Getting around to clearing the clutter and finally getting organized can be hard enough.  Once you’ve cleared the clutter you have to find storage options to fit your needs.  This can get seem quite expensive if you are new to organization and have only ever had a few bins here or there, so the key is to budget for your storage, which may include bins, baskets, trays, cubbies and furniture.  It might also mean making some sacrifices in other areas of your life so that you can declutter and return to a normal life at home. 

Getting your organizational systems in place can be even more complicated if you’re environmentally conscious  and don’t care to use plastic.  If you’re opposed to plastic storage containers and organizers, whether it be due to environmental reasons, aesthetics or you’re simply trying to “go green”, you may find it a challenge to find organization products that are not made of plastic.  An alternative material is wicker.  Contrary to popular belief, wicker is not a plant material, but is made of part of a plant.  Wicker also includes some plastic fibers, but, at least you’re moving in the right direction if you’re trying to go green. 

So, what exactly is wicker?  According to Wikipedia, “Wicker is hard woven fiber formed into a rigid material, usually used for baskets or furniture. Wicker is often made of material of plant origin, but plastic fibers are also used.  Materials used can be any part of a plant, such as the cores of cane of rattan stalks, or whole thicknesses of plants, as with willow switches…”

Another advantage for using wicker and other similar materials, like rattan, banana leaf  and seagrass to organize your items is their beauty.  Wicker baskets, bins and furniture can add color and texture to any room and can be used as decorative baskets, as well as functional organization storage.   Wicker organization products can be used in family rooms, linen closets, laundry rooms, bedrooms and much more.  Take a look at a few of the wicker, rattan, banana leaf and seagrass organization products here from Home Storage Warehouse

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For the Bathroom:

Bathroom set

Triple Laundry Sorter

For Bedrooms, Living Rooms and Family Rooms:

Seagrass storage chests

Wicker Magazine Rack

Over the door shoe organizers, sometimes called over the door shoe pockets, have a multitude of uses.  Don’t limit yourself to just organizing shoes! If you’re short on space and tired of picking up random small items that seem to have no home; or your kids have a gazillion little toys that get lost in toy boxes, consider an over the door shoe pocket organizer.  Over the door shoe pockets fit on any standard sized door and take only a couple of minutes to install.  No tools or handyman required!  These organizational wonders are also excellent for homeowners on a budget, since most are priced below $20 and can store and organize almost anything.

Here are 8 ideas and uses for an over the door shoe pocket organizer:

1. Organize small toys, e.g. die cast cars, stuffed animals, Barbie dolls etc.

2. Organize tools:  Hang over a door, or if it has grommets, attach to a wall and store small tools, nails etc.

3. Organize toiletries:  Not enough bathroom storage? Keep one in the bathroom to store your hair brushes, lotions, make-up, etc.
4. Organize sewing supplies:  Use to store a myriad of sewing supplies that can create clutter, including threads, trims, buttons, scissors, sewing patterns, sewing machine supplies, etc.

5. Organize craft supplies:  It can be craft supplies for children or adults.  Store and organize small craft paints, paint brushes, glue, scrapbooking scissors, trims and ribbons, etc.

Over the Door Shoe Pocket Organizer

6. Organize winter accessories:  Store gloves, scarves, mittens, knitted hats etc. for the kids or the whole family. 

7. Organize gift wrap:  Use together with a gift wrap holder to store and organize gift wrap ribbon, scissors, tape and gift tags.

8. Organize office or homework supplies:  Use in your home office to store and organize tape, scissors, stapler, etc.  Plus, school supplies, e.g. markers, crayons, colored pencils, calculator.

Over the door shoe pockets come in a variety of styles and colors.  The most popular are the clear pockets, because you can see what’s inside.  When placed in a child’s room, it’s a great way to help a child learn organizational skills from a young age.

If you liked this, you may also like: How to Cope with a Small Cluttered Closet on a Small Budget

Jacquie Ross is a Maryland based Professional Organizer, writer, speaker and owner of CastAway the Clutter! Jacquie has been writing for Home Storage USA since 2007. A member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO), NAPO-Baltimore Chapter, and Maryland Association of Professional Organizers, she shows homeowners how to reclaim their time and space, and offers organizing and time management workshops and group presentations. Jacquie is also the author of Take Control of Your Clutter Before it Takes Control of You: 101 Tips to Success.  Visit CastAway the Clutter to get a free organizing goals worksheet when you sign up for her organizing tips at www.castawaytheclutter.com

Dr Seuss ABC Storage Caddy

It’s amazing how much preparation goes into getting ready for a new baby.  They are so tiny and take up very little space, but need so much baby equipment!  Well, at least we think they do.  If baby could talk, he or she would say he just needed mommy, at least during the first couple of months (sorry Dads!).  Nevertheless, we’re out buying a crib, bassinet, baby stroller, bottles, diapers, diaper genie, baby clothes, onesies, etc! I remember with my first child, the crib remained empty for months.  In fact, the bassinet remained empty for the first couple of weeks because she refused to sleep in there!  So much for knowing what she needed! 

