Steps to Organizing a Garage

To those of us who have a garage, it comes as no surprise that garages often become the storage place for many things that have nothing to do with storing a car! By organizing a garage you have taken a major step in getting rid of a bunch of stuff you don’t really need. After all, do you really need that broken flower pot that has been laying in the corner for the past 5 years?

So, how do you efficiently organize  a garage? Where do you start? This article will guide you through the process of organizing your garage back into shape. By the time you are done, your car will actually fit in your garage!

  • Step 1. To effectively organize a garage you must begin by doing a walk through and get rid of the obvious trash first. This initial walk through will help you get rid of the top layer of clutter, making the overall task of organizing easier. Find something you forgot you had? Get rid of it. Failure to properly implement step 1 can actually be a garage organizing buster because some people have a hard time throwing things out. Let me encourage you, if you don’t know what something is or you haven’t used it in years, just get rid of it!
  • Step 2.  Go through everything and pile similar items together. When you organize a garage using this method you will find that these items will be stored together in their proper categories. If you end up with items that don’t seem to belong to any category, they may need to be discarded or moved out of the garage. Typical categories to organize a garage are:
    • Gardening tools/items
    • Auto maintenance items
    • Tools
    • Toys
    • Sports equipment
  • Step 3. To properly organize a garage you will need to determine if you need storage equipment such as a peg board, baskets, shelves, hooks for hanging and cupboards.
    • Peg boards: an extremely versatile and inexpensive storage tool. These boards can be hung on the studs. Hooks fit into the holes and you have the flexibility of moving them anywhere you need them. Peg boards are use to store tools, sporting equipment such as tennis and badminton rackets, BBQ tools, and even small shelves.
    • Baskets: great for storing outdoor toys such as balls, Frisbees, baseball gloves, etc.
    • Shelves: can hold cleaning supplies, oil and other automotive maintenance items as well as gardening supplies, sporting equipment and even coolers.
    • Hooks for hanging: hooks can hold bikes, kayaks, golf club bags, electrical cords, garden hoses, etc.
  • Tips: Let’s face it, even if you organize a garage following all the above steps, it is sometimes too much of a task to get started. If this is the situation you are in, I have some ideas for you.
    • Make organizing a garage a priority by putting it on your calendar. For example schedule 1 hour every day to work on your garage. If you do not have an hour, schedule for 15 minutes or ½ hour. It is fine to only organize a garage for a ½ hour a day as long as you work at it consistently.
    • Organize a garage one section at a time. One of the biggest mistakes people make is thinking they have to organize a garage in one day or one weekend. Well, you don’t have to do that! Just take a section at a time and if it takes you a few days or a few weeks, that’s fine. Start with the sporting items, and then move on to the gardening items, then the tools, etc.Even if you decide to do one section at a time, it’s important to sort and group everything before you purchase any storage equipment. This way you will know exactly what you have and how much of each category you need to store.

I’ll admit when the time comes to organize a garage it can be a huge task. The good news is once your garage is organized, you can keep it neat and clean with simple maintenance. You should make it a goal never to let your garage get the best of you again.


Feeling Tired? Feng Shui Home Decorating Increases the Energy Level in Your Home

Is your home a place of peace and comfort for you? If you don’t feel like your home is your castle, maybe a little Feng Shui home decorating will do the trick for you. Feng Shui, an ancient Chinese philosophy, is the belief that the physical characteristics and positioning of your home will affect the fortune of the home owner. Feng Shui home decorating is the art of decorating your home to create joy and harmony, producing a vibrant environment that will improve your health, happiness and energy.

So, how does one incorporate Feng Shui in home decorating? Well, first you need to have an understanding of the categories of Feng Shui; elements, color, shape and direction (meaning placement in your home based on the compass rose). The five elements are wood, fire, earth, metal and water. Each element has colors associate with it.  One of the easiest ways to use Feng Shui home decorating to  get the energy in your home flowing with the use of Feng Shui is to use the colors associated with the elements:

    • Wood: Brown, Green
    • Fire: Red, intense yellow, orange, purple, pink
    • Earth: Soft yellow, sandy/earthy, light brown
    • Metal: White, gray
    • Water: Blue, black

In addition to an element’s color combinations, Feng Shui home decorating incorporates proper energy flow in your home based on the compass rose. For example, if your back door is lined up with your front door, energy can just slip right out of your house and not bring any benefit to the occupants. Additionally where you place objects in your home based on a compass can affect your home’s energy.

