Spring Cleaning: Reorganizing the Knickknacks You Can't Dispose Of

Banishing clutter is one of the best ways to bring a clear perspective to a cramped space. Let’s face it, becoming a prisoner to too much stuff is extremely overwhelming and clearing out a closet, basement, garage, desk, or pantry can be a daunting task.

Nevertheless, throwing out unnecessary items and reorganizing our necessities is all part of the spring cleaning tradition. Here are some tips so as to not go crazy in the clutter!

•  Think vertically: don’t forget to use all of the space you have on your ceiling and up your walls. By installing shelves or hanging rods from the ceiling to hold larger items, you create more space. Picking up your items off the floor and storing them vertically so that they are easily accessible, is the best way to give yourself more room. 
• Storage boxes: don’t think of these as just another item you are adding to the pile. Instead of throwing items that you don’t use on a daily basis in a closet or stuffing it in a drawer, simply put them in neat, stackable storage boxes with labels on them. This is a quick and easy way to give everything a specific place that looks neater than a pile of “junk”. Even a small investment like a spice rack will help organize all of the bottles in your pantry, making it easier to find what you need when you need it. 
•  Storage furniture: While plastic containers are great for storing things in closets, basements, and pantries--storage is also needed around living space as well. Invest in furniture pieces that double as storage to get more bang for your buck, such as comfortable benches that are hollow inside, beds with drawers underneath, storage cubbies that fit onto shelves,  and large decorative trunks. Functionality does not have to boring, there are beautiful pieces of furniture that can make your life easier. 
• Color coordinate: When it comes to clothes, it is easy to find what you want when you know what you are looking for. While separating fashions by season makes a significant amount of sense, it is also important to create blocks of color within those clothes. Color blocks allow your eye to focus on what you are looking for, what you want, and how to coordinate it. 
• Think outside of the box: So you bought a desk organizer, but wound up throwing out all those out-of-ink pens and broken paper clips. Do not return it because just because the label reads "organizes desk supplies" doesn't mean it can not organize something else! Stores trap customers into buying "specially crafted organizers" for specific items, but the truth is that any container with multiple holders can be used to store or organize anything. Fill that desk organizer with hair ties, Q-tips, cotton balls, and combs and place it in your bathroom drawer. Or use it to coordinate all of your make-up. If you don't wear makeup, use it to separate screws, nails, nuts and bolts and keep it in the garage. Spice racks with individual bottles are great for storing different hardware as well! You can also use spice rack bottles to organize arts and crafts paraphenalia such as various glitter and pom-poms, or use it to store your various baking needs such as different types of sprinkles and colorized sugars.

The organizational possibilities are endless! The hard part is motivating yourself to spend your free time rearranging and reorganizing your home, but believe me the relief and pride you feel after clearing and cleaning your work, living, or storage space is hard to beat!