Maya Dot Baby Hangers

There are, however, so many things that we simply like to buy for the baby’s nursery.  Bringing a newborn into the home is a celebratory occasion, so why not?  In any event, most moms receive many gifts at a baby shower, so are fortunate to receive a little help getting started.  At the end of the day, most of us want a beautiful and organized nursery and to be able to store all of those baby supplies that we do actually need into storage furniture and organizers, especially made for baby. 

Max Dot Baby Hangers

The Dr. Seuss ABC Storage Caddy is a wonderful organizing tote that can be used to store a few diapers, baby wipes, baby lotion and other small items that we need near the changing table or changing pad.  Because it’s a tote, it can also be transported into any room of the house to wherever you need it.  Best of all, when baby outgrows it, mom can use it to store and organize her craft supplies and use it as a craft caddy or to store scrapbooking tools and equipment!

Another item that moms need for baby is baby clothes hangers.  These hangers are a smaller size for those small baby clothes that won’t fit on a standard sized clothing hanger.  Dress up baby’s closet using these decorative and cute baby clothes hangers from Home Storage Warehouse.  The Max Dot and Maya Dot hangers also have a coordinating storage tote and bottle bags. 

Don’t forget to stop by Helping Mommy Organize by Ry-Lee today!

Jacquie Ross is a Maryland based Professional Organizer, writer, speaker and owner of CastAway the Clutter! Jacquie has been writing for Home Storage USA since 2007. A member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO), NAPO-Baltimore Chapter, and Maryland Association of Professional Organizers, she shows homeowners how to reclaim their time and space, and offers organizing and time management workshops and group presentations. Jacquie is also the author of Take Control of Your Clutter Before it Takes Control of You: 101 Tips to Success.  Visit CastAway the Clutter to get a free organizing goals worksheet when you sign up for her organizing tips at www.castawaytheclutter.com

For Mother’s Day, what do you give to the mom who appears to have it all?  What do you give to the picky mom?  What do you give to the mom with a lot of clutter? 

Mother’s Day is a day to say thank you to a special mom, but sometimes it’s hard to know what to buy.  A trip to the salon to have her hair or nails done is nice, but maybe she already visits the salon regularly.  

Giving a gift certificate to a store that carries a wide range of goods is a great way to let her decide what she needs, or would like to have. Even if the mom doesn’t have a lot of clutter, almost everyone can improve organization in at least one area of their home, so think about a gift certificate to an organization product store like Home Storage Warehouse.  Home Storage Warehouse offers organizing products for every room in the home that meets the needs of most households.  The mom can then shop when she is ready and find something that she will truly love or need, instead of accepting a gift that could otherwise end up as clutter.

Jacquie Ross is a Maryland based Professional Organizer, writer, speaker and owner of CastAway the Clutter! Jacquie has been writing for Home Storage USA since 2007. A member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO), NAPO-Baltimore Chapter, and Maryland Association of Professional Organizers, she shows homeowners how to reclaim their time and space, and offers organizing and time management workshops and group presentations. Jacquie is also the author of Take Control of Your Clutter Before it Takes Control of You: 101 Tips to Success.  Visit CastAway the Clutter to get a free organizing goals worksheet when you sign up for her organizing tips at www.castawaytheclutter.com

With Earth Day approaching, it’s a good time to think about what small changes you can make in and around your home to help save the environment. 

Here are 6 green living tips you can apply this month:

1. Replace all lightbulbs to compact fluorescent light bulbs;
2. Switch to non-toxic cleaning products to clean your home;
3. Replace shower heads with low-flow shower heads, or decrease the time you spend in the  shower;
4. Unplug appliances, electronics and other gadgets when not in use;
5. Install a programmable thermostat so that you can better control how you use your energy throughout the day;
6. If your neighborhood allows it, dry your clothes outside on an outdoor drying rack in the Spring, Summer and Fall.  In the wintertime, dry some or all of your clothes indoors, on an indoor clothes line.  Here are some clothing lines and drying racks to consider at Home Storage Warehouse.

