Admit it, there are days when you go to get dressed in the morning, you open the closet and you can’t find any of the clothing that you wanted to wear that day.

Rather than stuff the closet monster back in its hole, why not try this?

6 Easy Steps To Organize Your Closet

1. Use shelf dividers to keep stacks of clothing from falling over;
2. Put up some hooks on the inside of your closet door for items that you wear regularly, like pajamas or items that don’t really belong inside drawers such as belts, scarves and ties;
3. Don’t use wire hooks! They will destroy your clothing by putting holes in them. Use high quality wooden or acrylic ones;
4. Don’t use wire hangers, they are perfect for destroying the shape of your shirts and blouses. Use wood or plastic hangers. Invest in the same type of hangar for a uniform look.
5. When hanging clothing, group the similar length clothes together to open up space under shorter garments; and
6. Use storage boxes that are designed for shoes and bags

Who can’t remember their mother telling them to go clean their room? I still get a weekly phone call asking if I am still hiding my dirty laundry under my bed…

Well, after reading these statistics, I may have to admit my mother was right about keeping organized:

1. An enterprise employing 1,000 knowledge workers wastes $48,000 per week, or nearly $2.5M per year, due to an inability to locate and retrieve information - IDC
2. 400 - The number of hours per year the average employee spends searching for paper documents.
3. It costs about $25,000 to fill a four drawer filing cabinet and over $2,100 a year to maintain it
4. We wear 20 per cent of the clothes we own 80 per cent of the time. The rest hangs there, just in case.
5. 50 percent of homeowners rate the garage as the most disorganized place in the house and a place the entire family uses regularly.
6. No Sex Please, I’m organizing. IKEA did a survey of customers in which 31% reported they were more satisfied after clearing out their closets than they were after sex.
7. According to a study conducted by a Boston marketing firm, the average American burns 55 minutes a day - roughly 12 weeks a year - looking for things they know they own but can’t find.
8. Americans waste more than nine million hours each day looking for lost and misplaced articles.
9. The average executive wastes 150 hours each year looking for lost or misplaced documents.
10. Record keeping constitutes more than 90% of all office activity
11. 25% - The percentage of enterprise paper documents that are misplaced and will never be located.
12. Getting rid of clutter eliminates 40 per cent of housework in an average home. Eighty per cent of the clutter in most homes is a result disorganization, not lack of space.
13. The US Department of Energy reports that 25% of people with two-car garages don’t park any cars in there and that 32% parked only one.

Maybe Mother Knows Best After All

Feeling a little cramped lately?

You’re not alone…In fact, many professional organizers claim that a lack of closet space is one of the most frequent complaints that they hear

But according to statistics, about 80% of the clutter in your home is a result of disorganization, not lack of space. Getting rid of excess clutter would eliminate 40 % of the housework in the average home.

So what is the secret…?

First things first …pull everything out of your closet NOW!

(OK, finish reading the article first)

Now, think about what you really need in this closet? Do you need your figure skates in the bedroom closet? Or your Christmas decorations, should they be in the front hall closet or the storage room in the basement?

• If you only have one closet in your bedroom, you may find it useful to store out of season clothing somewhere else (like in clear plastic storage containers under your bed.
• Next step…remove the empty hangers from the closet. Get rid of all the wire hangers. They destroy clothing.
• Pull out a vacuum and vacuum the closet. You probably can’t remember the last time you vacuumed your closet.

Sort Your Clothing

Consider using the following system

• Out of season clothing
• Out of style clothing (and clothes that don’t fit)
• Damaged Clothing
• Frequently worn clothing
• Special occasion clothing

Take your frequently worn clothing and put it front and center in your closet - sorted by article type

With the out of style clothing and the clothing that doesn’t fit - put it in a garbage bag and call a local charity. The exception being one pair of pants that you should save to determing that yes, you are (or aren’t - as the case may be) still as skinny as you were 15 years ago. IMPORTANT - make sure you check all pockets in any clothing you give away.
Damaged clothing - Go get it mended; Again, check the pockets before you send out the clothing.

