Dress up your home

We came across these helpful tips from Tara Gruber, Interior Designer, that will guide you in putting the spot light on your home. We specifically like her ideas under "Details" on the importance of utilizing your spaces to their fullest potential. Pantries, utility rooms and mudrooms are ideal spaces to have custom organizational units.


If you had the opportunity to attend the Emmy’s or the Oscars, what would you wear? Wouldn’t you love to be pampered and dressed by a professional stylist? This is when all the details matter…the stilettos, the clutch handbag, the chandelier earrings, and the fake eyelashes! When selling your home, the same rules apply. You have to present your home fully dressed and accessorized. Forget about your daily mundane responsibilities like laundry, cooking, cleaning, bathing, etc. It is all about presenting the fantasy. A well staged home presents a vision for potential buyers and photographs well for online buyers. They want to visualize living in your home!!

Why does staging provide a faster sell with a higher profit?

Staging is an important marketing tool to emphasize your homes strongest assets while minimizing the weaknesses.
Real Estate is a very competitive market and continues to produce better return rates than the stock market.
Buyers will notice all the flaws…bad paint, cracks on walls, missing light fixtures, etc.
How can I dress up my home in anticipation to sell it faster and maximize profits?

De-clutter: Open your home up as much as possible. Potential buyers need to visualize where they are going to place their things. It doesn’t mean throwing away all your precious memories, but store them. Space sells!! Avoid distracting your buyer with your personal clutter and amaze them with the details!!

Drama: Give a home personality and create a memory point. Buyers may view many homes in a given day. How is your house going to stand out? Focus on the 5 senses. Captivate them with freshly baked cookies in the kitchen.

Details: Showcase your most utilized rooms as the most efficient rooms. People lead busy lives and they require quick and easy solutions. Kitchens, pantries, utility rooms, mudrooms, and bathrooms are great selling opportunities to offer generous & tidy storage options. Consider custom cabinetry to feature organized spaces. Or add architectural interest to a room with custom molding.

You can contact Tara at or 630-773-3990 or visit her website at www.tgiinteriors.com

Tales from a stressed mom

I got a call from a much stressed mom and dear friend looking for solutions to her unorganized closets. She knew our story and love for closets, so as soon as I picked up the phone she began…
“We should be able to treat ourselves to an extra few minutes of sleep once in a while, but considering my morning experience I am not sure it can be called a treat….”
“As you know, I am not a morning person, so when my alarm went off at 5 a.m. I did the usual “oh no”, but responsibilities awaited, so like every morning I went to get up, but then I thought “just 5 more minutes” and so five more minutes turned into 20 minutes, there I was at 5:20 awakened by my internal clock screaming that kids had to be awakened, dressed and breakfast had to be served and somewhere in between I had to get dressed and ready to leave by 6:30…the rush began. I quickly woke everyone up and got the routine in motion. Finally, it was 6:30 a.m. and yea…we were all dressed and ready to go except my 6-year-old. She had searched and searched for her matching sock and just couldn’t find it… we all searched and searched because “no way” could she leave with mismatched socks. We searched in the closet, out of the closet, through drawers…I thought oh great it’s now 6:45 a.m. and no sock! So, I finally gave up and the child had to wear mismatched socks…there were tears and too much drama to discuss, but we had to go.
I realized this cannot happen again. I have to figure out a way to get some organization into our lives. A missing sock should not rob us of 15 plus minutes. If I add that up, let’s say twice a week for six months….we’ve lost 12 hours! That can’t be, but yes the numbers don’t lie. Messy closets and lack of organization can cost my family up to 12 hours of wasted time in just six months. Time is too precious for this. So help!”
As a designer, I completely understand, in fact, it’s this same realization- how much time is wasted searching and sorting through stuff- that often leads many of our clients to contact us. I immediately offered to come out and look at her space and design a closet system that maximizes her space and compliments their design style. Stay tuned…

Help me unclutter my world

Have you ever walked into your house, room, office and felt that stuff has taken over your life? Don't feel bad, you are not alone. There are so many great things available to us it is difficult to resist that urge to bring it home and how could you possibly throw anything away? It all comes with a memory and a need that was to be met at the time. Plus, you spent how much on it? You can't possibly throw it away or even give it away. What is the solution?

