Closet Organization - Sorting Through Storage Bins

Scott Roewer: Hi! I'm Scott Roewer of solutionsbyscott.

com. And welcome back to How to Organize Your Closet Like a Pro. We're going to move on now to discover what were some of these, the hidden treasures buried in the bottom of our closet. To discover what really needs to save, what we can downsize, and how we're going to organize it when we are finished.

So two of these things I pulled out are shelves, and the shelves arent even going to be used. So we're going to have a couple of categories, one is Donate, and one is Keep. And I think we're going to go ahead and talk to the home owner about donating these because they are not being used.

So I am going to move them on over here. And at home it may be helpful for you, to also create a Donate and Keep pile so you know what you have. Also, if you are the prosperous type and want to sell a few things, you could also have a sell pile. Let's keep going.

Let's see Born to Kvetch, it's a 2008 calender, it's 2009, that's probably going to either go in the trash or something we're going to donate. These set of stationery is very important to, so we're going to go ahead and keep the stationery. Let's see, wait a second, gift cards, 150 dollars worth of gift cards, they were in the bottom of his closet, how are we going to use these? These need to be somewhere where you can obtain them, so definitely keep those. That's lots of cards, keeps safe, we are going to make a pile of those. And let's see, a bill that was never opened.

Mail does not belong in your closet. Everyone hear that, mail doesn't belong in your closets. So here we go, more mail, magazines, yeah lots of stuff that doesnt belong. So these sort of things need to find a new home, not in the closet. What else, alright, the Britter (ph) user's guide, I am pretty sure that this belongs in another category called trash. So if you find trash, go ahead and make use of it. This is probably parts from the calender, a book, we've got a bookshelf downstairs, more cards. So as you can see, as I am sorting through these things. I'm also organizing and categorizing them. More mail, our home owner is a chef, so definitely he likes to keep this food magazines. So I am going to go ahead and sort this container. I am not going to explain everything I am doing, but I want you to see the final product. So, I need to get busy.

Okay, so I have emptied the bin, and I have a lot of different categories, everything from computer software to wrapping, mail that's not been opened, medicine pile, light bulbs, even a rolling pen. Obviously, this is not all going into donation. As a professional organizer working with someone, they need to make the decisions on what stays and what goes. I can't make those decisions for them. So when the home owner gets back, he and I have some work to do together. Wow! This is lot of loose photos. Your memories are important and by tossing them in a box, throwing them in the closet, not really honoring your memories. So I have a perfect solution for you at home, so you can enjoy your photos. There is a service called scanmyphotos.

com, all you have to do is take your photos, group them by size and you could put them right into the box. If you mail the prepaid box to them, soon they will return your photos, and all of them scanned on a DVD. So you will be able to pack those photos away, and still be able to enjoy your memories. The best way to that, is if you have an electronic picture frame. What this does is you upload your photos to it and then it's scrolls through and gives you a slide show of all your photos. So instead of having lost memories, you will have them for yourself and all your friends and family to enjoy. So this is the best way to share your photos with your friends and family. Everything you see here came from one bin, you need to continue this process until every box, every container; everything is sorted, categorized, and organized. Don't forget your donations and don't forget to trash. We're going to continue but we're going to move on to our linens, so we can get the linens and the clothes organized and sorted as well. So come on back.