If you are new to 52 Weeks of Organizing, catch up here!

Hi all, can you believe how close we are to the end?  Week #50, whoot!  Today’s topic is all about untapped vertical storage space.  Whether it be in closets, cupboards, garages or shelves, vertical storage is often sadly neglected.  I was thinking about this today when I was reorganizing my cupboards underneath the bathroom sink.  In two instances I doubled my storage space just by going up.  Let me show you how I did it.

And just to keep it real here I’ll show you the “before I tidied up” picture first:

and then after a quick purge and tidy, ahh much better:

Those pull out shelves are fantastic for maximizing space and no I didn’t buy them at a fancy organizing store.  In fact I purchased the two drawer set at a Bargain Shop for $8.00, you just got to keep your eyes open.

Next is the drawer system I use to organize my lady things.

The before tidy picture:

and after a fast tidy and basket addition:

The three stackable drawers on the right is where I keep my feminine products.  Do you see how much space is created by going up?  Again these drawers were purchased from Field’s (another bargain type shop) for a reasonable price (although I don’t remember how much exactly, I’ve had them for awhile).  I’d like to buy another set for the other side but they haven’t had any in stock for awhile so I’m patiently waiting for more to come in :)  The yellow basket just holds my curling iron, lint brushes and toiletry bags.

Your challenge this week is to check your closets and cupboards and see if there is any unused space you can utilize by going vertical.  Perhaps it’s as simple as adding an additional shelf in your closet like my husband did.

Since I was highlighting my bathroom cupboards today I thought I’d also give you an update on what was going on above my cupboards and the never ending battle I have with my hair tools.  Last time I shared with you I was using a basket and it looked like this:

Well let me tell you, rolling up the cords and stuffing the basket got old fast.  I also would have to wait for them to cool down and who has time for such things :)  Anyway I came up with a new solution (yes again..I know, I know…the life of an organizing junkie remember).  Here is what it looked like before a little tidy:

As you can see I added a shelf with some hooks to hang my tools up and out of the way.  Today I improved on it a bit with a few more tweaks:

I tidied up the cords and added cord ties to keep them from getting unruly on me.  I also brought back my original basket as well.  I was trying out a different one for awhile but it was too small for my needs.  Here I keep my most frequently used hair products.  Don’t be afraid to try new solutions every once and awhile because it’s the only real way to know if it will work for you or not.  Anyway even though this solution isn’t a pretty one, practicality won out in the end.  Besides this is my ensuite so it’s not like anyone else will see it.  Well except all of you but you won’t tell right?  It’s just nice to not have the frustrations in the mornings anymore and for me that beats out all else every time.  I really hate to be annoyed :)

So there you have it.  Another week comes and goes.  Hope this gives you a few ideas to solve some of your own organizational dilemmas.  Don’t forget to share how you make out with this week’s challenge!

PS:  Please let me know if you have any ideas for organizing challenges in the new year.  Just trying to do some brainstorming around the idea.  Thanks!

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Please feel free to share your organizing journey and encourage one another in the comments. You are also invited to link up to the linky below with any posts related to your 52 weeks of organizing participation or to any post of an organizing nature that you feel will inspire and encourage others in their quest to get organized. Please remember to link back to here though so we can reach out to as many people as possible in need of some inspiration.

One other thing to consider: by including your link below you, you are giving me permission to use parts of your post including pictures as a spotlight in future 52 Weeks of Organizing posts. Proper credit and links will of course be provided. If you are not okay with this please do not link up. Thanks!

52 Weeks: #50 Go Vertical for Storage is a post from: I'm an Organizing Junkie

pantry ~ a room or closet in which food, groceries, and other provisions, or silverware, dishes, etc., are kept.

