The state of my closet

As I write this post, my clothes closet is something of shambles. The top shelf, meant for purses and hats, is a jumble of both of those plus a few scarves for some reason.  The main clothes hanging area, usually organized by color and then by article of clothing type, isn't too bad, but more than half of what is hanging there isn't currently in circulation, due to my pregnant state. The bottom, which has a built-in shoe incline, looks the worst, with an errant overnight bag vying for space with a dozen jumbled pair of shoes, again, only two of which I'm actually wearing at the moment. I'm lucky in that I have a dedicated deep cupboard above the closest that is perfect for luggage storage. The overnight bag usually lives up there, but I've been using it semi-frequently and putting it away, which involves getting my step ladder from another room, seems more trouble than it's worth lately.

Why am I sharing my closet woe with you? Well, I think it's always nice to hear someone who is supposed to have organization down to a science admit to imperfection. Professional organizers are people too. But this story also illustrates how easy it is for a well-conceived system to fall apart when you don't spend the time to maintain it.Your clothes won't put themselves away by color and type. If that's how you want them, you have to put them away that way. And in the last few weeks, a meticulous closet hasn't been at the top of my priority list. That's okay. The good news is that even though I haven't been maintaining it, because I do have a system in place, it will take me much less time to return it to its organized state than if I was starting from scratch.

You'll notice I only included the "before" picture. Closet maintenance will rise to the top of the list one of these days, so until then, you'll have to imagine the "after" shot.


**An exterior shot:

Soles4Souls

I announced on my newsletter last week (you are signed up for my newsletter, aren't you?) that I'm participating in a service project with NAPO and Soles4Souls, a nonprofit organization that accepts donated shoes in any condition and then uses them to help people all over the world. For more info on the specifics of how they do it, see their FAQs.

The project officially starts today, June 1st, and so far I have collected 24 pairs of shoes. If you are in the LA area and have one or more pairs to donate, I'll be happy to pick them up from you and send them to Soles4Souls. If you don't live in the LA area and want to participate, send me an email and I'll let you know how you can help.

Hundreds of thousands of pairs of shoes go to landfills every year in America. Shoes are something many of us take for granted. Most of us have multiple pairs we never wear. Lighten your closets and help someone in need by donating your unwanted pairs. Thank you.

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com. Sign up for Lelah's News, a once-monthly newsletter.

How to shop at home

I love the concept of shopping at home. I don't mean sitting at your computer and filling up your virtual Amazon shopping cart, but taking inventory of your possessions and reclaiming them by actually choosing to use them instead of letting them languish in a closet or cupboard. Shopping at home means you save money, energy and time, and you get the added satisfaction of know you are getting use out of a previous purchase.

There are many ways you can shop at home and reap the benefits.

1. Clothing. We all have items in our wardrobe we've forgotten about or never wear for one reason or another. Take one of those pieces out and wear it today. You'll feel like you're wearing something new, which always feels good.
2. Cooking. Use up everything in your pantry and fridge before shopping again. Use all the ends of bags of frozen fruit in a smoothie, make a soup with the last of the carrots, wilted celery and single potato. And if you're never going to use the bottle of fancy mustard that was a gift, then toss it and make room for something you like.
3. Decorating. Before buying new furniture to meet a need, see if you already have something suitable in another part of your home. The extra bedside table in your guest room might make the perfect place to set your keys and mail on by your front door. Refresh your walls by rotating your art.
4. Organizing. Never rush out to buy organizing products before you follow through with the sorting and tossing stages of organizing. You'll be surprised how many boxes, bins and trays you'll be left with once you finishing tossing everything you no longer need in your life, and you can repurpose those without spending a dime.

Do you have any shop at home success stories? Please share in the comments!

Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by Rubbermaid Products

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com. Sign up for Lelah's News, a once-monthly newsletter.

A year ago: Common clutter, calendaring and Martha

Last March I published one of my favorite posts. It's about what to do with three common kinds of clutter. They are electronic clutter (still one of the most common issues I see in my clients' offices), plastic shopping bags (please get in the habit of bringing your own reusable bags!), and used ink cartridges. Staples now offers just $2 in credit per cartridge, but you can recycle up to 10 a month, which adds up.

Last year's "mark your calendar" post is a bit out of date now, but still be aware that Daylight Saving Time starts this Sunday, March 13, and we will be moving our clocks forward an hour.

