Sunday

Simple Moving Advice: Large Apartment to Smaller One
The time has come to move and you won't be living in a large living space like your previous one. This article provides advice on how you can best organize your new apartment to feel like home again.
Read More

Tuesday

How Organization Will Save You Money

I'll bet you're wondering what organization has to do with saving money.

Actually quite a bit!

Imagine that you've been looking all over your house for that book/DVD/sunglasses/whatever and you can't find it. Or imagine that you're at the store and can't remember if you still have any bananas or jars of strawberry jam.

Simple things, right?

Well, when we can't remember what we have and don't know where to find what we have, we usually end up buying it again. And then, before you know it, you're like my aunt with 17 umbrellas.

My mother always says that once you replace something you can't find, you'll find the original missing item. I'm sure many of you have heard that as well. But for as many times as we've heard this, we still do not take action and bring some organization into our lives to avoid spending money when did not need to spend in the first place.

So, what do we do about this? The answer to almost every organizing problem is to have a system. Why a system? Because we are creatures of habit and mostly prefer to do things the same way every time. Not only that but with a system you have less to remember. You just follow the system.

There are a couple of systems you can put in place to help you save money in various areas of your life. Here are 4 areas in which you will want to find a system that works for you to help save you tons of money in the end.

1. Grocery Shopping

How many times have you been at the grocery store, without your list, and wondered if you should be an item you're not really sure if you have or need?

I'm willing to be it happens a lot. It happens more when you don't have a list. It happens even more when you don't know what you have in your kitchen.

Here's what I suggest. Go through your cabinets and fridge before you attempt to make a shopping list. The list you're about to make is what you can see that you're missing or low on. Next, depending on how often you shop (I suggest no more than weekly) and plan your menus accordingly. So, plan menus weekly if you shop weekly, two weeks at a time if you shop bi-weekly, etc.

Once you know what you're going to make, you can look at what you're missing (from your first list), and make your shopping list accordingly.

When you get to the store, do not deviate from this list. Take appropriate coupons if you want to, but don't go hungry and leave the kids at home.

2. Shoes

What woman doesn't like to have a variety of shoes? Unlike men, we must have different shoes for different outfits, occasions, and seasons. However, this love of shoes can go overboard.

This has happened to me, I must admit. While shopping for something totally unrelated, I saw a great pair of gray houndstooth heels in Target. The only problem was the heel was a little too high and the size 11 was probably one size or so more than I needed.

I reasoned that my feet would swell and I wouldn't be standing long anyway. Plus, the shoes weren't expensive. Well, I stood for a long time on the day I wore them, it rained, and they were too big. They were worn once and are now on their way to charity. What a waste!

I should have taken stock of what I had and thought about what I was going to wear on that occasion. Had I done that, I would have saved my feet and my money.

So, take note: know what you have before you start adding to your collection.

3. Clothing

What goes for shoes also goes for clothing.

I used to get clothing as gifts from my parents and internally wondered where they thought a 14 year old was going to wear a white ruffled shirt in 1995. (I eventually found a use for that shirt in one of the plays I was in.)

The point is, even though they were trying to be nice about it, the clothing choices didn't fit my existing lifestyle. We do that sometimes. Whether it's a trend or something great we saw on someone else, we figure it's just something we have to have. But, by thinking this way, we often ignore the fact that it's not our style, it's not flattering, or it's out of our budget.

The organization here also revolves around knowing what you have. This will help you determine what you actually need and if there is room in your budget and your closet for the things you want.

4. Bills

The key to organization and paying bills is really simple. Pay your bills on time.

One more time: pay your bills on time.

This advice is most important when the bill is a credit card or loan. Late fees and over the limit fees (sometimes as a result of late fees) can seriously hinder your ability to eventually be debt free. (Who wants to stay in debt forever?)

There are a couple of ways you can do this. You can pay the bills as you receive them in the mail (if you still get paper bills) or as you receive notification by email for electronic bills. Or, to make this more automated and ensure the bills are paid on time, sign up for a 3rd party service, one at your bank, or one offered by your creditor where the payment is automatically debited from a designated checking account each month.

