Maximize storage by using walls with mounted shelving – especially in garages.
A hanging magnetic knife rack keeps sharp instruments orderly and within safe reach. Clears out drawer space as well.
Open shelves are accessible but force you to edit. When you see it, you know what you’ve got. You forget what’s behind closed doors.
Go vertical. Hang it up. Keep floor space open.
Empty is ok. You don’t have to fill every nook and cranny. Free space is nice.
I love opening a linen closet where stacks of clean fresh laundry are piled neatly with only folded edges showing. There are several space saving ways to fold towels and sheet sets can be folded into neat little packages. Cleaning out a linen closet is a great way to turn old towels into rags or car washing towels. You’d be surprised what a little organization can do for a small narrow closet. A spritz of linen spray will freshen the closet and you will breathe a sigh of comfort when you pillow your head at night.
Novels, self-help, recipe, business, non-fiction, magazines! Is it beginning to look like a well-worn library in your home? Are bookshelves crammed tight with old hardcovers or torn and worn paperbacks?
Pay it forward! You can donate these treasures to your local library and if they can’t be shelved they will sell them at book sales benefitting the library for new books.
You may read it again? Seriously? How many books have you re-read? Let’s talk minimal – as in e-books. Books are meant to be read and convey information to you, the reader. That’s the special meaning behind a book… not sitting on your shelf. When you touch the book does it bring you pleasure? Perhaps it’s a limited edition or a classic. That’s fine! Keep it!
Someday means never. If you say, “someday I will read this…” you won’t. If you’ve read it, move on. If it’s truly a treasure, keep it.
There is one fun way to display nice art books… stack them in a colorful tower in a corner of the room. Just hope the one you want to read isn’t at the bottom!
The word purge indicates getting rid of something. Ho Hum. Before you get the Eeyore, complex think of the word fest. It indicates fun, excitement and a party! A purge-fest is a time set aside to purge with an organizer and your party will come when the work is done!
My client recently purchased a new closet system. She emptied everything from her old closet into her bedroom, bathtub, shower stall… it was a hot mess! But together we went through each item one by one and purged, hung, placed, binned. We laughed, we sipped, we had a blast on purge-fest day. With all the stuff this huge job only took part of a day.
The result? One happy client who reports she LOVES her closet. Everything is reachable, color coded, neat and tidy. Now as she wears clothes she’d forgotten she had, she hangs the item inside out. In 6 months, if she hasn’t worn it again, she will purge it.
15 bags to charity and 5 more to the trash? Now that’s a purge. Watching her dance in her closet? That’s a fest!
