Happy New Year! If you made a New Year’s resolution to organize your home, let Boston Closet Company help you get started with this handy guide to organizing your home.
Your home is crowded and cluttered. In order to get everything neat and ordered, you first need to go through all your belongings and get rid of those you do not need or use. So how do you make the decision on what to get rid of and what to keep? Where do you start?
Before you begin pulling stuff off shelves and out of closets, create a plan. Do not try to do everything at once. Start with a single area and finish it before moving to the next area. Trying to tackle everything at once will cause you to feel overwhelmed and quit halfway through, or perhaps not even get started.
After you have made an effective plan of attack, it is time to make decisions about your belongings. Create three piles: a keep pile, a throw away pile, and a donate pile. Get rid of everything that is broken, and make a list of what needs to be replaced. If you do not use a certain item, do not bother keeping it! Donate items to your local charity, so that those who need them can use them. If you have an item that you are keeping because you might use it someday, get rid of it so someone else can use it instead.
Once you have completed your plan and sorted through the stuff in each area of your home, you can now start organizing it. Here are some universal tips for organizing your belongings:
- Put similar items together. For example, put your first aid supplies and medication in a basket under the sink in your bathroom. This way, you will not need to go to three separate locations next time you cut your finger and need hydrogen peroxide, antibiotic cream and a bandage.
- Store things where you will use them. It does not make sense to keep your extra ink cartridges and blank paper in the hall closet when your printer is in the office. Placing your items where you use them will save you time and interruptions.
- Create stations. This is similar to the last tip, except for items that do not have a designed area. For example, if you have gone through your belongings and grouped them by similar items and have found that you have a number of items related to sewing, create a sewing area where you can store your sewing things and then easily put them to use.
- Store items by how frequently you use them. Store items you use frequently at the front of your closet, or on the shelves that are at eye level. Store seasonal or infrequently used items in the back, or on the top shelves.
- A place for everything and everything in its place. Find a spot for every item to make it easy to maintain your clean and organized home.
If you find that you need a better way to store your items once you have gone through your belongings, please contact us for a free consultation. Our family-owned business has been a New England staple for more than 30 years. We can design a storage solution for your closets, entertainment center, garage, home office, laundry room and pantry. View photos of work we have done for our clients over the years.
