Low-Cost Solutions For Organizing a Home Office

Article by Jill Borash

As our economy looks to remain on the falling spiral that it is on, discovering means to preserve cash is invariably on all of our brains. Because of that, it is not really likely that you desire to consider expending cash to get your home office organised. It is less complicated to make due with what you have. But what if organizing your home office did not cost you a dime? How? a little of time and some creative juices is all it takes.

Making supplies for your household office means getting creative about items which you usually conceive as rubble. Before you toss any package, jar or container of any kind, ask yourself how you might use that to aid you make coordinated. A shoebox can form a great inbox for your filing. Sturdy cardboard boxes might be cut and stapled together to make a desktop filer. A baby food jar or any other small jar can be great for holding paper clips and elastic bands. A middle-sized sauce jar might be used to hold pens and pencils. Huge rocks may make tremendous bookends. Look at everything which is in your household and ask yourself how you could employ it to aid you in getting organised.

While making all of these items in your household that were junk to assist you in getting your household office coordinated is great, you are emphatically going to want to trim them up. A set of paint and some stencils or sponges may be a fun method to make them appear pretty and to likewise personalize them with your own original imaginative touch. Some good wrapping paper may as well aid in jazzing them up. Attempt to have fun with it and acquire methods to individualize the things you have discovered for organizing your home office.

But what if you need something huge like a bit of furniture to perfect your house office organisation undertaking? You may be able to get something for free or at the very least quite inexpensive on Craigslist, at a garage sale, or at local thrift shops. You might have to do some hunting down to find what you require but it will certainly be cheaper than purchasing it new. Once more, it pays here to get creative with what you find. You may not find just what you are searching for but seek to think of how you might apply what you do discover.

Organizing a home office for little or no cash is all about being creative with what you acquire. That means searching for things that you would commonly toss out and thinking of the way you might employ them instead. More free assistance for your home office at http://www.yourhomeisorganized.com/HomeOfficeOrganization.htm

Article Source: EzineArticles.com

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Organizing Your Wardrobe Smartly

Article by John Lavoie

Every year people spring clean their houses. They scrub down the surfaces, clean out the oven, clear the gutters and even tidy the garage. But how often do we spring clean our wardrobes? Not often!

There are so many ways to organize your wardrobe that it may be a bit daunting to begin with. However if you do organize your wardrobe properly it means you will get the most out of your attire and you won’t have to organize it again for many years.

* Pants.

You should start by organizing your pants. You have to be ruthless when clearing your cupboard so make sure you try things on. If they don’t fit anymore, throw them out! Do not make excuses and get rid! Clutter is bad for your karma and your fashion sense so start a clean slate with the right size clothes! When organizing your pants try to keep them separated by summer and winter. This will make it easier when the seasons change.

* Tops.

Now tops are slightly more complex. First you should organize them into seasons. After that they should go into work wear, day wear and evening. You don’t need to have a huge closet for this. You could even just place a marker in between the piles to show where they are.

* Coats and Jackets

These should be separated into seasons and stored. There is no point taking up space with heavy winter coats when you could make more room for your summer dresses.

* Dresses

Again these should be sorted and stored. If you don’t go out that often, store your cocktail dresses and make room for everyday wear.

* Shoes

These should have their own rail or box. Many women love shoes and love to display them all the time in the open but they will actually keep better and will last longer if you look after them and don’t keep them piled up in the bottom of your closet.

* Jewelry and accessories

This section should be color coordinated. You should keep scarves, ties, gloves and hats in one section and earrings, necklaces, bangles, rings and cufflinks in another section. With your cufflinks and earrings, think about purchasing a cufflinks box to keep the pairs together. This will also save valuable time when you are getting ready! Handbags could also be stored if you have several. Women often go through phases of liking certain handbags and you will be surprised that the one you got bored with last year suddenly looks more appealing since it’s been in storage.

Don’t forget to get rid of the clothes that you don’t want. Make room for attire that is in fashion. People’s bodies change throughout their lives with factors such as age and children and very few 50year olds have the same body that they did when they were 20 so remember to try everything on every now and again to see how it fits. There is no point keeping clothes that look awful or don’t fit just because they remind you of your youth! Be brave, be strong, be ruthless! Start organizing your wardrobe today!

