The Situation
The client moved and now it was time to set up her beautiful new closet.

The Solution
Laura created a plan to make the clothes, accessories and shoes easy to access, and still have clearly defined categories: casual, business, sportswear and formal.

The plan was based on the volume of each clothing category. The clothing and shoes were grouped by type, style, and then color. The purses were grouped by size, color and frequency of use.

In addition, making everything easy to access meant setting the correct heights for all movable rods and shelves.  Read more...

As an Organizer, the most common question I hear is “how long should I keep documents?” Here’s a guideline on residential record keeping.

Save for 1 month:

• Credit-card receipts
• Sales receipts for minor purchases
• Withdrawal and deposit slips.  (Shred after checking against your monthly bank statement.)

Save for 1 year:

• Paycheck stubs (Shred after your W-2 arrives.)
• Monthly bank, credit-card, brokerage, mutual-fund, and retirement-account statements
• Utility bills

Save for 7 years:  Read more...

• W-2s, 1099s, and the other “guts” of your tax returns

Before

After – Laura Ray Organizing

The Situation: This catering company grew fast, adding equipment and decor, but ran out of proper storage. Equipment was difficult to locate, because like items were stored in multiple locations. The layout slowed the staff down.

How solved:  Read more...

1. Purged outdated and less used items.
2. Grouped like items.
3. Created zones for different types of equipment and put the most used within arm’s reach.

Before – Laura Ray Organizing

After – Laura Ray Organizing

Client:  Saleswoman for a service company in Georgia.

Here’s the situation: Like many people, the client had converted a room of her home into an office. In this case, it was the dining room, which had no storage. Then, the client’s aging mother needed to move in for a few months and the only place to put a bed on the first floor was the home office. 

Solving the problem:

 Read more...

• We purged a lot. There were outdated sales and seminar materials. There were products from a former business, and household items that just landed in the space. She needed to make decisions about what items to purge.

After – Laura Ray Organizing

The Situation
Downsizing has many advantages, but can also pose a problem when it comes to storage. This client had limited storage in her town home, so she was unable to find a solution for bulk supplies, utility items and larger things, such as entertaining coolers and trays, and a cat carrier.

The Solution
We grouped like items into zones on sturdy mobile shelving to enable the home owner to move them easily for cleaning. Smaller items were stored in clear plastic boxes within their zone. This solution will help with the rotation of stock, too.  Read more...