Taking Care of Little Things

Even after we organize our desk, our sewing box, our craft area, our toolbox, it is the little things that cause problems with maintaining our neat space. Paper clips, straight pins, little beads and tiny nails find their way to the bottom of our stuff.

Here are a few low-cost suggestions for corralling those pesky items and keeping things in order.

Ÿ Items with blunt edges do well in small zip-lock plastic bags. Beads can be separated by colors and then placed together in a larger container.

Ÿ Egg cartons provide a handy way to sort items like nuts and bolts. Glue a small magnet in each section to keep them in place. Be sure to store on top of heavy tools or the container will get crushed.

Ÿ Slip a plastic ice cube tray in your desk drawer to hold various size paper clips, staples and other small items.

Ÿ Baby food jars and spice jars can be re-purposed to hold small items. Spice jars in a discarded spice rack can keep sewing items like snaps and pins handy for the seamstress.

Organizing doesn’t have to be fancy; it just has to work.

Beverly & Kristen
www.KeyTransitions.net

Organize Crafts

March is National Craft Month. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines craft as skill in planning, making and executing or the product derived from that activity. So you would think that all crafters were organized folks. In our experience, the crafters are organized but their space isn’t. Their creative minds see all kinds of possibilities for scraps of and discarded containers. And then there are the tools for accomplishing the craft. Whether the passion is scrapbooking, or sewing, woodworking or needlework, beading or collage, the challenge is where to keep all the stuff you need to get the job done?

Here are a few suggestions for organizing the crafting space:

Define a room, a closet, or a corner of a room as the crafting area. The whole house is not the craft workshop. (or so many spouses have told us)

Put like objects with like objects: tools together, ribbon together, pattern books together.

Work on one project at a time and put it away before you pull out another. If you switch up frequently ( for instance while glue is setting or paint is drying) have the drying station and work station side by side so tools and resources do not get scattered.

Create storage space in the craft area. This can be a cabinet, shelves or stackable boxes. Use discarded egg cartons or ice trays to organize beads, plastic margarine containers to store ribbon, a multi-tiered magazine rack for pattern books and scapbook paper. Clear plastic containers of varying sizes are available to store most items and they stack easily.

Take a look at innovative storage solutions. If you decide not to buy them, you can mimic their creative ideas through the use of materials you may have on hand. Two sites worth visiting are www.theoriginalscrapbox.com and www.twopweasinabasket.com

We hope you enjoy a month of organized crafting pleasure.

Beverly & Kristen
www.KeyTransitions.net

Organize a Bedroom

Is Your Bedroom a Sanctuary?

We just celebrated Valentine’s Day. That led me to think about intimacy and, for some reason, I started thinking about bedrooms.

We often work with clients who want their bedroom to be a sanctuary, but the habits of their mate or the dictates of their living space present challenges to fulfilling their goal.

It is hard to feel tranquil with dirty socks on the floor and a pile of laundry at the foot of the bed. Sometimes the space must house a home office or a crafting station or fitness equipment. The reality is that the bedroom is often used for more than sleeping and intimate moments. Many folks find it the only place they can grab the solitary time to pay the bills, read a book, watch a favorite program, ready a project for deadline.or sweat to the oldies.

Here are a few suggestions for making the space more orderly and serene even when you have to deal with the realities of life.

Make the bed a no-drop zone. It will keep your bedding clean and you can rest without clearing a spot.

Create defined spaces for activities that must occur in the space. If you have to have an office in your bedroom, designate a small desk or table for the task and gather the materials you need close to that space. If you must house exercise equipment, put it in a corner farthest from the bed and use a folding screen to keep it out of sight when not in use. Put your ipod and earphones, shoes and other ancillary items in tote bags that can hang from the equipment and keep them handy. Use a small bookcase or decorative basket to hold books, music and DVDs close to the spot you use them.

Keep clothes off the floor and furniture by placing an attractive hamper in the room. A clothes valet or industrial three arm clothing rack can hold outfits for the next day or clothes waiting to be put away.

If the laundry is inevitably going to land in the bedroom prior to storing, use a pretty hamper and designate a bench at the foot of the bed or under a window as its temporary home. It might not look beautiful, but it will look neat and not detract too much from the room’s order.

Real life bedrooms often do not meet the expectation for “sanctuary” promoted by Extreme Makeover and HGTV, but, with a little thought and organization, they can be orderly, tranquil places to escape for personal pleasure.

Beverly & Kristen
www.KeyTransitions.net