14 November, 2011

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Little Space Big Storage

Many people are choosing to live in small apartments or homes to simplify their lives. Freedom from high mortgages and living costs is a major drive in deciding to live in a tiny space. In bigger cities, living in a small apartment not only cuts down on the cost of rent, but it can also significantly cut down on the cost of traveling to and from work. In many cases, people are able to eliminate the need for a vehicle all together.

Living in a small space can be very rewarding, but it also presents some challenges. Overcoming these challenges can help you to feel like you’ve “won the war” against big house living. Not only must you conquer organization, but you must also use your creative mind to figure out the best ways to live in a small space. Simplifying your life means eliminating useless or unnecessary items from your home and making the most of the space that you have. Many people report better health, less stress, and less spending because of their decision to live in a smaller home. When it comes to spending money, you’re forced to ask yourself “will it fit” instead of “can I afford it”. This change can free you from much of the commercialism and free spending that many people are plagued by.

One way to be successful in a small home is to only buy high quality, efficient products that hopefully serve more than one function. Investing a little in quality will save you from buying more products to replace the one that breaks or doesn’t function as you expected. For example, one set of built-in shelves will last you forever, taking up very little space, whereas multiple cheap plastic drawer systems take up space and break, resulting in the need to invest in the shelves after all.

Buying furniture and storage systems that have multiple functions is the best way to ensure that you avoid buying more later and make the best use of your space. A couch with a pull-out bed gives you a place for guests to sleep, without using precious storage space for inflatable mattresses. A chair whose arms open up to reveal storage for remotes, magazines, and your latest knitting project reduce the need for an end table or bulky magazine rack. A coffee table that opens up to store linens and throws can free up the small amount of closet space that you have. Using areas that aren’t traditionally used for storage will help you save space, too. You can use large, shallow containers for storing items underneath your bed, chairs, or couch.

In your closet, you want to make sure that you’re using as much of the space as possible. You can hang things up really high and use a hanger retriever to get them down. You can use space saving hangers, like velvet hangers, or cascading hangers to use a lot less space than you traditionally would to hang your clothes. Combining outfits or multiple items onto one hanger is an easy and economical way to save closet space.

About the Author: Rick Miller is on the staff of Only Slimline Hangers, a leading online resource for velvet hangers which are space saving hangers, non slip hangers and slim line hangers. For more information, please visit http://www.onlyslimlinehangers.com.

3 November, 2011

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DIY Bedroom Closets

If your closet is a cluttered mess, you need to come up with a plan for getting it organized. We have trouble organizing, a lot of times, because the space available to us may seem grossly inadequate. Overcoming the lack of space in your closet can seem like an impossible feat. However, there are some tricks for creating space that you may not have thought of before. Professional closet organizers and designers have spent years developing solutions for inadequate closet space. Here, we’ve assembled some of the best professional tips for making the closet work for you and your belongings. Use these ideas and you can create a closet that fits your personal needs, despite the small size.

1) Sometimes our closets become cluttered because we need to use them for storage, not just for clothes. Storage items can take up a lot of room, especially if the closet is small to begin with. You may have boxes that you never unpacked after you moved. You may need to store blankets, hide Christmas presents, store books, sports equipment, luggage, or any number of other items that are not only bulky, but seldom used. Try to get some of these things out of the closet and store them in creative places around your home. A storage chest can house blankets. A window seat may provide storage for books. Use risers to raise up your bed so that you can store clothes that are out of season. Get creative and try to narrow down the number of items that must be kept in the closet.

2) Go through all of your clothes and shoes that are left in the closet and rank the items that you own according to use. The things that you use the most should be kept near the front and center of the closet. Things that aren’t used as much can go a little further back, higher up, or lower down in your closet. Things that you don’t wear anymore should be eliminated. Most people are able to get rid of about half the clothes in their closet because they just don’t wear them anymore for one reason or another.

3) Separate your clothing into stacks of what needs to be folded and what will be hung. Determine how much shelf room each folded stack will take up and go from there. You may want to use baskets or hanging drawers for socks, underwear, accessories, and other small items. Shoes can be stacked in clear boxes up either side of your closet. Using special space saving hangers, like velvet hangers, can save you so much space. These hangers are flat, so they hang close together. They have movable clips for coordinating outfits or hanging things like shorts that don’t have anywhere else to go. You can also use cascading hooks to coordinate outfits and save around 50% of your precious space. The velvet coating keeps your clothes from slipping so your closet stays organized after you get it that way.

