The Corner Cabinet-
Known for its diverse ability to be everything from an unusable space, to a random catch-all, to storage for odd or oversized items, to an impractical Lazy Susan, the corner cabinet has become infamous as the most difficult cabinet in the kitchen. Depending on what you use your corner cabinet for, the lazy susan can be a great advantage. If you don’t bake often, the corner cabinet is a great spot for baking supplies such as large bowls and a hand mixer. Keep sugar and flour fresh (and know which one is which!) and ready to pour with a few of these handy, clear dispensers. Add shallow organizers to the turntables to keep measuring spoons and cups, mixing spoons, and cookie cutters things where they should be as you spin the shelves. If you use your corner cabinet for pantry storage, try positioning a few of these can dispensers facing the outside of the turntable to keep soups, sodas, or canned vegetables together and visible.

The Skinny Cabinet-
While a skinny cabinet is best used for tall, skinny items such as cutting boards, cookie sheets, and cooling racks, it can be a pain when the cookie sheets nest in each other or the small cutting board you’re looking for gets stuck between a heavy pizza stone and a wood cutting board. Everything in the cabinet needs to come out just to reach one item. Install one or two cabinet dividers to keep your plastic cutting boards, wood cutting boards, baking sheets, and pizza stones separate from one another. These free standing bakeware holders have small ramps that keep round items from rolling and two side stabilizing bars to keep the largest to smallest items from falling over.

Under The Sink
Whether it’s the kitchen, bathroom, or mudroom, those darn pipes just won’t get out of the way! You can solve this with an adjustable under sink shelf that will give you a custom fit around any pipes. A great, “why didn’t I think of that before?!” idea is to use a tension rod to hang spray bottles! This is such a simple space saver and leaves plenty of room underneath for baskets. Try these stacked slide out baskets to keep smaller under sink items like your extra supply of dish soap and scouring pads, or in the bathroom for miscellaneous makeup or hair products and accessories.

Short Shelf Space-
The best use of short shelf space in the kitchen? Short items. The obvious choice is to hide store spices, but we all know that it is nearly impossible to get to the bottles in the back without knocking over every single spice bottle in the process. At just eight inches tall, the Spice Stack is the perfect solution to organize all of your spices (27 full sized bottles!), keep them accessible, and behind closed doors when you’re not using them. Don’t store your spices in a cabinet? Try this wrap rack to keep foil, cling wrap and wax paper handy in a compact space.

Bulky Items-
Where on earth do you store a blender, a stand mixer, a food processor and any other bulky item? In the basement! That is where my mother kept hers anyway! Thankfully, there are a few options for more practical storage of the heavy, seldom used items. Slide Out Chrome Oraganizers make storing and reaching your kitchen appliances convenient. Finally, the big, giant, one eyed, ugly monster of the kitchen storage war! You guessed it, plastic storage containers. In lieu of keeping the lids on each container and taking up more space than most of us have in our entire kitchen, try this double sided 2 tier sliding organizer. Keep short containers under the top shelf, larger ones on the opposite side, and file lids on the top. Have a lot of storage containers? Try this two tiered version of the sliding appliance rack. Dedicate the top shelf to lids and stack containers by size on the bottom. The best tip for food storage containers? Don’t hoard them! Only keep what you truly use and toss the rest.

It doesn’t take long to get your cabinets working for you. The best news is that there is a solution for every problem; you just have to look or think outside of the box for your specific space.

We’d love to know what some of your best awkward cabinet or storage solution secrets are! Leave your tips in the comments below.

If you are dreading this rite of summer, stop fretting. All you need is a plan. Whether it has one, two, or three bays, one day is all a garage deserves. Get in, get organized, and get on with your life. Here’s how.

1. Make your plan. Before moving anything, decide or discuss with your family what you need your garage to do for you. Is parking the car in garage the goal? Must you store trash bins, sports gear, or an extra freezer? Do you have the right type and amount of storage and shelving? Can you store pool gear and seasonal furniture? If your house lacks a mudroom, would your life be easier if there were lockers and a drop off point before entering the house? Is there a high ceiling where you can add a loft for storage? As much as possible, purchase containers and organizing gear in advance so you’ll have them on hand during the job. If you follow my advice regularly, you might be surprised to hear me recommend that. Unlike other organizing projects, however, it pays to have all of your items on hand before you start so you can finish a garage project in just one day. Be sure to schedule a trash container or charity pickup if you might need one.

