New Year, New You, Newly Organized Home!
Have you made your New Year’s resolution this year? Are you vowing to get fit and hit the gym? Maybe you want to commit to kicking a bad habit. Or perhaps you’ve decided it’s time to tackle the beast! You know what we mean—you want to organize the basement.
For most people, your basement storage starts out exceptionally organized with perfectly labeled boxes, a clear path from one stack to the next, and a packing strategy for each item. However, over time, the boxes get shuffled around and one thing and then another is added in the pathways until your storage is a complete mess—and the new year is the perfect time to organize the basement once and for all. But where do you start? At SMARTBOX of Maryland, Northern Virginia, and Washington, DC, we have the tips and tricks to get 2013 started off on the right (organized) foot!
How to Successfully Organize the Basement
When you want to organize the basement, you only have to remember the five S’s of organization: sort, stickers, storage, space, and shelves.
Sort – The first thing you need to do when you decide to organize the basement is pull out everything and sort through it. This may seem like more work than necessary, but we promise it’s worth it in the long run. That’s because sorting through each item in your basement storage gives you the chance to not only re-organize each box and item into groups (such as keeping Christmas boxes together, winter clothes, etc.), but also sort out belongings that don’t need to stay in your basement any longer.
We recommend sorting things into four categories:
- Keep (in the basement storage)
- Store (in a portable storage unit)
- Donate
- Throw away
Stickers – We don’t mean children’s sticker books—we’re talking actual labels. All your boxes probably have permanent marker scrawled across them, but we recommend using color-coded labels when you organize the basement. Why is this better than using marker you ask? Well, once you have all your belongings grouped into different categories, you can assign each one a different color—and once everything is put away, you’ll always be able to tell at a glance which boxes you’re looking for. Each sticker should also contain a list of the major contents.
Storage – Before you tackle putting everything into your basement storage again, we recommend contacting SMARTBOX! That’s because we’ll bring a portable storage container right to your home so you can take all those belongings you’ve decided don’t need to be cluttering your basement and safely store them with us. We’ll drop off the storage container, give you all the time you need filling it, and then pick it up and take it to our secure, temperature-controlled storage facility for you—easy as that.
Space – Now that you’ve gotten sorting, labeling, and your portable storage out of the way, it’s time to assess your available space. This is one of the most important steps when you organize the basement because you can’t just start stacking things in without a plan. Imagine your basement storage is like Tetris, except you get to see what all the pieces are before you start fitting them together. Decide what needs to be the most easily accessible—for instance, you’re probably going to need those winter clothes for your kids before you need that extra bedframe. Use your space wisely.
Shelves – It’s as simple as this: your storage is going to be so much more organized if you have shelves and optimize their use. Don’t have shelves? Install them! Already have shelves and not sure how to use them effectively? Listen up! Much like when you’re assessing the space available to you, the real estate provided by your shelving for storage needs to be optimized—don’t put big, heavy items on the top shelves when it can be avoided, try to only store things one-box-deep whenever possible, and don’t put items you need regularly in hard-to-reach places!
Learn More About Using Portable Storage to Organize the Basement
Do you want to learn more about using portable storage to organize the basement? Or do you already have things you need to get out of the way in your home? Contact SMARTBOX of Maryland, Northern Virginia, and Washington, DC today! When you want to organize the basement we can provide any of the following:
Call us today to reserve your boxes!
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