The attic is mostly a space that we forget about until we run out of space in it. Attic organizing projects can be overwhelming, but you can overcome, by understanding the challenges and breaking them down. Here are 5 tips that will accomplish that.

1. Establish the right Zones

Make no mistake. Effectively organizing your attic is a project not a task. It’s a project that needs to be broken down into a series of tasks, categories, and zones. There are always 3 zone to consider when getting organized: exit zone, processing zone, and storage zone. To understand why these zones are necessary and how they work read about my E.P.S. strategy.

2. Recognize the categories

As much as possible, sort by general categories and edit each one one at a time. Context drives decisions. Some categories are more obvious than others. Some obvious categories include holiday decorations, luggage, and keepsakes. Some less obvious categories may include archive files, schoolwork, decor, antiques, off-season clothes, children’s clothes and toys. 

3. Sort Paper last

If one of your categories is archives (or old papers), save these for last. There are two reasons. The first reason is that papers require space to spread out and prioritize before you are comfortable with discarding. This is hard to do in a cluttered space. Focusing is also hard to do in a cluttered space and paper requires a lot of focus. So clear the other categories first. The exception to this is, if you have already isolated your sleeping files. These are pre-filtered files that you are just keeping for a period of time, before you are comfortable with unloading.

4. Keepsakes

Keepsakes are another big category, that should come toward the end of the review process, for the same reasons. But how do you go about safely getting rid of items that are irreplaceable? Where do you even start? Here is some help.

5. Systems for attics

Once you have edited out the excess stuff from your attic, you should have much more space. To maintain that comfortable space, it is important to establish sustainable storage systems. Many of the same general principles for organizing systems also applies to attics, but there are some unique challenges. These include single entrance, floor structure, limited height, dust, and temperature. To learn how to address these storage challenges here’s how to compensate.

When you have more space in the attic, you can drain non-essential items from the rest of your house. This frees up prime real estate in your living space downstairs. When your attic space has well organized storage systems, you can find, access, store and restore with ease. Trusting attic find-ability means that you will be move comfortable storing more of the excess from downstairs up there.

These tips should make organizing your attic easier, but it’s a big job. If you’d like to do it, but need help with  decision making and carrying, we’d be happy to help. 

If you are a new client, you can save up to $160 with our Attic Attack Special. For the month of February 2019.