2. Meet up with the family. I almost always have staff and multiple family members involved in a garage project. The larger or more cluttered the space, the more people I try to have on a job. Recruit a professional and as many family members as you can.

3. Methodically work around the space. Start in one corner of the garage, sort by moving one item at a time out into the driveway or yard, creating piles or stacks of similar items. Label each pile so everyone knows what it is. I recently organized a typical two-car suburban garage, and at the midway point some Jehovah’s Witnesses came up the driveway and remarked on our apparent garage sale. Although it may seem like a lot of work to move everything out only to move it back in, it must be done. Only when the garage was clear could we re-position the wall hooks, fix shelving that needed repair, and move large items to better spots. By the way, this is the hardest step for my clients. They tend to get sidetracked with errands, phone calls, wanting to clean the garage before it is empty, and discussions about where things need to be stored inside the house. All of these activities will sabotage your one-day plan. When empty, assess your garage for the next step.

4. Move back in using zones. Typically children’s toys and bikes should be located on the side with the least traffic or closest to the yard. Extra appliances and food items should be stored close to the house entry. Items that are almost never used can be stored in a loft or in the space above the garage doors (if you don’t decide to donate them). Set off each zone with color, signage, chalk boards, or labeled storage bins or shelves. You might have categories like cleaning chemicals, paint, car maintenance gear, tools, sports gear, trash bins, brooms and mops, and gardening supplies.

5. Make mine a mojito. Tidy up by sweeping the floor and shaking out or replacing the mat that leads into the house. Label shelving with a label maker, masking tape and permanent marker, or hang tags from an office supply store, which work great on wire shelving. Haul the trash to the curb. Tarp the pile for donation. Pull the car back in the garage. And pour yourself a drink in celebration.

How long did your last garage organizing project take?

Now that you’ve seen this plan, do you think you can tackle yours in one day?

We’d love to know.

****

Darla DeMorrow is an award winning Certified Professional Organizer®, Color With No Regrets consultant, decorator, author, speaker, and owner of HeartWork Organizing. She helps her clients to reclaim control and add beauty in their lives, their homes, and their workplaces. Request your free 31 Simple Tips for Organizing Space, Time and Paper & Information at www.HeartWorkOrg.com. Her new book for new moms, www.PregnantEntrepreneur.com, is available in hardcopy and e-book.

© 2011 HeartWork Organizing

You probably sense that being organized is better than being disorganized, but there are real, quantifiable payoffs. There are things anyone can do on their own. However, even if you have to get some extra help from a professional organizer to change your habits, the financial benefits can often outweigh the costs. The technical term for this is return on investment, but you can call it more money in your pocket.

Take the woman who organized her work wardrobe recently. She saves money because her clothes are now kept inside the closet, not outside where the dog hair is, and she sends out her dry cleaning less often. At an estimated $5 per garment, she could easily save $20-$100 per month just in dry cleaning bills. She also saves money on buying fewer of the same item over and over because she can’t find the one she needs. Many people buy a replacement garment four or more times a year because that favorite black sweater was lost or forgotten at the back of the closet (at $40 to $100 each). She will earn a hefty tax deduction for ten bags of clothes she donated to charity. Use a value guide to assign value to your donated items, and you could take a tax deduction of between $90 and $450 for just thirty donated blouses. Tally all of your donations up, properly document them for tax season (which takes about three minutes), and you can easily end up with cash back from your taxes of $25 to $126 for the above example. Less easy to calculate, but perhaps more valuable, is the time she saves each morning as she doesn’t struggle with her wardrobe. If she can make $50 an hour at her business, an extra 15 minutes per day that she saves from getting dressed and redressed adds up to $275 per month that she could have been earning instead. Maybe this isn’t real money, but maybe she truly can get more done with a couple of hours each month, or maybe she can just arrive at work less hassled. Just by reorganizing her closet, this gal could be saving a conservative estimate of $325-$1,850 per year, and she could be earning as much as an additional $3,300 in her found time.

