Organizing Your Attic

Organizing your attic can seem very daunting, but it doesn't have to be!

Attics tend to be dumping grounds for all kinds of treasures that accumulate over many years. One day you go up there and realize that your attic is full of dusty cardboard boxes and wouldn't be able to find a specific item if you wanted to.

It's time. It's time to take back your attic and create a storage space that's suitable for your beloved items. Not to mention how easy it will be to find your things.

Below you'll find a step-by-step process on organizing your attic as well as suggested storage products. Enjoy!

The Process

Utilize the general organizing procedure of purge, sort and store, and apply it when organizing your attic.


Purge:

• Start in one corner of the attic or with one box of stuff and work your way around. Pick up each item and decide if it is worth keeping. In order to accomplish this, ask yourself appropriate questions (Is it still usable? How often do I use it? Do I have more than one of this same item?).

• As you make decisions, put the item in the corresponding pile, bag or box - Keep, Donate, Trash, Recycle, Distribute. Don't forget to record your donations for tax purposes.

**It's important to note that attics are storage spaces that tend to be dumping grounds for memorabilia, out-of-season items and much more. Due to the large volume of things that usually end up here, it can be very overwhelming to go through the purge process.

A solution is to bring one box down from the attic at a time and then go through it. Do a few boxes a day and you'll be through your whole attic in no time!

Also, due to the amount of clutter usually occupying attics, you might want to cut down on organizing time by combining the Purge and Sort steps into one seamless process. Thus when you decide to keep an item, take it one step further and group it with other like items.**

• Take out the trash, distribute items that belong in other parts of the house (i.e. sports equipment can go to the garage) and put the donations in your car. This hinders the possibility of undoing your hard attic organizing work.

• Take this opportunity to do a little sweeping and dusting up there as well.

Sort:

• You have pared down, and now you can focus on what's left. Sort the remaining items by category (i.e. my memorabilia, my husband's memorabilia, my kid's memorabilia, holiday decorations, luggage and so on).


Store:

• Now that you can see what and how much you have, it's time to create a storage solution for these items. Utilize plastic storage bins with lids to store the categorized items that live in your attic. These bins are more durable than cardboard boxes and protect your items better from the elements. Be sure to label your boxes, so that you can find what you need easily.

• Depending on the size and shape of your attic and on how much stuff you have decided to keep, you may want to consider putting shelving units up there (metal or heavy duty plastic that can withstand the elements). This way you can store things vertically and save space.

• Have items that don't fit in boxes? Perhaps they could be hung on the wall with hooks.


Maintain:

• Get into the habit of putting things in their proper places when you're done using them. Get the whole family involved by passing this notion on to them as well.

• Clean out the attic once a year when the weather is nice to get rid of unnecessary things and to relocate rogue items to their proper containers, bins, shelves, and so on.

The Products
Organizing your attic is so much easier with these fantastic products. Check them out!

Ultimate Airtight Clear Plastic Storage Box - a Favorite for Organizing Your Attic!
This storage box is clear for easy content recognition, durable against the elements and airtight to protect your belongings. So cool!


Sterilite Ultra Storage Box

Plastic boxes with lids are better storage solutions for the attic than cardboard boxes. Sterilite has a ton of great options like this one.


AtticMaxx Shelving System

This is an easy-to-install system that utilizes the rarely-used space between the trusses. Awesome!


Attic Trac

This product is an easy-to-install track system that can withstand the elements and allows access to all corners of the attic!

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by Nealey Stapleton

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