Lifestyles

It isn't time to panic. Rather, it's time to organize. It is also a time to "sort and purge," says Lynn M. Staab, a professional organizer and interior designer.

Family largesse can lead to a growing collection of goods for kids who may or may not know what to do with it all. Besides teaching the offspring to thank all the generous relatives, parents get another job: finding a place to keep it all.

But they also can use this time to begin a form of education, says Brookline organizer Patty Kreamer, owner of Kreamer Connects.

"This is a time to educate them in the decision-making task," she says. For the first step of the storage issue, she advises parents to help kids decide what is the most important of their belongings and get rid of the rest.

"You can begin teaching them about the ideas of making donations or even ways of being a good capitalist and selling some things," she says, laughing at the idea of profiteering.

While this might be a great time to teach a little discipline on just how much is too much, it also is a time where shelf systems or cabinetry can come in handy.

Ron Virtes from East Hills Cabinet in North Versailles, for instance, points out that some storage units can house toys and games but later be revised to house clothes.

"So it can become a double-edged sword," he says.

Units made for other purposes can find new life, says Catherine Gentile from the headquarters of Bed Bath & Beyond in Farmingdale, N.Y.

Over-the-door storage pockets for shoes, for instance, can become good homes for crayons, arts-and-crafts tools and small toys, she suggests.

But Aspinwall's Paul Regan, whose professional name is The Organizer, points out the most important thing is attitude, not having the money to buy tools or pay for furniture.

"Saying 'let's get organized' doesn't mean going out and buying a plastic storage box," he says.

It's all in the attitude

Toy and game storage seems like a matter of shelves and bins, but organizers and interior designers say it is more of a learning issue.

"Clutter is just an unmade decision," Kreamer says.

Designers such as Sally Burton from Delmont, Westmoreland County, or Staab, who is from Brookline, often get involved in putting together space and rooms where goods can be kept efficiently.

Both point out that getting the youngsters to do that is critical. Teaching them to stow away their toys and games can lead to habits that follow through life.

"These things often are being learned in day care," says Burton, from Spring Crest Interiors, "and this gives you the opportunity to continue it."

The experts all suggest one of the important steps is getting the young to learn what they want to keep or, at the very least, what they want to use right now.

Staab, whose service is called Organized Spaces, says that can involve rotating toys, so that lesser-used items are stored in the attic or elsewhere, eliminating the amount in the living area. This can be done with items that have lost a little popularity or are seasonally oriented, she says.

"This is a chance to teach them to be organized from the very beginning," says Burton, who, like Staab, is affiliated with the American Society of Interior Design.

Attitude is important for adults, too, they say. Firstl, Kreamer points out, a person has to realize "no place is big enough for all the stuff" and take steps to handle the matter,

Staab says that becomes a matter of "accepting your fate." Toys and belongings change size and shape throughout childhood, and a parent in charge of the house has to recognize what is needed.

She says the adults need to examine the realities of storage space in the house.

"You gotta look at the whole system," she says.

Taking care of the mess

Once your space and system are examined, storage can mean solutions as simple as putting plastic milk crates on their sides to form shelves or having custom ones built.

"We need to pick and choose where we want the mess to be," cabinetmaker Virtes says with a laugh. "We don't want things looking like a bomb went off."

He and fellow cabinetmaker Gary Feroce from J&J Wood Products in Lower Burrell see great advantages to cabinet systems with roll-out shelves in the bottoms. In kids' rooms, they say, the bottom units can hold games and toys, but then be turned to clothes as the kids get older.

Plus, they are the right height.

In a family room, the shelves can hold toys and games for youngsters, but later can become home for teenagers' electronic games or equipment.

Feroce sees more emphasis all the time on electronic gear, ranging from TVs and stereos to game units that can be used for many years.

"One of the most frequent things is people trying to incorporate everything when they order cabinets," he says.

Virtes says the type of material can become a major issue. A client adding cabinetry or shelves to a family room probably would want to use a wood that will be attractive enough when game-use is done.

For a games-then-clothes unit in a bedroom, he would recommend melamine shelves. The treated wood shelves will stand up to practically any kind of abuse.

"It's not as attractive, but it's a lot more practical," he says.

Toy box alternatives

When it comes to storage for children's belongings, one classic item consistently gets bad marks: the toy box.

Organizers and interior designers agree at the impracticality of the once-common kiddie treasure chest.

"You put things in a toy box, and what happens?" asks Aspinwall organizer Paul Regan. "They get lost."

Then, to find them, a frantic fun seeker pulls everything out and scatters it on the floor. Result: a mess the box was meant to correct.

Toy-organization experts suggest a few options:

• Designate an area that is the home for toys and monitor it.

-- Patty Kreamer, Kreamer Connects organization firm, Brookline

• Storage boxes should be translucent, so the contents can be seen.

-- Lynn Staab, interior designer and head of Organized Spaces, Brookline.

• Shallow boxes can be used to store items and then kept under a bed.

-- Sally Burton, owner of Spring Crest Interiors, Delmont, Westmoreland County,

• Take a picture of one of the items in a box and tape it to the box to make a Table of Contents for a kid too young to read.

-- Staab and Kreamer.

• Take a pole that can be pressure-mounted in a corner, wrap it in Velcro and attach stuffed animals to it to get them off the floor.

-- Burton.

• For bath toys, be sure to use a basket with holes to allow drainage.

-- Catherine Gentile, Bed Bath and Beyond, Farmingdale, N.Y.

• Pegs can be mounted low enough for children to hang clothes, but they also can be used as storage spots for some toys.

-- Burton.

• A modular stacking system can be used to create a gridwork of cubes for storage.

-- Gentile

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