Category Archives: Organization

It’s estimated that the average American will lose $5,591 of belongings over the course of their lifetime.

Seeing such an eye-opening dollar figure attached to the negative effects of living a disorganized, clutterbug lifestyle can make one take stock of their own organization habits.

That figure comes from a survey of 1,000 American adults by Pebblebee, a Bluetooth tracking company. In that same survey, 20% of the respondents admitted to losing or misplacing personal items on a weekly basis.

Are your organization habits comparable to the “average” person? Think about how much $5,000+ can buy, such as a luxury vacation for two or a medium scale home improvement project.

Here are five ways that being a clutterbug can negatively impact your life.

1. A clutterbug wastes a lot of time searching for things at home

A disorganized home causes a clutterbug to waste lots of time searching for misplaced items. A Boston marketing firm conducted a study that found the average American wastes 55 minutes a week looking for misplaced items in the home.

That works out to the equivalent of more than one full day being wasted every month simply because someone is disorganized.

We live in a world where waiting mere seconds for a Wi-Fi signal to be found or a web page to load on our smartphone or tablet makes us impatient.

Shouldn’t we be placing more value on the hours of time many of us needlessly waste because our clutterbug tendencies slow down our daily routine?

2. Clutterbugs are more likely to incur late fees for bills

Online bill payment options and bill payment apps for smartphones make it easier than ever to take care of monthly payments for all the services we use.

Even with these conveniences, a Harris Interactive study found that 23% of adults still pay their bills late (and incur late fees) because they’re too disorganized.

Whether your e-bill or email notices requesting bill payment are getting lost within your digital clutter or your clutterbug habits are causing you to misplace your old-school paper bills, your hard-earned money could be better spent elsewhere.

3. A clutterbug wastes money on self storage units

There are some good reasons for renting a self storage unit. Perhaps you’ll be out of the country for an extended period of time and it doesn’t make financial sense to keep your current residence.

Unless you’re lucky enough to have a good friend with an extra 100 square feet of empty storage space at your disposal in their home, a self storage unit is probably your only option.

Maybe you need a temporary storage space to hold the belongings of a recently deceased friend or family member. Another reason might be that you underestimated how much space you’d have for your things in the new home or condo you’ve moved into.

While these are viable reasons to rent a self storage unit, the reality is that most of these units are filled with clutter that homeowners just haven’t bothered to deal with.

The North American self storage industry generates billions of dollars every year, mostly because of the clutterbug habits many of us have.

A conservative estimate of the monthly cost to rent a 10 x 5 storage unit is about $80-100 a month. That number can rise substantially based on the location of the storage facility, as well as extra insurance and climate control fees.

It’s much more sensible to tackle your home clutter problems. Invest the money you’d be wasting on storage fees on practical home organization and storage products  that deliver a much better return on investment.

4. Disorganized homes waste a lot of food

A 2014 study by Value Chain Management International found that $31 billion worth of food was wasted in Canada every year. While much of that waste occurs at the manufacturing and retail level, 47% of it takes place in the home. 

Another recent study revealed that the average American household throws away an average of $640 worth of food annually.

Some of that waste can be attributed to poor organization systems within pantries, freezers, and refrigerators. Disorganization in these storage areas increases the likelihood of food being misplaced and lost within the food clutter.

The perpetual upwards creep of food prices makes the wasteful management of food add up financially over time. Of course, there’s also the added burden of the needless carbon footprint that wasted food leaves.

$31 billion worth of food is wasted in Canada every year.

5. Being a clutterbug can hold you back at work

If your clutterbug habits follow you to work, they may be holding you back in your career. A survey by retailer OfficeMax revealed the following facts from the 1,000 respondents:

• 77% believe clutter slows down their productivity
• more than half think clutter negatively impacts their motivation level
• 90% believe clutter negatively impacts their home and work lives
• 35% are embarrassed by the state of their workspace
• 40% had a lower opinion of co-workers who had excess clutter in their workspace

Change your clutterbug ways to save time and money

With so many drawbacks to living a clutterbug lifestyle, why not change your ways and reclaim some of that precious lost time and money?