John Lavoie invites you to check out the latest cufflinks offered at Cuff-Daddy.com. Specialists in cufflink boxes, mens neckties and cufflinks, you’re sure to find something to your liking.

Article Source: EzineArticles.com

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Low-Cost Solutions For Organizing a Home Office

Article by: Jill Borash

As our economy looks to remain on the falling spiral that it is on, discovering means to preserve cash is invariably on all of our brains. Because of that, it is not really likely that you desire to consider expending cash to get your home office organised. It is less complicated to make due with what you have. But what if organizing your home office did not cost you a dime? How? a little of time and some creative juices is all it takes.

Making supplies for your household office means getting creative about items which you usually conceive as rubble. Before you toss any package, jar or container of any kind, ask yourself how you might use that to aid you make coordinated. A shoebox can form a great inbox for your filing. Sturdy cardboard boxes might be cut and stapled together to make a desktop filer. A baby food jar or any other small jar can be great for holding paper clips and elastic bands. A middle-sized sauce jar might be used to hold pens and pencils. Huge rocks may make tremendous bookends. Look at everything which is in your household and ask yourself how you could employ it to aid you in getting organised.

While making all of these items in your household that were junk to assist you in getting your household office coordinated is great, you are emphatically going to want to trim them up. A set of paint and some stencils or sponges may be a fun method to make them appear pretty and to likewise personalize them with your own original imaginative touch. Some good wrapping paper may as well aid in jazzing them up. Attempt to have fun with it and acquire methods to individualize the things you have discovered for organizing your home office.

But what if you need something huge like a bit of furniture to perfect your house office organisation undertaking? You may be able to get something for free or at the very least quite inexpensive on Craigslist, at a garage sale, or at local thrift shops. You might have to do some hunting down to find what you require but it will certainly be cheaper than purchasing it new. Once more, it pays here to get creative with what you find. You may not find just what you are searching for but seek to think of how you might apply what you do discover.

Organizing a home office for little or no cash is all about being creative with what you acquire. That means searching for things that you would commonly toss out and thinking of the way you might employ them instead. More free assistance for your home office at http://www.yourhomeisorganized.com/HomeOfficeOrganization.htm

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Organizing Your Home With Elements of Feng Shui

Article by Carolyn Anderson

Do you always feel that everything in your life seems to move towards failure?

The ancient Chinese art of feng shui is said to attract the positive energies around us that will dramatically improve the way we run our lives. We most often see feng shui being practiced in homes, businesses and offices to obtain harmony, comfort and balance in our lives.

We spend most of our times in our homes and in our offices, thus feng shui focuses on drawing the positive forces of the nature by bringing harmony into these places, which eventually bring you a positive disposition in life. Especially if we often deal with demanding jobs, busy lifestyle and troubles in finances, or you want to change careers or there are changes in the family, or you want to have changes in your goals in life, drawing positive energy through this ancient art may not be a bad idea after all.

The idea of putting the elements in feng shui in organizing your home is to make the things at home in harmony to each other. It may involve the colors and the shades as well as bringing in the elements of feng shui. It is organizing the home that by bringing close attention to the little details and every object in your house and how it will bring harmony between you, and the space you live in These simple changes in the way you put things in your living space may create big differences in your life.

Organizing your home with this ancient art will involve creating more space, selecting colors, and putting enhancements to create harmony and allowing positive flow of energy. It usually includes putting in the elements of feng shui into your home to create attract the positive energy called Qi.

Each element is said to have a positive and destructive effect on our lives and these are well considered if you want to have balance and harmony. Feng shui recognizes these five elements in organizing your home.

1. Water. Water can have both a positive and negative meaning. It may mean good prospects in career or in wealth or it could be poor health.

