| Have you had this happen? You walk by a display in a store - maybe a wall of baskets or a variety of accordian file folders - and you think, I need to organize ____________ (fill in the blank)! You look through the options and try to remember how much you have to organize and how big your space is. You make your best guess, take your purchase to the counter and you are on your way to organized bliss, or so you hope! But then you get home and the basket doesn't quite fit on the shelf you hoped it would, or you have more categories of paperwork than the accordian file you bought contains. You make it work, because who wants to drive back to the store just to return an item, but it's not ideal. But hey, you're more organized than you were, right? Yes, but the further systems are from ideal, the harder they will be to use and the less likely you are to maintain them. |  |
Although the organization supplies you see at the store can be tempting, I recommend purchasing containers as one of the lasts steps in organizing, not the first. Before purchasing anything I recommend you sort through the items you want to organize. Decide what you are going to keep, how and where you are going to store it, and then take measurements. Measure the space available and the number/size of items you are trying to organize and then, with this information in hand, head to the store or look online for the perfect storage solution for your space. I think you will be much happier with the results if you organize first and shop second.
