Organized Home

Garage sale, tag sale, yard sale--whatever you call it, the garage or yard sale is part and parcel of the American way of life.

On sunny weekend mornings, slow-moving cars ("I brake for yard sales!") circle suburban neighborhoods as their occupants hunt baby toys and French-fry makers, auto parts and cocktail shakers.

If you're in active declutter mode, the next stop is your house! A yard sale can clear clutter and score some cash, but it helps to have a road map.

Try these tips for a successful yard sale:    More »

Ready to Spring forward? Time Change Sunday is on the way!

On Sunday, March 8, Daylight Savings Time will begin in most of the United States. Setting the clock forward means it's time for a seasonal safety check!

As you circle the house, setting clocks ahead, make time for this short safety checklist. It'll see you into Spring from a safe--and organized--home:    More »

Spring blows in with warm wind and the promise of ... spring cleaning? With the coming of spring, even the most casual home managers feel an inexplicable urge to move furniture, clean windows and vacuum baseboards to welcome the return of sunshine and warmer weather.

Certainly, there's a lot to be said for the notion of spring cleaning. It's a good time of year to rout out the dirt, dust and disorder that's crept into the home since the holiday season. By doing a thorough clean once a year, no area of the home gets too far removed from the results earned by energetic mops, vacuums and cleaning cloths. Longer days bring a new burst of energy for many of us, and using that bonus to deep-clean our homes seems like a good match for rising springtime spirits.

Then there's another point of view: that spring cleaning is unnecessary in an organized modern home.    More »

It's Spring!

Warming breezes scour the last of winter from house and garden. Spring rain awakens the earth and calls forth new life.

Meet the rising sap with a new broom. Spring clean indoors and out to prepare home and hearth for the return of warm weather. 

Our Spring cleaning chore checklist will help you take care of important seasonal chores and welcome Spring to an organized home:    More »

Wheeling my shopping cart down the aisle at the supermarket this week, I was forced to take notice that it was, indeed, football season. With my attention distracted by a flashing soda display, my cart crashed into the corner of a miniature football field, constructed entirely out of beer cases. What deranged hearts and minds live in the person of advertising executives!

Untangling my cart (and trying, unobtrusively, to shove the cases back into line before anyone noticed that I'd creamed the goalpost), it occurred to me that I could learn a lot about goals from football players.    More »

Psst! One of our own is featured in the current issue of Woman's Day magazine.

Even if you make a list and check it twice, a few items can fall through the cracks during the holidays. What are the things you shouldn't forget as you prepare to celebrate the season?

Check the link for a Christmas checklist of often-overlooked holiday to-do items, from Cynthia Townley Ewer, editor of Organized Christmas:

Holiday Checklist - Woman's Day    More »