Experts explain how to whip your home into shape.
by Scripps Howard News Service
You haven't seen your favorite pair of pants for months, no doubt because they're buried under a mountain of clothes in the closet. Your car has never seen the inside of the tool-stuffed garage. And good luck finding your
favorite spice in the kitchen, pay stub in the office or school notebook in your child's room. Don't despair. We've checked with experts to help you whip things into shape. "You need somebody who has an objective eye, partly because when you live in a space, the problems become invisible to you," says Jeff Bredenberg, author of 2,001 Amazing Cleaning Secrets (Reader's Digest). "You've been there so long you overlook what might be obvious to someone else."
It's time to face the facts. Those ankle-zip, acid-washed jeans you've been saving since the '80s are not going to make a sudden stylish comeback. Even if you do someday manage to fit into that size-6 skirt you've hung onto since high school, there's no way it will still be considered fashionable. If you need a wardrobe overhaul, there's no better time to clean out your closet than now, says Melly Kinnard, author of books including Get Organized.
"If your closet's out of control, your life is probably out of control," she says. "When everything in your closet is a mess, it can be an overwhelming and frustrating way to start the day." If you think of home as your refuge from the work world, a fortress shielding you from the rigid organizational demands of business, Bunky Lundberg has some bad news for you. "There has to be a pretty businesslike approach for running a home," says Lundberg, a mother and grandmother and owner of Chaos Cancelled in Denver. "The management of the home is awfully important."
Three Barbies are sold every second of every day, and most of them are on the floor of your daughter's room. Every night, your foot meets yet another Lego structure in the dark. Your child owns 5,692 puzzles, each of which is missing at least three pieces.
So what's a parent to do? Susan Isaacs Kohl knows — she wrote the book on it: How To Organize Your Kid's Room. The operative word is organize. Neatness naturally follows organization, but a room can be sparkling clean and woefully disorganized. And that's an invitation to a disaster area. "The whole idea is to facilitate their activities," Kohl says. "It's about making life easier for your kids so they can find things easily."
Organization takes time. Begin by consulting our experts' tips below.
Closets
Size up your clothes. Ask yourself the following questions — and be honest here:
Is it a great color on you?
Are you proud to be seen in it?
Will you wear it again?
Have you worn it in the past two seasons?If you answer "no," box it up and donate it to charity.
Think quality rather than quantity.
Buy fewer, more expensive pieces and beware of bargains.
The extra space you'll save keeps clothes from being jammed together, which means you won't have to iron and steam them as often.
Now get organized.
Think about your closet like a department store and hang clothes by category.
Next, hang each category according to color.
Take out everything that doesn't fit — no need to be depressed looking at too-small clothes — and box them up.
Use each inch of space for storage containers such as shelves and plastic boxes.
Good lighting is important — no one wants to get to work wearing navy when you thought it was black when you got dressed.
Use hooks or a pegboard to organize bags and jewelry. Get everything off the floor that you possibly can.
Keep a list of clothes you need so you don't end up with six black shells when you really need only one or two.
Shoe storage depends on your closet space. If you have a small closet, use shoe bags or trees. If you have a big closet, use plastic shoeboxes so you can easily see what you have.
Garage
Establish priorities.
If you want a lathe or a workbench, find the longest wall of the garage and clear off the space.
If your goal is to park your car, work on the central clutter first.
Get rid of anything you don't need.
Be brutal. If the child who used to ride that bicycle now lives on his own, ask him whether he wants the bike at his new home. If he doesn't, give it to charity or sell it.
Sort what remains and put like items in the same place.
Round up garden supplies, sports equipment, seasonal items, small tools and hardware and items of sentimental value.
Figure out the best area in the garage to store each category for appropriate accessibility.
Soup cans can be used to help kids get organized.
Kids' Rooms
Involve your children in the process. The more they help, the more they'll want to help.
Help your children customize their rooms according to their interests and abilities.
Toddlers need to have open bins or shelves to encourage them to put things away, while preschoolers are starting to dress themselves but have a hard time opening drawers and reaching high closet rods, so low rods and open crates for clothes are best for them.
Create activity areas, starting with a basic four: grooming, play, rest and work.
Put bedtime storybooks and a soft light on the nightstand — whatever helps your child to relax and unwind.
