It is the day before the audience taping and the Buttoned Up crew arrives in front of the apartment of Jennifer ready to help her surprise her fiancé, Rocky, with a clean, clutter free house.

There are a bunch of us: me, Nancy, Ash, Fran, Lauren, Marissa, and Leah….the whole gang out in the West. It is a strange feeling entering someone’s home that you have just met and digging right in to get them organized. But that is just what we did. With a simple hello and handshakes, we were set off to review the closets and drop spot we were tasked with organizing.

We came equipped with about 10 bags of organizing items from linen bins, to our Mail.sorter to even plenty of garbage bags. We were ready to get going.

Lauren headed up the hall closet and in no time had it cleared out and began sorting things into piles. She put items not belonging in the closet in one pile so they could find another home and before long was setting up the organizing accessories and putting things back. A job well done and done in about an hour.

Nancy was in charge of going through and then folding the linens and towels. Except for struggling with how to fold a Snuggie (you know that backward bathrobe thing), she was unstoppable and did a great job.

Ash and her team headed to the other closet which did require a bit more work and patience. Perhaps the most challenging task here was convincing Jennifer to donate or toss items she just didn’t need any more. Not easy work but one they handled skillfully and with great patience.

Finally, I started on the junk pile in the kitchen with Nancy. We sorted and put together piles and along with setting the family up with things like a Mail.sorter and Life.doc, we had the area tidied up and looking great in less than two hours.

Before I know it, 3 hours have passed and we are saying goodbye and admiring our work. What fun to organize someone and see the immediate results. And it was a fun Buttoned Up team activity as well!

Have any questions about the makeover? Email us at info@getbuttonedup.com

Assess your “biggest closet problem” first: Do you have too many shoes for the space? Get a better shoe system like an over the door organizer or hanging shoe rack. Do you have too many clothes for the space? Get thinner hangers to make more room. Having trouble finding your items in the morning, divide the t-shirts, dresses, jeans, etc. into separated sections. Or is it that you have WAY TOO MANY EXTRA things in the closet? Find them a new “home” or contain them in one “extras” box in your closet. Whatever your biggest problem in the closet is, attack that first. The rest will be easier by default.

Recruit the Troops. No matter how much of a super mom or dad you are, the whole family should help with this task. Not only should it be your spouse and kids’ responsibility to organize their clothes, accessories and toys but chances are if you try to do it without them, you’ll throw away something that seems insignificant to you but important to them. Plus you’ll cut your cleaning time way down.

Schedule Time: Block off an hour on your calendar this week or next to tackle the problem. When you actually carve out out the time, it’s amazing what you can accomplish in an hour. If you don’t have a free hour, you should at least be able to break it up into two half-hour sessions. If you need to, arrange for someone watch the kids. Better yet, have your spouse take the kids out of the house for an hour while you go to work and then return the favor when it’s their turn to hit the closets.

Start from Scratch. Take the time to pull everything out of your closet and then throw away and donate what you don’t need. If you don’t take it all out, chances are you’ll just move the same unnecessary or unwanted items to another part of the closet.

Declutter quickly. The easiest way to declutter your closet is to get rid of anything that is not clothing, shoes, or accessories. Bank statements, insurance information, or tax documents should never be in your bedroom closets. Pick up a Life.doc to organize all of your most critical information in one, easily accessible binder. Then get a File.starter to file away all of your important loose papers in a file cabinet or milk crate.

Organize in Sections. Designate areas of your closets specifically for shoes, hats, sweaters, etc and stick to them. This will save you time in the morning when you’re looking for that black cardigan. If you only have areas to hang items, put in shelves as this will better utilize your space

Apply the 80/20 Rule: The majority of clothes you have probably go unworn. We don’t know if it’s true or not, but we’ve heard the statistic that the average American only wears 10% – 20% of the clothes they own. Try to eliminate some of the extras. As you rotate in your new wardrobe, put those items that you haven’t worn once in the previous season in a bag to give to charity or swap with friends. And anything with holes in it should be either thrown out immediately or put in the rag bin. Be ruthless!

Try the One in One out rule: For each new item you buy to put in a closet, force yourself to donate one item (or pitch it if it is past its prime). This will keep the pack rat in you contained!

Keep It Up: Use 15 minutes a week to straighten and deal with your closet for every week after the “big clean” organizing day. When you tackle it BEFORE it becomes a nightmare, you save more time and will have less stress over it later.

Reward Yourself: Give yourself a treat when this pesky task out of the way. Do something to celebrate the clutter free closets like buying a stylish hanging sweater organizer or even a new shirt. You’ll certainly have room for it!