Implementing all the principles of Feng Shui home decorating into your house is a learning process, but here are some tips to get you started.

Energy/Joy/Happiness: Who wouldn’t want more energy, joy and happiness? Adding green plants activates yang for joy and happiness. In addition to green plants, try adding flowers, mirrors, bright colors, wind chimes, music, water, air and opening your curtains to let the sunshine filter through.

Exposed Beams: Interestingly enough Feng Shui warns against having exposed beams because they cause a downward flow of energy that can be oppressive and actually cause health problems. Well, if you have exposed beams, they are rather hard to get rid of, aren’t they? Don’t worry; you can hang Feng Shui flutes on them at a 45 degree angle. Alternatively consider painting the beams to match the color of your ceiling.

Looking for Love?: Stick to the southwest section of your house and avoid the color green. Concentrate on making this space clean, neat and uncluttered. Decorate with objects made from terra-cotta, clay, stone, porcelain or china.

Stay Calm: Want to keep the pressures of life out of your home? Don’t use the color red for a living room set. That’s right, a red chair or couch can bring work pressures home with you.

Feng Shui Home Decorating Color Tips:

  • Green: Use for fresh energy, renewal, serenity and health.
  • Red: Use sparingly for richness and luxuriousness; overuse can bring anger and restlessness.
  • Yellow: Great for family rooms and your child’s room. Use for cheering, brightening, welcoming and comforting.
  • Orange: Appropriate for the kitchen, living area and play area. This is a great option when you don’t want to overdo it with red. Orange promotes conversation and fun times.
  • Pink: A love color is also very soothing. This is a good color for a creative office or a little girl’s bedroom.
  • Brown: For nourishing and energy, this is great for your main entry or kitchen, although it should be used sparingly to avoid a decline in your drive and ambition.
  • White: Representing innocence and purity, white has a fascinating element to it. Use this color anywhere in your home.
  • Gray: Best used as an accent color, gray can bring crisp energy to enliven a space.
  • Blue: A wonderful Feng Shui home decorating color, the variety of hues associated with blue brings energy, peace, good sleep and playfulness to a home. Use baby blue for ceilings, especially in your child’s room. Use dark blue in your bedroom or in the living room.

Start Simplifying Your Life By Following These Easy To Do Decluttering Tips

Many people I speak with are interested in simplifying their life; however, they just don’t know how to begin.  My advice to them is to start with some simple decluttering tips because I know that as people get rid of clutter, they will be well on their way to finding a simpler life.

This article lays out a framework of basic easy-to-do decluttering tips for your home.  One of the most effective way to declutter your home is to take things one step at a time.  For many people trying to go through their entire house in one day or one weekend is way too overwhelming.  Instead set up a schedule for yourself that commits 15 minutes to one hour every day until you have decluttered your home.

