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Experts help readers cull their belongings
By Debra D. Bass
POST-DISPATCH HOME EDITOR 01/28/2006
As part of our New Year's resolution to make your homes and home life more enjoyable, we asked readers to submit photos of their messiest rooms. And we commend you for not being shy about giving us a peek behind doors that are normally closed when company comes over.
Four of our local professional organizers waded through the submissions and picked some of the worst for a makeover. After all, the National Association of Professional Organizers designated January as Get Organized Month. But the challenge of getting a space cleaned up is exceeded only by the challenge of keeping the space clean in the long run.
So along the road to cleaning up with some local families, our organizers shared vital tips on staying organized.
We'll give you insights into three of the projects here - a laundry room, a 16-year-old's bedroom and a multipurpose guest room.
BEFORE
The Mess: A guest room, left, that also serves as an office for writing projects and making jewelry.
Submitted by: Ivy Tominack of St. Louis
Organizer: Cathy Sexton, shown at left, CSBS LLC-Business Solutions, 636-717-6588, www.cs-bs.com
Solution: The first task was to rearrange the furniture to make the room more efficient. Tominack's jewelry-making desk was side-by-side with the computer and writing desk, which meant that items spilled from one area to the next. (Tominack's newly organized room is shown below.)
Because the room is used for at least four things, Sexton wanted to make those tasks easier. Sexton moved the jewelry-making station to the opposite wall. A bookcase was placed next to the computer desk, where it is more useful than in its previous location next to the door. Tominack agreed to move the bed so that you can now walk on either side of it, and the cleanup crew relocated the dresser to a spot near the door. Sexton invested in bead containers, project pads and pliers holders from Lady Bug Beads, 7616 Big Bend Boulevard, and hanging file folders, floor storage containers, bead project containers, and desk items from various office-supply stores. Tominack had been using ceramic bowls, fishing tackle boxes, paper plates and cups and plastic bags to separate her jewelry-making items, most of which were crammed into shopping bags that hadn't been sorted in years.
AFTER
Total cleanup time: 6 hours
Stay-clean advice: Now that everything has a place, there's no anxiety about where to put it. Develop a routine at the end of every work session that includes a few minutes of cleaning up so that each time you go to your space, it's clean and enjoyable. Make cleaning up a part of the process, not an unpleasant afterthought.
Sexton's usual fee: Free half-hour consultation, if the clients fill out her productivity scorecard to rate themselves in 10 areas - for example, whether they can find things, have enough space and have organizational concerns. Her hourly rate is $85. She specializes in office organization, productivity training and paper-management solutions for home-based, small and medium-sized companies. She has co-authored a new book, "Focus: Organization Productivity - Ideas for Improving Success in the Work Place," scheduled for release in mid-Feb.
Focus. Organization. Productivity.
Ideas for Success in the Work Place
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