Archive Archive for the 'Organizing' Category

Wednesday Tip: How TV Can Help You Get Organized

Posted on April 24th, 2013 | Posted in Organizing

Happy National TV-Free Week! If you’re participating, use the time you’d usually be watching TV to get started on an organizing project you’ve been putting off. If, like me, you can’t bear the thought of a Parks and Rec and New Girl-less week, read on… I love TV. What I don’t always love is the guilty feeling of knowing I should be working on things but choosing to watch that Project Runway marathon anyway. Fortunately, watching TV actually affords lots …

Wednesday Tip: Divide Your Storage

Posted on April 17th, 2013 | Posted in Organizing

So sorry for the absence of a Wednesday tip last week! I got back from my first real vacation trip in 10 years, and then got engaged (yay!), so it was a bit of a hectic week. If you have deep cabinets or drawers, a trunk, or some other big container, you know the danger of a storage abyss. The stuff in the back and at the bottom gets forgotten and you end up just skimming off the top. Try …

Cultivate Your Home Like a Garden

Posted on April 3rd, 2013 | Posted in Decorating, Organizing

Spring has kindasorta sprung, which always tugs at my garden-loving heartstrings. Having my own garden is one of the things I’ve missed most in these past 5 years in NYC. Instead of cultivating a garden, I’ve been cultivating my apartment, and I’ve been surprised by how similar the process is! Planning Even gardens that look wild and natural take some planning. You’ve got to make sure you’re placing a plant in the right soil and light conditions, as well as …

Wednesday Tip: Use Shoe Boxes as Drawer Dividers

Posted on March 20th, 2013 | Posted in Clothing, Organizing, Repurpose and Reuse

You can go broke buying tons of fancy drawer dividers for your sock and underwear drawers, but wouldn’t you rather spend that money on something useful for society, like funding the Veronica Mars movie?. I use shoe boxes, which work great and cost nothing. You don’t even have to buy shoes to get them; just bop on down to your local shoe store and ask real nice for any extras they have in the back. I have really deep dresser drawers, …

Wednesday Tip: What are you waiting for?

Posted on March 13th, 2013 | Posted in Motivation, Organizing, Wednesday Tip

“I want to get organized/learn to knit/lose weight/see my friends more/take up butter sculpting, but I have to wait until I finish school/get a new job/have more time/have more money/have more energy/get over my butter-phobia.” Sound familiar? We are nothing if not masters at putting off things we know are going to help us long-term but are presently daunting. It’s never going to be the perfect time for you to make a life change. Yep. NEVER. It’s probably never even …

Organizing Clothing Struggles: What to do with fat and skinny clothes

Posted on March 6th, 2013 | Posted in Clothing, Organizing

Like almost every woman I know, my weight fluctuates, sometimes wildly. As goes my weight, so goes the fit of my clothes. Deciding what to keep for when you fit in a smaller, previously worn size is a huge challenge for most people. I’m not going to tell you to get rid of every piece of clothing that doesn’t fit you right now, but there are some reasonable restrictions you can apply to keep your closet organized and relevant. -Don’t keep …

Wednesday Tip: Keep It Where You Use It

Posted on February 20th, 2013 | Posted in Clutter, Organizing

The #1 thing you can do to cut down on time running from room to room and also keep stuff from piling up where it doesn’t belong is to store items where you use them. Place your clothes hamper where you get undressed (not tucked away somewhere), keep your makeup where you put it on, and have a cup for pens wherever you end up writing. I’ve solved major trash/clutter issues for clients simply by moving a trash can near …

Wednesday Tip: Where to Start Getting Organized

Posted on February 13th, 2013 | Posted in Motivation, Organizing

When you embark on your grand organizing adventure, chances are you won’t get much further than the threshold before a minor freak-out sets in.  Where do I start? There’s so much to do! I’ll never get it all done. I might as well construct a pillow cave on the couch so I can’t see the mess and watch this What Not to Wear marathon. Cut it out, you. It’s going to be fine and it will get done. Emerge from the pillow …

Wednesday Tip: File Clothes for Better Access and Visibility

Posted on January 23rd, 2013 | Posted in Organizing, Space Solutions

Instead of rooting around in a clothing explosion, try folding and filing your clothes.  This method works great in dressers (especially ones with deep, abyss-type drawers), and can also be applied to open bins on shelves.  You can read the complete step-by-step instructions for how to organize your clothes by filing them, here.

Wednesday Tip: Sort Clothes by Type or Use, Then by Color

Posted on January 16th, 2013 | Posted in Organizing

When you reorganize your closet or dresser, it’s essential to think about how you wear your clothes.  Do you have clearly separate work vs non-work clothes? Would you wear your suits as separates or only together? If you’re like me and work and non-work clothes are mostly interchangeable, then it probably makes sense to simply group your clothes by type: pants, skirts, tops, dresses, layering, etc. For you, it may make more sense to have “work” and “non-work” sections, then divide by type within …