OK, you’re convinced. How can you turn your disorganization in to real cash? A single mom earned over $300 at a garage sale this summer, which not only left her with reduced clutter and cash in pocket, but she also didn’t move unwanted items when she moved to another house just six months later. She moved herself, so all she paid for was her time, gas, and moving supplies. Have you priced moving boxes lately? Just by reducing the amount of boxes and packing tape she would have had to buy, she saved herself at least $40. Those who pay for a professional mover could save thousands, since moving charges are based on pounds or number of boxes moved. The less clutter and unwanted items you pack and move, the less expensive any move will be.

Are you one of the many people who file their federal taxes using an extension? About 5.5 million extension requests were filed compared to 115 million tax filings in 2009. That is just shy of 5%. There are often fees and missed opportunities with late or extended filings. While the extension Form 4868 can be filed for free directly with the IRS, tax software and CPA fees for the same filing start at $20 and go up. CPAs who file extensions often charge disorganized clients fees just to organize their records. Did you know that actual tax charges must be paid by April 15, even with an extension request, or penalties of 5% per month and more start to accrue. The minimum penalty is $100, but it can turn out to be much more. Even worse, if the IRS actually owes you a refund, they are holding your money until you file your refund request up to six months after the filing deadline, but they won’t pay you interest!

Who doesn’t love a massage? It sounds heavenly just now. Sadly, there are more gift cards and gift certificates lost in junk drawers and paper piles than you can imagine. Just last month a busy professional stumbled upon an old unused bank-issued gift card for $100. The card had expired and the issuing bank had been purchased by another bank before the card owner could track down the value. Several phone calls later, the new bank has offered to look into replacing the card, after a six to eight week period. There are still no guarantees that part or all of the money will show up, but there’s hope.

More on the cost of disorganized paper. Harris Interactive did a survey that found 23% of adults sometimes pay their bills late because they can’t find them. Unless you’ve been under a rock, you’ll notice that banks and credit companies are increasing and assessing more fees since the mortgage meltdown and resulting legislation over recent years. While these fees used to be nominal and annoying, an overdraft fee can now be $40 or more. Just think, you might bounce a couple of checks before you realize you are overdrawn, and your bank can easily eat up $120 or more of money you don’t have before you find out about it. Yowzer! You’re really going to need a massage after getting that bank statement.

You’ve heard that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Some people get so disorganized that not only does prevention get ignored, so does the cure. Home improvement projects, for instance, should happen before small fixes cause big repair bills. One woman was afraid to have a roofer come in to fix a leak in her bedroom ceiling because of the clutter in her bedroom. After organizing the clothes and clutter in her bedroom, she got the leak fixed. Had she let it go any longer, she would have been faced with a much larger repair bill. A typical handyman can handle a small repair for about $50. A roofing repair with interior drywall, paint, and trim replacement from water damage can be well in to the thousands. There are many, many ten thousand dollar bathroom renovations that could have been prevented with a $5 tube of caulk or a $100 plumber’s visit.

Successfully organizing one part of your life can lead to improvements in another. A busy professional reorganized her kitchen cabinets, and she now has space to put away groceries so she can actually see what she has. She threw out at least $300 in packaged food that expired in 2005. She also tackled her unruly plastic storage, where she had not one, but two sets of tubs specifically for carrying a healthy lunch in to work (never used). Lunch out usually costs between $5 and $10 these days, but you can buy $10 of sandwich fixings, fruit and yogurt to supply you with lunch for the entire week. Savings: $160 per month. She has a better chance now of eating dinner at home, saving money from not purchasing expensive and unhealthy drive-thru meals; dinners out are another $160-$320 per month in potential savings. Finally, by reformatting her pantry, she has a better chance of reformatting her fitness goals, by eating more fresh food and less fatty and preservative-laden food. And that, as they say, is priceless.

If you saw $100 laying on the street, would you stop to pick it up? These real-life stories offer easy ways to quickly pick up real money. Hopefully you’ll find inspiration and tangible value in tackling just one organizing project that you’ve been thinking about. Take part of those savings and splurge on a fun organizing tool, or better yet, a clutter-free massage.

