Tag: organizing solutions

Video: Styling Your Home To Be Organized

September 5, 2015 / The Organizing Lady

In this video I walk you around my house to show you some of the organizing solutions I use to keep things organized.

In styling your home, you’ll see how I use a stylish shelf basket to hold my napkins, the space-saver racks in my kitchen cupboard, the various turntables in my pantry and fridge, the wall shelf I use for my doggie stuff, the Ikea rod over my bathroom sink to keep things off the counter, a decorative shower rack I use as a wall shelf, the shelf basket inside my bathroom cabinet, the organizer on my vanity table, and the clothes hangers I use in my closet.

These are just some of the things I use to store “stuff” in that, as I kept saying in the video, is “cool.” (I may have over-used the word “cool” a bit!).

Anyway, hope you enjoy and leave a comment (only if it’s a nice comment! Hahaha!).

4 Easy Ways To Give Your Cluttered Home A Space Lift On A Dime

July 17, 2015 / The Organizing Lady / 0 Comments

Giving a space-lift to a cluttered home is like a face-lift to your face – you are giving your space new dimensions and a new look that makes it more beautiful.

After all, when we start getting wrinkles on our face, bags under our eyes, or sagging necklines, we want to do all we can to bring back some of the youth we once had.

The same principle applies to a room that’s sprinkled with clutter, sagging with overloaded shelves, or stuffed with too much stuff in cabinets and closets. When it starts happening (or has existed for too long), we should want to make it more beautiful again, or at least more livable.

So, here’s some fast and easy ways to do a space-lift without spending a lot – like you are doing design on a dime!

1. Remove clutter

Gather up all clutter in the area into sorting bins

De-cluttering the living room and family room are good places to start because these are common areas of the home and can accumulate the most stuff which ends up out of place for long periods of time, sometimes indefinitely. So, begin by collecting any items on the loose lying around and put them in receptacles by category / type.

Once that is done, your area will be clutter-free!

2. Give the area more space

Re-arrange furniture and items in room to make it more spacious.

Situate furniture so it’s more functional for the room and get rid of too much furniture for the space. Same for items on table-top surfaces and bookshelves.

The transformation of your space is now even more visible – and that’s without spending a dime on new paint, flooring or new furniture!

3. Streamline your belongings

Sort through each clutter receptacle to determine if you want or need the item in it.

So far you’ve done the easiest part of the easy ways to do a space-life and haven’t spent a dime yet. Don’t stop now! You’re almost there!

This is typically the longest part of the organization process, but a very necessary part. If you end up leaving everything in its sorting bin, you’ll just end up with organized clutter in some area of your home.

The easy way to tackle this step is just to dive right in – one receptacle at a time – and start looking at each thing you pick up from it. Take all the time you need on this and don’t worry – you’ve had this stuff lying around for quite some time so another few days or weeks sorting through the stuff shouldn’t matter much.

4. Give stuff a home

Find the right organizing solution for your stuff.

Now that you’ve sorted through everything and know what you’ll be keeping, you can either a) put it away where it belongs or b) find a new home for it.

That “home” might be in a new container, bin, basket, or some type of holding place or storage containment product. This is where you’re going to end up spending a little of your cash if you don’t already have something to use around the house.

You might think this step isn’t so easy, but it is. Not only that, but it’s the most fun!

Just make a list of the stuff you want to contain and go into a discount department store to walk down the home organization isles. Or, go online to have a look around (and those Pinterest Boards for home organization are fabulous!). You’ll find plenty of organizing solutions, ideas and inspirations doing any of those things.

Now, it’s done! You’ve completed a space-lift and didn’t spend a small fortune doing so! Step back and enjoy the new view of your space.

[Note: All images from DVD clips of “Get Organized With Cyndi Seidler”]

20 Quick Fix Home Organization Hacks Lying Around The House

July 13, 2015 / The Organizing Lady / 0 Comments

When you have a home organization issue, there are some very ingenious ways to fix it. But “a quick fix, really?” you may ask. “Just how quick?” Well, it depends on how fast you can move to find any of the items in this article – this could be your organizing scavenger hunt!

