LAST DAY OF 2011! Stay Organized throughout 2012!

Final Tip: STAY organized!  You've read many of my posts and implemented at least a few, right?  Now that you have gained some order to areas of your life, keep it that way.  Appoint one day a month as your Organizing Day. Put it on your calendar as an appointment. On this day make an effort to pick one area and work at it until it’s done. Maybe it’s your makeup drawer, the garage, toy room, junk drawer, or hall closet. Take away donated items that day. You will feel so good and have such momentum you’ll want to keep going!

Clever Container is dedicated to help bring organization right to your door!  You can host a show and give your friends and family the gift of learning wonderful organization tips and check out some wonderful, unique organizing products first hand.  Check out www.clevercolleen.com today and then contact me to book your show: www.clevercolleen.com

We have a NEW catalog - orders can be taken from this catalog starting first thing tomorrow morning!  Happy Last Day of 2011 and THANK YOU all for a stellar 2011 in my Clever Container business.  If you are celebrating out of the home this evening, please BE SAFE!

SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!!!  :-)

Clever Organizing Tip: Earn products for FREE!

Tip #98: Host your own Clever Container Show.  You won't be sorry.  Clever Container is AWESOME!!  We are the only DSA approved direct sales company exclusively marketing organizing products.  We have solutions to YOUR organizational dilemna.  Contact me today at FUN@CleverColleen.com and lets figure out how you can earn some of these outstanding products for FREE today!  Check it out!

There are only 2 days remaining in the year 2011. Will you face 2012 with arms wide open, ready to face all the opporunity it will yeild you? Plan and prepare now to finish this year well and give next year a stellar start.

Tip #97: Think of different uses for routine things.  For example, in my house we use an attractive pasta jar to hold the grocery bags that we get (too often!) when we shop without our reusable bags.  This isn't the exact jar we have, but this is an example of one:

There are only 3 days remaining in the year 2011. Will you face 2012 with arms wide open, ready to face all the opporunity it will yeild you? Plan and prepare now to finish this year well and give next year a stellar start.

Prepare Your Auto

Tip #96:  Make sure you are preapared when you are out in your vehicle. . .

There are only 4 days remaining in the year 2011. Will you face 2012 with arms wide open, ready to face all the opporunity it will yeild you? Plan and prepare now to finish this year well and give next year a stellar start.

Use small glass jars

Tip #95: Use Glass Jars.  (from Real Simple) My dad actually did this!  “Grandpa’s wood-shop solution of attaching glass jars underneath a table or a shelf is tried-and-true,” says Ted McCann, a Brooklyn-based custom woodworker. This trick works in the garage, the basement, and the craft room (or even possibly the home office, if you have an appropriate area): Nail or superglue the lids to the underside of a surface near where you store your tools, then twist the jars into place. Put like-size nuts and bolts in one jar, wood screws in another, nails in another. Also attach an empty jar so that when you’re working on a project, you can gather the necessary hardware and stow it there.         

There are only 5 days remaining in the year 2011. Will you face 2012 with arms wide open, ready to face all the opporunity it will yeild you? Plan and prepare now to finish this year well and give next year a stellar start.

Clever Cookie Cutter Idea . . .

Tip #94: A day late and a dollar short.  :-)  Here is a tip you can use NEXT Christmas season.  I love this. . . Buy Christmas cookie cutters (get them now - after the season, when they are marked down!) and then put them up on your Christmas tree like ornaments using attractive ribbon.  Have a small recipe box full of your favorite christmas cookie recipes stashed under the tree.  Then, when you have unexpected guests drop by during the holiday season, you can give them a cookie cutter and a recipe card as they are leaving.  They will think you are SO thoughtful, right?!  :-)  Yeah you!

There are only 6 days remaining in the year 2011. Will you face 2012 with arms wide open, ready to face all the opporunity it will yeild you? Plan and prepare now to finish this year well and give next year a stellar start.

Financially Organized

Tip #93: Get your finances organized: Read this article for eight great tips:  http://voices.yahoo.com/the-top-eight-ways-become-organized-financially-144755.html

There are only 8 days remaining in the year 2011. Will you face 2012 with arms wide open, ready to face all the opporunity it will yeild you? Plan and prepare now to finish this year well and give next year a stellar start.

Pack It!

Tip #92: Pack It!

There are only 9 days remaining in the year 2011. Will you face 2012 with arms wide open, ready to face all the opporunity it will yeild you? Plan and prepare now to finish this year well and give next year a stellar start.

Have a "Later" List

Tip #91: We can do it all.  We just can't do it all today.  Right?!?  So, consider having a list for things that you will want to do, but that really don't make sense today.  Am I the only one that has this real problem?  I will be helping pick up the kids room and I'll notice there are still a couple of pairs of sandals that missed making it into the summer bins.  I then send my children around the house to the other bedroom and locate more potential escapee shoes?  I also will put a t-shirt away in one of my littles drawers and notice that there are clothes that are never, ever selected to be worn.  Either they don't fit nicely, or they just don't appeal to me or the child at hand for whatever reason.  I think about purging out the drawers and . . .

With the methods I'm using, I will be lucky to actually get the room picked up.  Seeing as we are hosting a get together tomorrow, I need to just do what is necessary.  There is nothing wrong with purging the poor, unused clothing.  Nor is there anything wrong with putting away those summer shoes, but NOT right now.  These to-do's need to get recorded so that I don't forget them.  They need to go on a "Later" list.

 

Do you have a "Later" List??  I'd love to hear!!  

 

There are only 10 days remaining in the year 2011.  Will you face 2012 with arms wide open, ready to face all the opporunity it will yeild you?  Plan and prepare now to finish this year well and give next year a stellar start.

Plan, but not TOO much. . .

