Going Green by being organized…and the Living Green Expo

Yesterday I spent the day at The Factory in Franklin (an awesome collection of shops, restaurants & event space in an old factory – they also hold the Farmer’s Market there on Saturday mornings & Tuesday afternoons) at the Living Green Expo.

At the Living Green Expo

Excellent event – and got to meet all sorts of businesses that help people and other businesses go green.  Spray on foams, energy efficient windows, natural products (trying out some all natural bug spray this week – we’ll see how it works), and our family favorite, the electric scooters.  They were super cute retro looking bikes that run on electricity. My point of being there was how being organizing can help you go green.  It’s hard to be conscious of green options when it isn’t convenient or easily accessible.  One of the things I work on with my clients who want to be green is to make it easy. Some tips on being organized and green:

• Plan your routes when heading out for the day.  Map out your farthest point and make your stops accordingly.  Determine what tasks need to be done, and which stops are near each other.  I even go so far as to plot which stops are the same side of the road so I don’t have make left turns (my friends do give me a bit of grief about this but, hey, it works!).  Combine errands with trips you are already making, saving gas and time.
• Set up a cabinet or drawer in your kitchen for re-usable containers for lunchboxes, storage and more.  Get away from plastic bags and disposable items.
• Have a designated location for re-usable grocery bags, like my favorite ChicoBags, in a drawer or hanging on a hook.  Keep some in your car for unplanned stops at the store.  If you know right where they are and they are easily accessible, you will be much more likely to use them.
• Use Re-usable Water Bottles, and keep them near the water you drink (mine are in a cabinet right next to the fridge where the filtered water is).  Every plastic bottle you don’t buy is helping the earth – and saving you money.
• Go paperless in your kitchen with rags for cleaning, dish towels for drying hands and cloth napkins.  We haven’t gone as far as going toilet paper-less as in No Impact Man: The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal.  Actually don’t think we’ll ever go quite this green!
• Reduce paper from coming into the house by unsubscribing from unread magazines, and removing yourself from junk mail lists and catalogs.
• Set up your recycling center to not only be easy to use but in a convenient location.  No one is going to regularly walk out to the garage for every plastic container.  Trust me on this.

Be mindful of how you want to go green.  What are your goals?  Then look at how you actually live and the setup of your home.  Creating a system that works for you and your family will help you be as green as you want to be.  I can help if you need it.  As your green organizing questions in the comments – and I’ll post an answer – it’s as easy as that!

Organizing using wall space: basketballs & guitars

Every time I organize, there’s always oddball things that end up laying around in a playroom/bonus room/bedroom/wherever.  In my daughter’s room, these were her basketball and her guitar.  These are not easy things to keep in bins or on a shelf but they needed to go somewhere.  Oddly enough, as I was pondering the basketball problem, I had a random email from John at Ball Claw about his company’s product which happened to solve my dilemma beautifully!  I was a bit hesitant because I hadn’t actually seen & touched one so he offered to send me some to test out.  In about a week, I had 3 to try in varying sizes.  I picked the one that fit the basketball (I’m saving the other 2 as door prizes for my NAPO Nashville chapter) and installed it on the wall.  Super easy.  Not only to install, but to put the basketball in and take it out.  Seriously – my daughter has put it in the “claw” every single time she used it without me asking.  Which is pretty amazing in itself.  The Ball Claw isn’t just for bedrooms (we live in a 1945 bungalow without a garage which is why the basketball is in her room).  It would also be perfect for garages, gyms, schools, whatever.  So far it has proved to be simple (in a good way), easy to install, durable and one of those no-brainer organizing tools that work well for kids (and big people too).

For the guitar, I went to Shuff’s Music here in downtown Franklin and picked up a cute little guitar mount.  It’s small, easy to mount on the wall just like the Ball Claw and holds her guitar.

I mounted both in an unused space on her wall – and it has made a huge difference in keeping her floor clear. (For those wondering about the shelves – those are our designated “treasure storage” which I think is critical for a kid’s room)

I always encourage creativity with storage – and these two products have been a huge help to me personally and to my clients.

How Many Bottles Of Salad Dressing Are In Your Pantry?

Pantry Organization made simple…

I recently organized a pantry with a client and she had a lot of bottles of salad dressings & marinades. A lot. She kept buying them because she couldn’t tell how many she already had, and, you know, they were on sale.

