If you love to go to garage/yard sales (junking) like I do, you might call a sale with only clothing a “drive-by”. Usually the clothing is thrown on a blanket in the yard and they are charging too much, and with nothing else to look at it’s not worth stopping the car.

    But this summer, I held 2 yard sales that were clothing-only and both were successful so I thought I’d blog how it’s done. All of the clothes were donated for a good cause. The initial bags that were brought to my house took up a large chunk of my living room and spilled over into the front room…

  

                                                                   Bags of clothing before sorting….

         I knew that the clothing would sell better if it was sorted by size. Even someone like me would stop if I could only go through the sizes that I wanted. With this in mind, I borrowed several tubs from a neighbor and went to work. I love showing “during” photos of my organizing, because I want people to have a realistic idea of what happens while you are working ( everything expands). There was no way for me to do it all myself, but lucky for me, I have a friend who sorts clothes as part of her job. She came over and helped. Then later that night, another friend came over.  (yay!!)

                                

                                                       Bags of clothing during the sort

 

  All told, we estimated that we sorted 90 bags of clothing (some of those were big yard-size bags). We sorted the kids clothing into sizes 6-8, 8-10, 10-12, 12-14. And put the tubs in long lines. IMPORTANT: leave room in between your totes b/c if you put them too close together, your customers will just mix the sizes up. With room in between, they’ll put the ones they’ve looked at out of the tote, and then put back in the ones they don’t want.

                                  

                                                                     Bags of clothes after sorting.

    We also made sure all of the shoes had pairs and semi-sorted the adult clothing into types/styles of clothing instead of sizes. The last few tips are:

1. Price all the kids clothing at a quarter a piece, the adult clothing at 50 cents a piece, and shoes at a dollar a pair….and you will sell tons! The point of a yard sale is to make some money off of things that you are willing to give away, so don’t price so high that you have to make several trips to the second-hand store afterwards.

2. A new tip I picked up from a friend is to make your yard sale signs using black paint and a foam brush. It’s less stinky (fumes) than a big permanent marker, and will show up really well from far away.

 

        I got so busy as soon as I had the clothing out on the driveway, that I never got time to take pictures of the actual yard sale, so I made a diagram of where we put stuff on my driveway. We had a few drive-bys, but mostly people stopped. I had quite a few people tell me how organized it was, and that it was the first time they even considered buying clothing at a yard sale.

                                           

   One of my favorite rooms to organize is a craft room. This craft “room” is more of just an area in the basement living room. The owner of this craft room uses it to make Medieval period clothing and jewelry while her husband makes armor and archery targets. I love her fun and unique hobby (and am very jealous of her sewing skills), so I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this room!  

            

                                                                     A view of the room before and after

 

The first problem that I saw was the table placement. With two folding tables pushed together, there was enough room for cutting, but it also made a large horizontal surface for people to dump their stuff on. Also, it makes it hard to access both tables because you’d have to walk around both. I suggested an “L” shape for the tables. This way her chair could easily pull up to both and she could designate areas on each for different tasks. And by putting her equipment and supplies on the tables in their zones, it leaves less empty horizontal surface for dumping.

   

                                                                            Craft tables before and after

 

         The next major problem was the amount of fabric that she had to keep for her projects and the best way to store them and make them easy to find. She had already arranged her trims, patterns, etc. plastic tubs but there was no room to store these. I suggested hanging the fabric so that it would be easier to see. We both thought that a wire shelving unit would work because she could hang the fabric from the top, put her tubs on the bottom shelves, and put larger fabric on the very top.

   

                                                                                     Floor before and after

                                                         

                                                               The fabric solution – a wire shelving unit

I didn't take a "before" photo when I started this pantry project because it didn't look cluttered and unorganized. This "after" photo was taken by the home owner, and after he posted it on FB, I figured he was pretty proud of the results.

If you have a nice large pantry like this, then organizing it isn't very hard, but I will give you tips that will work in any size pantry.

1. Look at the labels:
Most of the food in this pantry was expired. Most foods are still okay to eat after the "best by" date as the date is usually a conservative estimate but it's not a case of whether or not the food is still good. I want you to view food the way you would view any other objects in your house. If you bought a case of canned green beans from a case-lot sale, and those cans have sat dusty on your shelves because nobody in your family eats green beans, then chances are they are CLUTTER.

