Scale down your ”wants”

Thu., May 19, 2005

Cheryl-Anne Millsap Cheryl-annem@spokesman.com

Sarah McGinn offers the following tips for storing necessities:

•Bathroom. If you have limited closet or vanity space, purchase plastic shoeboxes to store first-aid items, cosmetics and other supplies. Label boxes and make sure items are returned to the appropriate box after use. "Small boxes limit how many of each item you can accumulate," she says. "If it doesn't fit in the box, you don't need it."

•Multi-task. Purchase furniture pieces that can serve more than one purpose. Use an ottoman to store pillows and blankets. Baskets can hold mail or school papers.

•A place for everything. Instead of filling bedrooms with bulky chests of drawers, McGinn recommends purchasing specially designed built-in closet storage systems that utilize floor-to ceiling storage space. "You'll find by using every inch of your closet you have room left over for non-clothing items such as books, seasonal items and sporting gear," she says.

•Up, up and away. "The two or three feet below the ceiling are often overlooked," McGinn says. "Build shelves above windows and doors and limit the depth of shelves so they don't become catch-alls."

If you don’t want too much, you need to start out with less. Sounds simple, right? Unfortunately, most of us bring too much with us.

Organizational expert Sarah McGinn uses her own linen closet as an example.

“When I got married, The Bon Marche recommended I register for eight towels, so I did,” McGinn says. “But later I realized I didn’t really need that many.”

McGinn thinks we are conditioned to think we should have more, when less is enough. “We naturally tend to fill the space we occupy whether that’s a large or small space,” she says. “If a closet has room for a lot of shoes, we tend to have more shoes.”

Life in a small house, apartment or mobile home requires thoughtful storage solutions.

“If you don’t want to look up and find you’re buried,” she says, “pare down the everyday items and ask yourself what you really need.”

If you find your house or apartment is already bulging with an accumulated mess, McGinn counsels those who attend her seminars to begin anew. “I’ve always been an advocate for starting over,” she says. “From a single drawer to the entire kitchen, the same thing applies.”

She recommends clearing a drawer, shelf or cupboard completely. “Require each item to earn its way back into the location,” she says. “This is especially important when you live in a small space.”

The secret to keeping a room, or a house-full of rooms, neat and organized, is to be vigilant about what you allow into the space. “Make sure that each person living in that space knows where things go and items get put back,” McGinn says. “Living in a small space is a good opportunity to evaluate what we have.”