Junk Closet Organization Tips to Reclaim Your Closet Space

Cleaning up that junk drawer in an entryway, home office, or kitchen is one of those unpleasant home organization tasks we usually put off for as long as possible.

Year after year of tossing all sorts of odds and ends into that drawer will eventually result in an overstuffed storage space that will need a good cleaning out.

As easy as it is to procrastinate on tidying up a cluttered drawer, the prospect of decluttering a larger space like a closet or a whole room can feel even more daunting.

A junk closet organization project isn’t nearly as formidable a cleanup task as you might think, however.

Use these tips to turn that messy closet into a tidy storage space that serves your home’s storage needs more effectively.

junk closet organization

5 reasons to start that junk closet organization project

As with most decluttering projects, one of the hardest parts of the job is simply getting it started.

Don’t focus on how tedious the job might be or how you’d rather be doing something else that is…well, a lot less “decluttery”.

Instead, visualize the positive outcomes that lay ahead once this junk closet organization project is completed:

  1. You’ll save time by having an organized closet. Think of how much time you’ve wasted looking for a specific item in that junk closet over the years. In some cases you might find it, but there have surely been many times where that needed item is nowhere to be found. An organized closet where everything has a home and is visible eliminates this problem.
  2. Any space that is cluttered causes stress. Merely opening the door to a junk closet and laying eyes on the calamity inside is enough to cause you some degree of stress. Who wants to keep experiencing that? An organized closet is a stress-free zone in your home.
  3. A catch-all closet wastes space in your home by lacking functionality. Although we’re calling it a junk closet, there are undoubtedly plenty of useful things hiding in there that could be useful to you. But if they’re too hard to find or access, they won’t get used and that closet’s lack of functionality isn’t serving your needs.
  4. You won’t waste money on duplicate purchases. Whether it’s clothing, tools, or anything else that’s easy to misplace, an untidy storage area inevitably leads to a few unnecessary purchases of items you already own. We’ve all experienced that deflating moment when you eventually find an item that “fell through the cracks” ages ago that you bought again.
  5. You can stop being embarrassed by your “shame closet”. A closet’s messy contents may have a door that can keep everything hidden, but you’re probably not proud that such a messy space exists in your home. Tidying it up can liberate you from the feelings of embarrassment you might feel if a visitor happened to peek inside the space, too.

Tips for clearing out a junk closet

Depending on the size of the closet and how full it is, a junk closet organization task shouldn’t take more than a few hours to sort out.

You could spend an hour or two on a few days throughout the week to work on the task or get it over with quickly by devoting a few hours on a Saturday or Sunday to overhaul the closet space.

We would recommend the latter approach, as it would allow you to completely empty the closet all at once. This ensures nothing gets missed in the decluttering process.

It also means you can give the closet something most closets rarely get – a good cleaning. Get the vacuum in there to clean up that dusty floor and give every surface (including the ceiling, walls, hanging rod, and any closet organization systems) a good wipe down with a damp cloth.

Another good reason for emptying out the closet is you don’t want to just move around all of that stuff inside the area and reorganize it. To get the best results, some heavy-duty editing of the closet’s contents are in order.

When it comes to deciding what stays and what goes, a number of items will be no-brainers. That big box filled with old cables, wires, ancient computer peripherals, and chargers for devices you replaced years ago is a good example. Non-essential papers and documents can be recycled. Get rid of any boxes or bags with damaged things you meant to fix, but never did. And donate any clothes that no longer fit.

The number one enemy of decluttering is sentimentality. Check your sentimental feelings at the (closet) door and be practical about what you keep.

6 ideas for a decluttered closet space

Once you’ve gotten rid of enough of the clutter that clogged the closet, how do you envision using that storage space?

Here are six ideas for how to use a rehabilitated junk closet:

  1. Linen closet: a dedicated storage space for all of your home’s many types of linens is a great way to use a spare closet. Storing all of your bath towels, face cloths, bedding essentials, and other linens in one area makes them easy to find and keep organized. You’ll also free up space in dressers, bedroom closets, or wherever else your linens were being stored.
  2. A mini mudroom: if that closet is in a hallway near an entrance, convert it into a mini mudroom. Remove the doors, add a bench with hidden storage, and incorporate some dividers on the upper shelf to keep things organized. Add decorative hooks for coats, hats, purses, and backpacks.
  3. Utility/cleaning closet: like your linens, cleaning supplies and tools tend to get scattered around the home. Store them all in one closet that’s outfitted with enough hooks for all of your brooms, dust pans, mops, and dusters. Add a few extra shelves to the lone top shelf in the closet for your cleaning product containers, cleaning cloths and rags, scrubbing brushes, and spray bottles. If space allows, stash your vacuum in there.
  4. A storage space for guest linens and seasonal clothing: your guest linens and off-season clothing might not fill a whole closet space on their own. You could use a repurposed closet to store both things.
  5. Reach-in wine closet: just about any spare closet (even a very small one) can be used for wine storage. The only factor that would make a closet a bad choice as a wine storage area would be if the space was too warm, as the idea temperature range for storing wine is 10-18°C (50-65°F).
  6. A home office or reading nook: like the wine closet, another unconventional way to use a closet is as a home office. Considering its tiny size, calling it a “home workspace” might be a little more accurate, but plenty of homes have made this idea work. A closet could even be converted into a cozy reading nook.

Important design considerations for your new closet

However you plan to use your closet, there are a few important considerations to make involving its layout and design.