2. Fire. The fire element means passion and creating happiness and good energy in the home.

3. Wood. The wood element can be used to improve health, a balanced family life, motivation and inspiration.

4. Metal Elements may represent creativity.

5. Earth. The Earth element represents stability and permanence.

These elements of feng shui are also symbolized by different colors. That also makes color selection essential in bringing this ancient practice into your home.

If you think the elements of feng shui may just be what you needed in your life, you can however find good resources or an expert on this ancient art to help you with it. It does not mean getting rid of everything in your home and bringing in all the things that is recommended, but it can help you organize and arrange what you already have or bring color to your living space that will make it a good place for you to imbibe the positive things in life.

Carolyn Anderson adopted some Feng Shui elements in her home office for quite some time now. To learn more about making feng shui work for your life, check out 26 Feng Shui Secrets. Another highly recommended resource is Tile Made Easy, where you find important tips in reorganizing your home with easy tiling.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

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Closet Organizing In 5 Minutes A Day

by: Colleen Langenfeld

The thought of closet organizing makes most people groan. But it doesn’t need to be this way! Starting with a messy closet, you can get that closet organized and keep it organized in just 5 minutes a day.

Set a timer and let’s get started!

– Day 1.

Your first 5 minutes will be devoted to staring at the contents of your closet. With pen and paper in hand, jot down what items you haven’t used in years (be honest). You will be throwing or giving these items away. If you can’t bear to toss an item, give some thought as to where the item could go for a new home and a new life.

When your timer goes off, stop. Put the pen and paper on the closet floor and close the door. You’ll be back tomorrow.

– Tomorrow is here!

Continue your closet organizing adventure. Go to your closet and pick up your pen and paper. Keep on creating your list of what in your closet you can get rid of and what items need to find a new home. Use as many 5 minute sessions as necessary on this step. Feel like you’re not getting anywhere? Nonsense! This step makes all the difference down the road when you are maintaining your organized closet.

Simply stated, it will be A LOT easier to keep your closet organized when it only contains what you truly use and is not being used as your personal archive. (In fact, it will probably help you if you can designate one closet or space in your home as a storage container for all those items you need seasonally or for keepsakes. Things you only access occasionally.)

In addition, doing this one step over several days will give you a chance to really think about those items you have collected over the years. You’ll find you’re ready to give or throw away things on Day 5 that you couldn’t bear to part with on Day 1.

– The next step to your closet organizing.

Once you have completed the list of unnecessary items in your closet, grab a couple of boxes and your timer. Set your 5 minutes and, using your list, toss the trash in the trash box and the give-away items in the give-away box. If this takes you more than 5 minutes, stop and continue tomorrow. This step will go fairly quickly, however, if you’ve done a thorough job with your list from Day 1.

– Moving right along.

Now that all the excess stuff is gone from your closet, you can get down to organizing what is left. Use your 5 minutes to genuinely study what’s remaining in your closet.

* Which items do you use everyday?

* Which items can be stored together?

* Which items can be stored on shelves?

* Which items can be stored in drawers?

* Which items should be put in bins?

* Which items simply don’t belong in this closet?

Take notes during this step and use as many 5 minutes as you need. Again, doing this over several days gives you time to consider how you use each item in your closet each day and what type of organizational system will make the most sense for you. You’re aiming for usability here and it may take a bit of trial and error. That’s fine because the end result will be a closet you can easily keep organized without even thinking about it.

– Time to organize your closet.

Using your notes from the previous step, get the supplies you need to organize your closet. Again, take your time with this step, noting what is working and what is not along the way. Tweak as necessary.

* Need more hangars, bins, baskets? Put them on your shopping list for next time you go to the discount store.

* For starters, use whatever organizing supplies you already have including old boxes. It can help to live with your ideas for a week or two to enable you to understand exactly the type of organizing supplies that will serve you the best, so feel free to use temporary containers while you’re at this stage of your closet organizing project.

* OR…if you’re unsure about sizes and shapes of organizing products, buy just a few samples, leave the tags on and try them out. Then return what you don’t need and purchase what you do.

This step can either be completed as part of your normal shopping (requiring no extra trip to the store and keeping within the 5 minute concept) or simply dive in and do one big shopping trip. Your choice.

