Cleaning your Closet

I am going to be cleaning out a huge closet we have under the stairs. I have slated this weekend to get the closet into shape. We have some shelves in it, but its also a very deep closet. There is lots of stuff piled into this closet, so much that if you want to get into one of the Rubbermaid containers in the back, you literally have to climb over the vacuum and some boxes to get to it. We have a lot of Rubber-Maid and Legal Boxes in the coset, as well as the vacuum, brooms, mops and some boxes left over from when we bought printers and gadgets and stuff.

This is my plan of action:

1. Take everything out of closet
2. Have piles of stuff, depending on whether it should go back in the closet, to another place in the house, or to the garbage. If you are not sure have a seperate pile to go over again at the end.
3. Clean out closet by vacuuming, dusting, etc.
4. Decide if you need some kind of organization tools such as more RubberMaid containers, a closet organizer system, or shelving.
5. Install anything from Step 4.
6. Put everything in its decided place- back in the closet, to another closet (this is a funny one), or to the garbage.



Also it may help to be really straight forward with yourself about whether you really need something. Do you really need 5 pairs of scissors? If so, would you be better suited putting them where you might need them? One in the bathroom, one near the laundry, one in the box of gift-wrap, etc. But don't do what I do and stop cleaning the closet in order to put together a gift wrapping kit- you will never finish anything that way!