The Year of Organized Living- Bags

We had a serious, out of control problem in our household. It was a problem that spanned two floors, infected two closets and created daily chaos. I am talking about bags.

Between the two of us, Dan and I have all sorts of bags. We have gym bags, tote bags, backpacks, shopping bags, rucksacks, purses (just me), et... and these bags refused to stay organized, even when I neatly placed them on the shelves.

Every time we opened up the closets, the bags would come tumbling down. I needed to figure out a way to keep them in line, while maintaining accessibility.

I found the solution at my favorite store, Bed, Bath and Beyond.

I bought two packages of the tall size of the Lynk Shelf Dividers.

I originally thought to use them in the hall closet for the towels, as show in the picture on the packaging, but I have a different idea for the closet. Stay tuned. I thought for ten bucks, it was worth giving the Lynk Dividers a shot at taming the bag situation.

Here are pictures of the problem. We had bags on both the top shelf of the coat and guest bedroom closets.

Guest Bedroom closet.

Coat Closet- sorry so dark, it's the best that I could get.

I cleared all of the bags from both closets and placed them in piles based on function. We found a bunch that we no longer needed or wanted, so that culled the pile considerably. It was stuff didn't even realize that we had, because it had been at the bottom of the pile in the closet. The primary reason for this cleaning binge is to really use the stuff that we own and to eliminate the superfluous.

I wanted to make everything fit in the guest bedroom closet and it did. Not only is it neat, but we freed up a ton of prime storage space in the coat closet.

I had four of the dividers to work with, so it created five separate sections. Two for Dan's things, one for our mutual bags (like the beach bag and insulated picnic bag), one for my stuff and one for our hats. Admittedly, I cheated some, as I have one box of purses (clutches/evening bags) in the master closet, but most of our stuff is in the guest bedroom. It does seem like a ridiculous amount for two people, but we really do use them all.

Here is the finished product.

I am happy with the end result. I did this several weeks ago and it's been very easy to remove a particular bag from the shelf without having the entire collection come tumbling down.

The dividers are very solid and stay put. If anything, I would caution really knowing where you want to place them, before sliding them into place. They are removable, but it takes some muscle. It's good though, because they stay ridged.

I highly recommend the Lynk Shelf Dividers for closet organization.

The Year of Organized Living- Family Edition

My organization in 2013 kick has now extended beyond our home and into my aunt's house. My aunt and uncle have lived in their home for thirty-five years and the junk has accumulated. My uncle is a complete pack-rat who used to love to hit garage sales and their house is a reflection of years of mild hoarding (lots and lots of books).

My uncle's health has declined and my aunt is getting older, so in the last year, she has been slowly donating and trashing unnecessary stuff. Really, my uncle's poor health is the only way that she has been able to get any of this done, as she secrets it out during his naps. If he realized how much she has cleared out of their house, he would not be pleased. Of course, the house is greatly improved by her actions.

On Tuesday, my aunt and I tackled the top half of her hall linen closet. The top three shelves have been a catch-all for junk. It's one of those that you don't open, unless you are prepared to catch everything that it about to tumble out. We had a rouge lightbulb fall and smash on the wood floor. Not a good situation.

As with all organization tasks, we started by removing everything and sorting it into appropriate piles. My aunt had tons of expired medicine, dating back to 2002, tons. There were loose light bulbs everywhere and a lifetime supply of hair spray. As we went through the cupboard, she lamented on all of the wasted money with unused prescriptions and items that she bought not realizing that she already had a ton. Organization is good for your wallet!

This had been in the cupboard for decades!

Sorting piles in the hall. We also used the guest bedroom (my room) and the office for piles.

I do have a bit of an ulterior motive, that my aunt was quick to point out. One day, I will either inherit the house or have to help my family move out of it. One way or the other, I will have to clean it and it's just easier to chip away at it a little each time I visit. Plus, it makes it easier for them living in it now. I would urge anyone in a similar situation to do the same.

Having lost my mom, I can assure you that cleaning out a relatives house is far more difficult when under stress. Do it while they are alive and can help. Plus, it's a great idea if they can tell you about important mementos, it's a bonding experience. My mom went through her jewelry box with me and then took it a step further and labeled all of the important pieces. I would never have known which ones were my Grandparent's Wedding rings or sentimental pieces that my father gave to her. It means a lot now.

I went to the adult toy store (Bed, Bath and Beyond) with my coupon and spent twelve dollars on three plastic storage containers. One container has all of the floating light bulbs, safe where they won't break. Another has travel sized items and the third contains first aid items. The boxes are labeled and clear for easy access. I may go back and get a few more to further organize the space, but at this point it's a million times better than it was before.

Please don't tell my uncle that we got rid of about 80% of the stuff! I really scored with a find that was hidden deep back in the cupboard.

I have used this style Bobbi Brown make-up case for years and my current one wore out last summer. I wanted to ask for a new one for Christmas, but found out that it had be discontinued, which is crazy, since it's so perfect. My aunt had this and it had never been used, so she gave it to me. A huge score. Cleaning can lead to hidden treasures.

The Year of Organized Living- Paperwork

If there is one place where my life is most disorganized, it's paperwork. I have been subscribing to the "Out of Sight, Out of Mind" philosophy, which works just fine, until you need to locate something important, like say paperwork to remortgage or window contracts to nail Home Depot. We've always managed to find the document, but disorganization has led to frustrating, desperate searches, when precious weekend time should be reserved for movies and sleeping in.

I've been shoving all manner of paperwork into the upstairs hall closet for years. We now need to reclaim the storage space and get 2012 paperwork located for tax time. I decided that today was the day for a massive culling of the paperwork and so far (as I am only taking a short break), I've accumulated four bags of paperwork trash and one bag to shred.

Trash accumulated from an hour of paperwork culling.

Most of the discarded paperwork falls into two categories.

The first, old school paperwork. I don't know why I felt the need to hang on to decades old History class notes or creative writing that isn't all that great. I junked nearly all of it. On the upside, I found some short stories that I had forgotten about and feel a renewed sense of inspiration to work on my fiction writing.

Second, my mom's paperwork. My mom passed nearly five years ago and I left much of her paperwork untouched. She was an obsessively organized person and I just always thought that if she kept it, it must be important. Well, today, I finally opened her meticulously organized binders and realized that most of it had zero bearing on my life. She had stack of recipts from the 80's! I have a whole bag of old mortgage paperwork and stock info that all needs to be shredded. My mom never got on board with doing her bills online, so she filed every single bill, often in it's own plastic sheet and saved them in binders. It looked nice, but was really just unnecessary. So much paperwork! I got rid of eight giant binders of her stuff and whittled it down to only the essential documents.

Getting rid of the paperwork is a load off of my shoulders. I was beginning to feel like Sara Cynthia Sylvia Stout.

I still have more culling and then I need to figure out the best way to organize, especially a way to organize in-coming paperwork. I need to make a habit of keeping it organized as it comes in, so this problem doesn't get out of control again.

When searching for ways to organize paperwork, I came across the blog, Crap I've Made. Besides having a catching blog title, the author, Char, has some great organizational ideas. I think that her idea of organizing bills/paperwork into a sturdy file box, might be what I try in 2013. Check it out.

Crap I've Made- Bill Box

The bigger picture will include scanning important documents into Evernote. As with the family photographs, I've become increasingly worried that something might happen to an original document and I want to get everything squared away.