– Live with it.

There’s no substitute for living with your organizing to see what you’ve accomplished and what you need to change. Use your 5-minutes-a-day to ask yourself what you like and don’t like about your newly organized closet. Take notes and make changes.

– Last step.

This is the maintenance step and it’s easier than you think. For your closet organizing enterprise to give you the results you want, you’ll need to take 5 minutes each day and put things away in your closet where they belong.

But beware. Skip this step for just 7 days and you’ll need to put in 35 minutes to get back on track. Maybe you don’t have 35 minutes to organize your closet, so you don’t do it. It won’t be long before your closet will be in chaos again and you’re using EXTRA time every day just to locate items that should be at your fingertips.

That’s right, you’re going to use the time anyway. Being disorganized is a huge time waster. So stick to your 5 minutes a day, no matter what. It won’t be long until your new habit becomes second nature and you can’t imagine NOT doing a quick tidy-up each day.

All it takes is 5 minutes.

About The Author

Colleen Langenfeld has been parenting for over 26 years and helps other moms enjoy mothering more at http://www.paintedgold.com. Visit her website and get more closet tips at http://www.paintedgold.com/Organize/closet-organizing.html .

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Family Organizing Tips

We all know having an organized home allows us to spend more time doing the things we want to do. For me it is more time to quilt, for others it may be gardening, exercising, cooking, working on a hobby, or spending more time with family. So how do we go about getting our family organized?

Remember the movie ‘Field of Dreams’? Build it and they will come. It is the same scenario with organizing. Begin by organizing drawers, cupboards, rooms, closets; have designated places for everything–where they will live and sure enough those things will find their way back to their homes. Family members actually like it better when they know where things belong. Label drawers or shelves to make it easier to put things back and to find them later.

Share the responsibilities in the home with everyone. Write out a simple contract with each family member and have them sign it. This gets their commitment and chances are greater that they will follow through with tasks assigned. Put the contracts along with the assigned task in a binder that is labeled and placed on a shelf were everyone can reach it. I don’t like to call them chores because just the name sounds like drudgery.

Keep tasks appropriate to age and capability. Start young teaching organization. Two year olds and even younger can start putting a book on a shelf or a toy in the toy box. By starting young it makes it much easier as it becomes a way of life for them to be organized.

I remember picking raspberries when I was a child. My mother was picking on the other side of the row. It was hot and tiring picking one or two berries at a time and placing them in my bucket tied around my waist. Once in awhile my mom would reach through the row and put a hand full of berries in my bucket. Wow, it was such a great feeling seeing my bucket getting fuller faster that it made me get back to work and work all the faster.

Show children exactly how to do the assigned task. Work along with them until they know what is expected. Once in awhile chip in and help them after they are able to do it on their own. This is a great boost to them and they will reciprocate by helping you stay organized or doing one of your tasks.

Charts are wonderful tools to inspire children and show them not only what needs to be done but they show their progress. Rotate assignments on a weekly basis. There are many charts that can be purchased to chart their progress. Or use a dry erase board; make one out of paper using stickers when a job is completed, or use a magnetic board. Point out what a good job they are doing and how good it feels to be organized.

Make organizing fun, It doesn’t have to be a chore. Make organizing interesting, get everyone’s input and ideas on the best way to do things and use their ideas so they feel a sense of pride and ownership about the way things are done.

Notice where a family member is already organized and build on that strength by praising them. We are all good at doing some thing. By focusing on the positive and encouraging them to become organized, strengths will come out in other areas too without nagging or getting angry.

Motivating family members may be challenging at first, but it is rewarding when you see them putting things away where they belong and it takes much of the frustration out of what could be daily hassles. Not to mention all the time it saves.

About The Author

Marilyn is a creative organizer who has been organizing for over 20 years. She is a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers.She holds a bachelors degree in Social Work. She has reared five daughters and currently lives in Utah.

Go to her website http://www.marilynbohn.com where you can find free organizing tips and interesting blogs and helpful articles on organizing.

