Holiday Lights for Less!

Watch your bills flatline and help the environment!

We  use an extraordinary amount of additional electricity during the holidays.  A 2003 study conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy determined that Americans consume about 2220 GWh of electricity each holiday season by using standard incandescent holiday lights -which is equivalent to all the energy used by Angola in one year.  The study concluded that a mere 20% switch by American households to LED Christmas lights would save 440 GWh (or 1/5^th of electricity) during the holiday season.

You can purchase LED lights and recycle your old incandescents here:

www.holidayleds.com

http://www.holidayleds.com/holidayledscom_christmas_light_recycling_program

To help organize your lights and/or extension cords re-use plastic curtain containers.  You can loosely wrap and store them.  Most are see through and easy to label with a sharpie!

Drink Wine! Get Organized!

One of the things I am most passionate about is coming up with creative ways to repurpose every day items to help people get organized!  With the holidays coming up now is a great time to go through all of your ornaments and get organized. Instead of buying a specialty made plastic container for ornaments you can use an empty case of wine box.  After you have enjoyed the wine, you have a perfect carton to organize your ornaments. If the box kept glass bottles of wine undamaged your ornaments will be safe.  If you have multiple boxes, the uniform boxes will be easy to store. You can also color coordinate boxes.  Don’t drink wine? You can go to your local Wine Store where they have an area with empty boxes. What is your favorite item to repurpose?

Affordable School Supplies!!!!

If you have not heard of or been to The Scrap Exchange in Durham I wholeheartedly recommend a trip! This place takes stuff that people would normally toss and use it to create art or for other projects.

If you are a teacher, home school your kids or need back to school supplies, this is an affordable gold mine!  Some of the “new” items they recently received this month include: 1940-70s Vintage Magazines, Mini Glass Beakers and VXI Tuffset Headsets.

It is a great place for an alternative birthday party for kids, too or to get your creative juices flowing. For instance, they have wallpaper samples. I am in the process of repairing my old dollhouse for my nieces and those samples are going to be perfect!

Check out their groovy site:

http://www.scrapexchange.org/

For those outside of the Triangle area, here are some similar stores:

http://www.scrapbox.org/ in Ann Arbor

http://www.artsandscraps.org/  in Detriot

http://urbanore.ypguides.net/ in Berkeley

http://www.mfta.org/ New York

If you have not heard of or been to The Scrap Exchange in Durham I wholeheartedly recommend a trip! This place takes stuff that people would normally toss and use it to create art or for other projects.

If you are a teacher, home school your kids or need back to school supplies, this is an affordable gold mine!  Some of the “new” items they recently received this month include: 1940-70s Vintage Magazines, Mini Glass Beakers and VXI Tuffset Headsets.

It is a great place for an alternative birthday party for kids, too or to get your creative juices flowing. For instance, they have wallpaper samples. I am in the process of repairing my old dollhouse for my nieces and those samples are going to be perfect!

Check out their groovy site:

http://www.scrapexchange.org/

For those outside of the Triangle area, here are some similar stores:

http://www.scrapbox.org/ in Ann Arbor

http://www.artsandscraps.org/  in Detriot

http://urbanore.ypguides.net/ in Berkeley

http://www.mfta.org/ New York

Was it on Wiggio?

The family that calendars together, stays together!  A fan on my Facebook like page told me about this site:

http://wiggio.com/

She writes, “It lets you set up a web based family calendar that you and your kids can access from anywhere. They post their own sleepovers, babysitting gigs, school performances, and we adults post our own obligations. They can look and… see if we already have plans for the weekend before they make plans. While at work, I can see in one spot what everyone else is doing after work and who needs a ride to where. It’s not perfect but if they don’t post their own stuff and then suddenly say, “but, I NEED a ride to the movie” we ask, was it on the Wiggio?” The site also allows you to host conferences,  web meetings & chat rooms as well as a bunch of other really cool stuff.  Check it out!

Do you know what you own?

I lived in Los Angeles for ten years where we were always under threat from THE BIG ONE.

Raleigh might not have a hurricane come through like it did in the 80s, but your house could catch on fire, a tree could fall on it, etc. I am not trying to sound alarmist; but rather give you peace of mind by suggesting some preparation.

My real estate agent, Amy Shair (“Call Amy for your Shair of the market!”  Sorry, I love that and every time I see her name I have to say it!) sent me this wonderful Free Home Inventory site to help assist you in the process:

http://www.whatyouown.org/

What can you do today to give yourself peace of mind and be prepared for an emergency?

For more about Amy and her real estate services:

http://www.amyshair.com/

Organizing Your Mind for the School Year

First, take some time to reflect:

What do you want to accomplish for the school year?

What does your child want to focus on?

What are the priorities for the family?

Then, decide on goals:

Donating Stuffed Animals

Purge before the school year starts.  Here is a wonderful local resource where you can donate them.  If animals are stained, torn up, etc. then do not donate them.  I always tell people would you give it to a friend or family member?

For North Carolina residents: brandi_byers@yahoo.com

Currently accepting items: Gently used stuffed animals, new stuffed animals, gently used children’s books, new children’s books, gently used baby/children’s blankets, new baby/children’s blankets.

To find a chapter near you:

http://www.stuffedanimalsforemergencies.org/Chapters.html

All I am askin’ for is a little RESPECT!

In the September 2009  issue of O magazine Suze Orman talked about money and personal power. Her last point was about how you respect your possessions says a lot about how you respect yourself.

Suze talked about when she was wealthy she would throw her clothes into a pile each day because she was too lazy to hang them up and thus spent a ton on dry cleaning.  She felt it showed that she didn’t respect the money she worked so hard to earn. Now, her closets are “temples of organization.”

Sometimes a room becomes so overwhelming you don’t know where to start. That is where a professional organizer can come in and help.

Are you showing respect to those items you worked so hard to earn?

3 of the New 5 R’s

Most of the environmental damage is done in the manufacturing stage, so the less consumerism, the better.  According to the EPA, Americans produced 254.1 million tons of household trash in 2007.  In 2008, landfills reported a 30% decline in waste levels.  Keep in mind the five R’s when you are getting organized.  Make every day Earth Day!

Here are three of the five:

Eco-Organizing: Another Excuse to Hold onto Trash?

Someone asked me if being green in organizing was simply another excuse to hold onto trash and keep clutter.  ABSOLUTELY NOT!

There was an article in the N & O last year about an artist who makes art from stuff people want to throw away.  Some people might see it still as junk, but this man has chosen to make something artistic out of it. I am not a big fan of modern art, so I can see how people wouldn’t appreciate what he has created.  Alas, beauty is in the eye of the beholder!

So many times when I see organizing or cleaning shows on TV I see all of this good stuff just being chucked into a container to be dumped at a landfill later.  Eco-organizing is about recycling what you can according to your local laws; reusing items that are in good condition; donating items, such as clothes, that can be used by someone else.  There are many alternatives out there (freecyle/Craigs List, etc.) for you to give to someone else instead of simply pitching.  There are also many everyday items you can repurpose to help you get organized.

Every little bit makes a difference.

What can you do today to make the world a little more green?

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