Cable Shopping Channels - They do sell some nice items on the shopping channels (I think I get three, maybe four of these channels on my cable TV.). BUT you don’t need most of what they’re selling or have time to use most of it (or wear most of it or whatever). They aren’t good salespersons on the cable shopping channels. They are GREAT salespersons. Don’t get sucked into buying items you don’t need by their great sales pitches. Refrain from buying just because it’s going to “sell out” in the next 15 minutes. Impulse creates clutter, usually unnecessary clutter.

Preapproved Credit Offers by Mail - Those big dollar figures they suggest look tempting, don’t they? Well, read the fine print. It usually says something about final available balance amounts still being subject to approval. (That usually means you’re not getting that big flashy dollar figure anyway.) Besides, most people can get by with two credit cards maximum: One for your normal usage and the second one for backup in case the first one doesn’t work due to some glitch. So what do you need another card for anyway? (You weren’t going to buy more stuff, were you?).

I have more clutter instigators along this same line of thought to share with you. But I’ll save it for another post later rather than clutter up your email box with too many tips in one day.

If you’d like to read more about clearing your clutter, visit http://www.cluttergoesbyebye.com  I just posted an excerpt from my Clutter Goes Bye Bye special report there.

I don’t collect LEGO® toys. I don’t have children who play with LEGOs. I  don’t even recall if I played with any LEGOs as a child. But I do know storing and organizing LEGOs is a hot topic for parents and perhaps of interest to collectors.

Readers have come to my organizing websites before searching for ways to store and organize their children’s LEGOs. That’s why I want to share this article with you I found. Click here to read about 16 LEGO storage options professional organizer Jeri Dansky researched and wrote about at her blog.

And if you’re looking for more everything LEGO go right to their web page at http://www.lego.com/

Function - Pantry items are there to serve the cook in her or his cooking related activities.

Convenience - The chef should be able to “grab items and go.”

Usability - It’s all about being able to reach and use what you need when you need it. It’s also about storage. Store items in your pantry in efficient manners, and to keep them off of your countertops.

Visibility - See what you need in the pantry (or what’s missing from the pantry) at a glance.

Safety - Make sure nothing comes tumbling down on a family member’s head.

First things, first. Can you… (more…)

I have another simple home organizing rule to share today. The second specific organizing rule I’m sharing with you today is… (more…)

A few items to consider sorting through and purging include: (more…)

A few minutes a day on a regular basis is all you need to organize your home.

Bring new stuff into your home only if you need it, will use it, will display it or will wear it regularly. Otherwise you’re simply inviting clutter into your home.

Clutter can be useful or useless. Organize useful clutter. Discard useless clutter.

Don’t let others less organized living in your home impede your goal to get organized. Work on what’s within your control to organize.

Read the full list of the ABC’s of Organizing just posted at http://www.easyhomeorganizing.com

NEW–19-page special report from the publisher of EasyHomeOrganizing.com: CLUTTER GOES BYE BYE (Baby steps and tips you can use to clear your clutter now)

Plus you’ll get two additional entirely free special reports: CLUTTER TAKES A TRIP(Where to sell, recycle, donate or trash your clutter) and CLUTTER BUSTERS GET MOTIVATED (12 tips to get and stay motivated to clear your clutter).

See my website for ordering details at
www.EasyHomeOrganizing.com (just look for the baby!)

1. …it has got a deep solid coat of dust on it.

2. …you come across it and say “oh, I forgot I had this.”

3. …it stirs up rotten memories.

4. …you’ve got five others of the exact same (or quite similar) item.

5. …you can’t fit into it anymore.

6. …it doesn’t fit (or fits awkwardly) in your home.

7. …it doesn’t work anymore.

8. …you don’t know how to use it and you don’t plan to learn.

9. …it’s expired.

10. …it’s one of a matching pair and the match has long since vanished.

 Got something to add to this list? Post it in the comments section below.

And I’m not talking about personalizing it to make it radiate your personality, although it may indeed do so. I’m talking about if you have 13 pairs of shoes, 10 long dresses, 5 suits, dozens of knit sweaters, 18 belts and 6 scarves that need to go in that bedroom closet, that’s what your customized closet will hold. And it will do so in a simplified way that’s convenient for you to access too.

You can create your own customized closet with deliberate thought and prefabricated closet organizers and shelving. Plus throw in some other closet organizers like double hanging clothes rods, wall hooks or even peg racks.

You also can hire someone to create your customized closet. Companies like CaliforniaClosets.com can come into your home to create these customized solutions for your bedroom closet. But that’s not all. (more…)

Today’s 10 minute organizing project is for the home. It is how to organize your cooking utensils.

  

Here’s how to do it: (more…)

I have had my eye on some attractive free-standing pantries of which I might consider getting one sometime. For now though, since our home has minimal storage space (and floor space), I’ve learned how to work with what I have and place items efficiently in my cabinets.

