The Organized Home Club

10 Tips To Organizing A Functional Kitchen

Guest Writer — Fri, 11 May 2012 19:11:57 +0000

By Cynthia Murray Contributing Writer The kitchen is usually the center of a home, filled with cooking, washing up, eating, homework, crafts, science projects, and long talks over cups of coffee. Since, we spend so much of our time in the kitchen, making it clean and functional is worth the effort! Here are ten tips to try the next time you begin organizing a your kitchen and make kitchen organization easy. 1. Pull everything out. Yes, you read that right. Once you’ve got everything out where you can see it, throw away all rotten or out of code food items. Then go through and purge everything that you don’t really use; for instance, those supposedly handy knick-knacks, like the avocado slicer, the asparagus peeler, and the pickle grabber. 2. Choose the best spot. When you begin putting items back on the shelves, reconsider where most ideal location is for each group of items. Containers for food, plastic wrap, baggies, and foil should be kept near the fridge for quick leftover storage. Pots and pans? Near the stove, of course. Items that can be damaged by heat should not be kept over the stove or microwave; save that space instead for [...]

6 Tips To Organize Garage Pile Ups

Guest Writer — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 23:21:29 +0000

By Mike James In our busy lives, it’s easier to ignore a messy garage than it is to ignore a messy living room or bedroom, right? After all, we don’t have to live in our garages. And, with a garage that is detached from the house, it isn’t difficult to let things pile up, sight unseen. After all, as we go through life, we tend to end up with those pieces of furniture, replaced or old appliance, or some gadget we no longer want in the house. Not wanting to discard such items into the trash or charity bin immediately, the garage becomes he holding place that stores these type of things. When things become out of control in the garage, it’s time to do something about it. Here’s six tips to help you get your garage in order: 1. Set up zones for sorting items. Areas or zones should be set up during the sorting process for items you want to throw away, donate, or sell. You can even set up a work area in which to sort through the clutter. If you set up a work area, you can take one box of stuff at a time and [...]

Clutter-free Open Storage Shelves

Cyndi Seidler — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 04:45:09 +0000

Display shelves, whether they are a bookcase or a wall shelf, are wonderful storage solutions for many things. That’s why we see so many stylish storage bins and baskets for shelves these days. But while shelves are a great solution for books or the decorative items we wish to admire, they can also become a clutter-trap if not careful. This happens when used as a convenient drop-zone or some willy-nilly nic-nack spot. My advice is to make it so “picture perfect”, you won’t want to ruin it with other stuff. Think of it as staging your home and removing clutter, leaving only a showcase display. That goes for books, too. In this bookcase, some shelves are only a display-only shelf. This breaks up the flow of continuous books. This bookcase is mostly used for display stuff and a candle center, but is functional for storing the photo albums, as well. A wall shelf, like this one, is great for storing and grouping collectibles. Wall shelves should not only be used to store stuff you want to see, but they should be stored in a decorative fashion; one that makes a statement. A wall shelf unit that has a combination of [...]

Why Every Clothes Closet Should Have Huggable Hangers

Cyndi Seidler — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 03:33:07 +0000

Disclaimer: This is NOT an infomercial or commercial, nor do I get anything for promoting this product! My story … I just re-organized my two clothes closets in the bedroom, and switched closet places with my seasonal clothing. I discovered that I had more warm-weather clothing than cool-weather clothing, causing a problem in the smaller, now warm-weather closet I switched to. I had already donated several bags of clothing earlier and really wanted to keep what I had. And that’s when I got really clever. My Remedy … I decided to replace my thick plastic hangers with Huggable Hangers – these slim velvety finished hangers that take up less space on the clothes rod. Top that off with the cascading hooks to save even more space, and problem with space solved! But, that’s not all! These hangers are non-slip. Yep, your clothing won’t slip off, and you don’t need special grooves in the hanger to keep them there. Here’s my proof: Now, what was once a jammed closet with warm-weather clothing, is a spacious closet, and I didn’t have to get rid of anymore clothing! Essentially, I doubled the space in this closet by cascading some clothing garments on the [...]

