More Style Than Cash

Organizing Your Electronics and Gizmos- The Ultimate Organizing Guide - Day 29

By Ingrid Talpak on January 29, 2013 12:30 PM | 1 Comment | 0 TrackBacks

Roughly 100 years ago people began to hear of amazing devices that were being developed. Electricity for the home, radio and airplanes were a few of the inventions on the horizon. They were amazed at what was being produced and wondered at what modern science would invent next.

The technology that we have in our homes and so easily take for granted would have astounded them. Now we don't know what the next new thing will be because once again technology is moving fast.

Because it is changing so quickly what you had paid top dollar for a few years ago might now be considered outdated technology. It would be great to keep up but it would be foolish to buy the next newest toy every few months, you would be broke.

You need to take an inventory of the technology in your home.

Continue reading Organizing Your Electronics and Gizmos- The Ultimate Organizing Guide - Day 29.

Starting on the Paper Work & Budget - Organizing Your Home Office - The Ultimate Organizing Guide - Day 28

By Ingrid Talpak on January 28, 2013 8:32 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks

It is almost impossible to not have an office in your home these days even if you do not run a business or have to bring your work home.

Even to do simple correspondence with family and friends when you are sending out birthday and holiday cards means you have to have some sort of writing area.

Add to that the paper work you need for settling your bills, filing warranties, tax papers, medical information and legal documents and the paper keeps piling up.

You have to think carefully where you are keeping all these papers

Continue reading Starting on the Paper Work & Budget - Organizing Your Home Office - The Ultimate Organizing Guide - Day 28.

Organizing Your Crafting - The Ultimate Organizing Guide - Day 27

By Ingrid Talpak on January 27, 2013 8:40 PM | 1 Comment | 0 TrackBacks

I wrote about scrap booking yesterday which many people have as a craft hobby. Crafting is an extremely popular way that many people spend their spare time and even make money from.

If you enjoy making things then there is a world of crafting out there for you to explore. As most of it requires that you buy some type of specialty supplies or equipment the cost of it can pile up very quickly and so can the space that it uses.

It use to be that crafts were considered to be a inexpensive hobby that would save people money but now craft stores are filled with all sorts of fun and expensive things to buy.

Your crafting hobbies can take over your house.

Continue reading Organizing Your Crafting - The Ultimate Organizing Guide - Day 27.

Organizing Your Photos - The Ultimate Organizing Guide - Day 26

By Ingrid Talpak on January 26, 2013 12:47 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks

There was a time were estimates could easily be made about how many photographs had been taken since the invention of the camera (in the billions). Now with cameras in cellphones and digital technology all estimates are strictly guess work (in the trillions....every year?)

While a lot of photos that are taken these days were never meant to last the long haul you do have some pictures that mean a great deal to you that you want to make sure stay safe.

With it being so easy to take pictures and download them onto you your computer many people are falling behind actually printing out these photos and if the computer is damaged they have lost the pictures forever.

How do you start organizing all your photos?

Continue reading Organizing Your Photos - The Ultimate Organizing Guide - Day 26.

Organizing Your Family Room and Living Room Work - The Ultimate Organizing Guide - Day 25

By Ingrid Talpak on January 25, 2013 6:32 AM | 1 Comment | 0 TrackBacks

We are half way through the 50 Day Organizational series! Today we are going to inventory your Family Room/Living Room.

Generally most people use this room to socialize with their family and it might have a television in it, shelving for books and scrap books, maybe a stereo system, piano and if your children are very young it might be strewn with toys.

If you have a larger home you might have a secondary family room in the basement that many people call a rec room. Often these mimic the upstairs family room but are more child friendly and have large televisions.

Are you using your Family Room/Living Room to it's full potential?

Continue reading Organizing Your Family Room and Living Room Work - The Ultimate Organizing Guide - Day 25.

Organizing the Front Hallway Closet - The Ultimate Organizing Guide - Day 24

By Ingrid Talpak on January 24, 2013 6:39 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks

For the amount we need and use our front closets they really should be the size of a small stadium.

Unfortunately most homes have a hall closet the size of well.... a closet. When you're running out the front door in the morning you just want to have the ability to grab what ever you need and go. If you have a large family that means everyone is jostling to get out and coats, shoes, boots, backpacks are mixed up together.

There might be other things that you want handy by your front door and the hall closet seems like the obvious place for them.

Is it possible to get everything you want in there?

Continue reading Organizing the Front Hallway Closet - The Ultimate Organizing Guide - Day 24.

Making Your Own Boxes for Organizing - The Ultimate Organizing Guide - Day 23

By Ingrid Talpak on January 23, 2013 12:44 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks

It is hard to judge the size of organizing containers and storage that you might need before you actually start putting things away.

It is easy to buy small organizers from the dollar store that you can place in drawers to sort out the small items that you have but the sizes are somewhat limiting and you don't want to put money into a solutions until you are sure that solution will work.

You can easily make organizing boxes large and small to sort items and then when you are sure that the size they are is a solution that will work you can look for permanent organizer in plastic and wood.

Continue reading Making Your Own Boxes for Organizing - The Ultimate Organizing Guide - Day 23 .

Designation Day - What Goes Where Upstairs - The Ultimate Organizing Guide - Day 22

By Ingrid Talpak on January 22, 2013 6:00 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks

You need to start putting things back. I am assuming that you have an upstairs but if you don't then just think of the space that is in and around your bedrooms. You probably have closets and cupboards and shelving.