Enabling yourself with more effective organization systems for your home is a good place to start. From closet makeovers to custom storage and organization solutions for the rest of the home, Organized Interiors can help.

Schedule your complimentary in-home consultation with one of our design experts today to get started.

See also:

• 10 Reasons Why Storage Units Don’t Make Sense
• 7 Signs It’s Time To Ask For Help With Your Home Disorganization Problems
• 14 Home Organization Solutions To Improve Your Household In 2017

Home disorganization can become a major problem without efficient home organization systems, the proper amount of self-discipline, or simply if your busy life isn’t allowing you the necessary time to maintain a tidy home.

Consider what happens when you stop exercising. The longer you go without doing it, the more out of shape you get and the more daunting it becomes trying to work your way back down to a body size you’re satisfied with.

Home organization works much the same way. The longer you procrastinate on dealing with your home disorganization issues, the steeper the mountain becomes in trying to restore your home to a functional level of organization once again. This can negatively impact your quality of life, so don’t ignore the problem.

Here are seven clear signs that it may be time to ask for help to address your home disorganization problems.

1. Your home disorganization is affecting your sleep

A consistent inability to get a good night’s sleep may be directly linked to the clutter that’s causing the home disorganization that you’re surrounded by. Medical research has found that the stress caused by clutter stays with you during your waking hours, even if you’re not fully conscious of it.

Your brain registers all that clutter cleanup as work that needs to be done, which contributes to feelings of guilt, overwhelmingness, and an inability to relax. These negative feelings are also present both when you’re falling asleep and while you’re sleeping. This tends to adversely affect the quality and lengths of your sleep.

2. You’re depressed, lack energy, and feel overburdened by home disorganization

No good comes from home disorganization. You’ll waste hours each week searching for things. More serious concerns come when home disorganization starts to contribute to depression, an inability to muster much energy during the day, and an overburdened feeling that a resolution is unattainable.

A lack of sleep only compounds all of these problems.

3. Relationships in your home are becoming strained

Maintaining harmony between family members can become harder when your home disorganization issues really start to spiral out of control. Chances are that at least one family member who’s a neatnik (perhaps it’s you) is at their wit’s end over the perpetually messy state of the home.

That can lead to harsh words and a short fuse with the family’s more organization-challenged members. After all, we’re each only able put up with a certain level of frustration before reaching a breaking point.

4. You’re adapting to your home disorganization instead of fixing the problem

Tackling your home disorganization problems requires effort. You need to fully assess the problem, figure out a game plan, and then implement a solution. The bigger the home disorganization problem is, the more effort will be required on your part, which can feel daunting and like too much work.

On the surface, simply adapting to the disorganized state of your home seems like the easy way out. Yes, you may be saving the time you’d need to invest in fixing the problem, but you’re only normalizing the problem and making it harder and more time-consuming to fix in the future.

You also become more susceptible you’ll to the additional inherent problems that home disorganization causes.

5. Your home disorganization is affecting your punctuality

An untidy home becomes a real drain of your daily time efficiency. Whether it’s searching for a specific document in your home office or looking for that right pair of heels in your closet, a lack of organization only makes it harder to find things exactly when you need them.

If this is affecting your punctuality for work and appointments during the week, clearly that’s a sign that your home disorganization is a problem.

6. Your productivity at home and work is suffering

When you do take the time to carry out home chores like vacuuming or doing the laundry, home disorganization only makes it harder to get those jobs done quickly.

And if your home is disorganized (and you’ve contributed to its messy state), your work environment is more likely to be in a similar state. That inevitably leads to lower levels of productivity.

The Wall Street Journal found that approximately six weeks are wasted annually by the average U.S. executive looking for documents amongst all of their clutter.

7. You realize you never have guests over because of home disorganization

Let’s face it, most of us aren’t willing to have guests over when our home is in a less-than-presentable state. A messy home projects an unwelcome impression of you and your family to others and can be a source of real embarrassment.