Well I would call mine neither a room or closet.  It’s a cupboard.  It’s a shallow pantry cupboard.  Not that I need a large pantry anyway because with menu planning each week I normally only buy and store what I need for the week plus a few extras.  However I’ve noticed that with summer and company visiting the “extras” were piling up causing my panty to go a little topsy turvy.  Things were getting a little out of hand, meaning food was just scattered here there and everywhere.  I found pasta on the top shelf, on the middle shelf AND on the bottom shelf.  Not only does that make me crazy but preparing my weekly grocery list just takes that much longer too.  Gah!  Oh and don’t even get me started about having TWO open boxes/bags of the same thing.  Sheesh, my family I tell you, boy do they ever like to mess with me :)

Here are the before pictures:

The bottom two shelves are designated for my son’s allergy safe foods.

I followed the PROCESS steps….took everything out….purged, organized and done.  I bought some new baskets from Walmart (I love these ones!) that fit perfectly in the shallowness of my 11″ cupboards, which really helped set some necessary boundaries to the space.

After pictures:

The yellow basket is the candy basket, high up from little kid’s wandering hands :)  The wicker basket is my snack basket which I blogged about here.

I feel better just having like with like under control.

I used the same label method that I used here.

Before:

After:

Gosh does that ever feel better and it took all of about a half hour.  Yay!!

Does your pantry or pantry cupboard need a little tweaking?

Organizing my Pantry Cupboard is a post from: I'm an Organizing Junkie

Grrr.  So annoying!  If there is anything I’ve learned in the last couple of years is that small frustrations like these can be toxic if we consistently let it bother us without doing something about it. Luckily, for the most part, there is almost always a way to solve the problem.  I knew there had to be a solution out there and you all had many suggestions to offer up.  Thank you!

However as I sat here one night I happened to glance over at where I keep my stash of 3M Command products and saw one of their products I hadn’t put to use yet.  Which product am I talking about?

3M Command Brand Picture Clips

These are designed to hold pictures but I thought, why not labels instead?  So I tried it and it worked beautifully.  I can easily snap in a new label (I just printed off cardstock labels on my printer) whenever I need too and they stay put!!  You should have seen how excited I got about the whole thing.  I was jumping up and down and all around.  Seriously it takes so little to amuse me…ha!  I also new it was the end of an annoying problem and I was not going to be irked no more.  Take that you labels that don’t stick.  Whoot!!

Let me show you some pictures:

Want a great way to organize your fridge?  Add a basket or two to contain “like with like”.  I was tired of my condiments all over the place.   A beautiful basket to the rescue!

Of course the fact that I have an 11 year old son means the word condiments gets a giggle every time he sees it.

It’s one of those things where I wonder why I didn’t think of it sooner.  It’s such a perfect non-permanent solution.  I LOVE versatility in an organizing product!!

3M asked me to do a video for them of my experience (which was also very exciting as you can imagine) so I calmed myself right down and gave it a go.  You can see that video clip by clicking below.  I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to embed it into my blog.

Picture Clips_052311

So there you have it.   An inexpensive (you get 6 clips to a pack) organizing solution to a terribly annoying problem.  Yay!!

3M provided me with a selection of products but the creativity?  It’s all mine baby! :)

Solving my label problem with 3M Picture Clips! is a post from: I'm an Organizing Junkie

Here is how it looked before:

(the bottom bag and box are thrift store donations)

Not too bad right?  But here’s the thing…I knew there were things in there that we haven’t used in the 9 months since we moved into this house.  Why was I taking up valuable storage space with items we no longer used or that we “might” use one day?  Because I had the room.  It’s as simple as that.  I could still find what I needed in there, it wasn’t too packed and it is a linen closet after all.  However just because a closet is called a “linen” closet doesn’t mean it has to be used for just linen.  Heck no!   Some of that space could be used for other things like craft storage, board games, puzzles, books, photo albums, panty overstock, etc.  I definitely knew I could use that space for something else.

It’s a matter of making a choice for the NOW rather than the ONE DAY!

