the Yellow Pages.

DO-IT-YOURSELF CHANGES

Now suppose you say, “That’s too big a job for right now. What can I do with my closet the way it is?” Let me tell you my situation. If it requires a hammer and nails and takes more than five minutes to do, I don’t do it. My husband and I are not handy with building things, and the few occasions when I have had someone do it for me have been somewhat unsatisfactory. So I look for easy-to-install ready builts. In this case I add another shelf to the top of the closet by supporting it with some kind of prop to make use of the empty space up there. Of course, that shelf will be pretty much out of reach so I will use it to store only seldom used things. You can utilize the space at the bottom of the closet by obtaining a low drawer system that fits whatever space is unused.

An easy-to-install lower bar can be hung from the bar above in various ways. Check catalogs for useful products, or obtain a PVC plastic tube, cut to an appropriate length. Attach it to the bar above at each end with a rope threaded through the tube. Having a low bar in the children’s closets helps them get in the hang-up habit too.

There are other good methods for organizing your closet. Don’t let the shoes make your closet a mess. The back of the closet door is invaluable space for storage systems designed to hold shoes, belts, ties, and some jewelry. If you make your closet an organizing project (after you have finished discarding excess, of course), look for ideas in closet organizing books, articles, or on the Internet.

CLOTHES HANGERS

An important element of clothing storage that is often overlooked is the clothes hanger. Get rid of the wire hangers, buy plastic tubular ones instead, and be sure to have enough for all your clothes. One reason people don’t hang up their clothes is because it is so hard. Sometimes there aren’t enough hangers. The wire coat hangers hook over each other, making them hard to take out. Frequently the wire hangers with the round cardboard tube given out by cleaners are broken in the middle of the tube when we get them out, which discourages hanging up pants. And then, of course, there is the problem of too many clothes in the closet, which makes getting something in or out a tug-of-war.

Let me mention that you can pick up the plastic tubular hangers at many dollar day sales or buy a few each time you go to the store. Don’t wait too long to get them, though. Buy one color of hanger; brown is good because it is stylish and somewhat neutral.

I suggest you paint your closet white and keep it that way so you won’t have to repaint it each time you paint the bedroom. Can you envision that beautiful neat closet with the white walls and brown hangers? Looks good, doesn’t it?

ORGANIZING THE CLOTHES

The best color-coding application I have ever made is with my clothing. I divided my clothes into four groups: slacks, blouses, two-piece outfits, and dresses. In each group I arranged the clothes from light to dark, like an artist’s palette. This did wonders. Previously, I could not tell whether the pair of slacks I was looking for was out of the closet or in the closet, lost under something. Now I know that if my black slacks are not right at the end of the slacks section, they are not in the closet. This trick also helps me see the clothes I have and how I can mix and match them. I highly recommend this system.

DECLUTTER THE CLOTHES CLOSET

Perhaps in no other area are we more tempted to keep unused things than in the clothes closet. We have things too big or too small in case we gain or lose weight. We have things that are good but that we never wear because we don’t like them. But they are good—that is, they fit and the buttons are on. So we have to keep them—especially if we paid a lot for them. We keep out-of-style things we used to love, just in case the style returns. It seldom does and never in the same way. Sometimes we keep a dress that is out of style because the skirt could be made into something nice. We never get to that project; but if we ever do, we will have that wonderful dress to work with.

The worst reason to keep clothes cluttering up our closets is that we are keeping them in case someone else would like them. Sometimes we don’t have a specific person in mind, so we keep them until we locate somebody who would profit from our generosity. Being perfectionists, we have to make sure it is just the perfect person. So we put the clothes aside until we get around to sending them to cousin Mary’s boy. He’ll probably have a son of his own before we get them in the mail!

Listen, let’s quit dreaming. We are not going to do the alterations. We are not going to gain or lose weight while the style is still in. If we do, we can reward ourselves with new clothes. Don’t wait for the perfect person to wear the outfit you are saving. Give it to the nearest charity. Let them find the perfect person.