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Back-to-School Organizing Tips for the Mom-On-The-Go

Back to school can be a stressful time of year. Families must change from the laid-back summer schedule to the non-stop school and activity calendars that keep moms jumping from one activity to the next without a moment’s rest. Fortunately, today there is help.

GO MOM !NC, a leader in products to help you organize your busy life, provides its latest advice to keep Moms organized as they get their families back-to-school this fall. “Across the nation, busy parents are focused on easing their children into the new school year,” states Molly Gold, founder of GO MOM !NC. “My role as a Family Scheduling Expert is to help Moms focus on how they can better organize themselves to be ready for all that change and be mindful of how their own workload will evolve alongside of their family.”

Want the cliff notes on how you can get organized for Fall 2006? Take a look below:

• Plan Ahead – The only way you can command your time is to consciously map it. Simply put, use a family-oriented planner that enables you to track all family members’ schedules in one place. When you monitor your family schedule, you can then plan how and when to accomplish important back-to-school tasks, such as replacing clothes, purchasing school supplies, and attending back-to-school night. Stock your kids’ homework stations with pencil and paper basics while purchasing classroom items. Take it one step further by creating an emergency project box full of grade appropriate tools that will hold the night before anxiety at bay. Visit Target stores for an ample supply of poster board, report folders, markers, glue sticks, and an assortment of interesting arts and crafts items in small quantities to allow your child’s creativity to shine, one project at a time.

• Plan for Paper – Before you start stacking all those important school papers in a long forgotten corner of your kitchen, or on top of last month’s bills, put your paper trail in place beginning with in/out boxes for each family member. Show everyone where to place their papers and then sort them daily with your planner at hand to note important deadlines and tasks. When setting up your own filing system, check out the new GO MOM!® School Organizer. With monthly pockets for everything from school-related projects and fundraisers, to teacher newsletters and activities rosters, you can’t help but be ready for the first round of parent/teacher conferences at the end of first quarter. If it’s your house that keeps you buried, you’ll find the GO MOM!® Home Organizer to be equally as effective in helping you categorize and sort the most important papers as you manage your family’s busy days.

• Plan to Purge – We all do better with a clean, organized environment. If you haven’t yet gone through everyone’s closets, dressers, and bedrooms while evaluating wardrobes for school, do it as soon as you have your routine in motion. Make room for the year ahead by rounding up all outgrown items, discarding everything that can’t be repaired, both in the toy and clothing departments. For items in good condition, arrange for a charitable donation or enlist your kids’ help and plan a yard sale in late September. Take advantage of your clean slate and give each room a quick cleaning with an all-purpose cleaner like Mr. Clean Extra Power Multi-Surface Cleaner for even the toughest jobs. From scrubbing baseboards to replacing air filters, flipping mattresses and cleaning windows, Fall is a great time to freshen your home and welcome the change of seasons. And for Moms of older kids, enlist their helping hands as you plow through this process. Respect and responsibility for both our possessions and environment are life skills worth teaching.

GO MOM !NC is based in Apex, NC and promotes the use of The GO MOM!® Organizer and GO MOM!® Planner, unique day planner systems for everything that is family. Founder Molly Gold is a 40-year-old mother of three and the creator of the GO MOM!® product line, which will grow this September to include The GO MOM!® Wall Organizer, The GO MOM!® School Organizer, and The GO MOM!® Home Organizer. All products in the GO MOM!® line are produced via license partnership with Mead Westvaco Consumer and Office Products and sold at major retailers nationwide, including Target, Staples, and Office Max.

GO MOM !NC helps mothers make positive mothering a daily reality within the structure GO MOM!® Schedule. Organize. Grow.® Gold is known for her keen insights into Family Scheduling and has been featured both in print and on air media alike and is currently available for media interviews.

