quote of the week ~ September 9, 2013

Science is organized knowledge.  

Wisdom is organized life.

 

~ Emmanuel Kant ~

quote of the week ~ August 26, 2013

Have nothing in your house 

that you do not know to be useful,

or believe to be beautiful.

~ William Morris ~

SORTed lives ~ woman's closet

 Disclaimer :: these aren't the greatest of pictures, and thye certainly don't do justice to this closet makeover.  I was just so excited about getting everything sorted that I guess I wasn't focused on capturing our transformation on film!

Here's the closet BEFORE.  The client had already done quite a bit of work on her own.  She went through all of her clothing and purged about 4 or 5 bags of items to be given away or donated.  Much of her "keeper" items were stored in a closet in a different room.  The client complained that the closet was too jam-packed when all of her clothing was in there.  She had some products in place to help maximize space, but they weren't really working for her.  In the picture on the left, you can see a double closet rod was added below the shorter hanging items, but it was wobbly and not very functional.  There was an obvious need for some kind of shoe storage as well.  One huge structural plus to this closet is the built-in shelves, which were being used to store cleaning and toiletry supplies (the closet is off the master bath), but they were clearly under-utilized.

 

What made all the difference in this project was adding some space-maximizing products.  Here are the products we used, all purchased at Bed, Bath, and Beyond or The Container Store.

 

 

Our main goal in this closet was to increase the hanging "real estate" so that clothing would not be wedged in too tightly.  We used the products pictured above to accomplish this goal.  Previously, the client had all of her t-shirts on hangers.  Instead, we used labeled canvas bins (1) to sort her t-shirts into categories and placed them on built-in the open shelving (see AFTER picture below).  We used more open canvas bins in various sizes to containerize bulk cleaning supplies, handbags, leggings, scarves, camisoles, and even boots!  (For the record, I love open bins

 . . . here's why.)

 

Bulky denim jeans were also taking up a lot of the hanging room, so we folded them down and placed them in short stacks below this expanding closet shelf (2).  On top of the expanding shelf we placed more canvas bins, making better use of the closet's vertical space.

 

To increase hanging space even further, we added this double hang closet rod (3) and utilized a variety of hanger types (4-6) to increase vertical hanging space versus creating more side-to-side bulk.

 

Instead of taking up shelf space for shoes, we added this shoe rack (10) on the ground, then used shelf dividers (9) to organize sweatshirts on the shelf above the client's athletic wear. 

 

It's not visible in the AFTER pictures, but this awesome little cart (7) fit perfectly into the awkward space betwen the open shelving and the wall (the cart is only 6 3/4" wide!).  It holds the client's bulk toiletry items, as well as bath and body products she saves to give away as gifts. 

 

The cleaning supplies remain on the open shelving towards the top, and we added this turn-table (8) to make items in the back more accessible.

 

Here's a glimpse at the results!



SORTed lives ~ medicine cabinet and kitchen drawer

Medicine Cabinet

Today I helped a dear friend sort a medicine cabinet that, according to her, has been accumulating for 20 years(!).  This medicine cabinet is large and deep, which is a luxury, but a lack of containers meant a loss of vertical space and made it hard to see the contents, especially towards the back. In addition, this woman and her husband travel internationally for mission work several times a year, and there are special toiletry items that they use only during these mission trips.  We knew we needed to create some boundaries by grouping like items together and containing them in a way that made them easy to access.

We started by taking everything out of the cabinet and sorting it into categories.  We threw out anything that was expired or not likely to be used.  Once we could see how much of each item we had, we chose the appropriate containers for each group.  Adding clear plastic drawers and open baskets (all labeled) makes it much easier to find what is needed. We sorted the contents into categories such as Cold & Allergy, Pain Relievers, Bandaids, Vitamins, etc. We were able to utilize the whole depth of the closet thanks to these awesome extra-deep baskets and drawers from The Container Store.  The AFTER picture shows how much organization a few containers added to this space.  Voila!

