1) The top of the refrigerator is a big problem for a lot of people. This is especially true if you do not have a pantry for food storage. People end up making-do with a couple of sections of counter space and the top of the fridge. To tackle this area, you’ll need to go through your cabinets and get rid of whatever you can. If possible, replace mix-matched bowls and casserole dishes with ones that nest inside of each other to save space. This is really helpful for plastic storage ware. If you’re like most people, you have a lot of pieces that don’t match and they end up being a cabinet avalanche waiting to happen. Install a few wire baskets inside of the cabinet doors to make room for things like lids.

When you get it cleared out or at least consolidated, you should have room for food. If you are still limited on space, take bags out of boxes and label them if necessary. Add extra shelves inside of the cabinet if the space is tall. Use tiered shelves for things that get lost in the back. Secure opened items by rolling them down and wrapping a rubber band around the whole thing. This is an easy way to keep things small and sealed in the cabinet. When you buy new items, get rid of the box and put it in the back. That way, opened things never get pushed back where you can’t see them.

2) The master bedroom is a huge problem because it becomes a dumping ground for everything in the house that doesn’t have a place. You don’t want to store extra photos and camera equipment in the kids’ rooms and it’s piling up in the living room, so naturally it is stashed out of sight in the master bedroom. To reclaim this space, you may have to work on making places for all of these odds and ends. But to get started right now, tackle the closet.

If you share a closet, then you’re probably low on space. Some people have so much stuff that they unintentionally end up banishing their spouse from the closet and making them live out of laundry baskets. Go through the closet and get rid of what you can. Don’t worry if it doesn’t seem like a lot. Concentrate on clearing the floor and the shelves. A lot of times we have things in storage for so long that we don’t realize that we don’t need them anymore. Replace your standard hangers with slim, velvet clothes hangers that fit closely together. You won’t believe how much space these types of hangers give you. Cascade them from each other to coordinate outfits and you can double or triple the space in your closet.

About the Author: Charlie Hafter is on the staff of Closet Hanger Factory, a leading online resource for clothes hangers. Get all of the closet and clothes hanger accessories you could need at http://www.closethangerfactory.com, which is recognized worldwide for their excellent quality hangers.

Getting organized and staying that way is easier said than done! Many people think that cleaning up and putting things away is the same thing as organizing, but really, you could take it to another level. When done correctly, organizing keeps messes from happening. Being truly organized means that you have a place for everything, everything is categorized, and you have a schedule for maintaining the area. Use these tips to take care of the problem areas of your home and you could be setting yourself up for easy housekeeping from now on.

When cleaning or organizing, a good rule of thumb is to make sure everything has a place. However, the “place” won’t do you much good if it’s not sufficient in size, easy to get to, and memorable. By memorable, I mean that it has to make sense. This is where categorizing comes into play. You may have your sewing needles and thread perfectly organized in matching containers, but if they’re nowhere near your other sewing supplies, you could forget where they are when you need them.

To get things categorized, it is best to pull everything out where you can see it while you clean. Not only will this allow you to stack things together that are in the same categories, but it will also help you to cut down on clutter by making sure that everything that you no longer want or need is eliminated from the pile. You can also see if you have too large of a category. For example, if you have “crafts” all together, you may realize that you would need an entire closet dedicated to them to keep them in the same category. However, if you divided them into art for the desk, sewing for the craft table, knitting for the trunk storage unit, and cake decorating supplies for a kitchen cabinet, you can keep them organized and categorized without having to invest a lot of money or waste a space usable for something else.

For everyday items, you need to make sure that whatever you choose to do with them, that it is easy to access. If you have a laundry basket in the bottom of the closet for your dirty clothes, but it’s far away from where you normally undress, then you’re not likely to use it for very long. If you get your closet so meticulously organized that it takes you several minutes to go through the containers just to put laundry away, then you’re not likely to use them. Go for simple solutions, like specialty clothes hangers, that allow you to see where everything goes while being able to easily access things. Hangers are great solutions for clothing and laundry problems because they protect clothing, allow you to separate by style or type, and help you to save lots of space.

About the Author: Charlie Hafter is on the staff of Closet Hanger Factory, a leading online resource for clothes hangers. Get all of the closet and clothes hanger accessories you could need at http://www.closethangerfactory.com, which is recognized worldwide for their excellent quality hangers.

Organizing your closets is kind of a big task, so doing it right should make it less of a task the next time you have to do it. I’ve done this enough times that I know what works and what doesn’t. People, including myself, make really common mistakes that lead to the closet quickly getting disorganized again. Well, we’re going to prevent that from happening. With a little direction, you can avoid hiring someone to organize for you. You can also avoid spending a lot of money on your closet. Follow these tips and you’ll be on your way to blissful organization that lasts.

1) You may have organized in the past by separating things into separate containers or stacks. Well, if you didn’t start by getting rid of as much as possible, then you were doomed from the start. Start out by pulling everything out of the closet. I mean, everything needs to come out. Clean that closet so that it’s free of dust and possible insect eggs.

2) Separate everything into piles so that you can visualize how much space you will need for each thing. As you pile things up, be selective about what you decide to keep. If you notice that you have ten pairs of jeans and you can only wear two, then get rid of eight. If you have eight black long-sleeved t-shirts and you really only need one or two, get rid of the rest. When our closets get cluttered, we can’t see what we already own and end up buying new things that we don’t actually need.

3) Now decide what should hang and what should be folded. If you’re not sure, take measurements of how much space something takes up while hanging and while folded. I had two folded piles of t-shirts in my closet. I calculated the area that they took up on the shelf and then the area hanging on hangers. I couldn’t believe how much space I was wasting! I did the same thing for my stack of yoga pants, jeans, and my bin of scarves. Once I incorporated just a few specialty clothes hangers into my closet, I was free of a few containers and stacks of clothes. I couldn’t believe the difference. I made some storage room, but I didn’t even need it because I had made room for my summer and winter clothes to hang together. Now I won’t have to reorganize when the season changes!