There are a number of ways to have as much or as little control over this process as possible, but the point is to set up a system and stick with it so that you don't lose money to late fees and penalties.

5. Miscellaneous Items

This is the area where so many people get into trouble.

We find ourselves at the store and we see something we like. We think we have one at home, but we're not sure. So, instead of waiting until we get home to verify (or call someone who is at home), we purchase the item anyway and end up with multiples. (Remember the 17 umbrellas?)

It's good to wait to make some purchases anyway, but the more organized you become, the more aware you are of what you have. When you know what you have, then you also know what needs to be replaced or what you're lacking.

Once you start organizing, you will find a surprising number of items you have bought and you can't remember why or what it is even for. You will also find the things you thought were lost but were really just buried under foolishness and mayhem called clutter.

Do yourself and your family a favor and stop the foolishness. Get organized and save money. You'll be glad you did.


Wendy Stewart is your Go-to-girl for being in the know about small business, personal finance, personal style, and wellness. For more free tips on personal finance, visit her blog, Personal Finance Success, at http://personal-finance-manager.blogspot.com

Monday

6 Ideas For Organizing Your Home With Plastic Containers

Because you can find them in such a wide variety of shapes, sizes, styles, and colors, plastic containers are some of the most useful tools for organizing, storing, and displaying items.

The industry already knows how useful plastic containers are in businesses like retail stores, restaurants, and hotels; however, do homeowners know how useful plastic containers are in their own homes?

Maybe you need a way to organize your child's small toys, or you're looking for art supply containers for your craft room. If you're a homeowner - or even a renter - looking for ideas on how to better organize your home, check out the descriptions listed below for using plastic containers to organize six areas of your home.

1. Kitchen

Plastic containers are excellent organizational tools and display fixtures for kitchens.

Homeowners can use traditional round, square, or hexagon containers of various sizes to hold frequently used items like keys, address books, and matchbooks, as well as handgrip containers to store food items like flour, sugar, and seasonings. These containers are also great for holding those little extras like plastic utensils, packets of salt, pepper, sugar, and condiments, and even hand wipes we often end up with after a trip to or delivery from a restaurant.

2. Home Office

Whether you work at home or need a quiet place dedicated to managing your bills or doing homework, you definitely want your home office to be organized.

Consider using plastic containers to organize, store, and display various home office tools like writing utensils, markers, and highlighters; extra ink cartridges for your computer printer; staples, paperclips, and tacks; and small Post-It notepads.

3. Work Areas

Work areas vary from home to home. You might have a storage shed dedicated to completing your home repair tasks, or you might use your attic, basement, or garage. Wherever your home's work area is, it's important to keep it well organized.

Plastic containers are great tools for organizing and storing small work items like nuts, screws, bolts, and nails. You can even use them to organize rolls of measuring tape, electrical tape, and painter's tape.

4. Craft Areas

Like your home's work area, your home's craft area - whether it you have a special room set aside for crafts or you have dedicated a corner of your living room to your sewing machine - containers lots of small items in need of organizing.

You can use plastic containers to organize and display craft items like spools of thread, small balls of yarn, and sewing and knitting needles; small containers of glitter and sequins; buttons; appliqués; paint and paint brushes; and small bottles of glue and glue sticks for glue guns.

5. Children's Rooms

Children's rooms are havens for small toys like building blocks, rogue game pieces and puzzle pieces, and figurines. You can use plastic containers to help organize these items, making it easy for you and your child to find them and store them after playing.

6. Rec Rooms

Each homeowner uses his or her home's "rec" room for various purposes. This might be the room where your family spends time together, or it might be the room where you manage the bills. Because plastic containers work so well as organizational, storage, and display tools, they'll also work well to organize, store, and display any kind of small item you have in your rec room!