*Get Organized recognizes that Darla DeMorrow is an award winning service provider. Darla DeMorrow is a Certified Professional Organizer®, Color With No Regrets consultant, decorator, author, speaker, and owner of HeartWork Organizing. She helps her clients to reclaim control and add beauty in their lives, their homes, and their workplaces. Request your free 31 Simple Tips for Organizing Space, Time and Paper & Information at www.HeartWorkOrg.com. Her new book, The Pregnant Entrepreneur, will be available in April 2011.

© 2011 HeartWork Organizing

First, make sure you can see everything in the closet.  Tear off plastic dry cleaner bags.  They aren’t keeping clothes as clean as you think they are, they block your view, and they create unnatural groupings of clothing. Hang everything that should be hung, throw dirty clothes in the hamper, put dry cleaning and mending in their own piles to be dealt with later and put stuff that hangs on the door back in the closet with their friends.

I don’t recommend taking everything out of the closet and starting with an empty closet.  Where would you put it all?  That kind of approach makes for good TV, but not much else.  You’re likely to end up with a mess on the bed just about the time the phone rings and the kids need to be fed.  Instead, start at one end of the closet (it doesn’t matter whether it’s the left or right) and work your way to the other end, touching absolutely everything, putting similar items together and removing items you know you can do without.  If an item is torn or damaged, hopelessly out of date, too hard to keep clean or does not flatter you, it can go.  Don’t think of it as losing an item (which is harder for the brain to accept), but think of it as making space for the things you really love.

Group similar items together (skirts with skirts, short sleeved shirts with similar, and so on). You don’t need to order your clothes in rainbow order, but it can help you discover just how many black sweaters you really do own.  (Note to self:  stop buying black sweaters.)  I once worked with someone who had 38 pairs of blue jeans, which did not include jeans of other colors.  Not only was that more jeans than most people could wear in a month, that was a lot of laundry to care for!

There are at least three ways to solve a closet space problem.  You can downsize and reconfigure your stuff to use your current space better, even if all you have is the standard builder’s grade shelf-and-rod combination.  You can make some incremental changes that might solve some of your issues, like upgrading your hangers, adding hanging bars or fabric cubbies and purchasing see-through storage bins.  You can consider re-outfitting your closet shelving entirely to create custom rods and shelving to fit your space and your stuff. Your solution will depend on your space, your skill level, and your budget.

Adjust or add shelving so that no more than 2 or 3 items are stacked on each other at a time, allowing you to easily get to items on the bottom of a pile.  This goes for folded sweaters, folded jeans and stacked shoe boxes. Upgrade to a single type of hanger in any given closet.  My favorite are the velvet-covered slim-style hangers that are widely available these days.  They really do allow more space in the closet than plastic tube hangers, and they are much kinder to clothes than wire hangers.  Add lighting if possible.  It’s amazing how much bigger a closet gets when you can see everything in it.

Just a final note on multiple wardrobes.  You know what I mean.  We all have clothes in the size we were, the size we are and the size we want to be.  If you feel like you never have anything to wear, you are probably tying up your wardrobe real estate in unwearable sizes.  Be kind to yourself and clear out everything that does not fit right now.  Go ahead and keep two special or favorite outfits from each of the other sizes that you are not currently wearing.  You probably won’t wear these again, but keeping two special outfits from each size makes it easier to get rid of the outfits that aren’t so nice.

*Get Organized recognizes that Darla DeMorrow is an award winning service provider. Darla DeMorrow is a Certified Professional Organizer®, Color With No Regrets consultant, decorator, author, speaker, and owner of HeartWork Organizing.  She helps her clients to reclaim control and add beauty in their lives, their homes, and their workplaces.  Request your free 31 Simple Tips for Organizing Space, Time and Paper & Information at www.HeartWorkOrg.com.  Her new book, The Pregnant Entrepreneur, will be available in spring 2011.

© 2011 HeartWork Organizing

With rolls of wrapping paper and bows lying everywhere, don’t you wish there was an easier way to organize and put everything away in an efficient manner? The Gift Wrap Organizer keeps all of your gift wrapping supplies in one organized place! Features an innovative design with special pockets to hold wrapping paper, bows, scissors, tape, tissue paper, cards and more! See-through storage pockets make selecting supplies a snap. Hangs on any closet rod or folds for easy storage.

