Spring Cleaning Organization Tips

Items I suggest when organizing a closet on a budget:

• Uniform hangers. Wire hangers are the worst for your clothes.  Purchasing uniform hangers not only looks pleasing to the eye but helps your clothes last longer.
• Hooks-  A great recourse to hang everyday items like totes, scarves or even a place to hang the outfit you plan to wear the next day.
• Shelf dividers. This helpful solution keeps the pile of clothes you have folded on a closet shelf from forming one large mess.
• Clear bins- There are always items in a closet needing to be stored. Using clear bins helps remind you what is inside so nothing is forgotten.
• Shoe rack. You can use a traditional shoe rack on the bottom of your closet or a shoe solution on the back of your door. No matter what, implementing something for your shoes is a must so they don’t form one large cluster on your closet floor.  
• Labels. Creating labels in your closet ensures you know where to find an item/category and more importantly where to put it back. You can create them with  tape and sharpie, a label maker or using mail labels and a pen.

tricks/tips for maintaining an organized closet

• Remember to be realistic when organizing your closet. If you know you won’t able able to maintain color coding, don’t do it. Set up systems that feel realistic with your lifestyle and personality so keeping it tidy feels natural not daunting. Add hooks if you tend to drape your clothes or label shelves if someone else in your household puts the laundry away.

Keep in mind:

• There are always going to be busy periods and setbacks, but if you’ve set up systems and set aside time to organize, you’ll be amazed at how quickly your house bounces back.  Just remember to always take a deep breath and know the mess is not representative of who you are, or that you have failed in some way. It’s just temporary.

Tips for organizing your pantry:

• Categories will be your best friend when organizing your pantry. Put snacks, breakfast and grains categorically together. This will help when needing to know what to replenish, which saves you money!
• Have your spices in your pantry? Put any spices you use the most front and center and rarely used spices in the back.
• Think about what you and your family eat the most. If you tend to eat a lot of breakfast, put that on the most accessible shelf. Whatever you use the least should be on the highest shelf.
• Does your pantry only have shelves? Consider installing pull out drawers. You can purchase from IKEA or Amazon inexpensively. Having pull out drawers helps to see everything you have so nothing gets lots in the back.
• When using bins or containers in your pantry, go for clear. Being able to see what you have and when it gets low is a good reminder that it’s time to restock.
• Lazy susans are perfect for pantry organization. You can place items you use often making it easy to access and find quickly.

Other random tips:

Wax Paper

• Have issues sliding your hangers on the rod in your closet? Take a sheet of wax paper and run it across the rod. Clothes will slide with ease.

Shower Hooks for Jeans

• To free up shelf space and ensure you no longer have to play the jean-Jenga-game, use shower curtain hooks wide enough to fit on your closet rod and hang your jeans from their belt loops. Using hooks allows your jeans to hang without taking up a lot of space and will also air your jeans out, between washes!

Shoes Face in Opposite Directions

• Save space by placing shoes in opposite directions, you’ll be able to see one shoe from the front and one shoe from the back. Placing shoes this way ends up saving you a few inches of space, which means fitting in more shoes.

Shoe boxes for Tupperware Lids

• Reuse shoe boxes to keep your kitchen tidy. Collect and organize all of your tupperware lids and place inside a shoe box to keep separate and avoid a mess of lids and bins. Use the lid of shoe boxes to help unruly catch all drawers become tiddy by keeping pens, lighters and post-its all in one container.

Sorted by Anna is professional organizing and decluttering company. With home, business, moving and virtual services, we help set up long term space-saving solutions that fit each busy lifestyle and personality. Packing and unpacking, decluttering, simplifying and room redesign consultations. Sorted by Anna helps clients achieve order, function and efficiency so they can truly love their space again!