I'm a spontaneous person. I like to go as the spirit moves me. One of my favorite things in summer is calling friends on the fly and heading out for casual picnic and a sunset view. In my trunk, I keep my Table in a Bag...a stow and go picnic table that is only 6" in diameter when stored and sets up in seconds with no tools. I hit the prepared foods center of my local market, grab a few cold beverages and enjoy the no-fuss evening catching up and maybe playing a little Scrabble. At the end of warm weather, my table stores in my closet taking up no room at all..ready for the next season of warm evening get-togethers. I wish you a summer filled with impulsive gatherings with friends that make you laugh like mine do.

Are you ready?

Fall is just around the corner and already our phone has started to ring with closet emergencies as teachers gear up to go back to school. I've seen this pattern every year. As the evenings grow shorter, it dawns upon us that summer is almost over. We need to get ready for the busy fall season. After Labor Day our schedules are insane and in just a few weeks, shorts and tees will be replaced with blazers and slacks. Don't you want to revolutionize the way you get dressed? 

Storage Designer Certification

After years of discussion and months of preparation, the certification of designers of storage systems is about to be a reality. You can't imagine the complexity of bringing this to fruition. So many decisions needed to be made to create an exam, a method of administering the exam, scoring, and licensing. Certification achieves several goals. It has become imperative to give the consumer a barometer for gauging the skill of the designer they hire. Certified designers will have credentials they can carry from employer to employer and a career, not just a job. With three levels of certification, employers know what skill level a job candidate has. For that matter, for the first time, the industry will be creating an identifiable labor pool. The industry has become so much more complex in the last 10 years. At one time, laying out a simple closet did not demand a broad backround. However, this is no longer true. Designers need to be versed in cabinetry moldings, lighting, body mechanics and spatial concepts. A little life experience doesn't hurt either. Designer certification is launching at the Closet Expo taking place in Charlotte, NC on February 23rd.

January is National Organizing Month

There seems to be a real uptick in organizing early this year. It doesn't seem to matter that it's cold and snowy outside. We have been swamped with calls for remodeling projects; pantries, home office and master bedroom. The store has been exceptionally busy with small do-it-yourself projects too like jewelry drawer and kitchen organizers. Perhaps cabin fever is making people crave an uncluttered home? We're sort of feeling like that ourselves. New displays are being installed this week and the main showroom is being overhauled. Nothing beats changing everything up and looking fresh and new. I highly recommend it!

Timely Tips for 2011

I love the beginning of the year. Now, don’t think me geeky but on January 1st, while many are recovering from carousing, I am organizing my calendar, switching files around and strategizing on how I can make the New Year better than the last one. Often, being organized is just about setting up the right systems that can be repeated. If I can save you just 6 minutes a day, you will have accumulated almost 40 hours to call your own by the end of the year. Here are my best tips to help you accomplish that:

1. What is your single biggest aggravation? Hate grocery shopping, bill paying or cleaning the bathroom? (Don’t tell us all of the above!) When there is a task you hate hanging over your head it impedes your ability to get anything else done, as you busy yourself with other nonsense in an attempt to avoid it. Worse yet, you do nothing while waiting to get in the mood to knock this job off. Solution? Assign it to someone else. Maybe you can trade one of their tasks for the one that eats at you. Let someone else do your grocery shopping from a list or pay your bills. Hire a cleaning person just to do the bathrooms if that’s what it takes. Your energy for the other jobs in your life will rise once the onerous task is removed from your list.

2. Don’t think you have to be Martha Stewart or Betty Crocker perfect. An orderly house is desirable but if you have 4 kids and a job, maybe something has to give. Make it easy for your kids to be neat. Children don’t like anything that takes more than one action to complete. Provide easy systems for them to use. For example, arguing about them hanging their coats in a closet is pointless. Put up hooks they can access easily and a basket they can toss hats and gloves into. Make that hook a double prong so they can hang up their backpack too.

3. Decide how much time each week you can devote to cleaning. For most of us, it’s not realistic to think that a whole day can be dedicated so break it up into hour long chunks and create a schedule. After all, you usually accomplish things that are scheduled. No reason why you can’t dust the family room while you are watching an hour of HGTV. Better yet, make a game of it for your kids. Hide nickels or dimes around the room and have them hunt for them while they are cleaning. You can get them into a lot of corners with this plan.

4. Run errands on a route. This may seem like Organizing 101 but it’s still worth mentioning. I rarely leave the house to complete one task. I leave this up to the guys. According to Marti Barletta, expert on marketing to women, men set their sights on one task at time. Send him for milk and that’s just what he’ll get. Send a woman for milk and on the way she’ll drop off the dry cleaning, return the pop bottles and stop at the post office. If you send your guy on an errand, give him a route. Keep track of those errands right at the back door with a message center.

5. Are you always looking for your keys or sifting through a mail pile. Why? What a waste of time. Spot these trouble spots during your day and create a place for everything- a real go-to spot. Key racks make total sense as do mail cubbies.

6. I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about your kitchen junk drawer. Every kitchen has one. It’s another time waster. Why do you stand there sifting through it all when an inexpensive drawer organizer will reduce that to seconds?

7. You need our stair-step basket. Seriously. Load it up during your day and take everything upstairs in one run. Don’t even think about it. Just buy it. You won’t have a moment’s regret.