You first have to start by prioritizing what is important in your life and then looking at each item and ask yourself when is the last time you actually used it? Moving it from one cluttered spot to another in your house does not count. If you start with your closet, ask yourself when was the last time you actually wore that item. If it has been over a year, that is your first item to donate to charity or sell at a garage sale. No, that piece of clothing won't come back in style and no, you won't lose that extra 25 pounds any time soon so you can wear it again. Trust me if you lose that weight, you will want to buy new clothes for yourself!

Once you have gone through the process of uncluttering, now you are ready to find a home for what remains. If you get stuck in the uncluttering process or find you can't part with any items, I recommend calling in a professional organizer to help you out. Throwing everything behind closed doors is not considered a home for your stuff. You need to continue the organizing by getting racks, bins or building custom shelves that will provide a spot for your stuff. If you get stuck at this step, I recommend calling in a custom shelving company such as a closet company that understand spacial organization.

Once you start the process, you will see the changes almost immediately. Starting can be a challenge sometimes so call a friend or family member over to get you started. Plus, someone else does not have that same emotional bond to your stuff so they will be more practical in helping you part with your items.

Have fun!

Unique solutions to sloped ceilings

Sloped ceilings can be a homeowners worst fear when we are talking about a closet space. Most customers feel that this eats away space and the single shelf and pole running around the closet does not maximize the space. There is no need to fear. This can actually turn into a great space with a little creative design and quality installers.

In most situations, the best solution is to build a custom system right off of the sloped wall. If done correctly the lowest point of the slope can be used for extra storage for those bulky items like blankets, luggage, etc. It depends on the width of the space but there are many solutions that include additional hanging space, shelving and drawers. It is also important to look at the space and find ways to utilize every corner, such as with purse or hat hangers, belt racks, tie racks, etc.

Tackling a small space

We work with a lot of customers in the city of Chicago who are dealing with a small space and wondering how to maximize this space and make it functional. Today, I worked with a couple who had a beautiful condo overlooking the lake but were in need of more space. The challenge was what to do with their extra room? He wanted an office space and she wanted a guest bedroom for her sister when she came to visit. We were able to accomplish both with a custom wall unit that had a murphy bed. A murphy bed folds up into the wall so that when it is not in use, the floor space is better utilized. It also keeps the room looking neat and allows for more working space for the desk that was put in the room opposite the unit. The great part about the murphy bed is that it is comfortable and practical.
The room is now functional and meets both his and her objectives for the room. In addition, they now have some additional shelf space to house some great antiques handed down from her great grandmother.
You can view a picture of a murphy bed at this link http://mydreamclosets.com/showroom.html

Organize or bust!

A customer called today wondering where to start in her quest to be organized. Her goal was to get started this weekend and she was not coming out of the house until something was started. She felt overwhelmed with "stuff" that was slowly creeping into her personal living space. My suggestion is to start with a personal organizer. They can make sense of the "stuff" and give you the permission to get rid of items that you don't use or donate it to a charity. Once the "stuff" is sorted through that is where the custom closet companies come in and decide how to best utilize the space with built in systems. That is when it gets really fun because you can add all kinds of accessories that make your life easier.

There are some great professional organizers that are linked to the custom closet companies. All About Closets - chicago (mydreamclosets.com) has some links that can get your started on your quest to simplify and organize your home.

Take A Walk Through Your Closet

I was exposed to a new world today called Second Life. As I flew around the different islands, I was able to redesign a kitchen and customize it to my liking and then I walked through it to see what the newly designed kitchen and appliances would look like. We have a similar program at All About Closets-Chicago that allows the customer to get a 3-D version of what their closet will look like when it is completed. At that point, the designer is able to print it out or download it for the customer so that they can show friends, family and anticipate their new purchase. It does not have the capacity to "walk or fly" into the closet but that would be really impressive to a client to be able to walk around or even start filling their virtual closet with clothes, shoes, etc.