Since there are dozens of ways to get organized and dozens of various organizing solutions, the ones I wanted to show you here are the quick fix remedies- especially since you may already have some of these around your house already. This makes the task much quicker – again, it depends on how fast you can move to find them around in your house (or how fast you can get to a dollar store).

The way I see it, if a lot of stuff is just lying around, it’s clutter. If it’s put away in (or on) something, it’s organized. This goes for hidden places like cabinets, drawers and closets. Just use any of these inventions and you will be cured. I mean, your home will be cured.

1. The Jar

Open food in cabinets can become unruly, not to mention that the food can get stale faster. So a jar is a good fix for that.

2. The Basket

What a great bin these turned out to be in trying to get organized indeed.

3. The Container

Now these are fabulous, simply fabulous. You can just throw in like-items and group them together in a container.

And tiered containers with drawers … marvelous!

4. Plastic Shoebox Containers

If I got a dollar for every use I found for these, I’d be so very rich.

5. The Can

If you haven’t saved any of your food cans, start putting some aside because they can be a useful thing to use in getting some of those pesky utensils organized.

Even a small trash can comes in handy for other things besides trash.

6. Canvas Bins

These seem to be quite popular in stores now and must be selling well since they are still around. I bet you have some. If you do, throw some stuff in them.

7. Dollar Store Bins

A cheap fix to hold just about anything. Think about the under the sink clutter and try putting it to use there for a start.

8. Drawer Trays

For those kitchen drawer blues, these nifty trays do wonders inside drawers.

(via therealisticorganizer.blogspot.com)

9. The Tool Box

Another cheap fix from the dollar store – the plastic tool box. Throw all your craft stuff in, or whatevers, it doesn’t matter. It’s useful for something.

10. The Bucket

Again, if you don’t have one or two of these around, take a trip to the dollar store. They have a use.

11. The Lazy Susan

It’s not called the Lazy Susan for nothing – it may have been invented for lazy people trying to stay organized, is my guess. Who it’s named after is simple – it’s Susan.

Okay, so you you may not have it lying around your house. But just go out and buy one (or two or three or …).

Now this incredible turntable invention can be used as a treatment for a lot of kitchen issues – namely those deep cupboards which hide our stuff behind other stuff in the front row.

And you can use them in your fridge as well since they share an equal problem of hiding stuff.

I personally go a little crazy when it comes to these because I also use them on my countertop to group stuff on that clutters the counter. And I’ve seen them used on desktops to group desktop accessories too.

12. The File Folder

Forget about your filing system for now (or lack of) … and use those file folders for paper you can’t quite find a home for (other than your kitchen counter – which is not really a home, but a resting place that gives you no rest). Pocket folders are even greater.

Now, if you have some of those really cool plastic transparent folders, the better to see your stuff with, my dear!

13. The Notebook Binder

You know, these binders are not just for students to carry around their school papers (do they still use these, I wonder?). They are actually the perfect cure for accumulated papers because you didn’t want them stuffed inside some forgotten file cabinet.

Take for instance, all those clippings of your favorite recipes, those dozens of restaurant menus you’ve collected, and let’s not forget to mention those project papers you needed handy.

14. The Clipboard

I’ve never known a home to be without one of these. But if you’re one of those few that didn’t bother to get one, here’s something you can do with it that could help you get a handle on all those papers.

15. The Envelope

Got envelopes? Try using it for receipts and misc. paper stuff.

16. The Hanger

Think outside the box when it comes to hangers – you can actually hang other stuff on them beside clothing.

17. The Totebag

Quite a clever thing, particularly for gathering up all those items on the loose and keeping them there until you find another home for them.

Even papers can be toted around if you find yourself mobile a lot.

18. The Bag

For all those bags you’ve saved, now is the time to put them to real use.

19. The Gift Bag

The gift bag is a good start to be on the stylish side of organizing.

20. The Box

Wow, what an invention this was! I saved this one for last because we probably all have a box or two around that isn’t being properly utilized – especially some archive banker boxes.