Garage: Using a Locked Storage Cabinet to Organize Hazardous Items and Valuables

September 6, 2011 in garage with 0 Comments


A storage cabinet with doors will keep hazardous items like garden chemicals, paint, and pesticides out of the reach of children, especially if it’s locked.  If you have valuable tools in your garage, you may want locked storage.  Before we organized my client’s garage, she had pesticides sitting next to macaroni and cheese they stored in their garage.  At least her food wasn’t infested with bugs:)

The cabinet has some nice shelves.  We used labeled dish tubs, yes you read that correctly, dish tubs, to hold her spray paint and garden chemicals.   Other items for her car and garden were grouped by category and placed on shelves.

Where would you use a cabinet like this?  Hint: it’s not limited to use in a garage.  Don’t keep your organizing ideas and tips to yourself, please share your comments below.

 

 

Got skunk? How to remove skunk odors from a dog.

August 30, 2011 in Uncategorized with 2 Comments


Our dog Cleo has been sprayed by a skunk numerous times.  She obviously isn’t catching on to the whole avoidance thing.  If you have had a skunk spray your pet you know it’s extremely nasty.

Thank goodness my sister shared an effective recipe for a skunk odor removal concoction before Cleo was sprayed the first time.  I immediately purchased the ingredients.

We were organized and ready for a skunk “incident.”  It sure beats frantically searching our house or shopping for the ingredients, late at night, while one of us holds the end of a leash strapped to our smelly dog.  I think I would be the one volunteering to go to the store!

My kit contains the following:

A bucket

Gloves

Baking soda

Hydrogen peroxide

Dawn dish soap

Directions:  Fill a small bucket with warm water.  Add a ½ box of baking soda, ½ bottle of hydrogen peroxide, and a squirt of Dawn.  Mix together, wet your dog with the garden hose (avoid bringing the dog into your house), pour solution over dog, rub it in and rinse well.  **Avoid the dogs eyes.

You may need more than one application.

Cleo receiving her third skunk bath. She had already had 2 baths the night before.

You may also use this solution to wash the collar and leash.

I use the bucket as a container for all the ingredients and store it in a closet.  Everyone in our family knows where to find it.

It’s amazing how well this simple solution works.  Don’t wait until the day your dog is sprayed, put together a skunk kit ASAP.

If you have a dog, has it ever been sprayed by a skunk?

 

 

 

Keep it fresh with a clothes pin

August 26, 2011 in Uncategorized with 0 Comments


A simple clothes pin is all you need to keep your snacks fresh.  No need to buy fancy chip clips if you don’t already have them.  I don’t do fancy, I do simple.  Most of us have clothes pins around the house.   Do you have bags of chips, pretzels, crackers, cereal, or other snack items opened and about to go limp and stale?  Quick, round up some clothes pins and snap those bags closed.  No more wasted money on snacks gone bad.

Clothes pins aren’t just for clothing.  Do you have another use for a clothes pin?  Please share in the comments.

Laundry tip: catch up on your laundry

August 23, 2011 in Laundry with 0 Comments


Does your laundry pile up and becoming an overwhelming task?  Maybe it’s time to start a laundry routine.  Put a load in every other day or so, that way you don’t have to spend hours trying to catch up.  Finish that load completely instead of leaving baskets of clean laundry sitting around waiting to be put away.  You will feel a sense of accomplishment when you finish a load and it’s put away.

Want to catch up quickly on laundry, especially after a vacation?  Consider making a trip to a laundromat where you can do it all at once or even using a laundry service.  My local laundromat charges by the pound to wash and dry AND will even fold the laundry.  I’ve recommended this service to my clients who are very behind or have several loads of bedding and towels to wash.

What is your laundry routine?

Setting a goal

August 19, 2011 in inspiration with 0 Comments


What if you say to yourself “from this day forward I will________________?  Imagine the possibilities!  Look forward instead at past mistakes or past slip ups.  What will you do, from this day forward?  Please share in the comments below.

Laundry tip: hangers

August 16, 2011 in Laundry with 0 Comments


When a load of wash is dry, hang up the shirts instead of tossing them into the clean laundry basket.  This  will reduce wrinkles and save you a step.  I keep a supply of empty hangers in my laundry room and hang the shirts on this clothing bar.   An over-the-door bar will also work if you are tight on space.

 

Is it time to make a change?

August 12, 2011 in inspiration, quotations with 0 Comments


“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten.” Author Unknown

Organization requires changing habits and changing the way you feel about your “stuff.”  Start with small changes.

What is one change are you going to make today to become better organized?  Please share in the comments section.

Laundry tip: socks

August 9, 2011 in Laundry with 0 Comments


Do your socks lose their mate?  Do you spend a lot of time sorting clean socks for your family members?  Assign each family member a zippered lingerie bag for their socks.  Write their names on the bag with a laundry marker or a permanent marker.  Each person will now be responsible for matching up own their socks.

A simple solution that will save you time.

Winnie the Pooh’s reason for organization

August 5, 2011 in quotations with 0 Comments


“Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up”  A.A. Milne, author and creator of Winnie the Pooh.

Laundry Tip: Simplify Laundry

August 2, 2011 in Laundry with 2 Comments


It sure isn’t fancy or complicated but it works for me.  This is my basement laundry area.  Instead of piling dirty clothing on the dirty floor, I sort it into baskets according to the load category.  Lights, darks, jeans, sheets, and bleached items.  When a basket is full, the clothing go into the washing machine.

After its dry, I hang all the shirts on the hanging clothing rack(attached to the wall) located next to my dryer.  I found the shirts ended up wrinkled when I put them into a basket instead of hanging them up on hangers and I really dislike ironing.  The rest of the clean laundry is put into an empty basket and taken to my bedroom to fold and put away.

Would this system work for you?  I’d love to hear about your system or your laundry questions in the comments below.

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