Let’s Get Organized!
The Three-Step Bachelor Plan
Step Two: Storing

By David Mitchell

Continued from Gathering

• File
• Kid(s)
• Other Room
• Unknown

Now comes the rainy day! Nothing to do, nowhere to go, stuck in the house or apartment, excess energy. We all have those days occasionally. Perfect for organizing.

After you have gathered your possessions, you must organize your storage. Organization is easy with the bachelor plan. Remember: once your possessions are "gathered," all organizing is done when the mood strikes you.

That rainy day is when you will organize your storage and decide the fate of the items in your bins.

The "File" bin can wait until later.

The "Kid" bin can go in your child’s room or in your child’s closet. Perfect for his/her rainy day.

If your child lives with your ex as mine does, it can wait until he comes back to see you or be sorted for destination:

• Keep here.
• Ship to ex.

Now it is time to organize your storage.

Your everyday items: clothing, food preparation and service, and personal grooming supplies deserve the most accessible space.

This is eye level, easily reached space: grouped together and kept where they are used.

Seasonal (Christmas decorations), occasional (camping equipment and personal bills), and household extras (light bulbs, paper towels) go in inaccessible places.

The less an item is used, the less accessible it should be.

Less accessible is under the stairs, above eye level for light weight items, and below eye level for heavy items.

Think of storing this collection of your lifestyle as a problem. Make a plan and follow it.

Try to create storage that allows you to:

• Store the item where you use it.
• Grab what you need without moving something else.

Visit some of the container, discount, or home supply stores around town.

Be creative. Come home with drawer dividers (kitchen department), temporary shelves (milk crates with a board across-building supply places will cut boards to fit for less than one dollar, a section of peg board, under-bed storage boxes, etc.

Empty your "Unknown" and "Other Room" bins by using your new storage. Just an hour or two a week will work wonders.

Then tackle the "File" bin.

You can rush out and buy a file cabinet at this point if you wish. But you don’t have to and may not even have the space for a cabinets.

If space or money are a problem, there is no need to have a file cabinet. Transfer really important papers to your safety deposit box. Then organize the others in a plastic milk crate that will hold hanging file folders.

You’ll find empty spaces and counter-tops you never knew existed.

Now all you have to do is maintain it.

That’s the hard part.

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