3 Keys Thursday: 3 Keys for Managing Big, Rectangular Spaces

Dodgerton Skillhause via Morguefile

Our homes are full of big, rectangular spaces. Planned well, these spaces -- closets, drawers and even refrigerators and chest freezers -- can be a storage dream. Left unattended and unplanned, they can quickly become a storage nightmare -- the dumping ground for all things homeless.

Yesterday, I wrote about one of them (my refrigerator). Even if I don't label my refrigerator shelves (the jury's still out), there are plenty of strategies to help to keep large spaces manageable. 

Store like with like. While every home has a junk drawer, no home should have a collection of them. The contents of each rectangular space (drawer, closet, etc.) should be related in some way that makes sense to you. Whether you cluster clothing by color, style, season or occasion, your closet should be set up in a way that not only makes retrieving the item you want easy, but also lets you see your options at a glance. Last week, I set up a drawer that now contains "stationery items and sticky things." Hardly a category I'd recommend on a regular basis, but I now know where to find mailing labels, Command hooks and oversized index cards.

Divide and conquer. As an I need to see it person, I value organization that lets me see things at a glance. When I open a drawer, I want to be able to see its contents without pawing through it. When I open my closet, I want to see what my choices are. Depending on your style, you may not need to see everything, but dividing large spaces into smaller ones makes retrieval easier. A simple drawer organizer can help you separate dark socks from light ones, pencils from paper clips and stationery from sticky things.

Let your style lead. Standard issue isn't always standard. Do you need to ditch the rod? Add another one below it for shorter hanging things? Add more shelves? Roll in some clear drawer units? Trade in your file cabinet for a cart that stores hanging files or open-top file bins? Trade in your binders for accordion files? Don't assume that whoever designed your closet, appliance or piece of furniture knows best. Only you can make it work for you.

Trust your instincts. With a little time and a lot of STYLE, you can make those rectangular spaces the organizing boon they were meant to be. 

Tackling Rectangular Spaces

One of my goals for this summer is getting rid of stuff we don't need and/or no longer want. Inspired in part by my daughter's relentless pursuit of clear space when she came home from college and in part by the fact that I actually like doing this stuff, it's one of those things on my to-do list that I look forward to tackling.


In part, this means digging into drawers and closets, tasks that lend themselves well to the STYLE steps.

• Start with successes. One look inside a drawer that's working reveals the key elements: 
• It's lined with something pretty (wrapping paper, shelf paper, shelf liner). This is by no means an organizational necessity, but it creates a foundation that motivates me to keep things neat.
• I can see everything without having to dig through the drawer OR it contains neatly stacked items.
• Everything in the drawer belongs there and is something I use.

• Take small steps. When it comes to closets, tackling just one area or setting a timer can help keep me from becoming overwhelmed. As for drawers, clearing one drawer at a time meets the small steps requirement.

• Yes, it has a home! If a drawer or space is in good shape, it contains only things that belong there. If this isn't the case, I need to go through the drawer or area item by item. Stuff that goes back goes in one pile and everything else gets put into piles depending on where it needs to go instead (toss, donate, repair, etc.). Once the drawer is empty, it's time to make it look pretty and decide whether or not it needs to be subdivided before everything goes back in. In the case of closets, once an area has been cleared, I need to decide whether or not it needs to be subdivided before everything goes back, and, if so, which containers I need to use.

• Let it go! Once I've created my piles, this is easy. Pick each pile up and toss it or box it up.

• Easy upkeep. Once I'm finished, the area I worked on should meet the criteria in the first step (Start with Successes). This means I've chosen containers and locations that make it as easy to put things where they belong as it is to simply drop them somewhere else. Mission accomplished? Next drawer!

Right now, most of the  drawers in my dining room, which have been neglected for a while, need an overhaul, but the clothes closet in my bedroom needs little attention because I tackled that two summers ago and did an update last fall. What's really exciting about this process is finding an area that needs very little attention because it's already working! 

That's when I know I've been organizing by STYLE. 

That Which is Acquired Must Also be Stored

MabelAmber via Pixabay

I have a general rule of fashion: if I was old enough to wear it the first time it was in style, I'm too old to wear it when it (inevitably) comes back around.

Recently, however, I caved in and broke that rule for an article of clothing that got me through the 80s: leggings.

