Closet Organizers And Installation
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It’s very convenient to go out to buy a closet organizer for yourself and keep anticipating that your closet woes were over. The difficult part starts after you reach back home and try fixing your newly acquired possession. You would wish the manufacturer should have provided a warning of some sort, at least in the interest of good customer relationship! Contrary to your expectations this article may not provide a tangible solution to the problem, but bring awareness that the installation might take longer than you thought.
Closet Organizer Installation Time Line
A complete closet organization system comprises of racks, shelves, rods and hangers would need at least an hour for getting fixed. It’s difficult to believe when the manufacturers or sellers of such item claim that the whole thing can be fixed under half an hour. Perhaps that could be true for someone who has had the experience of fixing hundreds of those. But, certainly not a novice!
Let’s look at the time analysis of this simply difficult exercise.
For installation of a new closet organizer, in all probability you’ll be required to remove an old one or whatever is left of that. That would easily take fifteen minutes as you struggle to find ways of removing it without causing an irreparable damage to the wall that is going to house the new product. Contrary to the suggestions of using a crow bar from a couple of manufacturers, you would be playing safe by using a hammer and a flat pry bar.
Once you have successfully removed the old system, you get down to opening the boxes of your new closet system. You would spend at least five minutes struggling to open it with your hand till you come to realize the enormity of the task at hand. Another five minutes in deciding the options of tools you have, followed by the next five minutes at least in locating the needed tools. Mind you, it’s already thirty minutes and so far you haven’t really started with the actual process of installation.
Once you have made sure that all the boxes have been emptied (add another five minutes to the account) you start looking for the instruction manual. After intermittently scratching your head for the next half an hour or so, you come to the conclusion that either the manual has been written by a non-native or perhaps it is a common manual for a series of models by the same manufacturer.
Under such circumstances it is highly desirable for you to take a much-needed rest of at least ten minutes to calm down your nerves. In the meanwhile you may realize that already an hour is gone down the drain.
You are back to square one and spend another hour trying to figure out the positioning of different parts or components thereof. You curse not only yourself for this decision of yours, but also the designers and engineers who might have been associated with the produce, which you have landed yourself with.
With some luck, finally at end of about two hours you may succeed in your venture and achieve what you desired to. Well, you have every right to complement your genius mind, yet continue to wonder for the next few days if the closet organizer was really installed the correct way!
Closet Organization Tips
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An optimum utilization of space, whether it is of your living room or the closet, calls for some planned arrangements and a bit of effort on your part. Even a small place with all the items kept in an arranged manner gives a nice warm feeling than a larger cluttered place. With the ever-rising cost of land most of us feel the pinch of storage space. You see everything is going up vertically. Making use of available vertical space is an order of the day, for homes and closets alike.
Rather than getting habitually irritated and spending a long time to locate your personal clothing from the closet every time you are required to dress up, follow some of the tips here to organize your closet and thus make it more functional.
1. Utilize every inch of available vertical space. Items that you are not using on a regular basis should be stored in the uppermost portion of your closet. Use your imagination and create more space above hanging rods. Surely you could have more than one shelve. Of course that reduces the height of the shelves, but you might fold some of the dresses for keeping there.
2. Let the shoes rest too and retain shape. Shoes should either be on your feet or in storage to prevent people around the house from tripping over those. Proper storage keeps them in shape for a long time. You have the option of a shoe rack or see-thru shoeboxes that enable you to see the pair without even opening the box.
3. Make use of open storage place for storing items of daily needs like socks, hankies, underpants, bras, ties, scarves, belts and purses. Another option for storage of such small items that you are going to need everyday will be to have a separate drawer for them. Look into the possibility of creating partitions within the drawer so that you can have similar items in the same portion.
4. Develop a system to organize laundry and dry cleaning. Look for a vertical storage space to accommodate your laundry basket. In case you patronize the dry cleaner frequently, choose a place away from the closet for storing clothes that require dry cleaning. This will help you to have more of space in your closet.
5.Take preventive measures. The part of your clothing that is used infrequently should be kept covered to prevent it from gathering dust on the shoulders. Garment bags provide protection to the fine fabric of expensive dresses that you are not using all that often.
6. Separate out of season items. Have a separate enclosure for out-of-season garments. There are not many who have a closet big enough to store garments for all the seasons. Make available more space for yourself by storing away non-seasonal dresses in an empty traveling bag or an obsolete suitcase. Your dresses will remain safe there, as outside air won’t get in touch with those.
7. Store your clothing carefully. Some of the luckier ones may have closets large enough that do not require them to keep alternating seasonal dresses. Still, it is important to take better care of out-of season vulnerable clothing. Wool and natural silks are likely to get damaged by moths. Some of the colored clothing tends to fade on being exposed to excessive lighting. Such expensive and sensitive pieces should be stored in vacuum bags.
8. Arrange your clothes as per color and/or functionality. Using double hanging rods is very helpful for better utilizing the available space. Use the one on the front for keeping shorter items whereas the rear one is utilized for hanging of larger clothing. Another helpful tip will be to arrange clothing in groups of colors.
9. Gradually swap your wire hangers with sturdier arrangements. Wire hangers are good only for taking items to and from the dry cleaner.
10.Have a space demarcated for empty hangers. Whenever you take an item off the hanger, leave the empty hanger in the demarcated area. This little effort will help to organize your closet as you will always get an empty hanger in a jiffy that keeps the system organized.
11. Folded items occupy less of shape and remain in better shape. Ever wondered why your lightweight items like T-shirts develop” shoulder nipples”? That’s what hangers create if you leave lightweight items on them. Instead, keep such items folded. Folded clothing may be stored in drawers or even in open storage. Certain fabrics tend to get elongated by their own weight when left on hangers, and are better stored folded.
12. Eliminate regularly. Perhaps this is the most important and simplest of actions on your part that would help you to have more space in your closet. Periodically check your closet for items that you are not going to wear anymore and get rid of those items. Ideally your closet should contain only those items that you are going to keep using on a regular basis. Try following the practice of getting rid of one old item against every new piece that you bring in.
Of course it is nice to have a bigger closet, but if you keep that cluttered, soon you’ll find it insufficient for your purpose. Howsoever big or small a closet is, to make it functional you need to organize it.
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