By Terry Keenan

Candy Concepts, Inc. specializes in providing businesses with everything from a wide variety of candy containers to the bulk candy and novelty items to fill them with! Learn more about the kinds of bulk plastic containers you can use for your merchandise displays when you visit Candy Concepts, Inc.'s sister website, All Candy Containers.com.

Friday

Organize Your Sewing Or Craft Room

One of the most cost-effective hobbies a person can have is needlework. The hobbyist concentrates on a creative, relaxing pastime that produces an attractive, useful item to wear, to use in the home, or to give as a gift. Also, as lifestyles become more and more hectic, these skills, once practiced by members of most households, have become increasingly rare. With time, patience, and practice, these skills can become marketable in this age of mass-produced, mediocre goods. The needlework hobbyist can easily justify claiming permanent space in the home for her hobby, and for collecting and organizing the best tools to practice that hobby. Here are some ideas for organizing your sewing room or craft room.

Whether your hobby is quilting, garment or home sewing, fabric-oriented crafts, or embroidery on fabric, you will need to divide your workspace into areas for specialized tasks, and will need some basic tools for working with fabric. First, organize your sewing/craft room around the following tasks:

•Wash: Designate a time devoted to washing or otherwise preparing your fabrics or other supplies such as tapes or zippers. Most fabrics need to be pre-shrunk before cutting them. All fabric needs to be clean before it is worked. Nothing is more discouraging than having a small smudge that will not come out on a completed embroidery piece or garment. The entire project can be ruined because care was not taken in the beginning. Set aside part of the laundry room for any special soaps, detergents, or spot cleaners suitable for the types of fabric you need to prepare. If the item is to be hand washed only, keep a small bottle of delicate care laundry soap or detergent (along with a couple of towels for this purpose) near your kitchen sink to take advantage of the larger sink and counter space—unless you have a large sink in the laundry room.

•Dry: Have an area where fabrics can be blocked on a table or stretched on a rack to dry. This area should be safely away from cooking fumes, pets, children’s hands, or anything else that might cause the fabric to be re-soiled. Some fabrics can be dried in the drier, but should be immediately hung or folded to prevent wrinkles from setting in. Other fabrics will need to drip dry, again in a safe place.

•Press: When the fabric is thoroughly dry, it will need pressed to set the grain. This pressing area can be in the laundry room, or in your sewing area, near your machine. Depending on the size of the fabric piece, you can press it on a full-sized ironing board, a table that has been padded with towels and a clean sheet, or a non-stick pressing sheet , which can be laid on a table or counter. In fact, a non-stick pressing sheet can become nearly indispensable near your sewing machine for touching up small pieces such as a single quilt block, or a collar or sleeve that is partially constructed. If this sheet is close-by, it quickly becomes habit to press each seam as it is sewn, rather than waiting until several are ready to press before carrying them all at once to the ironing board.

•Cut: Have an area that is a comfortable height for cutting patterns. This area can be a small table and chair, if you mainly work with small pieces of fabric or it can be a special cutting table. What is important is that it be a comfortable height and that you have good lighting. In the sewing room, this table can double as a pressing area. Be sure to cover the surface with a pad and your pressing sheet.

•Assemble: Whether you are sewing curtains or a prom dress, piecing a quilt block, hand-quilting a pillow, or creating a counted cross-stitch wall hanging, you need space for a comfortable chair, a table or frames at a comfortable height, and good lighting. Keep your tools close-by in a covered basket.

When your workspace is planned out according to the multiple tasks involved, when each area is conveniently located, and your tools are organized and close at hand, you will be able to relax and focus on your hobby. Your family will be able to enjoy your completed projects more quickly because you will be working more efficiently, and they will agree that it was worth the time and effort to organize the sewing/craft room.


