Suburban Home & Garden Resource Guide

"Clutter-Busting Your Closets "

January is the time to throw out the old and organize the new.

The holidays are a wonderful part of the year -- the one time when you can embrace that little kid inside of you, the one who wants a lot of gifts and isn’t afraid to ask for them. But what happens after you’ve received everything on your wish list, and you’re left wondering, “Where am I going to put all this stuff?”

Before you start pondering building an addition for all your presents, consider all the storage options you would have by getting a few state-of-the-art closet systems installed. Janet Stevenson, design manager for Closet City, a closet and organizational supply manu-facturer in Montgomery County, says when she’s approaching a new project, she likes to help customers set their priorities for a space. “We try to look at what’s the best that we can do for them for the space that is available,” she says. “Then we see if there are extra things that we can do in that space to make it even better.”

When Stevenson gets the call from an interested party, she goes to the client’s home to see how the space is currently being used — and shows them a portfolio that reflects 25 years of experience in the closet-designing and manufacturing business. Once a design is finalized, Stevenson suggests that her clients purge unwanted items twice (once as they empty the original closet, and again when they start to fill it back up) in order to maximize the use of space. “Once they see their beautiful closets installed, they are not as anxious to fill it up with things they don’t use,” she says.

Closet City’s most popular products are its high-pressure, 3/4” melamine, custom closet systems. The company also has a full line of higher-end systems made with pre-finished woods, finished woods and paintable wood-grade products. If counter-tops are needed, popular materials include upscale looks like Corian, granite and marble. If you’re in need of organizing accessories, Closet City is constantly researching and testing products to bring its clients the best in shoe holders, jewelry trays, clothes hampers, ironing boards, and many other new and innovative storage items.

In addition to giving the gift of organization to yourself in 2007, a new closet system is also a wonderful way to show a loved one how much you care. Stevenson regularly works with the children of seniors who are faced with the overwhelming prospect of moving a lifetime’s worth of mementos into retire-ment communities. She gets a lot of personal satisfaction from these projects, especially when she is able to create organized space for all the knickknacks and pictures that are important to her clients. “No matter how unique or unusual a situation,” says Stevenson, “there’s always a way for us to creatively come up with a storage solution.”