Today lets discuss how to organize your pantry. Are  you constantly frustrated as you start to cook, you open your pantry door and everything is so scattered that your excitement for cooking is now lost in the mess.

This pantry is reasonably tidy, maybe more so than yours might be. They have used several baskets and even some bowls to gather like items.  Most pantries first drawbacks is the depth. We love all the space, but just a shelf that is say 24-30″ deep is an invitation to load me up and never see me again, unless the item is in the front row.

As I look at this pantry, I can’t see many of the items, the added shelf in the back helps for visibility, but it is a space waster, see all the areas with no food? that space can be better utilized.

Look at this great pantry from The Closet Butler:

As we look at this great photo what makes you love this space? Pantry shelves are ideally 18″ deep. This way all is visible and it limits what can physically load onto the shelf, that alone helps us to be better organized. Never fear you will get as much on the shelf as before and you will be able to quickly pull what is needed for that special dinner.

The side shelf can be only 14-16″ deep enabling you to store cans all tidy in a row. The smaller boxes liked crackers and cereal will love their nicely spaced rows. The really great feature is the ability to change the shelf  heights according to your boxes. Don’t you love the idea of baskets to further organize?

We’d love to help you today. Call The Closet Butler (801-201-1208) today to set up an in home consultation to make your pantry organization a reality.

This blog will cover those of you that tend to fold more, than hang in your closets. For you nothing looks better than neat, tidy  piles in stacks and rows. This may be a real problem  for you if you have a regular reach in closet. You have tried to compromise with all kinds of nifty solutions, hanging cloth shelves, cheap plastic shelf/drawer units and such. Lets discuss what makes for a great folder style closet, like the one pictured above.

If  folding is your  thing, you will need as many shelves as you can possibly squeeze into your closet space. You will also still need a little bit of hanging space, as some items just store better on a hanger.

Working with the above statement, shelves are optimal at either 12 or 14″ deep. The depth determines whether your items will stay in that tidy stack. Too deep of shelving and you will end up with one more place to dust, and who wants any more to dust? You really don’t want a lot of wasted space in front or behind of shelves.

The width can be determined by evaluating your clothing, a good mix of 12,14 and 18″ wide should work out nicely for thin t-shirts, to bulky sweats and sweater. 

Grouping of like items will be able to occur in areas with more shelves, such as all your jeans with jeans,or  exercise clothing,  close  for the fast grab.  

 Place items that are used the very most at eye level and in the center of the closet opening. This will make dressing a quick and effortless project. As you are stacking don’t stack much higher than 12″ and be sure to leave about 6″ of head space to facilitate easy reach in and out.

Shelves are also a great way to utilize baskets, you can easily put small items in varying sizes of baskets to keep contained. In kids rooms this is a huge help, as baskets can be labeled either with a picture or words to identify what is inside. Get the kids to draw the items and tape onto the baskets, they will love helping to organize and thus use the system more as they were a part in the design of their space.

Neatly folded clothes mean more stable stacks and less wrinkling. Folding boards, like you see at department stores and the big box stores are now available at many retail outlets or on the internet, try caldrea.com.

How can The Closet Butler help you achive a folder friendly closet? We can get rid of all that crazy hanging space and change it into neat, tidy shelves. These shelves can be tailor designed to the best use of your space and the best configuration for your clothing. We will look at what you are presently doing and make it work in your closet. If you have clothes strung out in several places, installing shelves in the closet will get everything back together in one place. Give us a call to help make that wasted closet look like the picture above, could this be your dream closet?

Want the keys to smoother, faster mornings and smarter clothes spending? The key is in the closet, if you organize it well, you’ll be able to see the clothes you have, store them less crowded and properly for longer wear, plus you can store more clothes in less space.

When we organize our spaces, it can be a huge money saver, you will see that you own 5 white blouses, thus you can pass up that new one, that you may think you really need. You will remeber when you are shopping what you already have neatly hanging at home. 

If your closet has just a single rod, this is the first place that The Closet  Butler will save the day. Most builders put in a single rod, for the ease and espescially the low cost. If you are lucky your builder could have installed two rods which is a help, but…..bless the builders hearts they aren’t trained in closet 101, so they end up putting the rods at all the wrong heights, thus you still have an unorganized mess.

