Homeowners who are blessed with large closets often have the same problems as homeowners with only a few square feet of closet space! This reminds us that having more space isn’t always the answer to being more organized. However, for those of us with small closets, we would love the opportunity to remodel ours to the closet of our dreams!  What we can all do, whether we have a small space or large walk-in, is improve it with the many closet organizing solutions available, without breaking the bank.  Simply updating your garment hangers can make all the difference in how your closet appears. 

If you’re ready to make a change, with a small investment, start with updating your clothes hangers.  Get rid of the dry cleaning hangers that sag your clothes and replace them with wood, cedar, vinyl, metal or friction non slip clothes hangers.  Your clothes will thank you by keeping their shape and lasting much longer.

Then, move on to better storage solutions for your folded sweaters and tops that may currently be falling all over the place on the shelf above the hanging rod!  You can pick up canvas, cedar and natural woven baskets, boxes, bins and containers.  If you have room for a small chest of drawers, you can add a 3-5 drawer chest that would sit below your short hanging clothes, providing a more “custom closet” feel. 

So whether you have a large walk-in or a small reach-in, you can still have an organized closet by selecting the right hangers, purging occasionally and storing your sweaters and tops neatly in containers or drawers that won’t create a big mess!

Jacquie Ross is a Maryland based Professional Organizer, writer and owner of CastAway the Clutter! Jacquie has been writing for Home Storage USA since 2007. A member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO), NAPO-Baltimore Chapter, and Maryland Association of Professional Organizers, she shows homeowners how to reclaim their time and space, and offers organizing and time management workshops.  Jacquie can be reached at jacquie@castawaytheclutter.com. Visit CastAway the Clutter to sign up for her free organizing tips at www.castawaytheclutter.com and register for an organizing workshop.

Do you struggle to find what you need in your kitchen cabinets?  If you have a small space, it can be even more challenging to keep the interior of your cabinets organized, particularly in lower cabinets. Then, there’s the additional challenge of very deep low cabinets. Homeowners with deep cabinets may find themselves spending a lot of time hunting for items in the back of the cabinet, which is usually dark and difficult to access.  

Lower cabinets typically store pots and pans, cleaning products, plasticware, serveware and many other miscellaneous items.  If you do not have a separate pantry in your kitchen you are most likely also using your cabinets to store dry and canned food, taking up additional prime storage space. 

However, you needn’t remodel your kitchen! You can now find wonderful sliding and roll-out cabinet organizers designed specifically for organizing hard to reach areas inside your kitchen cabinets. Sliding cabinet organizers are perfect to store many items, including pots and pans and cleaning products under the sink, allowing easy and convenient access.  Sliding organizers also come in a variety of styles and sizes and you can even find one for a small trash can!

Declutter and reorganize your cabinets with any of the following sliding organizers and never be frustrated again!

Jacquie Ross is a Maryland based Professional Organizer, writer and owner of CastAway the Clutter! Jacquie has been writing for Home Storage USA since 2007. A member of the National Association of Professional Organizers and Maryland Association of Professional Organizers, she teaches homeowners how to reclaim their time and space, and offers Time Management workshops to businesses to maximize productivity.  Jacquie can be reached at jacquie@castawaytheclutter.com. Visit CastAway the Clutter to sign up for her free organizing tips at www.castawaytheclutter.com and register for her upcoming organizing workshops.

Herbs and spices gift sets are popular gifts that often become clutter in homes.  Most people barely have the time to cook a meal for dinner, let alone cook creatively with spices. This results in many homeowners not knowing what spices they have and how long they’ve had them! 

If your herbs and spices are in a jumbled mess in a drawer or cabinet, or worse still, mocking you on the kitchen counter rarely used, it’s probably time to purge! Herbs and spices will lose their strength if they are kept too long and if you don’t know what you have, due to disorganization, you probably won’t make the effort to use them. Here are 4 easy steps to declutter your herbs and spices:

1. Unload all of your herbs and spices from jumbled drawers and messy cabinets;

2. Decide what to keep or toss. If you’ve never used it, never heard of it or don’t know how to use it, toss it;

3. If you come across a previously opened bottle that you didn’t know you had (due to the jumbled mess), give it a sniff. If there’s barely any scent, toss it, since it’s probably lost its flavor and will be useless;

4. If the bottle has never been opened it may be fine. But only keep it if you know you’ll use it, otherwise it’s clutter!

You should now be left only with the herbs and spices that you’re currently using or want to use later. Now for the fun part – it’s time to go shopping for a spice organizer!  No need to clutter up your countertops either.  There are spice drawer organizers, attractive wall racks and “step” organizers for the shelves in your cabinets.  Click on each picture to learn more on how these will transform order in your drawers and cabinets!

Jacquie Ross is a Maryland based Professional Organizer, writer and owner of CastAway the Clutter! Jacquie has been writing for Home Storage USA since 2007. A member of the National Association of Professional Organizers and Maryland Association of Professional Organizers, she teaches homeowners how to reclaim their time and space, and offers Organizing & Time Management workshops to groups for moms, small businesses and associations.  Jacquie can be reached at jacquie@castawaytheclutter.com. Visit CastAway the Clutter to sign up for her free organizing tips at www.castawaytheclutter.com.