Sparkleize the way you live

Cabinets, bookcases and shelving units can take up a lot of precious floor space, making a room feel cluttered and bottom heavy.

Instead, take advantage of walls as a storage alternative. Consider wall-mounted shelving for books, CDs/ DVDs, collectibles, and decorative items. Below are a few beautiful examples of wall-mounted shelving.

For books in the living room, from Apartment Therapy:

In the kitchen, by Rakks:

Mounting your television on the wall is a huge space saver. This TV wall mount bracket tilts and swivels, while this one (below) from Bontempi Casa looks sleek and modern:

Have more ideas to share? Post a comment or write to Crystal and let her know!

Crystal says, here are the Five Holy Organizing Principles:

1. Do not buy stuff you don’t need. If you won’t be using something immediately or in the very near future, chances are you shouldn’t be buying it. And sales are a death trap. The moment you start using words like, “Someday that could come in handy for something”, you enter clutter danger zone.

2. Politely say no to freebies. Just because it is free does not mean you need it in your house. Remember that getting rid of something is 10 times harder than acquiring it!

3. Purge your possessions frequently. Regularly look through your drawers, closets and attics for gift-giving, donating and yard sale opportunities. All those baskets, vases, self-help books, blank journals etc. that you never seem to get around to using? They will make great presents for your friends! Also check out Crystal’s Garage Sale Guide for help in planning your next sale.

4. Do two things when unpacking any new household item (blender, printer, stereo, etc): (1) File the instruction manual in a folder in your file cabinet labeled “Instruction manuals”. This makes it a cinch to find the instructions again when you need them. (2) Unless you need to return the item, break down the cardboard box (keep a box cutter handy for this purpose) and then put it in your recycling bin right away.

5. Don’t touch things more than once! By this, I mean if it belongs in the trash, put it there now. Don’t set it down so that you can later forget what you intended to do with it in the first place. This is how clutter accumulates! If it needs to be shredded, shred it now. If it needs to be put back in the closet, put it back now. As a rule of thumb, anything that can be done in < 1 minute should not be deferred to a later time! A small investment now yields huge return for peace, order and productivity later.

Have more ideas to share? Post a comment or write to Crystal and let her know!

I’d like to go so far as to say that organizing requires no money at all.

TV shows like Real Simple and Web sites such as Simplify 101 offer helpful organizing advice, but they tend to prey upon disorganized people by appealing to a typical false belief: that people can be more organized if only they buy the perfect binder, bag or bin.

Living in an organized way is about having simple and effective habits, not the newest gadgets.

In my experience, the typical person already has in his/her home everything he/she needs to accommodate all of their possessions and live in a happy, organized, productive manner. All that is required is a dose of inspiration, a bit of motivation, and the desire to change a few simple habits.

Have additional thoughts or ideas to share? Leave a comment, or write to Crystal and let her know.

Do you need organizing help? If you’re in the Raleigh-Durham, NC area, I recommend me, of course. However, if you live elsewhere, you can find an organizer in your area using the National Association of Professional Organizer (NAPO) directory.

Not sure if a particular organizer is right for you? Check them out on Angie’s List, a Web site where you’ll find unbiased reports and reviews about service companies in your area.

If you have thoughts on this or other ideas, please post a comment, or write to Crystal and let her know!

Think daily about the stuff that you or others intend to bring through your door - mail, shopping bags, boxes, etc. The biggest clutter mistake is to bring stuff into the house, figuring you’ll “deal with it later”. Solution: If there is something that you suspect will only just pile up (rather than be absolutely useful to you and your family), direct it elsewhere before it even crosses your threshold. After all, a home is (should be) your oasis of order and peace in this crazy world. More stuff means more clutter and stress. Less stuff = Zen bliss

One of the better articles I’ve read about organizing is “Oops! The Top 10 Organizing Mistakes” by Pamela Kramer.

I cannot agree more with her on Mistake #7: Buying Containers Too Soon!

We all do it. We get jazzed about organizing and rush out to buy an assortment of bins and racks. Then we get home and find out that our new organizers don’t fit in the closet, or the things we want to organize don’t fit in our fancy new containers. “You’re left with organizers that just add more clutter to your space,” says Lisa Zaslow, founder of Gotham Organizers in New York City.
TRY: Sorting and measuring before you shop. Pull together the items you want to organize, and toss or give away what you no longer need or love. “This gives you a sense of what you have and what you need, such as buying a rack for your 10 pairs of shoes,” says Zaslow. Measure the height, width and depth of the space you have available, and take the list with you to the store so you can determine which containers will fit.

Have additional thoughts or ideas to share? Leave a comment, or write to Crystal and let her know!

Here’s my tried and true methodology for organizing any type of space - from a cluttered shelf to an entire closet or garage:

1. Identify your priorities. What are your goals for that space? Do you want to make more space by getting rid of things you really don’t need? Do you simply want to be able to find things easily?

2. Visualize your ideal space, imagining organization. Keep that dream of the end results in your mind rather than the process of getting there!

3. Dump it all on the floor. (Yes, that’s what I said!) Whether it is a junk drawer, your closet, or the garage, you need to begin by emptying it so you can start with a clean slate. 

4. Group similar things together. This allows you to see what you have and makes the decisions about what to keep and what to get rid of easier. For example, if you’re sorting your clothes closet, your similar group items might be: Daily wear (casual), Daily wear (professional), Sleepwear, Exercise clothing, and Special occasions.

If you’re sorting the garage, your similar item groups might be Sporting goods, Tools, Automotive, Entertainment, Pets, Gardening and Other.

5. Create decision piles, such as:

• Keep here,
• Keep somewhere else,
• Toss,
• Shred,
• Recycle,
• Donate, and
• Sell.

6. Now execute the decisions made in Step 5. This means taking action on the Toss, Shred, Recycle, Donate and Sell piles right away before they become new sources of clutter! You may wish to move the Donate and Sell items to the garage or somewhere out of the way, and schedule them to be picked up. Immediately find appropriate places for the items that you want to keep but which belong somewhere else.  Put the Toss pile in the trash can as soon as possible! Return only the items which belong in that particular space (i.e., Keep Here).

7. Container-ize it! Now that the volume of items is more manageable, put them in boxes, bins, bags, shelves, etc. for storage in your newly organized space. Label them appropriately.

Have ideas to share? Leave a comment, or write to Crystal and let her know!