  • A place for everything and everything in its place.  This decluttering tip should apply to every area of your home. The goal is to know exactly where something needs to go when you find it lying around the house. Often, we don’t know where to put things so they end up in one of many junk piles. Once you have a place for everything it’s easy to pick up the house because you no longer have to find a “place” for things.  You just put them back where they belong.
  • Cleaning supplies.  Does your cleaning supply area look like a bomb hit it?  Are there miscellaneous bottles and cans, of who-knows-what, lurking around?  If so it is time to get rid of all the old stuff.  If you have spray cans of cleaner that are rusting and matted shut, get rid of them, the only purpose they serve is to take up space.  Place your cleaners, dust rags. etc. in a caddy.  Caddies are easy to carry around the house with you.  If you can’t fit all your cleaning supplies in one caddy, you have too many cleaning supplies so get rid of what you absolutely do not need.  The caddy should easily fit into a storage area so when you are done cleaning, the entire thing can be slid into storage.
  • Photos.  Photos can be the downfall of many an organizing system.  Even with digital photos, storage and organizing can become unwieldy.  A major problem for many people is finding storage solutions for prints.  One solution is to set up a collection bin for all photos.  As you declutter your home, take all the loose photos you come across and put them in the collection bin.  Once you have gathered all your photos try these decluttering tips to determine what to do with them:
    • Give them away to your children or other family members.
    • Put them in a photo album, box or scrapbook.  Photo boxes work well and you can find nice wood box that fits hundreds of photos inside.
    • Placing your photos in albums keeps them much more organized than photo boxes; however, it takes time to slip your photos into the sleeves of a photo album.
    • If you are planning on scrapbooking,  set up file folders for each subject which will have a scrapbook.  For example, have a file folder for each of your children and as you receive prints, sort them immediately into the corresponding file folder.
    • Scan you photos into your computer for digital storage.  The trick for digital storage is to set up file folders.  Here are decluttering tips for how you can set up a directory:
      • Family /Birthdays
        • Sam
        • Tammy
        • Mom
        • Dad
        • Family Christmas
        • Family Vacation
        • Work Activities
  • Mail – Don’t let incoming mail get the best of you.  The way to keep this beast tame is to sort through every piece of mail as soon as you bring it into the house.  I sort my mail right by the trash.  Junk mail does not even make it to my kitchen table.  Here are decluttering tips for categories you should use to sort your mail:
    • Trash
      • Throw away immediately.
    • Shredding pile
      • Items that may have personal information, such as credit card offers.
    • Personal correspondence.
    • Immediate action required
      • Appointment reminder cards, bills and invoices requiring follow-up.

By following these decluttering tips you will begin the process of making you home more manageable and your focus will improve.   Following these decluttering tips is a fantastic way to become organized and improve all areas of your life.


Desk Organizing Tips That Will Make You More Productive!

Living clutter free involves decluttering every area of your life.  One area that is often overlooked is your desk.  To truly live clutter free, decluttering your desk should not be overlooked.  Many people dream of having a clutter free desk; however, the task seems overwhelming.  The simple truth is that a desk filled with clutter can actually decrease your productivity.  For most people the task of decluttering their desk or work area gets pushed aside and the piles of papers continue to get larger and more unwieldy.  Lets face it, something must be done.  This article will take you step by step through desk organizing tips that will make organizing a desk simple.

There are many desk organizing tips you can find if you search the internet.  However, good organizing tips will suggest you start out by breaking your project down into manageable chunks of time.  This is because you will probably not be able to accomplish the entire task at one sitting unless you have an open-ended schedule.  For this reason concentrating on specific tasks is advisable.  For example, on Monday concentrate on the desktop; on Tuesday work on the desk drawers; Wednesday tackle the filing cabinet.  These simple desk organizing tips alone will go a long way in getting you started on decluttering your desk.

Desk Organizing Tips -  The First Step

The first task is to collect anything that does not belong on your desktop and put it in your “In Box”.  This means gathering anything that is:

  • Out-of-date or broken items.
    • Examples: Old reference materials such as computer manuals or a broken stapler.
  • Unfinished items:
    • Examples: That brochure you started to develop five years ago, by now it is old information.
  • Potential action items:
    • Items that require input from you or input from someone else.

Desk Organizing Tips – The Famous “In Box”

This is going to be the only time you will have permission to let your “In Box” grow exponentially. For the time being, it will not matter how large your “In Box” becomes.  Your main goal is to sort through every item on your desk.

If you have something that is too large to place in the “In Box”, write the name of the object and the date on a piece of paper and put that paper into the “In Box”.  If you don’t have room in your “In Box” for the initial collection phase just use an additional cardboard box.  It is important to use a cardboard box so you will not be tempted to create additional piles on your desk.