2. Prioritize: The appliance you only use twice a year, or the dishes you only use at Christmas should be put up high etc. Think of how often you have to get to something and keep things out of corners.

3. Top shelf and bottom shelf:
Too much on the top shelf will make it feel cluttered. If you need to put things on the top shelf, put them in matching, closed containers to get away from that "about to fall" visual. I don't really love the bottom shelf of pantries, but if you want to use them, I suggest bins so that you can pull them out from under the shelves for easier access and to keep your food off of the floor.

4. Zoning:
In this pantry the food, cleaning supplies, and appliances were all mixed together. Since the family usually goes into the pantry and turns left: I put all of the food on the left-hand shelves. Appliances and cleaning supplies are straight ahead, and other seasonal items are on the right side (since some of the right side is behind the door when it's open and therefore harder to get to)

Side note: There are all kinds of gadgets for holding food like "rolling can shelves". I configure most of the pantries I work on the same way that my mother's pantry was: Boxes on one shelf, cans on another. If you stack the cans on top of each other and in front of each other (the way they are at the grocery store), then they take up less room because the can is smaller upright than it is on its side...no gadgets needed.

Everything I need to know, I didn't get from the playroom.
For this post, I'm just gonna go with some of my helpful hints. These are ideas that I have picked up from my own experience with children, and from my experience of organizing kids' rooms and playrooms for my family and friends.

Books:
Bookcases are a fabulous thing.....until the kids get to them.
This bookcase was in the kids' closet in their bedroom. They had a separate playroom for their toys. I suggested the books be taken out of the bedroom and moved into the playroom. This solved a couple of problems: bedrooms stay cleaner if they are used solely for the purpose of sleeping; and it's a lot easier for Mom to get to the bookshelf and clean it when she's cleaning the rest of the playroom.

It's important to organize the books and make them look nice. This will not necessarily motivate the kids to keep it looking nice, but it will definitely be a motivation for you. In this case we put board books on the bottom for her youngest to get to, and all of the oversized books went in the bookcase on their sides.

Toy boxes:
The problem with toy boxes is that inevitably the bottom fills up with small pieces and parts. The kids no longer play with the toys in the toy box, because they cannot see them, or get to them without emptying the whole thing. I suggested that we move the miscellaneous toys to the cute tote organizers the homeowner already possessed. Then we put all of the stuffed animals in the toy box. No small parts or pieces to get lost in the bottom of the box, and no more trying to find room for the billions of stuffed animals that kids “have” to keep.

Other tidbits of random kid-related organizing knowledge:

*Put things on the top. If you don't put something on the top of a chest of drawers or a bookshelf, or a toy box; kids will put lots of somethings up there for you.

*Don't forget the corners. If you place perpendicular furniture together and leave an empty triangle in the corner of a room, you have created a hidey-hole. This is where you need to look for lost remotes, missing socks, and any other item you haven't been able to find.

*Go through the old clothes. Keep what you will pass down. Then give the rest away to bless the lives of others. Old, purposeless clothes in the tops of your closet are not heirlooms, they are clutter, and missed opportunities to help someone less fortunate.

From “10 Things I Hate about You”:
Chastity: I know you can be overwhelmed, and you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed?
Bianca: I think you can in Europe.
Usually I'm called in when someone has reached the alarming state of “overwhelmed”. I'm starting to realize what gets a person worked into this state.
Has this ever happened to you?: You have a room that needs attention. You sit down in the room and attack with a vengeance. You make pile after pile. Then all of the sudden, you get called away. Someone needs a snack, a ride, to go potty, to be picked up....etc. Then when you go back to the room in question, you have no idea what the piles mean. So you quit (until another day)
It occurred to me that a vital part is missing in my “class”. You have to have a game plan. And my game plan for you is this: Start big...as in big picture. We're not gonna miss the forest for the trees...put the trees down and start looking for the forest.
Organizing a room with multiple functions, like this office, cannot be done all in one sitting. You have to do a big sort first, then you can parcel off the little sorts one at a time. This keeps you from being overwhelmed. In this particular room, I went for the really big sort first. Papers on one side of the room, and Items on the other.

Once that was finished, I sorted the Papers into:
financial,
school,
personal,
warranties and instructions,
and church.
Then I sorted the Items into:
parts,
memorabilia,
electronics,
and misc.