I see this often – not just in pantries but all over the house. If you can’t find something, well then, go get another. This not only wastes your money, but your time. The main goal of organizing is to be able to find what you need when you need it. This is especially true for pantries. Who wants to dig around in a bunch of bottles & cans, wondering what to make for dinner?

So here’s what you do with an out of control pantry:

1. Empty it.
2. Sort the contents by use. I usually sort in the following groups:
   • canned vegetables
   • soups and canned foods such as ravioli or tuna
   • prepackaged meals (hamburger helper, mac & cheese, etc.)
   • cereals & breakfast foods
   • condiments & sauces
   • drinks (juices, sodas, etc.)
   • baking (flour, sugar, chocolate chips, etc.)
   • staples such as corn meal, bread crumbs, shortening, etc.
   • snack foods and/or kids foods
   • other categories of foods that are particular to your household
3. Discard any items that are out of date, dented or are just not something that anyone in the household likes or will actually eat and then CLEAN the pantry!
4. Replace items in the pantry placing the most used items at body level – where they can be most easily reached, and place other items farther away that are not used as often. Group like items with like. So, in other words, all of the veggies go together and the salad dressings go together.
   Tip: If you are an avid baker, canner or other type of kitchen foodie, consider creating a cabinet or shelf just for this endeavor. I love to bake, so I have one whole cabinet that contains all of my baking supplies including the pans & muffin tins.
5. Use shelf stackers for cans and jars, and bins to corral smaller packages.
6. Consider installing a hanging storage rack on the inside of the door if possible for cans, beverages or spices such as this one.

The re-organization can be done very cost effectively. Bins are inexpensive and the stackers are available on www.stacksandstacks.com as well as at places like Target or Walmart.

Tip: I like to give the kids one shelf or large bin for snacks. Pre-package pretzels or trail mix in small bags or containers, and put in a bin with juice boxes, granola bars, boxes of raisins or whatever your kids like to eat.

Before and after images, click the thumbnails to see enlarged images.

tiny bathroom :: storage needed

Small Bathroom Needs More Storage Space: Check Out My Solution!

I was reading a great post (as usual) by Org Junkie and ended up coming up with an idea for my own post while commenting on hers. She was talking about organizing her bathroom (cosmetics, hair products, etc.). I had tossed out my thoughts on having a small bathroom and our solution to it which I will now share with you!

Our house is less than 1100 square feet. Cute as all get out, but small. We have only 1 bathroom which is 5′ x 8′ including the tub. So we needed to make the most out of the space we have. I did have couple of things going for me:

• I AM a Professional Organizer and can design spaces properly
• My husband is quite handy and is a former contractor and home remodeler – so he’s good with the power tools
• We had to gut the bathroom due to mold under the house – it was down to the studs.

However, these are not requirements for doing this project. Any handyman or finish carpenter can do this, and if you are creative (and measure properly) you can use pre-made furniture or cabinetry pieces and trim them off to look built in. An unfinished furniture store is a good option, and so are big box hardware stores.

I’ve included in the post a shot of the bathroom before the remodel. You can see the wall on the left side is, well, just a wall. The bathroom had a cabinet style sink (ugly) and that was it for storage. You can see from the after photo that we now have tons of storage – simply by building INTO the wall. Yes, that’s right – we knocked out the wall and built between the wall studs. We had to do some extra supporting at the top as we made the shelving system go across the whole wall. We ended up losing only a few inches of floor space.

We’ve also done this same thing in our kitchen/office. Floor to ceiling bookcase built into the wall. An unused space that now holds books and art pieces.

Here’s what to consider when looking at doing this type of project:

• what do you need to store in the space? In ours, we store everything from toilet paper to towels to hair products to bandaids. You may need a place for storing extra toothpaste , hair dryers and shampoo, or perhaps just towels.



• what is the space available? Almost any wall space will do that isn’t being used. It doesn’t have to be a full shelving system like ours, but it could simply be a niche in the wall. We built one into the shower for shampoo and soap . It’s only 17″ x 17″ but holds everything we need in the shower. Our wall unit is 3′ wide but 7′ tall. We decided to use every bit of space we could due to our limited overall storage space in the house.
• how handy are you? If you aren’t great with things like building furniture or measuring or power tools, hire someone who is or it just won’t look that good and could jeopardize the integrity of your wall or ceiling.
• Be aware of what is behind your chosen wall – electrical or plumbing can cause issues with the project. On the plus side, you can incorporate electrical outlets into your shelving unit as we did: my husband charges up his hair trimmer on his shelf with an outlet we wired to the side of the cabinet.

