How To Make the Most of a Walk-In Closet

A walk-in closet space is different than a traditional closet. It’s usually like a small room you can walk into, and its purpose is to hold the clothing and shoes of at least one and often two people. This kind of closet is a great option for storage and can sometimes even contain more than your apparel when there’s enough room. The trick to having a walk-in closet you enjoy is to keep it clean and organized. If yours has you more stressed than happy, consider the following tips for making the most of a walk-in closet.

Clean and Purge

You can’t organize anything without a thorough cleaning and purging party. It’s true—to make space and reorganize, you must start over by emptying the closet. Here are a few helpful steps for cleaning out and purging your walk-in closet:

1. Empty the entire space and create piles for trash, donations, keeping, and selling.

2. Take care of the piles by running the donations to the place they belong, throwing out trash, placing items on a marketplace site, and neatly piling or folding what you’re keeping. Don’t put anything back in the closet yet.

3. Scrub the walls and shelves in the closet and vacuum out any dust bunnies. Clean the light fixture if you have one.

Now is a great time to consider downsizing your wardrobe. Consider a capsule wardrobe to make more use of less clothing as you decide what to keep and what to give away. With a capsule wardrobe, you only choose clothes that all work well together, giving you plenty of options with fewer unnecessary pieces. You can then build back up carefully from there.

Maximize the Space

Next, you must maximize the space with shelves, bins, and hooks. Keep any you have, but look around the closet for more space. Use the wall spaces up to the ceiling for additional shelving. Can you squeeze in another rod anywhere? Hooks don’t take up a lot of room and are great for hanging scarves, belts, and purses. You can also use corners, walls, and the floor to create more storage.

Gather any empty baskets, bins, and boxes around the house and use them on the shelves and the floor against the walls for organized storage.

Move Things Back In

Great—you did the tough cleaning, purging, and maximizing of the space. Now you can start to put back what is staying. With all your new boxes, bins, shelves, and hooks, consider these ideas to give everything a place:

• Hang tops, dresses, jumpsuits, and pants.

• Use hooks for scarves, purses, ties, and belts.

• Use clear plastic shoe boxes to organize shoes.

• Containers on the floor are great to stow away out-of-season clothes. Keep them pushed against the wall under your hanging clothes.

• If you have a lot of space left, as well as bins, you can use the storage for memorabilia, gifts for upcoming holidays, photos, and anything you don’t use often.

Making the most of a walk-in closet is a great way to bring order to a messy space and relieve stress.

Guest Post - How To Make Your Home More Accessible If You're Living With A Disability

“I have a Disability yes that’s true, but all that really means is I may have to take a slightly different path than you.”- Robert M. Hensel. When living with a disability, everyday activities – such as getting dressed, bathing and even preparing food – can become difficult. To make your home more organized, accessible and provide a safe environment for you to feel comfortable in, there are some steps that need to be taken into consideration.

Why it is important to organize your house to make it more accessible

The importance of a safe and accessible home cannot be understated, particularly for those living with a disability. The fact remains that falls are the leading cause of injury-related deaths among Americans aged 65 and up. Tragically, every year about one-third of seniors and disabled endure at least one fall. These accidents can create further health complications that may result in serious injuries like hip fractures, head traumas and sadly enough - even death. One of the effective ways to combat this issue is maintaining an organized home environment. Home clutter usually leads to hazardous situations which can easily result in trips and falls. Take your living room as an example: Excess furniture could potentially pose a risk when placed too close together causing mobility difficulties especially for disabled individuals. Similarly, another accident-prone area is your bathroom medicine cabinet filled with expired medications. To someone with cognitive impairment, it becomes increasingly difficult to differentiate between current prescriptions and old ones thereby posing serious health threats. 

Accessibility and Rental Property Guide for Landlords

It is important to understand accessibility laws outlined by ADA or Americans with Disabilities Act. A crucial provision within this act highlights that landlords do not have any lawful right whatsoever to inquire regarding their prospective tenant's alleged or visible disabilities during application stages for a rental space. What does this mean? Put simply, no matter how conspicuous indicators there might be- usage of canes or wheelchairs owing to mobility impairments; looping hearing aids snaking around ears due to hearing impairments; some visor caps obscuring vision stemming from visual impairments - all remains the private concern and business of respective individuals facing themselves firsthand. When we ponder about disabilities, the first to come to mind are physical ones. But it's equally important that landlords keep in mind "invisible" illnesses or so-called mental disabilities. Regardless of whether one ambles around on two feet or wheels oneself through life seated on a wheelchair, both should receive equal consideration in the eyes of an unbiased landlord or property manager.