At some point, we’ve probably all had a time where a messy home caused us to defensively greet a guest at a front door that you were reluctant to open any wider than the width of your head, as you searched for a polite way to deny them entrance to your home.

If this is a scenario that’s become all too common for you, it’s high time your home disorganization problems were addressed.

There are many ways to fix your home disorganization problems

Help can come in many forms when it comes to fixing your home disorganization problems. Sheer willpower, self-help books and online resources, and professional medical assistance can help with some of the root causes (like chronic procrastination) that can be a factor with home disorganization.

You can also ask for more help from your entire family when it comes to doing their part to maintain a tidy home. If your busy work schedule is holding you back from properly nurturing other important areas of your life (like home organization), re-evaluate your priorities.

A closet organizer can help restore order to your home’s level of organization.

Another smart option is to take advantage of the expertise of home organization and storage professionals like Organized Interiors.

We can recommend and design practical, highly functional organization solutions that will make it significantly easier to keep your home clean and organized.

Just schedule a free in-home design consultation to get started.

See also:

•  Why A Cluttered Home Causes You Stress & What You Can Do About It
• 7 Ways Your Closet Can Help You Maintain A Good Morning Routine
• 11 Good Organization Habits That Highly Organized People Swear By

Moving into a smaller space doesn’t necessarily mean having to part with a number of your belongings. 

When unpacking shoes, for example, you might wonder how many pairs from your large collection you’ll actually be able to fit into the smaller closets of your new home.

Think about how many types of footwear are in the average home. Athletic shoes, heels, flats, slippers, sandals, flip flops, winter boots, hiking boots, loafers, dress shoes, and knee high boots all need a home of their own.

Without smart shoe storage solutions in place, it won’t take long for organizational chaos to ensue.

Smart shoe storage solutions save you time

A study conducted by one retailer found that women who own a shoe rack were seven times more likely to be on time for work than women who didn’t own one. While that may be just one estimation, it makes perfect sense that an organized life at home would carry over in a positive way to one’s life outside the home.

Knowing exactly where to find that pair of shoes that perfectly complements your chosen work outfit can be an invaluable time-saver in the morning. Consider how many things you do before going to work every morning.

There’s feeding yourself and your kids, packing their school lunches, getting them ready for school and to the bus stop (or driving them there yourself), and getting yourself showered, dressed, and looking presentable for work.

A Boston marketing firm found that the average American wastes 55 minutes every day searching for misplaced items. No doubt some of that time was spent looking for lost shoes. Adding helpers like smart shoe storage solutions will allow you to easily keep your fashionable footwear collection well-organized.

This will help you reclaim some of that wasted time and remove one of the many things you need to concern yourself with every morning.

Protect your footwear with sensible shoe storage solutions

Not having proper shoe storage systems doesn’t just make your home more disorganized. Keeping your footwear in disorganized piles will lead to scuffing, scratches, and other damage that can shorten your footwear’s life.

Delicate footwear and expensive designer shoes should especially be stored properly to keep them in optimal condition.

Regularly worn shoes might be more ideal for floor racks or open shelving storage that keeps your footwear fresh by letting the material breathe.

On the other hand, you want to protect your pricier shoes from dust, sunlight, and scuffing, which makes pullout storage or shoe box storage a smart choice.

Turn to smart shoe storage solutions for help

Even in storage areas with ample space, large shoe collections can be a challenge to keep organized. By using some of these five smart shoe storage solutions, you can maximize your shoe storage space anywhere.

Smartly designed shoe storage systems will also make the storage space more functional. 

1. Add a dressing room that includes practical shoe storage solutions

So your new home’s closets are smaller than you’d like, but you’re lucky enough to have a spare bedroom. How can you make the best use of this space? One practical idea is to turn it into a dressing room/large walk-in closet.

A private dressing room can be your own comfortable space that also provides you with the luxury of valuable storage space for the wardrobes of you and your spouse. Incorporate some smart shoe storage solutions into your dressing room’s design to keep all of your shoes protected, neatly stored, and easy to find.

