A place for everything and everything in it's place? That's the mark of an organized home. Get tips, tricks, articles and storage solutions for better home organization.
Power Tools For An Organized Home
Who among us hasn't squandered a happy afternoon in a store specializing in organizing products? Drifting from aisle to aisle, we make a mental list: this for the bathroom clutter, that for the computer desk.
All is bliss until we consider the bottom line. Specialty organizers can be costly! Someday, we vow, we'll get organized at home, but for now, budget realities step firmly on organizer dreams.
Stop the presses! Over the years, these top tools have proved their value, and they cost a fraction of the price of specialty products. Everyday products from office supply and discount stores can take us 80% of the way to total home organization--for 20% of the price. It's a frugal application of the 80/20 rule. More »
The ABCs of Household Paper Management
Do you know where your tax records are? Chances are, they're swimming in a stack of paper ... somewhere.
Rafts of paper flood into the average home each day. The mailbox discharges letters and bills and bank statements. Briefcases explode with professional journals, pay stubs and calendars. School backpacks unload children's artwork, meeting notices and sports schedules.
Paper clutter costs money, time and stress. A missing permission slip derails the entire family on the way out the door. Hide-and-seek bills lead to late payment fees. Lose the roster, and it's back to the Yellow Pages each time you need to contact the soccer car pool. More »
Jumpstart January For An Organized Year
Face it: it's January. Dreary weather is matched only by the dreariness of a house stripped of holiday decorations. Children slog through the great dull stretch between New Year's Day and Spring Break, no longer distracted from their schoolwork by the excitements of the holiday season.
December's crowded calendar gives way to January's social slump. Video rentals soar as comfy sweats replace dress clothes on Saturday nights.
Take heart! There's another side to January! More »
Moving On: Tips For An Organized Move
Every year, one in five American families makes a move --- and this year, it'll be your family on the road.
No doubt about it, moving can present the organizational challenge of a lifetime.
Every habit, every routine, every tiny piece of the mosaic of your life is tossed at random into a huge, cluttered van, to be shaken out and reassembled at the other end.
It's a daunting task--but you can get organized and cut stress when the moving van arrives.
Moving on? Try these road-tested tips for an organized move: More »
Garage Sale Tips: Clear Clutter With A Yard Sale
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 »
Goalposts: What Football Players Know About Setting And Reaching Goals
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 »
