And seeing as I’m the maker of the jewelry organizer I guess that photo kind of speaks for itself as to my obsessive organizing ways .

A year ago my husband and I moved into a Bank-owned fixer-upper that was much smaller than our previous rental. We put all our over-flow IN THE GARAGE. Then as rooms were re-done, their contents moved in to the garage. The garage was also home to COUNTLESS tools and other project accessories. Not to mention standard garage items like bikes and car maintenance staples though needless to say, NOT our cars.

Then my mother in law passed away and somehow her entire life’s worth of collected crap found its way into our already CRAM-PACKED 2 car garage. I spent months fussying around out there, moving piles of stuff from one end to the other, tossing EVERYTHING into giant cardboard appliance boxes (tools, tile spacers, car parts, clothes…) only to have to dig through them again when we needed, well, anything. It was chaos. An organizationophile’s worst nightmare.

Then one day I accidentally happened to speak with a CPO (certified professional organizer) through my job. I tearfully explained to her the situation with my garage and she told me something I will never forget: VERTICAL SPACE.

The magic words. How simple! Vertical space! I bought a peg board and some stuff to construct a few rudimentary shelves and in ONE DAY my husband and I were parking BOTH our cars in the garage. Sometimes I sneak out there, sit on the hood of my car, and just bask in the gloriousness of that peg board.

There was a lot of sorting that was part of that process, but without vertical space it would have been a wasted effort. I think about it now, every time I tackle an organizational project (read rookie mom’s first nursery!), and every time I see pictures like these of beautifully organized spaces.

The moral of this very long-winded story: shelving is cheap. And easy to put up. Toss in some cute, well-sorted bins and no space will evade your organizational grasp!