Once this stage was reached, the room was looking in pretty good shape, but there was still time left so I made a big mess once again as I took my medium sort and sorted it further.
Financial was broken down into:
health,
banking,
investments,
and home services

Warranties and Instructions was broken down into:
large appliances,
outside,
TV & DVD etc,
Computer,
Kid/Baby,
Kitchen
and misc.
The homeowner already had file folders made up for the different financial papers, but had fallen behind in filing. Now she could combine the two piles at a later date and with a smaller degree of stress. She could now pick up two file folders and go through them, consolidating one section at a time (instead of having to go around the room and gathering all of the papers to be filed).

Start small by thinking big. It works. It really works.

This weekend I went back to the garage that I previously tried to empty. This time around it was the garage's turn to get organized.

It seemed like a huge project, but it was really only a re-zoning one. The pictures don't show a huge difference but believe me, there was one.

Things I learned this time around:

1. I LOVE peg boards.

Pegboard BEFORE

Pegboard AFTER

2. I (still) HATE paper

BEFORE

AFTER (the paper is all in the boxes underneath the shelving)

3. If you move 7 people 2,000 miles, it will take you a year to get rid of the boxes.

Main part of the garage BEFORE

Main part of the garage AFTER

3rd car part of the garage BEFORE

3rd car part of the garage AFTER

A friend of mine has been patiently waiting for me to come and assist her with organizing. She moved into a condo 3 weeks ago, and was very excited when I was able to come yesterday. We spent 9 hours organizing, moving furniture, unpacking boxes, and decorating. The results are amazing.

I've decided that this post is going to be about the placement of furniture. That seemed to make the biggest differences out of all our efforts.

When we move, we often place furniture in the same or similar spot as what we have done before. Sometimes this works. More often, it causes problems because of a difference in size, shape, and function of the rooms. Having a fresh pair of eyes to give you ideas in the placement of furniture in a new space can aid in the overall organization of your rooms. Allow me to be your eyes, and give you some new ways to think about placing furniture.

1 - When you put all of your furniture up against the walls, it gives the illusion that you have less space

Our eyes take in the empty spaces of a room just as well as the filled. When there is only 1 open area, it seems as if there is no other available space. For this instance, we'll use the home owner's daughter's room.

Like any little girl, she had lots of toys and accessories. With her bed pushed up to the back wall, and her play kitchen taking up the rest of the space, the only open area was the middle of the floor. When you walk into her door, your eye gets drawn to her bed and the back wall. It seems as if the open area is the actual size of the room. The furniture has become an extension of the walls.

We decided to move her bed perpendicular to its present position. This now created 2 play areas on either side. The homeowner told me she was considering removing the closet doors and asked my opinion. Since I have taken down all the sliding doors in my house, I agreed. This gave her daughter yet another space to play. So now, just by moving the biggest piece of furniture in the room, she went from 1 space to 3.

before

after

2 - Factor in the size, shape, and assets of a room.

I'm just odd enough to notice odd things. I once noticed that if a room was longer than it is wider, and you vacuumed perpendicular to the length, it seems to shorten the room. But if you vacuum with the length, it draws attention to the extra size of the room. The same is true with mowing lawns. I use this seemingly useless knowledge to help me in the placing of furniture so as to emphasize the assets of a room and not hide them.
The home owner's dining room had not yet been set up. She had a table, but had not yet moved it away from the wall. Typically in this sort of room, you put the table parallel with the back wall. I pointed out to her, that if we made it perpendicular to the back wall, it gave the room more depth. What I hadn't really noticed at the time, is that it almost mirrors the effect of a wall. Because her dining area is open to her living room and office, this little trick makes the dining room seem like a completely separate area. That gave her the semblance of having an additional room of the house.

before

after

3 - Think outside of the box.

This has lots of different meanings, but I'll explain mine.

In the home owner's bedroom, she had a TV/VCR combo. The VHS cases tended to become strewn about the room. I suggested that she use the drawers of a bench to house the tapes. I'm not implying that this will inspire her daughter to put the cases and movies away....but, when she comes into her room after her daughter, she will be able to put the cases back in their drawer and eliminate the mess. She didn't need to buy another piece of organizing equipment for her problem because we were able to rethink an item she already owned.

4 - Sometimes the biggest problems can have the best solutions.

