“I don’t know where to start anymore…” Ariane Poitras had her first daughter in 2017, her second in 2020, and she and her husband bought their first house between the two. Ariane works full-time as a manager in an advertising agency. In short, free time, she has very little.
Posted at 12:00 p.m.
At home, on the South Shore of Montreal, it’s clean, but there is — how to say… — a certain disorganization in the storage spaces.
“I have never been a very orderly person at home, confesses Ariane, 38 years old. But since I had children and since the pandemic [et le télétravail qui l’accompagne], I’m tired of being messy. »
Her entryway is the embodiment of everything she hates. It’s small, and the boots are always in the way. In the closet, there are lonely mittens, ski helmets, chalks, old umbrellas, children’s drawings, masks… A lot of things end up being picked up on the floor. “It’s nonsense,” sighs Ariane, who doesn’t like accumulating material.
Organize everything? “I don’t have the time, I don’t like it and I don’t have that talent,” summarizes Ariane, who has difficulty visualizing things in space. “There aren’t many success factors in my business! »
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Samantha Guerra and Ticiana Medola, co-founders of Range-ose
For the sake of this article (and Ariane’s), professional organizers Ticiana Medola and Samantha Guerra have agreed to help organize two of the spaces that irritate her the most: the entry closet and that of his bedroom.
Ariane’s profile is typical, according to Ticiana Medola, owner of the Range-ose company. Life circumstances change (two children, a move), the whirlwind of daily life continues, and there is no time to stop, she summarizes.
There’s a bit of a mess in the room, we tell ourselves we’ll do it tomorrow because we’re too busy with work today, and life goes on. At some point, we have accumulated so many things that we lose track. Where do we start?
Samantha Guerra, co-founder of Range-ose
The steps to follow are simple: empty the storage space, sort the objects (to keep, to give away, to throw away), to categorize the items to be kept with a view to storing them together (t-shirts, stationery, sports, etc.) and establish an organizational system.
After an initial consultation, Ariane does the sorting. She manages to remove from her two wardrobes the equivalent of two average trash bags: clothes, lonely mittens, boots that are too small…
What Ariane lacks now is a system to make better use of existing spaces. In collaboration with Ariane, and with the help of Samantha, Ticiana will find it.
“It’s hard to find tools to reduce the mental load,” Ariane concluded at the end of the process. That is one, for real. »
The entrance hall
The old vestibule
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PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
The hallway is small. Behind the wall, to put shoes and backpacks, Ariane and her partner have put down a shoe rack, but it’s overflowing.
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PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
In the closet, Ariane has installed hanging fabric storage, but mittens and other items tend to slip…and pile up on the floor.
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PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
At the very top, hard-to-reach milk tubs are filled with winter items and miscellaneous items. Another even higher shelf accommodates ski helmets.
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PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
Items that don’t fit — shoes, umbrella, ski helmets, etc. — end up on the ground.
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PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
The clothes rail is too high for children to hang their own coats on.
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In the hallway, the list of sources of irritation is long: winter items lying around, hard-to-reach storage bins, boots and school bags that don’t have their space. Here is the before and after.
The new vestibule
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Outside the vestibule, where there was the shoe rack, the organizers fixed hooks for Ariane Poitras to hang the backpacks on.
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Alongside the hooks, sleek shoe racks have been screwed in, courtesy of Quebec-based company Ylisse, whose products are made in the Quebec City region.
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
In the wardrobe, a top shelf has been sacrificed to raise the rod. This made it possible to hang a second rod, lower, to give autonomy to the children.
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
On the other side, the organizers have inserted a cabinet with three drawers to put the winter items. Each member of the family has their baccalaureate. On top, a divider accommodates keys, mail, and sanitizer.
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Hooks have been fixed on the inside wall of the wardrobe to hang ski helmets, caps, masks and umbrellas.
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
On the top shelf, Samantha slides transparent bins that can accommodate items the family uses less often.
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ARIANE POITRAS PHOTO
As for the boots, they find their place at the back of the wardrobe, on the right.
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The bedroom wardrobe
Bedroom: front
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PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
At the left and right ends of the wardrobe, hidden shelves accommodate all the clothes that Ariane does not hang (t-shirts, underwear, etc.). Even if Ariane folds her clothes, the batteries tend to come undone over the days.
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PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
Boxes containing clothes that are no longer worn — because they are too big or too small — litter the floor.
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PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
The top shelf accommodates Ariane’s spouse’s car collection and other boxes of clothing.
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PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
The clothes are not categorized: work clothes rub shoulders with sports clothes and maternity clothes. There is even, suspended, a small pumpkin costume.
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In her bedroom, Ariane Poitras has only her wardrobe to store all her clothes, from dresses to shoes to t-shirts. Here is the before and after.
Bedroom: after
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Ticiana Medola provided Ariane Poitras with black velvet hangers because it slips less and because the uniformity of the hangers gives a soothing visual effect.
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
The organizers have inserted a small chest of drawers to the right and left of the wardrobe, in the hidden space, to put Ariane’s clothes that do not hang.
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
On the top shelf, we have placed four gray boxes, in which Ariane can put bedding, summer clothes… or even the famous car collection.
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Ticiana Medola taught Ariane to fold her clothes and sheets using the Marie Kondo technique.
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
On each drawer of her two chests of drawers and each bin, Ariane will stick a label to describe the contents. “Unconsciously, it helps maintain order,” concludes Ticiana Medola.
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