Five Easy Scrapbook Organization Ideas

Saturday, May 1st was National Srapbooking Day so I wanted to share with you five easy tips to organize your scrapbooking hobby on a budget!

Tip One:  A dish drainer is the perfect way to store 12X 12 papers so you can see it and easily flip to find the perfect sheet for the page you are working on.

Tip Two:   An inexpensive accordion file can help you organize your scrap paper by color or patter. This will help you use every last inch of paper to create great layouts.

Tip Three:  A rotating spice rack makes the perfect storage system for small embellishments, eyelets, buttons, and beads. Clear jars make it easy to see what you need quickly and easily.

Tip Four:  Colorful flower pots or oversized mugs are a great way to organize pens, markers, and scissors of various sizes and functions

Tip Five:  Use large mailing envelopes to collect page elements for a future layout: pictures, paper, stickers, and journaling details for each upcoming page. When you are in the mood to scrap all you will have to do is pull out the envelope (page) you want to work on.

Guest Post: You might be unorganized if...

Since I am by all obvious reasons, A very Organized Person... I sometimes forget what it feels like to be unorganized.  I recently had the oppertunity to work with Laurie as she reviewed our Virtual Organizing Services and her witty comments on what might make you disorganized just had to be shared!  I asked her to write today's post because I am sure that many of you can relate, so without further ado...

You Might Be Unorganized If....

Organization, now there's a funny word. As a matter of fact, I pretty much laugh anytime I hear it spoken. I haven't been "organized" since well, I can't even think back that far.


I recently looked around my house and decided to put down in writing a few of the ways to know if you might be disorganized. Here are the things to look for.:

• If your couch seats four and you can only seat one from all the clutter, you might be disorganized.

• If you are pulling newborn size clothes out of your six year old's closet, you might be disorganized.

• If your silverware drawer is beginning to fear being taken over by your junk drawers, you might be disorganized.

• If your kitchen counter-tops are longing to see the light of day, you might be disorganized.

• If you filed something in your "To Do" folder in 1999 and you just completed it in 2010, you might be disorganized.

• If you have your garage door open and your neighbor says, "Hey, I didn't realize you were moving?", you might be disorganized.

• If the piles of paper on your desk look more like reams of paper, you might be disorganized.

• If your kitchen cabinets need to be marked with yellow caution tape, you might be disorganized.

And my personal favorite...

• If your child dumps all his toys out of his toybin and says, "Look mommy, now my room looks like your office," you might be disorganized.

If you read any of these and thought, " Oh my goodness, that is definitely me," then call for back-up! It is never to late to start to organize your life. I know for me, it reduces my stress levels so much to accomplish even the smallest of tasks when it comes to organization.

There will be a Twitter party on May 5th from 8:30-9:30pm EST. #GetOrganized. If you would like to learn tips and ideas on getting organized, this is the place to be! RSVP today by going to:

http://momof2boyswifeof1.blogspot.com/2010/04/join-product-review-place-and-simply.html


I recently had the opportunity to work with Christie Love of Simple Organized Sanity. We did a Virtual Organizing Session on organizing my home office. If you are at the Twitter party, you will be the first to see my AFTER pictures of the NEW and IMPROVED home office. Hope to see you there!

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Laurie is a 38 year old mom of two small children that keep her feeling like life may never be organized again. Though there is nowhere in her life she would rather be than where she is at right now.  She says, "My children have shown me that even when my life isn't perfect, it's perfect for me."  Please take a moment to Visit  Laurie's Blog Guessing All The Way.

Friday Five: Five Creative Uses for Coffee Cans

Are you a coffee drinker?  Do you end up with empty coffee cans and are looking for a creative way to reuse or recycle them? 

Here are five fun ideas to try:

1.  Homemade Piggy Banks:  Cut a slit in the plastic lid and then let kids decorate the cans with paper, paints, stickers, etc. to personalize their piggy bank.

2.  Create a Rustic DIY Wine Rack:  Remove the bottom of the can with a can opener.  Pick a color that you want your wine rack to be and spray the outside of each can that color.  When they are dry you can use a Super Strong adhesive like Krazy Glue to put them together. 

