Organized Home

It's the place where public meets private: the entryway or foyer of your home.

It's the launch zone for family members each day, and the source of a guest's first impression of your home.

This week in the Cleaning Grand Plan Challenge, we'll deep-clean, declutter and organize the portal to the world outside. Daily challenges will focus on cutting morning chaos and fine-tuning daily routines.

Ready? Let's tackle the entryway in the Cleaning Grand Plan Challenge!    More »

Wheeling my shopping cart down the aisle at the supermarket this week, I was forced to take notice that it was, indeed, football season. With my attention distracted by a flashing soda display, my cart crashed into the corner of a miniature football field, constructed entirely out of beer cases.

Untangling my cart (and trying to shove the cases back into line before anyone noticed that I'd creamed the goalpost), it occurred to me that I could learn a lot about goals from football players.    More »

Taken a trip down the cleaning aisle at the supermarket lately? If you believe the ad hype, you can't keep a clean house without loading your shopping cart with a different cleaner for each surface, floor and sink in the house.

Hogwash! Simple recipes using products from your pantry make effective household cleaning solutions. An added plus: these natural products are more environmentally friendly than commercial alternatives.

Stock your cleaning tool tote with these homemade cleaning sprays and solutions to make short work of household grime--without harsh chemicals or irritating fumes. Try these easy recipes to clean your organized home faster, better and cheaper:    More »

Standing in line at the supermarket check stand, nobody can deny that we're on the dreary downside of a new year. Tabloid headlines scream the weight-loss secrets of the stars, while traditional women's magazines sing siren songs of money-saving, belly-busting, speed-cleaning tips and techniques.

We ourselves? All those resolutions that looked so basic, so easy, so noble through the champagne haze of New Year's Eve have lost their rosy glow viewed in the stark light of a morning cup of coffee. With the children back to school and holiday decorations back in their attic boxes, our resolve for a better, thinner, healthier and wealthier year has once more washed up against the hard and niggling realities of daily life.

Be of good cheer! There's a tried-and-true boost for just about anybody's New Year's resolutions. [I'm talking garden-variety resolutions here: weight loss, financial prudence, better home or personal organization. If you've vowed that this is the year you read the Russians, my hat's off to you but you're on your own!]

I'm talking about cleaning the refrigerator. Spearing the Great White Whale.    More »

Christmas has come and gone ... and left a mess behind. Looking around, you wonder how you'll ever dig out in time for Spring!

Solution? Take the Challenge!

Roar into the New Year and clean house fast with the 2013 Cleaning Grand Plan Challenge from OrganizedHome.Com.

Based on Katie Leckey's Cleaning Grand Plan, Cleaning Grand Plan Challenge kicks off the new year with a 14-week plan to clean and organize a spring-clean house for the New Year.

Working in small weekly bites makes a big job easy, while printable checklists help organize and track cleaning chores. By Spring, you'll be ready to open the doors to warmer weather.    More »

Face it: it's January. Dreary weather is matched only by the dreariness of a house stripped of holiday decorations. Children slog through the great dull stretch between New Year's Day and Spring Break, no longer distracted from their schoolwork by the excitements of the holiday season.

December's crowded calendar gives way to January's social slump. Video rentals soar as comfy sweats replace dress clothes on Saturday nights.

Take heart! There's another side to January!

The freshness of a new, un-scribbled calendar. The clean lines of household furniture, freed from December's tinsel, trash and clutter. The sweet silence of a second cup of coffee after the children mount the school bus. The delicious feeling of energy to spare, energy released, but not expended, by December's holiday frenzy.

Tap that energy to get organized in the new year!    More »

Who among us hasn't squandered a happy afternoon in a store specializing in organizing products? Drifting from aisle to aisle, we make a mental list: this for the bathroom clutter, that for the computer desk.

All is bliss until we consider the bottom line. Specialty organizers can be costly! Someday, we vow, we'll get organized at home, but for now, budget realities step firmly on organizer dreams.

Stop the presses! Over the years, these top tools have proved their value, and they cost a fraction of the price of specialty products.

Everyday products from office supply and discount stores can take us 80% of the way to total home organization--for 20% of the price. It's a frugal application of the 80/20 rule.

Ready? On to the power tools for home organization!    More »

Christmas Week is here, and New Year's Eve is on the horizon!

Even in the midst of holiday cheer, it's time to look ahead to a clean and organized New Year.

Ready to swing into the coming year from a clutter-free and organized home?

Try these year-end tips to cut clutter and start the New Year on an organized note:    More »