Think about repainting the closet with a lighter shade and adding overhead lighting to brighten up the space. Incorporating lighting in storage areas that get the most use will also help you get more enjoyment out of the closet.

To maximize the closet’s vertical storage space, add an extra shelf above the standard single shelf in the closet. Extra hanging rods, hooks, hangers, pullout racks, and baskets or bins to store small items can be used as well.

Organized Interiors can design a shelf tower with drawers that fits perfectly within your closet and matches the surrounding décor. A custom storage solution like this will look much nicer than using cheap plastic storage containers with drawers or build-it-yourself cube storage units.

Although you want to optimize your closet’s available storage space, don’t overload it with storage systems that make your closet feel overstuffed again.

linen closet

This linen closet keeps all of a home’s linens in one centralized area, which makes them easy to find and keep organized.

How to avoid future junk closet organization projects

The goal is to create a tidy, manageable storage space so you won’t need to undertake future junk closet organization projects.

To ensure success for that goal, a big key is to make sure everything in the closet is given a proper home. That way you’ll always know where to find things and where they should be returned to.

Make your closet as easy to use as possible. Group like items together and prioritize how your things are stored. That means keeping the most frequently used items in the closet easily accessible and stored from waist level to eye level. Items that are infrequently used should be stored up high or on the floor.

Conquer the “I might need it someday” mindset to keep your closet stocked only with things that serve a purpose to you right now. They don’t necessarily have to “spark joy” for you (can a broom really do that?), but they should be useful to you in some way if they’re staying in the closet.

Finally, make an effort to keep as much of your closet’s contents as visible as you can. Even items stored in drawers should be easy to locate when the drawer is opened. It’s a simple philosophy, but it’s true: if you can see something, you’re far more likely to actually use it.

Replace that junk closet with a more useful closet space

If you have a junk closet organization project in the works, give it an upgrade before restocking it.

Organized Interiors can help you create a closet space with a modern look and a high level of functionality that is easier to keep meticulously organized.

Schedule a free in-home design consultation with us to plan your closet makeover.

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Skip the Storage Container Sales This January and Get Truly Organized

storage container sales

Some things in January are as predictable as clockwork.

New Year’s resolutions. Regret over how much we consumed during the holiday season. Packing up the holiday decorations. And storage container sales at seemingly every store around.

Being inundated with reminders that we need to buy more plastic storage containers, bins, tubs, totes, or whatever you call them (and at a deep discount!) is admittedly smart marketing by retailers.

Many of us are feeling that urge to get our homes organized to start the new year off on a positive and productive note. And picking up some more storage containers probably seems like a practical way to help us do that.

But are storage containers really helping you get organized or are they actually (and ironically) adding to your household clutter?

Here’s why you should think twice before buying from any more storage container sales.

Buying from storage container sales won’t help reduce clutter

Merriam Webster defines clutter as “to fill or cover with scattered or disordered things that impede movement or reduce effectiveness” and “a crowded or confused mass or collection”.

Merely moving loose, scattered things on your floors or in your closets into storage bins doesn’t subtract from that confused mass or collection, however.

An average-sized storage container holds approximately 50-60 L. Its length is about 16″ wide and 24″ deep. That means the container alone takes up about 2.7 square feet of space.

Even if that container is filled to capacity with other clutter, the overall footprint of the amount of “stuff” in your home logically increases with each new storage container that’s added.

Storage containers really just give you the illusion of being organized. You think you’re managing your clutter by providing a mini storage space for it.

In some cases, there’s a certain level of practicality and organization involved when using them. A couple of examples would be when containers are used for storing out-of-season clothing or a bunch of toys that your kids regularly play with.

But more often than not, they’re used to quickly stash unsightly clutter in order to make a home more presentable for visitors or to store odds and ends we just can’t find the time to properly go through and declutter.

Storage containers don’t encourage you to declutter

Even Marie Kondo had to learn that storing more things than she really needed in an organized manner didn’t lead to fulfilment with her living space. As the organizing guru wrote in her 2012 bestseller The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, “Why does my room still feel cluttered when I’ve worked so hard to organize and store things away?”

While researching this blog post, I came across a thread on Reddit (the world’s biggest online forum platform). Someone was asking whether or not it might be a good idea to start a business renting out plastic storage containers to people who were moving.

One of the responses perfectly summed up why storage containers don’t solve clutter issues: “I like the plastic boxes especially for long term storage. About half my belongings are boxed up and they have been for years.”

While this is just one person’s viewpoint, it undoubtedly reflects how many of us are fooled into thinking that storage bins help keep our homes organized. We would ask the person quoted above “Why do half the things you own have so little use to you that they can be stored away in containers for years on end?”

Using storage containers doesn’t encourage you to declutter. Instead, they facilitate an out of sight, out of mind mentality for a lot of things you’d be better off just getting rid of.

plastic storage container with wires and cables

We’re pretty sure every home has at least one of these – the plastic storage container or cardboard box filled with ancient wires, cables, remotes, and computer peripherals you’ll never use again.

You’ll eventually need to deal with the root cause of your clutter

It’s not a stretch to say that in most circumstances, storage containers are essentially a clutter enabler.

As an example, take that tote or cardboard box filled with miscellaneous cables, wires, remote controls, and old computer peripherals that virtually every home has (and a lot of homes probably have more than one of them).

There’s probably several rolls of previously used phone line and coaxial cable alone sitting there that you’ll never use again. The same goes for that VCR remote, pre-2K wired mouse, and USB 1.0 and 2.0 hardware and cables that would be torturously slow to use today.