I really don’t like the words “just in case”.   Just in case what?  I’d better have four sets of sheets for my bed just in case my washing machine breaks down for a month and I can no longer wash my bedding.  Seriously, a month?  In case of emergency, go to a friend’s house.  I’d better have 7 towels per person so they can change it out for a new one every day.  Umm, that’s a little much, after all we are clean when we dry ourselves off with them.  I’m just saying :)

If you have all the space in the world, then fly at it.  Have as many towels as your little heart desires.  BUT if you hear yourself complaining that your house is too small and you have no room for anything, take a look at not just a linen closet (as not every house has one) but any closet for that matter.  Walk yourself through this inner dialogue you have with yourself (we all do it!) and try to make some sense out of what you are justifying.  If the home you’ve got is it for awhile and upsizing just isn’t an option, then tough choices will probably need to be made.  Here’s the good news….once you feel the excitement of the purge and how creating some additional storage space frees up all sorts of frustration for you, you will be hooked.  Believe me, it’s an awesome feeling!  You’ll be absolutely itching to move on to something else!

So where was I?  (lol…got a little sidetracked there)

So I emptied my linen closet out and had a good ole purge fest.  It was FUN!!  Next I decided that I would use up the Spacemaker Storage Bags I purchased a couple of months ago to store some of my less frequently used items.   (psst: don’t miss my OpenSky deal of the week on these below!!)

I started with the special baby blankets that my kids each selected to keep.  In they went:

Now here’s where I decided to do something a little different.  Rather than stack my Spacemaker Bags one on top of the other (and have trouble accessing one without them all falling out on my head) I decided to line them straight up and down in order to make them super easy to pull out.

By this time I was getting real excited by the possibilities.  I could tell I was on to something…hahaha.

Someone asked about how to get these storage bags flat so they do stack.  Well I found the more flat they were going into the bag the more flat the bag would be with all the air sucked out.  Yet standing them up like this really eliminated the need for that to matter….yippee!

Check out how my top shelf turned out:

I used storage bags for guest pillows, out of season blankets, camping blankets and some extra curtains that I use to “create” a room for my daughter in the rec room when guests take over her room.  I was so so happy with the amount of space I saved.   Happy dance for sure!!

So if you remember here was my linen closet before:

And here it is after:

Whoot!  Two empty shelves!!   So excited about that although I’ve since added a proper donation station box to the bottom.  Everyone should have one!

A close up:

I”m still not sure how I’ll use all my new empty space but for now I’m just enjoying mulling over the possibilities :)

Here is my purge pile from the weekend (not just from my linen closet):

Got any questions about it, just let me know!

PS:  I love my Spacemaker Storage Bags and I’m so excited to offer them to you today as my OpenSky deal of the week.  This deal is available only for the next 24 hours (you’ll need to log in/sign up to see the deal)!!  Check it out! For more information about my OpenSky please see here.

My linen closet before and after is a post from: I'm an Organizing Junkie

If you are new to 52 Weeks of Organizing, catch up here!

Week 20, whoot!  Are you hanging in there?

Today I decided I wanted to talk about the linen closet.  Whether your house has a big one or one that’s not so big, it’s often a neglected space.   Regardless of the size, is yours bursting at the seams?  This might be a good week to go through the PROCESS and tackle that area.

A couple of years ago I posted about how I organized my own linen closet and I encourage you to go on over and read how I followed the PROCESS myself.  I took my overstuffed closet from this:

to this:

Those pictures are from 2007 and in my old house.  Since then I have learned to downsize even more yet after looking at the state of my new linen closet I think it’s time for another overhaul.  I’ll have to do that this week also.

I think the majority of people have just way too many sets of sheets and towels.  The general rule I write about in my book, Clutter Rehab, is two sets of sheets and towels per person.  One set of sheets for the bed and one towel per person for the towel bar.  Then one for spare.  You may also want one set of each for guests along with a few blankets.  I find Space Bags to be especially convenient in the off season to help create additional space.

Remember to purge until it fits!

With some paring down and a little creativity perhaps you can use the extra storage space you uncover for other things looking for a home…craft supplies, a donation station, kid’s clothes to grow into, extra pantry space, etc.

I just have to show you what my sister did with her linen closet.  Since she lives in a small home with no garage or basement space she needed somewhere for her cat’s litter box where her girls couldn’t get into it.  So she moved her linen into her bedroom closet, added a animal door to the bottom of the closet and voila, problem solved.  Now that’s thinking outside the box!