The idea behind this legislation is simple: potential tenants must be evaluated based on behavior - have they ever been evicted? Can they maintain choice relations with previous landlords? Is punctual payment of rent within reach? Has indebtedness marred past easeful liaisons? If careful research were to reveal a prospect thoroughly capable of holding up standards expected by any diligent landlord within reason – then those gates opening rental doors to persons living with physical or mental impairments must be a standard procedure. This process should have no bearing on their disability but instead, focus primarily on their positive track record as conscientious tenants. 

How smart home technologies contribute to a more accessible living environment?

Smart home technologies offer ways to better accommodate the needs of disabled individuals, contributing dramatically towards an accessible household. It incorporates elements like lighting, music and temperature control that all communicate with other smart gadgets around the house. It's fascinating how much convenience comes packed in these smart tools! One such beauty of this technology is it enhances accessibility throughout your home. controlling doors or appliances solely using your voice! For individuals dealing with mobility issues, these healing touches cut back on their struggle significantly. Independence often escapes from grasp when disability steps in; however, these technological marvels help reclaim it bit by bit. Managing tasks independently at home becomes less daunting due to the assistance provided through cutting-edge software built into our humble homes. 

Smart tech unfolds its magic within safety and security measures for disabled inhabitants - especially if medical emergencies arise out of nowhere. Not being able to get up from your place during a smoke or carbon monoxide increase? Smart detectors come to the rescue. They don't just sit idle but alert caregivers or emergency responders, averting imminent danger. Furthermore, these smart devices can help prevent unwanted accidents by setting up quick reminders for essential tasks like taking medication. Technology bridges gaps and brings forth convenience that was earlier unimaginable. 

Outcomes of having a house adapted to your specific disability

Adaptation is key when living with a disability. It all begins with modifications - small or big changes in your household that aim at combating any risks related with injuries and enhance safety measures. Evidence affirms their positive influence on how people rate their capacity for staging normal lives amidst existing disabilities. Installing well thought-out safety equipment around key areas of the house diminishes chances of hurtful rotations or accidental slips occurring during routine endeavors within one’s own house walls. Therefore, undeniably pivotal it becomes advocating around reconfiguring our homes' characteristics towards liberating accessibility arrangements particularly targeted at catering to person-specific needs incited by encountered impairments. 

A simple yet beneficial modification could be the difference between grabbing onto that rail before stumbling down the stairwell versus having nothing there. At a basic level, this means enabling them to easily access goods and services within their homes that many take for granted. A well-placed ramp, wider doorways or lowered countertops can make a crucial difference. More significantly, these adaptations pave the way towards normalcy in daily routine. Enabling individuals with disabilities to navigate around their living space unaided aids in empowering them with self-esteem.

 Organizing our houses allows us to maximize space and use it efficiently while also providing tips for landlords on how renters must not discriminate against tenants who require modifications within an apartment due facilities disabled individuals confront every day. Technology advances are paramount when it comes to easing someone dealing with a condition or impairments in order to move around freely at home; from platforms like Amazon Alexa which alleviate tasks like switching lights off/on via voice command allow Individuals overcome certain mobility limitations without having seek assistance from family members & friends which is everyone should always aim attempt.

Written by Jennifer Hope

3 Tips For Organising Your Home Office

An organized home office can improve your focus and levels of productivity. Keeping a home office tidy and organized is a win-win situation - it gives you a nice place to work, plus also ensures that you’re working as efficiently as you can be. Obviously, with a home office, you are still working within your home space, so you want it to be a reflection of your home as much as possible, but also ensure that you are working within a space that allows you to concentrate without too many distractions. 

Having the right space to work from allows you complete control of the space and setting up a home office space is much easier than people think, whether you’re doing a remodel or you’re just getting organized. However, the challenge comes with keeping it tidy and organized. Let’s take a look at 3 tips for organizing your home office and ensuring it remains a place which is productive and comfortable. 

Keep Your Desk Clean and Simple 

If you organize anything within your office, then you should start with your desk space. A messy desk can indicate a messy mind and may mean that you’re more likely to become distracted during tasks or lose focus and concentration more easily. Try to reduce as much clutter as possible and invest in desk organization so that you can easily store clutter away. 

