Tag: organization

5 Hall Closet Organization Tips

Post author By Trisha Lake, Owner of TLC Cleaning
Post date July 15, 2020
No Comments on 5 Hall Closet Organization Tips

Hall closets may be small, but oh boy, are they mighty. We stuff these compact spaces with coats, gift wrapping, paper towels, shoes, sporting equipment—and so much more. Hall closet organization and cleaning is an enormous task that we don’t always have the time for.

Located in Fargo, North Dakota, TLC Cleaning will schedule recurring cleaning services to keep your home neat and tidy. This way, you can dedicate some time to do some home and hall closet organization!

Until you schedule those cleaning services, here are some helpful tips on keeping the cluttered coat closets nice and tidy!

Reclaiming Your Closet

No matter how desperately you try to keep your closet under control, it somehow has a way of becoming a storage solution for your home’s clutter. No matter if you have a walk-in or super small space, these hall closet organization ideas are sure to maximize your closet space and make everything in them easy to find.

There’s a smart storage space idea for every closet and budget, so you’ll have a cleaner and more manageable space before you know it. The best perk? Thanks to these tips, you might even be able to find your winter coat that went missing years ago.

1. Evaluate

The first step for creating an organized closet is to create a rule for what specific category of items you will store in your closet. Making a strict decision on what you will keep in this closet will eliminate clutter and stress.

Reduce the clutter by stopping yourself from constantly throwing all those random things you find that need a place to live into the closet.

2. Empty Out and Clean

Pull EVERY single item out of the closet and to a nearby sorting space. Then give that empty closet a detailed cleaning by wiping off shelves, dusting the baseboards, and vacuuming the floor.

3. Sort and Remove

You’ve already decided which items belong in the closet. Now, it’s time to take the things that don’t belong out of there. Decide whether each item belongs in the donate pile, keep pile, or the garbage bag.

Once you’ve gone through everything, sort your KEEP items into specific categories.

Bring the items that don’t belong in the closet to their new home, gather the items marked for donation, and put them in your car.

4. Organize

Here’s where we have some fun and get creative! There are a billion and one different tricks, ideas, and strategies to hall closet organization. Depending on what you have decided to store in the small space, your options will vary.

Follow these simple hall closet organization tips to keep coats, shoes, crafts, and toys under control.

Create Clothing Dividers

Purchase or print some easy to hang divider tags. You can now quickly and easily sort through the sizes and categories of the clothing you’re looking for.

You can kiss, running late to events because you couldn’t find that sweater shoved in the back of the closet “goodbye!”

Recruit the Help of Shower Rings

Instead of assigning each scarf its own hanger or knotting them all up onto one, place shower rings on hangers to create individual holders for your entire tribe.

Kill two birds with one stone by getting rid of those unwanted wrinkles and crammed coat rods!

Take Advantage of all Vertical Space

When you start to think every inch of that closet is taken up, take another look around. Be sure to pay attention to any extra space on the walls and fill it with hooks!

Place these hooks at various heights to hang necklaces, scarfs, bags, and belts. You can even hang baskets to fill with crafts, toys, hats, etc.

Keep Your Shoes Off the Floor With Proper Shoe Storage

Quickly find each shoe pair by keeping footwear in shoe bins or investing in a shoe rack. You can even organize by color and occasion!

Drawer Organizers

Quickly find toys, cleaning supplies, or crafts with simple drawer organizers. Pick bright colors or patterns to bring some extra happiness out every time you open your drawers.

Color Coordinate Everything

The quickest way to take your closet from junky to jaw-dropping is to color coordinate! It’s as simple as hanging coats by color, placing shoes by color, and putting toys in colored containers. This little detail makes all the difference to your hall closet’s organization.

Hang Bags on the Door

Putting hooks on the inside of your closet door will offer up more space everywhere else. It also makes finding the right bag so much easier.

Use Space Up Top

Savvy storage boxes were practically made for storing those random knick-knacks above the coat rod. Add some extra shelves up high. The higher you go, the more space you’ll add!

Label Like Crazy

Baskets are great for stylish hall closet organization, but only if you know what’s inside. Knowing the content of a storage bin is especially important on a top shelf, so it’s time to grab your label maker and get to work!

The more you take advantage of labels, the less likely you are to throw those random items wherever they’ll fit.

5. Maintain

Maintaining the hall closets organization can’t be stressed enough! It is the most important tip to remember.

