Step It Up

One of the reasons I got slowed down doing the cabinets was that I was trying to do a bit of organizing along the way. With the mother gone, it was the perfect time to rotate some things downstairs and to get rid of others entirely.

I bought a bunch of organizer shelves, slide drawers and other products and brought them home for a trial run. Because the mother loves to put knick knacks in the already full cabinets, too, I was intrigued by this three-tier, stairstep expandable shelf organizer which seemed like it would be ideal for the spice cabinet. (I got it at Lowe’s for about $1 more than this online price.)

This thing really comes in handy. I never got around to organizing the spice cabinet while the mother was gone though I had bought this handy new shelf, a nice but smaller stainless tiered spice shelf and two new stainless round spinner shelves to replace a set of aged plastic ones in oh so lovely harvest gold.

What I did get around to organizing was the under-the-sink cabinet.

On a whim, I tried the expandable shelf there and man, did it work great! The shelf will expand to 26 inches, so it was a great choice for the 23-inch deep cabinet. I was able to arrange, by category, a variety of cleaning products. And the beauty is, I can not only see all of them, I don’t have to move five or six to get to any one of them.

Look how much stuff it holds. You can see each little step if you look closely.

It really opened up a little space together with a set of stacking shelves that I put along the other side of the cabinet. The mother didn’t even balk.

Over the weekend, I bought another of the expandable shelves to replace the one I’d used elsewhere. On Monday, the mother decided to do the spice cabinet.

I quickly put the shelf in place where I’d intended it to go. While you can’t see the shelf, you can see that it is multi-level. From the right side, it's easy to see three graduated rows of items.

Can you believe that this is after some stuff had already been taken out by me and the mother even removed a few more things Monday? Clearing up some of that space made the other two shelves completely functional. (I’m loving the new stainless spinners. Aren't they fun?) On the bottom shelf is the three-level spice rack. The mother doesn't like this, but she's dealing with it. She says it takes up too much space.

So, if you have a lot of items to store, even in a relatively tight space, this is a product that can do it while still giving you the functionality that you need.

Other than online, Lowe's was the only store I found this shelf at. I think I paid $15 for each of them. They are worth every penny.

Trashin’ Regular Storage Containers

Here’s a mistake I will never repeat if I am lucky enough to ever go house-hunting again: remember to evaluate storage space.

How many closets are there? How big are they? Are there places to accommodate additional storage or where more closets could be built such as an attic or basement? What about outside? Is there a garage, shed, or both?

But that’s only the first part of the evaluation process. The second is to visualize all of the areas that you currently have for storage. How do the ones in the home you’re looking at measure up?

Are you sure?

It may sound like a bunch of elementary questions but I know firsthand that it’s too easy to get caught up in looking at room sizes and features and location issues to have something as mundane and simple as a closet blow right on past you. And the loss of even a single storage space can make more of a difference than you think. So, while you're comparing square footage info, make sure you factor in how much of this is storage space -- or could be.

At This D*mn House, there are three closets upstairs. However, most people have kitchen cabinets larger than any one of the three! So, we rely a lot on the basement and the storage shed to hold things. That’s why around this time last year, Lawrence and I built a closet in the family room. The mother managed to fill it with (mostly) her clothes over a weekend and I get to keep my scrapbooking stuff in a small corner. We have another walk-in closet in the laundry room and that brings me to something we do where you have room to stack but want to spare some floor space.

(Not that we have any floor space in there, but only because we’ve been adding those long, clear, horizontal storage boxes and some of what I call the “coffin-sized” blue plastic ones in recent years. These hold seasonal decorations, off-season clothing, and old curtains and rugs.)

We use a combination of trash cans, too, many of which look like these. I line them with bags and then fill them. Once full, I put another trash bag (folded) over the top and stuff it down over the sides before putting the lid in place. It seems to keep things in pretty good shape. The square-shaped ones are great. They hold a lot and, if you have the ceiling height, let you set a round one safely on top of it.

What’s fun is you can even color-code these. Green for Christmas. Orange for fall or Halloween. Black for clothing. And you thought they were just for trash!

DE-Stuff: The Epilogue

I came home, ate dinner, and with much trepidation, opened the linen closet.

I emptied the first shelf. I looked down at the stack of linens that needed to go in. I looked up at the stack of stuff that was already there, even with one open shelf.

And I closed the door and walked away.

Feeling Closed In? DE-Stuff Your Life

You have to move this stuff, to get to that stuff. And you have to move that stuff, in order to get to the stuff that you're really after. Sound familiar?

Welcome to life at This D*mn House. After all, as George Carlin so eloquently puts it, your house is just a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get more stuff.

In fairness to us, this house is incredibly light on closet space. That becomes abundantly clear to me as I prepare to clean out the linen closet. "Closet" is probably too strong a word to describe this limited storage area that is likely smaller than the broom closet most people have in their kitchens. The already cramped space becomes even more limited when my mother starts throwing random things in it. Boxes of duster refills. The new bath mat. Heating pads. All that takes away from space to put in what needs to go there, namely sheets and towels.

Where did we ever get all this stuff?

And that reminds me of something I saw on Time.com last week: "How to Live With Just 100 Things." The article was about Dave Bruno, an online entrepreneur, and the "100 Thing Challenge" he created last summer. He has vowed that by the time he turns 37 in November, he will have just 100 personal possessions. Sounds like a lot, doesn't it?

Do some mental inventory. Do physical inventory and I guarantee you'll be stunned by how quickly you hit 100.

He's down to one pen. (To me, that's outright blasphemy, even if it is a really nice pen. Unless I could count my pens collectively as one item, I'd be done already.) And he got rid of his iPod. Huh?! That would be one of the 100 things I'd stand firm on. Take the cell phone. Leave the iPod. But I digress.

I think our problem is a combination of too much stuff and not enough space. I can't do much about the latter. I can't do all that much about the former either, but I'm willing to give it a try. I'm going to start with this linen closet. It's out of control.

Then, as I need to make the switch from winter to summer clothing, I'm going to tackle my closet. I usually end up with a bagful to donate every year anyway. I was very harsh last year, relenting a bit with things that almost fit. This year, I'll be ruthless. At the risk of sounding like the late Johnnie Cochran: "If it doesn't fit, get rid of it."

But first, I've got to start with the Linen Closet From Hell. If you don't hear from me tomorrow, I may need assistance. Please send help.