Are those sippy cup parts and bottle accessories taking over your drawers? One way to manage all of these items is try to stick with one brand. The reasons is they would all have the same accessories. Some cups and bottles come with inserts that must be attached or they wont work properly and another brand may have another type. So if you can stick the the same brand it will cut down on your kitchen clutter and make your life a little bit easier.

Are you spending too much time organizing a group gift for a friend or family member then having to collect all the money for the gift? This can be very difficult! Let Edivvy to it! It is a website that helps you create and event, find gifts, then invite your friends and family to contribute to the gift. The gifts are then shipped from store to the recipient. If contributions are not enough to purchase the gift, Edivvy sends a Visa Gift card instead. Best part about this service is its free.

After helping your house guests get settled be sure to give them a tour of your home so they know where to find things like extra blankets and towels. Find their favorite T.V programs and show them how to navigate your TV remote controls. Finally give your guests a coffee maker demonstration and show them where you keep the coffee, cream, sugar and cups. This is extremely helpful if they wake before you or you are not home and it will make your guest feel more at home.

Have you ever scrambled at the last minute preparing your home for a dinner party? Make sure your table is picture perfect with these simple tips for getting your table ready.
Set your table the night before from the napkins, silver ware, place cards, dishes to the serving pieces and utensils. Add a note to each serving piece with the food going into the dish. You will know exactly what pieces your will be using and gives any helpers easy direction.
If you have a small space, clear out and organize a kitchen cabinet for after dinner items like dessert dishes, serving utensils, coffee cups, tea and sugar. This will make your transition to dessert and coffee much easier. Everything is in one place and you can counter tops will stay clear.
Finally clean out and organize the refrigerator so that at least one shelf is designated for the party. Its easier to see and access everything and if guests brings something that needs to be chilled there is open space.

How many half used rolls of wrapping paper, gift bags, gift boxes and tags do you have in your gift giving supply? Do you buy more every year? This year lets try and use up the remaining supply and not buy more! My tip for future wrapping is to invest in just white butcher paper or brown mailing paper. If you like to add your own personal touch use stamps to decorate, markers or ribbons. This way you can give a gift for any occasion and not be limited by the seasonal decoration.

Does your home become overloaded with toys after the holidays? After the gift exchange do the toys get put away or do they hang around in the living room for a few days? Sometimes there just isnt an inch to space in the playroom for a single new toy. This year get organized before the holidays. Make room by getting rid of some of the toys the kids have outgrown before the introduction of new toys. Its a great time to get through those toy boxes, toss the broken, mismatched parts and pieces and part with the toys they are no longer interested in. Donate toys to local hospital, Goodwill, local churches and Daycare centers.

Do you have questionable food, condiments and beverages taking up space in your kitchen? Not sure if its ok to eat or drink? Check out the site Stilltasty.com to find out its shelf life. You can also find out handy information like "how to safely defrost foods"and many other common questions. Click on the type of food and select opened or unopened and Stilltasty tells you how long it can stay in the refrigerator, freezer and includes other tips about storing.

Is your cars glove box packed with napkins, ketchup, gum and 10 years worth of expired registration forms? Having these items around are helpful if your dining in the car but you dont have a lot of extra space for these non essential items. Make sure your glove box is organized with the following items so you are ready when you need them.

Car Registration
Insurance card
Emission form
Disposable camera
Flashlight
Notepad and pen
Cell phone charger
Phone number of insurance agent
Phone number of mechanic
Phone number of towing service
Help sign

Got some leftover shipping or file folder labels? Use them for labeling shelves, drawers or storage bins. You don't have to use a fancy label maker when you have unused office supplies hanging around.
Printed labels look so much better than handwriting and instantly creates a system. I like to use Avery labels. They have a simple online template where you design and print your project. Just type in the product number, select a design and start typing your labels and print. It gives you the option to change fonts etc and allows you to preview your project. This is really helpful when you only have a half sheet of labels leftover and only want to make a few labels.

Happy Labeling!