More common items we needlessly keep in storage containers include:

  • old toys
  • outgrown kids clothing
  • sports equipment that’s no longer used
  • linen sets with missing pieces
  • clothing we hope to fit into one day
  • odds and ends like a glove without a partner or a pair of broken heels you never got around to repairing
  • things that hold sentimental value but are never (or rarely) looked at

Why do we hold onto most of this stuff? We suspect that the fact they’re all hidden away and have a “home” in a storage container (even if that isn’t a true home) isn’t helping matters.

Eventually, you’ll need to deal with the root cause of your clutter and start purging the excess items you never use and probably never will. Any thorough decluttering project involves some tough decisions with those items you’re on the fence about keeping, but that’s part of the process.

Clutter is known to be a contributor to higher stress levels, so eliminating as much of it as possible from your home will only benefit you. That includes another quality of life improvement like freeing up space in the home to do something more productive with a room.

This could include adding a new furniture piece or some plants to a room, or simply leaving a decluttered area empty to create a more open space.

Storage containers have their uses. Just don’t over-rely on them.

Don’t get us wrong – we’re not saying that storage containers have no place in the home whatsoever.

Compared to using cardboard boxes for storage, plastic totes are more stable when stacked, don’t require tape and have lids, provide an airtight seal for their contents, and are much more durable.

Fabric storage baskets or handwoven baskets are pricier, but provide a homier, more stylish look of your storage containers compared to the dull, utilitarian look of standard plastic containers.

Storage containers are ideal for the long-term storage of things you absolutely can’t part with, such as physical photos, treasured family mementoes, and important documents.

They’re also practical for storing things that aren’t used every day, week, or even month, but are used at least yearly – holiday decorations are a good example.

Seasonal clothing is also commonly kept in storage containers, which makes a lot of sense. Keep in mind that the long-term storage of clothing and linens (for years at a time) in sealed plastic containers isn’t recommended, as the fabrics need to breathe a little.

While storage containers can be useful, it’s important not to over-rely on them for too many of your storage needs.

Because it’s so easy to just toss something into a spare tote and plan to give it a proper home later, you want to avoid having too many storage bins that have essentially become junk drawers filled with odds and ends that won’t be easy to find when (or if) they’re ever needed.

Storage containers in garage overhead rack

Although plastic storage containers are useful, don’t over-rely on them for your home storage needs.

Consider the environmental impact of buying more plastic

Another reason to reconsider buying more plastic storage products for your home is the environmental impact they have.

On top of the carbon footprint from the container’s manufacturing process, unrecycled plastic takes an eternity to break down naturally (it can take hundreds of years or more).

It’s estimated only 10-20% of the world’s plastic gets recycled. Plastic storage containers can be tricky to recycle because they’re usually too big to fit in a recycling bin. Some municipalities accept large plastic products for recycling at a depot (not unlike where you would drop off old electronics), but that’s not a guarantee wherever you live.

And unfortunately, that extra little bit of effort required to dispose of bigger plastic products only increases the likelihood they’ll just get put out with the regular garbage for pickup.

Another recycling problem is that older plastic products may be made from materials that make them impossible to recycle.

If you do need to buy plastic storage containers, be sure to buy products made from recycled plastic.

What about your unused storage containers?

After successfully eliminating some of your home’s clutter, you may have a bunch of now-empty storage containers left over.

Sure, it makes sense to hold onto a few empty containers that will come in handy down the road, but don’t keep more than you need.

Because empty storage containers conveniently nest inside one another, it can be tempting to keep a few stacks of them around because they don’t seem to be taking up much space when stored that way. Once again, only retain what you think you’ll actually use.

Remember, those stacks are still taking up space, will need to be vacuumed around (or moved when you vacuum), and are going to collect dust that you’ll have to eventually clean.

Try recycling them as recommended or try to donate them to a local charity.

Try renting storage bins when you move

One undeniable benefit of plastic storage bins is their sturdiness, which makes them ideal for using when you move.

Before stocking up during one of the storage container sales you come across for a future move, check to see if the moving company you’re using or a local business has storage containers for rent.

Cardboard boxes remain the most cost-effective and practical way to move your belongings. They’re easy to recycle, cheap (free in some cases if your local grocery store makes them available to their customers), and can be flattened to take up less space when not in use.

Corrugated plastic boxes are a little less common and still contain plastic, but they’re more rugged than cardboard and are a slightly more eco-friendly option than plastic containers.

Get rid of some of those old food storage containers, too

food storage containersThose storage container sales going on during January might also find you contemplating picking up some new plastic food storage containers. 

We’ve always wondered – do food storage containers multiply in our pantries? Because it seems like we have way more of these things than we actually need or will ever use.

The main reasons food storage containers accumulate to the point where we have too many is because:

  • we’re unsure if the plastic is recyclable
  • friends and family send you home from a dinner with leftovers in containers that don’t get returned
  • attractive sales that seem too good to pass up lure you into buying more of them
  • we hold onto higher quality plastic take-out containers that seem wasteful to throw out

Like larger storage containers, containers for storing your food are obviously perfect for sending leftovers home with a dinner guest, taking leftovers to school or work, or just storing your own leftovers in.

We’re just saying that you don’t need a hundred of them stored in your pantry.

Even with something as unremarkable as food storage containers, a by-product of having too much of anything is the guarantee that it will be more difficult to make a decision on choosing a container when the time comes. It’s something that goes by a few different names including overchoice, choice overload, choice paralysis, analysis paralysis, and the paradox of choice. 

