Healthy Home Newsletter April 2014 - Volume XVIII, Issue 4 | Page 5

5 Home Organization Tips To Make Your Spring Cleaning Easy Breezy Crafting Corner Don’t you just feel better when things are organized? I mean who can function when their desk is stacked high with papers or their pantry is so jam packed with bags from Bob’s Red Mill that they keep buying more flours they already own 3 bags of?….Oh wait that’s my pantry not yours. Well heres a few tips for getting your home organized and streamlined from the pantry to the home office: 1. Kitchen: Grab some of those fun drawer organizers from IKEA or Target and get your spices and Tupperware under control. Also, clean up the family junk drawer (everyone has one) and vow to keep it organized this time. 2. Pantry: Use glass jars or bins (or try bpa free plastic) to organize and stack cereals, pastas, and dry baking supplies. (i.e. 10 different kinds of flours from Bobs Red Mill.) 3. Bathrooms: Go through the drawers and cabinets and throw out all expired products. (Keep it “green” by recycling what you can!) Buy some cute colored bins and separate out the hair products from the medicine cabinet and the nail polish from the face wash. When you’re done you’ll be surprised how much easier it is to find a band-aid when you need it. 4. Closets & Drawers: Go through and donate any clothes you haven’t worn in the past year or that don’t fit. (If you are hanging on to a dress you wore to prom in 1989 for sentimental reasons that’s fine just make sure it has a nice spot that’s not causing clutter.) Then organize the hanging clothes by section i.e. sweaters, dresses, blouses, skirts, suits. You can also go short sleeved to long and keep them in color blocks. Drawers can go in groups i.e. underclothing, pj’s, t-shirts, jeans. If your shoes are a problem get some shoe racks so you can see all your shoes and keep them neat. 5. Office: There is no better office organizer than a filing cabinet. Pick up a stack of those manila folders and a sharpie and start organizing your life away. Keep important documents like birth and marriage certificates in an easy to access area. Shred what you don’t really need and file away the rest. If you are really fancy you can go paperless with an electronic storage system. Very cool and very uncluttered. Don’t get overwhelmed! Start with one small project and work off lists and you might want to invest in a simple label maker to make things even more “Martha Stewart” around your house. And if you don’t have the time yourself you can either higher a professional organizer or simply pay your best friend’s teenager who needs to make a few bucks and has a knack for organizing things to do it for you. Now let’s get organized! A Spring Kid Craft For Earth Day! “Fluffy Trees” Craft Supplies for One Fluffy Tree: 1 cardboard tube (from inside a roll of toilet paper or a paper towel) 1 sheet of green construction paper 10-20 cotton balls (depending on how fluffy you want your trees) glue glitter green marker or paint brown and/or black marker Take the brown and black marker and go to town decorating the cardboard tube like a tree trunk. Then trace and cut out a nice shape for the top of the tree from the green paper. Use the green marker or paint to color each cotton ball then glue it to the green paper. Use glitter liberally. Then cut 2 slits in the top of the cardboard tube and insert your treetop. Voila! Fluffy trees. Happy Earth Day! ©2014 Piranha Marketing, Inc.