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Archive for clothes

organized closet

Organize the Closet – Lighten the Load

Posted by Carolyn on
 March 9, 2016

Organize the Closet? I Can’t see the Closet

organize the closet

Try the Friends, Acquaintances, Strangers game to sort through clothes.

Recently a client and I stood in front of what was supposed to be a clothes closet in her bedroom.  The door was open and the closet was full.  She was desperate to have a beautifully set up, organized closet. But in fact, we couldn’t even see inside much less organize the closet or contents.

Some serious purging and sorting was needed.

Almost all of these strategies were used.  Each strategy has its own merit.  They each work differently for different people depending on the item in question.  What works for you?

Pull Everything Out

Start by getting everything out of the closet.  While this can be an almost overwhelming task, at least you will know what is in there.  Get the clothes, purses, shoes, scarves and anything else out of hiding.

Use the Friends, Acquaintances, Strangers Game

Getting through the sorting of a full closet enroute to an organized closet can be daunting task.  Using the friends, acquaintances, strangers game can help.

Friends are the people you would have for supper.  In other words the clothes that you love, look good in, feel good in and wear often – or would wear often if you could get at them with an organized closet!

Acquaintances are the people you might chat with but aren’t very close to.  Which are the items that you thought you might like but ultimately never warmed up to?  Can they move on to a life outside of your front door? Off to donation?

Strangers are the people you just don’t know.  Or maybe the ones you knew but don’t hang out with anymore.  These are clothes that don’t fit or have gone out of style. You don’t care for them, don’t wear them.  Send them away.

Re – Consider the Gifts

We all have items in our closets that were gifts.  They were loved, liked or found amusing by someone that gave them to you.  But maybe not quite your taste.  Since they were a gift, they are yours to do as you please, right?  Consider, your mother likely didn’t expect you to keep that sweater for 4o years.  If you don’t wear it, love it, cherish it – send it off to someone who will.

Photograph the Cherished

Organize the closet

Which of your shoes are friends, acquaintances or strangers?

And then there are the items we love and don’t use; beloved items that just don’t measure up to today’s – or your – style. Take a photo. That way you have the memory without having the item take up space in your closet.

Organize the Closet

With a lighter load, its easier to hang up, fold up and generally sort everything back into the closet.  Try going through the sorting process again as items go back into the closet.  Sometimes a second round of sorting will lighten the load that much more.

Now stand back and survey the closet.  When you open the doors you ought to be greeted with friends waiting to be taken out and worn.  Items that you love, that make you feel good and that look great on you.

Home Organizing
Tags : Clearing Clutter, closets, clothes, organizing clothes, organizing strategies
plan time to get important things done

Time Tamer Tuesday – The Organized Workout

Posted by Carolyn on
 March 8, 2016
Plan for an organized workout

We can’t manage time, but we can plan to get important things done.

An Organized Workout takes Planning

Headed for a workout in the morning?  Are you organized to workout? Whether you hit the gym, pound the pavement, or take you bike for a spin, using organization to help you get there will increase the chances of fitness happening.

Let’s face it, on a chilly March morning, it’s sometimes hard to haul out of bed and find the motivation to hit the gym right?

Since I’m not a trainer, I’ll leave the organization of the crunches and sprints to the folks with the six-pack abs and unfailing motivation techniques.  Here are some organization strategies to help you get out to that workout.

Plan Your Workout – and a Backup Plan for Weather

Whether its a run, swim, spin or walk, decide the night before. Add a backup plan for weather in case you wake up to pouring rain.  With both a plan and backup in place, there is no second guessing first thing in the morning before you’ve had chance for coffee.

Lay Out Your Gear

Lay out your gear the night before – all of it including clothes, socks, shoes, gloves, keys, phone, headphones, shower gear, work clothes and anything else you need to take.  Pack your gym bag.  Get the shoes from where you left them after your run.  Grab the travel kit with the shampoo and add to the gym bag.  When you wake up, you’ll be on autopilot until the endorphins kick in.

Set up the Playlist

I walk for fitness and like many people I have my special playlist.  In fact I have several.  So I know what it’s like to head out on your walk or run, or arrive at the gym, and realize the playlist isn’t there.  Remember how your phone memory was full, so you took it off to save room for those videos you wanted to take?  Nothing ruins a workout more than a lousy playlist or no playlist at all.  Load it up before hand and that workout will be music in your ears.  Pack the headphones.

Schedule your Workout

A dream is a wish without a schedule.  To give your fitness goals some real intention and keep that organized workout, schedule the workout into your calendar.  Morning, noon, evening, night?  That’s up to you and your schedule.  It’s much more likely to happen if you have protected the time by loading it into your calendar.