Now you are probably asking what about my wreath or ornaments? There’s a solution for those as well. The Christmas Ornament Storage Box is a set of three snap-together trays have dividers to hold 27-48 ornaments, stackable, top handle for easy mobility. It measures 13w x 13L x 14h”.

The
Wreath Storage Bag is a great solution for keeping that wreath looking great every year. Just simply place in the vinyl package and zip up with the nylon zippers. Measuring 6 1/2 x 30″, your holiday wreath should be safe for the following year.

If you need further direction on holiday storage and organization, check out these products.

Well here are some rules for re-gifting:

- Re-gifts can be funny. Don’t think that just because you are re-gifting that you have to be embarrassed. People sometimes are aware and think its comical. No worries.

-Don’t give something you’ve owned for a while. Not only is this in violation of the hand-me-down rule below but the gift receiver can and will recognize that picture frame from your living room shelf.

-Don’t give products that are ancient, and by ancient I mean the company the product came from is no longer in existence. It can be just a little depressing to think it had been in someone’s closet for that long.

-Don’t mention it, please. Post thinks “the best approach is to be upfront” when re-gifting, but I have to ask: Why spoil the moment? If you tell your sister-in-law, in so many words, “I have no use for this nasty vase, so I’m giving it to you,” even a person in need of a vase will hate you.

-Do update the wrapping. The next most common re-gifting faux pas, after leaving the previous gift card attached, is to re-gift in the original, now crinkled and possibly torn (hello!?) wrapping paper or box.

-Don’t give hand-me-downs as re-gifts. A hand-me-down is an item you’ve already used that you’d like to pass along to someone who will enjoy it and use it more than you will. For example, a sweater you’ve removed the tags from and worn twice. You could wrap it up and give it as a “gift” only if another real gift is provided. A re-gift should be just that: a gift you’ve never used that you’re giving away as though it were a…real gift!

I hope this helps if you are considering re-gifting this holiday season and to think twice and read these tips before doing so!

Here are some tips I found on a Wiki-How article written by cat owners about how to cat-proof your tree as well as a few steps they suggest that can be extremely helpful this time of year. ‘Tis the Season!

What not to do:

• Do not leave the top of your tree stand open; the cat will drink the water and could possibly get sick
• Do not hang glass bulbs or other breakable ornaments on the lower branches
• Avoid using tinsel or tinsel-like garland on your Christmas tree; it can become lodged in your cat’s intestines
• Avoid using Christmas lights that twinkle on the tree; it can be mesmerizing for your cat and could lead to an unfortunate tree tackling incident
• Avoid leaving electrical cords laying around; tape them to the wall or place them out of view so the cat does not have any temptation to bite on the cord and possibly get electrocuted

What you should do:

• Purchase several ornaments that are bells and hang them on the lower branches; if your cat tries to pull on the tree or hide underneath it, you will hear it
• Cats naturally hate the scent of oranges so keep orange peels under the tree to repel your cat
• If you have a plastic tree, a small amount of Citronella oil shaken into a bottle of water and misted onto the tree makes it smell unpleasant to the cat but fresh and citrus-like to you
• Consider getting a Scotch Pine; they have extremely sharp needles (also works for curious small children)
• For small kittens, wrap tinfoil around the trunk; they do not like putting their nails into it and it will keep them from climbing the tree
• Spray the bottom limbs with tabasco sauce to keep them from chewing the bottom branches

I know that my parents are advocates of fake trees and will never ever buy a real tree again. They love how easy it is to assemble and there is no mess, but I personally hate it! I love being able to walk up to a real tree and smell the pine, and the mess isn’t bad at all! Just a few pine needles here and there, nothing a vacuum won’t fix.

After researching, I found that fake trees are really the way to go…Here are a few key reasons why.

1. They are environmentally friendly. You alone can save up to 80 trees being chopped down in a lifetime! That’s a lot of trees!
2. It is easy on your wallet. An artificial tree price ranges from $100-$400, but it will last a lifetime and is a one time purchase. Real trees range from $70-$150 every year! That’s $12,000 in a lifetime!
3. Convenience. Artificial trees can come with pre-lit lights so it just has to be assembled! This makes it so much easier for the older crowd who love the holidays and Christmas Trees but they just don’t have enough energy to decorate a tree.

