Trish and her son live in a cozy condo. Like many families, they lead a busy life, with school, work, and activities.
She and I decided to start with closet clutter. It was filled with books, games, puzzles, wrapping paper, knitting supplies, plastic snow toys, a hand truck, and more. We started by pulling out many items. First, the hand truck, which also functions as a step stool. Where to store it? Their home doesn’t have an attic or a basement. (In some ways, that’s good. As Trish said, she can’t be tempted to just leave stuff in a basement. My take – it also prevents bringing too much unneeded stuff into the home. Without extra space, it’s hard to store items that aren’t needed, like duplicates, too many toys, etc.) Luckily, she does have a storage unit. The hand truck will go there, since she has other step stools. Christmas wrapping paper will go there, too, for safe keeping with other holiday items.
We tweaked the top shelf, which held a game, a bin with art supplies for her son, a binder with some of his school memories, and an art project in another bin. We added the art supplies to another bin for storage elsewhere, and tossed the art project. We added more games and puzzles. Easy-peasy!
We pushed her two low knitting supplies storage pieces into the back of the closet, fitting perfectly under the stairs. We placed gift bags horizontally on top of one of them, which would keep them from getting bent or crushed. A plastic sled leans against the wall. After photos were taken, we hung it, to keep the floor as clear as possible.
Next, the shelves below. On the top on, there were several bins of books, which Trish would work on separately, to use our time together well. Below, we tossed a few games and puzzles with incomplete parts, and made better sense of the shelves.
The time sped by! Closet clutter gone! We cleaned up, and discussed our next area of concentration – a cupboard next to the table, where they would store her son’s art supplies. Onward!
About De-clutter Me!
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.