Spring is here. If your weather is like mine in the foothills of Northern California and you have been inundated by snow, you might not be feeling it yet. But your house and closets are in need of that spring-cleaning attention regardless of the weather. And it’s as easy as A B C.
Start by making three distinct storage spaces.
A, B, C & D
A is space that holds items you use on a regular basis—daily or weekly. That includes clothes, shoes, coats, and items for that particular season. Summer A space would, of course, hold items like swimsuits, water shoes, wind breakers, etc. In our home, A space is usually the closets.
B is space contains items that you use but on a more limited basis. In our house, it’s something like the tennis rackets, since we only play once a month or so. For us, B space is in the garage.
C space is storage for less used items. That’s the yearly items you want to be able to find (Halloween decorations, for example) but don’t need very often. Our C space is storage under out house that’s accessible.
D stands for deep storage space and contains items for safe-keeping – graduation tassles, that box of very cute baby items you want to use to make a collage someday, etc. Long-term storage in our house is in a crawl space that is clean and dry but not as easy to access.
Gaining clarity on how much use an item gets and where it should live will do wonders when you go to attack those bulging closets.
When my husband needs to put something away and looks confused, I can help remind him of the item’s usefulness and guide him to the most appropriate location. Sometimes, though, he tries to convince me that his and my son’s baseball bags belong right in the hall entry on a permanent basis. NOT!
