Children’s books are the one thing that I have a hard time saying no to when the kids ask. While we make liberal use of our library, children’s books still seem to find their way into our home, through yard sales, library sales, school book sales and hand me downs. With three kids at different reading levels, there isn’t a lot of overlap, so each child needs his or her own set of books that they can read and re-read. Let us just say that I have a lot of experience organizing children’s books and keeping the books under control. … Continue reading →

Having a well-organized library isn’t that hard to do once you have some easy strategies that won’t take a lot of expert skills to implement. Get your home library under control and enjoy your books. First, you need someplace for the books, such as bookcases. I’ll assume that this is already the case in your home, but if not, go get some! You can search for your dream books cases, or just pick up a couple at the Goodwill and paint or cover the shelves with pretty contact paper. The choice is yours. Next, let us get those bookcases under … Continue reading →

We are almost finished with our pantry organization! There is only today and tomorrow to go! Isn’t that great? So far, we’ve put some good practices in place. Let us continue now and keep up the good momentum. Day 4: Unwrap the Pack Most of the time when we get home from the grocery store, we take the groceries out of the bag and put them in the pantry right away. I know that if I don’t do it right then, I’m likely to have bags of groceries sitting on the kitchen counter or kitchen until the next day. To … Continue reading →

How are you doing with your pantry? Are you seeing some progress with getting it organized? Just remember that an organized pantry will make things much easier in the kitchen. During the first two days of our pantry organization plan, we covered a lot of ground. First, we figured out how to fine tune the pantry to reflect what we use. Then, on day two, we made even more progress when we used day one to build on day two, shopping to scale. Now, we will get into some of the more advanced ideas for an organized pantry. Day 3: … Continue reading →

Do you want to have a more organized pantry? Stick with me. Let us take just five days to completely overhaul the pantry and develop an easy system of rules that will keep it that way. With an organized (and well-stocked pantry), you’ll never have to worry about missing an ingredient. Just open your pantry and find what you need to make your meal. Day 1: Know What You Use If your pantry is like mine used to be, there are probably several things in there that haven’t seen the light of day in months or maybe even years. At … Continue reading →

Decluttering can be a difficult thing to do, physically, mentally and emotionally. If you aren’t prepared for the task at hand, you may find yourself giving up early or not knowing where to start. A successful decluttering, whether it is one room or your whole house, starts with some preparation. Let us start with the emotional piece. Letting things go can certain stir up some emotions. Give yourself a pep talk about how you can let things go. Don’t focus too much on individual items but on the end results of your decluttering project. Imagine your beautiful living room, your … Continue reading →

There are five different storage choices that you make each day. Are you really choosing the best ones to suit your needs and your stuff, or are you simply storing in chaos with no plan other than to put it somewhere? Here are the five different storage choices in your home and the type of items that are appropriate for each. You can hang it Hanging items seems like a no brainer, but it can go wrong, very wrong. For example, there was the lady that decided to hang every bit of clothing she own, on her living room walls! … Continue reading →

I finally had it this weekend when it took swimming through a sea of winter wear just to get out of the door. Despite my best efforts to corral the chaos, there were hats, mittens, gloves and scarves everywhere in the front hall. I could probably have jumped off of the upstairs landing, executed a not-so-perfect swan dive and still not get hurt, thanks to the padding of a pile of soft, colorful acrylic. You know what leaves me shaking my head the most? The fact that even though there were all of those mittens and gloves all over the … Continue reading →

The war against clutter is one that we have to continually fight in our home. With five people living in one space, three of whom are under the age of 10, clutter just sort of finds its way into our home. Our recent renovations to make our home more energy efficient have put the clutter front and center. All of the extra items stored in the attic, the basement and the garage have recently been occupying our living space, making it very obvious as to how much stuff we own. This has been a great motivator for me. While we … Continue reading →