by Eileen Roth
Nails: All types
Screws: Likewise
Picture hangers: One size fits all
Power tools aren’t just for experts and geeks. You can now get cordless, rechargeable, power-driven versions of everything from screwdrivers to drills that make short work of tasks that need tools.
On the other hand, more advanced handy people generally feel that accomplishing all jobs takes various sizes of tools, so the best way to organize the resulting proliferation is to hang them by similar type on a pegboard. From needle-nosed to supersized, put all the pliers together. Screwdrivers are a group, subdivided into regular and Phillips format and arranged by size. Visual types may like to spray paint the board with the tools in place for easy replacement, while the more lexically minded may prefer labels. If you go the stencil route, be sure to wrap each tool well with plastic before you spray.
Parts and other small stuff
Swamped with screws, nails, nuts and bolts, and mollies? Get as many sets of clear minidrawers as you need to give each part its place. Label the drawers to give the visual image written reinforcement.
You may be surprised to hear me say it, but: Never throw out an unidentified part. If a screw falls from somewhere and you can’t find its source, hold onto it and you may locate the empty hole soon enough. Label one drawer “Lost Parts,” put the current mystery pieces there, and purge them as they become old-timers.
Supplies: Glues, tape, paint, and light bulbs
There are as many sticky substances as there are things that need sticking together, running the gamut from airplane glue to glue guns. Do you really need them all? Probably not. You can fix most things with an adhesive trio: plastic glue, super glue, and cement glue. Go through your collection and toss anything else you haven’t used in a year or that’s clogged or dried out.
You also need masking tape, duct tape, and sealing tape for other sorts of sticking; paints and varnishes for surface improvements; and extra light bulbs to replace burnouts throughout the house. Store all these supplies in a cabinet, if you have one; otherwise, use a few containers on a shelf. Old shoeboxes are a look-cost alternative for containing tapes or glues; just be sure to label the outside with the contents so you know where to look. And don’t forget to mark the paint cans to indicate which room and wall or ceiling they go with.
Yes, you can stick your fingers together with super glue, and yes, it’s not fun. Prevent self-gluing disasters with a pair of thin rubber gloves.
The fun starts here: Hobby and craft center
Having a hobby is all about fun, so set up a shipshape center that makes every session a pleasure. If the hobby area shares a room with other activities, delineate a center that accommodates equipment, supplies, and work. Do you need wide open space far away from a window to practice your golf swing, or a dark room to develop photographs? A table to spread out your sewing, or a big piece of floor for a train track? Take space, lighting, and the comfort of your surroundings into account when designing your hobby center.
Next, designate space to store equipment and supplies. Closets, cabinets, or shelves can contain big stuff, such as a painting easel or sewing machine, while freestanding or shelf top drawers are good for smaller supplies. Storage containers can get quite specialized, so check associations, Web sites, catalogs, and stores dedicated to your hobby for systems targeted to your particular supplies.
There’s a cardinal rule for keeping crafts and hobbies organized, one that adults often have an easier time teaching to their children than following themselves: Always, always clean up and put things away at the end of every session. Not only does this prolong the life of your paintbrushes and prevent a passing child or dog from taking a lick, but tidying up also makes coming back the next day a lot more fun. A work in progress is not a mess in progress. Leave your hobby center a clean slate and see your creativity shine.
Exercise center
The sheer weight of exercise equipment and bouncing bodies begs you to locate your workout center in the basement, close to the ground and far away from parts of the house that won’t be enhanced by the scent of sweat. But make it nice. The model exercise area is a rejuvenating getaway, a place to leave your workaday worries behind and focus on the pleasures of feeling fit.
Not up for sit-ups on the cement floor? Carpeting can ease your crunches, as well as absorb the shock to your knees if you engage in high-impact activities. Carpet store remnants can be a cost-effective route to an exercise-friendly floor.
Arrange big equipment to account for the clearance you and any workout partners need for each activity. Folding equipment can create additional space for floor work when not in use. Store smaller equipment such as hand and leg weights, jump ropes, and resistance bands in a box or container sized to the job.
Finish off your exercise center with some entertainment. A minimedia center with a portable stereo and/or television can motivate and prolong your workouts, whether you cue up an exercise program, the news, your favorite tunes, or a book on tape. Check Chapter 9 for tips on setting up and organizing media equipment, tapes, and disks.
Keep exercise equipment that you use only outdoors, such as wrist weights for walking, in the closet closest to your exit door.
Gift wrap center
If wrapping a simple gift requires a trip to the attic for paper, a desk drawer for scissors, and the kitchen for tape, you can get back the joy of giving with a gift wrap center. A single location speeds up the job and also helps you keep inventory and restock supplies, so you’re not running late for Sally’s birthday party only to discover that there’s not a sheet of wrapping paper in the house.
