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Home is where you hang your hat. – Proverb

(That is, if you can find your hat and if there’s room for it on the hat rack.)

You’re walking through your local home goods store and you see the most attractive fabric storage totes that would be just perfect for finally organizing your bulging linen closet and you just have to buy them.  When you go to set them up the next day, you realize that not only are they too small to hold the contents of your closet but they are also too tall to fit on your shelves!

It can be so frustrating to spend time picking out a lovely basket or interesting storage piece only to bring it home and find that it is barely big enough to store half of what you had in mind.  It could be baskets to organize your pantry or plastic bins for sports equipment in the garage.  Whatever the intent, there are a few things worth considering prior to running out to buy organizing supplies.

Size:  It’s hard to choose the right sized storage piece(s) when you don’t know how much you have to store!  Before picking out the container

• Figure out what amount you will be containing by gathering all related items together, discarding anything that is broken, expired or simply unwanted.  Make sure that what is left fits into the area that it will be stored.
• Measure the space so that you can select a container that will fit – whether it’s a drawer, cabinet or simply an open area, write down the measurements or store a note or text in your cell phone.  This way you will have them handy when that “perfect” product or sale catches your eye!

Function:  The type of items and frequency of their usage should be taken into account when deciding what type of container to choose

• Items, such as outdoor toys and sports equipment that will be frequently used are best kept in open containers that make for quick access and encourage easy clean-up.
• Colored bins with lids may be best for seasonal storage, while clear plastic or wire baskets might be better for back-up supplies that you don’t want to forget you’ve purchased.
• Items like nail polish that you may want to use in the den watching TV one time and at the kitchen table another, might be best kept in a handled tote.
• Fabric baskets can help manage a linen closet while adding charm.

Placement:  Decide whether or not your container will be in public view

• If you are looking for a storage solution that will help you organize items under a sink or in desk drawers, metal or plastic may be a perfectly acceptable solution.
• On the other hand, do you have a lot of office supplies in your den that you need to keep handy?  A plastic rolling cart might fit the need but may not be something you really want on display.  Consider a small nightstand or cabinet that can offer storage while still complementing your décor.

Cost:  Your need for function or fashion will have some affect on the amount you will spend on storage.

• Picking up some drawer inserts in the dollar section of your office-supply store is an appropriate and affordable solution
• On the other hand, choosing a filing cabinet that is well rated and designed may cost more now, but will save you money in the long run – both monetarily and in your frustration.

Now that you have considered size, function, placement and cost, you can stroll confidently among aisles of home organizing tools, sizing up all the latest, greatest products with an eye for just the right one that fits your need.

Need ideas for those hard to shop for people on your list?  Want to give something that won’t just sit around unused or add to anyone’s already full home?  Here are ten ideas for useful gifts to delight your friends and loved ones for the holidays:

1.  Collapsible fabric totes

These totes are the best!  They can be used in the top or bottom of a closet for a multitude of essentials: winter accessories, pet supplies, extra slippers, spare toiletries… just about anything!  And, when they’re not in use, they fold flat and store easily.  You can give a set of two or three, collapsed, or open each one up and fill them with snacks and treats to use as gift “baskets!”

2.  Slim non-slip hangers

Know someone with lots of clothes and not enough closet space?  These work great and take up less than half the bar space as the plastic ones.  Dress the gift up with a silk scarf (that will be sure not to slip off these hangers!)

3.  Craft Storage Case

Is there a knitter or crafter in the family?  So many craft stores now carry quite an array of craft supply organizers – from bead sorters to long knitting needle cases – thoughtful and practical gifts for anyone who loves to be creative.

4.  Under-bed Shoe Storage

Those zippered cloth shoe storage bags that can hold 10-14 pairs of shoes and slide right under the bed can be a perfect gift for someone who’s always wearing something different on their feet.  It keeps shoes out of the way, easy to reach and dust/pet hair free!  Want to add some pizzazz?  Top it with a pair of slippers or all-weather crocs.

5.  Lap Desk

Lap desks are perfect for almost anyone these days.  They offer a firm work surface while providing cushion for your legs.  They’re great for students sitting on a bed using a laptop or for grandma sitting on a couch doing a crossword puzzle.  And they store easily beside whichever seat you choose.