Attention busy Moms! The time is now to get both you and your kids organized for an exciting and successful school year ahead. To learn more about how you can stay ahead of the game, go to http://www.gomominc.com.
About The Author

Molly Gold currently serves on Proctor & Gamble’s Mr. Clean Team Expert Panel, Cartoon Network’s Tickle U Advisory Board, and as Family Scheduling Expert at both http://www.BlueSuitMom.com, and http://www.NewBaby.com. Her work has been featured in Parents and Parenting Magazines, Better Homes and Gardens, The Washington Post, ABC’s Good Morning America, and most recently NBC’s Today Show Weekend Edition. Contact her today at http://www.gomominc.com or via publicist Diana Ennen at diana@virtualwordpublishing.com, (954) 971-4025.

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Organizing Kid Rooms Made Easy With Teamwork

Whether you’re decorating an empty kid’s room from scratch, freshening up their room with a little paint, creating a functional storage system or simply trying to clear the clutter – it’s important that you work as a team. Decorating and organizing kid rooms takes teamwork. Of course, with babies and toddlers, you need to take full control but as your children grow, so should their responsibility in caring for their room.

In order for kids to have a space that’s really theirs, we need their input. Likes and dislikes need to be discussed. As well, compromises need to be made when it comes to room color, furniture, stuff, cleanliness and how to mesh everything together in one room.

Kid’s outgrow their rooms almost as fast as they outgrow their clothes. Not the physical space but its storage capacity and décor. Interests and hobbies change, more and more stuff comes and in most cases, very little goes out. They may outgrow their toys but they aren’t always willing to part with them. And, although a juvenile train border works well in a three year old boy’s room, your eight year old hockey fanatic is getting a little tired of falling asleep with the little engine that could.

To create functional and age appropriate room you need to take into account not only your child’s personality and their current interests but also what type of organizational system that will work in both their favor and yours. One that your child can easily stay on top of and one that keeps you off their back.

But before painting or looking at wallpaper or border samples you need to turn your thoughts to organizing. There’s no point redecorating your child’s room before organizing it.

For kid room storage solutions visit http://www.organizingkidrooms.blogspot.com

Teaching kids to be organized is a lot like shoveling while it’s snowing. It seems like the whole experience will get you nowhere but the good news is that it can be done, and your effort does pay off in the long run. But it’s not a one shot deal. Organizing kid rooms is an ongoing process that must be revamped constantly to keep up with changing needs. It takes planning, patience and perseverance.

First, we must have our own organizing act together in order to assist our children with theirs. Children learn what they live. They model what they see. How can we teach our children something we couldn’t be bothered to do for ourselves?

The key is to become your child’s organizational consultant. Acting as their guide, survey what’s working and what’s not. To find an organizational system that matches her schedule and activity level consider your child’s lifestyle. Does she play mostly in or out of her room? Where does she do her homework?

Organizing kid rooms effectively is all about organizing with your children instead of for them. By becoming a united force you have a greater chance of devising an organizational system that will work.

About The Author

Sherrie Le Masurier is an organizing consultant who helps parents organize and decorate their children’s rooms. She is a member of Professional Organizers in Canada (POC) and co-owner of http://www.decorating-kids-rooms.net – Copyright.

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Spring Clean Year Round: Home Cleaning and Organizing Tips

Typically, heavy duty cleaning and organizing is done once a year. When spring rolls around it is nice to open the windows in your house and clean up after hibernating all winter. But why wait until spring to thoroughly clean your home? Follow these tips to help tidy up your home in a few easy steps.

Tackle one area at a time: You will be able to get more done, more effectively by focusing on one room/area at a time. If you try to multitask during cleaning then it actually takes you longer to get your chores done. Also, try starting with the more difficult areas to clean such as the bathroom or kitchen, and then move to easier areas. Getting the more difficult rooms done in the beginning allows you to save some energy for the rest of the home.

Get Rid of Stuff!: Getting rid of items that just take up space in your home can make you feel better and can even earn a little money. Again, work on one room at a time. Start two piles in each room: a sell/donate pile for items that are in good shape and a trash pile for items that are in poor condition. Don’t be afraid to get rid of stuff! Chances are that if you have not used it in the past year, you will not miss it when it is gone. This is especially true for clothing, kids toys, kitchen accessories and old books. You will be amazed at the new space that you will have once you get rid of the old and unused.