What got me to thinking about this topic was an article I was reading over at the Just Not Martha blog about the top 5 must-have items for her pantry. Of course, she was talking about food items. But my forte is about where you put the food in your pantry or kitchen cabinets—how to organize your pantry. You have to make room for your favorite food items!

So here is a top 3 list of my favorite organizational accessories for a food pantry or food storage cabinets that I personally use: (more…)

Recently thesimpledollar.com ran an article about if it’s worthwhile to have magazine subscriptions. Trent, the blog article author, addressed some pointed questions that allowed him to decide if his magazine subscriptions were a good buy “for him” (your answer might be different). He also pointed out that “for many people magazine subscriptions are a great waste of money.”

But they’re not just a waste of money. For some people they’re a waste of space in your home. They’re clutter at times.

I’ve been a print journalist and an avid magazine reader. But I have to say I spend more time reading online now than in print. Often online I can get similar information (depending on the topic) that’s timely (or not –because evergreen information is useful too). And I dislike the clutter of magazine subscriptions around my home. Paper attracts a LOT of dust. I don’t like dusting (though it’s a necessity). And dust just makes me sniffle and sneeze–a lot.

But print magazines do have a place too, especially when you want a change of pace from the computer and to rest your eyes away from the monitor. And it’s still a lot easier to recline on the couch with a print magazine than to do so with a computer screen. So I do read a few print magazines too. In the past few years I’ve subscribed to some interesting and popular print magazines. And actually I took advantage of some offers to get these subscriptions for free. But even free is too much sometimes. And it’s proved so for me to the point where I don’t say yes to every free magazine offer I happen across. That said I made a little list based on past experience with print magazines in our home so you’d know that…

…It’s time to cut your magazine subscriptions when…. (more…)

So Why 10 Minutes?
I was reading a post by Glen at LifeDev blog about how 10 minute increments can benefit your productivity. And I couldn’t agree more. You can be quite productive in 10 minutes. In fact, if you spent just a single 10 minute increment daily organizing items or processes in your home or life that would mean you’d complete 365 organizational tasks annually. You’d spend 3,650 minutes a year organizing your home or life.

Your home and life could be more organized than it has been in the past 10 years by just spending that 10 minutes on creating organizational processes or organizing items around you.

If you doubled that to just 20 minute increments, imagine the possibilities.

Why Will This 10 Minute Increment Approach Work for Organizing Your Home and Life? Several reasons…

1) If you tell yourself that you’ll do an organizational task for just 10 minutes, that seems reasonable and easy enough. You’re more likely to motivate yourself to organize something if you say “I’ll just do it for 10 minutes” than if you say “That’ll take me hours to do”. In the latter case you’ll probably put it off, possibly forever. In the first case, you might even find yourself engrossed enough in the task to go longer.

2) If you have a short attention span normally then 10 minutes is long enough to get something done but short enough to focus before your attention deficit sets in.

3) You truly might only have 10 minute free increments some days between your job work breaks, attending to matters with your spouse or children or attending and waiting for appointments.

What Can You Organize in 10 Minute Increments? (more…)

She got a watch.
But not a watch storage case. This Watch Storage Case is big enough to accommodate future years of watch gifts too.

She got the mug.
But not the mug rack. Why not use this Sliding Mug Rack to hang all of your mother’s day mugs on one side (and father’s day mugs on the other side). It’s a space-saver because you can hang it underneath your kitchen cabinet.

You have a reason to splurge on yourself now, Mom. After all, you have to store those precious gifts somewhere, right?

This is the time people in need (or people not in need who just like to shop at thrift stores) are looking for cool-wear clothing. So if you’re thinking of donating that wool coat you might want to hold off until winter. Thrift stores and donation drop-off points don’t always have room to store or display everything that’s donated to them. So they won’t be displaying a lot of your winter wear during the hot weather season. Hang onto your winter clothes donations until winter. That way they have a chance of going to someone that needs them and not ending up in the local landfill due to a lack of space in the warehouse or storefront.

Just last weekend I hauled a pile of clothes off to the local Goodwill. A bit of irony though is that I didn’t make more room for my wardrobe in my bedroom closet. That was because these were mostly hanging in my home office closet. The closet rod in my bedroom closet is full of stuff I wear now. That’s my primary wardrobe space. I had put these mostly short-sleeved blazers that I don’t wear anymore due to a change in profession in my office closet. But the good news is I’ll have more room in there for my files and office-related items now.

When evaluating your clothes closet, consider donating… (more…)

I have wire baskets, which are sturdy and see-through. But I also have baskets in materials that include rattan, rope, bamboo, metal, coconut husk and more. Wicker baskets are definitely nice but they’re not the only material comprising baskets.

