9 Things You Must Know or Do When Buying Products for Home Organizing
Don’t just go shopping for any home organizing product. Plan! You can determine what you’re looking for even if you don’t know exactly what it looks like. Here are the do’s and dont’s of shopping to meet your home organizing needs:
1) USAGE - You don’t ever want to buy a home organizing product without knowing its exact intended usage. Doing so doesn’t help you get organized and instead may create more clutter in your home.
EXAMPLE: Ask yourself what exactly do I plan to put in this bin, chest, box, jar, etc.?
2) DIMENSIONS - What are the dimensions of the item you want to place in this organizing product?
EXAMPLE: I want to store game boards in their boxes and they are each three feet long by two feet wide and the entire stack will be three feet high.
3) FUTURE NEEDS - Consider and allow for future expansion when you buy home organizing products.
EXAMPLE: If you collect ornaments that hang on Christmas trees, you’ll want an expandable ornament box or one with multiple layers, even if you don’t use all the slots this year.
4) LOCATION - Before you buy a home organizing product, know exactly where you will put it.
EXAMPLE: I have room to stack a set of four bins in my garage rear right corner.
5) LIST-MAKING - Make notes of the characteristics mentioned earlier like dimensions and shapes and take that list to the store with you. Otherwise, you’ll be surprised at how similar all the bins and other home organizing solutions look in the store. And then you might buy the wrong size.
EXAMPLE: Write that you need a translucent bin that’s three-feet long, about two-feet wide and at least three-feet tall to accommodate storage of that dancing Santa ornament after the holiday. Also write that the bin needs to be stackable.
6) BUY FOR YOU- Only buy a home organizing product for someone else if you have their input or at least a thorough knowledge of their needs, home space, home decor and personal tastes and behaviors.
EXAMPLE: Your neighbor may not appreciate the cute red leather foot stool with the storage compartment if she owns house cats with long toe nails and her living room contains all blue and brown furniture and accessories.
7) BUDGET - Don’t buy home organizing products that bust your budget. Shop around for coupons and deals. Or just get creative and think out-of-the-box.
EXAMPLE: A 9″ X 12″ envelope box when empty holds letter-size file folders upright as well as any file storage crate or file cabinet. Just tear off the lid and you have a file box. Need something fancier? Do the outside in decorative contact paper sold at any dollar store.
8) THINK EASY - Only buy home organizing products that make your life easier somehow. Cute doesn’t necessarily mean functional.
EXAMPLE: A beautiful storage trunk that contains items you use frequently is a hassle if you have to keep it stashed in a closet because you have no appropriate floor space for it elsewhere.
9) RETURN IT - You can return any home organizing product that doesn’t work. Don’t delay in doing so.
EXAMPLE: If despite your best planning efforts, you find that vertical shelving unit looks tacky and too enclosed in the space where you anticipated placing it, put it back in the box and return it.
Shopping for home organizing solutions is fun. But stick to window shopping for these products until you’re ready to follow these nine suggestions. Your wallet will stay fuller and your home will stay less cluttered that way.
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Karen Fritscher-Porter writes about home organizing at www.EasyHomeOrganizing.com. Visit www.EasyHomeOrganizing.comto read more than 50 FREE articles containing dozens of ideas and solutions to help you organize your home. Plus subscribe to the FREE newsletter updating you about the latest products for home organizing sold in stores