Before buying from any more food storage container sales, take stock of how many containers you currently have. Decluttering your pantry will free up valuable storage space and save you from wasting time looking for that one particular container and lid hiding amongst everything else.

Can’t mind a matching lid or the container for a lid? Has a container started to disintegrate from one too many trips to the microwave? Away they go.

Getting rid of storage containers that have started to break down is recommended because chemicals from the plastic can leech into your reheated food. Even if a container and lid is still in good shape, but just really old (we’re talking 70s Tupperware old), it may not be as safe to use as you might think. Ceramic and Pyrex food storage containers are always a safer storage option for food than plastic.

Skip the storage container sales. Use real organization solutions.

Avoid the disappointment of admitting defeat with your New Year’s resolution when you realize those purchases from January storage container sales haven’t translated into a more orderly home in February.

Talk to Organized Interiors for real solutions to your home organization problems instead of relying on stopgap measures that aren’t effective in getting your home tidied up.

We can suggest more practical and efficient ways to maximize your home’s storage and organization capabilities.

For example, our built-in bedroom cabinetry has under-bed drawer storage, which is an upgrade over using flat rolling plastic storage containers that get covered in dust bunnies.

Are you currently using cheap plastic storage towers with drawers in a closet or the corner of a room? If so, you’ll be amazed at how how much nicer our custom cabinetry storage towers are, both in terms of looks and functionality.

It takes less than a minute to schedule a complimentary virtual or in-home design consultation with us.

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Holiday Home Cleaning Tips to Make Guests Feel More Welcome

An Airwick survey of 2,000 Brits found that it takes less than 30 seconds for houseguests to formulate their first impression of your home after entering it.

During the holiday season, everyone wants visitors to their home to feel like they’ve entered a space that’s warm and welcoming.

Ensuring you have a well-presented home for a holiday season gathering often adds to the hectic and stressful nature of this time of year.

Is our worrying about how others see our living space excessive? Perhaps, but it’s better to care about how guests view our homes than to not care, right?

Holiday home cleaning and organization tips

You have your own set of standards for how you clean and organize your home. It never hurts, however, to get a different perspective on what guests notice most when they visit your home.

Perhaps it will make you more aware of certain areas of your home that should be getting a little more cleaning attention.

Keep reading to pick up a few holiday home cleaning and organization tips that will serve you well when hosting your gathering of friends and family.

What guests notice most about your home

In that Airwick survey, the most popular answer given about the thing people noticed first when visiting a house or condo was the scent of the home.

That makes perfect sense (pun intended), given that smell is the strongest of our five senses.

How cluttered a home is ranked second. This might surprise some of you (it surprised me), who would have expected it to take the top spot.

Here are a few more of the most commonly judged things in homes by guests:

  • the temperature
  • how clean and dust-free the home is
  • the tastefulness and modernness of the home décor
  • the quality of hand towels and how comfortable they are to use

Throw off a great scent

With scent being such a big part of a visitor’s experience to your living space, what can you do to create a more pleasing aroma in the home?

It’s less practical to open windows during the cold holiday season. If temperatures are unseasonably warm, however, take advantage of it to let some fresh air inside.

Pleasant, natural scents that aren’t too strong will create a positive first impression for anyone entering your home. We recommend any of these:

  • fresh flowers
  • potpourri in decorative bowls
  • scented candles
  • fresh-baked cookies or pastries
  • boil or bake select spices for about 30 minutes to scent your entire home

And now for a couple of scent don’ts for your home. First, avoid using spray or plug-in commercial air fresheners. They can be overpowering and off-putting to guests with very sensitive noses.

Try to avoid vacuuming minutes before guests arrive at your home. Some vacuum canisters that haven’t been emptied in awhile can leave a distinct odour that people might notice.

Some people regularly vacuum using baking soda that’s sprinkled on carpets and rugs. Despite baking soda being an effective deodorizer, many cleaning experts advise against using it this way since it can potentially cause problems with your vacuum cleaner.

Holiday home cleaning the areas your guests will see

A home that’s clean and organized from top-to-bottom is preferable, but not always achievable when you’re scrambling to take care of everything that goes into hosting a get-together.

Luckily, your guests won’t see every room in your home so just focus on getting the areas they will spend time in looking pristine.

Your entryway is obviously a top priority, as it creates the first impression of your interior living space. Is there room for shoes and boots? When the front hallway closet is opened, is it tidy and providing enough space for your guest’s coats?

Some guests will assuredly be spending time in the kitchen. You’ve taken care of the clutter cleanup in the room, but how does the fridge look? Has the inside of the fridge also been decluttered and scrubbed so anyone grabbing a cold beverage out of it won’t even think twice about how clean it is?

It goes without saying that your guest bathroom has to be spic and span with enough hand towels, soap, hand sanitizer, and extra toilet paper to serve your guest’s needs.

Clear all the clutter from any flat surfaces in the dining room, living room, and basement (if necessary) and give them a good wipedown.

Even one of your bedrooms should be presentable if you’re using a bed as an overflow coat storage space. You or someone from your family that’s on coat duty might get tied up with one of a multitude of hosting tasks. Allow guests who are ready to go home to get their coats from the room if they need to without having to worry about its appearance.

2 chairs and table in wine room

5 areas you shouldn’t forget to clean

There are many parts of the home that are easy to miss when you’re rushing to get your cleaning done. Don’t forget to give these areas a quick vacuum, dusting, or wipe down with a damp towel:

  • drapes, curtains, and blinds
  • appliances
  • light fixtures and ceiling fans
  • baseboards and crown moulding
  • electrical outlets and light switches

A few things to remember about clutter

Clutter doesn’t just mean what we typically think of when we hear the word, like toys or junk left on the floor or a messy countertop.

