Tag: clothes organizing

Quick Fixes for a Better Closet

I received photos of a stranger’s closet via text last week.  (It sounded funny to me as I typed it, but it is not an uncommon occurrence, and the stranger isn’t strange at all!)

A participant from a recent presentation asked questions  about her oddly shaped and slightly frustrating closet.   I love these questions!  And regardless of the size or status of your closet, there are steps I suggest to EVERYONE, including this class participant, to give you more breathing room and make your closet work better for you!

Try one of these suggestions this week, or all of them!

      • Pull all unused hangers off your closet rods.  Toss or recycle the old or decrepit ones, and set aside the ones you may use as you hang clothes up today.   When you’re done clearing space today, put all the extras in the laundry room.

      • Collect and recycle the empty shoe and shipping boxes, then toss out the shopping bags, dry cleaner bags, tags, pocket lint, tissues, etc. from the floor.
      • Collect all those Errands-To-Be-Run items – for return, repair, donate or share?  Yep – send them all on their way.  Pack them into the car, and add the errands to this week’s to-do list.
      • If space is tight, consider moving move all non-clothing items elsewhere.  (For example, more-than-one-piece-of-luggage, keepsakes, excessive bedding, gifts to be given, bags of clothing donations, fans, furniture?)  Send these under the bed or into storage elsewhere in your home.
      • Swap your clothes for the season.  Yes, I know it may seem like a hassle, and I also know some items can be worn all 12 months but some… can’t or shouldn’t be worn all 12 months.  Store these in storage bins or totes under the bed or on the top shelf of the closet.  Your clothes will last longer safely folded away instead of hanging and collecting dust, and you will reap major space benefits by clearing away items you won’t wear for a while.
      • Swap out your shoes for the season, too.
      • Move that safe on the floor. (Yes, everyone keeps their safe on the floor of their closet and thieves know it.) Hide it somewhere clever while freeing up some closet space.
      • Now that you have more breathing room, use your vertical space better: install over the door shoe racks on the back of the doors, or jewelry storage on a blank wall.

Try one, try all!  And enjoy some breathing room in your closet this week!

Organize Your Home’s Smallest And Hardest Working Space!

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Let’s face it – we spend a lot of time in the bathroom.  So it makes sense to spend time this week improving that very hard working space!  A client recently asked for suggestions to improve her bathroom.  Her questions focused on towel storage / drying, clothes and general space allocation.  Here are my answers to her, and to you:

Towels:

Any place you can add more towel rods / racks would be a bonus.  And consider how to stack the rods on the wall:  for example, hanging them 3 and 5 feet from the floor – the bottom one for long towels and the top one for hand towels or wash clothes.  You can use one wall for more than one rod.

I have also seen over-the-shower-rod / shower-door racks for towels, if your tub / shower have either of those.  Also, if space permits, you could use a free-standing coat rack outside the bathroom door for your towels, too.  The air flow outside the bathroom may be better for drying anyway.

In addition, I did some research last summer when the towels in my hubby’s bathroom were getting decidedly musty.  The experts say we can re-use towels for a few days, instead of using them only once, but we should wash them every 3 or 4 uses, so twice a week, typically.

Clean-ish Clothes (worn, but can be worn again):

I would suggest an Ish-hook, maybe two.  An “ish”-hook, you ask?  An “ish” hook is for clean-“ish” clothes that can be worn again.  We all have those items (for me, jeans and yoga pants), often tossed on a chair, bedpost or in a heap.

Consider a hook or two, again at varying heights if that would help, for pants and tops.  You can also designate a small amount of rod space and / or shelf space for your clean-ish clothes, and both would work.  I prefer the over-the-door hooks, but if that won’t work in your space, the rod and shelf should help.

Command Products make great hooks that are reasonably priced and require no tools for installation, so you can add a few here and there to see what will work for you.  You could even mount them directly on a door, if the over-the-door items don’t work.

Personal Hygiene Supplies:

Pare down your bathroom contents to your essentials.  The bathroom is typically the smallest room, after all.  Keep only current personal hygiene items in the bathroom.  More importantly, use up items completely and keep less in inventory!

Check expiration dates and purge old stuff.  Consider the seasons:  Winter time?  Store sunscreen and bug spray somewhere else.  Also, review items and determine if they’re expired to your current life.  For example – we had a bin of bath-toys under the sink, but as soon as my youngest started taking showers, the toys went away.  Another example is the drastic hair change I made last year: almost all my styling supplies left the bathroom- either into the trashcan, or into a bin on the top shelf of our linen closet.

Cleaning:

Pare down your cleaning supplies, keep only one or two multi-purpose items at hand and store the rest elsewhere.  If your linen closet is in your bathroom, remember the universal tips of storing large single items on high shelves and using clear over-the-door shoe racks for small items.

Spend a little time this week organizing your bathroom, and reap big rewards!