Frequently Worn Clothing - Put it front and center in your closet.

Special Occasion Clothing - put off to one side; consider storing in garmet bag for added protections.

Now, you should be left with a closet that feels like a giant cavern compared to before you started this little reorganization project

Keep It Neat!

Well, there is actually a one step version as well - eat all of your meals at a restaurant, but since that isn’t all that practical, we figured this approach would be a bit more useful.

1. Pull everything out of the cupboards and drawers - discard anything you don’t use or is way too old to use (yes, you can splurge on a new bag of flour the next time you decide to bake);
2. Wash and dry the insides of your now empty cupboards and drawers;
3. Don’t forget to rinse and dry cupboard and drawer liners too - Replace them if needed (you can’t be that cheap. Can you?);
4. Store pots, pans and cooking utensils near the stove;
5. If you are the type who doesn’t plate meals in the kitchen, store dishes and silverware near your eating area. Alternatively, keep them near the dishwasher;
6. Use dish racks and silverware holders to maximize use of cupboard and drawer space;
7. Keep dangerous items out of the reach of kids!!! Reaching into a drawer full of knives isn’t a good idea for adults either, consider storing knives in a block on your counter;
8. Don’t alphabetize your spices; Keep the ones that you use a lot within easy reach;
9. Store seldom-used items in a cupboard or alternatively, the basement or attic (Really, when was the last time you used that bread maker - carbs are soooooooo 1985);
10. Keep it accessible - Store items (food, utensils, fast food take out menus) that you use on a daily basis in easy to reach spots; and
11. Use drawer dividers to organize utensils - The thrill of avoiding the carving knives each time you reach into your drawer to grab a fork should have warn off by now.

Keep It Neat!

You folks ready for this?

About to be blown away…..

And the #1 secret to getting organized is…..

HAVE A PLAN!

I know, it sounds simple, but it is true. The most important thing to do before you actually start “doing” is to map out what it is you want to “do”.

For example, grab a piece of paper and walk in to a room you want to organize, say your kitchen. Now write down in a few brief points, how you want this room to look.

Then look at the room. Are your ideas reasonable based on your space, lifestyle and personal habits? Be honest with yourself.

Keep working on this plan until it is realistic and executable. In other words, make it short and do-able.

Keep it Neat!

Yes, the basement, you know, the place where you store everything that you just know you are going to need very soon, but someone just never actually do.

Another thing that is often forgotten about the basement, of course until something goes wrong, is that there are usually some important things down there, like the furnace, fuse box, main gas line, etc. Bottom line is that sometimes you need to find something down there in a hurry. And on top of it, it needs to be a safe place. Storing your flammable chemicals and paints next to your gas furnace is not a good idea.

So what can you do with your basement? Here are 6 simple things you can do to make your basement a more organized, useful and most importantly, safer place;

1. Store dangerous chemicals (paints, cleaners, pesticides) above flood level. Flooding can result in dangerous chemicals leaking out. Even if you don’t live in a flood plain, heavy rain fall or a backed up sewer can cause you serious problems (as an aside, check your insurance policy for flood coverage).
2. Do not store items around the appliances or pipes in your basement. You need a clear path in the event of an emergency or when the repair man comes over.
3. Lighting - Make sure you basement, especially your storage area, is well lit. Much easier to find things when you can see them! Also, consider some sort of back up lighting that runs off of batteries, for those times you need to get into the basement during a power outage.
4. If you have appliances in your basement, like an extra fridge or your washing machines, try to place them on platforms that lift them off of the floor to protect them from damage in the event of a flood
5. What to keep? What to get rid of? First of all, if you haven’t used something in the last 2 years, get rid of it. The exception being luggage that is in good working condition. Second of all, do not keep something lying around just because at one point, you spent a lot of money on it. If you don’t use it, you don’t use it. If you are concerned about money, try to sell the item. Lastly - unless you are a teacher or professor - get rid of your old term papers and text books. Anything you could possibly want to look up again is available on the internet.
6. Now after you have laid waste to your basement booty, its time to arrange it in some useful order. The basic principle is to group things in some logical order. In other words, don’t keep your tennis racket inside of your suitcase. For one, you’ll never find the racket when you need it and secondly, when you pull the suitcase up stairs, you’ll end up leaving your tennis racket in your bedroom for the next 6 months. Consider the following groupings:

