Get Organized: 5 Hidden Ways to Boost Bath Storage

BHG has a wonderful article about finding some extra bathroom storage in not-so-obvious places. As we all know, bathrooms often run short on storage room, but with a little creativity, you'll find more than you thought -- if you know where to look.


(1) Carve Out a Niche

The space between bathroom wall studs is just waiting for you to claim it. In this shower, white tile lines the niche. The bottom ledge and a glass bar keep towels handy, while a glass shelf holds bath oils and other accessories. (Pictured right)

(2) Go for a Spin

Add turntables inside an upper cabinet, adjusting the height and number to achieve flexible storage. Lower cabinets hold pullout baskets.


(3) Iron Things Out

Wouldn't it be great to have an ironing board in the bath for last-minute touch-ups on busy mornings? Consider equipping the vanity area with a built-in ironing board that slides in and out like a drawer.


(4) Panel Discussion

Transform a decorative upper panel on the front of the vanity into handy tilt-out storage. Kits available through home centers come with hinges and a shelf that attach to the back of the panel.


(5) Medicine Chest Disguise

Try this trick to conceal a not-so-attractive standard medicine chest. Apply a print to a cut-to-fit wooden panel (or paint your own design) inside a wooden frame. Nonglare glass protects the paper from moisture.


There are 2 more super-sneaky ways to add extra storage to your bath...you can find out more, as well as see photos of all the above ideas, at BHG.com.


Note: All article information and images are courtesy of BHG.com.

Get Organized: Alice.com Prepares You for the Unexpected

It’s 4am and you, New Mom, have woken up for the 4th time because Junior needs a diaper change.

You shuffle over to the changing table in a fog and reach for a diaper, only to find…nothing. Not a diaper in sight. Not one in the car, not a one in the diaper bag. Panic abounds!

Well, a new shopping and organizing site called Alice wants to make sure that never happens to you again.

Launched in June, Alice.com helps you get organized by enabling you to manage your household with a few clicks of a mouse. First, you set up your account and tell “Alice” about your family members and what types and brands of products you buy most often. The site then organizes all your top picks, finds deals and coupons for you, and also reminds you when you’re running low so you never again have to make a middle-of-the-night trip to the store.

A huge bonus is that all your orders include free shipping. And because Alice.com works like a marketplace, they can also offer great prices.

Shopping on Alice.com is easy as it allows you to view and sort the products you need by brand, price, or coupon availability. The bottom of the screen has a running tally of products on sale as well as reviews from real users.

Other features that help you get organized include...

- Budgeting, which totals your spending in each category and racks and stacks your spending in comparison to others in the Alice community, and

- Neighborhood, a chat function that lets you gab with the other shoppers about your favorite products, great deals, or anything else you feel like sharing.

What would you do with all that extra time if you let someone else do the shopping for you?

Get Organized: 3 Tips for Organizing Kids

It’s that time of year. The time of peace on earth and goodwill toward men.

Nope, I’m not talking about the holidays. I’m talking about back-to-school...the house gets a little quieter and Mom can put her feet up, enjoy a nice cup of tea, and take a well-deserved break!

But before you start daydreaming about your hard-earned respite, let's get organized. Here are 3 tips to making organizing a family affair.

(1) Mark your calendar.

Look at your children's school schedule and note when they have an extended break. Pick 2 - 4 of those time periods for bi-annual or quarterly organizing sessions.

This is where you resist the urge to go it alone because it would be easier to do everything by yourself. Organizing kids should be like a learning lab. You, as the parent, guide your children through the entire process: toss, sort, categorize, and store.

As a result, children are more likely to understand and maintain the organizational system.

(2) Safety first.

Part of being organized is being prepared for emergencies, and kids most definitely need to be in the loop.

First, get the adults together and create an escape route in the event of a fire, a place to hunker down during a tornado, etc. Then, bring the children into the picture.

After walking the children through the exit routes and safe zones, have a pre-made blueprint sketch of the house and ask them to draw out where they need to go in certain emergency situations. Have them place these drawings in a special place in their rooms, such a "treasure chest," where they can look at it whenever they want or can access it quickly if they need a reminder. (As the adult, make sure it's a wise place to stash this info.)

This is a simple way to show your children the importance of certain papers and being able to retrieve those documents if necessary.

Also, think about putting key contacts on the back of the blueprint. Their own address and home phone number, parent's cell numbers, and emergency numbers - in case the kids find themselves in a troubling situation.

(3) Ready, set, go!

If you want to include your little ones in the process, then make organizing a game.

Put some clear plastic containers in the middle of a messy room, and then assign a container to each child. (The number of baskets should correspond to the number of kids.) Tell your children to grab things on the floor and put them in their basket, set a timer for 2 - 3 minutes, and race!

Give the one who places the most items in the basket, therefore helping you the most, a small prize.

In what ways do you help your children get organized?

Get Organized: Websites That Make Your Life Easier

Every day, smart people come up with web resources that make our lives more efficient, more productive, and more organized. And while I'm not smart enough to be one of those super intelligent beings, I AM smart enough to use their tools!

So here’s my list of THE coolest websites that help you get organized. Most of these sites are free to use, although some require account sign up.

(1) Chore Buster - automatically creates chore lists and schedules.

(2) Cozi - tracks and manages family activities, schedules, shopping, and household chores from your PC, web browser, or mobile.

(3) Hassle Me - hassles and nags you via email to get stuff done.

(4) Tripit - compiles your scattered travel info into a master itinerary with plans, weather, maps, restaurants, and more.

(5) My Punch Bowl - keeps all your party planning in order.

(6) TurboTax: ItsDeductible Online - tracks and adds your donations and accurately determines the value of your donated items.

(7) Remember The Milk - manages and organizes your tasks online.