Kitchen Drawer

 

This extra-large kitchen drawer holds large grill tools, meat forks, and hot plate holders.  The home-owner admits that this is the least organized part of the kitchen, in large part due to the large size and awkward shape of many of its contents.  Adding customizable clear acrylic drawer organizers makes it easier to see and find utinsels, as well as making it safer to reach into this drawer of sharp objects.

SORTed lives ~ little boy's closet

This motivated mama and I tackled her third-grade son's closet while he was away at Grandma's house this week.  Before re-organizing, there was clothing spread out over several hanging bars. Along the back wall, two large organizing tools (a wooden rack and hanging shelves) were inefficiently holding books, shoes, belts, and sports equipment. Crates and boxes underneath the clothing held books, and an overflowing hamper shoved in the back corner contained dress-up clothing. 

BEFORE

First, we removed the inefficient organizing tools. The clothing was sorted and much of it was purged or passed to little brother's room. Clothing was grouped according to type, and all of it fit easily on the bottom hanging rod. On the shelf above the rod, we added an 8-cube organizer by Closetmaid to hold shorts, bathing suits, socks, pajamas, shoes, etc. with canvas drawers to contain the smaller items. Underneath the clothing are two Sterilite drawers to hold books, making them much easier to access. An open bin holds socks.  The dress-up clothes were relocated to the dresser in the bedroom and the hamper will now be used for dirty clothes.

AFTER

SORTed lives ~ little girl's closet

I loved doing a closet makeover for this little cutie!  Her family recently moved into a new home, where her closet is much smaller than before.  Her mom indicated that the biggest problem in this closet was the lack of visibility and access for her first grade daughter.  As you can see, the family attempted to remedy the problem with a small step stool, but because the floor of the closet was pretty full, there was nowhere for the stool to "live" and the doors of the closet always stood open.

 

On the top shelf of the closet was a collection of blankets, purses, old lunch boxes and backpacks, electronics, keepsakes and jewelry.  None of these items are used often, so they do not need to be easily accessible to the little girl, but it would be helpful to create a system so that the contents of the shelf are clear.

 

We started the process by removing everything from the closet and sorting it into categories.  With like items grouped together, we assessed how much of each type of item we had.  We added a low hanging bar to the closet so that the little girl can better reach her clothing.  Her sleeveless and short- sleeved tops hang on the low bar, with pants and skirts above and long-sleeved tops and dresses to the left.  In the winter, long- and short-sleeved tops can swap places to make the seasonally appropriate clothing most accessible. We cleared the floor area, leaving only a trunk full of dolls and doll clothes, to make room for her footstool. 

On the top shelf, we containerized and labeled the infrequently used bags, purses, blankets, etc. so that items are easily seen and accessed.  These open bins take advantage of previously wasted vertical space and allow for visibility, even from below.  Plus, the pink adds a cute pop of color that ties together with the rest of her bedroom decor!

SORT your closet ~ the Sticker System

One of the biggest road blocks to a well organized closet is having TOO MUCH STUFF.  Most women have felt the despair of having absolutely NOTHING to wear - usually when we are getting ready for an important event and need to be out the door in a matter of minutes.  We truly believe that we have NOTHING to wear, even though our closets are crammed full of clothes. We drive ourselves crazy, while baffling and confounding the men in our lives (who often share our closets and KNOW we have clothing enough to take up the majority of the closet space).  We dash out on that frantic last-minute shopping trip and end up buying something we don't really like, probably will never wear again, and would never have purchased in the first place if we hadn't felt so pressured to come up with an outfit RIGHT THIS MINUTE. 

In reality, we really do have some great pieces tucked away in the tangle of hangers and clothes.  Its just that the gems get buried amidst our high school prom dresses and that style that seemed like a good idea, but only looks cute on junior high girls.  Enter the STICKER SYSTEM.  This is a solution for women who want to purge, but aren't sure which pieces to ditch and which to hang onto.  It takes some patience, but in the end it will give you a clear picture of what you actually wear and what items you'd never miss if they were gone.