It also includes visual clutter, which means having too many things occupying a space, even if they’re kept tidy. A shelf that’s overloaded with knick-knacks and mementoes is one example.

Be mindful of not using too many pieces of furniture in a room. This can make the space feel more cramped.

Spending time in any environment that has too much clutter makes us feel unsettled. For example, it’s been well-established that excessively cluttered homes contribute to poor sleep quality and higher stress levels in occupants of those living spaces.

Controlling your traditional clutter and visual clutter will help to make your guests feel more relaxed and comfortable.

The ideal solution for hosting overnight guests

When guests from out of town are staying overnight, are you able to put them up in a guest room?

Whether it’s during the holiday season or any other time of year, having a guest room that’s always at-the-ready is a wonderful thing in any home.

Putting your visitors up in a guest room is a more thoughtful gesture than having them stay in a hotel room that feels sterile and inhospitable.

A spare room can easily be converted into a useful guest room with a space-saving Murphy wall bed and beautiful custom cabinetry where guest linens and pillows can be stored.

Here are some more nice things you can do to make your overnight guests feel even more comfortable in your home:

  • provide a TV or smart speaker for their room
  • leave out some cozy bathrobes for them to use
  • provide a basket with toiletries in case they forgot to pack some of their own
  • write down your home’s WiFi password for them

These thoughtful gestures will be greatly appreciated and leave your guests thinking, “Who needs a 5-star hotel?”

pillows on bed with surrounding storage

Make your home easier to keep organized

We hope these holiday home cleaning and organization tips are useful to you when you’re preparing to entertain guests.

Organized Interiors can help take the worry out of having guests over. Our wide variety of storage and organization solutions make it easier to maintain a tidy home all year-round.

We can also custom-design any of the following things to enhance your home’s entertaining capabilities:

  • a stunning feature wall with an electric fireplace
  • entertainment centres
  • wet bars
  • wine rooms

To learn more about how we can help improve how your house or condo looks and functions, schedule a free in-home design consultation with us.

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Fall Home Organizing: 17 Smart Tips You Can’t Go Wrong With

After the more laid back approach to life most of us take during the summer, readjusting to the hustle and bustle of the autumn and early winter seasons can be tricky.

With fall just around the corner, hopefully you’ve managed to keep up with the busier pace of everyday life.

Your family will be spending a lot more time indoors now that the cool weather has arrived and the more frigid weather looms just a few weeks away.

fall home organizing coloured leaves on tree

Photo by Dayne Topkin on Unsplash

17 fall home organizing tips for a tidier house and condo

Considering how much more time we’ll be staying inside, it makes good sense to focus on getting your home clean and organized in the next few weeks.

A major deep cleaning and decluttering of your home doesn’t have to wait until the new year or next spring. By then, there’ll be more work for you to do.

And who wants to spend the first few days of January worrying about a big cleaning project when many of us are feeling drained after the hectic holiday season?

Before the year gets much older, get your house or condo autumn and winter-ready with these 17 fall home organizing tips.

1. Create an organization checklist and use a schedule

Having goals and a well-thought-out game plan for getting your home organized will increase the odds of success with your organization project.

Set up an organization checklist with key tasks you want to complete around the home. Don’t hesitate to throw in a couple of easy and quick organization jobs, either! Seeing things checked off a to-do list provides great motivation to keep moving forward.

To stay better organized, ensure you’re using a schedule to keep track of all events everyone in the house has coming up.

Medical appointments, sports practices and games, school events, and social gatherings should all be shown on a schedule so no one is caught off guard at the last moment.

Use a calendar in the kitchen that allows for lots of writing space for each day of the month. There’s no shortage of mobile calendar and scheduling apps available that will sync between everyone’s phones to keep all of your family’s upcoming events documented and organized.

2. Focus on one task at a time

Don’t take on too much and try to get your whole home in tip-top shape in just one weekend. No one needs that pressure or frustration.

A lot of home cleanup efforts fail because we attempt to do too much, can’t meet our goals, get frustrated, and walk away from the work.

Pace yourself and set realistic goals with a flexible timeline.

If necessary, just concentrate on one or two rooms to work on and get in peak form. After all, even one is better than none!

3. Make closet space for seasonally-appropriate clothes

Any change in seasons (especially in the spring and winter) should involve a thorough swap out of your wardrobe.

Ensuring that only seasonally-appropriate clothing is taking up your main wardrobe storage spaces will make getting dressed easier. You’ll have fewer things to navigate through and choose from, which will save you time.

Your spring and summer attire from your bedroom and front entryway closets could be hung in a spare bedroom closet, kept in labelled storage bins, or in the storage spaces of your built-in bedroom cabinetry.

Don’t forget about the linen closet, either. Switch out those lighter linens with your heavier bedding, linens, and blankets.

woman organizing closet

4. Edit your wardrobe

A seasonal clothing changeover also gives you a good opportunity to edit your wardrobe and get rid of the pieces you never wear.

As Marie Kondo preaches, only keep clothing items that truly spark joy. If you haven’t worn something in a couple of years, it’s probably time to add it to your pile of clothes to donate.

A seasonal wardrobe curation will minimize the chance of wasting money on a duplicate purchase of something you already own and just couldn’t find (which only makes a closet more congested).