3.  Sick Bucket... Okay I know- but if you have a kid that is prone to car sickness, coffee cans are the perfect answer.  I keep a washcloth and a small bottle of water in the can with the lid on in the car at all times.  When we are on a bad road or a long trip my sickie can access it quickly when needed if we can't stop fast enough.  (The water is for clean up of the bucket until we get home and the washcloth is for clean up for him.)

4.  Clean them out and use them to package baked treats, hot chocolate mix, popcorn, etc... for housewarming gifts, holiday gifts, and more.

5.  Candle holders.  Use a bottle opener end to cut v-shaped slits all over the can to let light out.  Then you can set a candle inside.  They are great to decorate and paint on the outside.

Hope these ideas get you thinking about some creative ways to reuse your coffee cans to help you get more organized and save money.

Five Great Book Swapping Websites

Are you a reader?  If you are then you probably struggle with organizing and managing books in your home.  One great way to help with this problem is to join an online book swapping service!  You can exchange your latest read for someone else's, which is a great way to save money and space all while still enjoying one of your favorite hobbies! 

Here are Five Great Online Book Swapping Websites for you to check out :

1. Paper Swap

2.  Swaptree

3. Bookmooch

 

4. Bookins

 

5. Title Trader

Using services like these will help you set limits on how many books you can keep and store in your home and ensure that you are using that space to keep your favorites!  Setting manageable limits on items and collections is a big first step in getting more organized. 

Friday Five: Five ways to reduce spam in your inbox

Lately I have been noticing a larger amount of spam and unwanted emails cluttering up my smart phone and my inbox.  I thought I would do a week long experiment to track the percentage of emails that I wanted to read versus the ones that I don't have time to mess with.  The results surprised even me:

Monday:  76% of the emails I got were Junk or unwanted

Tuesday: 76% of the emails that I got were Junk or unwanted

Wednesday:  93.1% of the emails that I got were junk or unwanted

Thursday: 94% of the emails that I got were junk or unwanted

Friday:  82% of the emails that I got were junk or unwanted

Saturday:  83% of the emails that I got were junk or unwanted

Sunday:  82% of the emails that I got were junk or unwanted

This meant that the average for the week was 83.71% junk or unwanted emails that were cluttering up my inbox! 

What was so surprising for me was that I had spam filters in place so this is what was slipping through the cracks...

So I did some research and here are Five ways in addition to having a spam filter installed that can help to reduce the amount of Spam and Unwanted emails in your inbox:

1.  Be careful who you give your email address out to.  I keep a free gmail address that I give out to mailing lists, newsletters, etc... so that those items to do not clog up my business email.

2.  Set up folders and rules for your inbox.  You can set up a folder for newsletters and items to read later.  You can even specify that certain address go straight to the trash box instead of your inbox.  If you need detailed steps on setting up folders and rules click here.

3.  Email clients like Outlook are prone to being spammed so experts recommend installing a free email client like Thunderbird 3 that has stronger spam protection.

4.  Report spam emails to sites like Spam Cop or the National Fraud Information Center

5.  If you have a website, use a contact form for people to contact you with rather than giving out your email address.  Spammers have computer programs that do nothing but scan the internet for email addresses on websites to spam. 

In the week since I followed some of these steps I have seen a decrease in the amount of unwanted email in my inbox by more than 50%!  Now that is more like it.

Friday Five: Five Routines Every Mom Needs

I have said it before and I will say it again...


"Routines, as boring as they may be, are the building blocks to a more organized and less stressed existence."

In my opinion there are five areas of every mom's life where she needs a good solid routine (There are probably more but then it wouldn't have been a Friday Five post.) So here are five of the big ones:

                              1  . A morning routine: Let's face it for most families mornings are nothing less than sheer chaos. You are trying to get yourself and your family ready, fed, and packed to head out and face the day. Along with being chaotic-- mornings are also stressful and one of the most common times of the day that fights break out amongst family members. You are still tired and rushed... never a good combination for anyone. However; having a good morning routine can ease some of that stress chaos by making mornings more predictable and less rushed.