Web-based Productivity Tools For The Office On-the-go

Cyndi Seidler — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 04:09:06 +0000

I’ve compiled my “Top Picks” of some FREE online productivity tools for the “mobile office” designed to make your life a little easier while out of the office. There are more, however the ones I selected are free (with upgrades to more features for a price on some). You’ll find that I’ve also included videos that gives you an overview on each one – just to make your life even easier! Remote Access / Virtual Office Zoho Document Sharing Google Docs Create and share your work online and access your documents from anywhere. You can easily do all the basics, including making bulleted lists, sorting by columns, adding tables, images, comments, formulas, changing fonts and more. It accepts most popular file formats, including DOC, XLS, ODT, ODS, RTF, CSV, PPT, etc. SignNow This electronic (or digital) signature service is one of the most convenient way to legally sign a document. Takes away the need to scan, fax, print or mail documents that need to be signed. Ideal for freelancers, realtors, and sales people in the field! Also available as a mobile App. DocuSign Same as SignNow above, except this integrates wtih SalesForce. Also available as a mobile App. Personal Organizers ToDoist [...]

Kiss Stuff Good-bye, It’s Been Nice Knowing Ya

Cyndi Seidler — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 06:24:17 +0000

By the title, you must have figured out that I'm talking about letting go of stuff. See, a Twitterer who was underway on a de-cluttering project said to me today, "@CyndiSeidler It's so hard to throw things away!" I replied back, "Just think about having less stuff to deal with. It's a mindset! Kiss stuff goodbye!" And that's what prompted me to write this article.

Truth is, the more we have, the more we have to deal with.

Mobile and Online Technology To Manage and Organize Your Jam-Packed Life

Cyndi Seidler — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:52:58 +0000

Online and mobile technology is making our lives easier in so many ways, particularly in managing the chaotic events and actions we have going on in our lives.

Here are 5 free online tools that should help you in managing your affairs and family to keep you better organized ...

Resolutions For The Home To Spiff Up Your Space in 2012

Cyndi Seidler — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 04:54:17 +0000

You can make a big impact on your space by making just a few changes, so why not resolve to take out the old and bring in the new for the new year?! Here are some ideas that can make a big difference creating fresh spaces in each area of your home: Get bold with new wall paint colors. I recently read that “orange is the new black” (and the new pink!) and is “the color for 2012.” I saw a post on “Using 2012′s Color of The Year” with a beautifully painted orange room that made quite a cheerful statement! Whatever color you decide on for a room, get ready to bring out the paintbrushes and brighten up your space with color! Clear the clutter! That alone will change any area in your home! Enough said. Bring life into your work area. One of the things I noticed recently as I was going through Target was that there are so many beautiful office accessories and decorative accents in many color schemes for the home office. You can really make a big splash using colorful or pattern office accessories. Also, a fresh coat of paint to cheer up the workspace [...]

New Video Series on Organizing Solutions

Cyndi Seidler — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 01:38:18 +0000

Cyndi Seidler is producing a new video series presenting one-minute home organizing tips. To launch the video series, Cyndi has produced one video a day, talking about how to save space in your clothes closet, a method of handling mail as it comes in your home, her container system for the refrigerator, using turntables in cabinets, how to double the space in your cupboards, and a way to organize hair accessories. And, that’s just a start! Watch her latest video to get a sampling of Cyndi’s tips: To get updates of new videos, subscribe to Cyndi’s YouTube Channel.

Organize Holiday Cards, Wrap and Decor

Cyndi Seidler — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 23:23:42 +0000

Starting to decorate for the holidays can be a daunting task or a very fun task. I’d like to show you ways that can make it fun! For those holiday cards, there are numerous ways to display them without having them make your space cluttered. I like to display them on a string using small clothes pins to clip them on. I found these small card clips at a dollar store (my favorite shopping place!), although they can also be found just about anywhere selling holiday stuff. If you don’t care to display your holiday cards, you can always stack them in a nice decorative bowl. I use the storage bin I stored the wrapping stuff in to access what I need when I’m ready to do gift wrapping the next year. Some people use specialized gift wrap organizers that help you organize your ribbons, wrapping paper, gift bags, gift boxes, and scissors and tape. But I just use the storage bin myself. When I’m done with all the holiday wrapping, I store it away along with other holiday items (labeled, of course!). For those larger holiday items, like wreaths, I found this “dollar store” large zip bag to store [...]