Not all home organization gets custom closets, sturdy plastic storage bins and shelving. In a perfect world your items would be organized and stored perfectly in bins and stacked neatly. But in this economy its not always possible. So you have to make do with what is readily available and what is affordable. In some areas like garages, attics and basements areas can be affected by water, dust and dirt. So your items do need to be protected. I recommend organizing your home using white trash bags for storage. They are cheap and easy to protect your items. You can sort items into categories and label the outside with black magic marker. I see this is a temporary solution until you can get plastic storage bins. They will keep your belongings dry, free of dust and dirt until you can transfer to a plastic storage bin.

Its possible to organize your life with bags! Ziploc has come out with giant Ziploc bags to help you get organized in your home, office or car. The Big Bags can hold everything from clothes, electronics and toiletries. The Ziploc Flexible tote is cube shaped with zippers on the side which are great for stacking and storing seasonal items in the top of your closet, under the bed and even in the car. Sturdy paper bags such as gift bags or shopping bags are great for storing items on shelves. They can also add a pop of color.

How many times have you purchased greeting cards or birthday cards and never sent them? They were purchased with the best intentions but you just never made it to the mailbox. We forget, get busy and sometimes cant find the cards! A simple way to organize cards is to keep them together in a resealable bag and write the types of cards on the outside. If you have a lot of birthday cards keep them together in one bag. Miscellaneous cards like shower, blank or thank you cards can be kept together but add a list of cards to the bag for quick reference. The bags make it easy to see and they can be stored in other locations other then a file cabinet or folder.

Good luck!

You know all those keys that you have been shifting around from drawer to drawer year after year that have no identification? If you absolutely have no idea what they belong to it might be time to let them go.
Go through you house and match up all these miscellaneous keys to every single lock and door knob you can find. Also make a master list of all the locks so you know how many doors require a key. If you still have keys that don't match at least you can rule out your home. Next make a list of other places they might belong to. Did a friend or relative give you a key to hold onto? Are there any other buildings you have access to? Continue to test out all of your keys by process of elimination. Any keys they don't belong to anything should go. If you still are not sure about some of the keys, put them in a container and store outside of your immediate work area.
In the future get rid of keys as soon as you know they are no longer needed. If you have a lock changed take the key off your key rings immediately so they don't get lost in the shuffle again. If you are moving make sure you leave all of your keys behind you will not need them anymore.

I am always looking for practical ways to get organized and save time. Yesterday I did a couple loads of laundry and realized how happy I was that I had a 2 in 1 bottle of laundry detergent and fabric softener. It might not seam like a big deal but wheeling a cart full of clothes, and detergents to the laundry room is a task in itself. Not having an extra bottle or box of fabric softener to carry to the laundry room is priceless. It is also one extra step I can take out of the chore. And a 2 in 1 product saves space and easier to keep organized.
What is your favorite time saving product?

Capturing precious moments is priceless! I swore that I would never use my blackberry camera to take pictures because it was not the best quality and the prints never really turned out. But sometimes you don't have a camera available and your cell phone camera is the only option. Every once in a while I would get a great shot but still wonder how much better it would have been with a "real" camera.
Just recently I took some shots and was so upset at the quality.
I started to do some investigating and thought "I wonder if the lens is dirty"? I got out the trusty q-tip and wiped out the lens.
After the cleaning the picture quality was so much better!
I am happy to say I will continue to use my cell phone to take pictures but keeping the lens clean is a must! If you keep your phone in your bag or your purse you might want to pack a few extra q-tips to keep the lens clean. Another option is to keep you phone in a case.
Now if the blackberry could only do action shots!

Winter is almost over. Even though it still gets cold here in Chicago its time to start packing up those heavier clothes and start looking into spring. Soon you will be wearing shorts and flip flops!
It can be difficult to determine what you should put away until next year and what to keep out. If the temperature drops you want to be prepared.
Here are a few items that you can put away that will jump start your closet organizing.
Heavy wools
Heavy coats
Velvets
Bulky sweaters
Winter sports gear-hats, gloves scarves or ski pants
Winter boots
Organizing your heavy winter clothes now will make the change of seasons a little easier next year. Also, by opening up space in your closet you can start adding a few of your warmer weather clothes like rain jackets, lightweight materials and cottons.