26 October, 2011

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Organizing Small Storage Areas

Small closets can be a disorganized mess. Inevitably you run out of room no matter how neat you try to keep them. There are some things that you can do to make the most of a small space while keeping it organized. We specialize in saving closet space, so we’ve compiled some tips for you that will help you turn a cram-packed nightmare of a closet into an organized dream. It may be small, but it can be organized!

1) Correcting wasted shelf space will help you to make space where you didn’t know you had it. Most shelves are too far apart, too deep, or simply aren’t there. Many things that go into the closet need to be separated. One giant shelf just doesn’t help you to do that. Adding shelves and shortening your hanging rod or rods can give you that extra space that you need for organizing. Shelf dividers are great for sectioning off the shelves to keep the space more orderly. Shelf risers help to raise up items that are far back so that you can see what you have and avoid digging and messing everything up.

2) Drawers are really useful in closets. You can add deep and wide drawers to the bottom of the closet for your sweaters, socks, linens, scarves and other items. A small dresser can be used if you move your hanging bar up higher. You can use small drawer systems on shelves for things like underwear, ties, jewelry, and other small things that you need to organize in your closet. Drawers that slide underneath your bed can help you to get some bulkier items or storage items out of the closet.

3) Hanging racks are also helpful. There are ones for shoes, hats, and accessories that hang over the door. There are also hat stackers, purse hangers, and other kinds of organizers that can hang from your bar. You can install a tie rack, belt rack, or scarf rack on an interior wall to save even more shelf and drawer space.

4) One of the easiest ways to save space is to use space saving hangers, like velvet hangers. These hangers have a flat design and a velvet coating to keep clothing in place and hanging very closely together. They also have attachments, like hooks and clips, to help you hang more than one item on each hanger. Clips are useful for coordinating pants and skirts with matching tops. Hooks go over the top of the hanger and make a place to hang another hanger. You can clip outfits together and then two or even three outfits can cascade down from one hanger, doubling or tripling the space in your closet.

18 October, 2011

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Make the Most of a Small Closet

Are you living with a tiny closet? A small closet can be especially frustrating in the winter months. You have larger shoes, pants instead of shorts, sweaters and coats instead of tanks and t-shirts. Everything can seem to grow when you get your winter clothes out of storage. Did you organize over the summer and now you’re finding out that you didn’t consider the larger winter clothes? Well, now is the perfect time to do it over and do it right. Getting your closet organized to match your larger, more bulky clothing will ensure that your summer clothes fit back in with ease at the end of the season. Even if your closet is super small, we can help you come up with a plan that lasts all year.

1) First, let’s talk about shoes. Winter boots are big and bulky. They can also lose their shape if they get crushed at the bottom of “shoe mountain” in your closet. You can use a low rack for your tennis shoes near the floor, but boots may cut into your hanging or shelving space. Use metallic clips to hang your boots from hooks up one side of the closet. Dress shoes can be kept in an over-the-door shoe storage organizer. Another option is to use a shallow container that slides or rolls under your bed. The shoes are easy to get to, but at the end of the cold season, they are already in storage for next year. Saves you space and makes your life a little easier.

2) Sweaters are also bulky items that will be coming in this time of year. You won’t necessarily want to hang your sweaters, because they could get stretched out at the shoulders. Sweaters should normally be folded or laid flat. You only need an 18”x18” shelf to store all of your winter sweaters. A milk crate or other cube shaped storage container is perfect for storing sweaters whether you have a shelf or not. We like ones with lids so that you can remove the lid for winter and then simply replace it and move the container back to the top shelf for summer storage.

3) Coats are by far the biggest problem in a small closet at this time of year. They can seem to take up every inch of space that you may have had to work with. You should start with your coats when hanging winter clothes so that you can see how much space you’ll have for your clothes. You may want to consider moving things up so that you can add a second hanging bar for your pants at the bottom. Then, coats can be hung properly on coat hangers so that they retain their shape. The rest of your clothing can be hung on space saving hangers, like velvet hangers, combination, or multi-garment hangers to save space.

7 October, 2011

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Small Apartment, Small Budget

Do you live in a small house or apartment? One of the biggest complaints of living in a small home is the lack of storage space. It can be impossible to stay organized or to keep you house clean if there’s nowhere to store all of your stuff. You can get rid of a lot of things, but there is always a need for storage. Use this guide to help you find sneaky and creative ways of creating storage in your home without breaking the bank.