Get kids up at the same time, have them get ready in the same order (kids like predictable), serve a healthy breakfast about the same time each morning, and try to always say goodbye without angry words... these things will always start your day off better.

2. An Evening Routine: The natural flip side of the coin. Are there certain things that you can do each evening to help prevent some of the craziness of the impending morning rush? Here are three quick things you could do each evening to help you in the morning: 

You can pack briefcases, backpacks, purses, and diaper bags the night before with anything that will be needed the following day.

You can make your kid's lunches for school the night before (I do this with everything but the sandwich... I am not a big fan of soggy sandwiches- so I make those in the morning)

You can lay out tomorrow's clothes so that you do not have to dig and search for what everyone wants to wear in the morning.

You can pack briefcases, backpacks, purses, and diaperbags the night before with anything that will be needed the following day. 

You can make your kid's lunches for school the night before (I do this with everything but the sandwhich... I am not a big fan of soggy sandwhiches- so I make those in the morning)

You can lay out tomorrow's clothes so that you do not have to dig and search for what everyone wants to wear in the morning.

3. A laundry Routine: Let's face it... if you do not have a routines to stay on top of your laundry it will multiply into a pile that will take over your home! My goal is one load a day- everyday. I start it in the morning when I get up, I throw it in the dryer at lunchtime, and I fold it after dinner and put it away as I go into say goodnight to each of my kids. This routine works for me... but everyone is different. You might try assigning each day of the week a specific load. For example; Colors on Monday, Whites on Tuesday, Jeans on Wednesday, Towels on Thursday, Another load of colors on Friday... etc...

4. A clean up Routine: If you have small children at home all day, set time aside twice a day is what I always tell clients. One clean up before lunch and one again before dinner. If you have not read our post about clean up songs be sure to check it out for a big improvement to how your little one's pick up toys!
If your children are older and you are not home as often than one evening clean up should be fine. The point is... clean up the messes daily when they are small and they will always be manageable... let them grow for days or weeks and everyone's stress level and reluctance to clean up will grow!

5. A routine for running Errands: Errands are inevitable... we all have to run by the bank, the store, the dry cleaners, etc... at some point in our weeks. I always tell clients to make a list of the errands they need to run the next day and write them down in the order you are going to run them so you are saving driving time and gas. Before you leave to run errands make sure that you have everything you will need to complete them; grocery list (check), dry cleaner stub (check), water bill to drop off (check).... you get the idea.



Need help developing a routine? I would love to help you develop some routines that are customized to your family's schedule. Click here to find out how I can help you.

Do you have an area in your life where routines really help? Leave me a comment; I would love to hear about it!

Friday Five today is a little different... it is our First Vlog!!!

I have wanted to experiment with doing a vlog for awhile... and today's Friday Five seemed like the perfect topic. Please be sure to comment and let us know if you like this format and we will use it again for other topics like this one.

Friday Five: Five Morning Sanity Savers

Mornings are hectic in many households. The scene plays over and over, day after day; parents trying to get ready for work, kids not wanting to go to school, trying to grab breakfast before making sure that each member of the family gets to where they need to be with everything they need to have.



I often liken the busy morning rush in our homes to that of a busy highway that is packed with anxious, stressed out drivers. Each of the drivers has a different destination and a different goal for the day, yet they have to get there first, which means battling rush hour traffic.



So here are five quick tips to making your home's morning rush hour battle a little more organized:

1. Be Defensive: If you know mornings are a challenge at your house, take steps to make them less challenging by doing some tasks the night before. For example you can easily take time each night and: lay out clothes for yourself and younger children, make kid's lunches, pack your briefcase for work, make sure you lay out what kids will need for lessons the next day, etc... Anything you can do tonight to take away from your morning rush will save you energy and stress.


2. Allow Extra Time: Even just an extra 10-15 minutes can make a big difference in your morning. Set the alarm back just a few minutes and give everyone in the family a little more breathing room. Keep in mind... this may mean hitting the bed a few minuets earlier too.


