20 Pantry Essentials

Southern Living Magazine publishes a special issue called "Storage & Organizing" each year. The following comes from their 2008 issue that I wanted to share with my readers:

20 PANTRY ESSENTIALS:

All-purpose flour
Baking soda and baking powder
Brown sugar
Sugar
Cornmeal
Oats
Pasta
Chicken, beef and vegetable broths or bouillon cubes
Rice
Olive Oil
Cooking Spray
Vinegars - balsamic, red wine, rice and white wine
Lemon juice
Dijon mustard
Worcestershire sauce
Hot sauce
Dry sherry
Dry white wine
Honey

How many of these basics do you keep in your pantry? I think I need to do a little shopping but I'd say I have about 2/3 of these in my pantry.

Tip Tuesday - No Wire Hangers

I think Joan Crawford (or her fictional equivalent - Faye Dunaway) said it best - "NO WIRE HANGERS". I'm not really sure what her reasoning for this was but I can tell you that wire hangers are a no-no when it comes to taking good care of your clothing.

Wire hangers do not conform to the shape of your garments and cause clothing (especially sweaters) to loose their shape. They can have grease on them as well which is used by dry cleaners to help the hangers move smoothly along the racks. This grease can get on your hands and clothing and can be hard to remove.



I recommend using wood hangers. Try these from Target.com which come in packages of 30 for only $19.99!

Click here to get to the Target link.

Daily Thought from Real Simple Magazine

Here's another Daily Thought from Real Simple Magazine that I wanted to share with you.

A new dress doesn’t get you anywhere; it’s the life you’re living in the dress, and the sort of life you had lived before, and what you will do in it later.
―Diana Vreeland

Tip Tuesday - Where to Store all Those Necklaces

Store them in your medicine cabinet. Use magnetized hooks to stick to the metal backing of the medicine cabinet and hang your necklaces on them. They'll stay clean and dust-free.

If this is not possible, consider something like this from QVC:



This is a jewelry mirrored wall cabinet from QVC. Costs less than $80 and holds a ton of jewelry including necklaces, rings, bracelets and earrings. Plus the inside is lined in a tarnish free fabric to keep all your sterling silver jewelry shiny. I am tempted to get one of these myself!

Click here to get to the QVC page.

A Shout-Out to LegalZoom.com

When I was starting my organizing business, I knew I would have to create a "doing business as" (dba) name, as well as go through other legal steps to start a legitimate business. I began doing research on local law offices who could help me but their prices were exorbitant. So I went online and found LegalZoom.com which is an online legal office started by attorney Robert Shapiro.

LegalZoom was able to file the appropriate papers to create my dba name as well as follow all the steps to getting the process completed including publishing the appropriate notices in my local papers. The fee was very reasonable.

My husband and I have also used LegalZoom to create our Living Wills and Trusts - everything you need to know is on their website. They ask you a very complete list of questions and cover everything you could think of when planning your estate. I would highly recommend them to anyone who needs legal assistance for business or family law issues and doesn't want to pay high legal fees.

In-Place System by Peter Walsh

Peter Walsh, the author of "It's All Too Much" and resident clutter expert on the Oprah Winfrey Show, has created an organizing system exclusive to Office Max called the "In-Place System".



I went to Office Max the other day to view this system and must say I was pleasantly surprised. The quality is excellent and I was impressed with the quantity of items in the system which includes file folders, post-it notes, file clips, document envelopes and a roomy file tote. I thought the prices were reasonable as well.

Click here to get to the Office Max website and check out the "In-Place System" for yourself.

Organizing your Take-Out Menus

I saw this in my neighborhood bookstore (Vroman's) the other day and wanted to share it with you. I thought it was a nice way to contain all those take-out menus we probably use more than we should (at least I do).

Tip Tuesday - Parchment Paper - A Cook's Best Friend

I love using parchment paper when I'm baking. It provides a non-stick surface for cookies and other baked goods and clean up is easy - just crumple up the paper and toss it.

Great Idea for Using Up Fabric

I have a friend who is an amazing quilter. She sent me an email recently with such a great idea in it that I asked her if I could share it with you.

Here it is:

My little group made a pact to use up our scraps in 2009. We are only buying new fabric (and it must be on sale) for backings, borders, or background.

I was so happy to read this and wanted to share it with you.

Can we apply this to other areas of our lives? Office supplies, pantry items, clothing,... ? Let me know if you come up with any other ideas.

Container Store's Discount for Teacher Organization

The Container Store is offering educators a 15% discount on everything in the store from May 1 to September 7, 2009. If you are a teacher or you know of one who would be interested in these savings, click here to sign up.

Tip Tuesday - Happy Cinco de Mayo

My tip today is to ask you to please use a designated driver if you go out to celebrate Cinco de Mayo today.

Click here for a little history of the meaning of Cinco de Mayo.

Mother's Day - What Does She Really Want?

I recently read the book "Don't Toss My Memories in the Trash - A Step-by-Step Guide to Helping Seniors Downsize, Organize and Move" by Vickie Dellaquila. She has some great tips for what to buy senior citizens for gifts (birthday, holiday, Mother's Day, etc.). I would like to quote some of those here as I believe they are great ideas for Mother's Day which is coming up this Sunday, May 10th.

Buy gift cards for a restaurant, coffee house, spa or beauty parlor, afternoon tea, taxi ride, errand or cleaning service, car wash or oil change;

Pay for an hour or two of a professional organizer's time;

Give tickets to the theatre, a sporting event or lecture or tickets to the movies with friends;

Pay the registration fees for a class at a senior center or community college;

Buy stamps, soap or stationery; or

Pay for cleaning or cooking services.

Thank you Vickie for this great book which has helped me immensely when dealing with senior clients and with my own parents.

Real Simple Daily Quote for the Day

Here's your Real Simple Magazine quote for today:

The mother of excess is not joy but joylessness.

―Friedrich Nietzsche