1) Living Room: The living room is where you probably spend most of your time, and it’s also the room where family and friends will gather. You need to have space in your living room to entertain and also just to feel relaxed. When you’re surrounded by junk, it’s oppressive and can clutter your thoughts. Get rid of the clutter by storing items underneath the couch. You can purchase inexpensive couch risers that will allow you to slide shallow plastic containers underneath. You can store things here and they’ll be out of sight, especially if you use a slip cover that hangs down far enough to cover the secret storage.

2) Bathroom: Bathroom storage is always short, even in big homes. This isn’t necessarily because the space isn’t there, but mostly because the space isn’t used correctly. A normal bathroom vanity has two cabinets underneath, or one large space. There is plenty of square footage under there; it’s just wasted unless you have the right shelves or drawers to fill it up. We really like the wire racks that can be installed inside the vanity cabinets. Some of these will slide out to reveal two or three baskets that can be used for all of your shampoo bottles, bathroom cleaners, washcloths, and more. Other useful installations are drawers and shelves. Simple riser shelves that hold things up where you can see them behind the front row are useful. Wire shelves that are designed to fit in lockers are very inexpensive and lock together to form useful and adjustable shelving.

3) Closets: Your closets are most likely totally cramped and full, but there is actually usable space in there that many people don’t use. Look up high, in front of your hanging bar, and behind your hanging clothes. If there are a few inches (or even feet!) of space there, then you can rearrange to make better use of the space. Hanging bars can be moved back to make room for shelving on the front walls of the closet. That big shelf at the top could be higher and even wider, or it could extend from the ends to the front of the closet. Figure out how to make more room in there simply by moving things around. You can hang short items together and make room beneath. You can also use space saving hangers, like velvet hangers, to double or triple the closet space by cascading and coordinating outfits.

28 September, 2011

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Small Laundry Room Ideas

Do you have the tiniest laundry room you could imagine? Many homes are built with no laundry room, a tiny laundry area in the hallway behind accordion doors, or they simply have a washer and dryer hook-up in the garage. They really aren’t concerned with giving you much to work with, are they? Well, it is what it is, so you might as well learn to make the most of it. Here we’ve compiled some tips for giving your laundry area a makeover that will help you to stay organized and efficient.

1) Most laundry rooms have either nothing on the wall above the washer and dryer or one long skinny shelf. That shelf is only good for storing your iron and laundry detergent. It doesn’t help you with much else! If you think about it, there is actually a good amount of square footage on that wall. Making better use of the space should be your first priority. You can purchase cabinets at a hardware or home improvement store for very little money. Or, consider getting used cabinets and refinish them yourself. If you buy new, going for unfinished can save you money. Paint, stain, and varnish the cabinets yourself. Don’t forget about the side walls of the laundry area. Don’t limit yourself to the back wall! Put the cabinets up high to make more space beneath them. You can usually slide a little step ladder to the side of the washer or dryer if you need to get up there.

2) One of the most popular laundry room additions is that little rolling cart that fits neatly between your washer and dryer. These slim carts are great for holding your detergents, fabric softeners, stain removers, and ironing supplies. They are close at hand, easy to access, and free up storage space in your cabinets above. Another option is to build a wood platform around 12” high for your washer and dryer. Cover the platform with industrial rubber foam to quiet your washer and dryer. You can build drawers to go inside the platform, providing you with extra storage beneath.

3) Think about what you don’t like about your current laundry room. Do you have somewhere to toss lint? Do you have somewhere for change and other items found in pockets to go? Hang a little shelf or place a container in the cabinet for these things. You don’t want them to end up sitting on top of the dryer, creating more work for you later. Another great thing to do is to install an ironing board on the wall. It stays completely out of the way and is right there when you need it. Some people even keep a long board beside the washer and pull it out when they’re ready to fold clothes.

4) Another really helpful thing to have is a hanging bar. Hang a long one underneath your cabinets. Use special space saving hangers, like velvet hangers, to give yourself plenty of room to hang clothes for drying or storing until you can get them put away. Finger clips and cascading hooks make it easy to make room and transport clothes to their respective closets when you’re done.

