I have been fighting a losing battle with the linen closet for a while now. It was so full that it didn’t seem to matter how much straightening I did. Towels, sheets, blankets and tote bags were falling out all over. I spotted some Space Bags while at Marshall’s a few weeks ago and couldn’t get them out of my mind! Finally I went on Amazon and ordered a set. I got 5 jumbo, 4 large and 2 medium bags, as well as 3 of the roll up bags for $34.

Space Bags are heavy duty plastic storage bags you vacuum the air out of. They compress things down, making them easier to store. The roll up bags are meant for travel – you remove the air from them by rolling them.

The bags were easy to use. We filled them to the fill line, zipped them and then held the vacuum hose to the nozzle in the bag. It sucked the air out and quickly compressed the bags down. It was actually quite amazing how much space we saved – it reduced it by about 2/3, which is a significant difference when you’re tight on space!

We used 4 space bags and have tons left for future use. They were very easy to pack and shrink. They’re waterproof and reusable and also airtight. It’s a great solution if you need to store something in an attic or basement. I can also see using these to

store winter clothes if you are pressed for space.

The bags solved my closet problem. I had lots of blankets, comforters, mattress pads, pillows and sheets that we don’t use but I can’t bring myself to get rid of. No one likes flannel sheets, but I keep them thinking “What if we lost power for a week and were cold?” I also can’t help but think that my kids will soon be going out on their own and they will want to have extra blankets and pillows, so it seems like a waste to get rid of them!

As you can see, the space bags made my closet much easier to organize. The things we don’t use are now in the bags, compressed down and completely contained, leaving room to neatly stack sheets and towels we do use. Nothing is falling off the shelves and I can see everything now.

I did do a little purging. We donated some of the tote bags I always seem to have too many of, as well as two pillows. I had been hoarding those plastic zipper

bags sheet sets come in, but I threw out a ton of those. Now that I have Space Bags, I don’t need them.

I have been fighting a losing battle with the linen closet for a while now. It was so full that it didn’t seem to matter how much straightening I did. Towels, sheets, blankets and tote bags were falling out all over. I spotted some Space Bags while at Marshall’s a few weeks ago and couldn’t … Read more →

I’ve won one storage battle. The kids’ bathroom has a little narrow closet I use to store medications and supplements, as well as first aid supplies and any potion or lotion you can name. I’m a bit of a hoarder when it comes to this stuff. While I do regularly purge and toss expired prescriptions, I have managed to gather a pretty large A to Z collection of vitamins and supplements as well as OTC meds. The ones that are taken regularly live in a drawer in the kitchen. The rest were in this closet. Yes, it was ugly. I am loathe to throw them out since we seem to cycle back through ailments pretty regularly. However, even though I KNOW I have, say, ginger, or stinging nettle, I’m usually damned if I can actually find it when needed. I’ve been saying for a long time that what I need is a supplement library, where I could store everything alphabetically, so that I could find it when I need it.

It occurred to me that although this closet is tiny, the

shelves are set in pretty far and there is room to put shelves on the backs of the doors. Genius moment. I Googled to find shelving.  Here is what I  ordered from DrawerSlides.com. It was hard to find shelving narrow enough for this tiny door, so these were a bit pricey. We ordered three of them so we could outfit the door from top to bottom.

We installed the shelving (simple job with a power drill) and I got to work. First it was time for another purge, so I sorted through everything and filled a garbage bag. Next I organized supplements and OTCs that we would be mostly likely to use on the door. This was a challenge since some of the shelves were not very wide. I had only three shelves that would hold big bottles.

I organized it in roughly alphabetical order so I can find things. The shelves are so narrow that there is just one row per shelf, so there’s no chance of anything getting lost. Then I organized what was didn’t fit on the door. Prescription meds went into one plastic bin. OTCs went in another. Big bottles stood on shelves. First aid supplies went into two smaller plastic boxes.

I also tackled the job of the top shelf of this closet which holds extra shampoo (people and dog!) as well as sunscreen and bug spray. I tossed a lot of almost empty bottles and used a plastic shoebox to put all the sunscreen together in one place so I can just pull it out instead of rummaging in the closet for it.

Total time for this project: about an hour. Total cost: $90

Satisfaction level: Priceless!

I’m so happy with how this worked out that I’m ordering more of this shelving to put inside a similar closet in the master bath.