Author Vincent Platania represents the Fuller Brush Company. Fuller Brush has been in business since 1906, and offers safe, environmentally friendly products for keeping your home and your body clean. Visit http://www.fuller-brush-products.com

Blogs Worth Mentioning

Organizer Blog Topics for Home, Office & Beyond

how to get organized organize home apartment garage closet kitchen organizing for the holidays organize bedroom organize bathroom decluttering organization organize office how to organize an event how to organize shoes organize basement organizing spring cleaning advice on keeping home clean desk home decoration how to organize coupons how to organize tools moving organize attic organize children persuasion storage containers to do list about us childrens closet and room home organization how to clean how to organize clothes how to organize freezer how to organize garden how to organize home how to organize life how to organize makeup how to organize papers new year tips organize kitchen save money arts and crafts back to school shopping cardboard boxes and bins closet organizer family fast organization helping someone get organized hoarders holiday decorations packing and storing home organization stores hotel bed how to decorate bookshelves how to organize backpack how to organize car how to organize closet how to organize clutter how to organize college how to organize cords how to organize craft room how to organize dvds how to organize mail how to organize medicine cabinet how to organize money how to organize music how to organize pantry how to organize photos how to organize plastic food containers how to organize purse how to organize refrigerator how to organize room how to organize shed how to set table laundry room motivation organize home office organize narrow kitchen cabinet organized moms organizer tools organizing home for make-over shoes tips for organizers toys tv shows 1980s inspired organizers Christmas gift wrap Christmas storage tips Thanksgiving organizing apple reminders appliances art gallery art ideas art work blog owner bra organizer cables car organization carpet shampoo chargers cheap organizing childrens cabinet coats coin collection collectibles covid work space creative tips drawer dividers food storage furniture shopping gamer organizers gifts good housekeeping hobbies holiday gift wrap holiday giving guide holiday meal clean up holiday meal planning holiday prep holiday shopping home business home buying home care home decoration apps home design home organizers how artists get organized how to arrange livingroom how to clean your bedroom how to eliminate stress and worry how to get organized for the holidays how to get your link on this site how to make book jar how to make small room bigger how to organize Internet tasks how to organize a desk how to organize a small linen closet how to organize any room fast how to organize anything how to organize apps how to organize baby bottles how to organize baby changing table how to organize beauty samples how to organize bedroom closets how to organize bikes how to organize binder how to organize cell phone numbers how to organize chest drawers how to organize childrens dishes how to organize childrens files how to organize childrens rooms how to organize closet by color how to organize coat closet how to organize coffee table how to organize computer documents how to organize craft supplies how to organize crayons and coloring books how to organize cube shelves how to organize digital photos how to organize dishes how to organize dolls clothes how to organize email inbox how to organize entryway how to organize garden tools how to organize grocery list how to organize home filing cabinet how to organize hotel stay how to organize ideas how to organize jewelry how to organize kitchen how to organize kitchen cabinets how to organize kitchen drawers how to organize magazines how to organize nightstand how to organize notebook planner how to organize notes how to organize paper how to organize paperwork how to organize party how to organize party beverages how to organize perfumes how to organize phone how to organize playroom how to organize pots how to organize receipts how to organize recipes how to organize scrapbook supplies how to organize sewing room how to organize small kitchen how to organize spices how to organize stuff how to organize suitcase how to organize table top how to organize teen closet how to organize the coat closet how to organize time how to organize under bathroom sink how to organize under kitchen sink how to organize underwear how to organize wallet how to organize wardrobe how to organize workout how to organize your home how to organize your mind how to organize youtube channel how to paint kitchen cabinets how to paint walls how to plan your day how to prepare items for uploading how to set a buffet party table iPhone home screen kids art kitchen organization ideas labelmaker laziness lazy susan legal documents lux look minimalism neat freak need web content no money make-over nursery open shelf oragnizing organize briefcase organize files organize for freedom organize garage organize information organize instructions organize kitchen utensils organize life organize mind organize trip organize your child organized people organizing around unsightly appliances organizing bedsheets organizing people organizing protest organizing resources outdoor space pans and lids party invite professional organizers rearranging furniture for the holidays redecorating for the holidays reorganization roommates sanitary napkins social feed reader st. patricks day storing clothes super bowl party ideas tampons teen bedroom tips on organizing children tool cabinet organization trading rooms in house wall art wall decorating wall hangings wedding why organize workshop
Custom Search