If you’d like to view some photos of baskets with tips about how to use them in your organizing scheme, click over to my website at OrganizeWithBaskets.com . I’ll be adding some more material to that site in the future too related to organizing with baskets and perhaps even decorating with baskets or decorating the baskets themselves.

And it’s even more annoying to have to pull each one out of the drawer to hold it up to the light to check if you grabbed the right color (because you sure can’t read those little labels on the tubes).

This Lipstick Holder solves that problem! You can store up to eight lipstick tubes in it on your bathroom counter or a nearby wall shelf. Now whether you’re grabbing your smoky rose, bistro burgundy or any one of the other hundreds of hot and cool lipstick shades you can see them clearly and find the one you need quickly and easily.

And stacks tip over and merge into each other creating a pile of unrelated items for you to pick through. What a hassle! The solution is this Hanging Organizer Bagg.

This one is perfect for holding such small clothing items in its see-through vinyl zipper pockets. You can see what you have at a glance. And you save space by essentially hanging the items vertically in your bedroom closet.

Plus if the lighting isn’t good in your closet (and it definitely wasn’t in your drawer) you can easily pull the bag out to take a closer look at its contents without messing the contents. Buy several bags for all your needs.

With colors like black, pink, purple and red you can buy something fun to look at or buy colors based on your organization method. For instance use red bags for cosmetics and pink bags for scarves.

It holds up to 30 pounds, which is a lot of stuffed animals. And it stretches to 4 1/2 feet wide. Just hang it between two corners of your child’s bedroom or playroom. Be sure to hang it at a level your children can reach (and they’ll be more inclined to use it).

This stuffed animal net also would work in a boys room or even in a corner of the garage to hold baseball mitts and other kids sports items.

Organize each project into one of these Desktop File Boxes. They’re lightweight and have handles so you can tote them from room to room or to the car.

And you can store these on a shelf or under your desk when you’re not working on that project (and clearly they’re very stylish); then bring them to your desktop or table when you need them.

You could use one to hold all bills and tax items. Use another to hold your children’s report cards, permission slips and other related items.

Hang it on the wall in your entryway or foyer. That’s probably the first stop for your family members. Make sure you hang the coat rack at a level where coat tails won’t drag on the floor but yet at a height all family members can reach.

The solution is this Round Swivel Rod Rack that fits in a corner and swivels–it’s like a Lazy Susan for fishing rod racks.

It holds 24 fishing rods. Even if you don’t fish but your spouse does, buy it to get him organized and keep your garage and closets neater.

It has that crisp white finish that works in any bathroom. But you also can keep this laundry bin in the garage.

In fact, you don’t even have to put laundry in this
Laundry Bench Hamper. Use it to store sports items, books or anything you want.

And it has lots of space when it’s open to hold your stuff (up to 150 pounds of your stuff). Imagine trying to carry 150 pounds! Then again, why bother. Just roll it!

So how do you fit it in your trunk? When you fold it back down it folds flat to about 3 inches.

This is called a craft cart but you could keep it in your trunk and use it to carry grocery bags and loose items from the supermarket—giving you less trips and less back aches when unloading the car.

You could put your beach supplies in it or picnic items for a trip to the park.

You could carry books, office items and anything else you might be toting around that would otherwise be heavy and uncomfortable for you to carry in your arms.

You can fit a LOT in a little space in this three tier :
Snap N’ Stackâ„¢ Storage Box by Snapware®. The trays snap together so you can customize the box and remove the trays independently of each other.

Also, as you can see, the box is translucent which always makes it easier to store and retrieve items without digging through everything in the box. Just look for what you want and then open the box lid and retrieve it.

The handle makes it easy to transport this box from the closet or shelf to your work area. You can store items such as crafts or sewing supplies, small office supplies, kids crayons and other small items and more.

It not only hides all those messy charging cords but it adds sockets—sort of. You put all three items that need charging onto the docking station (the power station charger). Then plug their cords into the power strip inside of it.  And finally just plug the single power station charger cord into one wall socket. That’s how you save space, hide those ugly cords and wires and triple your electrical socket usage.

By the way, you can fit any size item on the power station charger because the dividers are adjustable. Just slide the dividers over to best fit your item.

This sewing center has a three-position lift mechanism that provides ample work surface while sewing. And it provides storage of your machine from view when not in use. The lift mechanism allows you to sew flatbed, free-arm at any height and store your sewing machine easily.

For storing your sewing accessories, use the four drawers, four notion trays and the recessed compartment on top workspace.

Learn to love sewing again by getting comfortable while you’re doing it!

The solution is to organize them on a Ribbon Organizer that allows you to see all of your spools of ribbon at a glance and to neatly retrieve that ribbon.