A pullout rack is perfect for this space. It can be built to any depth of shelf, allowing for shoes to be stored more than one row deep. Purses and other items can also be stored on it. The pullout features a front protector to ensure your shoes don’t fall forward when the rack is pulled out.

A dressing room pullout rack keeps shoes hidden, organized, and well-protected.

A pullout shoe rack that’s ideal for a dressing room or traditional closet.

2. Have your custom wardrobe designed with storage space for shoes

Our custom wardrobes can be used for more than just keeping your clothing hung or folded. We can add room to store shoes on the wardrobe’s interior base, within its open shelving, or by adding a pullout rack.

A wardrobe can be added to a bedroom or in a front entryway to add more storage space. Organized Interiors is hands-on with your wardrobe’s design, manufacturing process, and installation.

This full-service process ensures you’ll get a high quality custom product that nicely complements your home’s décor and fits your space perfectly.

3. Maximize your closet’s shoe storage space

Even with many smaller closets, our clever design consultants can devise a shoe storage solution to make the most of the limited space available.

Our SmartLine and Classic closet organizers can include shoe storage space in an open shelving concept, including divider/cubby storage.

Along with pullout racks, stationary floor shoe racks can also be included in your closet organizer’s design. Add multiple levels to your shoe rack to really maximize your storage space.

Hanging shoe racks are another storage option, which can be hung from a closet’s hanging rod or on the closet door to save space. Some people do find this option a bit tacky, however, so this may not be a shoe storage solution that appeals to you.

Open shoe storage within a closet space.

4. Upgrade your mudroom to allow for more shoe storage room

Another way to make more room for storing shoes in your home is to update your mudroom. Shoe storage can be added to a mudroom in various styles such as shoe racks, open shelving storage, or hidden away within a built-in bench. An entryway closet can also be redesigned by having the doors removed and incorporating some of these features.

Because your mudroom is typically right near an entryway, adding practical shoe storage solutions to it minimizes clutter and disorganization. As soon as your family members enter your home, they’ll have ample amount of room to keep their shoes tidily stored.

5. Use shoe boxes to maintain a neat, uncluttered appearance

Even if your space is small, you can find room for storing shoes by making use of shoe boxes. This shoe storage solution will help you maintain a clean and uncluttered appearance in your home.

Shoe boxes also protect your expensive footwear and make use of any free space in your closets or elsewhere in your bedroom. Stack them on the floor, on mid-level open shelving, or up top in the free vertical space of your closets.

You can use the original shoe boxes you saved or use stylish storage boxes if you prefer. Make it much easier to locate specific pairs of shoes stored in shoe boxes by using labels. Another option is to use clear storage boxes or storage bins for storing your footwear.

Let customized shoe storage solutions make your small space more functional

As long as you have customized shoe storage solutions that perfectly match your needs and limited room, you can maintain an organized home.

Take advantage of the smart shoe storage options Organized Interiors has available by scheduling your free in-home design consultation with us today.

See also:

• Closet Redesign: 5 Questions To Ask Before You Start Your Project
• Discover The Big Benefits Of These 9 Small Closet Organization Ideas
• How To Live Large In A Tiny Home

There are a multitude of considerations to make when house hunting. Inevitably, some compromises will be made when you finally buy the home that best fulfills the essentials you value most in a residence.

One of the time-tested house hunting tips is not to undervalue the importance of closet and storage space.

HSH.com is the America’s largest publisher of mortgage and consumer loan information and one of their surveys found that 80% of respondents had regrets about their home purchase.

9% of that was made up of buyers who found their home lacked adequate closet or storage space.

Use these house hunting tips to help you evaluate potential storage space

These house hunting tips in relation to closet and storage space will assist you in knowing what to look for when viewing different homes and the storage potential they offer.

Take stock of what you own

Before you begin to visit potential future homes, take careful stock of everything you own and how much closet and storage space you have. A move is a great opportunity to declutter, so factor that in to your assessment.

Having even a loose concept of how your family’s belongings will fit within another home will be an asset. It can also dictate whether additional closet space becomes one of your priorities for a new home.

