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.

Here are a few more spring organizing tips for your linen closet and bedroom.

• Replace flannel sheets and heavy down comforter with cottons and a lighter weight bedspreads.

• Break out the beach towels!

• Match up your bedding sets, pillow cases, fitted and flat sheets. Get rid of any ripped or un matching items.
  
  
• Store winter comforters in plastic bins or space bags
  

We all love spring especially after a long winter. There is nothing more exiting than opening up the windows to let in the fresh air to welcome the spring. One of the most common tasks during this time of year is "Spring Cleaning". Nobody wants to spend a lot of time doing this so I recommend quick clean ups using Clorox wipes. If you are looking for some tips on how to clean rooms in your home, establish routines or download a checklist check out the site tipshealtyhome.com

I just heard some surprising facts about germs found on leather purses and bags.

Here are a few of the findings

After swabbing and examining the the bottom of a leather purse, environmental mold and bacteria was found.
A common bacteria called Ecoli can be found after setting your purse on the floor of a bathroom. Gross!
After hearing about tests performed you might think twice about setting your bags on the table where you eat.
This would be a good time to purge some of those old leather purses and bags that you know have hit the floor one too many times. These bags can be a real source of bacteria.

If possible hang your purse on a hook at home. In a restaurant try a purse hanger that clips to the side of a table to hang your purse so its not on the floor.

Everything you have plugged into a power strip still sucks the power even though its turned off. This accounts for 10% of your electric bill. Think about that for a second, you've turned the power off but your still paying. Hmm, not such a good idea. So grab a new and improved power strip by Smarthome USA that stops the current. So stop using all that energy and do something else with the savings.

Looking for a way to save space and money? Keep kids up to date with toys according to their age without cluttering up your basement and return them when you are done. Check out baby play toy rental for the latest toys your kids will enjoy each month.

I highly recommend using a single notebook to keep track of notes. Use this instead of writing notes on little pieces of paper. Here is the rule on shifting your note taking to the notebook. You must go through your notebook on a regular basis or your notes will get lost in the shuffle of your 200 page notebook. Please write the date on the top of each page so you have an idea of when you took the note. Dont shift around to the middle and back of the notebook to write notes. They too will get lost. Finally pull sheets out when you have completed the tasks on the page. Your notebook should be out of pages when you are done with it. Then you can go out and buy a new one.

Shopping tip of the day - Do you use the same products in the kitchen, bathroom and office such as dish detergent, toothpaste or printer cartridges? Make your shopping trip easier next time by having a master list of commonly used products for each area of your home. Make sure the other shoppers in your home also have a copy of the list.

Do you spend a lot of money on your hairstyle? Here is way to keep that style without breaking the bank. Get your haircut from a salon with experienced stylist. You will spend a little more to start. To keep that style visit an inexpensive salon and pay half the cost. It will be easier for them to follow your last style. For the next month, head back to the more experienced salon. I hope this helps you save a few bucks!

Have you ever ordered a magazine subscription? It's fun to get that fresh copy of all the latest and the greatest your favorite mag offers each month. But what happens after your sign up? You sign up in January for a one year subscription, six months later you start receiving renewal invoices with a 20% discount for 2 years! What do you do? Do you keep the invoice? Throw it away? But what a deal...or not? Wait didn't you just pay for the subscription? Is it already expired? Who knows? What about that other mystery invoice from another magazine you may or may not have received in the past? Did you just get another invoice from them as well? Sometimes it can be hard to figure out which magazine you paid for, which subscriptions are running out and which ones you even want to renew and when?

Organizing tip - Renew all subscriptions for magazines, memberships and clubs at the same time each year. Record this information in your calender and the date it will run out. Set a reminder 2 months before the expiration date so you have time to renew. To make it even easier on yourself list your account number and phone number to call.

Many of the products and foods we bring into our homes carry an expiration date of some manner. Some are suggestions like "freshest by", "best if used by" or "best before". These terms are generally guidelines for getting the most out of the product. A box of crackers might have a "best if used by" date that would indicate the crackers might not be as crisp if eaten after the date, however they would still be edible. However an "expiration date" is a completely different kind of date that tells us not to use the product after such a date. Expiration dates are typically reserved for perishables that may not be safe for consumption after the date.