3. Control your Road Rage: Fights in the morning between family members, set the tone for the entire day. If Mom and daughter have a fight in the morning- they both stay upset all day about it. So try to pick your battles wisely in the morning... is it really worth getting upset if your son wants to wear the red shirt with the green pants?


4. Organize the Traffic Grid: Having an organized system for where children know to place items like backpacks, school books, library books, sports bags, etc... will save you from frantic last minute searches for the other soccer cleat as the bus is honking.


5. Organize Fuel Stops: Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and often the most chaotic! Menu planning can help ease the stress of the morning meal. Decide what you are having for breakfast the night before and prepare ahead. For example if you are having cold cereal- set the boxes on the table with bowls and spoons. If you are serving muffins or pancakes- make them the night before and warm them up to serve to your family in the morning.

I know first hand that mornings can be difficult... but I also know that implementing these five steps has helped transform my family's morning chaos into more simple, organized sanity. Good luck!

Five great ways to display kid's artwork

As many of you know I have three wonderful children... all of whom are very artistic! We can have crayon masterpieces all over our home on any given day. I am sure that many of you out there can relate to this problem: You want to find a great way to display and encourage your child's art... without having it take over every inch of wall space in your home!

Here are five great products that can help you do just that:

1. I love Dynamic Frames!!!!! They are by far my favorite way to store kids artwork! Check them out by clicking on this link:
http://www.dynamicframes.com/store/c/159-Kids-Art-Frame.aspx

2. Add Ledges to your home-look for a convenient place to hang your ledges. A kitchen, play room or family room wall might work well, or perhaps a wall that encloses then you can set pictures in cheap frames and change often without holes in the wall.

Here is a great shelf ledge by bed bath and beyond
http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?order_num=-1&SKU=13830339

3. Clips are a great way to display kids artwork without many wall holes. This is a great string of clips from Land of Nod
http://www.landofnod.com/search.aspx?query=art+clips

You can also make your own clips by gluing clothes pins onto a board and painting.

4. This product is great to display many pictures at once
http://www.thepresentfinder.co.uk/tpf/1306/p/d/childrens+art+picture+pockets+%96+display+your+kids+artwork+holds+18+a4+pages/pid/31821317

5. Another ideas is to create a gallery in your home with coordinating frames to display artwork and then change it as often as you want.

Friday Five: Five great Purse Organizers

Everyone has a weakness in life... mine is purses. I love them and I am constantly in search of the "Perfect Purse." What is the perfect purse to me? I am always looking for a purse that is ORGANIZED (obviously) with a place for everything, a great looking bag that is cute and durable.

I found a bag that just may be the "perfect purse" and I want to share it with you and if it is out of your budget there are some more budget friendly options for organizing your purse in today's Friday Five:

1. The Butler Bag. I am so impressed with this purse and the various compartments that it has to keep you organized while still looking great! This purse is making waves in both the fashion world and the organizing world. It is the best of both worlds for sure and is raking in rave reviews because of it! Check it out for yourself at http://www.butlerbag.com/ If the $150 plus price tag of this bag is a little steep for your budget... check out our other options

2. Avon is offering a butler bag right now that is budget friendly option at $19.99 with any $15 purchase or if purchased separately $39.99. Product # is 369-761. (Limited time offering) Contact your local Avon Representative for more information on this great and inexpensive bag.

3. Kmart is also jumping on the Butler Bag trend with their own line of Butler essentials. Again, a more budget friendly purse while still getting the same great organizing compartments inside. There are numerous styles and sizes available so check them out at www.butleressentials.com.

4. Have a purse that you love now... but you just wish the inside was more organized???? Try the Pursekeet!!! It is a removable piece that has numerous pockets so that your can organize the inside of ANY bag. It is available in small, medium, and large sizes too! This is a great product that you should check out at http://www.purseket.com/index.php

5. Have no budget to fix up your existing purse and make it more organized???? I suggest that you compartmentalize everything. Use clear plastic containers that you may have at home, pencil zipper pouches are great for keeping pens and small items organized and together, small cosmetic cases can keep personal items together... give everything a home and avoid just throwing things into the bottom of your purse... that rule alone can help any purse be a more organized one.

