Professional Organizer | Clearing Clutter | Motivational Speaker | Salt Lake City, Utah

Today is Friday which means product review that can help organize clutter. I am taking a look at something we all have in our homes but don’t necessarily think of as a product—a simple suitcase.

This item can work wonders to organize clutter. The suitcase in this photo is being used for cards. (I am not sure why this sack was also tossed in here). This is from the studio of “Women Who Create” magazine.

Organize clutter by storing items in a suitcase you don’t use but can’t get rid of it. This is a vintage suitcase without wheels. If you have a suitcase without wheels you will never use it when you go on the road or in the air—trust me, you won’t. This is a great product to use for storage. Be sure to label on the outside what you are storing.

How do you use old suitcases you have?

BEFORE

I seriously sometimes wonder what on earth is wrong with me. This is a photo of one of my office armoires where I keep supplies—and let’s face it—stuff. When I looked inside I thought “I need to organize this clutter, but it’s really not so bad”. I didn’t realize just how really bad it was until I took a before and after photo. YIKES What did I mean “It’s not so bad”!

I had articles I had saved to read. I never in a zillion years would have looked in here for an article—I keep those in my file drawer under Reading. I had out of date things that I got rid of that freed up space for other stuff—stuff already in here.

AFTER

I was given a book on CD (Zorro). Again, I would never think to look for it here. Everything that didn’t belong I took out and put where they did belong or I recycled things I didn’t want. I also labeled (yes labeled) the magazine holders. I love to label, I “preach” label—so why weren’t mine labeled? Your guess is as good as mine.

I am so happy with the After result. It was easy to organize clutter and it will be sooo easy to keep it organized with things labeled and living in their homes.

What have you labeled lately? Do you need to organize clutter in your office?

Will I have withdrawals when winter sets in and there are no garage sales? We went to four sales Saturday and purchased a few things at two of them. Look at this picture. This is what I bought for a dollar. When I first picked up the sack I thought it was clothespin dolls a child had been playing with. As I went to touch one of the “dolls” I was stuck by a straight pin and I was soon bleeding. (ouch)

The woman explained this was her attempt to organize her ribbons. She said she was trying to organize clutter and she thought this was a good way to organize her ribbon…and that it was a dumb idea.

Certainly when we organize clutter it shouldn’t hurt and it especially shouldn’t be a dumb idea. (Although we have all had our share of dumb ideas haven’t we?) When you  organize clutter and you can see it isn’t working for you even though it sounded like a good idea in the beginning …. Stop before you go on and take a look at what isn’t working.

Organizing clutter should meet your needs and the needs of your family. Before trying out an idea think about it in terms of your needs.

Have you had a dumb idea you have tried and when it didn’t work didn’t change ?

Is one lid better than another on storage containers? This was a question I was asked when I was speaking to a woman’s group last week. Good question.

There are so many different containers and they each have different lids. This can be a bit confusing. It really depends on what the purpose of the container is to be used for what type of lid you’ll want.

If you are using it to organize clutter and it will be something you get into frequently you may want a lid that stays on the container and just opens up. This one is used for medicine and the other one for shoe polishes. Both are labeled.

If you are using it to organize clutter that you won’t look in very often a container that has a lid with latches on the end will keep the lid firmly attached. You do have to have access to both ends to take this type of lid off. A disadvantage is that when it is stacked you can’t just take a peek inside.

If you are using it to organize clutter that you only look in once in a blue moon. (Do you know there is such a thing as a blue moon? It is when there is a full moon twice in one month—pretty cool huh?) Anyway, a container that has a lid that snaps on all the way around will stay tightly closed and you can still pry up the lid to see what is inside.

My favorite is the lid that is convex—pokes up away from the container so I can get more in it. Do you have a favorite container lid you look for when you’re shopping for containers?