Monthly Archives: June 2016

The bedroom should be an oasis for sleep, relaxing and lounging.  If you are staring at piles of laundry, books, magazines, electronic devices, you are not in Zen or rem.  The headboard doesn’t have to be just a pillow prop.  Find one that stores books and magazines, can hold a lamp and you have triple duty functional furniture.

A single shallow shelf above the bed keeps books close at hand and will limit the number of books you store in the room.  Save space by mounting a reading lamp on the wall.  And that laundry?  Throw it in a decorative hamper, or better yet get your extra steps in and take it to the laundry room.  When it’s clean?  Put it away right away!

You go to your local big box store and buy volumes of toothpaste, dental floss, pantry foods, tissue paper, greeting cards… only to come home and find you already had volumes of these items scattered about.  SAVE MONEY!  GET ORGANIZED!  Categorize your things based on how you use them and which room should have them.  Doing it now prevents you from wasting time searching all over the place for something later and keeps track of household items running low.

– Use shredded paper from your shredder to cushion gifts instead of tissue.  Makes great packing for moving and mailing as well.

– Take a rainy or snow day off and sort old photographs by family member/friend groups.  Label the back with acid free pen so you and your family can always identify who’s who.  Not a great photo of Uncle George?  Why keep it?  Trust me, he won’t mind if it gets tossed.

– B.O.O.M. Box (Broken, Odd or Missing) box to be stored in garage with objects waiting to be glued, found or fixed.

– J.U.I.C.E. Box (Just Unused Inputs Cords and Electricals) box will contain all those cables and cords so they don’t die tangled in some drawer or forgotten in outlets.  It helps to label these cords so you will always know to which device they belong.

We’ve all heard it, “I really want to do this with _______ space.”  “Someday this _________ space is going to be _________.”  “If I only had time I would redecorate this _________ space.”  Fill in the blanks, either you or someone you know labels this _______ space this way.  The real problem is commitment, or a lack thereof.  Areas get out of control when we don’t designate a specific use and follow through with it.  If the space should be an office, get a desk in there.  Then make the space inviting to encourage use and, no more excuses, you’ve done it!