I hope these five quick tips will help you in your quest of the "perfect organized purse" and remember that a purse is a place to keep the stuff we need daily... not everything including the kitchen sink... :)

Friday Five: Five tips to improve your Yard Sale Sales

I apologize that our Friday Five is being posted on Saturday Morning... I was out of town yesterday. Nonetheless, here we all find ourselves, the middle of August. Is it just me or is time really flying by this summer???

One thing that I am hearing from several clients right now is that they feel like they missed their chance to do a garage sale this summer... not so! The middle of August to the middle of September are some of the best times to do a garage sale. Why? You ask. Because, college kids are back in town and they are targeting garage sales to fill apartments and dorm rooms with used furniture, kitchen appliances, decor, and much more.

So if you still have items sitting around your home... a garage sale is a great way to clear a lot of clutter at once and this is a great time of the year to do it. Keep in mind though... your sale is only going to be as successful as your preparation so here are five quick things to do to ensure you make the most at your garage sale.

1. Lots of Eye Catching Signs! Use Bright colored papers and make sure that you write short sentences in large, black marker. People driving by do not want to struggle to read your sign.
2. Advertise!!!! Consider the newspaper, and free social media sites. For example: Post your sale on twitter, facebook, craigslist, Internet groups that you belong to. Great free ways to get the word out about your sale. You may also want to put up some fliers around local colleges with date of sale and directions.
3. Offer water to your customers, sell lemonade, sell snacks... etc... garage sale days for many people is an all day affair. They will often appreciate and purchase snacks if available.
4. Use pop up tents to offer shade to shoppers or try to locate in a shady area of the yard to keep shoppers comfy.
5. Be flexible! Any sale is getting clutter out of your home and some money into your pocket. Be willing to let customers haggle with you on prices and be willing to come down.

I hope that these simple tips make your late summer garage sale as successful as possible!

Friday Five: Five Creative Ways to store Sports Balls and Toy Balls

I have two boys ages seven and six... so as you can imagine we have a lot of sports equipment hanging around our house. Basketballs, Soccer Balls, Footballs, Kick balls, etc... and one thing is for sure, the round shape presents an unique organizational challenge!

Here are five products that you can use to store ball shaped items easily in your home or gym:

1. Use an inexpensive toy net in the area where the balls need to be stored. Then you can set the balls up into the net. These can be purchased at any retail or toy shop and will normally run about $10.00. If you have more than can be stored in a small toy net, you could also use an old parachute, tarp, or large net material.

2. Invest in a metal ball rack like you would see a basketball team use. These are great in garages and come in two different sizes; the smaller one will hold about 12 balls and costs about $100, the larger one will hold 16 balls and runs around $115.00. (My advice, spend the extra $15 and get the extra storage).

3. I love the Ball Claw!!!! It is a great product and a great use of wall space to store those hard to store balls. The Ball claw mounts onto the wall and will hold basketballs, volleyballs, soccer balls, and even footballs and for only $10 a claw it is a great deal... visit http://www.ballclaw.com/ to see this great product for yourself!

4. A ball storage locker can be another great options for keeping balls from rolling all over the garage or house. They are more expensive than other options but are well worth the cost if you have lots of sports equipment and balls cluttering up your home. Many of them are on wheels so that you can easily move the storage locker around. Be prepared to spend around $200 for this solution.

5. The ProStor X-Rack is another great option to store not only balls but other sports equipment in as well. The basket style design is defiantly kid friendly so that balls can just be tossed when they are done playing. There are hooks on the side for misc. items and a great shelf on the bottom for play shoes or spikes to be kept. Expect to spend around $100 for this item but from what I can tell... it is well worth it.

These are five great options for storing your sports equipment balls and helping you control where they end up in your home.

Friday Five: Five Places in your home that you can use an Over the Door Shoe Organizer.

I am a huge fan of over the door shoe organizers! They range in cost from $10-$20 and they are a cheap way to organize a LARGE variety of small objects around your home and office.