You can purchase specially designed plastic containers to hold flat and roll wrap, ribbon, bows, scissors, tape, gift cards, and pens as in Figure 12-2. A box about the size of a brown paper shopping bag is another option for standing rolls on end; put the remaining supplies on shelves or in drawers.
Stock your wrapping center with both birthday and all-occasion paper and trimmings. Holiday wraps can be stored with holiday supplies until the season draws near.
Figure 12-2: Wrapping containers make gift-giving easy.
The Attic
The word alone can conjure up images of cobwebs and junk. While a cluttered place crawling with spiders can quickly become household Siberia, a well-administered attic can serve as a powerful primary or adjunct storage area — so break out a broom and the five W-A-S-T-E questions and go clean it out.
Attic storage principles are essentially the same as in the basement, except that the place is likely to be hotter in the summer and colder in the winter, which makes the attic a bad choice for photos, tapes, books, and papers that could be ruined by extreme temperatures. Food doesn’t fare well here either. However, clothes, toys, decorations, luggage, off-season sports equipment, memorabilia, and many other items do fine in the attic. Refer back to the section on storage earlier in this chapter and make full use of the space under the rafters. These items work well in the attic:
Clothes: Off-season clothes, off-season coats, costumes, and hand-me-downs in waiting, sorted by category as described in Chapter 6.
Sports equipment: Off-season or rarely used: skis, golf clubs, bikes, racquets and balls, bowling ball, volleyball net, sports shoes, and so on.
Toys: To save for younger children or rotate back into active stock (see Chapter 10).
Baby (when expecting another): Clothes, accessories, blankets, equipment (crib, playpen, carrier, swing), toys, books, CDs, and tapes.
Figurines and decorations: Only those used in regular rotation as explained in Chapter 8.
Listen closely. Do you hear the silence? With everything in its place in the basement and attic, the clutter has finally stopped cloning itself. You can find what you need when you need it and sleep easy the rest of the time. Peace at last!
Chapter 13
Patrolling the Borderlands: The Garage, Patio, and Shed
In This Chapter
Storing tips for a great garage and shed
Parking like a pro
Organizing for outdoor fun and yard care
Clearing the deck for a high-performance patio
Getting a handle on garbage and recycling
B elieve it or not, garages were originally built to house cars. My work as a professional organizer has shown me that many people have forgotten this primary purpose, and some can’t get a car into their garage if you pay them. Why do I find so much stuff jammed into garages, piled on patios, and spilling out of sheds and onto the lawn around? The good reason is that people love the great outdoors, and they tend to own an abundance of lawn and gardening equipment to enjoy and maintain their outside spaces. The less-admirable cause of all the clutter is that areas beyond the immediate living environment are easy to overlook.
Though you may be tempted to take a laissez-faire attitude to the outer limits, think about the face you present to the world with your household perimeters. Just because you can’t see the junk piled high on your balcony from inside your apartment doesn’t mean your neighbors don’t. The fact that you forged a path from your car to the garage door doesn’t prevent your passenger from observing the stuff on either side. Garden gear is in the yard; toys are strewn on the patio or porch; and garbage cans are forced outside because the garage and shed have no room. The result is an eyesore for you and the community alike.
When you clean up these spaces, you can get outside with everything you need to have a great time. Spruce up the grass. Throw dinner on the grill. P-L-A-C-E summarizes a plan to patrol your borderlands, putting everything in its place so that you can enter and exit the house with grace.
Purge: Toss unused, outgrown, or broken sports equipment and toys, old supplies, and things too dirty or dusty to use.
Like with like: Organize items into centers by like type: car accessories and supplies; tools; lawn, garden, and snow equipment and supplies; sports equipment and toys; pool supplies; patio furniture; and grill equipment.
Access: Move inside toys back into the house. Keep car supplies on a high shelf out of the reach of children or enclose them in a cabinet. Put off-season sports equipment into indoor storage or the shed. Keep patio furniture and/or lawn and snow equipment in a shed. Put recycling bins near the garage door leading to the house.
Contain: Use a cabinet or shelving in the garage for car supplies and a pegboard for tools. Hanging hooks can hold bicycles, lawn chairs, and ladders. Place sports gear into racks and balls and toys into baskets. Use a deck box to contain patio items, and if you’ve got a storage shed, house current lawn or snow equipment and pool supplies there.
Evaluate: Can you drive in and out of the garage and park with ease? Is everything you need for outdoor activities here and nothing else? Do the patio furniture and grill set have off-season homes? Does your property appear neat and tidy all the way from the outside in?
Getting a Ground Plan: The Garage
The ground rule for what goes in the garage is that you currently use it there or outside. General storage and off-season equipment can be relocated into the house or storage shed, if you have one. Use W-A-S-T-E (see Chapter 3) to decide what’s worth keeping and what’s a waste of space.
Before you do anything, move the cars out of the garage, clear everything off the floor, and hose it down, starting at the back and working your way out the door. Sweeping does little more than rearrange dust in the garage. A hose with a good strong stream, on the other hand, can get dirt off the floor and down the driveway. The wet-cleaning method may also provide the motivation you need to keep the garage floor clear.
