All Bright Ideas
is pleased to announce
the opening of our newest location
in
The Villages, Florida!

We proudly offer our professional organizing services in the Sunshine State to anyone living within an hour radius of The Villages including, but not limited to, Ocala, Orlando, and Tampa. Our services in Florida will be provided by our experienced Professional Organizers who travel back and forth between Pennsylvania and Florida and include, but are not limited to, de-cluttering, space maximization, organizing, paper management, time management, and unpack and setup of homes.

If you are a Floridian and are in need of organization, please email us or give us a call at 866 NEAT 911. 

Actual Before and After Picture
at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA

If you are heading off to college this fall, July is the time to start planning and purchasing the items you need. The first part of the process is calling your roommate to coordinate a possible color scheme and determine who is bringing what to avoid duplicates and unneeded expense.

As far as a color scheme, it is always a good idea to have an accent color that is one of your school’s colors. This way when you want to add a school banner to the wall or some fun items from the bookstore, they will fit right into the color scheme of your room.

When it comes to organizing and maximizing the space in your dorm room (nowadays referred to as a residence hall) it will take more effort and it can be difficult to plan because you don’t have prior access to your room. Some colleges do have room measurements on their website. So do check with your school to see if there are pictures or a layout of your room online. 

Here are some tips to help you make the most of your space:

Under the Bed Storage

Maximizing Vertical Space

Fitting More Clothes in Your Closet

College Walls - A Must Have

Storage Space Under the Frig

 If you still have difficulty planning and setting up your dorm room, consider hiring a Professional Organizer to make a fun and efficient room. If you don’t know of one in your area, visit the National Association of Professional Organizer’s website.

In a college dorm room or any small bedroom storage space under the bed is often overlooked. First, if the bed is not raised, you can consider adding bed risers underneath the legs of the bed (if your college or university permits it). With or without risers, you can use plastic drawers, a wire basket system, containers, or bins to maximize the space under the bed. This space is ideal for items such as dirty laundry, off-season clothing, sports gear, luggage, and extra blankets. You can even have three bins to sort your laundry – white, lights, and darks as depicted in this photo of under the bed storage.

When choosing a storage system for under the bed you’ll need to consider what you are going to store in it, what your budget is, and how you will transport it to your dorm room. Plastic drawers may be less expensive but will not be as sturdy as a wire basket system made of steel. Plastic drawers may end up being too bulky to transport to new living quarters while a wire basket system can be nested and used to carry items as you move into your new room. However, wire baskets will be more costly. Collapsible bins are also a consideration as they fold down for easy transportation, but you may have difficulty purchasing them in sizes large enough to meet your storage needs.

Happy college space planning!

If you want to maximize space in your closet consider switching the type of hanger you are currently using to the new slim line of hangers. You may have caught a glimpse of these hangers while out shopping. These hangers are much thinner than plastic or wood hangers, so you truly can fit more clothes in your closet as they occupy less space. It is an easy way to gain space with little investment of money and time.

Not only do these hangers save space but they prevent garments from sliding down on the hanger or falling to the floor. The hangers are covered in a velvet-like material which makes the clothing grip to it. This gripping action also eliminates the bumps you sometimes get in the shoulders of clothing from the hanger protruding out on each shoulder end. These features make this line of hanger ideal for polo shirts, sweaters, and knit fabrics.

The hangers are available in different colors form sleek black to various trendy colors. I recommend choosing a color that will still be available five years from now leaving you with the option to later add more hangers in the same color. Lines of these slimmer hangers can be found at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, Target, and on home shopping channels.

The way to maximize space in any area is to “go vertical.” When you add storage components to a small room be sure to build up as high as you can go. A person typically can reach a foot higher than their own height to pull something down off of a shelf.The photo is from a residence hall room I set up at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA.

The pictured wire basket system worked ideally to maximize height and storage space in this on-campus room. The top of the double-stacked set of wire baskets (far left corner) has a height of 84 inches or 7 feet.  The top basket is easy to pull out and use, but keep in mind that something lightweight and non-breakable should be placed in the top basket such as sweaters, sheets or blankets. 

In this picture you’ll see three wire baskets systems for maximizing the height in a room. These systems are ideal for a college residence hall or apartment.

Happy organizing and space maximizing!