We come into your home and evaluate with you what type of  closet personality you are, for instance do you hang everything, or are you more of a folder. We take all that into consideration and then tailor style a closet for you.

If you tend to hang the majority of your clothing, we can put in rods that are at the correct heigth to max out the closet, you will get two rods on top of each other, with a shelf seperating them. The shelf makes it so that you won’t hang, hangers into the hems of your upper rack, it also doubles as a bit of extra storage for folded items or shoes. The other real bonus is the hems won’t drag on the floor, you  can easily vacuum under the hanging items.lFor the long hang, dresses,skirts ect. the rod will be at a easy to reach heigth and you get a bonus shelf over the rod, it is a great place to store purses.

With the two rod system in place you can organize garments by category, such as all long sleeve together, 3/4 sleeve and short sleeve next.  I also hang like colors together, which makes dressing that much quicker. If you have the room you could also group by dressy and casual.

You can also purchase hangers that extend the space, such as hangers that hang more than one item. Skirt hangers are available that hang up to six skirts, what a bonus.

As you can see, the closet is the key. Let us clue you in on more space for the dollar. It will be a very wise place to spend that hard earned money.

Stay in touch and the next blog will address more ideas if you are a folder at heart.

Let Closet Butler change out a rarely used closet,  into a highly organized mini office.

This is a unused corner that has been optimized into a fabulous useable area. Note all the features: a paper hopper for all those fast notes that need writing, or a quick Birthday Card to be attached as you run out the door to the party. Here everything  has a place with drawers that hide the clutter, like tape and pens ect.

Imagine this one organized wall area in a closet, it could help you control that out of control part of the paper mess that is constantly in our lives. The paper hopper could instead, be used as a bill center, with an easy label on each shelf  instead of the file folders we discussed prior.   Each member of the household can also have a labeled shelf, no more looking  for that Scout permission slip, it will be a fingertip away in the correct shelf.

Let us design a quick solution to your paper clutter, in that small unused area of your home.

Try this handy solution to manage mail and paper coming into your home.

The next time you are in a variety store, visit the office area to look for a small to midsize file box, that is attractive and will easily fit in a central location in your kitchen or home office area. Also  purchase 10-12 file folders. Find a fun color or cool design that will help to motivate you to stay on top the paper overload.

Take a minute and jot down the common papers that come into your house ie. Bills, Grocery ads, Eating out ads and coupons,  ect. Now create a file for each item on your list, include a file  for each family member. Insert the files into your file box and place in that area you’ve previously designated.

When the papers come into the house, use the one touch rule and file or throw it out…. You will be on your way to no more paper piles.

Last week I gave you the tip on hangers, hopefully you have found a minute to start this project.  If you can see that you will still have to many clothes for the space, contact us to come out to your home for a free consultation. Most builders go cheap and install a simple rod and shelf. If your home is older that is all that was available when the home was new. Closets are such a wasted space, usually you have at least 8 foot ceilings, this will allow us to come in and customize the area by installing double hang, this means one rod at 7 feet and the other rod at 3 1/2 feet. Presto, now you can hang twice as much in the same area.

To many papers and no place to go? Here is a simple way to help stop this dilemma.

Does this scene look familiar to you? This is my kitchen counter top – not really, but it sure seems like it at times.

My friend gave me this tip many years ago. She is a busy mom and a full time executive with a medical company. You only touch a paper once!!!! When the junk mail comes into the house if you don’t have time right then, set it aside in a tidy pile. When you are  on the phone or just have a minute in between projects, go to the pile and resolve to only touch it once, it will either go in to a file (which we will discuss in the future) or the best file of all, the garbage. If you condition yourself to only touch paper once, it is so liberating. Try this tip so the above picture will not be you.

Crowded closets? Too many clothes? Here’s an easy closet organization tip to solve that problem:

This is a great project for season changes, especially for spring cleaning.  In a few minutes you can start a process that will transform both your crowded closet and change up what you are wearing.

Simply, take all your spring/summer clothes and reverse your hangers, instead of hanging them on the rod frontwards, hang them opposite of the way you normally hang. As you wear the item rehang it in the normal way, at the end of the season – or a set time period – if the hanger hasn’t been turned you can seriously think about whether to keep this item or send it down the road, via Desert Industries or Goodwill. This is a good way to weed out the clothes that are bulking up your closet.

How’s your spring cleaning coming?

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