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DEE GIBNEY': SPECIAL TO THE STAR
Ask Tina and Paul Oliveira what their biggest clutter predicament is
and you get furrowed brows and along pause:
"
That's the problem," says Tina, a program consultant with the
federal government. "We don't know where to start." There's
the golf equipment, sleeping bags, te, camping gear,suitcases, otebooks
from grade.
sc ol his binders, from an industry he left years ago, empty appliance
boxes, bikes, photo gear and thousands of photos, car parts, bits of
lumber and DIY supplies. And the there's Tina's
three garbage bags of shoes, Paul adds.
All in a 900-square foot, twobedroom apartment on the secand floor
of an Annex triplex. Jena-Argiropoulos is overwhelmed by the mountain
of
paperwork
from the courses she Jenny Hong has clothes in a range of sizes, now
in plastic bags, after she lost 40 pounds. Sylvie Desroches moved from
a house
to a 750-square-foot undo on the Esplanade three years ago
and no longer has the storage space she once took for granted. She's
still unsure of how to organize her belongings. And her old furniture
now seems too large in the small space.
They've come to the Learning Annex on a soggy evening recently to hear
professional organizer Brenda Borenstein tell them the how to increase
their living space by 20 per cent.
You have to be ready to let go, says Borenstein, who along with her
trusty crew, can transform chaos' into calm in a matter of hours: She
recently
sucees*lly tackled the basement, studio and office at Toronto designer
Jane Hall's store on Pape Ave.
Thirty years of accumulated fabric samples, correspondence, drawings
and design boards were, squeezing Hall out of her spike:
"
There were no work surfaces left," says Hall, whose business grew
faster than her ability to organize it. The clutter soon Overwhelmed her
and she spent more time looking for items than getting things done. "` "The
basement was a solid wall of boxes;" says Borenstein, She and a team
of five people spenttwo days, at,Hali's. When they we're done, 60 Boxes
and garbage bags filled Hall's parking space behind the store."You
have to make up your mind that you want to take the steps it takes," Borenstein
says. "If someone is motivated and focused the work gets done."
Borenstein advises getting rid of all the chipped and broken stuff,
the collection of Petro-Canada glasses, old lipsticks - things you
don't
like or use/
."Don't keep anything you don't need, Take it to Goodwill, You'll
feel like Santa Claus," says Borenstein. "If your space was
a room pictured in a magazine, think of what it would have in it. Then
take the
stuff that doesn't belong out."
What if you just don't have the space for the stuff you don't
use, like the camping and sporting gear that is overrunning the Oliveiras'
apartment?
Rent storage for things that aren't in season, Borenstein advises.
And consider turning a second bedroom into a custom closet, using the
available
wall space for cabinets.
,For those with a paper pileup like the one that's plaguing Argi-ropoulos,
Borenstein suggests getting a set of, banker's boxes and files and
starting to organize things in loose categories: . course notes, bills,
personal,
research.
Establish a filing system and buy a filing cabinet if you have room.
Or Argiropoulos could keep the organized files in the boxes, as long
as she
can access
them as needed.
Get things off the floor, Borenstein suggests. Open mail over the'recyclingbin
so you keep only what is essential. Then: Me it. Once you've let things
accumulate, you're faced with a huge job and its easy to get discouraged,
Borenstein says, so don't try to take it on all at once.
Breakitdown into manageable chunks. Start with three easy things you
can accomplish maybe it's clearing the kitchen and bathroom counters and your dresser. Start with one hour aweekifyou
must, but don't let it paralyze you.
"
You need uninterrupted time so nothing else distracts you. So schedule time. Treat it like a doctor's appointment:'
Borenstein says people have to be hard on themselves, ,"but then you'll
feel like a_ million' bucks. The goal is to have a high-ly functional space."
Get rid of the fat :pants, the skinny pants, the clothes your sister
gave you that she outgrew and the stuff you got on sale but,
never wore, Borenstein adds. Then you're down to the items . that
look good on you and that you wear - and you now have space.
"Now you don't have to keep buying new- pants on sale because you have nothing
to wear because you can't, find the 10 pair that you already have," Borenstein
says. '
She recommends sorting. and organizing (things to keep, things to giveaway
or sell, things to throw out) before you clear a space; otherwise you'll
just be moving stuff
around.
" Find a home for your stuff `side tables with drawers for the TV remote
and for pens and notepaper.
" Use baskets to store magazines and odds and ends. Keep a basket near
the front door for mail so it's not strewn all over the house.
" Make sure each member or the family has his or her own basket for laundry
so it doesn't end up on the floor."
If you have too much furniture, or pieces that no longer work in your
home, let an auction house or consignment store take it. Use the money
to buy something new that is more suitable. Once a small space is uncluttered
and organized, it becomes much more functional. A cleared desk can double
as a table.
Lay out a beautiful cloth and you can throw a dinner party. You now not
only have more space, but more time as well because you know where everything
is and you aren't wasting hours hunting for things.'
It's a money-saver, too, because you're not buying things you don't need
to replace things you can't find, Borenstein says.
Brenda Borenstein
can be reached at www.organizedzone.com or at Organized Zone Inc.,
416-&65-2165.
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