Our annual Get Organized! organizer and staff greatest product ideas and recommendations for 2017 are here! Keep in mind that every product we mention we have personally used or integrated into a plan for a client, so we know the pros and cons of each.
Before I get started with the winners this year, I wanted to mention some of our favorite stores to shop for organizing products. January is National Get Organized! month, so there are lots of new products on the market. Don’t be fooled by the cute packaging. Take time to look at how the items function first. We certainly want organizing tools that sit out in the open to look good, but if they do not function for my space and my lifestyle, then they are not going to keep me organized.
Elaine, one of our organizers in Tyler, Texas, loves the clean lines and look of the InterDesign Fridge Binz at Bed Bath & Beyond®. You can get this exact same brand and/or similar brands and sizes at HomeGoods®, at home®, The Container Store® and a limited selection at Walmart® (Mainstay Brand). Elaine mentions they can be used for more than just one area such as the kitchen, pantry, fridge, and medicine closet.
Jeanice, who has been with Get Organized! a year and who serves most of our Fort Worth area, could not keep her favorite to just one. She says, “I have tried a lot of products my first year but here are my favorites”. For the kitchen, Rev-a-shelf® can be found at Lowes.com or Wayfair.com and are great products, but her favorite is the Removeable Under Sink Caddy. If you need a table that is versatile and functional for crafts, or extra eating space for guests at holidays, try the Norden Table at IKEA. The table comes in two wood colors, is foldable for easy storage, and can have added casters for mobility. Lastly, the YouCopia SpiceStack, found at Target® and online stores like Amazon®, comes in different sizes and finishes to organize your kitchen cabinets or pantry.
Karla, our organizer who can give any space a wow factor, loves the clip-on chalkboard labels. Karla says, “You can erase and write new tags as the season and container use changes”. You can get these in various shapes and sizes at many discount and hobby stores.
Kelly, our newest organizer likes the Neat® scanner. Once introduced to it through Get Organized! training, she had to get one for herself. It is the best on the market for scanning documents instead of filing them away and it also has built-in software to digitally organize documents, receipts, and more. Once receipts are scanned into Neat®, you can upload information into Excel, Quicken, Quickbooks, and more. Documents can be tagged into categories for quick retrieval. While you can get this item through the neat® company website, we found that Groupon® offers the best deal.
Need a great solution for a garage? Benita says, “Gladiator® home and garage organizing systems has an excellent starter kit”. One of Benita’s first clients wanted a garage makeover and this is where Benita fell in love with Gladiator products. She purchased the system at Lowe’s®, but other places like Sam’s Club® and Home Depot® sell them too. It is a track based solution and receives very high rates from customers who have used Gladiator.
Dana, my Executive Assistant, weighed in on her favorite organizing tool for storage called Wrap-It. It is out in the stores (Bed Bath and Beyond has a 2 pack for $6.99) to help with Christmas décor organizing, but the website shows all the other uses. No more using string or tie wraps to hang extension cords or bundle garland or lights that you cut to unroll. These wraps are durable, weather resistant, reusable, come in various sizes, and have a grommet to hang the item on hooks and pegboards.
As always, I leave my prize products till the end. I have three that I have really enjoyed using personally this year. One is the Besta line at IKEA®. It goes on sale each year in December, so while the sale is over, the cost is so inexpensive you will not think you missed a sale. First, let me say I am picky. I will not go cheap just to get something, but will wait till I find what I want. The product needs to have function with lots of storage and clean lines. Besta fits all of that. I have included a few pictures for you to see the before and after of a room I redid. IKEA has a Besta Planner you can use on their site to design what you want. We first decided we wanted to maximize floor space and keep the unit off the floor, so we had it mounted to the wall. However, you can add legs or have it sit on the floor. You then pick the color of the frame, doors, and drawers, and design the interior of the unit (how many shelves, glass, glossy, wood, etc.) Use this system in a toy room, bedroom, in place of an entertainment center or a study. My whole family thinks this line looks like we paid double what it cost.
If you want to space plan a room and you want to do it yourself, you MUST try FloorPlanner.com. For the low cost of about $5 a design you can get a glimpse of what your new products will look like in your space. It will take about an hour or two to familiarize yourself with the online program, but anyone can do it.
Get Organized! is a company that provides professional organizing services to multiple homes, six day a week. We go through a lot of products organizing our clients, so trying to limit our favorites to the Top 10 was a challenge, but we did it again. If you have a favorite product, make a comment below and we will share it with our readers.
Lorraine Brock is a professional organizer, family coach, speaker, and founder and owner of Get Organized! Get Organized! is a professional organizing company in the Dallas, Texas area. Get Organized! specializes in organizing and de-cluttering homes as well as implementing systems in the home for better family management. A popular media guest, Lorraine has appeared on Dallas’ two top morning television shows: Good Morning Texas and Good Day Fox, and has been featured on various radio outlets. She has been hallmarked in many local, regional, and national print and online magazines, such as the Dallas Morning News, The North Texas Kids Magazine, SheKnows.com, and Daily Candy Kids. To get more information about Lorraine, visit www.GetOrganized.ws. You can connect with Get Organized! on Facebook, follow Get Organized! on Twitter and connect w