This hanging ribbon organizer meets those criteria. It’s wire so you can see every ribbon spool placed side-by-side on it. Plus it has plenty of space for storing multiple spools of ribbon—three rows.

Hang it on the wall above your craft or gift wrapping center where you’ll see it when you need it.

In this case your child could store her dolls or stuffed animals in the three bins below the bench and actually use the bench as a play surface with them. Or she could store books in the bins and sit on the bench to read them.

The removable toy boxes are light-weight so your kids can pull them out easily. And you see that the storage bins have those side handle spaces so your kids can carry them to another play area or work space.

And at the end of the day, all toys, books, arts and crafts or whatever just gets dropped back into the bins and hidden under the bench. That means you actually could keep this toy storage bench with bins in the family room even because it’s easy to clean up toy messes and hide stuff away from the view of guests in just seconds.

You can put a dozen or more letter size hanging folders into this file box. And the wicker makes your filing look pretty. In other words, it disguises it! It looks like you have a piece of home decor and not an ugly office supply item in your home.

You could then store this wicker file box, or multiple wicker file boxes if you really do have a lot of files, on open shelving in any room of your home. The lid keeps the dust out. And the handles make it easy for you to carry your files to  your kitchen table or couch when you’re ready to work on them.

If you do have multiple wicker file boxes and trouble remembering what’s in them, just put a discreet label on them. You could attach some pretty hanging labels with string to the outside of the box. Or stick a label on the inside bottom of the lid.

In our home we use a wire expand a shelf with three tiers in a kitchen cabinet to hold spices, small bottles of vanilla, cinammon, salt, pepper, etc. It works wonderfully. But this shelf is even better because it expands to fit your closet.

This expand a shelf is sure to fit your kitchen cabinet because of its dynamic size; It expands from 13 inches to 25 inches wide. Other dynamic or static sizes of the expand a shelf are available here too.

The pieces cling to the felt of the jigsaw puzzle roll-up. Then you roll it up and secure it with a band.

These jigsaw puzzle roll ups come in both a small and large size.

After changing jobs and lifestyles I left some beautiful dresses and suits hanging in one of my closets for months untouched. To my dismay when I went to retrieve one months later, I found the shoulders covered in grime and discolored. I could have prevented this damage to my expensive clothing by using these inexpensive Shoulder Hanger Covers .

When you’re storing out of season clothes in your bedroom closet, or even special occasion clothing, dust tends to collect on the shoulders of these items. So before you push those out of season clothes to the far end of the closet, cover each garment with a vinyl shoulder cover.

These shoulder covers are see-through so they make viewing those items easy too if you do need to grab one off season. The vinyl shoulder covers easily slip over the hanger.

This Rolling Garden Tool Cart has holes to hold your large tools such as rakes and hoes. But it also has pockets on the side to hold items like gardening gloves or those small hand tools you use in the garden.

If you use electrical tools, there is even a space to store and wrap a long extension cord too.

Because it’s translucent, you can see each purse at a glance.

And best of all the vinyl pockets keep dust from collecting on your purses.

Hang this purse organizer over a regular size clothes hanger in your closet or even on the back of a door.

Slide your recipe into the recipe card sleeve. That way you can even post it to the fridge with a magnet or anywhere visible and it’ll stay clean. These recipe card protectors pictured to the left are usually sold in sets of 200.

Another space saver is the fact that these canisters are square—you can more efficiently use the closet space with square canisters versus round canisters. Plus these are stackable canisters, which means you can add even more storage space to your kitchen pantry area by going vertical and stacking them in a column. And as mentioned, because the canisters are see-through you still can easily see what’s in any one, even the one on the bottom, without digging through the stack.

These kitchen canisters are sold in sizes 32 oz, 48 oz, and 65 oz. The canisters do have plastic seals under the lids, which helps to keep food items you store in them fresh.

And you don’t have to just use it in a kitchen drawer. Use these expanding drawer organizers in the office drawer for pens, pencils, rubber bands and more small office supplies. Use it in a bathroom drawer for cosmetics. Use the organizers in the garage to sort screwdrivers or smaller items. The drawer organizers are plastic so you can easily wipe them clean.

By putting these items into a toilet tank top caddy you’re keeping them organized and clustered. You can easily pick up this tank top caddy to dust underneath.

Actually, this caddy has such nice dimensions (18″ x 8″ x 2″) that you might want to use it in closets or drawers to organize and maintain other items. This comes in vinyl coated wire or white-painted wood.

Then later you can add the recorded item to your written to-do list or just do it then. This My Lil’ Reminder™ is also good for reminding you (just like the commercial says) where your car is. It fits on your keychain. Or jot your quick shopping lists on it and carry it with you to the supermarket or drugstore.

1) in a small space;

2) where you can easily view all of them at a glance;

3) while keeping them dust-free.

This shoe chest does all that!