Organized Home

It's the secret weapon of a well-organized kitchen: a working pantry. A planned reserve of foodstuffs and sundries used in the home, a pantry saves time, money and stress in the kitchen.

Tap the pantry for unexpected meals and reduce trips to the supermarket. Stock it with frugal finds to lower grocery costs. Set aside a supply of food and sundries for a rainy day and protect your family against weather emergencies or financial dislocation.

Properly managed, the pantry is an integral part of an organized home. Polish your pantry pride with our best hints and tips:    More »

Open the kitchen cabinets ... and you can tell it's time for a kitchen declutter!

Pudding mixes perch on top of the cereal, showering down onto the head of a sleepy, squawking teen each morning. To reach the oatmeal pan, you must shove aside a stack of pizza coupons, the bread machine pan and a glass jar of pickles.

The top of the refrigerator is a greasy, dusty jumble of unfinished crafts projects, the dog's leash, empty prescription bottles, broken toys and fast-food drink cups.

Time to declutter the kitchen! Here are our best tips for streamlining and sorting kitchen clutter:    More »

Paid cleaning help can be a wonderful short-cut to a clean and organized home--if the household budget can stand the cost. But what do you do if the Prize Patrol bypassed your door this year?

Take a speed-cleaning lesson from the pros! Paid cleaning services are masters of the art of speedy, efficient cleaning. Watch professional cleaners at work: they don't waste time, cut corners or dawdle over the job--and they know how to clean fast, clean right.

To speed cleaning chores in your organized home, take a tip from their copybook. Try these tips from professional cleaners:    More »

It's the place where public meets private: the entryway or foyer of your home.

It's the launch zone for family members each day, and the source of a guest's first impression of your home.

This week in the Cleaning Grand Plan Challenge, we'll deep-clean, declutter and organize the portal to the world outside. Daily challenges will focus on cutting morning chaos and fine-tuning daily routines.

Ready? Let's tackle the entryway in the Cleaning Grand Plan Challenge!    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.

Untangling my cart (and trying 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 »

Taken a trip down the cleaning aisle at the supermarket lately? If you believe the ad hype, you can't keep a clean house without loading your shopping cart with a different cleaner for each surface, floor and sink in the house.

Hogwash! Simple recipes using products from your pantry make effective household cleaning solutions. An added plus: these natural products are more environmentally friendly than commercial alternatives.

Stock your cleaning tool tote with these homemade cleaning sprays and solutions to make short work of household grime--without harsh chemicals or irritating fumes. Try these easy recipes to clean your organized home faster, better and cheaper:    More »

Standing in line at the supermarket check stand, nobody can deny that we're on the dreary downside of a new year. Tabloid headlines scream the weight-loss secrets of the stars, while traditional women's magazines sing siren songs of money-saving, belly-busting, speed-cleaning tips and techniques.

We ourselves? All those resolutions that looked so basic, so easy, so noble through the champagne haze of New Year's Eve have lost their rosy glow viewed in the stark light of a morning cup of coffee. With the children back to school and holiday decorations back in their attic boxes, our resolve for a better, thinner, healthier and wealthier year has once more washed up against the hard and niggling realities of daily life.

Be of good cheer! There's a tried-and-true boost for just about anybody's New Year's resolutions. [I'm talking garden-variety resolutions here: weight loss, financial prudence, better home or personal organization. If you've vowed that this is the year you read the Russians, my hat's off to you but you're on your own!]

I'm talking about cleaning the refrigerator. Spearing the Great White Whale.    More »

Christmas has come and gone ... and left a mess behind. Looking around, you wonder how you'll ever dig out in time for Spring!

Solution? Take the Challenge!

Roar into the New Year and clean house fast with the 2013 Cleaning Grand Plan Challenge from OrganizedHome.Com.

Based on Katie Leckey's Cleaning Grand Plan, Cleaning Grand Plan Challenge kicks off the new year with a 14-week plan to clean and organize a spring-clean house for the New Year.

Working in small weekly bites makes a big job easy, while printable checklists help organize and track cleaning chores. By Spring, you'll be ready to open the doors to warmer weather.    More »