Tools: consider a wall rack for easy access to your tools and associated items, like screws, nails and fuses;

Home office supplies and old document: Store the documents off the floor in water tight containers. Do not keep things that are irreplaceable, such as original wills and stock certificates, in the basement;

Hobby and craft supplies: again, get the stuff off the floor;

Special occasion supplies: stuff for the holidays, parties, picnics;

Food and consumables: Canned goods, drinks, and other non-perishable foods, bath tissue, napkins, and paper towels, and

Luggage: place the small stuff in front of the bigger stuff. Take the items with broken zippers to the repair shop right away.

How does the expression go?

Big Things Come In Small Packages

Want to see a perfect example of this in action?

Consider this situation:

When making small changes, don’t overlook the multiplication factor - 5 minutes shaved off weekly meetings of 10 people earning $30 per hour would amount to a savings of $62,590/year- Harold Taylor

No, you don’t need to invented a time machine or slow the world down.

All you need to do is organize your time a little better each and every day

If you make a dozen phone calls each day and can manage to save 5 minutes on each call, you’ve just found a full extra hour to spend on something else you enjoy, like shopping!

More proof that a little can go a long, long way.

Every once in a while we come across a room in such rough shape, you could only call it a disaster!

For example, take this office.

Anyone see a problem?

Ladies and Gentlemen…

Welcome to PROJECT DISASTER where we get to take peek behind closed doors (and thank goodness they are closed most of the time) and see how real people work and live.

As you can see from the pictures, it doesn’t take a professional to tell you that this desk is in desperate need of two things:

• A paper management system
• A PAPER MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

So, check back with us here at Project Disaster in a few days to learn about the simple paper management system developed to help save this poor desk from any more pain and suffering.

Keep it Neat!

So, you think your closet is still lacking something after a little reorganization work?

Well, you could be right!

Much like forks, spoons and knives, there is a hanger for every occasion…and for the sake of your clothes, you should learn when to use them.

Important!

Remember the basics… in the words of Faye Dunaway doing Joan Crawford in Mommie Dearest “No… wire… hangers. What’s wire hangers doing in this closet when I told you: no wire hangers EVER?”

Basically, wire hangers stretch the shoulders of your shirts out and crease your pants.

The Basics
Any good hanger worth its salt should have the following features

• contoured shoulders - helps keep shirts and jacket in their original form
• elongated hooks - makes sure that shirt collars stay up.
• clamps have a felt barrier - so the clamps don’t make holes in your clothes (watch out for the hanger you see on your right - examine those clamps!)

There are a number of different hanger styles

• Tops - looks like an open triangle or boomerang. Some shirt hanger will have notches in them. These are used hold thin dress straps in place when hanging them up.
• Bottoms - will not have the contoured shoulders, just a straight bar with some clamps for pants. Hanging pants up by the waist prevents them from getting creased at the knees - typically happens when you hang pants over a bar
• Suits - What most people expect when they see a hanger; a closed triangle
• Combinations - a closed triangle with clamps

As well as a variety of material that can be used to make a hanger.

• Wood
• Plastic
• Fabric - Padded fabric hanger shirts and camisoles slipping off the hanger and on to the floor. This often happens with wooden or plastic hangers.
• Metal - Remember, metal hangers are evil.

Keep it Neat!