Tip #90: Time Management

There are only 11 days remaining in the year 2011.  Will you face 2012 with arms wide open, ready to face all the opporunity it will yeild you?  Plan and prepare now to finish this year well and give next year a stellar start.

Christmas Tip: Food and Guests Rule

Tip #89: Food and Guests Rule - A Christmas Tip.  This is another AWESOME post from my friend, Colleen.  Check it out right now!  Really, it is a great read.  :-)

There are only 12 days remaining in the year 2011.  Will you face 2012 with arms wide open, ready to face all the opporunity it will yeild you?  Plan and prepare now to finish this year well and give next year a stellar start.

Create a Landing Strip

Tip #88: Create a Landing Strip: (tip from the Unclutter):  When I get home, I empty my pockets and put everything onto a tray near my doorway. Keys, purse, my ID and cash, cell phone, anything. This way it doesn’t get tossed on our counter or table, and we never have to look for it or forget it when we leave. See Unclutterer’s article on The landing strip.

There are only 13 days remaining in the year 2011.  Will you face 2012 with arms wide open, ready to face all the opporunity it will yeild you?  Plan and prepare now to finish this year well and give next year a stellar start.

Hang It Up!

Tip #87: Hanger considerations:

There are only 14 days remaining in the year 2011.  Will you face 2012 with arms wide open, ready to face all the opporunity it will yeild you?  Plan and prepare now to finish this year well and give next year a stellar start.

Toddler Proof stuff

I was browsing the internet looking for some new, fresh tips to share with you all and I found this tip from a reader on HGTV's site.  Great Idea!! 

 
Tip #86: When I had toddlers (I have 6 kids) it was a challenge to keep them out of the older kids' stuff.  I saved plastic peanut butter jars and stored small parts. gamepieces, etc in them.  Little hands could not open them and the play room stayed neater without every game and puzzle dumped in the middle of the floor!

There are only 15 days remaining in the year 2011.  Will you face 2012 with arms wide open, ready to face all the opporunity it will yeild you?  Plan and prepare now to finish this year well and give next year a stellar start.

Divide and Conquer Your Makeup

Tip #85: Drawers in the bathroom tend to be catchalls for lots of different containers, most of which badly organize their contents. An expandable cosmetic drawer organizer fits in a shallow drawer and takes the place of bulky cosmetic bags. Different size compartments will organize lipstick, blush and eye shadow so you never have to root around to find what you're looking for. As you organize your makeup, be sure to throw away anything that smells or is expired. Old makeup contains bacteria that can irritate your skin.

Expandable Drawer Organizer - another Clever Container product
Email me at Fun@CleverColleen.com to learn more!

There are only 16 days remaining in the year 2011.  Will you face 2012 with arms wide open, ready to face all the opporunity it will yeild you?  Plan and prepare now to finish this year well and give next year a stellar start.

Control Hair Product Clutter

Tip #84: Control Hair Product Clutter 

Cabinet Cubby NEW Clever Container Product (Call colleen at 773.759.4675 to get yours!)

Gels, sprays, curlers, combs and hair dryers take up a lot of space in the bathroom. For quick organization, buy organizers for under the sink and load it up with your supplies. As you place them in the container, evaluate whether you use the product often. If not, donate it to a friend or to charity. When you fix your hair, the whole tub can be taken out and put away without creating a mess.There are only 17 days remaining in the year 2011.  Will you face 2012 with arms wide open, ready to face all the opporunity it will yeild you?  Plan and prepare now to finish this year well and give next year a stellar start.

Go Quirky

Tip #83: Consider "quirky" organizing solutions. 

http://www.sheknows.com/home-and-gardening/articles/841723/6-quirky-storage-solutions

There are only 18 days remaining in the year 2011.  Will you face 2012 with arms wide open, ready to face all the opporunity it will yeild you?  Plan and prepare now to finish this year well and give next year a stellar start.

Games, games, games. . .

Tip #82: One of my recent tips was on organizing toys.  Chances are your children also have several game - and chances are the various rooms of your house holds several pieces of several of those games, am I right?  Take time on a weekend to have the children help you wrangle all the games and pieces and go through and put them all together and in order.  For those games with missing pieces, you have a few decisions to make: if the game can still be played, is it a piece that you can use something else as a substitute for?  Perhaps a Barbie shoe or lego piece?  Or maybe someone creative in your house can create a new piece from cardboard or foam?  If, however, the game is missing parts or pieces that deem the game unplayable - throw it out!!  This is a great time of year for that.  If it was a cherished game - they should be taught that they have to take better care of games.  Depending on you and your home rules - maybe Santa can bring them something similar for Christmas to give them a second chance.  ;-)


There are only 19 days remaining in the year 2011.  Will you face 2012 with arms wide open, ready to face all the opporunity it will yeild you?  Plan and prepare now to finish this year well and give next year a stellar start.

Do Dirty Jobs Strategically

Tip #79:  Do Dirty Jobs Strategically.  I like to clean out the refridgerator the day before garbage day - that way I don't have yucky stuff sitting around in my garbage for days.  That's just me.  :-)


There are only 20 days remaining in the year 2011.  Will you face 2012 with arms wide open, ready to face all the opportunity it will yield you?  Plan and prepare now to finish this year well and give next year a stellar start.

Make double batches. . .

Tip #80: Cook once, eat twice. Make a double-batch of muffins for quick and easy breakfasts.  Making a casserole?  Make two and freeze one.  Think ahead and save yourself time in the long run.  Here are some more make ahead ideas: http://www.foodnetwork.com/topics/make-ahead/index.html

There are only 21 days remaining in the year 2011.  Will you face 2012 with arms wide open, ready to face all the opporunity it will yeild you?  Plan and prepare now to finish this year well and give next year a stellar start.