Next, park your cars in the garage, take a piece of chalk, and mark their width and length on the floor and their height on the wall. Open the doors and mark off their clearance curve. This is the space you need to keep clear as you consider where everything else goes.
Finish off your garage ground plan by figuring out what goes where. Move out the cars, survey the space, and see where you can install each of three options:
Hanging hooks. You can get bikes, big tools, sports equipment, lawn chairs, and ladders off the floor by hanging them on heavy-duty wall- or ceiling-mounted hooks. Put all items in easy reach and reserve the lowest altitudes for the heaviest items. Don’t put up hooks haphazardly; measure what will hang there and leave clearance space accordingly.
Open shelving. Whether mounted on the wall high enough to clear the cars or freestanding on the floor, shelves can hold and organize smaller items and supplies like car supplies.
Closed cabinets. They may cost more than open shelves, but cabinets can save time and work by keeping their contents clean. With cars going in and out and circulating outdoor dirt, the garage will make unenclosed items grungy fast.
Think vertical in the garage. There’s lots of wall space above automobile level just waiting to get used.
Garage safety guidelines
Shine a light for nighttime safety. Install two exterior spotlights on either side of the garage door and a good overhead light inside. Motion detector lights are nice for automatic illumination as you pull in — or as a prowler noses around.
Computerize the garage door lock so no one needs to worry about forgetting a key. Children can even go without one, as long as they can remember the code — so make it a word. Hide a house key in a designated spot in the garage so kids or forgetful adults can get in the door. Do keep the door leading from the garage into the house locked, unless you like to reward burglars who succeed in cracking the garage door code with an easy walk inside.
Regularly test the electronic block on the garage door opener, which makes the door stop when it hits something, by putting a garbage can in its path and hitting close. Unblocked, a misfired close message may crush the hood of your car; in the worst case, the door may strike a child. Choosing aluminum for the door will make it lighter and therefore less lethal to things in its way, as well as save you the regular paint job.
Dealing with Your Wheels: The Car Center
In today’s mobile society, few investments yield such tangible benefits as a car. Often serving almost as a second home, cars take people to work and school, carry home the groceries, provide party transport, expedite errands, and enable trips near and far. With all these roles to play, cars can fall victim to wear and tear if not cared for and maintained. Protect your investment with organizational tactics that keep your vehicles in drive.
Parking without wrecking
How often do you hit a garbage can or level a bike when pulling in or out of the garage? Ease the parking process by purchasing a plastic parking guide like the one in Figure 13-1 that tells your tires just where to stop. More playful types may prefer to hang a tennis ball from the ceiling that taps your windshield to tell you that you went far enough. (Downside: A ball hanging from the garage ceiling can prove annoying to passersby.) Trick number three is a chalk or pencil mark on the wall. When your shoulder is even with the line, shift into park and power down.
Figure 13-1: A parking guide helps you stop the car before hitting some- thing else.
Photo courtesy of Lillian Vernon.
By the way, I recommend backing into your spot. Not only can this position the trunk closer to the door to the house for loading and unloading, but when you leave again you can exit the driveway with a full frontal view of kids playing and cars driving by.
If your passengers are prone to dinging car doors against the other car or garage walls, you can cushion the blow with bath mats hung from the ceiling overhead. Like the tennis ball, hanging bath mats may slice up your space more than you like, but those who prioritize their paint jobs may bite.
Supplies for a smooth ride
Unless you’re a car wash junkie and mechanic’s addict, you probably want some supplies on hand to keep your ride running and looking smooth. The list for the average motorist might include
Antifreeze/coolant
Windshield wiper fluid
Motor oil
Soap
Bucket, sponges, and old towels
Upholstery protector
Fabric cleaner
Whitewall tile cleaner
Rubbing compound
Wax
Touch-up paint
Squeegee
Chamois cloth
Extra windshield wipers
Extra air filters (easy to change yourself)
Keep all these precious but poisonous supplies on a high shelf out of reach of passing children. If you wash your own car, you may want to contain your drying towels in two small garbage cans, one can for clean towels and one for dirty until you have enough to wash.
Maintenance is made easy by hanging a bulletin board on a garage wall to post a spreadsheet for each car. One glance can tell you when your car is due for an oil change or tune-up, or whether your mechanic is trying to resell you the same job he did last year.
If you like to look under the hood, get a flashlight with a hook designed to hang inside and leave your hands free to work.
Fixing It Neatly: The Tool Center
An avid carpenter or handyperson may prefer a workshop in the garage, where air and sunshine are plentiful and messes aren’t a problem, to a basement location. If you’re one of these and live in a moderate climate, set up your main workbench here. Otherwise, you could move your tools and supplies out to the garage during the summer, and then back into the basement as the temperature drops. See Chapter 12 for more on setting up a work center.