A work area will contain a desk or a table, office and art supplies, a good light and perhaps a bookshelf or a computer.
Add other centers that reflect your child's needs and interests, such as a stamp-collecting area, a building corner with bins full of Legos, an art area with drawing and painting supplies or a dress-up center with a mirror and costumes.
Help your teenager sort through clothes and weed out things that don't fit or never get worn to donate to charity.
Use inexpensive see-through plastic bins to help your child group things. Avoid toy boxes in which everything gets junked together.
Kitchen
Before you begin, strategize.
Save time by grouping "like" items in the same pantry or on the same shelf or in the same area — i.e., place mats near the silverware; flour, baking powder, salt, sugar and baking soda; coffee filters and accouterments with the company sugar bowl and creamer; plastic sandwich bags with brown paper bags for lunch.
Put things you use all the time in the waist-high drawers.
Review what's eating up all your space. If you have a dozen vases and use only one, give some away.
Avoid counter clutter. Look into appliances that attach to cabinets underneath — and deep-six the cutesy decorative items that do nothing but take up space.
Revolving racks for spices are good if you have counter space. Otherwise, maximize the space in the cabinets with plastic tiers that you can buy at container stores.
Consider whether you have storage space before you buy a small appliance, especially if you'll use it only once a year.
Office
Designate a space in your home as the office if you haven't already done so — ideally, you'll need a desk.
At the desk, create a sacred place where you keep your bills so they won't be misplaced and paid late.
Set two dates a month when you'll pay bills. Schedule those days in ink on your calendar or put them into your PDA.
Open your mail near a trashcan. Don't let the piles keep growing. Make a decision right away.
Create a filing system. Start by deciding what you're going to keep. If you work with a tax-preparer or an accountant, ask him to give you guidelines on what you must keep and what you can toss.
Organize papers by category. For example, group personal items together, including vital records, warranties, etc.; finances and investments; taxes and insurance; and lifestyle, such as newspaper and magazine clippings or material on travel and vacations.
Allow yourself a couple of hours every week to spend in the home office, keeping the piles down and the files sorted. Time commitment will vary from person to person, and don't assume you can do it all at once. As with other areas of the house, organizing takes time.
by Scripps Howard News Service
You haven't seen your favorite pair of pants for months, no doubt because they're buried under a mountain of clothes in the closet. Your car has never seen the inside of the tool-stuffed garage. And good luck finding your
favorite spice in the kitchen, pay stub in the office or school notebook in your child's room. Don't despair. We've checked with experts to help you whip things into shape. "You need somebody who has an objective eye, partly because when you live in a space, the problems become invisible to you," says Jeff Bredenberg, author of 2,001 Amazing Cleaning Secrets (Reader's Digest). "You've been there so long you overlook what might be obvious to someone else."It's time to face the facts. Those ankle-zip, acid-washed jeans you've been saving since the '80s are not going to make a sudden stylish comeback. Even if you do someday manage to fit into that size-6 skirt you've hung onto since high school, there's no way it will still be considered fashionable. If you need a wardrobe overhaul, there's no better time to clean out your closet than now, says Melly Kinnard, author of books including Get Organized.
"If your closet's out of control, your life is probably out of control," she says. "When everything in your closet is a mess, it can be an overwhelming and frustrating way to start the day." If you think of home as your refuge from the work world, a fortress shielding you from the rigid organizational demands of business, Bunky Lundberg has some bad news for you. "There has to be a pretty businesslike approach for running a home," says Lundberg, a mother and grandmother and owner of Chaos Cancelled in Denver. "The management of the home is awfully important."
Three Barbies are sold every second of every day, and most of them are on the floor of your daughter's room. Every night, your foot meets yet another Lego structure in the dark. Your child owns 5,692 puzzles, each of which is missing at least three pieces.
So what's a parent to do? Susan Isaacs Kohl knows — she wrote the book on it: How To Organize Your Kid's Room. The operative word is organize. Neatness naturally follows organization, but a room can be sparkling clean and woefully disorganized. And that's an invitation to a disaster area. "The whole idea is to facilitate their activities," Kohl says. "It's about making life easier for your kids so they can find things easily."
Organization takes time. Begin by consulting our experts' tips below.
Closets
Size up your clothes. Ask yourself the following questions — and be honest here:
Is it a great color on you?