Today you are going to designate what every area upstairs will be for. Every room, every closet, every drawer. You now know what you have upstairs, and how much of everything, so you now realize whether you have the space to store it upstairs or if it needs to me moved somewhere else.

Maybe it made a lot of sense when you originally used your bedroom as a office because the children were little and you didn't want them to get into the paperwork else where in the house.

Today you need to decide if your original ideas of where to keep things is still valid.

Continue reading Designation Day - What Goes Where Upstairs - The Ultimate Organizing Guide - Day 22.

Stuff and Collections- What Stays and What Goes - The Ultimate Organizing Guide - Day 21

By Ingrid Talpak on January 21, 2013 4:24 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks

When does something become a collection? When you admire it and have 3 of them? When family members know to buy you one for your birthday? When you look around and realize that you have more than 100 of them in your home?

Maybe you have accidental collections, you didn't even realize that you were buying the same things over and over again. I have over 25 egg cups.... yes I really like boiled eggs and I really like egg cups but until I inventoried them I had no idea I had so many.

May it's not a collection and never meant to be one, you just have a lot of the same stuff, how do you organize it all?

Continue reading Stuff and Collections- What Stays and What Goes - The Ultimate Organizing Guide - Day 21.

Organizational Battle Plan - The Ultimate Organizing Guide - Day 20

By Ingrid Talpak on January 20, 2013 9:28 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks

You are on a roll. You've finished up huge sections of your bedrooms, started you full inventory and kept up on writing down what you spend everyday.

But now you are staring at that desk/closet/chest of drawers that you stuff everything into and you don't have a clue on how to tackle it.

You've tried before and all that happened was you pulled everything out, looked at it in despair and shoved everything back in.

There is a way to organize without driving yourself crazy and actually getting it done.

Continue reading Organizational Battle Plan - The Ultimate Organizing Guide - Day 20.

Organizing Your Bedrooms - The Ultimate Organizing Guide - Day 19

By Ingrid Talpak on January 19, 2013 11:47 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks

At this point you have looked through every space in your bedrooms and have decided what stays and what goes.

So what is left?

Probably one of the easiest tasks you have so far, the actual inventory of you bedrooms.

Since your closet and jewelry is done and you know where your mementos are what is left in your bedroom should be the items that are useful, practical, beautiful and really mean something to you.

Or is it still full of clutter.

Continue reading Organizing Your Bedrooms - The Ultimate Organizing Guide - Day 19.

Organizing Your Memories and Mementos - The Ultimate Organizing Guide - Day 18

By Ingrid Talpak on January 18, 2013 12:00 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks

As you went through your bedroom did you get stuck on some things?

That chipped ring holder that makes you laugh every time you use it because a friend won it for you at a summer fair, programs and tickets from concerts or your stuffed teddy bear that is beginning to smell a little off.

You can't get rid of this stuff but there is so much of it you just don't know what to do with it.

You don't want to jettison all your memories and mementos but are you being realistic about what these things really mean to you?

Continue reading Organizing Your Memories and Mementos - The Ultimate Organizing Guide - Day 18.

Where Does It All Go? - The Ultimate Organizing Guide - Day 17

By Ingrid Talpak on January 17, 2013 8:32 PM | 2 Comments | 0 TrackBacks

Everything that you have organized so far had a place to live. Your clothes go in the closet, your toiletries in the bathroom and your linens all in one place. If everything was so easy.

What do you find when you open a drawer in any room in your home. Is it all organized with like items with like items or is it what ever fits in there got stuffed in.

What's in your bedroom? Your bed, bedside table, maybe a chest of drawers.... and all you exercise equipment, personal correspondence, those projects that you want to get to, hobbies, etc. etc.?

If you live in a small space then you don't have a choice but to double up how you use each room, but how do you organize it all?

Continue reading Where Does It All Go? - The Ultimate Organizing Guide - Day 17.

Organizing the Linen Closet - The Ultimate Organizing Guide - Day 16

By Ingrid Talpak on January 16, 2013 6:14 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks

Every few years there seems to be a simple regular home item that reaches super stardom. About 15 years ago it was bed linens.

Gone were the days that you just bought some sheets for your bed, now everyone seemed to be an expert on thread count and Egyptian cotton.

We were urged to have a wardrobe of sheets for our bedroom. Gorgeous designer linens were produced by all the known fashion houses and the prices fit the designer names.

Every one needs sheets and towels so it made sense that they should be so strongly marketed as a luxury item that everyone could afford. There still is a market out there for designer linens, and the prices you can pay are still amazing.

Linens are something that you use every day, so how many do you have?

Continue reading Organizing the Linen Closet - The Ultimate Organizing Guide - Day 16.

Jeepers, Peepers - Organizing Sunglasses, Eyeglasses and Contacts - The Ultimate Organizing Guide - Day 15

By Ingrid Talpak on January 15, 2013 6:00 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks

Do you wear contact lenses or have glasses?

Even if you don't wear anything now as you age chances are you will.

Eye glasses are one of those funny items that fall half way between fashion and medicine. You can't see with out them and you don't want to be seen with them if they are horrible looking.

Glasses can also be pricey. It doesn't matter how well you take care of them if your eyes have changed then you will need new lenses. Of course many people now decide to do laser surgery instead but for those that chose not to or are not good candidates for it then glasses or contacts are their only options.

The cost of contacts have plummeted in the last decade and financially they can be a very good option, but if you wear contacts then you still probably need a pair of glasses for back up in case of any eye problems.

Continue reading Jeepers, Peepers - Organizing Sunglasses, Eyeglasses and Contacts - The Ultimate Organizing Guide - Day 15.

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