Tackling a Mess in Stages

This family moved a ton of stuff into their garage temporarily during a remodel. They must have been in a hurry because it appears things were randomly stashed with no attempt to create zones for like items.

The remodel is finished and now they have to move it all back in. What a good opportunity to evaluate, eliminate and integrate their belongings.

We started the move with some big items - the file cabinets above and the clothes racks below - and did it in stages.

Most of the clothes - costumes for theatrical productions - were consolidated into one rack:

Then, after emptying the file cabinets we removed a tall one from the home office closet...

..and replaced it with three smaller, matching ones...

...which in turn inspired the owners to whittle down the costume collection and hang it above these shorter file cabinets.

Project Plus: one pleasing closet with easy to find papers and costumes.

Project Minus: reams of paper, two clothes racks, several bags of clothes and an ugly file cabinet - which I guess makes this a Project Plus.

Check back for the progress on the rest of the garage.

Garage Miracle

You've seen them, people who have gads of organizing products from the Container Store and still can't find anything. Maybe you are one yourself. One reason I rarely advise clients to purchase organizing gear is that products do not make people organized. People make people organized. You can usually make sense of your stuff with what you have on hand.

Here is a big exception: Fast Track by Rubbermaid. Look at this garage! It is neat and things are up off the floor and easy to find.

This easy-to-install handing unit has tool-specific hooks you can add to it. This one is holding:
2 bistro chairs
1 beach chair
1 folding stool
1 long outdoor extension cord
1 weed trimmer
1 garden fork
1 shovel
2 leaf rakes
1 kneeling pad
1 hedge trimmer
1 stepladder
1 large framed camping backpack

And all in four feet of space!

A dream job

How fun is this job? My clients moved into a home with a wine cooler.  My assignment: pick up their last five cases of wine stored at The WineBank, a climate controlled wine storage building, and organize it all in their new cooler.

As you can see, they underestimated what was in storage but my little Mini Cooper hauled all SIXTEEN (!) cases.

Then the fun began: unpacking those juicy gems and labeling them for their later enjoyment.

With the wine organized by type it is now easy for them to make their selection for dinner.

rePURPOSING Things: for Good!

I recently helped a client move from this spacious home.

They needed only a fraction of the furniture in this house for their new home - and you can imagine how much furniture a house like this can hold - so they did a very generous thing. They held a family and friends furniture sale and donated ALL the proceeds to the Parkinson's Foundation.

What an ideal way to dispose of unwanted items and do some good at the same time. Hats off to them!

Bicycle Safety

With sixteen years worth of kids sporting equipment, school projects, camping gear, construction left-overs and tools this Palo Alto garage was cluttered enough before a relative died and family memorabilia to sort "later"wound up the middle of the floor. Getting the bicycles out became a hazardous assignment.

Our goal was to make the garage passable, evaluate the family items, eliminate the ones we could and integrate the rest into a safer storage arrangement until the owner had time to really focus on them.

We accomplished our goal and in the process filled a van with items for Goodwill, freecycle and recycling.

The family things  are now in plastic storage bins, in one place and on a elevated shelf to keep them from the damp floor. Clearly labeled, it is easy for the owner to retrieve one box at a time for sorting .

Although the garage still needs more work, we met our goal to organize the family heirlooms and have safe and easy access to the bikes. After this initial project, organizing the rest of the garage will take no time at all.

rePURPOSING Spaces: Garage Work-out Room

The owners of this double-length San Jose garage wanted to turn the space closest to the house into a rainy-day work out area.  The first step of this rePURPOSE was to evaluate, eliminate and integrate the garage storage.

It took about one hour to sort through the piles, fill up the car for a run to Goodwill and eWaste recycling and rearrange the shelving to store like with like.

                                    

Now they have easy access to their storage items, a nice clear space to set up exercise equipment, plus protection for their car.

Room for the Car

This goal of rePURPOSEing this room was to return it to its intended use - as a garage to house a car - and reclaim if from its use as an overflow space for the owner’s many projects and interests.

Before

Items were evaluated, the owner took decisive action on what had to go and what remained was re-organized, packed and shelved for quick retrieval.

During

Ninety minutes later the chairs were accessible for a refinishing project and the special occasion dishware protected, labeled, easy to find and ready to go for the next special event.

After