19 September, 2011

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Apartment Living Made Easy

One of the biggest complaints we hear about apartments is concerning the lack of closet space available. You’re probably already living in a space that is too small for what you own, so a tiny closet can be very frustrating to the apartment dweller. If you’re feeling like your closet is more closely related to a middle school locker than a real closet, use these tips to make the most of a tiny space and get your life organized.

Tiny closets call for great efficiency. It can get out of hand in a hurry if you don’t have extra room. Start organizing from the bottom up. Consider a short dresser or an individual drawer. The type that is designed to go underneath a bed is extra wide and deep. These can be used on the floor for shoes, sheets, shirts, socks and underwear, whatever you need to keep down there.

You can place a shelf on top of this shallow drawer and use it like your new closet floor. Here you can put your shoes, laundry basket, sports equipment, whatever you can’t hang. You can also put a couple of shelves here and use cubby style containers to hold and organize all sorts of things. Baskets are great for organizing jewelry, socks, belts, underwear, and even things like your video camera, DVDs, video games and more. Keep things separated in different containers so that it’s easy to stay organized.

Now we move on to your hanging clothes. Don’t think that you have to keep your hanging bar exactly where it is. Many times, you can move it up a little and create more usable space down below. Look up towards the ceiling and see just how much space is actually wasted. Don’t worry about that top shelf being moved up high, you are only going to use it for storing things long-term. Here you can keep your out of season clothes, luggage, blankets, and other items that you don’t need very often.

When the shelf is up high, see if you have empty space extending from the shelf to the front wall of the closet. You can install a small shelf here, extending the top shelf all the way around, even in a tiny closet. You may even be able to continue placing shelves down those front corners of the closet, making space for folded shirts, shorts and jeans.

Now, it’s time to hang your clothes. You may have more clothes than you think could ever possibly fit into your small closet. However, you may not have thought about how space saving hangers work. They are standard sized hangers, but they slope more at the shoulder so that you don’t pucker your clothes. These hangers fit closely together, but the body is wide enough that they don’t get tangled. The best space saving hangers on the market are velvet hangers. They have removable clips that allow you to hang tops and bottoms on one hanger. Better yet, they have cascading hooks, so you can coordinate outfits or hang more than one outfit in one space. These hangers are really versatile and can double or triple the amount of clothing that you can hang in your closet.

7 September, 2011

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Extra Space for Winter Wardrobes

Don’t you just hate it when you get your closet perfectly organized in the summer only to find out that your winter clothes don’t fit so well? It’s a mistake that many people make. They’ll get an expensive closet system or spend a lot of time making their closet perfect, forgetting that the next season of clothing also needs to fit. Winter clothes bring with them bulky coats, boots, and also a lot of little things, like gloves, scarves and hats. Use these tips so that you don’t have to start from scratch. Making room in your existing closet for your winter wardrobe may be a lot easier than you ever expected!’

1) Get out the summer clothes and store them away for next year. Go ahead and toss things that you didn’t wear or that didn’t fit right into a bag or box to give away to charity. This could also be the perfect time to clear out the clutter and have a yard sale to make a little money that can be put towards perfecting your closet for winter.

2) It’s important to clean your closet now that it is empty. Most people don’t take the time to dust shelves, baseboards and light fixtures when there are clothes in the closet. Vacuum the floor, dust and wipe down everything so that you don’t end up with dust balls or microscopic insect eggs on your winter clothing. This could be a good time for a fresh coat of paint or you may even want to go ahead and install that cedar closet liner that you’ve been dreaming of.

3) Now you can determine what kind of space you’ll need for you winter clothes. You’ll definitely need some hanging space for coats and some shelf or drawer space for heavy sweaters. You can make space by moving your top shelf up closer to the ceiling and adding an extra hanging bar down below. You can use the higher shelf for storing your summer clothes, luggage, ski equipment, or other things that you won’t need every day.

4) Hang your pants on one bar and your tops on the other. You may want to put an extra bar on one side of your closet for hanging longer coats and dresses that you don’t want to wrinkle. Use pants hangers for your pants. Some have non-slip bars or non-creasing clamps. If you use clips, use ones that won’t rust, snag, or imprint your pants while they hang. Use coat hangers for your heavy coats. Make sure that these are curved to help your coats keep their shape. Wider shoulders that slope down won’t pucker shoulders or wrinkle sleeves. You can buy petite hangers or extra large hangers for clothes that don’t fit perfectly on regular clothes hangers. Use specialty hangers that hold scarves, hats, and gloves to perfectly store those small winter items without forcing you to install extra shelves or drawers.