When implementing any of these ideas, I suggest that you use a clear plastic shoe organizer as opposed to a canvas or solid colored one. The reason for this with the clear pockets you can see exactly what is inside of each pocket and you can avoid having to label each pocket.
Room one is the Home Office. There are some great ways to use an over the door shoe organizer in your office:
Store and separate USB cords, chargers, remote controls and other misc. cables that are often lying around or clogging up a desk drawer.
Store small office supplies in each pocket like; hole punch, stapler, pens, pencils, stamps, scissors, extra post it’s, etc…
If you work from home in a business that requires you to have small samples on hand you could store them easily in here.

Room Two is the Bathroom. I love using an over the door shoe organizer in the bathroom when you are tight on cabinet space, especially when you are required to share a bathroom.
Hang the organizer on the back of the door and then you can store hair brushes, combs, hair spray bottles, misc. cosmetic products, and other items you often use in the bathroom to keep them within easy reach.

Room Three is the Craft Room. Think of all the small items that are laying around in your craft area that can be stored in a shoe organizer.
Markers, Scissors, stamps, stamp pads, beads, knitting needles, glue sticks, hot glue gun, ribbon, punches, rulers, eyelets, and so much more.

Room Four is the Pantry. A shoe organizer can be the perfect solution to helping you organize your pantry. Hanging the organizer on the back of your pantry door is a great place for you to store seasoning packets, seasoning bottles, cool aide packets, food coloring, cake sprinkles, and much more.
Room Five is a kid’s room. I have found this to be an excellent way to help kids get more organized.
I hang it on the back of their door or the front of a closet door and teach them to keep small items in the shoe organizer. Small toys like cars and trucks are great in a boy’s room.
In a girls room jewelry is great to be stored in these as well as hair bows, barrettes and other small accessories.

Five great uses for Old Shower Curtains

In this frugal time for many of us, part of being organized is also being resourceful! I teach clients that being organized can save them time AND MONEY! Being able to creatively reuse items in your home for another purpose will save you time and is part of being organized.

Our Friday five today is great uses for old plastic shower curtain liners, they do not have to be thrown out. They can have many great uses still in helping you around the house. First, wash your old shower curtains in the washing machine with detergent or bleach to get rid of any germs or mildew that are hanging around on it. Then once it is clean, try one of these five suggestions to give your shower curtain a new purpose:

1. Use it as a paint drop cloth when you are painting a small area.

2. Use it under the craft table when kids are working on a project to catch drops of glue, paint, glitter, and play dough from getting on your floor. When kids are finished with the project you can carefully pull the curtain out and carry it outside to shake it off.

3. Use it as a liner for your car's trunk when you are carrying things that could spill or make a mess.

4. Use it to cover outdoor items that you do not want getting wet, like the grill or an outdoor chair.

5. Use it as a drop cloth when you are working under your car. Simply lay it down and then lay on top of it, the plastic will catch oil spills and other drips before they have a chance to stain your driveway or garage floor.

Five great uses for the Large Sized Ziplock Bags

I LOVE, LOVE the bigger sized Ziploc bags that are out on the market now!!! They have so many versatile uses and are great to keep on hand! Here are five of my favorite way to use the Large sized bags:

1. I keep an extra change of seasonally appropriate clothes for each of my children in one large bag in the back of our van. This is great when we have been at the park and the kids got a little dirty... if we don't have time to run home and change before our next errand or stop, I can have them change quickly in the van or in a bathroom. The bag then works great to keep all the dirty clothes in!

2. I love to use them to keep mittens, scarves, hats, together. I keep these bags in our coat closets hanging on a hanger (the Large size has a handle hole that makes it perfect to hang.) Then when winter comes, you do not have to search high and low for every one's cold weather essentials!

3. I use the Large Size Bags in my Linen closet to store clean pillow cases in. My son has a dust mite allergy so keeping his pillow cases extra clean is very important... storing clean pillow cases in the easy to grab bags in the closet ensures they are really clean when I put them on pillows and it prevents me from having to dig to the bottom of the piles to find a pillow case.

4. I use the Large Size Bags in my laundry room to store clothes pins in. Since the bag seals shut I can lay a full bag of clothes pins on the shelf and not worry about it spilling. When I need to hang laundry up I can quickly grab the bag and be good to go!

