5 Tips to Conquer Closet Clutter
If chronic closet clutter plagues your home, here are five neat ways to help you get organized:
1. Make a plan – Assess your organizational problems to come up with a plan to attack the problem. Cluttered closets are a relatively easy fix—closet chaos will take some work.
Ask yourself what bothers you the most and start from there. If overcrowded closets are a constant source of irritation, set aside a little time each day to clear the clutter until all the closets in the house have been cleaned.
With the clutter gone, you can consider each room in the house and its storage space and requirements. Look for storage solutions on a room-by-room basis. For example, if the family room is always messy, it could be because there are not enough drawers, cupboards or shelving to house games, remote controls, books and magazines. An entertainment unit with hidden storage, end tables with drawers, and coffee tables with storage compartments all offer some easy solutions.
2. Start with the worst – Every house has at least one closet or room where chaos reigns, and this is the perfect spot to launch your organizational crusade. Gather a few boxes and get started. First, go through everything and discard the obvious—give unused items away, recycle them, or donate them to charity. In another box, put rarely used items that could be stored in the basement or garage. Gather all the knickknacks and odds and ends in another box for washing and sorting. (Once all the surfaces are clear, you might just find you prefer the minimalist look!) Now you can organize what’s left in the room. Shoe boxes turned inside out and labelled are an inexpensive storage idea. Wire baskets in various sizes can be used to help organize drawers. Take advantage of the many storage solutions on the market to make the task easier.
3. Keep the high rent space available – The most valuable closet space should be reserved for the items you use most frequently. Relegate the less used items to basement storage areas and keep the hall closet clear for the things that you use daily.
4. Group items according to function – Save time and energy by grouping items according to their use. For example, keep all pet grooming materials and supplies in one box. Keep gift wrapping supplies together; store sheet wrapping paper and gift bags in files grouped according to occasion (birthday, wedding, etc.), store ribbons and bows, tape, and scissors in another clearly labelled box and use divided liquor boxes to store rolls of wrapping paper.
5. Improve existing storage space – You can improve existing storage space by extending closet openings so you can access and organize the entire length of the closet, installing metal or laminate closet organizing systems, installing sliding doors to improve closet access, using compartments in drawers, and making use of free-standing storage units where no permanent storage space exists.
Courtesy: Homeservice Club