We worked so well together, that we got TONS accomplished, and rarely disagreed. It was so fun to work with someone who had the same kind of vision and was not afraid to experiment. BUT, during the course of the day we did have one headache.
The homeowner had recently lived in a bigger space. While we were making great headway placing items around her new place, it still seemed as if she owned too much furniture. Like most of us, all of the misplaced furniture had found its home in her room, crowding her out. We found a little red coffee table in her master closet that worked beautifully in her already decorated living room. We had found places for an end table, bookshelf, and a quilt rack.
Towards the end of our day, we had accomplished so much. Just at that peak moment, when you can maybe see the light at the end of the tunnel....we hit a WALL. The wall was called: sewing table. It was a beautiful sewing table, but there was just no room for it in the bedroom. Her room was turning out gorgeous, but it still felt crowded with the sewing table in it. We had already organized and decorated the kitchen, but we tried to fit it in there anyway. No go.
So then, I thought maybe we could use it as an extension to her desk....but that would have made her feel trapped, and it would've been the first thing anyone saw as they entered her condo. It seemed helpless. We were stuck. She plugged along, and I sat and thought, and thought, and thought. I brought out a measuring tape hoping to find some wonderful spot for it, but it just wouldn't fit. Then...after much pondering, I had an idea. I asked my friend if we could use her sewing table as a sofa table.
We tried it, and Hallelujah!! it fit. We started to decorate it, and it turned out to be a wonderful spot for all of her treasured pictures of her family. It really is a gorgeous focal piece to the room.
She also hated the fact that there was no mantel, and the clock seemed to be hung too high, but we found a cute "imagine" sculpture that fit perfectly over the fireplace and took up the room between the fireplace and the clock.

I'll leave you with one last tip:
When you make the house look this good, there is one more thing you MUST do.
Go out to eat and reward yourself. :)

You'll have to excuse the photos on this one...there really was no way to photograph all the work that was done....so there's not a startling difference this time, but there was a very BIG difference made.

A couple of weeks ago, I went to help a friend with organizing. She is a new homeowner, has been in her home for a few months, and has been asking for my help. When I arrived, I asked where we should start and she didn't know. She was so overwhelmed (here I should mention she has 5 children under the age of 7 and her husband is deployed) that she didn't know where to start.

As I had her catalog what problems she was having, I could see a difference in her expression when she said that she hadn't even finished moving all of their belongings into their house....so I thought that HERE is where we should start.

This is a section of the garage before....we focused our efforts on the line of boxes that starts just behind the green cooler in the foreground.

Here is an after shot of the garage....there is still a lot more to go, but if you can tell there is a lot fewer boxes in this shot than the one before. I figured later that we had unpacked 10 large boxes and 7 totes.

So this blog post will be about the best way to move-in or unpack boxes.

I always like to have what I call a "staging area"...this is a place that is already cleared out where you can spread your items to the four corners. In this case, we took all of the boxes from the garage to the living room.

Once all of the boxes were inside, we designated zones. Most of the boxes contained the kids' clothing, toys, and some memorabilia....so these were our zones. The boxes that contained all of the SAME item got moved to the appropriate zone, and those miscellaneous boxes (that we all seem to pack once we're sick of packing boxes) got unpacked into one of the zones.

I also like to set aside a pile for organizing items that you may already have like: the totes you empty out, baskets, boxes, and cute decorative items that can double as storage. This makes it easier to find when you're ready to put things away.

Here is a pic of the living room sectioned into zones...the left wall was clothes, the back wall was toys, and in the foreground was memorabilia. (the small pile in the center before the half wall and door is the organizing items pile)

And here is the living room after 8 hours of our most dedicated sorting/putting away efforts.

So how did we do it?

We tackled the zones one at a time. Memorabilia didn't really need to be sorted, just found a place inside of the house. I knew that the funnest zone would be toys, so we forced ourselves to sort clothes first.

The best and easiest way that I've found when sorting giant boxes, totes, or even drawers is just to DUMP IT. Clear a spot, dump the box, and then dive in. The homeowner made decisions on which clothes to keep and give away....and we put them away accordingly. Then we did the same with the toys.

The most important thing is to keep at it. Focus on the progress that you have made, and maybe even reward yourself when you're through. (and when all else fails call a friend like me..*smiles*)