Get Organized: Cheap Organizers

Shopping for storage and organization products can get very expensive, especially if you purchase items to help you organize a whole room.

Good news! There is another option which lets you save $$$ and save Mother Earth.

What you may not realize is that there are dozens of potential organizing solutions in your home at this very moment. My book Cheap Organizers shows you how to identify commonplace items you can use from your home to create over 150 cheap organizers.

(And you don’t have to be “crafty” to do this! I'm certainly not.)

Join the revolution! Recycle, reuse, and repurpose your way to an organized home...

Get Organized: Clutter, Clutter Everywhere

When you imagine clutter, you probably think about that pile of bills on your desk or the menagerie of toys your 3-year-old can never seem to find a place for.

That kind of clutter can definitely be frustrating to deal with, but there are other types of clutter that can make their way into your home and your life.

Do you have a cluttered schedule? Perhaps you’ve spread yourself a little too thin with too many work or personal commitments, too many activities, too many causes, or too many hobbies. Your calendar is not just full - it's bursting at the seams, leaving little time for relaxation, let alone organization.

Step back, take a look at your schedule, and decide what activities maybe aren’t so important, especially if they’re taking time away from family, friends, or other significant parts of your life.

Or perhaps you have a cluttered behavior. Do you procrastinate? Spend too much time web surfing, watching TV, or talking on the phone?

If you have any of these bad habits (or 2, or 3, or more), it's leeching valuable time from your day. It can be hard to break these kinds of habits. But try choosing just one to tackle and see how much more time you have in your day.

In order to get organized at home, you must attack the source of clutter, whether it be in your surroundings, in your schedule, or in your behavior.

What kind of clutter is making a mess of your life?

Get Organized: Peace of Mind in Death

Kick the bucket. Buy the farm. Bite the dust. We like to use silly euphemisms for death because the truth is: it’s an uncomfortable topic.

A lot of people don’t like to talk about it and some people are so superstitious that even bringing up the subject makes them feel like they’re tempting fate. But no one is getting out of here alive and death is just a fact of life, so if you care about those around you, especially if you’re a parent, you should be prepared.

What does that mean?

It means you need to get organized: have a will drawn up, your medical directives spelled out, and your life insurance policies in place. You don’t want your children to have to carry the burden of your unwillingness to get your affairs in order.

And if you have young children, you need to decide who’s going to take care of them in your place. Asking someone to be a godparent is not the same thing as asking them to be a legal guardian. This should be well thought out. If you want your children to be brought up a certain way, in a certain faith, those details should be discussed at length with whomever you choose as their guardian.

You’ll be amazed at the peace of mind you’ll feel when you have everything in place!

And how’s this for being prepared for death: prepare to live a long life! Exercise, eat well and get regular physicals.

How many of us refuse to see a doctor because we don’t want to know what’s wrong with us? That’s not only silly, but a selfish way to think if you have children who depend on you for their livelihood.

You know you’ve hit a certain age when working out is no longer about vanity but about staying healthy. But if you think of it as your job as a parent to stay healthy, you’ll be “boogeying on down” at your great granddaughter’s wedding!

What other ways can help you get organized for the inevitable?


Note: Graphic courtesy of MS Office Online.

Get Organized: Save Time & Money with Econobusters

Keeping the purse strings tight during the current state of the economy can be challenging, especially when you have a family to care for. Econobusters is a site whose mission is just that - to support and inspire homemakers by providing them with insightful, informative tips to stretch their dollar.

Molly Green is the chief homemaker at Econobusters, a cheerful, red-headed gal full of frugal ideas, do-it-yourself projects, and great time and money-saving hints for managing your home.

The blog features daily tips via Thrifty Thursdays, Freebie Fridays (a weekly list of free items, like a chance to own two of those snazzy ShamWow towels!), and Weekend Wonders.

The best part of this site is if you sign up for their weekly e-newsletter, A Minute With Molly, you’ll receive a free menu planning e-book, packed with money-saving ideas as well as meal planners, recipes, and cooking tips.

By following their step-by-step instructions, you can plan meals for your family for an entire month! Imagine the time you’ll save, not to mention the money savings from buying only what you really need. With these tools, planning out meals will be a cinch, helping you to get organized and stay organized!


Note: Graphic courtesy of Econobusters blog.

Get Organized: How Much of Your Time Are You Twittering Away?

Ashton Kutcher has nearly 3 million followers on Twitter. Will Smith has over 4 million fans on Facebook. Celebrities have led the way in social media, but not everyone agrees that it’s the best way to spend your time.

On the Late Show with David Letterman, Dave called Kevin Spacey’s Twittering a “waste of time.” And poor Bill Gates recently admitted to dumping Facebook after failing to keep up with his 10,000 friend requests. In his words, it was “way too much trouble.”

In this age of ever-present social media, are we becoming a society of time-wasters?

It’s tricky enough to manage your time but throw in an addiction to social networking sites and you can find yourself creating a recipe for wasting the day away!

If you find you’re not as productive as you used to be, it might be time to make a change. And as they say, the first step is admitting you have a problem.

Do you know exactly how much time you spend on the internet? If you’d like to find out, Firefox has an add-on called Time Tracker that allows you to track exactly how much time you spend on the Internet each day. The add-on installs a small counter in the bottom corner of your screen (if it’s inactive for over 60 seconds, it will turn itself off until your itch to surf the web returns!).

If your eyes start twitching in disbelief after realizing how much time you spend a day online, it might be time to set some boundaries for yourself.

Try limiting yourself to just a few minutes a day, perhaps 10 minutes first thing in the morning and 10 minutes before you close down for the day. If that leaves you with withdrawal symptoms, start small and wean yourself slowly. You might be surprised at just how much time you get back in your day.

How would an extra hour a day help you to get organized?