I didn't break my rule lightly. I spent more than a year taking in the various incarnations of leggings, jeggings, yoga pants and sweats that are ubiquitous on a college campus (where I work), determining what sort of fashion statement I did (or didn't) want to make. I'm at least thirty years older than these young adults, and the combinations that looked youthful and vibrant on them would look out of place (to say the least) on me. Not only that, but I no longer possess the twenty-something body of a college student or the yoga-toned body of some of my peers. Coverage would be key.

Last fall, after dusting off one pair of leggings that had survived the purge of BC (before child) clothing, I began acquiring new leggings and, along with them, sweaters that offered appropriate coverage. Fashion-wise, a hit. Storage-wise, a challenge.

The leggings were easy -- at least at first. They fold flat, don't wrinkle and can even be stuffed into small spaces if necessary. The long blouses that accompanied them in the fall were easy to accommodate as well; they are the stuff for which hangers were made.

target.com

It was the sweaters. Thick, long and unable to be hung without stretching in all the wrong places, they challenged my existing (full) clothing storage. They took up more than their fair share of space in the closet or any drawer in my bedroom. Honestly, I've yet to come up with an answer that thrills me, but, in the meantime, the less bulky ones are folded over hangers in my closet (the kind with the hooks that allow vertical hanging) and the two bulky ones have appropriated the better part of a drawer, necessitating a different storage solution for the lightweight cardigans that had been there to begin with (more vertical hanging storage). They'd be perfect on a shelf....if only I had a shelf that was unaccounted for. A bit more purging and rearranging may yet yield a perfect, STYLE-based solution, but, for now, I'm happy they're put away.

The success story, though is the leggings, for which I did find a solution I love. Tune in tomorrow to see what inspired me (thank you, Pinterest) and where I ended up.

A Place for Everything, An Item for Every Drawer

Now this would be a cool
addition to my office!
Photo: Pixabay

In my office, I have two unassigned drawers -- that is to say that they currently serve as "home" to no specific items. One has served several purposes, but, because of my I need to see it style, none of those plans have stuck. Right now, it holds some writing projects and some "miscellaneous files" (always bad news from an organizational perspective), but I wouldn't call the space well-utilized.

The other is drawer is a small one, the lone, empty drawer in a three-drawer unit. Its companions hold, among other things, FitBit wristbands and toilet paper tubes decorated with washi tape and pressed into service as cord storage. Unlike my drawer-in-limbo, it's an organizational coup -- easy to use and in keeping with my styles, I can find what I'm looking for in under five seconds. Because these small drawers have clear, labeled fronts, I can not only glimpse the contents, but I also know what's inside even before I open them -- the labels remove all the mystery.

As an I need to see it person, I need this, ahem, transparency. That's why my wonderful, large drawer with projects and miscellany is a drawer in limbo in a room that still has piles that need sorting. I could take a page out of the I know I put it somewhere handbook and transfer the stacks from my counter (which looks much better this week, I must say) to the drawer. Unfortunately, that would simply hide the problem, rather than solving it; my counter would look better, but I wouldn't be any more organized. Worse yet, those papers could sit in that drawer, hidden from sight, for years before I paid attention to them again, which means that I'm taking a significant risk if I put anything important or time sensitive in that wonderful, practically empty space.

Meanwhile, in another spot in the office, a rolling bin has been pressed into service as file storage for my active class files. Previously, it collected dust as the official storage place for all of my notes on organization, but, when I needed a place (besides the chair in the living room) to keep my class files, I rethought the plan. I moved the organization files -- which I don't need to access on a daily basis -- to the family room to create space in my office for the files I touch every day.

What, you may ask, is the purpose of all of these stories?

Balance.

Balance between overstuffed and just right = room to grow (my empty/unassigned drawers).

Balance between my I need to see it personal style and my drop and run organizational style = a "just right" container that allows me to put things away (instead of down) in a place where they're visually accessible.

Balance between the easy answer and the one that makes sense = time + patience + trial + error.

Pixabay

It's amazing how easily we fall into -- and stay stuck in -- habits that don't work. Getting organized and staying organized means constantly reassessing what goes where and whether or not the storage we choose is the best choice. It means finding what works and replicating it so that eventually, everything has a home that's as easy to use as the default surface we choose when we're too exhausted to put things where they belong.

Needless to say, it's a process.

And sometimes, empty drawers share space with homeless piles.