Alex, who lives in a retirement community, always says that he doesn’t have enough storage space. In an earlier session, we organized his kitchenette area. This time, we would focus on two bookcases in his office.
Drawing on my experience as a professional organizer, a good method is to work from top to bottom. That way, we can place items up top that aren’t used very often, but should be easily reached when needed. Similarly, other, and heavier, items go on the bottom.
We placed notebooks across the tops of the two shelves. Working our way down, we put old day timers and check registers behind other notebooks, using precious space as effectively as possible. Asked, Alex responded that it would be easy enough to reach the stuff in the back when needed.
We placed CDs in a basket. As a first step, I urged Alex to alphabetize them, so that when he wants to listen to a particular musical genre, composer or artist, he’ll be able to select the CD easily. The best option would be a storage piece specifically designed for CDs, since he has many more than will fit in the basket shown and another one like it. I suggested a couple of retailers.
We continued our downward work through the office shelves, placing unneeded paper into a recycling bag. As we worked, Alex said several times that the shelves looked much better. And, bonus points, there even are two empty shelves!
In our next session, we will continue working to use storage space as effectively as possible.
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De-clutter Me! offers non-judgmental, competitively-priced and confidential assistance to help clear clutter in your home and/or business. We’ve been changing chaos to calm since 2013.