Now that you’ve spent all that time and effort thoroughly cleaning out and organizing that cluttered closet, don’t make yourself repeat these steps all over again in the future!

Do a twice-a-year maintenance session routine for your hall, mudroom, bedroom, and linen closets. Take a minute to mark your calendar with hall closet clean-out days. With this system, you’ll enjoy an organized hall closet all year long!

A good tip is to do closet upkeep sessions in the spring and fall since it aligns with the change of seasons (and many of the items in our closets are used only during certain seasons).

Hall Closet Organization Tips From TLC Cleaning

With these changes, your closet will be functioning so much better, and you’ll be able to keep it organized. You can stop being embarrassed when a guest drops by, and you hang their coat in the hall closet!

Now that your hall closet looks organized and better than ever, it’s time to make the whole house look just as amazing! Are you tired of cleaning and organizing after all that hard work? No problem! Call TLC Cleaning to schedule recurring cleaning services to keep your home neat and tidy because you deserve a housekeeper!

Tags cleaning tips, closet, hall closet, organization

Organization

21 Things in Your Home You Should be Throwing Out

Post author By Trisha Lake, Owner of TLC Cleaning
Post date March 26, 2020
No Comments on 21 Things in Your Home You Should be Throwing Out

AdobeStock 254998036 1920w We all love a good decluttering session. But sometimes, it can seem daunting and unproductive. Here’s a compilation of all of the things in your home you should be throwing out.

Once you’ve decluttered your home and are ready for a deep clean, call TLC Cleaning in Fargo, North Dakota. Support a small family-owned business by scheduling a deep or recurring cleaning with TLC to make all of your decluttering efforts worthwhile.

21 Things in Your Home You Should be Throwing Out Room-by-Room

The Kitchen

A cluttered kitchen drawer. Search your drawers for things in your home you should be throwing out.
A kitchen is a busy place in most homes. With plenty of cool kitchen gadgets, food, and cleaning products, there are plenty of things in your home that you should be throwing out regularly in this space.

1. Takeout menus

If you hoard takeout menus, it’s time to ditch them. With basically all restaurants displaying their menu online, there is no longer a need to hold onto these. Just make sure you toss them in the recycling instead of the trash, please!

2. Expired food

Ditching expired food seems like a no-brainer, but sometimes it’s overlooked. Whenever you are putting away new groceries, check what you already have for an expiration date. If you are super organized, consider keeping a running inventory of your pantry.

Make sure you always store the oldest food in the front for maximum efficiency too. Storing food this way will help prevent any unnecessary food waste.

3. Scratched non-stick pans

This might be tough, but please ditch all Teflon pans with scratches on the inside. This scratched coating can end up in your food, which is not good for you or your family.

Avoid using metal utensils on all future non-stick pots, or invest in cast iron or pans without non-stick coating instead.

4. Duplicate utensils

You don’t need more than two slotted spoons. In fact, you can probably get away with just having one. Donate or toss your utensil duplicates, and then organize those kitchen cabinets and drawers.

5. Plastic Bags

While reusing and re-purposing plastic bags is great for the environment, it’s not the best for top-tier home organization. If you have piles and piles of plastic bags, see if you can offer some to your friend with a cat or dog who uses them for bathroom duty. If you can’t find a better use for them, it’s time to recycle them.

While you can’t put plastic bags in your recycling bin, see if you can recycle them at your local grocery store to help keep your kitchen clutter-free.

The Living Room

A man using a vacuum to clean his couch. He is doing this after tossing Things in Your Home You Should be Throwing Out.

If you’re living in your living room, there are plenty of things in your home you should be throwing out here.

6. Games you never play

Games that get shown no love or are determined to be unusable because of missing components should not have a place in your home.

If they’re complete, donate them. If the games are missing pieces, they can be tossed. Unless you happen to know an artist that uses old board games or puzzles in their work, this is something in your home that you should be throwing out.

7. Whatever is under your couch

Yep, it’s time. Get the long-handled broom and fish around under there. Or better yet, get a helper and move the sofa completely. Throw out all the trash, organize the cat toys, and vacuum.

8. Junk mail

It’s time to go through the junk mail piling up by the door. Once done, try to sort and recycle every day. Be sure to destroy any personal information beforehand and recycle, recycle, recycle!

The Bathroom

A young woman is looking through her medicine cabinet.

A bathroom is a notorious place for stashing things in your home that you should be throwing out. Pay close attention here.