It can also help you avoid the common mistake of being mislead by the cluttered contents of someone else’s home, which may be attributable to a few different things.

Evaluate how a potential seller is using their storage space

Sure, a home might be cluttered and disorganized due to a lack of storage space. But a home that appears to not have adequate storage space might just be lacking effective storage systems and homeowners that don’t declutter enough.

Is the homeowner making use of closet organizers or effective bedroom storage solutions? These can make a big difference in how a home’s storage space is used and the overall presentation of the house.

Inspect thoroughly and document your findings

One of the house hunting tips that not enough potential buyers follow is to inspect all areas of a home you’re looking at. Open every door, drawer, and cupboard in every room because you never know what you might be missing.

There could be extra storage space that isn’t immediately obvious or, conversely, potential problems that will come as an unwelcome surprise once you’ve moved in.

Particularly focus on inspecting the closet areas. As a prospective buyer, you’re entitled to thoroughly examine all areas of the home, so don’t worry about seeming like you’re too nosy (as long as you’re not snooping through the owner’s belongings).

Take measurements and also ask the realtor for permission to take photos or video footage of the home. Having as much documentation as possible while house hunting helps, especially if you’re looking at numerous properties and need to keep details straight.

Expect less closet and storage space in older homes

If the home you’re browsing is older, expect there to be less closet space than you’ll find in newer homes. Some rooms may not even have a closet, or the closet space that does exist may be much smaller than you’re used to.

Decide whether you can adapt to a more confined amount of storage space and whether this may be a deal-breaker for you and your family.

Remember that you can always add storage space in the bedroom

Remember that a small closet can still be quite functional with a good closet organizer and some helpful closet accessories.

You can also add storage space to a bedroom in the form of a bed surround or wardrobe (which could also be added to a front hallway). Our convenient create-a-closet® solution is another option. It creates closet space anywhere you need it.

If the home you’re touring has a spare bedroom, consider turning it into a dressing room/large walk-in closet. Even an oversized master bedroom can have a partition wall added to give you a nice private dressing area.

Storage space in the kitchen and bathroom

How important is adequate storage space and the proper décor for your bathroom to you? If the bathroom in a home you’re considering buying is lacking in these areas, consider updating its look and storage capabilities with custom bathroom cabinetry.

A kitchen pantry is a nice to have for storing your food, which frees up space for storing items like small appliances, dishes, cooking supplies, and other kitchen items in your cupboards. Ask us about our high quality custom kitchen cabinetry.

Are the laundry room or mudroom making the best use of their space?

When inspecting the laundry room in a home you’re viewing, assess whether the space fits your needs. How much storage space is there for detergents and fabric softeners?

A drab laundry room with poor lighting and a lack of functionality can always be improved. We can update your laundry room’s look and also enhance its usefulness by adding custom cabinetry and accessories like valet rods, hidden laundry hampers, and pullout ironing boards.

A mudroom should be more than a disorganized area that becomes a storage spot for things that don’t quite have a home elsewhere in the house. Look for adequate overhead storage, enough hooks for hanging coats and hats, and other storage spaces, such as a bench with storage space inside of it.

Assessing storage space in the rest of the home

When assessing the available closet and storage space in the rest of the home, decide whether or not the basement and hallways have enough storage room for you and your family. Is there a linen closet or space to store your wine collection?

Does the area underneath the stairs offer any storage possibilities? And don’t forget the garage! For help with maximizing any garage’s storage space, consult the professionals at Garage Living.

House hunting tips that prevent regrets

Following these house hunting tips that help you understand what to look for when assessing the closet and storage space in a potential future home will ensure you don’t have regrets in this department later on.

If you’ve already moved into a new home recently and are looking for ways to increase your storage space and make it more functional, we can help. Schedule a complimentary in-home design consultation to get started.

See also:

• Custom Cabinetry Ideas To Enhance Every Room In Your Home
• Closet Redesign: 5 Questions To Ask Before You Start Your Project
• 7 Smart Laundry Room Features Every Home Should Have