Here are some options. My favorite are the very last two- Rubbermaid’s Modular Canisters and Klip It Cereal Containers.

How do you store you cereal?

Great for large families or lots of sleepovers

this would waste a lot of space. It's round instead of rectangular

Klip It

Rubbermaid's Line

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Amber’s 7 Ways to Going Greener 

1. My husband and I have slowly converted all the light bulbs in our home to LED. Not surprisingly, our electric bill has gone down.

2. I’ve started recycling my office paper and mail. I pitch so much paper that I now drive it down the block to the local school which has a huge newspaper/magazine/mail recycling container. It only takes a few extra minutes.

3. We use plastic refillable and washable water bottles instead of buying disposable water bottles from the grocery store.

4. I print on the back of copy paper if the front side isn’t confidential.

5. I’ve slowly switched all my cleaning products over to Clorox Greenworks products. Now I know I could make my own, but that just wouldn’t happen. I’m too lazy. So I just buy Greenworks.

6. My husband has been my personal gardener all summer. He grows for us: strawberries, brussel sprouts, broccoli, onions, peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, and raspberries.

7. Finally, I started recycling printer cartridges, batteries, eyeglasses, and cell phones for my clients. None of these are very big, but they do add up and make a difference.

What small steps have you taken in your home? I’d love to hear your creative ideas.

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What is so hard about prioritizing? A lot actually. Knowing how to prioritize is one of the key ingredients for organization. Prioritizing means:

• a decision has to be made
• a value as to be assigned
• a cost has to be counted.

Whether it’s household repairs, homework assignments, or other projects, we set priorities each and every day. Whatever we spend our time on, takes priority. How we spend our time, tells us what decision we have made and what value we have put on that activity. The activities and tasks we do don’t always equal their importance in our day. That’s where we all end up wasting time, myself included. When we allow ourselves to get distracted from what really has to get done, we suffer and people around us suffer.

So the question of the day is, how to do we determine what’s a priority and what’s not? Harold Taylor from Harold Taylor Time Consultants puts it in perspective for us by using a Priority Grid. Basically, it’s about putting tasks into one of these four categories.

1. Urgent and Not Important
2. Important and Urgent
3. Not Urgent and Not Important
4. Important and Not Urgent

What we care about is the word IMPORTANT. Things that are important become URGENT because we haven’t taken care of them like we should have a long time ago. So if we can prevent urgency, we’re making progress. After placing your to do list into one of these four, here’s how to approach getting things done.  

1. Urgent and Not Important- Do these last or let them go.
2. Important and Urgent- Get these things done first!
3. Not Urgent and Not Important- Cross these off your list or delegate them to someone else.
4. Important and Not Urgent- Get these things done second! Notice the word important underlined.

If you’re having trouble deciding where to place things, I like to ask myself these questions:

What will happen if I don’t do this?

Who will be affected if I don’t do this?

What it cost me financially, psychically, or emotionally if I don’t do this?

If I died in a month, would this uncompleted task affect or burden my loved ones?

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The Essential Tools for Unpacking Your Home

1. A box cutter!! This is the most important

2. Sturdy and supportive shoes. Unpacking a home is tiring and for most of the day you will be standing on your feet. Protect them.

3. A step ladder. You’d be surprised how often you’ll need to climb up to put something away.

4. A plyers. Most kitchen cabinet shelves as well as closet shelves will need to be adjusted. The pegs that hold the shelves in place are sometimes tuff to get in and out. So a plyers is a must! On a side note, if you’ve lost some pegs or need additional pegs you can purchase different varieties at your local hardware store. Be sure to bring an existing peg with to buy the right one.

5. A pad of paper and pen. As you unpack and decide systems and new placements for things, you’ll notice items you might need to shop for. They could be organizational products, or basics like another bathroom garbage can or floor mat.

6. A tape measure. As you think of things you need, that might involve some measuring. For example: shades, blinds, etc.

7. Garbage bags. All that packaging paper and used tape and bubble wrap will be gathered into lots of garbage bags. Don’t skimp. Get a lot. 

8. Cleaning and furniture wipes. Before you put kitchen items away and books back onto bookshelves, you may want to wipe them out with Clorox wipes or Pledge wipes. 

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1. Match up sheet sets with their respective pillow cases. Then stash one whole set in one pillow case. Continue this process until you have neat piles. Next time you have to change the sheets, just grab and go!

2. Use stacking drawers to organize small toiletry items instead of lidded bins. Unstacking bins and baskets takes too much effort. Instead, slide open the labeled drawers and reach right in.

3. Designate a separate container or bin for travel items. Next time you’re taking a weekend getaway or next time you come home with more samples from your trip, drop them in.

4. Don’t know what to do with old towels and sheets? Don’t keep them all for rags. Donate them to your local animal shelter. This article lists this idea as number two for the top ten ways to recycle old sheets and towels.

5. Donate extra toiletries and sample travel soaps and lotions to Chicago area homeless shelters. Pacific Garden Mission accepts donations as well.

6. Take the extra time to not only label but make your labels creative and pretty. Yes a label maker will work, but adding an extra creative touch or flare will inspire you to keep your linen closet organized and beautiful. You can purchase tags or cut outs at local Archiver or Michael’s stores or Martha Stewart gives us a few ideas.

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Maybe you have said this comment or heard it a friend say, “I have to keep it because he (or she) gave it to me.” Why do we feel guilt over getting rid of every housewarming gift, Christmas gift, birthday gift, or hand me down we receive from family and friends? It is funny and ironic because most of those items are found in the back of a closet or under a bed or shoved down in the basement store area. No one is using them. A friend or loved one hasn’t seen it since they’ve given you it. So here are my questions I’d like you to think about- 

Do you think the gift giver remembers every gift they’ve ever given you? Besides a very small percentage of people in the world, most people don’t remember at all.

