While perusing through various organizing videos on YouTube yesterday, I came across this really awesome clip by Lorie Marrero, a professional organizer who many of you might know as the creator of The Clutter Diet.  In this video clip, she shared a key organizing tenet when it comes to organizing paper…“Vertical is visible, horizontal is hidden.”

Certainly, most people can easily grasp the concept that it is much easier to retrieve paper when it is oriented vertically, rather than stacked in a pile.

For instance, it’s much easier for me to view my collection of sourcing catalogs and organizing magazines when they are stored in a magazine file:

…rather than simply stored in a pile or stack:

Of course, the same holds true for paper.  Would you rather search for a specific document this way…

…or this way?

Visibility and therefore “findability” are enhanced, not only by the vertical orientation in this example, but from the use of labels as well.

The Clutter Diet tips video expands upon other ways that you can store paper vertically to avoid the perils of stacking. But what about using this concept in other areas of the home? I can think of two great examples of how simply repositioning objects so that they are stored in a vertical orientation can make accessing those objects infinitely easier.

Going Vertical in the Kitchen

During the course of organizing clients’ kitchens, I often find cupboards full of cookie sheets, muffin tins, cutting boards, serving platters and other large, flat items stacked in piles. For example, the cabinet pictured below initially contained a pull-out drawer that housed all of the client’s cutting boards and cookie sheets all stacked in a pile on the drawer. Her cake pans and cooling racks were nested horizontally in a stack on the cabinet floor below the pull-out drawer.

The client bemoaned the fact that she would often have to remove every item from the cupboard in order to access the one item she needed.  Although it pained me to remove a pull-out drawer (they are a great solution for accessing items in the back of the cupboard), it was warranted in this particular case. We used a vertical bakeware organizer to create a vertical storage solution for her bakeware zone. The height of the items we were storing required the removal of the drawer (you can still see the drawer runners in the photo below…they were eventually removed).

My client is ecstatic about how making this simple change dramatically has improved her baking and food preparation experience.

Going Vertical in The Bedroom

Ever try to locate your favorite tee shirt amidst piles and piles of horizontally stacked tee shirts in your dresser drawer? Once you’ve taken the time to organize those drawers by neatly stacking the tee shirts, how long does it take for them to become an unruly mess again?  Not long…especially if we are talking about your child’s tee shirt drawer!

Once again, the secret to solving this common organizing challenge is to flip those tee shirts on their side and “file” them in the drawer. Using a set of drawer dividers really helps to keep things under control even better. Now when your son goes to look for his Cleveland Cavaliers tee shirt, he can find it in a few seconds, without having to toss out half the contents of the drawer.

{How long would it take you to find the Cleveland Cavaliers tee shirt?}

For my readers who aspire to dresser drawer perfection, you can go the extra mile and use Pliio Clothing Filers to make your drawers “Pinterest-worthy”…

I’m sure I could come up with additional examples of the Magic of Vertical, but this post is bordering on too lengthy already. I’ll leave you with this last organizing mantra:

Stack and piles are the enemy of Organized.

 Want to learn more about Natalie Gallagher or Refined Rooms?  Visit www.RefinedRoomsLLC.com or connect via: Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter | LinkedIn