So check out our bathroom:

You can see that the before on the left has just an empty wall space, and the shelves (sorry – it’s hard to get a great shot as the space is pretty tight) in the photo to the right makes all the difference.

I gave a lot of thought as to what we were planning on storing here before we built them and it’s worked out beautifully. We originally considered doors on the upper and lower sections but have since decided against it.

On our shelves, we have the following:

• basket for hair dryer, flat iron & hairbrush
• basket for bath toys for our daughter along with her shampoo, sunscreen, etc.
• basket for husband’s toiletries and his electric razor (this is the shelf with the outlets)
• lower left shelf for bathroom cleaning supplies including toilet bowl brush & dog washing supplies (I made this one taller to accommodate the toilet bowl brush)
• shelf for toilet paper
• 2 shelves for neatly folded towels including a basket for washcloths
• basket on shelf up high for medical items like bandaids, cough drops, rubbing alcohol, etc.
• basket on shelf up high for personal items
• shelf for hair spray and other hair products
• basket for dental items on shelf with nail products

If you are having issues with storage in your bathroom – think about using empty wall space for a built in shelving system. As a side benefit, you can get out your frustrations by bashing at the wall with a big hammer! So win-win all the way around.

By the way, if you live in the Nashville area and need a good handyman, I can make some good recommendations. My husband is out of that business and I can barely get our own projects done – so I’m not lending him out to you! But there are some great guys around here that can easily do this type of project and I’d be happy to refer!

bins can hide a multitude of sins…

I was having a really nice conversation with Chad Hunter today about professional organizing (he’s a graphic designer but wants to know more about my field – which I can totally understand because everyone does). During our chat, I used the phrase “bins can hide a multitude of sins.” I love the way this flows. And it is so true. I use bins when I organize and when I stage.

There are so many different kinds of bins but my 2 favorites are Rubbermaid Totes and Sterilite “holey bins”.

The Rubbermaid bins are terrific because they seal and store just about anything. I recommend these for out of season items, storing things when you have your house on the market and need to declutter, and for garages, basements and attics. They are sturdy and easy to tote and stack. Just don’t forget to label. I highly recommend created an inventory list and placing it inside a large Ziploc bag, or laminating it, then attaching it to the side. At the very least, take a big Sharpie and write on the side. Nothing is more frustrating than digging around in bins looking for what you need.

The Sterilite bins are my favorite for inside pantries, cabinets, on shelves. I use one on the passenger side floorboard of my car to corral miscellaneous items that need to be returned places and to hold my paint swatches and first aid kit. I have one for medicines and one for pet items like Heartguard and flea control in the cupboard over my pantry. Using the basic organizing principle of grouping like with like, one is labeled “medicines” and one is labeled “pets”. One of the best features of these bins which most people don’t know is that the grey handles flip up so the bins can stack. You can label them easily either with a label maker or, using the holes, tie cute labels on.

When staging a home, I always recommend both of these bins. First the Rubbermaid ones to clear out the clutter and store items that won’t be needed while the house is being shown. Once the home sells, they are easily moved to the new home.

The Sterilite bins I use everywhere to conceal clutter in such a way that the home looks neat and organized but the homeowner can still find what they need. One of the biggest problems homeowners face when selling a house is keeping it looking neat. These bins will do the trick. The best deal I’ve found on these is at Big Lots – they always have them in stock unless I am shopping there in which case I have bought all of them. So don’t go there right after me. You won’t find any.

I also recommend having a large bin of some sort hanging around in a central area so if a showing is coming up (and agents are notorious for this: “We’re at the end of the street and wondered if we could come see the house”), the homeowner can throw all the junk (dirty dishes, papers, cat) in the bin and take it with them in the car when they leave.

I had one of my favorite agents, Gennifer Mallard, call me recently to tell me how terrific one of the houses we worked on was looking and she said the homeowner had bins everywhere. There were “too many bins” but she didn’t have the heart to say anything. I said, “how can there ever be too many bins?”