Do believe people look for the items they gave you each time they come over? Is it realistic to think that that is what they are thinking about- searching your home for items they gave you? 

Finally, how often do you remember gifts you gave and search for them, while visiting your friends or family? 

Sometimes I think we need a reality check. A gift is just that- a gift. The gift receiver has the right to do anything he or she wants with gift. It’s their choice and their right to have a say now. Also, if the gift giver values her or his gift over your peace of mind and clutter free state, they need to talk to me. Having a clutter free environment which produces productivity and relaxation is ten times more important then keeping gifts out of guilt. They should value your calm and clairity over their stuff which may produce clutter in your life. 

Anyone agree? Disagree? Tell me your thoughts; I’d loved to hear them. 

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1. Receipts- there’s really only 3 types of receipts that end up in any given wallet. The first kind of receipt is for returns. This is legitimate. If you know you’ll be returning the item, it belongs in the wallet. The second, is receipts for business write offs. So you take a prospective client out to lunch. Of course you will save that receipt and pass it on to your bookkeeper or tax professional. The third kind of receipt just takes up space and should be tossed. It’s receipts from McDonalds, the hair salon, Starbucks, Jewel-Osco, etc. These receipts for mindless, every day purchases have no place in your wallet. There’s no reason to keep them. Toss them before you even leave the store. Better yet, tell the cashier to pitch the receipt, you don’t need it.  

2. Credit Cards -Maybe you have one credit card, maybe you have fifty. To me it doesn’t matter. What does matter is the amount of credit cards you lug around. I know you know which top two or three cards you use the most. Leave the specialty credit cards at home. You know, for example, the Victoria Secret credit card. You most likely are not shopping there every week. So take it out only when you are planning your next trip to the mall. Get the idea? It just isn’t necessary to carry them all and another point, is it’s just not safe. If for some reason your wallet or purse is stolen, it’s a lot easier to call in to cancel two to three cards instead of ten. 

3. Reward Cards-Why is it that every store from Blockbuster to Toys R’ Us wants us to sign up for their store reward card? If I had a dollar for every reward card I found while organizing, I would leave with a pretty nice tip. I would encourage you to get them all out and spread them out on the kitchen counter or dining room table. Check junk drawers, wallets, old purses, desk drawers and your bedroom dresser tops for any and all reward cards. Once you have them laid out, pick your top five to eight stores you shop the most. Carry only those in your wallet and keep the rest together in an envelope or shallow container in a drawer. When you are looking for one, you will know where to find them or where to put them back after shopping. 

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3 Simple Questions to Ask Yourself While Organizing Coupons

 1. How will I organize my coupons? 

• by category- This is how I organize my coupons. My categories are pretty simple: store coupons (like Bed Bath and Beyond), restaurant coupons, and grocery coupons. I’ve trained my husband to use them and they’ve saved us money on date nights.
• by store- If you shop in stores which supply their own coupons like Costco or Target, go ahead and organize coupons by store.
• by location- If you shop in a large shopping plaza or mall which has all the stores you usually visit group those into one category. That way you maximize your savings on your next errand running day.

 2. What will contain my coupons to keep them organized? 

This solution can be as basic as #10 envelopes or vinyl clear pockets sold at office supply stores. Of course if you’d like to get a little fancier you have lots of options like the CoupyKeep. Organize.com has a variety of options and Container Store carries the basic accordion style organizer. Card Cubby takes the pick with the most stylish options. Don’t forget to LABEL. Always label, no matter what container you use.

3. Where will I place my coupons for quick access? 

This is the most important question of the three. Where will you remember to grab the coupons, look at the coupons, and use the coupons?  This spot should be convenient, easy, and accessible. Common places are the car, a kitchen drawer, the kitchen countertop, or your purse. We keep our family coupons in the office drawer. I suggest thinking it through and trying out a few options before settling on the final perfect spot.  

If you’ve got a good coupon system down, we’d love to hear about it! Share it with us!

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 Happy Reading! Amber 

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When organizing the kitchen or your pantry, checking expiration dates is essential. You would not believe how much old food sits in our kitchen cabinets or on the shelves of our pantry. Sadly, I’ve thrown out countless bags of expired foods with many clients over the years.

1. Start shopping in your pantry first. Create recipes around what you already have on hand. I love www.allrecipes.com. Just punch in ingredients and it will pop out a recipe.

2. Don’t buy in bulk. I know many of you like to buy in bulk, but try to avoid it if at all possible. Unless the item is something that doesn’t expire, it’s too easy to fall into the trap of excess and waste.

3. If you’ve bought something and later find out your family really doesn’t like it or won’t eat more of it, donate items to your local food pantry. Many local food pantries would love unopened and non expired food your family just doesn’t care for. It avoids the garbage can and gets passed on to someone else.

What about expiration dates? Here’s some tried and true rules.

If you read “use by", that translates as: the manufacturer suggests you eat it by that date. If stored properly, you could probably get away with 1 or 2 days past the date.

If there’s only a date, that translates as the “use by “ date.

The “sell by date” is for the grocery store. They should sell the product by that date. I avoid buying items near that date. What’s the point of buying an item, if you need to eat it quickly. That’s too much pressure for me.

Finally, coded dates- the alphanumeric string of numbers and letters can be confusing. Some reveal a date. A sometimes symbolizes January and 9 for 2009. I’d avoid trying to translate these numbers and letters. If you can’t remember when or why you bought that item, I wouldn’t trust it.

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