5) For the rest of your clothes, you can use space saving hangers, like velvet hangers, to make the most of the space. Space saving hangers are designed to fit flat against one another, using as little space as wire hangers. However, these hangers won’t cross up on the bar, rust, snag clothing, or bend, causing your clothes to end up on the floor. These have a non-slip velvet coating to hold clothes securely in place. The bottom bar is perfect for hanging pants or attaching movable clips for securing straps. You can coordinate outfits by hanging pants and shirts on the same hanger, or even add a hook to hang multiple items in the space of one hanger. Tricks like this can help you to double or even triple the space in your closet, making room for those winter clothes after all.

25 August, 2011

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How Your Hangers Affect Your Space

Innovating designs, scientific breakthroughs, and years of perfecting the hanger design has led us to this point. We now can easily double or triple the space in our closets, simply by switching out those old plastic and wire hangers for the new space saving designs that are offered today.

Not only to the new space saving hangers save space, but they also prevent slippage. Are you tired of your delicate and slinky fabrics ending up on the floor? The new designs have a velvet surface that grips clothing without damaging it. No more junky metal clips that snag, imprint, and tear clothing. The clips that go with these velvet hangers are also covered in velvet. They offer a firm grip that is gentle on even the most delicate of fabrics.

So, you’re probably wondering how a hanger can double or triple the space in your closet. The first way that they save space is by design. The design is flat so that each one can tightly fit next to the other, without that annoying overlap at the hook. They may be slim, but the curves and construction keep this one stronger than ever. They’re virtually indestructible and can last you for many, many years.

The next way that they save space is by offering multiple ways to hang clothing. The clips are removable, so you can add them or leave them off whenever you want. You can coordinate outfits by hanging the pants or skirt on the same hanger as the shirt and jacket. The curved shoulders will keep from stretching the necks of your shirts while supporting the shoulders of your coats and jackets. The designers thought of everything here, including enough of a curve to prevent puckering and stretching at the shoulder, unlike most hangers on the market.

The last way that these space saving hangers help you to save room in your closet is by cascading. You can add very inexpensive cascading hooks to your order and turn your closet into a dream. You can hang shirts, pants, skirts, jackets and more, from multiple velvet hangers, simply by adding a hook around the neck. You can even hang multiple hangers from one or more hooks to take advantage of the vertical space in your closet that often goes unused.

You’ll love the space that you save, as well as the multitude of colors and designs that you have to choose from when you stock your closet.

16 August, 2011

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Closet Organizing Essential Products

Clutter can quickly become a problem. It tends to grow, even in areas where there wasn’t space for it to begin with. The worst place for clutter in general, is your closet. Most people end up using their closet as a “catch-all” for things that don’t have a place to go. It’s easy to do a quick clean of your home or apartment and stash things out of sight in the closet. Unfortunately, this is just a temporary fix.

We need our closets to keep our clothing free from damage. We need to stay at least a little organized, or we’ll never make it through our day. The closet is often the first thing that you deal with in the morning when you get up. You’re just trying to get to work on time and you need to be able to quickly and easily find what you need. If the closet is cramped and cluttered, it can put you in a bad mood for the entire day.

You may think that your closet is too small, but even in a small closet, improvements can be made. Most people don’t realize that it’s not the small closet that is the problem, but the lack of efficiency that is to blame. Use these tips to make sure you’re using the space that you have wisely.

Take everything out and start to inventory what you have. You may have a lot of things crammed in there that you don’t really need anymore. Maybe some things can be given away to charity. Get rid of shoes that don’t fit right, are damaged, or have gone out of style. If you haven’t worn something in a year, get it out of there. Thin out what you own and then you can start to thin out what you allow to go into your closet.

The first rule of organizing is to categorize. If something doesn’t have a category, then you need to find one for it. Don’t allow yourself to keep a “miscellaneous” pile, box, or drawer in your home. That is pretty much the definition of clutter. Try hard to categorize so that you can easily keep things where they go.

After getting everything separated, you can assess the space situation. There is often wasted space in the front corners of the closet and at the top of the closet. Don’t be afraid to store long-term things up near the ceiling. Is there room for shelves on either side of the closet? You can put more in there than you think. If a good organizer still doesn’t give you enough room, consider space saving hangers, like velvet hangers, to get the job done. These can cascade from each other and hold specialty clothing so that you can save up to three times the space in your closet.

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