Planning for Perfection

When you're standing in a sea of clutter, storage sings a powerful siren song. It croons seductively, "Buy baskets, buy bins." Another armoire will end all your woes." Resist the call. A pretty container may hide clutter temporarily, but if its only purpose is storing "miscellaneous old stuff," chaos will continue to erupt all around it.

The grand gaffe

"The biggest mistake people make when they're reorganizing is failing to plan," says organizer Shelli Alexander, a pro from The Learning Channel's Clean Sweep show.

Sound familiar? After deciding to clean your closet, you rush out and buy dozens of hangers and shoeboxes. "But you haven't taken the time to figure out what you really need," says Alexander. "Three months later, everything is a mess again. Or halfway through the project, you realize you've made a mistake and get frustrated, and then it's left unfinished for years."

The Problem Solver

The top task in organizing your home is not buying more storage. It's making a plan -- a personalized plan that takes your unique space and needs into account, as well as your own habits and tastes. "You can't find an effective solution until you really understand the problem," Alexander says.

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