Avoid having things such as folders or files stored on your desk if you can help it, as these often just become magnets for more clutter - keep them stored elsewhere in your office space which is easily accessible when you need them, but also not in your direct eyeline whilst working. Keep things you might need during your workday, such as pens, notepad and headphones, within easy reach. 

Reduce Cables

One of the worst things you can do within your home office is have cables trailing everywhere. Not only is it a trip hazard, but it can mess up the organization of your office overall. In order to reduce this, you could look to reduce the amount of wired devices you use and instead switch to having a wireless mouse, keyboard and printer to get rid of cable clutter. Just decluttering slightly by sorting our your cables will make a big difference! 

Rather than having power leads trailing across the room to various plugs, use an extension tower to direct all the leads to. Bind them using cable ties so that they stay in one place and further reduce the risk of tripping. Route the wires through a hole at the back of your desk and then secure them to the back of the desk. 

Create A Space You Want To Work In

If you have a home office space that you actually want to work in, then the chances are that you will look after it a lot more and keep it tidier. Whether you’re able to dedicate a whole room to being your office, or work from a portion of a pre-existing room, decorate it how you see best to create a productive and organized space. Unlike traditional office spaces which have the luxury of being able to afford an office fit out when the space is no longer functional when you have a home office, it is down to you to design how you want! 

If you know that you work best within a quiet and non-distracting space, then you can create your home office to be just that. If you’ve always dreamed of having a luxurious space, with stylish furniture, scented candles and comfortable seating, then go for it! By having a space that you love, then you are much more likely to keep it tidy and organised as you won’t want to see it go to waste. 

How To Maximize Storage Space In Your Apartment

Moving to an apartment seems like a great idea until you move in. When you’re moving your stuff to your new home, you will soon find that there is nowhere to store your clothes, kitchen utensils and everything else. It can be more frustrating for those who have a bigger wardrobe than the average person. Luckily for you, there are many things you can buy for your home that help improve storage space. 

Vertical Wall Racks

One of the first things you can do for your home is to purchase some door hangers. These are great for numerous items such as coats or shoes. Not to mention they are simple to install and are relatively cheap. It doesn’t need to be too complex. All it needs to do is provide you with that extra storage space that you require. 

Buy A Multifunctional Bed

Having a multifunctional bed is a great way to maximize storage space. These are the future for many households, especially if you have a small home. Yes, they are slightly more expensive than the average but if you shop around, you will find an affordable option. 

A multifunctional bed is where you can lift your mattress and store items underneath. Sometimes, the bed will have drawers so you don’t need to lift your bed. These are great for shoes, clothes or even extra bedding. These beds are an absolute must-buy when it comes to getting extra storage space. 

Drawer Organisers

If you want to maximize your storage space in the most affordable way possible, drawer organizers are your answer. Plus, there are many different drawer organizers suitable for your wardrobe, kitchen drawers and even your bathroom. All of these are fantastic options when buying furniture for your home if you need that extra space. Again, these are very affordable and won’t put you out of pocket. 

Don’t Be Afraid To Throw Away Old Clothes

Sometimes it isn’t always about buying additional storage items to help maximise your storage space. Sometimes you must be prepared to throw away old clothes and items you no longer use/wear to create space for new products. 

Something that we are all guilty of is hoarding and holding onto items we don’t necessarily need, especially if we no longer wear them. If this is you, then you need to go on a purge to throw away your old clothes and items. It will make a lot of difference in your apartment and help you create more space to buy new products without worrying about where you will store them. 

If you are trying to throw away some old clothes, think about what you are buying. For example, if you are buying more mens streetwear, consider replacing some of your old streetwear garments that you no longer wear. 

Wall-Mounted Shelving

Something else which is a great investment for your home is wall-mounted shelving. Not only does it give you the option of more storage space but, it is also great for putting something on your wall. We all know that our walls can look a little bare when you move into your home so why not consider hanging up more storage options?

Wall and Door Hooks

Wall and door hooks are another great way to maximize your storage space, without having to worry about breaking the bank for more storage. Again, these are great for storing clothes such as jackets, hoodies, and dressing gowns. However, there is a lot more you can store that you may not have thought of. For example, you can hang up your kitchen utensils on the wall. You can even hang an umbrella on the back of your door if you want to. Wall and door hooks are also a great way of getting rid of the clutter in your apartment as well.