Does your linen closet need an overhaul?

Note: most animal shelters would be more than happy to take your old linen off your hands to use for the animals :)

Please feel free to share your organizing journey and encourage one another in the comments. You are also invited to link up to the linky below with any posts related to your 52 weeks of organizing participation or to any post of an organizing nature that you feel will inspire and encourage others in their quest to get organized. Please remember to link back to here though so we can reach out to as many people as possible in need of some inspiration.

One other thing to consider: by including your link below you, you are giving me permission to use parts of your post including pictures as a spotlight in future 52 Weeks of Organizing posts. Proper credit and links will of course be provided. If you are not okay with this please do not link up. Thanks!

52 Weeks: #20 Take Back Your Linen Closet is a post from: I'm an Organizing Junkie

Remember last week when I mentioned I organized my entryway closet? Here’s a refresher:

Before:

After:

In that post, I had mentioned a product that I used that has changed my life.  Only one of you guessed that it was my hangers!  Yep something as simple as a hanger has made life so much easier for me, believe it!

Now I must be a little isolated here where I live because seriously I’ve never heard of the Joy Mangano Huggable Hanger until I received them to review. Up until now I’ve never really found a hanger that I love.  I’ve never been a fan of wooden hangers and I know Professional Organizers are gasping at me everywhere but I’ve always felt they were ugly and because they bow out they take up way too much space in a closet.  So I’ve been using plastic hangers which are fine except for the annoying habit coats have of falling off them.  Drives me crazy!  These Huggable Hangers are made of velvet-flocked material which means my coats no longer slide off…yipee!  Not only that but because they are thinner they allow you to fit more into a space.  Oh and as a bonus they prevent those horrible shoulder bumps as well….blech.

These were my coats before.  Don’t even ask me how many times I’ve picked up that one there in the middle with the red trim off the floor.  Seriously, what a waste of time!

Now I don’t have that problem anymore and I’m a changed woman!!  Coats stay put!

Love, love, love!

Now some other things going on in my closet to keep me organized are my bins on top which hold my husband’s ball caps, summer hats, bags, etc.  I still need to label them.  I blogged about where I purchased them here.

And then tucked behind the coats on the back wall I’ve hung up a four pocket organizer using a command hook.  Here I’ve got some extra supplies for the vehicle (tissues, wipes, etc) that are quick and easy to grab and go.

And then beside that I’ve got my shoe organizer that holds quite a number of shoes.

Finally the basket on the cubby shelf is home for all my Bella’s dog supplies.

Ahh isn’t she sweet :)

So there you have it my small but organized entryway and front door closet.

Giveaway:

Would you like to win a 24 pack of Huggable Hangers for yourself?  Simply leave a comment on this post prior to Tuesday, May 10th at 2:00 pm EST.  That’s it!

Good luck!!

My entryway and a Huggable Hangers giveaway! is a post from: I'm an Organizing Junkie

Recently Sarah created what she calls a “jewelry party on her wall” cause she’s fun like that and well who doesn’t love a good party!

Utilizing an empty space on her wall, she added those small clear Command hooks by 3M to take her jewelry from this messy, tangled, cluttered (although still contained!) chaos:

to this lovely wall of organizational bliss:

Doesn’t that make you want to break out in song?  No?  Ahh come on, it wouldn’t be a party without singing now would it?  Hola! :)

Seriously, this is so easy to do my friends.  You can add these Command hooks absolutely anywhere because they will not wreck your walls.  I just did a series of videos showing how to use them that I can’t wait to show you but sadly they aren’t quite ready yet.

You can add a jewelry party to just about anywhere…to a wall, on the inside of a cabinet, on the back of a door, inside a closet, to the side of a dresser.  The possibilities are endless really.  When you get bored of it, change your mind or move, no sweat.  You just take them down and re-use them somewhere else.  So awesome!!  These mini hooks are pretty inexpensive too because you get like 20 in a pack for about $3.00 or $4.00.  You can find them a most department stores.

