Make Over Your Garage

Do you use your garage as a dumping ground? Is it so stuffed with clutter that there is no longer room to park your car?


By setting up activity zones in your garage you will be able to free up space and find items quickly and easily. Some zones you may consider are Gardening, Sports, Workbench, Holiday Decorations, Automotive, Garbage and Recycling. This approach makes it easy for you to find things when you need them and put them back in the right place when you are done.
Cabinets, shelves, hanging hooks and bins will help you to get things up off the ground, safely stored and staying that way. Storing items in your zones is important in order to keep things clean and protected from the weather. You can find storage units made for the garage at many discount and speciality stores. And if you want to be the envy of the neighborhood, you can hire a garage storage company.

By following these tips, you can make the garage another room in your house that you can be proud of.

Conquering Closets

Closet space is something we never seem to have enough of. We can fill our closets to the brim very quickly, and then they become a black hole where items disappear, never to be found again. But organizing your closet can make a big difference in simplifying your life.
When organizing a closet keep in mind that the intended use of the space is storing clothes, nothing else. So take this time to clear out all the stuff that doesn't belong in the space.

The next task is to sort what is left into neat piles of similar items. As an example, gather all your pants, all your shirts, all your jackets, etc. Now you can see what you really have. Do you really need 10 pairs of black pants? Now is the time to be honest with yourself. If you love it, keep it. If it doesn't fit, is worn out, or is out of style, get rid of it.

The next move is to take a step back and look at what you have. Evaluate if the space you have is adequate for what you want to store. Storage systems such as a closet organizer, shoe racks, shelves, or bins may be needed to make the best use of the space.

When that task is accomplished, it is time to put everything into its new home. Storing all items of the same kind together will make it easier to find things in the future. Mission accomplished! Now enjoy your success as you dress with ease tomorrow morning.

Why Organize?

Did you spend any time today looking for something lost? Do you feel as though you never have time to sit down and relax? If this sounds familiar to you, it's time to get organized. Organizing is not going to bring about world peace. It's just going to make your day run more smoothly and maybe save you a little money too.
Organizing is taking what you have and using it in the most efficient manner. You should have things around you that you love and that serve a purpose.

Look around. Are there things you can see that are getting in your way and making it hard for you to function? Why not move them out of your way, way out of the way, like to the curb? Maybe without all that unnecessary clutter you can find what you've been missing and perhaps sit down and put your feet up.

Do you have items in your home that you love, but you are not honoring? Maybe there's a favorite piece of furniture that is covered with clutter? Challenge yourself to clear off that piece, use and enjoy it the way it was meant to be.

It is said that clutter is just unmade decisions. Start today to make some decisions about those things that are getting in your way.

Do you use your garage as a dumping ground? Is it so stuffed with clutter that there is no longer room to park your car?
By setting up activity zones in your garage you will be able to free up space and find items quickly and easily. Some zones you may consider are Gardening, Sports, Workbench, Holiday Decorations, Automotive, Garbage and Recycling. This approach makes it easy for you to find things when you need them and put them back in the right place when you are done.

Cabinets, shelves, hanging hooks and bins will help you to get things up off the ground, safely stored and staying that way. Storing items in your zones is important in order to keep things clean and protected from the weather. You can find storage units made for the garage at many discount and speciality stores. And if you want to be the envy of the neighborhood, you can hire a garage storage company.

By following these tips, you can make the garage another room in your house that you can be proud of.

From one of my organizing idols, Judith Kolberg.

Clutter Statistics
In December, 2009 the National Association of Professional Organizers (http://www.napo.net/) and Office Depot conducted a survey of over 1,023 office workers on the question of "What clutters your workspace?." Their response? 32% said food. Yikes! It's just another indication we are not taking our lunch breaks and instead working at our desks. The same number of respondents reported newspapers and magazines clutter their workspace (so much for virtual reading). 31% have coffee cups nearby (since when is that clutter?), and 28% report "personal hygiene products." Toothpaste? Combs? What could that mean? Hey, whatever it means, it's not a problem if people can get their work done. And that's the point. Disorganization in the form of lost time looking for items, tardiness, and missed deadlines are good reasons to clean up clutter, according to the survey. Get the complete results at: http://mediarelations.officedepot.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=140162&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1373477&highlight=

Thanks Judith

You've Got Mail

Do you know that we receive more mail in one day than our grandparents received in a month? These days, it seems as though the mail is an endless task.
The post office does a great job of delivering a pile of decisions to you everyday. On average, it takes ten minutes a day to sort through your mail and make those decisions. Should I keep this, can I throw away that? Do you have the time to ponder these questions for every piece of mail you carry in your home? Do yourself a favor and make helpful changes now.
Decide to toss the junk mail as fast as you can. Pretend those envelopes have been sitting in your oven all day, instead of your mailbox, ready to burn your fingers. Remember "stop, drop and roll". Use this lesson, 'stop' at the trash can or recycle bin, 'drop' the fliers, coupons and anything else that's junk, and 'roll' away with the important stuff. You should have much less in your hands to deal with.
Try this method with the mail that has piled up inside your home. Instead of ten minutes a day, try adding five more minutes to that time to make it fifteen minutes to help get through the backlog. Slowly your will see the pile decrease, until it is gone.