Deep clean: After you have sorted, purged and organized it is time to clean. Again, tackle one room at a time. This is the perfect time to do those biannual cleaning chores such as cleaning the carpets and washing the inside of kitchen cabinets and drawers. Once those chores are done, you can move to daily/weekly tasks such as dusting and vacuuming.

Other helpful tips:

Sort your paper documents such as bill stubs, medical documentation, etc. Shred any unnecessary documents and neatly file away important documents in a filing cabinet or other storage container.

For out of control craft supplies, separate supplies into logical piles. Since I scrapbook and make hand made greeting cards, my piles were paper, rubber stamps, and miscellaneous craft tools. Consolidate into an easily accessible storage container such as a toolbox on wheels. Many craft stores sell craft storage containers that are perfect for keeping your items organized.

Sort through bathroom cabinets and get rid of any expired medicines, make up, and other toiletries. Using expired items can make you sick!

Keep a purge mentality all year long. This will make your job much easier when the time comes to clean and organize again.

After you have finished, kick up your feet and enjoy your freshly clean home.
About The Author

Amanda Pinkston is a writer for The Craft Cafe. Find card making, scrapbooking, free printables, recipes and more at http://www.thecraftcafe.com

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6 Organizing Habits For Clutter Control

How many times have you said to yourself I wish I could stay organized? I am a professional organizer and I tell the women I work with it is possible to keep organized but I don’t think it is possible to stay organized. The word stay gives the impression that once a task is done it is done for good. But if you have a life, live with someone, have children or have a home no matter how organized things are they just get undone. Here are six tips to help you keep organized by clearing clutter and getting a grip on clutter control on a consistent basis.

1. Put things back after using them AKA: get rid of the evidence. This is an easy habit to get into and it will make a big difference in clutter control. Teach your family to put things back after using them. If you make a sandwich put everything away that you took out to make the sandwich before you sit down to eat it. Put the bread back, replace the perishables in the fridge, and put the utensils you used in the dishwasher and wipe off the counter. No evidence remains that you fixed a sandwich. This will help eliminate clutter around the home when you get in the habit of doing this in every room.

2. Don’t set something down to deal with later. Later usually means clutter is starting to creep and piles are being made. When you have something in your hands, go ahead and deal with it then and there. Put it where it belongs. You may think it is simpler at the moment to set something down and deal with it later, but it just creates more work later. Get in the habit now of putting it away the second you’re done with it. Teach your family members to do the same.

3. Every night plan on a nightly pick up that will take no more than 10 to 15 minutes. Things do get undone and left out and papers and magazines dropped where they were read and maybe the laundry is folded and sitting on the couch—you get the idea. Have family members help pick up before going to bed because then you won’t have a mess staring you in the face the next morning. This is doing clutter control a little at a time which makes the task easy.

4. Involve the family in learning to keep organized. The reality is that every member of the family plays an important role in maintaining an organized home. Hold a family meeting to decide as a family which responsibilities will be done by each family member.

5. When you are living with the things you love and use and that light you up keep it that way by making sure that everything you bring into your home has a purpose and that you need it or just can’t live without it. Clutter control can be possible if you can adopt the attitude of one in and one out. When you buy something, let something else go. This isn’t always possible to do if you are buying things you need and use but it is something to consider.

6. Keep a toolbox in a place where everyone knows not only where to go to get a tool, but where to go to put it back when they are finished with it. By keeping a toolbox handy, you’ll have the correct tool for the job. It is much easier to pound a nail with a hammer than a shoe, or screw in a screw with a screwdriver rather than a butter knife (which scratches and bends your good knife). Get into the habit of putting the tools back in the tool box as soon as you finish with them.

Clutter Control will be effortless when you use these timely organizing tips and you will be able to Keep organized.

About The Author

Marilyn is a professional organizer who works with women and seniors in clearing clutter and providing organizing tips. Clearing clutter helps those she works with to have less stress in their lives and feel more joy in living.

Marilyn invites you to visit her website http://www.marilynbohn.com where you can find organizing solutions. You will find fun stories and free organizing tips in her blogs, articles and videos.

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