If you’re struggling to keep your home’s closet spaces tidy, contact Organized Interiors. Our custom closets are designed to make managing your storage spaces easy and more efficient.

5. Organize your digital world

Because we use our smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktop computers so much nowadays, digital clutter is something that needs occasional tending to.

Americans check their smartphones an average of 52 times per day, according to one study. The most recent data we could find on cell phone usage for Canadians was from a 2014 CIBC poll. It reported that we check our phones a lot more – an average of six times per hour.

Most of us have more apps than we use, so get rid of the ones on all of your electronics that do nothing but add to your digital clutter. Group your mobile apps by category into folders so you don’t have four or five pages to swipe through just to find one.

Clean up that neglected email in-box and get those computers tidied up by reducing the number of files and icons on your desktop.

6. Rein in the holiday shopping

All of these fall home organizing tips involve taking action on different things except for this one. No, this tip involves doing, well, nothing.

A good deal of the clutter that sits in homes comes from impulse and sale purchases of things you didn’t need, but believe you might need someday.

There will be no shortage of tempting sales over the next few months with Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Boxing Day vying for our attention and spending money.

Resist the lure of those rock bottom sale prices to prevent the accumulation of more home clutter unless they’re things you really need and will use.

7. Declutter your food storage spaces

The kitchen is one of your home’s hardest working rooms, meaning your food storage spaces should be getting decluttered regularly.

It tends to get used even more during the last few months of the year for baking and cooking dishes to bring to social functions or for home entertaining.

Empty the contents of your pantry, freezer, and fridge to see what’s fresh and what isn’t. Give these storage areas a good cleaning before refilling them.

Set aside food purchases that are still good to eat, but will likely never get used. Food banks will appreciate your donation during this time of the year.

8. Help your kids get more organized

You can help your kids get more organized to make both their life (and yours) a little easier.

Work with them in their closets and drawers to reduce the number of outgrown or damaged clothing items that could be removed. This can create more storage space for those recent back-to-school wardrobe purchases.

Because kids grow so quickly, their closets should actually be getting the curation treatment even more regularly than your bedroom closet does.

To help with their academic tasks, consider setting up a home study space that’s tidy, designed to cater to their studying needs, and distraction-free.

A study space can be incorporated into a home office design to create a multi-functional room for the whole family.

9. Deal with those junk drawers

One of our previous fall home organizing tips involved adding smaller decluttering jobs to your cleanup to-do list. Tidying up your home’s junk drawers falls into that category.

Dump your junk drawers separately out onto a large surface like the dining room table and start going through everything.

Have a garbage bin and paper recycling bin beside you and you’ll probably find there’s not much left to go back in the drawers once the job is done.

If the drawers don’t have dividers, add some to keep things more organized.

loose change in junk drawer

Photo by Pina Messina on Unsplash

10. Make your bed every morning

Many of us were taught to make our beds every morning. We lead busy lives, however, and making the bed is rarely the first thing on our minds when we wake up.

Sometimes finding even that one or two minutes for this task during a hectic morning isn’t easy, but here’s why you should try it.

Gretchen Rubin is an author and former Navy SEAL commander. She writes in a LinkedIn article that the simple act of making your bed every morning is a positive way to start the day.

It ties into that strategy of sprinkling in a bunch of fast, easy-to-accomplish chores on your organization to-do list to fuel your motivation.

With your bed in mind, remember to flip and rotate your mattress anywhere from once every three months to once a year, depending on what the mattress maker recommends. That will ensure one side doesn’t wear out too fast.

11. Delegate home chores

A lot of these fall home organizing tasks will require a bit of time, which is even more reason to delegate duties among family members.

Everybody contributes to creating household clutter, so everyone who’s old enough to help clean and declutter should be pitching in, too.

Splitting up your household chores will ensure mom or dad don’t get burnt out or frustrated taking on too much work.

Another good reason to delegate when it comes to cleaning work is that it tends to make kids feel more accountable and responsible for how they function within the home.

They’ll be less likely to leave a mess if it’s them that has to eventually tidy it up!

12. Be prepared for the unexpected

There’s nothing worse than being unprepared when an emergency occurs or anything else unexpected happens.

Maybe it’s a December ice storm that knocks out your home’s power for hours or perhaps it’s having to deal with a cooking fire.

As part of your fall home organizing checklist, spend the time to take proactive measures to guarantee you’re as ready as possible for any unexpected and challenging household occurrences.

October is fire safety awareness month, which means it’s time to check the batteries in your smoke and carbon monoxide alarms and test the units.

Every home should have a fire extinguisher located in or near the kitchen. Check that its expiry date is still good. If the extinguisher has a pressure gauge, make sure it’s maintaining pressure.

Test your flashlights to see if they need fresh batteries and know where to find your candles and matches.

13. Make sure your guest room is ready to go

Having a guest room always at the ready for overnight visitors is a wonderful thing, whether it’s during the holiday season or any other time of the year.

It’s great having a dedicated hosting space that doesn’t require you to scramble around searching for bedding and sleeping accommodations for guests.

A Murphy wall bed is perfect for guest rooms. Here’s why:

  • they’re super-comfortable to sleep on
  • less floor space is taken up with their pulldown design
  • extra storage space can be incorporated into the bed’s design
  • they can be customized to complement your décor

bright guest bedroom and built-in closet

14. Create storage homes for as many things as possible

Creating homes for 100% of everything in your home is a lot to ask, but with a little time and focus, it’s possible to establish homes for most of the things you own.