IN THE TRENCHES WITH SMART HOMEMAKERS

A Closet Organizer from Australia:
Yesterday, I determined that I needed to be able to use all my closet. Always in the past, when I have tackled an organizing, cleaning project, it has seemed like it looked worse afterward than when I began. I would always pull everything out and get completely overwhelmed and even though I might get “close” to finishing, I never could actually finish. This time it was different. Armed with the knowledge that I must not pull out more than I could deal with effectively and that I absolutely must not quit until I had accomplished my goal, I did it. I determined that all I wanted to do was to make a path to the other side of the closet. I pulled out just what I needed to and dealt with it as I went along. I just kept plugging along until I got the area looking nice. It was highly motivating and I really hated to stop and go to bed.

Storage Closet Success:
Yesterday, I spent 15 minutes in mine and DD’s shared walk-in closet. It was by far the worst room in the house. I started by organizing the shoes, DD’s on her side and mine on my side.

Then I picked up all of the clothes off of the floor and put them in the dirty laundry (which, by the way I finished before 8 o’clock this morning).

I only spent 15 minutes in there, but it already looks presentable!

Linen Closets and Pantries

Organizing linens in closets and food in pantries follows the same pattern as organizing other closets. Here are some things to remember:

Set aside a specific time to organize the closet. Motivation and determination are key ingredients of a successful project. If possible, work with a helper. Having support makes the job so much easier.
Group similar items together. Use those white boxes mentioned earlier to keep items corralled while you are pulling things off the shelves and grouping them. Gather up items around the house that should be in the closet you’re working on and put them in the appropriate group.
After you have completed gathering similar items, discard duplications. Nobody needs ten glue sticks or whatever you find you have bought in excess because you couldn’t find what you needed at the time you needed it. Evaluate how much room each bunch will need. Return the groupings to the shelves, always placing the most used items within easy reach. Where reasonable, place small items, like food packets or small boxes, into plastic square baskets or plastic shoe boxes.
When everything has been properly stowed, identify the grouping with a label, either on the side of the basket or on the shelf. Write the category on an index card (my favorite way) or use a high-tech label maker. A label will help keep things from wandering out of place, which they tend to do, especially at night when you are not looking. When items are grouped appropriately in closets, you and your family will be able to locate what you need and, more important, will know exactly where items go when you’re finished with them.
Attack only the amount of reorganizing you have time to finish. If you miscalculate and run out of time, put the tops on the boxes and set them aside temporarily. This leaves no messy overflow from the half-finished job to mess up the rest of the house.

Tips

Clear the closets using the three Cs: consolidate, containerize, and condense. If you choose to empty the closet entirely to begin afresh or to paint it, be sure you have enough time to do it completely in one session. Commandeer a friend and set a time schedule.
As you empty clothes, have three piles: YES, NO, and MAYBE. If you have boxes for the last two categories, you can move the MAYBE items into temporary storage while you decide and the NO items out of the house quickly.
Store shoes in shoe bags on back of the door or on wire or wood shoe racks on the floor or closet shelf. Very dressy shoes or shoes seldom worn can be kept in their original shoe boxes labeled on the outside.
Don’t let empty hangers dangle between hangers with clothes on them. Have a spot at the end of the rod or on a shelf for the hangers that are not in use.
No room in the linen closet? Store seldom used sheets between the box spring and the mattress.
Need another shelf in the closet but have no room? Put a shelf inside the closet above the door for seldom used items.
To avoid crowding your closet with too many clothes that don’t match, choose two or three colors and coordinate each purchase around those. Don’t buy anything that doesn’t match three other items you already have.

Decision Time—Choose Your Top 20 Percent for Closet Organizing

Closets can absorb in an orderly fashion what would be disorder if left out in the open. Because of this function, they can set the tone for the whole house. When it comes to organizing, closets are places where you can be tempted to overdo, to drag everything out at once and “go to it.” Eventually all your closets will need to be overhauled and upgraded into storage units of maximum usefulness. But for now, keeping in mind the choices you made in the What Do You Want? section of this chapter and using your gut feeling for what will make the biggest difference with the least time and effort, name three actions you can take at this time to improve your closets. Later you can work at reorganizing all your closets.