Do not leave one inch of your desktop untouched.  Every piece of paper, in every pile must be sorted.  Of course some items will be trash, so just go ahead a trash them, no need to handle pieces of trash twice.  Additionally, take note of any equipment that needs to be replaced or fixed such as a broken tape dispenser or updating your phone; make a note of this and place the note in your “In Box”.

Desk Organizing Tips – Don’t Forget the Desk Drawers

Once you have addressed every single pile on your desktop, it’s time to get the clutter out of your desk drawers.  Depending on how much time you have available, you may be able to tackle your desk drawers now or you may need to wait for another day.   Look for stray pieces of paper that may be actionable items, put these items into your “In Box” or write a note about them and put that into the “In Box”.

Depending on the state of your drawers, you may be able to use this time to clean and organize your drawers without much having to go into your “In Box”.  However, don’t waste this opportunity to get rid of broken and old equipment as well as addressing all actionable items.

Desk Organizing Tips – Process, Process, Process

By now you should have an “In Box” with tons of stuff that you will need to take care of.  If it needs to go in a file, file it.  If you need to take action on it, take action.  If it needs to be moved to another area of your house, move it.  It won’t be long before you have processed every “In Box” item.

By following these desk organizing tips you will not only accomplish the task of decluttering your desk, you will improve your productivity, think more clearly and be able to keep your focus for longer periods of time.


Bill Organizing can Revolutionize your Financial Life

There are several reasons why bill organizing is important.  When your bills are organized and you understand where you are financially, other areas of your life become more stable.  Bill organizing can truly revolutionize your financial life.  A disorganized financial life will not only be a constant source of frustration, it will be a constant drain on your finances.  Why?  Because you will be paying late fees and higher interest rates which could easily be avoided with some organization.

This article will give you bill organizing information on how to deal with incoming bills and the best methods of making sure your bills are paid in full and on time.

Bill Organizing -Automatic Payment
Most bills can be set up on automatic payment, including utility, phone and credit card bills. To avoid late fees, it is imperative you set up as many bill payments as possible to be paid automatically.

In addition to using automatic payment, make sure you are enrolled for online bill paying wherever possible. This will save you postage and will also save you late fees if you do not get the check mailed in time.

Bill Organizing – Incoming Bills
It is important to develop a system for incoming bills and follow this system religiously. As soon as a bill comes in the mail open it and check to see if it is on automatic payment. Make a notation on your calendar when the automatic payment will happen or, if the bill will not be paid automatically, make a notation on your calendar for when payment is due.

Keep all bills in one place; this place is up to you. If you have a notebook style calendar, you can paperclip the bill to the appropriate date; an appropriate date would be when the bill will be automatically paid, when to pay it online, or when the check needs to be mailed.

Purchase a bill organizing tool. This could be as simple as an accordion file or, if you want to be more elaborate, you can purchase a bill holder that has a slot for each day of the month. You simply slide the bill into the appropriate slot as soon as you open it. For example, if your cell phone bill is due on the 26th of the month, put the bill in the slot numbered 26. For bills that need to have a check mailed, place the bill in the slot of the day you need to mail the check. I personally don’t have room for a bill holder so I just paper clip the bill to my calendar and it works fine.

Bill Organizing – How to Store Paid Bills
Of course you want to keep track of paid bills. The easiest way to do this is set up a section in a filing cabinet with 12 labeled file folders; one for each month of the year. After the bill has been paid, make a notation of when it was paid and check number if applicable, then file it in the month it was paid. With this method all bills are filed in the month paid and are easily accessible when needed.

If you do not have a filing cabinet it is just as effective to use an accordion file folder that is labeled with the months.  Alternatively you could use a three ring binder with 12 page protectors labeled with the months.  Simply file the paid, notated bills in the page protectors.

Don’t Procrastinate
Organizing your bills is not difficult and will save you untold hours of frustration not to mention saving you money on late fees. Just set aside a time and do it. All of this can be accomplished with little to no expense and most likely will not even require a trip to the office supply store. The sense of relief you will feel at having an organized financial life is well worth your efforts.