Organize (and Decorate) Your Home on a Budget with Baskets

Karen Fritscher-Porter

What's an item that can help you organize every room in your home, helps create the appearance that you're a tidy housekeeper (even if you're not), and perks up your decorating scheme?Need another hint?It comes in all shapes, sizes, colors and materials and can be found in many local retail stores, including craft stores and discount retailers, and at flea markets and craft shows and well basically it's a universal item found all over the world. You probably have one right now in your home.It's a basket! So the next time someone gives you one filled with anything from sweets to colognes, don't discard it once you've used what's in it. Once the items are gone, the basket's job has only just begun. Read onward to find out how to use this wonderful item in every room in your house. For instance, in the kitchen, you can use hanging wall pocket baskets, which have flat backs, to store dry sponges and scrubbers as well as pot holders, oven mitts, dry dish rags and spare kitchen hand towels.And in your family room or den, you might use a deep, round or cylindrical shaped basket on the coffee table to hold television or other electronic remotes.

Read Full Article

What Clutter Clearing Can Do For You

Stephanie Robertss

You can get a pretty good idea of the benefits of clutter clearing simply by imagining your life free of all the negative effects of clutter: lack of focus and clarity; feelings of being professionally, creatively, spiritually, and/or romantically stuck; insufficient time and attention for self and family; increased stress, irritability and depression. Wouldn't it be great to be free of all these? No matter what other factors may be dragging you down, I guarantee you that clearing your clutter will dramatically improve your mood and energy. And then any other problems you are confronting won't seem quite so bad.When you first start clutter clearing you may be surprised at the emotions triggered by the simple act of dealing with your stuff. You think you're just cleaning out your home, but what you're really doing is rooting around in dusty corners of your psyche and coming eyeball-to-eyeball with unresolved business from the past. The personal relics that lurk within your clutter - college papers, family memorabilia, detritus from a long-dead marriage - can be easier to ignore than to carry to the dump, which is why they've been haunting the back of your closet for so many years.As you persevere with clutter clearing a moment will come when you realize how much lighter and happier you feel.

Read Full Article

What's On Your Shift List?

Keith Varnum

The most happy and successful people on earth have a personal Shift List. They probably don't call it by that name, but they have one. How do I know? Because these folks are enjoying their journey on our challenging planet!A Shift List is simply a list of activities and attitudes that have the power to shift you from feeling blue to feeling new. Your Shift List is any way you devise to remind yourself of the actions that have the power to transform your mood and put you back on a roll. Your reminders might be a formal written list or journal, a set of well-placed post-its or notes, pictures or photos, cartoons or symbols, poems or songs-or a phone or email "shift" partner.

Read Full Article

Our Life – Our Choice

Gene Simmons

OK, maybe that’s a bit of an overgeneralization but it applies most of the time. Basically, what I am saying is that we are what we are because that’s what we’ve decided to be. We live where we live, do what we do and think what we think because that’s we’ve decided to do. Yes, I understand that there are some illnesses and other stuff that happens that tends to force us into a particular mode of operation. But by the same token, how we function within our situation and how we deal with the things we need to deal with is always our decision.This takes us right back to one of my foundation principles - we believe what we believe because of our personal programming.

Read Full Article

Organized For Life

Jeff Earlywine

Questions come my way all the time regarding my God-given nature to be organized. It has been said that I stayed under the proverbial “organized spout” too long when I was being created. In fact, at one point in my career I had the unofficial title, “Minister of Organization.” However, when a person takes the time to ask me about organization I take their question seriously. If a person is asking about being more organized I know they are considering changes in their life. Changes that could give them more time to spend with their families, time to spend developing the career that they have only dreamed of, or changes that will make them enjoy looking at themselves in the mirror, changes that could be difficult and terrifying.

Read Full Article

Five Simple Ways to Organize Your Closet Today

Renu Dalal-Jain

Do you have an overstuffed, bulging closet (or two) full of clothes, and yet wear the same three or four outfits repeatedly? Do you have few clothes and despair every time you put something on because you know it just does not look quite right? Would you like to be able to wear EVERYTHING you have in your closet? And know that you look good every time you do?Renu Dalal-Jain, a certified image consultant and the owner of Flair Consulting in Philadelphia, PA, works with men and women to help them put their best personal face forward in social or corporate settings. Renu teaches her clients how to organize their closets and shop smart so that they always have the right clothes to wear for the right occasion. Renu teaches five easy steps that you can follow today to organize your closet so that you can understand what you have and what you need to purchase to complete your wardrobe! FIRST – Prepare! Set aside at least three to four hours for the task, and make sure you have access to a full-length mirror. Wear neutral undergarments, as you will be trying on everything you own. All hangers should be of the same size and type (all plastic, or all wooden) and made for specific clothing items – top/dress hanger, pant hanger, etc.

Read Full Article

Quick Housecleaning Tips For Your Home

Fayola Peters

Ah Yes! The house is a mess...again! Why do I even bother attempting the impossible? I'll tell you why I do it. For one thing, I don't like living in a mess. Another reason is that People tend to show up unexpectedly.That last reason alone is enough to get me to make sure that the path to the bathroom is cleared of rubble and that the bathroom itself is clean with smells of Pine. If your house is a mess... again, here are ten (10) house cleaning tips to help you out.

Read Full Article