6.  Car Organizer

There are several different types of car and trunk organizers.  Some hang over the back of a seat and some sit upright on the floor or in the trunk.  Great for busy parents who are always on the go!

7.  Photo Storage Box

Although many stores carry photo organizers, my favorite type is the Power Sort Box sold by Creative Memories.  It holds and safely stores over a thousand photos and makes sorting them a snap!

If you know someone who has a lot of paper, numbers 8 or 9 might be the perfect gifts:

8.  Paper shredder

In this day and age of identity theft, there is nothing more necessary (or fun!) than having a paper shredder on hand.  It’s a wonderful gift of peace of mind.

9.  File Cabinet

If you’ve ever tried to battle with old file drawers that no longer slide easily, you can appreciate how much of a treat having a new, easy-gliding file cabinet would be!

10.  Gift Certificate

Make sure that any gift certificates you give can be used online or locally: Spa, Grocery Store, Movie Theatre, Babysitter… or time with a Professional Organizer!

Here’s wishing you and yours a happy, healthy and clutter-free holiday!

This June my husband and I were fortunate enough to celebrate our 25^th wedding anniversary.  In preparation for this milestone, I decided to organize the last 25 years worth of photos.  Some were already stored in albums.  I must admit, however, that somewhere before the halfway mark of our quarter century the momentum was lost and batches of photographs found their way into drawers, boxes and bags, randomly scattered throughout the house.

True to the saying, a single glance at a photo of an early vacation or one of the kids with a missing tooth was enough to elicit warm memories and funny stories – a thousand words.

Wait, a thousand words?  Too bad they’re not worth a thousand dollars!  It seemed like I had millions of them – and that’s excluding the digitals.

In a recent training on organizing and preserving photos I learned that in situations involving home-evacuation, pictures rank second only to living things (people and pets) for what we want rescued.  If these precious and priceless memories are counted among our dearest and most prized possessions, finding a better way to keep them might be worth the effort.

Thanks to my recent endeavor, I am happy to report that the process for organizing photos is more fun and less painful than I had imagined (mind you, I had avoided this for over a dozen years and what I had imagined was not pretty).  Since my experience was a pleasant one, I would like to share the process that took me and my memories from random chaos to easy-to -find, -use, and -share treasures.  I suggest tackling the task through four steps: Gather, Sort, Scan, and Store.

Gather:

• a photo-labeling pencil or pen to mark dates on the back of your photos
• photo-safe storage boxes (or shoe boxes)
• Index cards for dividers
• ALL of your printed photos

Sort:

Unless you have a deadline, two hours once or twice a week works well for this step.

• Mark the date on the envelope
• Flip through the pictures – throw away any that you don’t want, return duplicates to the envelope and write the date on the backs of the keepers
• Put the photos and an index card dated by year into one of your storage boxes

Whatever your objective – whether you are looking to create albums for each of your children, vacation or anniversary albums – I found that organizing by year gave me the most flexibility and easiest search-ability later on.

Scan:

There are certainly ways of doing this process yourself.  You could use your home scanner if you have one, bring them in batches to scan at a local store or buy some type of bulk photo scanning machine.  But, if you are facing years of photographs like I was, I highly suggest paying to have them bulk-scanned by a reputable company.  There are several online companies that will accept your boxed photos and send them back to you along with CDs of all the scanned pictures.  I personally used a local company, SaveMyPix.com.  The prices are reasonable, they are timely and reliable and Max, the owner, picked them up and delivered them back to my doorstep.  If you consider that you may wish to keep one to two hundred per year and multiply that by the number of years you are sorting through, bulk-scanning is well worth the money.

Store:

Finally, once you have all your photos on discs, you can decide how you’d like to “store” them.  You may want to choose some to make into digitally-printed photo albums like the kinds offered by companies like Snapfish.com.  Or you might want to organize them by person or event and break them down into multiple CD’s to make as gifts or screen-savers.  You can also upload them to an online storage company to save in case something happens to your own discs.

In the end, I guarantee that the results of your effort will put a smile on your face worthy of a thousand words!