Organizing Hacks & Tools Archives

10 Things You Can Teach Your Kids with a Fun Planner

Are you an avid fan of planners?

You might use yours to keep track of your calendar appointments, note daily to-do list tasks, plan goals, journal, and celebrate your progress.

More and more adults have discovered the empowerment that comes from capitalizing on a personal planner.

Now, consider how a specially designed planner might help your kids.

After all, kids these days are busy. They’ve got school, friends, extra-curricular clubs, sports, hobbies, and gigantic dreams for themselves.

Instead of trying to cram their lives into a planner made for an adult, you can use a kid’s planner to capture everything your child has going on.

And a kid’s planner can teach your child invaluable skills they can use now and as an adult.

Consider these 10 lifelong benefits they can reap from using their very own planner:

[Read more…]

How to Use a Budget Binder to Manage Your Money

Even if you have the simplest financial situation, managing your money isn’t always that simple. Add in loans, retirement plans, maybe some kids or even a small business . . . and it gets complicated fast.

After all, your financial life is multi-faceted.

You may have multiple sources of income, savings accounts, retirement or investment accounts, bills for your home, bills for your family, expenses that are coming up, and things you want to do with your money.

How do you keep it all straight and get it all done?

A budget binder, like My Budget Binder from Prioritized Living, is a fantastic tool for mastering your finances. It takes the mess and stress of money management out of the equation and gets you moving toward your financial dreams.

So what is a budget binder? And what benefits does it offer you in managing your household’s money?

[Read more…]

15 Awesome Organizing Gifts to Give This Holiday Season

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Read my policy here.

With Christmas right around the corner, you may be searching for that perfect gift for the special people in your life. (Or you may be looking to treat yourself to a surprise from Santa!)

Either way, if your gift recipient loves being organized — or wishes that she were! — this holiday gift guide has got you covered with awesome, budget-friendly presents.

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Forget Spring Cleaning! How to Keep Your House Clean All Year Long

Raise your hand if you’ve done an exhausting cleaning marathon in the days leading up to a visit from family and friends.

Or if you’ve wondered when the last time was that you cleaned the bathtub, refilled your washer fluid, or mopped the floor that you’re pretty sure is supposed to be three shades lighter.

Or if you just can not seem to get everyone in your home on board with what needs to be done when and by whom.

Sure, you could hold out for spring cleaning. But that just seems like a great way to turn beautiful spring days into drudgery. And what about the dirt and mess the rest of the year?

It’s time to stop thinking that you need to choose between succumbing to an endless chore list and accepting the reality of a messy home!

There’s a third option — strategically distributing your household chores throughout the year so you can enjoy a clean, organized home year-round . . . without nagging, complicated systems, and that massive time-suck.

Fortunately, it’s incredibly simple to customize a fool-proof, year-long family chore chart schedule and system that will beautify your home and keep it that way for good!

Here’s how . . .

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12 Simple Organizing Tips That Make a Huge Difference

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Read my policy here.

It’s finally happened. You’ve officially hit your clutter limit.

“Today’s the day!” you resolve. “I am going to get organized. I am going to be an organized person!”

You hear yourself say it . . . and it sounds impossible!

After all, most of us think like this:

Organizing my space and my life will take a ton of time I definitely do . . . not . . . have.
To get organized, I’m going to need to get lots of pricey tools, gizmos, and systems.
The only way decluttering will only be successful if I acquire some sweet superpowers.

But here’s a secret: Getting yourself organized doesn’t require lots of time, space, energy, or tools.

In fact, there’s a lot you can do quickly and easily. Here’s how . . . [Read more…]

11 Smart Ways to Organize Tupperware & Food Storage Containers

This post is part 6 in the series How to Organize It.

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Read my policy here.

In homes across the country, we are waging a battle against our Tupperware containers.

You know exactly what I mean! You’ve got that drawer or cabinet that’s stuffed with toppled containers, mismatched lids, and tubs of every shape and size. And when you reach in there to grab one, you can never quite find the one you need . . . or you can never locate its lid.