Yesterdays post I talked about organizing flower vases. Donating them or giving them back to the florist where they can be reused. But did you know it can also save you money? I had a dinner party and wanted to order flowers instead of trying to make the arrangement myself with the store bought flowers. I also wanted to use one of my existing vases so I did not start collecting vases again. I brought my vase to the florist, told them what I wanted and how much I wanted to spend and viola! A beautiful arrangement for half the cost because I brought my own vase. It pays to be organized!

If you were lucky enough to receive fresh flowers for a special occasion and they came from a florist, most likely they came in a vase. Another special occasion would have brought you even more beautiful flowers...and another vase. Eventually you have a cabinet or two packed with vases which can be challenge to keep organized.
If you are unsure of what to do with all of these vases pull them all together and take stock of what you have. If you only put fresh flowers out on occasion keep one vase in each size or shape and donate the rest. Better yet take to a local florist so they can be reused.

When organizing your china cabinet, its common to have several different patterns of china, odd number of stemware or even a few broken figurines. The problem with all of these extra pieces is you cant have a dinner party for 8 if you only have 7 plates. One way to work with the odd number of dishes is to add another pattern that will compliment your current set. Or go to Replacements,Ltd a China, Crystal, Silver and Collectibles supplier to replace those hard to find patterns! If you are ready to let go of your current set of dishes to make room for a new set you can even sell your pieces to Replacement, Ltd!

We are all busy these days and dont have time to waste or money. So the next time you are unsure about how to spend your entertaining dollars make sure you do a little research. We like to watch movies either at the theater or at home on netfix or our cable channel. But I must say there is nothing worse then wasting time and money on a flop of a movie. Make sure you check out At The movies for movies in theaters now or Rotten Tomatoes which also gives feedback on older movies out on DVD.
Just like organizing your closet you must organize your entertainment!

How many magazines subscriptions do you have? Do you know when they will expire? Do you read them all? It is important to keep track of the reading material that is coming into your home so you can keep it organized.
If you are not reading a subscription anymore, make sure you dont renew it when the invoice comes in the mail. Just toss the invoice and dont even think twice about it. You can always pick up a copy and renew again in the future.
As soon as you get a subscription make a note in your calender so you know when the subscription begins and when it will expire.

Here's a quick way to get rid of items you no longer need. Organize a themed swap party where everyone brings items they no longer need. It could be kitchen items, home accessories or even clothes. Its a great way to get rid of items and give them a new home. If you pick a theme its easier to look at one category at a time and makes the task of organizing a little easier. If the theme is kitchen cooking equipment all you have to do is go through your pots and pans and weed out a few that are not getting any use. This also is a good time to toss out those scratched, burnt and broken pieces too and reorganize your cabinets!

Want a quick way to get rid of leftovers and keep your fridge organized? Make a list of all leftovers and keep on your fridge door so you know what is available.
Make a section in the fridge only for leftovers that is visible and easy to reach. If you like to take leftovers to work, store in ziplock bags or disposable containers so you don't have to transfer to another container when you are rushed for time.

I live in a building that has a laundry room containing 10 washers and 6 dryers. Having many machines makes the chore of laundry go much quicker. I can get about 4 loads of laundry done in 1 1/2 hours - folded, hung and put away. The trick to quick laundry folding is to organize your laundry before folding. Start by quickly sorting out all of your clothes then fold. I separate all of the t-shirts, socks, pants and hanging items. Then go down the assembly line folding. Once you fold 1 t-shirt and stack, its easy to fold 10 more. Same thing goes for socks, sweaters etc. You can get on a roll of folding and it can actually be fun!

Happy Folding

Its time again to take inventory of your closet and get organized! This is one huge way to save money in 2009. If you don't know what you have, you don't know what you need. If you know exactly how many black turtlenecks you own, you won't buy three more just because they're on sale.

Organize a clothes exchange with your friends. Bring everything that doesn't fit or doesn't suit you and have your friends do the same. You'll come home with new outfits without spending a dime.

Starting to put your paperwork in order now will get you ready for tax season. If you think you're getting a refund, the sooner you organize that paperwork, the sooner you will get your money.

Make it easy on yourself by setting up your 2009 files now. Its as easy as adding a label to a hanging file in your current system or use an envelope with a clasp or zip lock bag to hold receipts and other paper work.

If you are unsure of paperwork needed, check your return from last year and use as a guide.

