With the holidays now behind us, I can truly say, December has become my favorite month. My first born son had his first birthday this December, and now that he is crawling around and making sense of the world around him. I have fallen in love with the fascination in his eyes. With true human curiosity, his favourite phase, “what’s that?”, as he points to every light, garland, and item that sparkles. His curiosity also brings a constant danger, with anything within his arm reach. As I transition my home into a safe, baby proof environment, I have learned the true value of shelving and getting organized.
Let’s start by organizing the mud-room on a budget.
The VersaTrac shelving is a perfect companion to the mudroom. Its sleek design is welcoming, while its durability is unmatched compared to conventional storage hooks or shelves on a wall. The modular design allows you to customize the wall hooks, baskets and shelves as you need them. Each panel of our VersaTrac wall organizers was built to hold up to 200 pounds. With kits starting at as little as $39.99, it won’t break the bank.
Organization for the laundry Room – It does not have to be a dreaded place
For me, this was the second most unorganized room in my house. I had detergents, fabric softeners and beach on the floor; not exactly the safest place for mom to work with kid in tow. Again, shelving came to the rescue to get everything off the ground and safely away. It allowed us to create separate areas for different uses, like an area to sort, air-dry and iron while conveniently storing supplies.
Helpful tip:
If you have a front-loading washer and dryer, install a counter top over the machines for folding clothes. If you want to use it as a handy ironing surface, build the counter top out of MDF, glue some foam on top and cover it with heat-resistant sailcloth. Alternatively, you can install a hinge-top table that hangs from the wall and folds out of the way when not in use; or hang the ironing board and iron away using the VersaTrac as shown.
Organizing and storing the holiday away.
Storing the holiday is my least favorite thing to do. The tree is drying out, making a mess as you pull everything off it; the garland is dusty, I’m allergic to dust; I need to get back up on the ladder to pull the hundreds of lights off, with the occasional scare of falling off; not fun. Here are some tips to getting started:
1. Organize the décor
The thought of throwing everything into a box and topping it with a lid just makes me smile – done and done. I did that last year, and this year, well believe me it was not pretty to pull it all out – what a tangled, damaged mess. And to top it off, what I thought were cheap WalMart ornaments were actually my wife’s ornaments from when she was a child. She was not happy when I opened the Christmas box from its garage storage this year.
Quick tip: For as little as $15, go out and get a Christmas ornament box to save you from headaches next year or make one from cardboard for free! For your lights, use a cardboard paper towel roll or similar object to wrap your lights around neatly.
Once you have things organized, use boxes or bins and separate into categories: lights, ornaments, wall decorations, tabletop décor, linens, outside decorations, wrapping supplies, cards, etc. Once everything is sorted, pick a category and go through each item and ask yourself the three magic questions: Do I need it? Do I use it? Do I love it? Donate everything not in the ‘Love it’ section.
2. Storing the holiday away – Out of sight, out of mind
Your holiday items are used once a year. These types of items deserve a place which is dry, and you deserve to have it out of sight. A garage ceiling storage rack works wonders here. The ceiling racks are height adjustable from 18 to 45 inches to match your space, are made from 18 gauge steel and strong enough to hold up to 600 pounds – so don’t worry about loading up your holiday stuff.
For a second option, we are pleased to introduce our new ProSeries Shelf and Bold Series VersaShelf. It’s a perfect solution if you are not able to use your ceiling and need a strong storage solution. The Pro Series can hold up to 1,000 pounds per shelf, while the Bold Series VersaShelf can transform from a big gear storage center to a spacious workbench.
3. Replace the holidays with spring
Now that your house is clean, forget the calendar and get your spring things out, even if there’s snow on the ground. You may still need the warm blankets, but the look can be light and uplifting. Small changes towards bright and beautiful can make a big difference. Like the floral arrangements from pine and holiday colors to light, colorful ones and change dark-patterned decorative pillows by covering them with fresh, floral prints.
We hope you had a very pleasant holiday season! All the best in 2013!