Set the Alarm

Your organized workout won’t happen if you never make it out of bed…until 30 minutes before blastoff to work time. Avoid missing your morning workout time by setting that alarm.  While you’re at it, why not use a favourite tune on your phone so you wake up to something that makes you feel good even before the endorphins get pumped up.

It’s not always easy to keep our intentions to get active and get fit.  Being organized can help.  An organized workout will set you on the path to achieving your fitness goals.

See you on the treadmill.

Organizing Sports Gear Time Tamer Tuesday
Tags : clothes, organized workout, organizing sports gear, sports, sports gear
organizing footwear

3 Steps to Your Best Foot Forward

Posted by Carolyn on
 January 12, 2016

organizing footwear

I’ve always had an eye for shoes but not perhaps the way most footwear aficionados do.  I see organizing footwear as including presenting yourself with your best foot forward;  its more than just finding the perfect shoes and shoe storage.

People notice our footwear and its big business.  According to Transparency Market Research’s new market report titled “Global Footwear Market –  Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2014 – 2020,” the Global Footwear Market was valued at USD 19,8782.9 million in terms of value and 9990.7 million in terms of volume in 2014, which is expected to reach USD 220227.9 million and 10,974.0 million in terms of value and volume respectively by 2020. Footwear  can impact your success in a job interview or the amount of respect earned at the office.  Take these three steps to make sure you have your footwear organized for your best foot forward.

Step 1 – Keep Only the Footwear you can Store

The temptation to continuously add to our footwear collection is tough to beat.  It is, however, important to make sure that shoes are stored in a manner that will keep them dry, dust free and easily accessible.  Too often I sort through closets with clients only to find shoes that are so badly damaged due to mold and dust they are beyond salvation.  Ultimately we end up throwing away hundreds of dollars of footwear.  Whether the shoes are stored in the latest, most expensive see-thru container or the shoe box they arrived in is less important than that they are  protected.  Use a storage system that gives you the opportunity to identify the shoes when you need them while keeping the shoes free from damp and dusty conditions.

Step 2 – Review and Sort Your Footwear Twice a Year

This is pretty easy for those of us who live in four season climates.  At least twice a year we sort clothes and put away warm weather clothes in favour of cold weather ones.  Weather your climate changes or not, use a twice yearly schedule for organizing footwear.  This gives you a chance to inspect each pair’s repair status, whether they are still fashionable, need a polish or some repair.  It is also a good opportunity to assess whether the footwear still fits, is relevant to your wardrobe and lifestyle or is due for replacement.

Step 3 – Find a Local Shoe Repair

Check shoes for any that need repair or polish.

Organizing footwear includes checking regularly for repairs and polish.

In today’s throw away culture, a shoe repair can sometimes be hard to find.  A good one that is reliable and easily accessible can be as helpful to organizing footwear as your shoe boxes.  Your budget will go further when soles are replaced instead of the entire pair of shoes, heels are reinforced, polish is reapplied and boots are protected from the winter elements.

Treat your footwear with some respect and it will be there when you need it.  Three simple steps will help you put your best foot forward and keep your footwear organized.

 

Home Organizing Organizing Strategies
Tags : clothes, organizing footwear, Organizing Maintenance, organizing strategies, shoes

Welcome to Spring

Posted by Carolyn on
 May 2, 2013

Spring is my favourite time of year; not just because my birthday is in April.  This is the month when gardens and yards burst into colour like a painters pallet, kids get back on their bicycles and many of us start walking again to places we drive all winter.

Spring is also a great time to organize.  If you have a garden, try taking your sorting project out there.  Sorting items out of context makes it easier to make a decision and helps your brain make a more objective assessment of the value of the items to your life.  Out of context, our thoughts often take a different path then we see the items in their usual “home” around your house.

Besides – most things just look better bathed in sunshine.

Organizing Strategies
Tags : clothes, organizing strategies, sorting

Kids Grow – Clothes Collections Don’t Need To

Posted by Carolyn on
 April 1, 2009

It’s officially spring. If you live in the northern hemisphere, like me, your days are getting longer and warmer. If you live in the southern hemisphere (a big shout out to our African readers) your days are getting shorter and cooler. Whichever the case, the seasons are changing and so are our kids’ clothing needs.

Have you noticed how children grow? We feed them, hydrate them, make sure they get to sleep on time, provide them with lots of hugs and kisses and presto – they grow. Have you ever noticed how the clothes don’t grow with the children?