9. Expired meds

Yep, medicines have an expiration date, just like food. You’re better off not taking that Pepto that expired five years ago. These medicines include eye drops, first-aid supplies, and topical meds too.

Please return over-the-counter and prescription medicines to a drug return program in your area.

10. Perfume and makeup

Perfume goes bad between 3-5 years. It can result in unpleasant smells and skin irritation. Yuck! If a fragrance is especially sentimental, purchase a rollerball and keep that instead.

Similarly, makeup can also go off. As a general rule of thumb, powder products tend to last longer than creams. Anything that is exposed to extreme heat has a funky smell or a texture change should probably get tossed.

To learn more about when makeup expires, click here.

11. Old towels

Funky or older towels you would NOT give your guests under any circumstances can be donated to an animal shelter. If anything is particularly holey, just do us all a favor and get rid of it.

Keep a few miscellaneous towels on hand for cleaning and emergencies, but you don’t need 16 ugly towels, okay?

The Bedroom

A woman holding up sneakers and holding her nose.

The bedroom isn’t exempt from things that you should be throwing out, especially since that’s where your closet is. That one’s a doozy.

12. Broken hangers

Stop putting broken hangers back in your closet. Just stop.

13. Old prescription glasses

We get it, prescription glasses are pricey, and it’s a hard pill to swallow when you have to throw them out. But you don’t need them anymore; they’re useless. It’s time to say goodbye.

14. Holey socks and undies

Your husband may love those boxers, but they have a hole in the butt, and it’s time to let them go.

Same with single socks. There’s always that little bit of hope you’ll find its partner, but it’s been three years, and the chances of that are slim to none.

15. Broken laundry baskets

Why do we feel the need to hold onto cracked and frustrating laundry baskets? Even if it was your favorite one, if it’s making your job harder, you should probably let it go.

16. Stinky sneakers

Your running shoes should get replaced every 3 to 6 months–or every 500 miles. Check discount stores to save some cash on a replacement pair.

17. Clothes That Don’t Fit

This almost goes without saying, but it’s time to get rid of all of your clothes that no longer fit. Too big or too small, it doesn’t matter. In fact, get rid of any clothes you don’t particularly like either. If you don’t feel good in it, it’s just taking up space.

Once you ditch the clothes you don’t love it leaves you more storage space for what makes you feel confident.

The Office

SOmeone writing on a calendar with a pink pen.

18. Dried out markers and pens

Take the time to sift through the crafting or desk drawers. You don’t need to hold on to that dried-up, red Crayola marker. It’s just taking up precious space and causing you stress.

19. Old printer cartridges

Stop buying new ink cartridges. Take them to get refilled at an office supply store instead.

20. That calendar from last year

It’s cute, it brought you joy, and you loved all the pictures of dogs doing yoga, but it’s useless now. Please recycle.

21. Old Craft Supplies

There’s a chance you might need that bag of glitter buttons from your DIY Christmas gifts from last year, but there’s a chance they’re just taking up space in your home. If you’re not regularly crafting, it is unlikely those extra buttons or other craft supplies will ever get used.

If the supplies have been unused for two years, it’s time to say goodbye! Donate them to an art class or to your crafty friend who has a project idea for them!

There Might Be More Things in your Home you Should be Throwing Out

A woman cleaning a computer screen.

This list is just a small compiling of all of the things in your home you should be throwing out. It can go on and on–but if you don’t find yourself using something, or it no longer brings you joy, please donate, recycle or toss it.

Once you feel accomplished in all of your decluttering, call TLC Cleaning to do the really un-fun stuff.

We will clean behind your toilets, the floors, blinds, and any other cleaning tasks you hate doing. Our team will do it with a smile.

We’re happy to do a one-time deep clean or provide you with outstanding recurring cleaning services. Having a tidy home filled with only practical items and things you love is an excellent way to make your home your favorite place!

Happy tossing, and be sure to call TLC Cleaning to keep your newly decluttered home clean!

*blog updated Jan. 2022

Tags de-cluttering, minimalism, organization, Things in your Home you Should be Throwing Out

Organization

Time To Purge: Ways to Declutter and Reorganize

Post author By Trisha Lake, Owner of TLC Cleaning
Post date December 24, 2019
No Comments on Time To Purge: Ways to Declutter and Reorganize

a picture of a clock with text that says

Sometimes the stresses of life seem to all pile up at work. The kids’ activities have you feeling like a taxi service, you can never figure out what to cook for dinner. That project at work is nowhere near finished, and, to top it all off, your house is crowded and disorganized with an over-abundance of stuff. What you need is a guide on how to purge your house to start feeling back in the driver’s seat of your life.