As you start thinking about your News Years resolutions, remember that not only making a list of your goals is helpful but putting a label on everything gives you an instant system.
After organizing your spaces. Get a label maker, use file folder labels or shipping labels(you know you have them in your office supplies)and affix to bins, drawers, shelves and files.

Labels keep everyone on track and tells you where to put things away.
Label makers range from $15 to about $200 depending on the bells and whistles.

Heres a quick tip on getting organized for the holidays. Its a good idea to have your kitchen organized especially if you are entertaining. This is a great time to clean out that Tupperware and food storage cabinet or drawer. Set aside all of the plastic containers that you do not use or are missing lids. Also pull all of those cool whip or butter tubs you have been saving. Now that you have all the containers you dont want out of your immidate storage, repurpose these containers as take home containers for leftovers for your guests. You dont want your best plastic containers leaving for good and there is no need to purchase more for the holidays. So get organized and save money this year.

Love this idea from Charter One. The more you get organized in your home or office by paying paying without paper, Charter one pays you 10 cents! Using your debit cards, online bill pay and automatic payment to your checking account helps the environment your bank account and your paper organizing efforts.

Use technology this holiday season to organize your gift giving. Big stores like Target, Amazon and Toys R Us have online wish lists that you can use to do your shopping for friends and family. A wish list is just like a bridal registry where you register for items you would like, but you can use it for other events like holidays, birthdays and graduations. Create your own online wish list to make it easier for your gift givers. Buy gifts that someone actually wants. You don't want to add clutter to someone else's home or your own.

Its important to stay on top of your home and office organizing. The more you get into the habit of putting things away after you are finished using them the easier it will be later when you need to find them. When you don't put things away you will only make more work for yourself later, create clutter an easily become disorganized. If you are working on a project, put away your files away and clear off your desk before you move onto another project. This way you can focus 100% on your next project. Get in the habit of putting things away now instead of later it will help you stay organized.

Organizing baby clothes is a full time job. The sizes change so quickly theres no time to dig through clothes that dont fit. The easiest way to organize and keep track of clothes is to have 4 areas where you keep the clothing. Typically clothes are either too big, too small, currently fit or close to fitting. I call the clothes that are close to fitting "on deck" because they will be wearing in the next couple of weeks.
Keep an open bag or bin for clothes that no longer fit so you can easily separate from clothes that do fit. Have the bins of larger clothing labeled by size in a 3 or 6 month range. Clothes that currently fit should be in the drawers and the "on deck" clothes should be in a drawer or close to the drawers so you can easily access.

Before you make out another grocery list organize your pantry. By organizing your pantry you can categorize your canned goods, boxes of rice, pasta and snacks and get rid of stale open packages and expired food. Remember some of those items have "best if used by" dates so don't waste them, eat them! A really great way use up this food is to find a recipe for each product on the products website. For instance if you have a can of beans from Bush or box of barilla pasta find a specific recipe for that product and be sure to purchase additional ingredients on your next grocery shopping trip.

Having a iPod makes Organizing and storing your music so much easier. But sometimes the battery dies or you just want the latest and greatest. Instead of dumping it in the trash where it will never decompose send it back to the Apple store and get 10% off a your upgrade.

If you started organizing your home with the change of seasons...good job! As you continue to organize those drawers, cabinets and closets you may start finding a lot of extra electronics you no longer use. With the electronics comes all the batteries. Please don't throw them out! Get a box from Recycle solutions where you can recycle all of your used household, drycell, rechargeable and handheld batteries. Once it is filled just ship it pre paid via FedEx to their recycling center. Where the batteries can be recycled properly.

Get your home organized while helping a family in your community build a home. Head out to your garage and put away your summer gear and gardening equipment to make room for your car. If you have an overstock of cars, don't let them take up space - donate them! Habitat for Humanity's cars for homes program excepts cars, trucks, boats, RVs, motorcycles, construction equipment or other vehicles. And you get the tax write-off.

Nobody wants to pay high prices for gas...so don't! Check out gasbuddy.com to find the cheapest gas in your area. Search for gas stations by zip code and gasbuddy provides a list of prices from lowest to highest, a map of gas stations and grade of gas. They also show you a daily comparison from yesterday, last week, last month and a year ago. So go ahead and save some money at the pump!

