In all the years of going into people’s homes to organize them, the most frequently asked question has been, “How do you know how to do this?” My usual answer is that it was a gift given to me by the Universe and all I do is say, “Thank you, dear Universe, for giving me this blessing.”

Being organized has been a blessing to me. When clients share with me the length of time they spend looking for lost items or the money they spend buying duplicate items because they can’t find what they’re looking for, it really bothers me. I’ve always said that my being organized was my way of coping with frustration and the fact that I can’t stand to feel that way. Putting away everything in my home, office or car where I can find it the next time has always been my saving grace.

Lest you think I’m infallible, let me assure you that I’m not. I do lose things (but only once in a while) and I know there are only a couple of places I should have to look. There are a few rules to really get embedded in your head to become good at a storage and recovery system.

Here is a really important concept. It applies to everything you touch. Store things in the area where you use them. That means that anything associated with food and eating belongs in the kitchen, the pantry, the dining room. Anything associated with clothing should be in the closet, a clothing drawer in the bedroom, the laundry or in the case of coats and outerwear, in a closet near the front or garage door. This also means that all important paperwork needs to be kept together, too.

Let me tell you a couple of stories. One client had liquid shoe polish stored on the shelf in her front closet. It so happened, her closet floor was made of ceramic tile and right outside of the closet door was white wall-to-wall carpeting. I could hardly ask her fast enough why she had the shoe polish in the front closet. She answered that she just couldn’t think of any other place and that was where it had ended up when she moved to the house 10 years ago. Now, here’s the trick…think of a place where dirty shoes might be (where you take them off when you come into the house) and where a safe place might be to store (and find) the shoe polish for use when you need to clean dirty shoes. How about the laundry room or the area where the washer/dryer are? You have a built-in surface to work on, you can spread a newspaper on the dryer in case of spills and you have a good place for the shoes/boots to stay until they are dry. This is all it takes: think of where it makes sense to use the item(s) and store it (them) there. Then when you’re trying to remember where you put the item, logic will tell you where to find it.

Another story: I had a client who was really convinced that she had to buy a new bedroom set because she didn’t have enough storage space. She had children growing up and moving away to college. As they left their bedrooms (even temporarily) she would take over a drawer here or there and stuff the overflow of things from her bedroom drawers into the drawers in the kids’ rooms. Now here is the problem; if you have overflow in your dresser drawers, what do you think might be lurking in the back and on the bottom of those drawers? I’ll bet it is the oldest things you own, things that don’t fit or things that have lost elasticity, etc. The reason I know this (and I “know” this) is because I have cleaned out tons of these drawers and the story is always the same. You go to the store and buy, let’s say, new underwear – on sale. You bring them home, put them in the drawer and promise yourself you’ll clean out this drawer one of these days. By the time “one of these days” comes along, you have purchased three or four (or more) cycles of new underwear and the overflow ends up in the back of your drawers or in the kids’ rooms.

Here’s the situation: in order to get dressed in the morning, my client goes to one bedroom for underwear, another for socks, another for a tee-shirt and she can’t find a thing. The solution was that we started in her bedroom with a big black garbage bag. (This is really important, use a black bag so that you and your family won’t be able to see the things that are being thrown away or given away.) When we got rid of the old underwear there was plenty of room for her new things that fit her and looked good.

The end of this story is that when my client gets ready to dress in the morning, she only has to go into one drawer for underwear, one drawer for socks, etc. There is enough room for everything and everything has a space. I gave her a little sermon about cleaning out the old every time she bought new. The drawer will never get out of control again.

The magic of it all:

The stories above have been duplicated dozens of times; only the address of the clients has changed. The bottom line is that whether we are talking about clothes in our bedrooms or the kids’ bedrooms or gadgets in the kitchen or drawers/shelves in the family room, the old stuff gets pushed to the bottom or the back, the new purchases get dropped on top or in front and we think we are out of storage space.

I have a confession. I love shoes, just love them. However, I have just so much storage space for shoes in my little condo closet and so…if I buy a new pair, an old pair will have to go. After all, how many pairs of black shoes does one need? I always tend to pick the newest pair to wear, anyhow. Why should I keep the old ones? I have found that no matter what I pick to give away, there is always someone who has less than I and my donated items are so appreciated.

I urge you to go through your bedroom drawers, pick out the things that can be donated or sent to a resale shop, throw away things that really have no value and as you get rid of these items, a weight will lift from your shoulders and your spirits will soar at your accomplishments. These things cannot be done in one day, but if done a little at a time they will become a big source of satisfaction for you.

As always, remember to bless the empty spaces.

Nancy Kalef is the retired owner of “Let’s Get Organized.” and formerly went to clients’ homes to organize their closets, cupboards and paperwork. She may be reached on her email at NancyKalef@comcast.net.