Here are a few examples of Artificial Trees that I personally love:

This is a 4.5′ x 36″ Pre-Lit Tree that is the perfect height for those smaller rooms. While being an easy tree with lights already on it, the tree provides that nice “shape” that signifies the “perfect tree.”

This is a larger tree standing at 7ft tall the Slim Branson Tree that has 800 tips and 250 warm white F5 LED lights. If you have taller ceilings or even cathedral ceilings where you display your tree, this would be the perfect solution.

Whether it’s an artificial tree or a real tree, all that matters is that the tree makes you happy and is festive enough for you during the holiday season.

1. Christmas Music: “Do the radio stations really need to begin playing music right after I just stuffed my face full of candy from Halloween? Give me some time to digest. And also, why do they have to play the same song like 50 times in one day? I’ve heard it like 10 times already.”

2. Christmas Cards: “Oh, so I do exist in your world? But wait, thanks for the special duplicate card that you sent 20 other people on your list. And I love the typed up novel of your life this past year…it means so much that you thought to send a generic message to everyone.”

3. A Christmas Carol: “So really, how many times can we interpret this story? Charles Dickens wrote it once for a nice story time. I don’t think I need 50 versions of it to tell me that being a good person is better than being a mean one.”

4. Christmas Shopping: “Searching for a parking spot, constant crowds of people, long checkout lines, trying to get a hold of  the must-have toy gift…why is shopping fun again?”

5. Christmas Trees: “Real or fake? Buying a fake tree is just not the same. Why? Because there’s no pine smell? No, I’d rather get a real one because I’m going to go have a living tree cut down that I prop up in my living room to hang things on its branches, admire for a few weeks, then dump in the garbage after New Years.”

6. Christmas Gifts: ” ‘Ok, slippers for Mom, a hammer for Dad, toy cars for Little Bobby…’ the race begins until the deadline of Christmas Eve. Every spare minute of your day is spent in stores searching for the ‘perfect gift’ for that ‘special someone.’ Is emptying my bank account on everyone over with yet?”

7. Christmas Movies: “The classics are fine but why modernize every single Christmas story? Speaking of Christmas stories, does there really need to be a 24-hour marathon of  The Christmas Story every year? I think I’ve had my share of Ralphy and the infamous leg lamp.”

8. Family Get-Togethers: “I avoid you all year long, aside from the occasional phone call but now I don’t have a choice but to see you for the holidays. And you’re so going to make me wear that tacky sweater you got me last year, right? Just great. Oh, and by the way, thanks for the extra ten pounds from dinner.”

9. Christmas Greed: “Susie: ‘Mommy, I want a new bike and an Easy Bake Oven and…’ Mother: ‘Why don’t you just ask Santa for it?’ And in the end, doesn’t the parent get stuck buying all that stuff their greedy kid wants? Of course, or else they have to deal with a tantrum of what their kid didn’t get from Santa.”

10. Christmas Commercialization: “Christmas is great but what happened to the true meaning of the holiday? When did the holiday become only about buy, buy, buy-ing? Just keep bringing on the advertisements; you know you can sucker my money out of my wallet and leave me debt-ridden.”

Now in all truthfulness, the entire concept of Christmas has lost it’s true meaning but rather than looking at all the negatives of the holiday, enjoy it while it is here. You know, it only comes once a year.

One thing to keep in mind is start early, really early. Many stores open their doors early for those shoppers who want top deals and top savings. If there’s that one toy your child has to have, it wouldn’t hurt to check the flyers. There’s nothing wrong with a happy kid on Christmas morning. I know one year, my dad got up at like 4 am the day after Thanksgiving because I had to have a certain Barbie doll. Needless to say, I was a very happy little girl that Christmas.

Also, keep hold of your receipts. Check flyers and prices to see if you can get price adjustments. A lot of retailers will do this, usually within 14 days of the purchase. You may also need to keep those receipts for returns too (you know it happens every year).

Finally, check the social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. These sites are going to be huge this year for big deals on products and purchases, especially can’t-miss deals that last only a few hours.

If you plan ahead and keep your ears and eyes alert this holiday season, your shopping experience should be a little less chaotic.