But getting those food storage containers tidy and accessible is easier and less expensive than you might think. If you’re looking to organize Tupperware in your home, these 11 systems and tools are invaluable. [Read more…]

How to Organize Your Passwords: My LastPass Review

This post is part 5 in the series How to Organize It.

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Read my policy here.

How many passwords do you have?

Until relatively recently, I didn’t realize just how many login credentials I own — more than 100!

Think about it: You have logins for your E-mail accounts, bank accounts, credit cards, investment accounts, your streaming video accounts, online retailers, travel sites, social media sites, utility providers . . . the list goes on!

And you might think you’ve got it under control by using variations of a few passwords across all these sites . . . uuuuuntil the day that there’s a security breach.

Yeah, that happened to me.

One day, one site was compromised. So my logins at a bunch of sites were suddenly potentially vulnerable. I knew I needed to beef up my passwords and have different passwords for every site I visited. But how on earth would I keep track of them???

The answer is a password manager.

I latched on to one out of necessity, but I will seriously never go back. Here’s why I’m obsessed with LastPass, an awesome password manager. [Read more…]

33 Things You Can Organize in 10 Minutes or Less

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Read my policy here.

So often, before you start the process of getting organized, you have to overcome the immense hurdle of procrastination. After all, decluttering can seem like an immense project!

But there’s no rule that says you can’t start organizing your home until you have a full weekend to devote to purging and sorting. In fact, tackling the clutter and tidying up is something you can do every day — no matter how busy you are.

Looking for some quick organizing tips? My list below includes 33 projects you can tackle from start to finish in 10 minutes or less.
[Read more…]

Lose the Clutter & Get Organized: My 1-800-GOT-JUNK? Experience

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Read my policy here.

It was time for a major clutter purge. That was the thinking of my husband and me in mid-2018.

We’d moved into our home a few years earlier, still toting plenty of possessions from before we were married. Up until then, we’d done a decent job of donating the smaller stuff we didn’t want to organizations that would take it. We had dropped boxes at Goodwill, given unused diapers to a local women’s shelter, and scheduled driveway pick-up for donations to the Salvation Army and Big Brothers Big Sisters.

But the big stuff we no longer needed (or wanted) as a married couple remained. The dining room set and recliner from his late, great-uncle. The second-hand love seat that had graced my first apartment out of graduate school. A skeeball table my husband had given me for Christmas the year we started dating! The list went on.

Some of it was moveable — like my husband’s old fish aquarium and a massive painting he had purchased at a discount back in the day. But no charitable organization wanted to take them off our hands.

And other stuff was stuck. Maybe the two of us could have gotten that love seat and recliner out of the basement, but it would have been a major pain.

Finally, some of our junk was simply that. But much of what we wanted to clear out was not only usable but easily would have value to other people.

So we wanted a service that would . . .

Take all of the clutter we wanted removed . . . instead of cherry-picking from our stash,
Actually carry it out of our house . . . instead of forcing us to haul it out to the curb,
Donate, resell, or recycle our stuff, as appropriate . . . instead of sending it directly to the dump,
And do it all professionally and at a fair price!

After plenty of research, we turned to 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, a nationwide, residential junk removal service. And we were thrilled with the result!

If you too are ready to clear out your clutter and get organized, a junk removal service may be something you’re considering! And you’re looking for a thorough 1-800-GOT-JUNK? review.

So here’s what you need to know about the process — how 1-800-GOT-JUNK? works, what you’ll pay, and what I love (and don’t love) about it. [Read more…]

7 Laundry Hacks to Save You Time & Money

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Read my policy here.

I’ve heard that there are people who enjoy doing the laundry . . . but I’ve never met a single one.

Odds are, you wish that you had a magical helper — a laundry fairy who would pick up, sort, wash, dry, iron, fold, and stow your family’s clothing without your needing to lift a finger.

But, failing that, it’s up to you to face the never-ending chore of doing the laundry.

But what if you could make doing the laundry faster and easier? [Read more…]