Dedicated homes reduces the amount of time wasted looking for misplaced items (as long as you take that all-important step to actually put it back in its home, mind you).

15. Fall home organizing tips for outside

We aren’t just focussing on the inside with these fall home organizing tips – your home’s exterior needs a little attention in the autumn as well.

In addition to the standard outdoor home maintenance tasks you’ll be doing this fall like cleaning the eavestroughs and raking leaves, spend some time organizing now so you’ll make life easier for yourself come springtime.

Pick up any toys, sports gear, yard tools, and gardening tools sitting outside.

Drain your garden hoses, faucets, and sprinkler system to prevent damage from ice and hang the hoses neatly in the garage or a shed. Consider adding insulating covers to your outside faucets.

Wash off your patio furniture before putting it away until the spring. Store it in a shed or an out-of-the-way spot in the garage. If it’s staying outside, cover everything with properly fitting covers to prevent rust.

16. Get your garage organized and winter-ready

Because the garage gets so much use during the spring and summer, it tends to be one of the more demanding fall home organizing projects to deal with.

Just as you edited your closet’s belongings, do the same with the contents of your garage. Throw out old or broken tools that aren’t useful.

Look for floor clutter that can be discarded to make more space for garage parking when the weather gets worse.

If floor clutter is a problem, the solution is to make better use of your wall and overhead space.

Slatwall storage panels and overhead racking will create an ample amount of storage room for things like:

  • yard tools
  • sports equipment (including bikes)
  • ladders
  • holiday decorations
  • bulky seasonal items such as patio furniture

Contact Garage Living to get more information about how they can make your garage more visually appealing and organized.

17. Upgrade or add a mudroom

Having a transitional home space between the indoors and outside like a mudroom is particularly helpful at this time of year.

A mudroom can help to contain the messes that occur with tracked-in mud or snow from boots, as well as jackets and apparel that are soaked from the rain or snow.

In addition to your family’s fall and winter outdoor gear, all of those other items that regularly go in and out of the house like dog leashes, car keys, and backpacks can be kept organized in a mudroom and won’t get lost or misplaced as often.

Start your fall home organizing now

If you’ve been thinking about devoting time to some of these fall home organizing projects, let us know how we can help.

Organized Interiors has storage and organization solutions that every room in your home can benefit from.

Get a free quote by requesting a free in-home design consultation with us today.

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7 Sensible Home Cooling Tips That Don’t Require A/C

For many homeowners, the arrival of high temperatures means they simply close their windows and turn on the central air conditioning.

You might be surprised, however, to learn that air conditioning in Canadian homes isn’t as common as you might think.

Statistics Canada’s most recent data from 2017 shows that only 42% of households in this country have central air conditioning. Overall, just 60% of Canadian homes use any type of A/C.

home cooling tips woman standing by bed

Smart home cooling tips everyone should know

If you don’t have portable, window-mounted, or central conditioning, or the A/C system you rely on isn’t working properly, you’ve undoubtedly made use of various home cooling tips and tricks to beat the heat and humidity.

Some of those tips may be included below and perhaps a few of them will be new to you. These home cooling tips aren’t just for the air condition-less, though.

They can also be used in conjunction with your air conditioning. Obviously, relying less on the A/C reduces your utility bill. There are other notable benefits to using these home cooling tips even if you do have A/C, such as if you:

  • are eco-conscious and want to lower your carbon footprint
  • have an older home with less effective cooling airflow distribution
  • only have a portable or window A/C unit
  • own a cottage with a limited amount of A/C or no A/C system

Try these seven home cooling ideas to increase your comfort level when it heats up.

1. Cover the windows

Allowing natural light in during the day is nice. Unfortunately, rooms in direct sunlight heat up quickly on hot and sunny days.

Research from the U.S. Department of Energy estimates that 76% of sunlight that hits standard double-pane windows becomes heat when it enters a home.

West-facing and south-facing windows bear the brunt of the sun’s heat from late in the morning until the early evening. That heat also gets retained by most items in a room that are exposed to sunlight, including carpets, rugs, furniture, and clutter.

Keeping windows that directly face the sun covered during a portion of the day is the easiest and most cost-effective way to keep your home’s inside cooler.

Using external shutters or another type of exterior window covering will be most effective at keeping the sunlight out. For interior decorative room cooling options, use insulating curtains, thick drapes, thermal shades, infrared heat reduction window film, or solar screens.

You could also bolster your efforts to limit the amount of direct sunlight entering your home by creating more exterior shade with an awning or exterior foliage.

2. Make home energy efficiency upgrades

One of the best home cooling tips you can follow is to make as many upgrades as possible to boost your home’s energy efficiency and lower your utility costs.

We already mentioned using thermal window film to reduce the sun’s heat inside your home. An even better solution is to upgrade to more energy efficient double or triple-glazed windows, skylights, and doors that are Energy Star-certified.

If it’s been many years since your home’s insulation was installed, it’s worth exploring whether or not it’s time for an insulation upgrade. Don’t forget about the garage, which is a commonly overlooked room when it comes to insulation installation in houses.

Minimizing the number of air leaks around your home will go a long way towards making it more energy efficient. Properly applied weatherstripping and caulking and foam sealants around your doors and windows are effective (and cost-effective) at reducing drafts.

All of these upgrades, in addition to ensuring you have adequate attic venting and insulation, will lower your energy usage year-round by minimizing your home’s transfer of hot and cold air.

While these home energy efficiency upgrades may require a not-insignificant financial commitment now, they’ll pay long-term dividends for as long as you remain in your house…and even beyond that if you sell, because they add to your home’s value.