Here’s a close up for you:

Now go throw yourself a jewelry party, you’ll be glad you did!  And don’t forget to sing while you do it!

Looking for more jewelry organization ideas….check out how I organize mine.

Jewelry Organization with 3M Command Hooks! is a post from: I'm an Organizing Junkie

This method won’t work for my youngest though as he has a mates bed.  I guess I could have used the drawers for Lego but we already use those drawers for other things.

You can see the old tiny tote we used to use there on the floor:

I love Lego I really do.  I love that it never gets old.  My oldest still loves it at 11 and my youngest is just as passionate about it at 5.  It’s a toy that doesn’t lose interest after a couple of weeks (at least in my house) and that makes this momma happy.  It’s also pretty easy to organize :)

Canadian Tire was having a sale on their plastic rolling drawer units (19.99) so I picked up one of those to switch over to.  I’ve used these types of drawers in the past with my oldest and really liked how it worked.

I moved the cubbies over and tucked it into the corner.  The beauty of this is that it’s easy enough for my son to roll out when it wants to get into it and because the Lego is spread out over 5 drawers it’s not too hard for him to find what he needs.   We use the cubby holes as a place to display some of his built pieces :)

As new stuff comes in and needs change it’s important to re-evaluate storage solutions.

The other thing that needed attention in this room were my son’s books.  When they start piling up on the floor I get a little cuckoo.

Before:

and as well his headboard was getting a little over run with them:

A cluttered room makes for cluttered sleep.  I blogged about this before as it’s especially a problem with my daughter.

One of my tricks for organizing any space is changing around some of the furniture at the same time.  It really helps to freshen the space up and kids get excited because it makes their stuff seem new again.  Even if it’s only one or two pieces it really works!

In this case I simply turned the bookcase onto the other wall along with moving the cubbies over.  Not big changes but enough to make it seem new and it helps my son better able to access his books.

Don’t be afraid to try a new room configuration or storage solutions!

and his headboard:

The basket you see on top of the bookcase is where my son keeps his LeapFrog TAG Reading System.  He can just grab the basket when he wants to read on his bed or in the living room.  Keeps everything together and makes clean up a snap.

Next up was this little alcove with shelves that’s in the corner.   When we first moved in I had put all the workbooks and craft stuff in here but you know what?  It wasn’t getting used.  Crafts happen at the table and with these stuck in the bedroom my son had forgotten about them so they were neglected.

Store stuff where you use it.

So I went through, purged a bunch of it and then moved the rest back out to a shelf in my dining room where it’s already being put to good use.

Before:

After:

Ahh that’s better.

Anyone else working on a child’s room this week?

New Lego drawer storage is a post from: I'm an Organizing Junkie

This time my sister needed help with her nursery.  My sister just had another sweet baby girl two months ago (I so enjoyed all the baby cuddles!).  Just before the baby arrived she moved her oldest daughter (2) out of the nursery and into her big girl room.   The baby has been sleeping in my sister’s room in the bassinet since she was born but was now ready to start transitioning to her own room.  The problem was the nursery wasn’t quite ready for permanent residency yet.  It needed a little TLC.

Now anyone who has had littles at one point or another knows how overwhelming this season of life can be.  Time is of a premium and some days just getting a shower in is quite the accomplishment.  There isn’t a lot of time left over at the end of the day for things like organizing rooms that is for sure.  I remember, boy do I remember.

credit: shutterstock

I want to encourage you that if you are in this particular season or any other that is equally draining, please please reach out to someone for help. Those of us no longer in the baby days vividly remember what it was like and are more than happy to help.  Eventually your babes will be older and you’ll be able to return the favor to someone else in a similar situation.  There is no shame in that, we need to stick together!

My sister just needed an extra set of hands and I was on it. The plan was to make room for the change table and a chair, find a home for the totes of clothing and make it a welcoming, restful place for my little ladybug to sleep.

