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A Guide to Reorganizing a Room
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Claiming Your Space: A Guide to Reorganizing a Room
by Judy Camp
Description: Tips for re-organizing a room to better suit your lifestyle.
Whether you are planning a home office, finishing a basement,
or just cleaning a cluttered room, reorganizing can be a
daunting task, but quite fulfilling, if you follow a few
simple steps.
1. List the activities for which you plan to use the space.
All good things start with a plan, and reorganizing is no
exception. You may want to claim that extra bedroom for a
sewing room, for example, but still want to use it to wrap
presents, iron clothes and store luggage. You may want a
home office, but the closet may be a place to store
off-season clothes.
2. Visualize areas for each activity, then plan to keep
everything needed for that activity as close to that spot
as possible. For sewing, you will want an area of the room
for the sewing machine, but also some storage bins for extra
material, buttons, and various notions you'll need. For a
home office, plan to have ready access to extra paper, a
file cabinet, and various supplies.
For other activities, plan for another area of the room,
and, as before, store all the items related to the activity
within easy reach.
List the items, so you will be sure to provide yourself
the right amount of storage space. As your ideas become
concrete, draw a floor plan. Figure the amount of space
you have in each area, noting the position of doors,
windows, electrical outlets, and telephone jacks.
3. Reduce the clutter in the area by getting rid of or
storing elsewhere anything you don't love or use regularly.
Don't allow yourself to get sidetracked. People often get
sucked into reminiscing during this stage. I keep myself
from doing this by assigning a "memory box", and promise
myself I'll go through it within a week or two. This helps
me to continue to focus on the project at hand.
Some people have a hard time getting rid of things,
wondering if they will need them later. One remedy is to
set up an area in the basement, attic, or other storage
area for things you plan to give away. I once set up a
pallet in my basement, and referred to it as the "garage
sale pallet." Every time I thought about getting rid of
something that wasn't worn out, I stored it there.
Occasionally, I did retrieve things from the pallet.
But after six months I gave away everything left on it
to charity. I felt great about it too, because I had
had ample time to see if I needed the items. This works
best if you have plenty of storage space. If not, it's
best to just give the items to charity immediately.
As you go through your stuff, have plenty of boxes handy
for the items you will be storing elsewhere, and label
the boxes well. You'll save yourself a lot of time later.
4. After you have reduced the clutter, it's time to begin
to put the area back together. Start with the larger
furniture. Though you have sketched out a floor plan,
it's sometimes useful to move the furniture around to
try different options. An office, for example, can work
great in a U, J, or L pattern. Try different ways to
see what's most comfortable for you. Consider where the
windows are placed, if you want a nice view as you work.
Once you have the larger pieces in place, add anything
requiring electrical outlets and telephone jacks. Next,
add storage items. Resist the temptation to rush out
and buy storage bins piecemeal prior to this point.
It's better to have everything match and the correct
size for your needs. Be sure to measure the available
space before going shopping, and to consider your
list of supplies for each activity. Plan to buy all
matching or coordinating colors and styles for storage,
taking into account the overall design of the room.
After you begin reusing the space, reevaluate your
design in two weeks, and make adjustments if necessary.
Judy Camp is vice president of ParadoxPro.com, which provides
free advice for your home and garden at http://paradoxpro.com.
She is also the author of Time for What You Love,
http://www.paradoxpro.com/FindTime.html