8. Set aside 1 hour the next time you are in a gift card store and buy your occasion cards for the year at one time. Honestly, you know your son’s birthday is coming up. It makes no difference that it’s in June. How many times have you stopped on your way to a wedding to pick up a card? Why, why, why? While you are in the store, also pick up a couple of sympathy, get well and blank cards for the events you don’t foresee. Once home, store them in a monthly dated binder or organizer specifically for cards so you can find them quickly. Ah….done.

9. Don’t put off until tomorrow something you can get done today. That needs no more description in my estimation. Procrastination is the biggest time waster of all.

10. On-line banking. I started this kicking and screaming but holy smoke, this is the biggest time saver of all time. You can even set up regularly monthly payments in advance if you like. I still like to decide when to pay things but it’s priceless to hit a button and have the payment go without having to address an envelope or get a stamp.

Now go, be organized and use that saved time to your advantage!

Happy New Year!

What were they thinking?

I prepared three estimates this week for properties worth over a million dollars with the worst closets ever. Small, angular and the cheapest material for closet rods on the planet. I am at a loss for words as to why a contractor would offer this and why the home owner would accept it. Can I fix it? Sure. Should I have to? No. Many builders do not place value on what happens in the closet. It's a small ticket relative to the overall cost of the house. I once was told that the closets are only important to me. Wrong. For many men, it's low on the totem pole of wants to begin with. The reality, however, is that often a woman picks the house and women LOVE closet systems. My advice to you the builder, woo your customer by offering a closet she just can't resist. My advice to you the home buyer, read the fine print and negotiate up front for a closet that suits your needs and suits the house.You have a lot of leverage before you sign the contract so tell them you want the closet of your dreams so you won't be facing a nightmare.

Oh, if the back hall was really just for hats and gloves and jackets. While there is plenty of that, we can’t overlook the shoes, backpacks, camera equipment and dog leashes that we have there as well. How can we keep all of that from over-taking our lives?


1) Be judicious about paring down the gear between seasons. No need to look at your heaviest down jacket in May or your sandals in January. Keep off season garments in the basement or attic in a garment bag to avoid dust.

2) Depending on your space and personal style, there are several methods to contain shoes. Large baskets that you toss everything into are an easy fix but may not suit those who are more finicky. Shoe shelves project out 12” regardless of whether they are angled or straight. Allow 11” per pair of men’s shoes and 9” per pair of ladies shoes on a shelf. See tip #1 regarding paring down off - season shoes.

3) Hooks are obvious for backpacks but be sure they can hold the weight by installing them into studs or pre-mounting them on a board. Always choose a double hook so a jacket can hang over the backpack.

4) Locker systems are excellent long term organizers and shouldn’t be overlooked if space allows.Typically 12-16” deep for jackets and up to 24” deep with bench seating, a good custom closet company can build this for you. Find a professional at http://www.closets.org/.
When building a locker system, take advantage of your ceiling height by putting in cabinets above your head for items like camera equipment and picnic items. Lockers aren’t just for kids stuff either. They make a great landing place for mail, your purse, keys and all the other items that seem to collect at the back door.

5) A pleasant off-shoot of the locker system is the creation of an environment of accountability. It’s their space so they need to keep up with it. Loose items that are found around the house can be placed in the lockers where the kids can find it. It will help Mom with picking up every day.

6) If you have no room for lockers, then divide your wall into “lockers” by mounting a line of hooks for each member of the family. Add a shallow wall-mount basket above each row of hooks for hats and gloves. Make sure the hooks are high enough to allow something as long as snow pants to hang. Don’t worry about hanging all the hooks at the same height. Adult hooks can hang higher. The alternating heights will add visual interest.

7) Consider color coding your hook areas. A graphic that uses shapes and colors to identify zones adds visual interest.

8) Consider a mail center for the family. A mail center will turn the chaos called everyday mail into a manageable task. No more piles on the kitchen counter.
9) Consider converting an area in your basement to a coat room. Good lighting and flooring will make the space feel more inviting. Include a bench for putting boots on.
10) Consider lining the wall with a slatwall system or peg board. You can hang any array of hooks and baskets to take advantage of the entire wall. Because this items are adjustable, you can move all the hooks and baskets as your family grows. Slatwall systems have a wide array of accessory items that will organize everything that you own.

It's prime time to organize

While scheduling an appointment yesterday a customer mentioned that she was already changing her purses over from summer to winter. The flip of the calendar drove her to start her wardrobe changeover despite the fact that it was 89 degrees out. This is why we get so busy though. The mentality is that after Labor Day, white is out, black is back. So, over the next threee days, will most of us spend some time hanging and folding as we switch things over or is she just a little ahead of herself? When do you switch your wardrobe over from summer to winter? Inquiring minds want to know!

Every once in a while we get a customer who simply has more stuff than they have room for. It's always a challenge to help them find a solution that suits all their needs. The fact of the matter is, we don't make the final decision, the customer does. While we are designers and fabricators, we are also facilitators assisting our customers with the emotion of deciding what to keep and how to make it fit. We can only suggest. The final decision is their's. Today we assisted a customer with far too many shoes and far too little space. She had to make a choice between hanging space, shoe space and drawer towers. It wasn't easy but we found a compromise and because it was ultimately her choice, she can make the changes that will allow it to suit her for many years to come.

What to do when you have no closet

So often our customers need additional closet space in a small bedroom or attic. Building out a closet can be upwards of $1500 and then you still need an organizer to maximize the space. Why not build a wall unit? Behind the doors, short hanging, shoe shelves and long hanging abound. Deep drawers often are divided for socks and underwear, t-shirts or jewelry. Units can be relocated if you move making this investment, priceless.