Outdoor drying rack

Clip drip dryer hanger

Retractable clothes line

Jacquie Ross is a Maryland based Professional Organizer, writer, speaker and owner of CastAway the Clutter! Jacquie has been writing for Home Storage USA since 2007. A member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO), NAPO-Baltimore Chapter, and Maryland Association of Professional Organizers, she shows homeowners how to reclaim their time and space, and offers organizing and time management workshops and group presentations. Jacquie is also the author of Take Control of Your Clutter Before it Takes Control of You: 101 Tips to Success.  Visit CastAway the Clutter to get a free organizing goals worksheet when you sign up for her organizing tips at www.castawaytheclutter.com

There are many organization solutions in the marketplace today that can help keep closet clutter under control without spending a fortune on high-end custom closets.  Outfitting your child’s closet with a custom solution may not always be the best idea when they still  have a lot of growing to do.  It might make more sense to use less expensive organization products that can be changed and adjusted as the child grows.

Here are a few ideas that can be incorporated into your child’s existing closet, assuming you do not already have built-in shelving installed:

Hanging organizer shelves for clothing
Storage cubes to corral small toys
Hanging shoe organizer to keep shoes off the floor
Shoe stands, also to keep shoes off the floor
Quality hangers to take better care of clothing

Closet hanging shelf organizer

Magic toy pop-up cube

Closet hanging shoe organizer shelves

Stackable shoe shelf organizer

Childrens' wood hangers

Folding canvas bins

Rolling bins or carts to hold folded clothing or toys can also be helpful.  Find more closet organizers at Home Storage Warehouse.

Jacquie Ross is a Maryland based Professional Organizer, writer, speaker and owner of CastAway the Clutter! Jacquie has been writing for Home Storage USA since 2007. A member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO), NAPO-Baltimore Chapter, and Maryland Association of Professional Organizers, she shows homeowners how to reclaim their time and space, and offers organizing and time management workshops and group presentations. Jacquie is also the author of Take Control of Your Clutter Before it Takes Control of You: 101 Tips to Success.  Visit CastAway the Clutter to get a free organizing goals worksheet when you sign up for her organizing tips at www.castawaytheclutter.com

The typical bathroom cabinet is cluttered and disorganized due to the abundant amount of items typically used in the bathroom.  Toiletries, make-up, hair appliances, linens, medicine and other personal items are often used on a daily basis, yet the average bathroom has very little efficient storage options.  The average bathroom cabinet is deep and tall, but due to large protruding plumbing fixtures, there is usually no shelving installed inside to help maximize the available space.  

One way to solve this problem is to purchase organizers for use inside deep cabinets.  Stackable bins and containers are one option, or you can use a roll-out drawer. Roll-out drawers come in a variety of widths to fit most undersink cabinets and are available in either one or two levels.   The two tiered roll-out drawers can really maximize the space underneath the average bathroom cabinet and are also very easy to install.  Plus, roll-out drawers can also be used under kitchen sink cabinets to store cleaning supplies and in any other deep cabinet or shelf that may be difficult to access.

For the budget-conscious consumer, roll-out drawers can be an affordable alternative to custom built-in organizational installations. Home Storage Warehouse has a couple of options to choose from.  

Roll out 2 tier organizer

Roll out cabinet drawer

Roll out undersink drawer

Jacquie Ross is a Maryland based Professional Organizer, writer, speaker and owner of CastAway the Clutter! Jacquie has been writing for Home Storage USA since 2007 and is presently the “Ask the Organizer” expert. A member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO), NAPO-Baltimore Chapter, and Maryland Association of Professional Organizers, she shows homeowners how to reclaim their time and space, and offers organizing and time management workshops and group presentations. Jacquie is also the author of Take Control of Your Clutter Before it Takes Control of You: 101 Tips to Success.  Visit CastAway the Clutter to sign up for her free organizing tips at www.castawaytheclutter.com

It’s nearing the end of Get Organized Month (SM). Have you started any of your decluttering and organizing projects yet?  Feeling overwhelmed?  Break the task down into smaller chunks and work on one chunk at a time. 

Let’s assume you need to go through several weeks of mail that you’ve been procrastinating.  Normally, when the mail hasn’t been sorted in a while, it may be found in many different areas of the home.  So before you start, spend some time going through your home searching for piles of unopened mail.  When you’re sure you have it all, schedule some time to begin processing it.  Here are a few easy mail sorting and organizing tips:

1. Have the necessary tools on hand before you begin.  Examples of what you mind need include: A shredder (or a container to store paper to shred later), letter opener, files, file box or filing cabinet, recycle or trash bin, pen, sticky notes, paper clips and a stapler and staple remover. 

2. Sort the mail by type.  You can usually tell from the outside of the envelope what type of mail it is, e.g. bill, statement, catalog, junk mail, magazine subscription, etc.

3. Open the easy action items first, e.g. place your magazines either in a magazine basket or give it to the person in the household who holds the magazine subscription.  Discard the junk mail and trash.

4. Open the bills and make decisions.  Pay now or later?  Set up reminder systems in your day planner or PDA for bills that need to be paid later.  Discard trash and file statements.