Say goodbye to that bulky shredder at home. Check out the smallest shredder in world. Shredding scissors from Sally Foster. I love this tool! Use it when you only need to shred a few pieces of paper each day like a bank statement or credit card application. Its just like using a pair of scissors but this one has 4 blades. No more tossing those personal documents in the trash.

Summer is a wonderful time of year but it will soon be coming to a close. I know its a sad thing. The seasons change and so does your wardrobe. This means you have to put away your summer clothes and start pulling out the winter clothes. Im not saying you have to switch out all of your summer clothes right now but its time to start pulling out a few bins and bags to have ready for donation, packing or giving away to a friend. Its also a good time to start getting rid of items you did not wear this summer and you know you will never wear again...ever!
Its an even greater time to take a peak at what you stored away from the last winter and see if there is anything you can purge out. If you didn't wear it last year there is a good chance you will not wear it this year. While you are at it pull a few fall and winter items out of the storage you may need them sooner than you think.

Bonus tip! Consignment shops are putting out fall and winter clothes so bring those warmer weather clothes you no longer want and you might make a little money.

I just heard of this great new site where you can organize all those little pieces of paper of random information in an easy to use format. Convert documents into checklists for shopping or keep track of your health information and other personal information like hobbies or goals. Download templates for easy recording and share pages with friends and family. Check out Jibidee.com and it is free to sign up!

If getting money back on your cellphone wasn't enough, how about getting money for your old computer! Check out myboneyard.com an electronics recycling company where they recycle old electronics the eco-friendly way. Follow their simple steps by entering your computer information to find out how much your computer is worth. Send it in with free shipping and keep track of your submission status online.

It pays to recycle! Isn't that just music to your ears! A company called Greenphone will pay you for your used phone! Go to their website at www.greenphone.com and check the list for your phone. If its on the list it will also tell you how much money you can expect for selling. The next step is sending in your phone (free of charge) and they will check to make sure it is in working condition. If so they will send you payment. If the phone is not in working order they will recycle it safely. No more cell phones in the trash!!!

The cost of gas is at a all time high right now. So joy riding and running errands in the car is becoming a thing of the past. Here are a few tips to getting organized before you step on that gas peddle.

#1 Batch your errands in the same area so that you can drive straight to your final destination. Map out every other location to stop at along on the way. This is how the delivery drivers do it!

#2 Save your errands for one day so you are not going back and forth in the car.

#3 Before running out to buy more of something, check your home for possible replacements or other alternatives. Get creative!

#4 Buy online whenever possible

#5 Walk or ride your bike

#6 Share your ride with friends and family.

Need some help with all those receipts cluttering your life? Check out Shoeboxed where you mail in your receipts and they scan all of your paper making it easier to organize your finances. Information can be uploaded to a spreadsheet or exported to Quicken. This service can be used for your home or business.

The kids are getting out of school soon. But before they unload their book bags full of crayons, paper, rulers and calculators find out what they need for next years supplies. Recycle this years supplies for next year by storing them for the summer away from the other art supplies. You may have to buy a few things things this fall but you will not end up with duplicate items that barely get used. You save money in the process and shopping time.

We all love our grandma's china and now that you've inherited it you get to keep it forever. The problem is it never gets used and its taking up a lot of space in your already cramped dining room. Some of the reasons why the china never gets used is because you already have a set of china and you don't have a lot of formal dinner parties of 12. If the dishes are taking up too much space consider packing them up in padded china storage bins and moving it out of your immediate storage space where they are not going to get damaged.
If you would like to occasionlly enjoy a cup of tea in from this beautiful set keep a tea cup and saucer out so you can see it, use it and remember grandma.

Time to take a look at all of those towels packed in the linen closet. Is your closet overflowing? Do you ever get to the bottom of the stack or do you keep rotating the same towels? You can gage how many towels you need in a week by how much laundry you do. Its a pretty small number 2 or 3 towels per person if you do the wash weekly. So time to organize those towels and let go of some of the older ripped or stained towels. You can repurpose those towels for cleaning or donate them to your local animal shelter.