In general most people know about expiration dates for perishable items such as raw meats and dairy products. But many other items found in the grocery store also carry expiration dates and have some kind of shelf life that we should be aware of. For instance batteries can lose their effectiveness after sitting too long or if not stored properly. The same goes for sunblock and many medications.

For this reason it is important to routinely go through cabinets, cupboards, drawers and pantries to check expiration dates. It won't do you any good to discover your cough medicine expired 6 months ago at 11pm when you are desperately trying to get some sleep. It is better to throw away expired items before you need them and give yourself plenty of time to go to the store and replenish your supplies.

Some general tips concerning expiration dates:

• When in doubt, throw it out.
• Medications can lose effectiveness after the expiration date. To help manage the medicine cabinet, write expiration dates on the bottle cap. Writing the date will make it more noticeable when glancing through the cabinet.
• Although the ramifications are not as severe, the same applies to herbs. After time they become stale or lose potency. Stale herbs can turn a great recipe into a mediocre one, so try the same technique and write the expiration dates on the containers. Then before going to the store, a quick glance should uncover any items that need to be replaced.
• Your grocery store manager understands the importance of making sure that the oldest items sell before the newest items. That is why they rotate stock and are constantly bringing items from the back of the shelf to the front. You should do the same. When putting away canned goods bring the items from the back forward and place the newest items towards the back. This will help prevent the back of your cupboards from being a storage locker for 5 year old soup cans.
• Be careful of "sell by" dates. The grocery store often stores foods at lower temperatures than our home refrigerators. So items may last a little longer in the store than at home. For instance most butchers and grocers store meat at 30 degrees, while the majority of home refrigerators are 40 degrees, making the shelf life of meat significantly less at home than at the grocery store. Meat should only be stored for 2 days in a home refrigerator.

First, organizing is NOT about being perfect or neat. Nobody ever says I just love Jane or Joe – he or she is soooo organized. But they do love that they can depend on Jane. They like that Joe does what he says he is going to do. They like that Jane arrives on time and doesn’t leave you standing on the corner waiting – in the rain. They love that they remember birthdays or your pet’s name. They love the result of being organized.

So organizing is not a goal it's a tactic - a tool to help you achieve your goals.

Today's post is the final step in making organization a part of your daily routine

#3 Create an inspiration guidebook

Most people simply write a list of resolutions and some simply verbalize it. But getting organized is about developing new habits and making it a part of your daily routine. Create a visual picture of where you want to be by creating a collage with pictures and inspiring words. Incorporate your organization plan into it and then hang it somewhere you can see it everyday top inspire you – kitchen, office, near the medicine chest. The activity of creating your inspiration guidebook will reinforce your plan in additions to helping you maintain your daily routine.

Want to get organized in 2008? Here's how to make it stick.

Every year, getting organized makes the top ten list of New Year's resolutions. If so many of us want to get organized, why is it so hard to achieve? Here's the 1st step to help make organization a part of your daily routine.

#1 Get Perspective

Many people find it hard to stay organized because they don't have the right perspective. Getting organized shouldn't be a goal unto itself. Organization is a tool to achieve life's bigger goals. For example, someone might say they want to get organized but what they're really looking for is more balance in their life. By being organized, they wouldn't waste so much time looking for misplaced items, such as keys and glasses. They wouldn't get stressed by running late so often. The goal is much more than simply having a neat house. It's about quality of life. So before you start trying to get organized, ask yourself, what are the big picture goals you want to achieve? Do you want more balance in your work and personal life, to be more productive at work, or even get out of debt? Those are worthy goals. Your plan for getting organized should be centered on achieving a bigger goal.

I just got a call from my sister who had not used her oven since the holidays. She did a quick check before turning it on and was surprised to find something....a leftover from Christmas!
I was in charge of bringing the bread and desserts. Desserts were a huge hit. The bread…not so much. I mixed the bread at home and brought it to my sisters house to continue rising then bake. The bread did not rise long enough so it didn't bake correctly. So we kept putting it back in the oven to bake 10-15 minutes and another 10-15 minutes and another until we gave up. Everyone had already finished eating dinner and here we were still trying to bake 2 loaves of bread. Needless to say the bread did not turn out and never got thrown away.
So, I've added the bread fiasco to my holiday party notes and hopefully it will turn out better next year.