Once your house is decluttered, give TLC Cleaning a call and treat yourself to a deep cleaning of your home. After our team deep cleans your newly organized space, you’ll feel ready to tackle whatever life throws at you.

How to purge your house

We have all had the horror moment: the house is a tip, you are trying to relax in a mess, and the doorbell goes with an unexpected guest! Or you have already let them through in, only to enter the room after making a coffee, and watching with a weird paralyzed horror as they start to approach your cupboard of junk. All of this while fully knowing that a single knock of the doorknob will send your secret stash tumbling down…

Now imagine a life where this isn’t a concern. A place where you can greet guests at a moment’s notice with no internal stress or panic. A life where there is a place for everything and everything is in its place, and even your mother in law couldn’t find a corner to criticize…

Sound like the dream? Read on for our insider tips on how to purge your house of clutter.

Ditch the clutter

2 piles of folded clothes that say keep and donate

The first stage in completing a full purge of your house is to try and ditch the clutter, which can be far harder than it initially sounds. Getting rid of items may sound simple. Still, often we will find ourselves attaching sentimental value and memories to seemingly insignificant items, and it can be difficult to let things go. It helps to break down items into categories to make the challenge more manageable.

Divide into categories

Many of the great cleaning gurus will advocate splitting your clutter into categories, and this helps to reduce what can be an intimidating task. It also means that you can easily see if there are any duplicate items and assess the scale of the job with one glance. This is a great place to begin, and also helps to keep the clutter contained to a single area.

Do I have more than one?

Splitting your items by function makes this stage fast and easy; you can quickly see if you have two of something, and put one aside to donate to a charity or thrift store. In some cases, you will find unexpected doubles, and this can cause you to consider whether you need either item. After all, if you forgot about it for long enough to buy a replacement, how much could you really love it?

Does it work?

an iPhone with a cracked screen and a face with

The first consideration and easiest way to make a dent in clutter is to get rid of anything that isn’t working. Be sensible here; if it is clearly broken or damaged, throw it out. Some items will also be heavily soiled or clearly worn, and these should also be in the ‘to go’ pile.

When did I last use it?

The time test is a perfect second later for filtering out items. It can really help you when it comes to assessing the value of a particular piece. As a general rule, if you haven’t used or worn it in a year, it can go. Let’s be realistic, nice as it would be to squeeze back into an extra small leather miniskirt, chances of it happening are fairly slim! At this stage, you will probably also uncover items and wonder what the heck they are – don’t talk yourself into loving them, just get rid.

Am I likely to use it?

Once you have eliminated all the items you absolutely won’t use, it is time to determine whether you will use what is left. Let’s return to the leather miniskirt. Maybe you convinced yourself that the simple act of purchasing a gym membership would see you snap back to size zero in no time, and it stayed firmly in the keep pile.

Return to it with a critical eye – are you ever going to wear it on the school run? If you are feeling bold, then, by all means, crack on and be your very best self. If the thought makes you want to run and hide, toss it in a charity bag.

This is also an excellent chance to establish the items you actually need. Equipment for hobbies or work spares for existing objects such as batteries, or other must-haves which you need for your everyday life.

Do I really love it?

Once you have decided which items you need, it is time to go over what is left to see which items you love. Much of this is instinctive; likely, you will automatically pick up certain items as a ‘no brainer’ to keep, and the trick is to recognize and harness this feeling. If there are items you ignore or forget about until the very end, the chances are high that it is not too high on your ‘love’ list.

There is nothing wrong with a full house of items, as long as you can genuinely say that you love each and every one of them. This means that you will really enjoy their company, and won’t resent then clogging up your home.

Find a home

Once you have decided what you want to keep, the final step is to make sure everything has a home. By establishing this in advance, you will find it easier to keep tidy. This will offer you your calm, organized, and low maintenance home, full of things you know you really love.

Get things clean and tidy!

a professional cleaner holding cleaning supplies

Once you have figured out how to purge your house, it is far easier to spruce up and refresh the house with a thorough spring clean! TLC is the perfect port of call, and offer the perfect final stage following a complete purge.

Make the most of your fresh and clutter-free new space by enjoying a complete deep clean from the experts; you’ve earned the right to let someone else do the heavy lifting for a bit!

Tags declutter, minimalism, organization