Order in My Family's Life - supplies and services available for organizing the home

Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine, Sept, 1999 by Jane Bennett Clark

Can organized closets deliver us to a nirvana of neatness?

I spot them from across the room, a sleek, glossy trio gleaming with luxe and glowing with promise, yet substantial enough to shoulder the heaviest burden. Suddenly I'm convinced that my life will be a paradigm of privilege, order and tranquility if I snatch them up and whisk them home--although at $6 a pop they're darned expensive compared with the ones you get free from the dry cleaners.

It's hangers I'm hankering after, a set of walnut-stained, brass-bedecked armatures whose elegant form and flawless function represent everything my closets are lacking. Indeed, the store I'm visiting, with its inventory of wardrobes, containers and racks, constitutes everything my house is not: a clutter-free world where drawers don't stick, laundry gets folded, children know a towel rack when they see one and socks are forever wedded to their mates.

But this month, inspired by the start of a new season (and the departure of our messiest child, Bennett, for college), I plan to change our ways. For a few hundred dollars, I hope to transform our bureaus, closets and cubbies into sanctuaries of Zen.

"When life seems overwhelming, organized storage is one way of regaining a sense of control--and of finding peace," writes Candace Ord Manroe in Uncluttered: Storage Room by Room. "Nothing better provides a sense of mastery over life than having easy, ready access to the things we need."

Seeking professional help

Because no serious resolution succeeds without help from a higher power, I turn first to the National Association of Professional Organizers, based in Austin, Tex. (for referrals to local consultants, call 512-206-0151, or contact www.napo.net).

Professional organizers charge $50 to $200 an hour to help clients rearrange paperwork, time or space, says Stephanie Denton, a NAPO spokeswoman. A consultant might pitch in over weeks or months to help weed out stuff and streamline storage, or simply show up for a one-shot session to revamp a closet. Either way, says Denton, you should end up with a program, not just piles of trash: "The whole point of having a professional is to implement a system."

A few days later, I'm discussing such systems with Joyce Becker, a local consultant who charges a minimum of $40 for each hourlong consultation. Becker and I are devising ways to levitate the mountain of clothing off my 16-year-old daughter's floor (Lucy's credo: "I'm a teenager. I can't have too many clothes"), and Becker has identified a problem. "If you have furniture that doesn't work--handles that are broken, drawers that stick--kids aren't going to use them." By her reckoning, the balky secondhand bureau is a mistake, as are the lidded hamper and the drawstring laundry bag. "No normal child is going to take a lid off anything to put dirty clothes in it--or untie a string," she advises.

Becker points out that kids are more likely to get their clothing off the floor if they have enough places to put it, and suggests shelves, baskets or stacking crates as supplements. Other Heloiselike hints: Use containers that are the right size for their contents (too big and you'll jumble, too small and you'll stuff). Label everything. Throw out more than you take in. Above all, talk to family members about their choices, not yours, for storing what's left.

I try that idea out on Lucy, who agrees in theory to under-the-bed containers for her seasonal clothes and two uncovered hampers in her bedroom for darks and lights. She'd really like new shoes--and lots of them--to replace the slag heap sitting in the corner, but she'll settle for a big basket for the old ones.

Sizing up the situation

I'm huddled in my closet with Tim Duley, owner of Closets Plus, when I realize we have a fundamental problem: He's tall. I'm not.

Duley is proposing running shelves up the back of my closet and adding two shelves over the high one I already have. Never mind that about a third of the proposed shelf area is beyond my reach--Duley wants to make the most of the 9-foot-high space. His philosophy: "It doesn't cost you any more to go all the way up, so why not?"

I can't see myself making three-point plays just to toss my sweaters on a shelf. Still, such is the quandary of closet design: There are only so many ways to subdivide a small vertical space. I've gotten free estimates from both Duley and Closet Stretchers, another local service, for designs using double rods for shirts and skirts, a single rod for dresses and coats, and a stack of shelves reaching into nosebleed territory. Each company uses laminated shelving and includes installation in the price, which ranges from $245 for a 51-inch closet to $600 for a walk-in.

That comes to more than $1,000 for the three closets I have in mind, more than my budget allows (and not a penny left for fancy hangers). I decide to investigate the do-it-yourself route instead, using systems that can cost as little as one-third the price of custom work, although some brands run almost as much.