Products & Tools Archives - Prioritized Living

5 Awesome, Free Ways Your Library Can Supercharge Your Career

Landing your dream job doesn’t come cheap.

You can spend a fortune buying books from respected gurus, taking classes, subscribing to industry magazines, nabbing training software, and getting access to specialized databases.

And think how much time it takes to craft an effective résumé, find valuable job listings, and research the requirements (and pay) for your chosen field.

Getting from where you are to where you want to be in your career can cost you a ton of time and money. But your library – yes, your library – can help you with all of these areas.

Here are five incredible and often overlooked resources that your unassuming, local library offers you absolutely free: [Read more…]

4 Easy Ways to Organize Your Recipes Quickly

This post is part 2 in the series How to Organize It.

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

Are you buried under a mountain of recipes? Piles of cookbooks, boxes of gravy-stained recipe cards, printouts of recipes you want to try – where does it end? All you really want is a system for honoring your family’s special recipes and organizing new favorites. Try these four methods to bring order to your recipe chaos.

Piles of cookbooks, boxes of gravy-stained recipe cards, printouts of recipes you want to try – where does it end?

All you really want is a system for honoring your family’s special recipes and organizing new favorites. If you’re ready to create a simple, effective, and foolproof system for keeping on top of your recipes, try these four methods to bring order to the chaos: [Read more…]

Your Perfect Planner for a Productive Year

It’s that time of year again! As this year wraps up, it’s time to start setting yourself up for success next year. Organizing your life with a physical planner can make all the difference. (Not convinced? Read this!)

There are so many incredible paper planners out on the market! How do you choose?

Start your search by checking out these popular planner options. There are some dramatic differences among these options, so see which one is a great fit for the way your brain and your life work! [Read more…]

Purchase New or Used? Surprise Savings and Hidden Dangers (Part 2)

This post is part 2 in the series Purchase New or Used?.

If you missed last week’s post on Part 1 in this series, click here to check it out!

Helmets

Picking up an inexpensive bicycle helmet at a yard sale may seem like a great deal at first, but the potential pitfalls negate the financial savings.

First, there’s the issue of sanitation. A helmet – typically stored in a garage, in a basement, or even outdoors – may be rife with mold, bacteria, or insect eggs. Plus, the previous owner likely left behind some combination of dead skin cells, hair product residue, dried sweat, skin infection, and head lice.

Second and more important, there’s the question of safety. Older helmets may not meet current safety standards for protecting your head and neck. Even more troubling, a helmet, which is designed to protect the wearer from a single accident only, may have been damaged beyond the point of proper functioning. Plus, according to an article in the Health section of The New York Times, the plastic of every helmet deteriorates due to frequent exposure to sunlight and ozone.

With new, clean, undamaged helmets available online and in many stores for less than $20, there’s no reason to risk your life and health for a few dollars’ savings. [Read more…]

Purchase New or Used? Surprise Savings and Hidden Dangers (Part 1)

This post is part 1 in the series Purchase New or Used?.

If you’re the type of person who always buys directly from a store, you’re missing out. At the same time, shopping the neighborhood yard sales can lead to trouble. When you make a purchase, you want quality at a terrific price. When should you buy new . . . and when is there a savvier way to go? [Read more…]

5 Amazing Kitchen Tools That Make Healthy Eating Easy

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

Is your greatest obstacle to healthy eating the effort required to do it?

Washing, chopping, cooking fruits and vegetables . . . eating a healthy portion . . . keeping it all fresh — how do you do it?

These handy kitchen tools are just what you need to make storing, preparing, and eating healthy foods even easier: [Read more…]

My Obsession with Storage Bins (and Why You’ll Love Them Too)

Photo courtesy of Home Depot

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

Some women obsess over shoes. I love storage bins.

I don’t know how many we have, but we’ve got those suckers everywhere. They’re in the basement, the garage, the play area, and our closets.

They’re a beautiful thing, but bins can provide only the illusion of organization if you’re not careful. After all, you accomplish nothing if you lob piles of garbage into bins, slap the lids on, and hide them away until you have your own personal landfill. Used as an organizing tool instead of a dumping ground, however, sturdy bins give you clean-looking, element-proof storage of the items that matter to you. [Read more…]

Reviewing an Organizing Bestseller: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up (Part 2)

This post is part 2 in the series The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.

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

Just recently, I shared some of the highlights of Marie Kondo’s acclaimed organizing book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. Today, let’s look into some of the wacky ideas and organization no-no’s that Marie is pitching as the way to go. [Read more…]

Reviewing an Organizing Bestseller: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up (Part 1)

This post is part 1 in the series The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.

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

Last year I first started hearing about The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo. In addition to authoring this book, Marie runs a consulting business in which she teaches clients how to tidy. She’s even rearranged components of her name to give a name to the method she uses and describes in this book — the KonMari Method.

At long last, my local library recently secured a copy of this hot book off The New York Times Best Seller list. I found this little hardcover parked on a quiet shelf and got reading.

Here, for your benefit, are some of the highlights of Marie’s great ideas on decluttering and organizing. [Read more…]

7 Secrets for Saving Big on Your Baby

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

If you’re like most new parents, your first two emotions after a positive pregnancy test are excitement and paralyzing fear. You’re having a baby . . . but you have no idea what you’re doing! You’ve got just nine months to figure out not only how to keep your kid alive but also what gear you need to make that happen.

Before you find yourself in a frenzy buying everything at Babies“R”Us, check out these 7 tips for saving big bucks on your baby. [Read more…]