My aim was to be organized. What did that mean?Well If I wanted to find a specific hat - I would only go to only 1 spot and find it. Everything has a home, and everything is in a logical place. I like having a clear open space. That means I like everything tucked away into a drawer out of sight.
Let me share with you how I solved my Problem.
Firstly I took meticulous measurements. Of the exterior and interior of my closet. The rest of my room, my bed, the available wall and floor space for possible cupboards. I measured the space taken up by doors when they are open. I measured the area of cupboards plus space needed to open drawers (sometimes you need to buy shelving without doors and just have pullout baskets or sweater front open organizers. Have you ever bought a chest of drawers and placed it in the perfect spot only to find you could not open any? I have. Now I’m really careful.
Next step?
What did I need to store in my closet or away from sight? A thorough list is important.
*Questions to consider when making your list? Do you need hanging space? Determine how much? I have only a few dresses, dress shirts and jackets that need to be hung up. That means that I do not need all that much hanging space and I could put a few storage boxes into my closet.
Here’s what my list looked like:
1. Clothes
To be hung up: shirts, skirts, dresses, jackets.
To be kept folded: underwear, Workout clothing, jeans, pants, t-shirts, pajama’s.
2. Bags – handbags, satchels, and purses.
3. Hats
4. Shoes – mixture of sandals, heels and sneakers.
5. Accessories - scarves, jewellery, sunglasses.
6. Books, paper work, cd’s, dvd’s, stationary
7. Stereo, computer and desk lamp
8. Separate writing desk
9. Linen- blankets, towels, bathroom mats, sheeting.
10. Cosmetics – nails, hair (if you have curly hair you need a box for this alone), face, medication
11. Luggage – carryall for traveling.
Right now that you have your list – you can estimate how much storage you need and how you can best fit it into the space you have.
Arm yourself with a tape measure and sketchpad and see how you can make various types of organizing boxes and containers fit into your space.
My Conclusions for my space:
1. Clothes: the small number of dresses I had meant that I did not need long hanging space. And since I owned far more tops and pants I only needed shorter hanging space. I didn’t need a lot of hanging space. This meant that I could place storage boxes into my closet.
2. Bags: I could either place bags on a behind the door bag organizer (on my bedroom door or closet) or I could place them in a storage box. Since I only 2 handbags and several more wallets, purses and backpacks. A box was the smarter idea. If you own an array of handbags a behind the door organizer is best. You may also decide to place coat hooks around your room on the skirted wall molding to hold hats and bags inn a decorative fashion.
3. Hats – I have a total of 2 hats. A sun hat and a baseball cap. I decided to get a behind the door hooks and placed them there. Now if you are into wide brimmed hats because you go to the races and weddings at Buckingham palace quite often you may want to invest in a nice stack of hat boxes in colors that suit the décor of your room. This way you could stack them outside your closet. And it would look like a conscious decorating choice rather than a stack of boxes that had nowhere else to be placed.
4.Shoes - you may want to place each pair into clear a shoe box. This is the smart choice but it was no good to me as I was short on space. Instead you may consider an under the bed rolling trolley. Fabulous. I placed my bed directly on the ground as the wheels on my bed made me feel a bit seasick. So I had no space to put this idea to use. Instead I decided to split my shoes into heels and sneakers. I bought 2 clear view storage drawers to accommodate them
5. Accessories – I bought 2 office stationary drawer trays. Yes there are plenty jewellery organizers out there, but it’s basically the same thing as the stationary drawer insert only cheaper.
6. I do a lot of work from home. A small desk with drawers was just not
going to house all the things I’d accumulated. If you have a lot of papers you could go for a desk that has a bookcase built in.
However I found that I hated looking at my paperwork on the weekends – it just inspired a sense of guilt in me. So I decided to invest in a small cupboard with doors to place next to my desk. Yes I lost some space to this but I also gained some peace. I bought a smaller version.
7. Stereo etc – Furniture nowadays can pull double duty. Chest of drawers designed so that you can place a tv etc on it. I decided to get rid of my stereo and invest in a good set of computer speakers but that came later. I placed the stereo on the top shelf of the small cupboard seen above – I cut holes into the back of the cupboard to run the cord. And I placed all my cd’s on the same shelf. Computer- a small rolling desk would be great. Since I got a flat computer screen monitor that was also ideal for watching television and movies I merely needed to turn the screen and using a wireless keyboard and remote control I could watch television.
8. Writing desk- Being a writer I needed a separate writing desk but just didn’t have the space for a separate desk. I decided to go for this in bed- idea.
9. Linen and blankets. Vacuum sealing these so that they take up less room may not be a bad idea. Under bed storage is another option. I’m rather cheap and I decided to get myself a storage box and I used the bottom drawer of my chest of drawers to house my bedding, sheets and bath towels. I keep the original storage bags for comforters and blankets, rather than placing them directly into a drawer – so they take less room.
10. Cosmetics – got a few cosmetic organizers/caboodles. Price compare these, I got mine from Target for far less than advertised at other stores. But shop around maybe you’ll find a better deal.
11. Luggage – I decided to store all the receipts and documents that I needed to keep but never really accessed in my carryall suitcase, and I shoved it on top of my cupboard. I’m 5.2 and when things are higher up I tend to find ways of surviving without them rather than dragging a chair and trying to reach up. So converting the space into a place for things I never used but needed to keep was an awesome idea.
Ok so once I planned the kind of storage I wanted. Time to actually map it out. I know, when does the ‘actual’ getting things organized in real life happen? Doing it once and getting it right is cheaper and a lot lets aggravating than having to make several trips to the store. Come back next week for part 2 and I will show you how to I made a diagram that helped me plan my next move.
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