How to Organize Your Home: The Dining Room

An organized dining room adds extra comfort to a home.  If you’re like me, sometimes it’s the only organized room in the house!   

Let’s take a quick look around.  Do you eat in here often or is it only for guests?  

 If you don’t use it often, you may just have some simple organizing and dusting to do. 

Are there papers on your table?  Is this table a collection spot for things you want out of your way and then forget about?   

If there are things that don’t belong in this room, put them in baskets and take those baskets to the appropriate rooms.

Do you have a china cabinet or other means of storing fine dishes?  If so, how does the cabinet look?  

 If it’s stuffed to the gills, start by taking a hard look at what you have, how many place settings you have, and how many you need.   

If you want a guideline, take one from the line in “Sleepless in Seattle”:  “12 is too many, 8 is too few.  10 is just right.”  

 How many creamers, sugar bowls, and teacups do you have?  Are they collecting dust and never getting used?  

 Pare down and give them a quick dusting with your duster.  When you open the doors to your cabinet, do you grit your teeth and wonder what’s going to jump out and kill itself at your feet? 

 Consider giving your surplus to a newly-married couple that can use it, or donate it to a women’s shelter or other worthy charity.   

Dust down (or use furniture polish—whatever is applicable here) the front of your cabinet.

What about your lighting source?  Dusty?  Grab your duster—hit the table, the chairs (rungs and bottom of the table, too!), and the lighting source.   

You don’t have to take it down and scrub it clean—just dust it, and if necessary, shake the dead bugs from it. 

As the final step, run the vacuum in here—not the edges, just the “middles” where you walk.   

Move the chairs but not the table—don’t even think about pulling out the china cabinet!  

 If there are things behind there, they’re small and no one else is going to see them.  <wink>

Congratulations—your dining room is done!   Happily, it’s often one of the easiest rooms to keep looking nice and neat!

Learn more on my how to site here  about how to organize your home

I'll be adding more tips and ideas here all year!

For a Frugal Christmas This Year Avoid The Mistakes That Break the Holiday Budget

When you are planning to enjoy a frugal Christmas at home, but you still want to have Christmas fun with your family and friends, you need to do some planning ahead of time.

The holiday season is pending and you’re all set with a budget. Great! That puts you steps ahead of the majority of people.

However, before you head out to begin your holiday shopping, let’s step back for a moment.

You may have made some critical mistakes in your holiday budget. Identifying them ahead of time will save you stress in the long run.






I have created a huge feature packed page of tips on my site that you can check out for how to keep Christmas simple, while still having tons of Christmas Fun.

But I also want to share some valuable tips here with you that you will find very useful as you plan your Christmas celebrations.

These are the top 5 mistakes that are most likely to break your Holiday budget if you are not clear about your goals:
 
#1 Buying the first item you see - 
 Okay, so your kid wants the new gaming system. You’ve budgeted it and you know you can afford it. You head out to the big box electronics store to grab the item.

Stop! Have you done your research? Is this the cheapest you can get it for?

Are there any promotions or online promotion codes that could save you money?

Just because it fits your budget doesn’t mean you should spend that amount. You might be able to save money.

Chances are, there will be a few surprises during this holiday season and a few bucks saved may come in handy.

#2 Not tracking your expenses - 
One of the most common mistakes people make when creating a budget is they don’t actually track how much they’ve spent. How will you know then if you’ve stayed on budget?

Your tracking system doesn’t have to be fancy. You can simply write at the top of a piece of paper how much you have to spend, who you have to buy for and then leave room to write down how much you’ve spent.

Clip receipts to the paper so you can quickly do the math, and you’re set. Don’t walk out the door before actually creating a system to track your expenses.

#3 Not factoring in unforeseen expenses - 
It’s almost guaranteed that there are going to be some unexpected expenses during the holidays.

 If you don’t leave room in your budget for these expenses, they can put you into debt and cause stress.

This is a season to enjoy, not to get stressed about. Create a miscellaneous expenses category in your budget and allocate some money toward it. That way, all your bases are covered.

#4 Pride and Ego - 
All too often we buy gifts to impress others. For example, that $500 bottle of wine you gave your boss as a hostess gift. There’s no need to do that.

Your hostess would likely be just as happy with a lesser bottle of wine. It really is the thought that counts. Don’t let your pride and ego get you into hot water.

#5 Too much - 
It’s easy to go overboard during the holidays. Learn the value of scaling back. Buy your children three gifts this holiday instead of thirty.

Scale back on the decorations and really focus on quality instead of quantity. You’ll be glad you did.

It’s easy to go over budget during the holidays. Take the time to make a plan and commit to sticking to it. Remember what the holidays mean to you and focus on that.

Be sure to visit my site here for even more tips in planning your Christmas while remembering how to keep Christmas simple

If you are looking for some beautiful Christmas clip art and graphics to use in your Christmas crafts and decorations, you can't beat my pack of 1,500 Christmas graphics for only $5 you can get here: 

http://christmas-fun-guide.com/christmas-clip-art.php

 

How to organize your home & Decrease clutter

Living in clutter is a nightmare - you can't find anything so you're stressed out.

Everything you need is hidden underneath piles of 'whatever that is' and you don't have time to find it.

Every time you make time the mere thought of tackling it makes you run in the opposite direction.

I have some helpful tips here on my how to do it website: How to organize your home

But of you're ready to reclaim your space here are five tips to get organized.

Start Small

Cleaning up clutter is overwhelming. The best thing to do is to start small.

Purge one room at a time or purge for 10 minutes a day. Either one of those will help you ease into the cleaning mode.

As you are cleaning decide if each item will be saved, tossed in trash or donated. Have trash bins handy for throwaway items and garbage bags for donations.

Let Go

It’s hard to let go of items because of that time where you will 'need it one day.' Other times there is sentimental value.

Either way you have to make the decision to let go of items you haven’t used. If that 'one day' hasn't arrived yet it probably never will.

Subscriptions like magazines and newspapers that have been read only once needs to be unsubscribed. It takes up so much space.

Storage

Have a place for everything. It will be hard to lose something when everything has a place to go.

Use the garage, basement, attic or similar places for seasonal items.

Another great option is to use stuff around the house. Baskets, boxes and bins go a long way to making a room look more manageable.

Take advantage of vertical storage in the home--bookshelves and vertical storage solutions--and save a lot of space in the process.

If anything is taken from their storage place put it back where you found it. It will always be there when you need it.

Clean Up Time

Organization does not end when everything is clean. You must keep it that way to live in a clutter-free environment.

Schedule a time to clean up the clutter. That way the clutter won’t return back to the way it was.

Stop Wasteful Spending

Purchasing a new item for the house is one more item for possible clutter.

Make sure that this item is absolutely necessary (impulse shopping, latest trends and technology upgrades are NOT necessary).

It’s best to purchase items that will serve more than one purpose or rent items needed.

When one item is purchased purge and take away one item from the home to stop clutter.

This will force you to use what is in the home so that each purchase will have meaning.

How to organize your home