Martha Stewart is amazing, but sometimes the things she recommends can be overkill. In this post, I analyzed her video about closet organization. What do you think?

Creative Commons ink cartridge photo posted to Flickr by kennymatic
Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com 

Video review: Slimline hangers

I recently purchased a set of Real Simple slimline hangers in the color stone. Here's my video review:



Have you used another brand? What do you think?

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

Don't go it alone

Leading an organized life is usually an individual activity - we rely on ourselves to make decisions about how to spend our time and coexist with our stuff. (Those of us who live with others must negotiate when it comes to shared space.) When you're in the groove at work, dashing through your inbox, calendering your to do list, filing away your documents, you're usually alone and those tasks are (hopefully) habitual and manageable. But sometimes there are more intermittent organizing projects that just don't make sense to do alone, even if you feel like you couldn't possibly ask someone to spend time to help you. You can, and you should, because certain things can be tough to face alone. Some examples:

Garages. The sheer scale of a garage can be daunting. Enlist your family, your siblings, your friends to help you move bulky items and sort things into donate and trash piles. Even if it's only for a couple of hours on a Saturday morning, it helps to have another pair of hands around. And it's a lot less work than asking them to help you move!

Clothes closets. Do not attempt to do a major overhaul of a clothes closet alone. If you can actually make yourself start the project along it will quickly get overwhelming when everything you own is sitting on your bed in a giant mountain. It helps to have someone there giving you a second opinion about that lime green sweater you were never sure about.

Going through possessions of passed away loved ones. This is a personal and difficult thing to do and most of us have to do it at one point in our lives. Having a neutral party there while you sort and make decisions about things can help keep things moving and keep things in perspective.

Of course, you can always hire a professional organizer to help you with all of the above projects, and I highly recommend that you do if you want to make sure the time you spend on them is used in the most efficient way. But at the very least, call a friend and get them to give you a pep talk. You can do it, and you don't have to do it alone!

Creative Commons photo posted to flickr by MelvinSchlubman

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com 

Organizing overkill: a case study

I love Martha Stewart. I love her plummy speaking voice and her way of making the most complicated domestic task seem like it should be as easy as eating an apple. I love the soft palatte that she favors, even though I always go for colors that are bolder. I think she’s great, but there’s no question that she tends toward overdoing it from time to time (check out these children’s Halloween costumes).

Here’s a video of her with Martha Stewart Living’s editorial director of design, Kevin Sharkey, talking about closet organizing essentials. Some of the suggestions are normal, such as using the right kind of hanger for different kinds of clothes and using thinner hangers for shirts so you can fit more in your closet.

However, how many of us really want to use cedar shoe trees for every pair of shoes in our closets? It strikes me as a bit unnecessary and not the best use of time (pulling and pushing the shoe trees in and out every day) and money; cedar shoe trees are not cheap.

It would be lovely to have every sweater in your closet folded like it is at the Gap, but I can’t imagine it being a priority for most of us. Perhaps if you pay someone to do your laundry you could have them watch this video and ask them to do it that way.

I do like the idea of having a mending kit and sewing kit stashed near your clothes and shoes. Unless you wouldn’t know how to sew a button back on even if you have all the materials, in which case you should learn or toss gear you’ll never make use of.

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

Organizer’s blog digest 3

Lots of great stuff going on in organizing land this week. Everyone's excited for summer weather, vacations and some of the larger organizing projects you can tackle when you've got longer days, warmer nights and extra hands around the house. Here's the best of this week's posts from around the Web:

Unclutterer posts this week about outfitting a kitchen with the essentials. This post is a wonderful companion to the posts I've been doing on "preparing for every day." If you are wondering what essential kitchen tools you might be missing, these are great suggestions, and the comments have valuable information as well.

One of my newest favorite blogs, Organizing-Life, has seven tips for less stress today. Stress is often caused by putting things off that we know we need to do. Actually doing the things is almost never as hard as the mental and emotional strain of thinking about doing it!

The always helpful Lorie at The Clutter-Diet Blog gives us Ten Essential Closet Maintenance Habits. When it comes to closets, maintenance really is the name of the game.

This week several other professional organizers and myself participated in a "Blog Carnival" put on by Your Organizing Business blog. I chose to share my post about emergency preparedness, and you can catch more awesome posts from other organizers and business people there.

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com