I recently posted about keeping notes for a holiday party. I wanted to add that you should also keep notes on any food you send out such as cookies, cakes or even side dishes for parties with family and friends. Did everyone eat what you prepared? Was their too much food and your food was never touched? Was it the right food for the party? Some parties are great for finger foods where you don’t need to sit down and use a knife and fork. So if you’ve prepared a dish and there are no places for guests to sit and eat, it’s going to be difficult. Or if your dish needs special attention like staying hot in a crock pot or keeping cold its just not going to work out if your host is not prepared. So, take a few mental notes at the party and write down those notes as soon as you remember. Don't get stuck next year spending too much time and energy on food that gets wasted.

I have 10 nieces and nephews ranging from 7 – 22 years old. I can remember only 1 year that I gave them Christmas presents they actually enjoyed. I usually fall into the trap of getting the wrong gifts and I can tell they are really not interested. I don’t buy the coolest or the latest for them because I just don’t know what to buy. So this year they are all getting gift cards to Starbucks and Mcdonalds. I figure its just like money and they will actually use them. It took me all of about 30 minutes to buy for ten people. That was easy for me and I’m sure they will all be happy.
I will keep you posted on the Christmas gift reactions!

Are you still finding loose change everywhere around your home? Did you find a container to hold all of your change? Well, if you have been filling up your container and haven’t had a chance to drop if off at the bank or coin machine give it to a good cause. Bring the container full of change to your local shopping center and give it to your Salvation Army Red Kettle. Volunteers are outside ringing the bell of hope and would be thrilled to have you pour all of your loose change in the kettle.

A couple weeks ago I began decorating for the holidays and stumbled upon 8 gigantic pasta bowls. We stopped using these supersized bowls and now they were taking up way too much prime real estate in the cabinet. So, I stuck them in a bag and lined them up by the door for the next donation run.
As it turned out my husband’s holiday work party was the next day and they were having a gift exchange called the “white elephant”. This is where you give a gift that is gently used. He was trying to figure out what to give and I said bring those pasta bowls! He was a little hesitant because he thought nobody would want these bowls. He also had to carry them on the bus and walk 3 blocks to work. I convinced him to take them for the exchange and it turned out the recipient absolutely LOVED them! It’s a great feeling to give away something that does not work with your lifestyle any longer. We enjoyed them for a time but things change and were no longer needed them. We said goodbye to large pasta bowls. It doesn’t mean we’ve given up pasta, it just means we’ve of an opted for smaller bowls that also double as soup bowls.

I love baking cookies during the holidays. But all the prep and clean up can be a litttle discouraging. This year make it easy on yourself by pre measuring each of the ingredients before you start mixing, baking and eating.

Here are my tips for easy baking


1 - Set out all of your mixing bowls, measuring cups, spoons and ingredients.
2 –Separate each recipe card by about a 12”. You will need plenty of room on your baking surface for the bowls of ingredients you are about to measure.
3- Measure dry ingredients such as flour, salt and baking soda for each recipe into a small bowl. As you measure each ingredient cross it off your recipe card. Use another small bowl for the sugars, a large bowl for the butter and a smaller bowl for the eggs and vanilla. Keep the recipe and bowls together so they do not get mixed up with the other recipes
4-Put away all your supplies like bags of flour sugars and boxes of baking soda, salt and toss those eggs shells. Now your space is clear of extra ingredients and now you can get ready for the mixing!
5 -Work on one recipe at a time, bake a few test cookies then conitinue baking the rest of the batch.

We made 3 different types of cookies but did not want to have cookie baking overload. So we rolled up the rest of the cookie dough, separated into batches of 8 and put in the freezer. So the next time my sister has a holiday get together she can have a few different varieties of freshly baked holiday cookies.






Happy Baking!

I love the festivities the holidays bring. The lights, parties, seeing friends, family and of course the gifts! But sometimes during all the excitement we forget to play it safe especially while shopping for all of those gifts. This year clear out your wallet of any unnecessary credit cards and personal information just in case you loose your wallet. You will have piece of mind knowing you only need to cancel one lost card instead of 10. By removing additional cards your holiday purchases will be easier to calculate post holiday.

