Search Results for: blog organizing your coat closet

Organizing The Coat Closet

Yesterday I tackled my coat closet. It was time, and although the whole time I was dreaming of turning it into a craft closet, I stuck it out and now it’s nicely organized. The first thing I did was take everything out of it. I was amazed at what I found. Some of the things could be returned to their rightful places and some things went into a pile for the yard sale. I had no idea there were so many pairs of gloves in that closet. Yet, in the winter I can never find a pair. After the closet … Continue reading →

Organizing Your Front Hall Closet

Last month I blogged about tackling those unseen areas in our home, the ones that no one else but our family knows is a mess. My plan was to get to these areas one spot at a time. I also talked about writing down all of the areas that need work. At first I thought I would tackle our linen closet, since it is the biggest mess and one of the more commonly used areas in our home. But instead I decided to take a different approach. I am going room by room, starting with the front of our home, … Continue reading →

Cleaning Out Your Closets

Changing of the seasons means more than just warm, sunny weather ahead. It means spring cleaning, including cleaning out the closets. Ugh. Depending on how big your family is this could take a great amount of time, so get moving. When sifting through the closets have your child nearby. You may need him or her to try things on. As you weed through each pair of pants, each shirt, each coat, the shoes and nighttime clothing decide which things may fit next year. Have a large storage container and box or garbage bag close at hand. If the clothing or … Continue reading →

Seasonal Shoe Cleaning and Organizing

Tis the season for shoe purging in our home. Snow is in the forecast for the weekend, which means I have been frantically trying to dig out winter boots and put away summer sandals. Since our front entry closet doubles as a shoe and coat catch-all, I am very cognizant of my need to be as organized as possible, as one false placement could mean the unleashing of a flood of outwear. Before I store shoes for a given season I do a quick spot cleaning on the ones that need attention. For example, on my daughter’s summer canvas shoes … Continue reading →

How to Clean Your Keyboard

The home office is usually one of the places in your home that can get neglected when it comes to cleaning. Here are some tips on how to get it clean without too much effort. In your home it can get pretty obvious to everyone when the bathroom isn’t clean or when there are dishes piled up in the kitchen sink, but the home office is another story. Usually tucked away, we tend not to notice the dust piling up, or we don’t want to disturb the mountain of papers that are piled up. But we don’t have to live … Continue reading →

Storing Your Small Kitchen Appliances

Is your kitchen easy to use with a lot of counter space? You might be dreaming of a new kitchen but sometimes just removing clutter from the counter and properly storing your kitchen appliances can give you extra counter space and make your kitchen seem new. Yesterday, I shared the first steps in organizing the kitchen counter. If you took that information to heart, you should be well on your way to removing anything that doesn’t belong in your kitchen. Now let’s talk about the things that may belong, the appliances. That is right, I said may because chances are … Continue reading →

Organizing Your Kitchen Counter

Face it, kitchens tend to collect a lot of stuff. This is natural since in most homes, the kitchen is the hub of family life and where most people (or at least one person) spends most of their time. Kitchen counters are notorious for collecting stuff, most of which could probably find better homes elsewhere. Counter space should be valuable space. The way your organize your counters should make it easier for you to prepare meals. Having a cluttered counter or a counter where things are far from where you need them will add to a lot of frustration and … Continue reading →

Managing Your Stockpile 2

Do you have a well-organized stockpile? It doesn’t take too much effort to maintain a stockpile if you know a few tips. Yesterday, I started talking about how to manage your stockpile and avoid waste. Now, let us continue with the tips, including some recipe secrets. When you have a stockpile, it is important to be flexible enough to adapt when there are dietary or taste changes. For example, my husband used to take lunch meat as his lunch to work almost every day. Now he prefers soup. So, I have a couple of jars of mayo and salad dressing … Continue reading →

An Organized Closet Encourages Independence

Typically, we think of cleaning and organization in terms of how much order it can bring to our family lives, but as parents, having an organized closet—whether it be the linen closet, in your entry way or your child’s clothes closet (and this goes for cupboards and pantries too) can actually encourage our children to learn how to be more independent. Consider this: if you take the time to arrange your child’s closet in an orderly way, label and mark where everything goes, and provide plenty of accessible storage—your child can learn and be expected to put things away. If … Continue reading →

Organizing From the Inside Out – Julie Morgenstern

I first read Organizing from the Inside Out about eight years ago. As a mother of three little boys, I was desperate to find a system that would help me keep our house in order. And I will say that except for the toys, the areas I organized with her plan are still fairly organized eight years later. I think it’s because we really thought out what we wanted and needed in those spaces, and we labeled them. Morgenstern believes that clutter can be caused by technical errors, external realities, and psychological obstacles. Technical errors are things like items having … Continue reading →