Shelves to Drawers Company features ORGANIZING TIPS by Eileen Roth, Author of Organizing For Dummies

Nov. 18, 2009 - PRLog -- Shelves to Drawers Company featuring ORGANIZING TIPS ‘from the pros’  

Store items using the acronym P.L.A.C.E.™
by Eileen Roth, Author of Organizing For Dummies


P = Purge
The first letter in the P.L.A.C.E. process is P for Purge.
Purge items you don’t need, are too old, or you just have not used:

   If you haven’t used that blanket in five years, you really do not need to keep it.
   If you haven’t tossed your spices in two years, it is past their time. The zing is  gone.
   If a can is dented or “bloated”, it is not safe to eat.  Toss it.
   If something has not been used, is torn or worn, or you just do not like it any  more, toss    it.  Donate or recycle what is useful, trash the rest.

L= Like with Like
The second letter, L, stands for Like with Like.
Put items on shelves or in drawers keeping like with like everywhere.
Put the items into centers.  

For the pantry you will have:
   baking center, cereal or breakfast center, condiment center,
   lunch center, pasta center, soup center, canned fruit center, vegetable center, etc.

When putting items on pull-out drawers, try to put some weight at the end where there is more support. Also try to split some of the heavier items on different shelves.
For instance instead of keeping all of the canned items on one shelf, put the canned fruits on one shelf and the canned vegetables on another.  Put condiments on a third shelf.

Pull out shelves make it easy for children to assemble items for their school lunches or after school snacks.  Be sure items are accessible -  at child height.   Do the same for reaching breakfast items in the pantry so children can pull out the shelf and reach their favorite cereals.

Small children need to reach plastic bowls and cups for their snacks, so have those in low areas.

A = Access
The letter A stands for Access.  There are two things to consider here:
1.   Frequency of use – how often do you use it?  
2.   Closest Use

You will want items you use more often easier to reach.  If you rarely use it, it can be higher up or farther away from you.  You also want to put things near where you use them.  

Coffee cups might be right above the coffee pot – closest use.  However, you might want to store glasses lower than coffee cups assuming more children reach for glasses than adults reach for coffee cups.  Also adults are taller and can reach higher for coffee cups.

In the linen closet, keep all the blankets higher than the sheets assuming you change sheets more often than blankets.  Beach towels might be higher up too as they are only used part of the year, even if you live in AZ like me.   We may not have snow, but we do have cold.

Keep medicines and drugs in the upper shelves of linen closets to be out of reach of children.

Do organize them using Like with Like – keeping cold medicines separate from prescriptions, along with the high access.

In the garage store items like winter sports higher up during the summer and bring them within reach during the winter.  (i.e. snow skis).  Reverse that for summer items like garden tools or swim paraphernalia.

C = Contain
It is important to contain items.  Sometimes it is for safety like weed chemicals or paints and other times it is just to corral items together.  Pull out drawers in a cabinet will make it easier to see the various types of paints you have.

In the garage keep holiday items together in containers on shelves that are higher up as they are used less often.  Garage cabinets with pull out shelves will make it easy to reach items in the back.

Use clear containers to see what is in the containers in the pantry, the linen closet, and the bathroom or bedroom area.  However you may choose opaque containers for some items in your garage where other people might see what you have.   In either case, be sure to label containers with what is in each one.  

E = Evaluate
Evaluate your organization after 30 days, and then every six months to a year.  Ask yourself 3 questions:
                     What is working?
                     What isn’t working?
                     What can I do to improve?

Once you have everything in its place, you can label the sides of the shelves or inside a cabinet to know exactly what goes where.  

Be sure to share your organizing strategy with the rest of the family, or nothing will go back to where you organized it.  They need to understand why the extra bottle of laundry detergent or glass cleaner goes here vs. there.

Put everything in its P.L.A.C.E. and enjoy your home.

One such company offering Pull-Out Shelves is Shelves to Drawers Company, please visit their website for more information:  http://www.ShelvesToDrawers.com

Copyright 2009  Eileen Roth  Everything in its Place®  www.everythinginitsplace.net

# # #

At Shelves To Drawers Company, we are committed to providing top quality, custom sized, roll out storage solutions for existing cabinets. Our Dealer Program is an affordable start up business opportunity or an easy addition to a complimentary business!