With my plan in place, I was ready for the second step in the PROCESS which is to remove and remove I did.  Everything but the big furniture got pulled out into the hallway or another room.  Once I had the space opened up I could do a little space planning to see how I was going to fit everything back in.  Organize the big stuff first. Once the furniture was in place we could start organizing the clothes.  Since my sister had excellent cubbie storage that wasn’t being used to it’s full potential we decided to put some of the next size clothing in those and that helped free up a few totes.  The cubbies will be labeled soon when she finds some of those self laminating sheets.

We also brought in the change table and that has three big drawers underneath for diapers/wipes, sleepers, crib sheets, blankets, socks, etc….

We organized shoes, booties and hats using the Koala Baby Organizer behind the door.

Clothes a couple of sizes out were either hung up in the closet or added to cubbies in the closet.  Others were stored in totes under the crib.  Clothes that weren’t going to be needed for at least another year yet went up in the attic.  Sorry I neglected to take a picture of the closet, but here’s a picture of it from a couple of years ago when my sister added a closet organizer to it.

She’s since added a shelf to the top and each of the cubbies now has a fabric bin to keep things containerized and tidy.

Before:

After:

I’m really happy with the way it turned out especially since we only had a short window of time with which to do it and we also had a very cute 2 year old helper for part of the time that had different ideas of how things should be stored.  Mainly all over the floor of course! :)

Nursery Makeover is a post from: I'm an Organizing Junkie

In this particular situation I was organizing a kitchen cabinet for my girlfriend so we needed to consider how she uses her space and organize accordingly.  We all use our kitchens differently and it’s important that you set it up for what works best for you and not some ideal of what you think you have to live up to.

This is my girlfriend’s cabinet before:

It is her tea/beverage/baking/spices cabinet.  Keep in mind she has a very small kitchen with limited cabinet space so she really needed to make the most of every inch possible.

We started by taking absolutely everything out of the cabinet.   When we could see everything in front of us it was quick and easy to sort “like with like” and when I say that I mean all the tea together, all the spices together and all the baking supplies together.  We needed to get a feel for exactly what we were dealing with.   It was during this process that I found the basket gone bad way back there in the corner.

Those are just my friend’s overstock spices.  To save money she buys the bags of spices and refills her jars as needed.  In other words she doesn’t use these bags regularly and yet there they were taking up prime real estate on the first shelf.  We went through and consolidated any duplicates but for the most part she just has a lot of spices….and she uses them all…I totally grilled her on it :)  So considering that, I suggested we move up to a bigger container so she would no longer have spices spilling out everywhere.  My other suggestion was to relocate the extra spices to a higher shelf and just leave the jars of spices that she does use regularly on the bottom shelf.  

Next we worked with all the tea boxes.  Boxes take up a lot of additional space so we got rid of the boxes and combined all the packaged tea bags into a shallow container.   Now when she wants to find a tea to drink she only needs to pull out the one container to look through (this is very similar to my tea station).  As my girlfriend drinks quite a bit of tea throughout the day it made sense to create her a beverage station, where it was easily accessible, on the bottom shelf on the left hand side.

I then added a wire shelf on the middle shelf to give us some much needed “extra” space.  I love these wire racks.  They just make so much sense in kitchen cabinets.  You can literally double your storage space.  I use them in my own kitchen cupboard for my dishes.

My girlfriend had all the small baking type stuff (food coloring, sprinkles, muffin liners, icing tubes, extracts, etc) scattered throughout the three shelves.  We corralled all of these things into one basket to make it totally efficient for her to just pull out the basket when she’s baking and have everything right there at her fingertips.  So great!

As a reminder here is what it looked like before:

And here is what her cabinet looked like when we were finished:

All of the baskets I used were just the inexpensive dollar store variety.   I love how many shapes and sizes they come in making them super versatile for a project such as this.

So there you have it, a wonderfully fun way to spend a Saturday night :) 

Don’t forget I’ll be putting up Mr. Linky, for Org Junkie’s Monthly Round-Up ~ Filing Cabinet Edition, tomorrow.  Are you ready with your before and after pictures?

Related posts:

Organizing kitchen cabinets in only a couple of hours

Dealing with corner kitchen cabinets

Kitchen Cupboard Organization ~ Part Two is a post from: I'm an Organizing Junkie