Organize your chargers, live forever

Do you have one of those spots in your kitchen where everything lands? The cell phone chargers, pens, pencils, scraps of paper, stray kittens, junked cars, spy manuals?

Don't we all?

I was shopping around recently for a solution for a client who wants to organize her kitchen counter top and came up with a few solutions I like:

This one is from Pottery Barn and comes in black, red and in a couple of wood stains. I love the way it organizes the electronics. You could stick a vase or planter for pens and pencils on that top shelf, too.

It sells for between 59.99 and $79, depending on the color.

This one is from Vat19 and is $48.95. It's a bit more utilitarian looking, but would blend right in if you've got a dark counter top.

Check out this one from spacesavers.com. It's smaller, but I love this lime green. It's $19.99 and comes in black and red, too.

This is from KangaRoom Storage and is made of bamboo. It's got a sleeker, more modern look and costs $45.

Finally, this comes from Levenger and is quite handsome, I thought. It also comes in black and is $158.

Where you put the kittens, though, I don't know...

Toys? What toys?

Ever wish we lived back in the day when kids had like one toy apiece? It might have been a dried up apple core, a wee strip of tree bark, maybe some fossilized dinosaur poop?

Storing those toys would have been easy. Today, not so much.

Here's a suggestion for keeping children's things under wraps in the more public rooms of the house.

See the cabinet up there? I got that for $5 at an auction. It needed a few nails, a little stain and I hacked off the legs.

And here was the tricky part: I nailed a few starfish (dried; I think the live ones would wiggle too much) to the doors. Just use little nails and don't whack them too hard.

It's about four feet tall and inside there are wooden drawers when little toys live and some shelves for games.

I'd love to hear if you have any good ideas for storing toys in your living room or family room. Pass them along!

Soylent Green is people

In my line of work, I help people beautify their homes by using, mostly, what they already own. My feeling is this: Many of us have plenty of stuff, plenty of stuff we really like in fact, we just don't know how to pull it all together to create pleasing, comfortable, organized spaces.

In fact, sometimes too much stuff is what keeps us from creating pleasing, comfortable, organized spaces.

If that is the case in your home, listen to this: It's OK to get rid of things.

Perhaps to you that seems obvious, but I have run into numerous (wonderful) people who don't see this as an option: Because someone they love owned the thing, gave them the thing, or maybe just because they have Always Had The Thing.

I'm here to tell you: People you love or who love you really, really don't care if you get rid of stuff associated with them. Stop calling them, sending them money on their birthday, or smiling at their memory, that's a problem. Getting rid of the stuff that bottles up your home and gets in the way of loving where you live, that's not a problem.

Same with stuff you've owned for ages. These items are not your friends. Friends don't let friends live in cluttered houses.

Stuff isn't people.

So what to do with it all?

• Hold a yard (tag, garage) sale (I'm having my annual sale soon...more tips to follow).
  



• Sell items on craigslist (there are some peculiarities to doing this; more on this another time).
  
  


• Find a consignment shop. Depending on the kind of store, you can consign everything from furniture and household items to baby equipment and clothes and get a cut of the sale.
  



• Sell collectible or unusual or hard-to-find items on eBay.
  



• Donate things to charity. Some charities even pick up.
  



• Get together with friends and relatives for a clothing, accessory or product swap. (Ever wind up with perfectly good makeup, shampoo or perfume that just doesn't work for you? This is a good way to get rid of them and try something else.)
  

Go ahead, do it. It's OK.