Are you proud to be seen in it?
Will you wear it again?
Have you worn it in the past two seasons?If you answer "no," box it up and donate it to charity.
Think quality rather than quantity.
Buy fewer, more expensive pieces and beware of bargains.
The extra space you'll save keeps clothes from being jammed together, which means you won't have to iron and steam them as often.
Now get organized.
Think about your closet like a department store and hang clothes by category.
Next, hang each category according to color.
Take out everything that doesn't fit — no need to be depressed looking at too-small clothes — and box them up.
Use each inch of space for storage containers such as shelves and plastic boxes.
Good lighting is important — no one wants to get to work wearing navy when you thought it was black when you got dressed.
Use hooks or a pegboard to organize bags and jewelry. Get everything off the floor that you possibly can.
Keep a list of clothes you need so you don't end up with six black shells when you really need only one or two.
Shoe storage depends on your closet space. If you have a small closet, use shoe bags or trees. If you have a big closet, use plastic shoeboxes so you can easily see what you have.
Garage
Establish priorities.
If you want a lathe or a workbench, find the longest wall of the garage and clear off the space.
If your goal is to park your car, work on the central clutter first.
Get rid of anything you don't need.
Be brutal. If the child who used to ride that bicycle now lives on his own, ask him whether he wants the bike at his new home. If he doesn't, give it to charity or sell it.
Sort what remains and put like items in the same place.
Round up garden supplies, sports equipment, seasonal items, small tools and hardware and items of sentimental value.
Figure out the best area in the garage to store each category for appropriate accessibility.
Soup cans can be used to help kids get organized.
Kids' Rooms
Involve your children in the process. The more they help, the more they'll want to help.
Help your children customize their rooms according to their interests and abilities.
Toddlers need to have open bins or shelves to encourage them to put things away, while preschoolers are starting to dress themselves but have a hard time opening drawers and reaching high closet rods, so low rods and open crates for clothes are best for them.
Create activity areas, starting with a basic four: grooming, play, rest and work.
Put bedtime storybooks and a soft light on the nightstand — whatever helps your child to relax and unwind.
A work area will contain a desk or a table, office and art supplies, a good light and perhaps a bookshelf or a computer.
Add other centers that reflect your child's needs and interests, such as a stamp-collecting area, a building corner with bins full of Legos, an art area with drawing and painting supplies or a dress-up center with a mirror and costumes.
Help your teenager sort through clothes and weed out things that don't fit or never get worn to donate to charity.
Use inexpensive see-through plastic bins to help your child group things. Avoid toy boxes in which everything gets junked together.
Kitchen
Before you begin, strategize.
Save time by grouping "like" items in the same pantry or on the same shelf or in the same area — i.e., place mats near the silverware; flour, baking powder, salt, sugar and baking soda; coffee filters and accouterments with the company sugar bowl and creamer; plastic sandwich bags with brown paper bags for lunch.
Put things you use all the time in the waist-high drawers.
Review what's eating up all your space. If you have a dozen vases and use only one, give some away.
Avoid counter clutter. Look into appliances that attach to cabinets underneath — and deep-six the cutesy decorative items that do nothing but take up space.
Revolving racks for spices are good if you have counter space. Otherwise, maximize the space in the cabinets with plastic tiers that you can buy at container stores.
Consider whether you have storage space before you buy a small appliance, especially if you'll use it only once a year.
Office
Designate a space in your home as the office if you haven't already done so — ideally, you'll need a desk.
At the desk, create a sacred place where you keep your bills so they won't be misplaced and paid late.
Set two dates a month when you'll pay bills. Schedule those days in ink on your calendar or put them into your PDA.
Open your mail near a trashcan. Don't let the piles keep growing. Make a decision right away.
Create a filing system. Start by deciding what you're going to keep. If you work with a tax-preparer or an accountant, ask him to give you guidelines on what you must keep and what you can toss.
Organize papers by category. For example, group personal items together, including vital records, warranties, etc.; finances and investments; taxes and insurance; and lifestyle, such as newspaper and magazine clippings or material on travel and vacations.
Allow yourself a couple of hours every week to spend in the home office, keeping the piles down and the files sorted. Time commitment will vary from person to person, and don't assume you can do it all at once. As with other areas of the house, organizing takes time.
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