What’s hiding in your storage areas?
As human beings, we are masters of hiding things, deceiving ourselves that we can make things “disappear”–out of sight, out of mind–so we don’t have to look at it. Well, this strategy only lasts for so long until the places where we’ve been hiding things is overflowing and we can’t stuff anything else in there.
Our favorite places to hide things are closets, drawers, files and filing cabinets, cupboards, garages, storage units/lockers, under the bed, in boxes, bags, suitcases–anything that will keep it out of sight. Like I said, we can only do this for a certain amount of time until the space has reached maximum capacity.
What to do? First off, we need to stop squirreling things away because we don’t want to deal with them. It’s time to start making decisions about our things and deciding if they need to be tossed, recycled, kept or scanned.
Let’s take the infamous Junk Drawer that virtually every American home seems to have and accepts as “normal.” The Junk Drawer has many useful things along with many things we don’t need and should never have been put in there. I find plastic utensils and chopsticks from take out along with mini packs of catsup and soy sauce. There are often books of matches, random pens, pencils, a variety of tools, post it notes, scrap paper and hand scribbled notes all tossed into the mix. Someone has to spend time rifling through this jumble in order to find the specific item in question which is totally unnecessary.
What I do is pour out the drawer, wipe it out, put in a drawer divider that fits best for the contents–such as multi compartment to hold pens/pencils, rubberbands, paperclips, note pads and small hand tools. I will remove all the condiments, plasticware, scribbled notes, maps, etc. We want just what’s essential for the specific purposes of the room it’s in. And that goes for hallway closets and desk drawers and filing cabinets. Keep what’s in there what you will use in that area. The hallway closet can hold coats or linens. It doesn’t need camping gear or holiday decor which is used seasonally and is taking up prime real estate.
Reexamine what’s in your “hiding” places and see what you can purge and eliminate and repurpose so that storage area is used in the best way possible. Rather than have 5 different places for office supplies or hardware, gather it all up and get it into ONE place and designate that as the key zone for it and you will find what you need, when you need with ease. If you should need help with your storage areas, give us a call at 510.501.1213 and let us help you get organized today.