5. Schedule time to do the mail daily or every other day.  If you have a particularly crazy schedule, you can do it once a week, but no less than that!

Here are some paper and mail organizing products and tools that you may find helpful from Home Storage Warehouse.

Desktop organizer

Newspaper and Magazine Rack

File/Letter Desk Organizer

Jacquie Ross is a Maryland based Professional Organizer, writer, speaker and owner of CastAway the Clutter! Jacquie has been writing for Home Storage USA since 2007 and is presently the “Ask the Organizer” expert. A member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO), NAPO-Baltimore Chapter, and Maryland Association of Professional Organizers, she shows homeowners how to reclaim their time and space, and offers organizing and time management workshops and group presentations. Jacquie also writes a column at the Baltimore Examiner, called Organized Families and is the author of Take Control of Your Clutter Before it Takes Control of You: 101 Tips to Success.  Click here to learn more. Contact Jacquie by clicking here. Visit CastAway the Clutter to sign up for her free organizing tips and learn more about her presentations at www.castawaytheclutter.com

Now that we’re officially in the New Year, many of us have goals and resolutions in place for a better year.  One of the top 5 New Year’s Resolutions is getting organized and the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) has named January “Get Organized Month(SM)”. When you’re more organized you can get things done in a timely manner, find the things you need and generally feel less stressed.  So who wouldn’t want to be more organized? 

Although containers, bins, shelves and baskets won’t make you organized, they can certainly help you to contain all of the important things you need.  Containers will also help you to create the systems you need in your home so that you’ll be more organized, and more importantly, remain organized!  Here are a few organizing products and organizational systems that may help you on the road to organization.

Food dispenser

Wicker storage chest

Jewelry organizer

Laundry sorter - 4 bags

Handbag purse organizer

Wall cubby organizer

So, when do you plan to start decluttering?  Pick one space today, and focus on getting that one space decluttered and organized.   Starting with one space helps to prevent overwhelm.  But if you feel overwhelmed regardless, enlist the help of a friend or hire a professional organizer.  According to NAPO, “Professional organizers can help you deal with everything from your paper to your professional responsibilities and give you parameters on what to keep, what to toss, and where to take action.”

Jacquie Ross is a Maryland based Professional Organizer, writer, speaker and owner of CastAway the Clutter! Jacquie has been writing for Home Storage USA since 2007 and is presently the “Ask the Organizer” expert. A member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO), NAPO-Baltimore Chapter, and Maryland Association of Professional Organizers, she shows homeowners how to reclaim their time and space, and offers organizing and time management workshops and group presentations. Jacquie is also the author of Take Control of Your Clutter Before it Takes Control of You: 101 Tips to Success.  Visit CastAway the Clutter to sign up for her free organizing tips at www.castawaytheclutter.com 

What are your organizing goals?

Having your home decorated for the holidays is wonderful, but eventually we have to put it all away.  It always feels as though we’re making a fresh start again when we take down the holiday décor.  It’s nice when they’re up, but it’s equally nice when they have all been taken down.  Hopefully, by now, you have purchased your color-coded holiday storage containers to organize and store your decorations.  Color-coding your storage helps you to remember what’s inside the containers, even before you read the label on the outside.  Also, if you have special holiday glasses and stemware, take a look at these.

Since we are talking about “making a fresh start”, a brand new New Year is a good time to reflect on the past year and to think about where you can make improvements in the coming year.  I enjoy tweaking current organizational systems in my home to be even more organized.  For example, I recently went through all of my kitchen cabinets and reorganized them.  A couple had got a little disorganized and I was having a hard time finding things.  Sound familiar?  Even a professional organizer has to re-evaluate systems  in his or her home.  Getting organized is an ongoing process and needs to be maintained and re-evaluated from time to time.  This may mean purchasing new organizing products and starting new organizational systems.

What can you improve upon this year?  Even the most organized people sometimes need to make changes.  There are many new organization products for closets, laundry rooms, kitchens, bathrooms, offices, bedrooms and more.  Take a look at what’s available now at Home Storage Warehouse. 

 You may also like:
 “After the Holidays: Organizing tips for Your Christmas Decorations”

Jacquie Ross is a Maryland based Professional Organizer, writer, speaker and owner of CastAway the Clutter! Jacquie has been writing for Home Storage USA since 2007 and is presently the “Ask the Organizer” expert. A member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO), NAPO-Baltimore Chapter, and Maryland Association of Professional Organizers, she shows homeowners how to reclaim their time and space, and offers organizing and time management workshops and group presentations. Jacquie is also the author of Take Control of Your Clutter Before it Takes Control of You: 101 Tips to Success.  Visit CastAway the Clutter to sign up for her free organizing tips at www.castawaytheclutter.com