Closets are one of my favorite spaces to organize. They're tiny, contained microcosms of our lives. The possibilities are endless: coats, umbrellas, shoes, off-season clothes, holiday decorations, toys, memorabilia, kid's clothes, general storage, books, office supplies - any number of things remembered and forgotten. C.S. is a mother of three girls with chronic pancreatitis, a progressive condition that prevents their bodies from properly absorbing nutrition through the food they eat. The youngest drinks prescribed nutrition shakes to supplement her diet. The other two receive the bulk of their nutrition through feeding tubes. They receive shipments every three weeks of nutrition shakes, formula, bags, and a variety of other medical supplies. This mountain of supplies needs to be stored in a way that allows daily access, a quick view of the inventory when the call comes in to reorder, and an easy rotation of stock when shipments arrive. When I arrived, C.S. had a closet full of medical supplies that had spread out into the hallway and the laundry room. Her kid's prescriptions had recently changed, and she was storing both old supplies that she could no longer use and new supplies as they arrived. She was buried and her busy schedule afforded her no time to sort through the boxes, organize the closet where the supplies were stored, or to donate the supplies her family could no longer use. The first step was to understand how the closet was used. How the supplies where used. Which supplies were new and which could be recycled or donated. Then we emptied the closet completely along with the boxes stored in the closet and in the laundry room. We disposed of expired supplies, donated what we could, and organized the remaining items that the family actually used. C.S. hates looking at the cardboard boxes. So, while we originally used the boxes to organize the closet, once we knew the system worked, we traded the majority of the boxes for fabric bins and baskets. Now C.S. can easily access supplies on a daily basis when needed, ordering supplies is as simple as walking to the closet and quickly looking over the shelves, and the prodcedures we developed for C.S. to deal with shipments ensure her hallway and laundry room are medical-supply free.
Happy Organizing!
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorI'm Jen, a professional organizer ready to help you take charge of your space, free up your time, and lead a more organized life! (Read more about me here) Archives
October 2022
Categories
All
|