Very small children grow out of their clothes so quickly, you may find yourself clearing out the too small garments monthly for awhile. Soon it moves to every few months and then settles out at about every half year. There isn’t a better time to do a major clear out than spring and fall.

Be ruthless, just like in your own closet. If your children don’t like the clothes, won’t wear them you might as well get them out of the way (the clothes that is) as they just become clutter. Here in Ontario there are several clothing resellers where “gently used” clothes and live a second or third life and provide you with some money for the next size required. If giving them away is your choice, find the benefactor that meets your needs and purge away.

If the clothes are to be stored for younger children be aware that children’s tastes are different. I don’t recommend what I did – and have become wiser for the experience. I stored my gender neutral daughter’s clothes for her 6 year younger brother. I would have been better off selling them when she was done with them. The fabric ages and in 6 years the elastics were perished. Then there was to issue of style and taste!

Get the kids involved in reviewing the clothes so that they understand basic sorting, decision making and organizing strategies. You can make it a game, put a reward incentive at the end and get them to pick the benefactor of the too small items. They may not thank you today – but they will thank you for those skills later in life.

Home Organizing
Tags : Children, clothes, organizing clothes

More on the Open and Closed Case

Posted by Carolyn on
 February 26, 2009

In visiting other exhibitors at the National Home Show, I have been very impressed with the quality of storage solutions available to home owners. In my mind I have chosen new clothes storage several times over in each of the styles available from each of the closet manufacturers.

It brings to mind, however, the difference in organizing styles the all of us have. Some of us are folders; others are tossers and droppers. Some of us like things quiet and all the same in storage styles which others, less visual by nature, don’t even notice if one container is a different colour to the next.

If you are looking at storage systems for your clothes, try and figure out what your style is. Match up your new system to that style. There are no rules that say clothes have to be folder when put away. With my own two children, I’m happy if the clothes just end up in the drawers at all. Sliding baskets are great for the tosser and droppers so that they can toss and drop into the basket to their hearts content. Open storage is great for those of us who don’t like to have to hunt for the right drawer for each object.

So make your life a little easier and match up your storage with your organizing style.

Home Organizing
Tags : Children, clothes

Clothes Dropping

Posted by Carolyn on
 February 25, 2009

Do you find that clothes end up on the floor regardless of how hard you try to keep them contained in their proper homes?

Take a close look at your dressing area, no matter how small or how big. Are your clothes all contained within the one area? Do you have to go from one side of the room to the other just to find all the pieces of clothing you need for the day?

The farther apart your clothing pieces are stored, the more likely they are to end up on a horizontal surface (bed, floor etc) while you are either dressing or undressing.

Try and get all your clothing storage in one area together, from now on referred to as your dressing area. It can be anything from 9 square feet (3 metres squared) to a room unto itself. It may be just a designated side of your bedroom – probably the side with the clothes closet. Get all your clothes in there and they are less likely to end up on the floor.

Home Organizing
Tags : clothes, dressing area, managing mess, mess, organizing clothes

The Seasonal Clear out – a la Hong Kong

Posted by Carolyn on
 November 12, 2008

Still trying to get that seasonal clear out completed? Hop over to Dim Sum Mom and hear how she accomplished it for a family of six: that would be Mom and Dad, son and triplets!

Home Organizing
Tags : Accumulation, Children, clothes, organizing clothes, small spaces

Lighten your Closets – Results

Posted by Carolyn on
 November 12, 2008

The weather is chilly, the snow is threatening and winter is looming in the shape of a big, grey, cold cloud. I promised last week that I would report on the success of Bob McGee’s (CHFI, Toronto) coat drive from last weekend. Toronto has proven once again it is a city with lots of heart and closets with lightening potential. Over 10,000 coats were collected which will be distributed to children where needed. Here’s a picture of the truck loads. Way to go TO!

Home Organizing
Tags : Children, closets, clothes, organizing clothes

Hallowe’en Horrors from the Dress Up Box

Posted by Carolyn on
 October 29, 2008

Like many families, yours may have a box of ever-ready dress up clothes. You may, in fact, have already been through the box with your children in preparation for this year’s Hallowe’en costumes.

Why not take the time to clear it out and purge the clutter from the box. Grab a big bag and clear out any clothes that don’t fit, are torn too much even for dress up, haven’t seen the light of day for five years or generally don’t seem to belong there anymore. Make room for the new costume pieces added this year and those great cast-aways from your wardrobe that the kids want to keep for dress up.

Home Organizing
Tags : Children, clothes, costumes, dress up, sorting strategies

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