5. I create a to go bag that has emergency supplies in it to keep in the car. This sized Ziploc bag is perfect to keep a first aid kit, extra bottle of sunscreen, bug spray, ace bandage, ready to use ice bags, and other items that you may need on the go. Keeping them in a bag like this keeps all your supplies together so they do not roll around the car trunk and you can find them when you need them.

Friday Five: Organizing Your DVD collection

If you are anything like our house... you feel like you have DVD's coming out of your ears! With three kids and a husband who loves to watch movies over and over again I too feel your pain.

Here are five quick suggestions and products to help your curb your DVD disaster zone!

1. GET RID OF THE CASES! They take up so much extra room when storing DVDs!!!! Consider using a DVD Storage Notebook like this one:

Books like this can store 48 DVD and for VERY large collections you can have several books and label the spine by what type of movies are inside. For example; Children's Movies, Adventure Movies, Comedy Movies. I love these because they are beautiful & look nice.

2. If you cannot let go of your cases... DVD Towers are also nice to use if you have the floor space for them and small children pulling on the DVDs is not a concern for your house. You can find them in numerous sizes and styles to match various decor styles. I have seen shelves that can hold under 50 DVDs to ones that hold more than 500!

3. If small children or floor space is an issue in your home, AND you still can't get rid of your cases... you may want to consider a wall unit to store DVD up and out of reach. These too comes in all different sizes, styles, and price ranges.

4. Check out these Storage boxes to store your DVDS in. This product Holds 30 CDs in full jewel cases, 60 CDs in slim cases, and 165 CDs in CD sleeves. You can see it yourself by clicking this link http://www.buyonlinenow.com/viewProduct.asp?SKU=IDESNS01521&tk=4853389 This same company also has a pull out drawer version of this product that you can stack up on top of each other. Again, like the binder, you can separate your large collections out by genre to make it easier to find your desired drama.

5. My favorite Product! I love the Discgear Auto retrieval systems... you can get up to 100 DVDs in here and with a push of a button you can have your favorite flick dispensed to you quickly. Simple to use, take the time to create a reference list so you will know what number each movie is and you are set to go! This one I found at WalMart.com click here to see it yourself http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=10719860&sourceid=1500000000000003142050&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=10719860

Friday Five: Five creative uses for Old paint cans

Old paint cans can be used in many creative ways around your house, just make sure that you wash out the cans before using.

Check out these five ideas:

1. Use them to store small items in the shop like paintbrushes, screwdrivers, ratchets, and more that you can set on top of the work bench to keep things in easy reach.

2. You can mount them to the wall and use them as small round cubbies that you can cover in matching paper or paint. These are great to store small items in bedrooms, kids rooms, and toy rooms.

3. You can decorate them to match a bathroom and store hairbrushes, curling iron, etc in.

4. You can use them as cute and creative gift baskets: Movie night in a Can, Spa Day in a Can, etc... (You can decorate the outside and fill them with small gifts.)

5. They make great storage for art rooms. You can keep rulers, paint brushes, colored pencils, and scissors in them.

Our Friday Five: What to do with old magazines.

1. Recycle them at your local recycling center. Simply keep a box in your garage area to collect already read magazines and when the box Is full haul it to your recycling center. You will want a smaller box… because a large box of magazines will take up space in your garage and be very heavy to move.


2. Donate them to local doctor’s offices or other local areas that have waiting rooms for patients to use when they are waiting. Simply take a black marker and block out the name and address on the cover so no one can get your information.


3. Donate them to your local schools, day cares, or churches so that they can use them for craft projects with kids. They love to cut out pictures that go along with letters or colors that they may be studying that week and old magazines are perfect for this project.


4. You could send them in care packages to soldiers overseas who do not have access to new publications like current magazines and they enjoy the new reading material and connection to things they are familiar with.


5. Pass them along. Consider starting a Magazine swap with your friends, where each of you subscribes to different magazines and then you swap them with each other when you have read yours. This will allow you to read all the articles you want while sharing the cost of subscriptions and reducing the number of magazines that you end up accumulating.