Organizing that Christmas clutter

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Friday, January 1, 1999 3:00 AM CST

BY JEFF WILFORD

Journal Times

photo by Jim Slosiarek

'Twas the week after Christmas and all through house, not an item was stored not even a blouse. Packages were strewn all over the floor, while a mountain of others strained closet doors.

Now that Christmas is over, it's time to start giving serious thought to putting away all that holiday booty.

But where?

Yo still haven't found a place for last year's haul, or all the other stuff you accumulated in between. The closets are already piled high with clothes and shoes and boxes. You could start putting stuff in the basement, but that's what you've been doing and you're running out of room there, too.

It's not that you're messy. Just organizationally challenged.

There are things you can do to get out from under that mounting pile of clutter without knocking out walls or moving to a bigger house. All you have to do is get organized.

Janice Lutz, owner of Distinctive Interiors of Racine, stays on top of clutter by not letting it pile up. She goes through her mail regularly and she avoids stockpiling things. If she's not likely to use something in the future, she tosses it.

If your clutter has already piled up, there's still hope. Start by cutting down on the amount of clutter you have. Your basement, if you have one, is a good place to begin.

``What you have to do is periodically go down and weed through what you have. I think a lot of people tend to put things down there and forget that they own them," says Lutz. ``So being organized is really the key thing."

What you throw away is a decision that could vary from person to person, she says. But, for example, any boxes that haven't been opened for a year could probably be safely thrown away.

Now to tackle the problem of making room for what you have. This is not an unusual problem, and it supports an entire industry of space savers and closet organizers.

Closet designs, especially old ones, seem to be rather inefficient.

``The typical old bedroom closet was just one shelf and one rod straight across the closet," Lutz says. ``But now they have different cubicles and different heights of rods."

If your closet is the old, basic design, you can transform it into a more efficient storage space with a little shopping. Instead of storing things in boxes, stacked on top of one another, store things easy to see and easy to reach.

Just look around. There are hooks, carry-alls, floor shelves, wall shelves and hook shelves. There are coat racks, spice racks, shoe racks and baskets.

These options are relatively inexpensive, usually costing between $2.49 and $25 (depending on how much you buy).

There's even a starter kit closet organizer that includes racks and shelves, and doubles the space in your closet, says Debbie Edwards, an assistant manager at Builder's Square in Racine. It costs $59.99.

And these things are pretty easy to put together and put in place. Edwards says just about anybody with a hacksaw, hammer and screwdriver can do it.

``They're not hard. I know a lot of women who have tried them," she says. ``It's just making sure they're putting ... the correct anchors in properly."

Another storage lifesaver is a wardrobe, or armoire, Lutz says. It can be used in any room of the house, including the family room, and can also be used as an entertainment center.

Family rooms tend to be a little more cluttered than other rooms, Lutz says, with CDs and tapes strewn about. An entertainment center provides storage for all of that.

``The key is you just want to keep it neat," Lutz says. ``And keep it all in one space."

And Glenn Mohs, manager of the Office Depot in Racine, recommends organizing your desk from the inside out. Start by straightening the drawers and then work your way up.

Drawer organizers, desktop organizers and trays can help keep things separate and easy to reach for only a few dollars apiece, Mohs says. If more space is needed, you can get a file cabinet for between $40 and $200.

Now that you've taken care of the clutter around your home, what about that disaster on your desktop?

Glenn Mohs, manager of the Office Depot in Racine, recommends organizing your desk from the inside out start by straightening up the drawers and then work your way up top.

Drawer organizers, desktop organizers and trays can help keep things separate and easy to reach for only a few dollars apiece, Mohs says. If more space is needed, you can get a file cabinet for between $40 and $200.

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