Loudoun County Household Hazardous Waste Schedule

Here is the 2010 schedule for Loudoun County Household Hazardous Waste Collection.

April 17 - Loudoun Valley High School, 3340 N. Maple Avenue, Purcellville
May 22 - River Bend Middle School, 46240 Algonkian Parkway, Sterling
June 26 - Stone Bridge High School, 43100 Hay Road, Ashburn
July 17 - Hertiage High School, 520 Evergreen Mill Road, Leesburg
September 11 - Harmony Intermediate School, 38174 West Colonial Highway, Hamilton
October 23 - Dominion Hogh School, 21326 Augusta Drive, Sterling
November 20 - Heritage High School, 520 Evergreen Mill Road, Leesburg

All events are from 8:30 am to 2:30 pm and are for Loudoun County residents only.
For more information contact the Department of Construction & Waste Management at 703-777-0187.

You can bring the following items to the collection events:
Ammonia, Art & Crafts Supplies, Batteries, Cleaches, Brake Fluid, Drain Cleaners, Engine & Radiator Fluches, Fertilizer, Fluorescent Bulbs,Floor & Deck Cleaners, Gasoline, Gas/Oil Mixes, Herbicides, Insect Sprays, Metal Polish, Moth Balls, Muriatic Acid, Oil-Based Paints, Oven Cleaner, Paint Thinner, Pesticides, Photo Chemicals, Pool Chemicals, Radiator Cleaners,Rechargeable Batteries, Rodent Killers, Rust Preservatives, Sealants, Solvents, Transmission Fluid, Wood Preservatives, Wood Strippers.

Do not bring:
Explosives, Gun Powder or Ammunition, Flares, Pesticides containing dioxin, Large Volumes of unknown materials, Motor Oil, Antifreeze, Lead-Acid or Car Batteries, Propane Tanks, Electronics and Business hazardous waste.

NBC4 Safe & Secure Community Shred Scheduled for March 27th

You need to shred personal documents in order to protect your indenty. NBC4 makes it easy for you to do a large volume of shredding fast and free. Check out the information below, from the NBC4 web site. The shredding event is one week from today. Make it a goal to sort through your paperwork and box it for shredding in the next week!

The next NBC4 Safe & Secure Community Shred is scheduled for Saturday, March 27, 2010 from 8-11 a.m. at the Northern Virginia Community College Annandale campus.
You may bring up to five boxes of personal papers for shredding (no CDs or credit cards). It's the best way to protect your identity. And, it's good for the environment because all the paper we shred gets recycled!
To keep this event safe and secure for everyone, please DO NOT BRING these items: Batteries, Flammables, Combustibles, Electronic Equipment (Hard Drives), Media Materials (DVDs, CDs, Tapes), Binders, Hanging Files. Your cooperation will enable us to better serve everyone and allow Shred-It to recycle as much material as possible.
Thanks to our partners PNC Bank , Shred-It, Northern Virginia Community College, and Fairfax County Government for making this event possible -- FREE OF CHARGE!

A new idea in teaching kids to save

I recently learned about a new way to teach kids about the value of money and how to save.
It's called Kidsave and very representative of how your children see you dealing with money on a daily basis.

Riv from Sacred Spaces Home said "Just like checking an online banking account, it automatically deposits "virtual" allowance to each account, has interest that's accrued (for saving) and every time they want to withdraw, they give us a withdrawal slip and we give them the cash and withdraw "virtually". It not only teaches them how the "real" world works but also relieves us of the hassle to always have exact change or cash around."

Do you have too much stuff?

Julie Hall is correct! In her book, "The Boomer Burden - Dealing With Your Parent's Lifetime Accumulation of Stuff" she suspects you already know if you have too much stuff. Here are some of her indicators that I like best:

1. When you hang up a shirt in the closet, you have to push apart the other clothes to make space.
2. You can't see the floor of your closet.
3. At least one bedroom has been turned in a storage area.
4. You rent storage space.
5. There are more licensed vehicles than licensed drivers at our house.
6. You can't put our vehicles in the garage because you use it for storage.