I just returned from Scottsdale, Arizona, where I attended the NAPO (National Association of Professional Organizers) conference, along with 500+ professional organizers from all around the world. The NAPO conference provides continuing education regarding best practices in the organizing industry, as well as a wonderful opportunity to learn about the dizzying array of organizing products/tools and storage solutions that exist in order to assist clients with their particular organizing challenges.

As part of the conference “debriefing” process, I wanted to highlight some of the products I came across at the Organizing Expo.  In today’s blog post, I’ll present some great tools for organizing clothing, gift wrapping supplies, and vital documents.

 1.  Organize Your Clothes with Pliio 

One of the first products I discovered on my foray into the Organizing Expo Hall was the Pliio Clothing Filer. This product totally plays into my OCD tendencies. Do you struggle with maintaining order within your dresser drawers or closet shelves?  The Pliio Clothing Filer is a tool which makes it easy to fold your clothes and store them in perfectly uniform piles or stacks. This enables you to easily see all of the garments that you own. The structure makes putting away and retrieving clothes effortless.  L-O-V-E it!

Here’s professional organizer and Pliio co-creator Clare Kumar demonstrating how to use Pliio at the conference:

Not only does the Pliio system reign in clutter at home, it is also a useful tool for keeping the clothing in your suitcase uber-organized while traveling. Pliio comes in several sizes to accommodate various types of garments, including children’s clothing. You can purchase them at Bed, Bath, & Beyond  or The Shopping Channel.

2.  Organize Your Gift Wrap Supplies with Wrap iT

Raise your hand if you have struggled with keeping all of those gift wrap rolls and supplies corralled and organized. I have.  In fact, I wrote a blog post on it not too long ago. For those of you with your hands raised, I’m happy to introduce you to Wrap iT, the all-in-one solution for organizing all of your gift wrap and wrapping supplies. Wrap iT is available in both a regular and a deluxe size. Both options hold up to 26 (yes, 26) rolls of wrapping paper, but the deluxe version can accommodate oversize rolls. There are a number of storage compartments designed to hold gift bags, tissue paper, ribbons/bows, tape and scissors…everything you need to create a gorgeously packaged gift.

As creator Adam Levine demonstrated at conference, the Wrap iT includes a unique system for storing wrapping paper rolls to prevent those annoying frayed/damaged edges that can often occur when rolls are stuffed willy nilly inside the closet or under the bed.

The best part about Wrap iT is that it stores so much in so little space! When hung in the closet, Wrap iT takes up about as much space as a suit jacket. If you don’t want to hang it in the closet, its slim profile enables you to simply tuck it away underneath a bed. I love this product so much that I plan to become an affiliate and sell it in the Recommended Products page of my website! Until then, you can purchase it directly from the Wrap iT website.

 3.  Organize Your Vital Documents with LifeinCase

I spend a great deal of time working with clients to organize their “paper life”. One of the overriding goals we strive to achieve together is to create systems for easily retrieving important documents (for them or for their loved ones) in the event of an emergency.  Whether the situation takes the form of a medical emergency, a sudden death, or a natural disaster, it is crucial for everyone to have a way to quickly find the important documents.

The makers of LifeinCase recognized this need and created a ready-made system that makes it quite easy for anyone to gather their essential documents and have them ready to “grab and go” in the event of any emergency.

LifeinCase is an organizational tool that’s comprised of:

• 5 Plastic Folders: To hold Personal, Medical, Financial, Estate, and Property records
• Checklists:  Summarizing the 50 essential documents that should be stored in each of the 5 folders
• Grab-and-Go Tote:  500 sheet capacity that’s small enough to be portable, yet larger enough to hold all essential documents

LifeinCase comes in multiple patterns and colors and is available on their website.
Stay tuned for the next post, where I’ll be describing cool time management and productivity tools from the NAPO 2014 conference!

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