Inside design: Peri Wolfman

In the introduction to her book A Place for Everything (Clarkson Potter, 1999), author and product designer Peri Wolfman confesses to a lifelong compulsion for stacking and folding. As early as age nine, Peri writes, she was folding clothes with display-worthy panache. Peri has capitalized on her talent, earning a name and living by sharing her expertise. Dividing her time between her two homes, one in New York City and a new pied-à-terre in San Francisco, where she heads the Williams-Sonoma product design team, Peri knows about keeping a home (or two or three) organized.

S@H: Let's start by pinpointing
organizational trouble spots.
PW: There are those who will tell you that kitchens and closets are the biggest nightmares, but I think that you have to make the distinction between getting organized and staying organized. With most spots in the house, once you get organized it's fairly easy to stay that way. You set up a system that works and find places for everything, and then it's simple to just put things back where they belong. But paper -– in my world that's the biggest challenge. We're just inundated with mail, newspapers, magazines, photos -– they come in every day. And even in this so-called computer-driven society, it's not getting any better. Staying on top of the mess created by paper requires constant vigilance. It's like a garden: it needs constant weeding.

S@H: So what are the best ways to weed out the messes?
PW: I believe that the trick to staying organized is to have a place for everything. And you have to address the problem where it starts. For most people, home offices are a nightmare -– in fact, I'm an organizer and I just called in a professional to help me create a system for my own home office -– but let's face it, you get your mail at the front door, and that's where the cycle starts. So what you need to do is create a place for mail, deliveries and newspapers right there at the front door. I'm a big basket person. I have an attractive basket at my front door and all the mail goes into it. Every few days I'll take the time to sort through it and then file everything away. I have a second basket in my den, which is where all the magazines and newspapers go.