Are you a movie buff? Do you like to see all the new releases? Sometimes we get so busy we forget to see those movies in the theater. But in this day and age you almost never have to even step foot in a theater because of online DVD rentals like Netflix and Blockbuster. Online DVD rentals provide a convenient way to see movies in the comfort of your own home. There is nothing better than winding down on a Friday night by having dinner and a movie.

A quick tip is to put new releases on your list now while they are fresh in your mind. That way you will be the first to receive them when they are released to DVD.

Bonus tip – Need a Christmas gift? Give your friends and family an online DVD subscription for 1 month to a year. It's the gift that keeps on giving and movies that get returned will not create clutter.

I saw an episode of friends where Monica was vacuuming the outside of her vacuum cleaner with a dust buster and it got me thinking “When was the last time you cleaned your cleaning supplies”? Sounds strange but how long have you had those scrub brushes or sponges? Have you ever used a broom out in the garage and then back inside on your kitchen floor? Or when was the last time you changed the filter in your vacuum or even the bag! There are so my cleaning tools we assume are keeping our home clean but you might want to take a closer look – “Do you need cleaner, cleaning supplies”?

I have been looking forward to Thanksgiving for the past few months. It's one of my favorite meals and it's once a year. I especially enjoy Thanksgiving because I don’t have to do anything in the kitchen. This is pretty amazing! I do bring a few of my double layer pumpkin pies that I have been making for 15 years, so I do a little work. Once you make something that everyone likes you are sort of required to make it forever. I usually get that nervous look when I walk in the door to see if I’m carrying something and then I’m asked “Did you bring the Karli pumkin”? Oh yes and I usually bring extras. Last year I made one pie for dinner and then made miniature pies for take homes gifts. The pie I make has a graham cracker crust that I buy premade and they also sell the same crust in miniatures. The miniatures pie crusts come in a tin with a little plastic insert the can be flipped over and used as a lid. Great for travel - Genius! This way I have individual pies for guests to take home. I like this better then trying to divide up a pie that can turn to mush after coming to room temperature. Plus after everyone is already stuffed, nobody wants to imagine they would eat again…ever. So many times the pies have gotten thrown out and it never fail I get a call the next day “Loved the pumpkin pie, I wish I would have taken some home…bummer! So make sure your guests go home with all the leftovers this year. If you know ahead of time that you will be giving guests bags of turkey day leftovers (YUM!) think ahead and pack up some stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy and whatever else you’ve made t 10 times to much of. Store in the fridge until everyone is ready to go. Then you can just make up the bags as everyone is leaving. This gets you out of the kitchen and your guest will enjoy their best leftovers ever!

Its 5:30 and your on your way home from work. You are so hungry you could literally eat anything. Here’s my tip to avoiding diet sabotage. Grab the healthiest food you can find and shove it into your glove compartment! This could be a couple bags of assorted nuts, dried fruits or granola bars. Eat healthy when you can instead of junk food. If you take the bus or train just make sure you have a couple of smaller portions tucked inside your bag. Another tip is the pack cut up fruit or veggies for your after work snack. You know you need to get some healthy snack in during the day why not eat at this time of the day.

Want to spend less time clothes shopping this season? Last week I tested out my new way of shopping so you can get in and out of a store in a flash!
Here are a few of my shopping tips.
#1 – Go online before you go shopping. Check out what’s in stock before you make your decisions and see what you already have in your closet.
#2 – Make a visual shopping list by copying and pasting your clothing picks into a word document. Include the sku# and size. Also, make note if there is a second color choice in case they are out of stock and anything else you will need to go with the outfit.
#3 – Give your shopping list to the salesperson and let them find your items. They know where everything is located and can tell you immediately if something is available. It’s much easier to hand over a list then try to describe what you are looking for. Most of all its a time saver!

Hope this helps on your next shopping trip!

We all have loose coins lying around. Pennies, dimes, nickels and quarters. It's amazing how many coins you can find in a single day. Look in your pockets, on the dresser, on the floor, in the couch, in your bag. Coins are everywhere!
Try this tip for keeping your coins in one place. Find a container, jar or even a piggy bank to hold all of your coins. Periodically go around the house and gather up the coins and drop them in the container. When it is full take the container to the bank or coin sorting machine and cash in!

I work with a lot of people that suffer from "gift guilt". This is the sad disease that prevents the recipient from letting go of a bad gift because they are afraid that the gift giver will want to "See" this macramé pot hold