Check your house for backs of doors where you can add some extra storage. I’ve done this in my pantry. The doors under your kitchen and bathroom sinks are usually a good spot to add some extra storage if you don’t have a closet like this!

I’ve won one storage battle. The kids’ bathroom has a little narrow closet I use to store medications and supplements, as well as first aid supplies and any potion or lotion you can name. I’m a bit of a hoarder when it comes to this stuff. While I do regularly purge and toss expired prescriptions, … Read more →

I’d been ignoring it all summer. The closet. It was totally out of control.  My daughter wedged in there with me recently and I showed her blouses and suits from when I practiced law (15 years ago) and a dress from before she was born (20 years ago). I was shocked that I still had all this stuff AND that it was so friggin’ old. So I took an afternoon and purged. It was painful, but I did it and filled two garbage bags to donate. Here are my tips for how to get yours under control.

1. Count. How many t-shirts do you have? How many sweat pants? How many pairs of black pants? I was shocked to realize I had enough t-shirts to wear one a day without doing laundry for more than a month. Counting how many I had of each item made me feel more comfortable about giving some away because I would never ever need the 15 t-shirts I ditched, not when there were 20 more at the ready.

2. Fight stains. How many digging in the garden, painting, stripping wallpaper outfits do you need? I kept one. The rest were just taking up space I needed.

3. If it doesn’t fit, you must donate. You know those things you buy and they seem like a good idea in the dressing room, but then they look not quite right at home, and you never wear them? Why are you saving them? They aren’t going to magically become suitable. Yes, you wasted some cash on them, but you’re wasting space by keeping them. Donate and know they’ve clothed someone else.

4. No pain. Shoes, bras, waistbands that cut in, anything that makes you uncomfortable is bad closet karma. You feel miserable when you wear it. So just stop the insanity and let it go. It’s never going to feel any better on your body.

5. Stragglers. Somehow I had managed to keep a sleeveless shell from a sweater set from which I no longer had the actual sweater. I kept it thinking it might someday match something else. 10 years later, I can say I was wrong! Out it went. Don’t keep halves of sets like this.

6. Too big to fail. We all have those “just in case I gain it all back clothes.” And I can admit in the past I’ve ditched them and then gained the weight back and regretted it. My solution is to keep the really good pieces but take them out of the closet and store them somewhere else (under the bed, in the attic, etc.) until you are certain your weight loss is not temporary.

7. Out of synch. I will never take a job that requires me to wear a suit every day, so why am I keeping my lawyer suits? If you have clothes from a job, hobby, type of exercise or other lifestyle you aren’t going back to, get rid of them. I kept 2 suits that I could wear to a funeral, but the rest went out the door.

Other ways to make sense of the closet madness:

– Rotate. Put seasonal clothes in front and out of season things in back. This makes your space more functional.

– Fold and stack. If you have shelves in your closet, you might have the tendency I do to just stuff things on them. If you take a few minutes and neatly fold and stack everything you will fit more on the shelf and you’ll be able to easily see and access what you have there.

– Put extra hangers elsewhere. I keep all of my extra hangers hanging from the edge of a shelf up high. This leaves more room for clothes. When I take clothes out, I put the hanger up there. When I hang clothes up, I take a hanger.

– Hang shoes. Buy a shoe organizer and put it on the back of your closet door.

– Assess non-clothing items. My closet has extra blankets, tote bags, and old throw pillows lurking in the nether regions. Purge! Put the ones you really want in plastic zipped bags and get rid of the rest.

– Keep the “I’m going to fit into that someday” clothes, but separate them out so that you aren’t grabbing them, putting them on and then chucking them across the room in a fury. Stuff them in a bag and put them in the back of the closet. If you lose the weight, they will be there.

– If donating doesn’t make you feel excited enough, take your stuff to a resale or consignment shop. My kids LOVE taking old clothes to Plato’s Closet and it is a huge motivator to get them to get rid of things that no longer fit.

Now it is time for confessions. I kept the 20 year old dress because it is beautiful. I doubt it will ever fit but I’m allowed one non-functional item. I also kept a few of the lawyer blouses because they are classic and will work with the funeral outfits.

When was the last time you cleaned your closet?

 

I’d been ignoring it all summer. The closet. It was totally out of control.  My daughter wedged in there with me recently and I showed her blouses and suits from when I practiced law (15 years ago) and a dress from before she was born (20 years ago). I was shocked that I still had … Read more →