Whats going on back there in the back of your car? Are you still carrying around the winter safety tools like a shovel, scrapers and other miscellaneous items like sporting goods or clothes that never made it into the house or garage? Its time to change your habit of using the trunk of your car as storage locker by getting organized in your car.
Empty out everything from your car but keep any safety items like jumper cables, flashlights or sun shield. Organize these items in a bin so they are ready when needed.
If you do a lot of shopping, organize your bags so they are easy to store and even easier to take out of the trunk. This simple trunk organizer from container store will hold grocery bags, maps and other small items so they don't roll around.
So make it easy on yourself and organize that car! Next project is the inside of the car!

Do you have a drawer full of take out menus? How about duplicate menus? Its time organize that junk drawer and say goodbye to every menu in the city. Check out Grubhub.com and find restaurants that deliver to your address. Just type in your address and Grubhub.com gives you a list of restaurants, menus and reviews!
Traveling next week and need your delivery fix? Go to Grubhub.com and find out what restaurants are still open and who can deliver late night to your hotel.

When was the last time you went through that box of electronic parts and cords? If everything in your home is working, everyone has their phone and ipod charger what is happening with that box of miscellaneous wires etc? Time to take stock, get rid of all the unnecessary items and organize those electronics!
If you find 5 pieces of a digital camera put them all in a plastic Ziploc bag and write "digital camera", same goes for the cell phone accessories like car charger, ear buds and usb cord. If you can separate the electronics from the computer stuff that would be great! But if you don't have extra room, keep them all in the same storage bin.

We are all busy these days, its no secret and we have a million things to do. Plus we also want to save time and money. Make sure you organize your work, food and fun essentials to help you get through the week.

#1 Work - Don't get stuck without a full printer cartridge just before you have to print 50 pages of a presentation in color. As soon as you printer tells you your running low on ink, order a replacement online and have it shipped. You will be happy to have it when needed. You can also stock up at office supply stores like office max.

#2 Food - Online grocery shopping is the best time saver around! You can set up your delivery date and time, its saves all of your shopping lists and you can shop by price. We don't have to spend the time shopping, driving to and from the store, packing and unpacking the car. I can shop in 5 minutes and its done!

#3 Fun - Subscribe to online movie rental like Netflicks - Put as many movies as you wish on your list and you don't have to get stuck without a movie for the weekday or weekend. When a new movie comes out to the theater add it to the list. Sometimes we forgot to see them at the theater and before you know it its on video.

Happy Earth Day everyone! I looks like whole foods is giving you a discount if you bring your own grocery bags! You will get 5 cents back for every bag you use from home. If you don't have have a bag they do have paper on hand. They are selling recycled bags made from recycled plastic bottles for just 99 cents.
So go ahead and organize those closets for spring and pull out any bags that are easy to carry groceries in and use these instead of getting the plastic bags that make a mess of your cabinets then just get thrown away.

Are you using all of the features your cell phone has to offer like the memo pad? Anytime you have something that you want to write down such as grocery list, idea or anything you need to remember, use the memo pad feature on your phone to record. All of your notes will be organized and ready for future reference.

Need a place to just get some sleep on your next vacation? Check out these extremely small hotel rooms with all the essentials of a regular sized room. Bed, flat screen tv and bathroom. It helps if you are a well organized traveler that packs light and doesnt need a lot of extra space.
New York opened up the 1st of these tiny hotels in the U.S. called the pod hotel.
Here you can have a queen sized bed in a larger room or a bunk bed in a much smaller space
If you are going to be waiting around in the airport at London Heathrow go ahead and rent a small cabin called the yotel. Its just like being on a train. If you just happen to be in Tokyo try staying in a capsule hotel. Talk about small!

Do you have too many phones and you cant keep track of all of the voice mail messages etc? Check out Grandcentral which allows you to have 1 phone number for all of your phones! All of your phones will ring to one number. You can even assign different ring tones so you can recognize your office phone or your home phone. Love it!

Here are a few more tips for your Spring Organizing.

• Freshen up for spring. Dump the cinnamon sticks and potpourri and replace with spring flowers like a potted Hyacinth.

• Don’t forget to replace the filters in your air conditioning units

• If you didn't change the batteries in your smoke detector at daylight savings time, do it now.