Expert: Jamie Novak - 1/26/2007

Question
we are planning on moving within the next year but we just put in hardwood floors and have fixed up the house simply for pleasure oover the last year or so. my mother, sister, and stepfather had tore the place up before they moved out and their landlord is the sweetest old man, so when they moved my fiance and i moved in the place to fix it up after talking to their landlord. we have spent thousands fixing the place up since and he offered to take it off of rent but we told him that we did it for ourselves and to consider it thanks for working with my mom as much as he did. so if its cost you need to figure in to it try to keep it low but the quality up and if it is permanent then it will just help our landlord more and thats fine as well but we just need something. we are very handy and love projects where we can work together as well. so thank you for your time and for your knowledge as well. cassie
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The text above is a follow-up to ...

-----Question-----
hi,
i was hoping you could help me figure out how to size down the mountains of clutter in our townhome. my fiance is a jack of all trades AKA my free repair man, but this also means that at any given time there are numerous things apart in my living room, bedroom, and everywhere. he has bins of comuter parts that he uses to fix misc. friends and peoples computers for free but its taking up my free space. I keep reciepts and manuals and warranty info for every electronic of furniture peice we buy and have managed to teach myself to file them promptly as well as try to pick up behind him but i feel like his mother so what can i do? no closet space left un cramped by his gadgets and tools. but tools i leave alone b/c he is a mechanic and fixes my stuff with them. HELP.. thanks cassie
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Hi Cassie thank you for taking the time to write me. I understand your dilemma and have some good ideas.

I do have one question first, how long do you expect to be living in the townhome? Knowing if it is 0-5, 5-10 or 10+ years will help me give you ideas.

Talk to you soon with some fantastic doable ideas! -Jamie

Answer
Hi Cassie,
Thank you for clarifying the situation.

I am going to share some ideas here, but there are so many other solutions, you can view them on my iVillage message board at http://messageboards.ivillage.com/iv-hgrealorg?redirCnt=3

You can even attach a photo of the space to your post so we can give you specific ideas.

Now I'd like to use any "wasted" space in your townhouse. You might say there is none, but I encourage the two of you to go on a space-seeking mission. Look everywhere- most importantly look up!

There is so much space to be found, nooks here, floor to ceiling there...so jot all the ideas down.

I'm not suggesting you cover all the walls floor to ceiling with shelves or bookcases, we don't want to turn your home into a cave. BUT I bet we can carve out some space.

For all the parts for the computers and maybe even the tools, I'd suggest storing "like with like" in broad categories. So all the hard drives in one container and all the keyboards in another.

Be sure to leave room to grow- he'll probably get more stuff :)

I am a big fan of floor to ceiling bookshelves, plus they can move with you whenever you go.

Also check out your closets, if they are the typical type with a bar and one shelf you can redo them to get 10X the amount of stuff in them.

For manuals and instruction books I use a decorative accordion file box which sits on a shelf. But you may already have a system that works.

I also put all accessory parts with the booklet in a zip lock bag.

So I think locating space is step 1. What do you think?

PS Do you have a garage? With a low car? If so a hyloft system that attaches overhead might work...

You can do this, and once everything (more or less) has a home life gets easier :)