3. Use your fans more efficiently

Yes, there actually is a right way and a wrong way (or at least a less effective way) to use a fan.

Because fans move a room’s air around more than actually cooling it, using them properly will increase their efficiency.

Let’s start with your ceiling fans. In the summer, a ceiling fan’s blades should be rotating counterclockwise at a high speed, which creates an updraft cooling effect. During the winter, reverse the direction the blades rotate and use the fan’s lowest speed setting.

Strategically setting up two fans in a room can create a pleasant cross breeze. A box fan placed in an open window that’s blowing outwards will suck out a room’s hot air. If the air outside is cooler than the inside air, some of that cooler air should be drawn in, too.

Here’s another fan cooling trick that works – place a bowl in front of fan that’s filled with ice (or some ice packs) to create a chilling breeze.

If you’re not using the A/C at all, even running your kitchen and bathroom fans for a little while will help to expel some of the hot air in your home.

home cooling tips ceiling fan

Make sure your ceiling fans are rotating counterclockwise at a high speed during the summer.

4. Declutter

Just as the sun’s heat is absorbed by furnishings near windows, excess clutter in rooms does the same thing.

Darker coloured clutter (including clothing piles and dark storage containers) left in direct sunlight will absorb and transfer more heat.

Uncluttered rooms allow air to circulate more freely through a home. That makes fans and your home’s central heating and cooling systems work more efficiently.

Having less clutter in a room makes it feel less stuffy and boosts your comfort level and ability to be more productive in the space.

Also consider that cooling down an unused spare room in a home that’s running air conditioning wastes money. Think about making that room more functional by decluttering and turning it into a:

  • home entertainment room
  • exercise room
  • wine room
  • home office
  • craft room

5. Use a dehumidifier

“It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity.” You’ve heard that line before and it’s true.

High humidity makes you feel more uncomfortable than you feel in high, drier heats because the air around you has more moisture. That makes the air less effective at absorbing the sweat you release (not unlike how a saturated sponge is less absorbent).

Running a dehumidifier won’t cool a room better than air conditioning, but it can be used in tandem with it or by itself to get a room feeling more comfortable when it’s muggy. An ideal relative humidity level is between 40-50%.

Note that dedicated humidifiers tend to be more efficient at reducing a room’s humidity compared to using the dehumidifying function on most portable A/C units.

Another benefit of using a dehumidifier is that it minimizes the likelihood of allergens, mould, and mildew from forming in your home.

6. Minimize usage of home heat sources

One of the most common-sense home cooling tips we can offer is to simply cut off the heat that’s being generated in your home at the source.

Instead of using your oven to make dinner, fire up the barbecue. Use a slow cooker or the microwave as alternatives to oven cooking that will generate less heat in the kitchen.

Running the dishwasher and using the appliances in your laundry room later in the day when it’s cooler is smart, for both heat-reducing reasons and because electricity rates are cheaper.

If anyone in your house is taking a hot shower, be sure the bathroom’s fan is running to expel the heat and moisture in the room.

And if you’re still clinging to those incandescent bulbs, switching to energy efficient CFL or LED bulbs will generate less heat, too.

home cooling tips laundry hampers and counter

Leave tasks that generate heat like doing the laundry or running the dishwasher until later in the day.

7. Home cooling tips to get a better night’s sleep

When it’s hot and humid, getting a good night’s sleep if you don’t have A/C can be a challenge.

Using more lightweight sheets should help, especially if they’re more breathable linens like cotton or linens that cool such as percale, microfibre, and bamboo bed sheets.

Cooling mattress pads and toppers, in addition to pillows that use cooling gel or are made with bamboo and buckwheat, will further ensure that you get a more restful sleep.

Check the forecast to find out if the temperature overnight is dropping to a comfortable level. If so, open your bedroom windows before going to bed to let out the room’s hot air and to bring some fresh air inside.

Leave your bedroom door open in order to improve the room’s airflow.

If you are running the A/C, try these tips

If you are making use of some of these home cooling ideas while still running your air conditioning, here are four tips to make it run more efficiently:

  1. Get your air conditioner and furnace serviced regularly (Energy Star recommends yearly tune-ups).
  2. Change your HVAC air filters a minimum of every three months.
  3. Have your ducts cleaned every three to five years to maximize the airflow of your HVAC systems.
  4. Don’t close vents or doors to unused rooms while the central A/C or heat are running. It’s a very common misconception that this is helpful, but it throws off the air balancing in your home for your HVAC systems, which can actually make them work harder.

One more thing you should do is to leave enough space around supply and return vents to improve airflow by repositioning furniture and moving nearby clutter.

Organized Interiors takes this into account when designing our custom cabinetry. To ensure proper ventilation, we add integrated vents to the bottom of any furniture piece that’s positioned over any of your floor or wall vents.

Despite using the above tips, you may still frustratingly find that certain parts of your home (like the top floor) are experiencing temperature disparities when your heating or cooling systems are running.

If having your HVAC systems serviced and your ducts cleaned don’t fix the problem, it may just be that the layout of your home or a less than optimal duct installation years ago are inhibiting the airflow of your HVAC systems.

Get organized and keep your home a little cooler

Remove the clutter from your home that makes it harder to keep your living space cool.

Entrust your organization and storage needs to Organized Interiors, who have been leaders in helping to keep homes in the GTA tidy and clean for over 40 years.

Schedule your complimentary in-home design consultation with us today.

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