How to Organize Like a Pro!
Organizing your home isn’t a do-it-and-done effort. It’s like planting annuals – you have to repeat the process at least once a year. At least. But we found a few secrets from the pros that are worth passing on to help you organize two trouble spots: your kitchen pantry and your bedroom closet.
Good, bad or indifferent, the first thing to remind yourself about organizing a room, a closet or a pantry is that when you need to organize again – don’t feel like a failure. It’s a part of living and learning and loving your space! Here are a few of the top tips from organizers who get paid to create order out of chaos.
Freeing the Cluttered Closet
For starters, practice the 2G1T approach: Get rid of sentimental flotsam and jetsam; Give no-longer-used and broken items the heave-ho; and Think twice before you shove something in a closet or a drawer. (We know, we do it, too!)
Sam from Simply Organized makes a living organizing her house and blogging about it. And whether it’s a guest closet you need for storage, or your own wardrobe closet, she’s the master (the mistress?) of systemizing stuff. The key, she says, is to make everything as visible as possible. When your things are right in front of your eyes, you’re more likely to get more use out of them.
If you have a walk-in closet, don’t store your shoes in shoe boxes. Consider reinventing wall space using crown molding to store high heeled shoes, like this example from Attic Mag, and the rest on a storage rack or in clear plastic boxes.
The professional organizers at Simply Spaced share the following secret weapon: color-coding your closet. That way you can see all the clothes you own. (While you’re organizing by color, be sure to bag anything you don’t wear or that doesn’t fit to deposit at your local thrift store – like the Goodwill Store in Lafayette on W. South Boulder Road.) Start by grouping by type (blouses, shirts, pants, skirts) and then by color.
The Closet Factory offers some easy how-to steps about how to color-code your closet, i.e., starting with light colors on one end, dark on the other. And if an item is multi-colored, choosing the most dominant color in the mix will help you find a place for it. You’ll be amazed at what happens when you can survey all of your available choices!
The pros at Savvy Honey have 20 more ways to create more order in your kitchen, and the experts at Home Edit have 40 tips on how to organize your closet like a paid professional!
And remember when organizing your home, don’t try to tackle your whole house in a day. Spend two or three hours on one space, or you’ll burn yourself out instead of being motivated to do more!
Tackling the Pesky Pantry
The pantries in the new kitchens at Colliers Hill are a dream-come-true for any homeowner. And with a walk-in pantry, the goal of making everything visible is easily accomplished with tiered cabinet organizers from the Walmart in Lafayette, about 10 minutes from Colliers Hill in Erie. You can also get over-the-door shelves at Walmart, under-the-shelf baskets, and Lazy Susan turntables.
Sam at Simply Organized is a fan of containers to keep order in her kitchen and says once you decide on the containment devices, the first step is to take everything out of the pantry and set up zones. She has a zone plan of attack worth copying that makes the arrangement of food items a thing of beauty. Just look at HER pantry!
When it comes to kitchen storage for paper goods, dishes and pots and pans, both upper and lower cabinets can benefit from tools and accessories to take advantage of the foot or so of space that sometimes goes un-used. Take this Pan Organizer Rack, for instance. Instead of stacking pans on the bottom of the cabinet and removing them individually to get at the one you want, this rack gives you instant easy access. Again, the Walmart nearest Colliers Hill carries all kinds of pan racks for a variety of cabinet sizes.
The Kitchens and Closets of Colliers Hill!
The living spaces in the master-planned community of Colliers Hill are already primed for organization. But it doesn’t take more than a couple of years’ worth of school activities, holidays and birthdays to create a little chaos! Explore the amenities and new homes offered by Meritage Homes, Shea Homes and Richmond American Homes and all the ways in which you can organize your beautiful space! With 12 spectacular models (and more on the way!) you’ll find a variety of ranch and two-story designs, priced from the upper $300s to the $600s.
