Say goodbye to Stray Stuff

Sometimes things just disappear.  Socks, power adapters, an earring…at one point or another we have misplaced the mate to a pair.  I always encourage clients to have a spot to temporarily store things that have lost their friend.  Bins in the laundry room or utility area usually serve nicely.  But just like every other area in the house, these spaces need to be weeded every once in a while.

I once organized with a client who had two kitchen garbage bags full, and I mean FULL, of mismatched socks.  She had been stashing these wandering travelers away for two years.  She and I came to the conclusion that they were not worth the space they were taking up or the money she was supposedly saving by not buying new socks. 

If you are going to create a “Lost and Found” area in your home, weed through it on a regular basis.  Set a rule, that if after 6 months or a year the item has not been re-united with its counterpart, it goes out the door.  As much as we want to we cannot always wait indefinitely for the other half to appear. 

Here are a couple products that we have found useful in preventing separation:

Sock Clips

Sock Clips

Cable Tags

A creative method for storing electrical cords

While organizing solo in a client's spare room a couple weeks ago I ran across a trash bag full of empty toilet paper rolls.  Upon my client's arrival home later that day she would look through a pile of suggested trash so I quickly added this bag to the pile.  About an hour later I came across a gathering of electronics and cords and had to laugh when I saw her creative and simple method for keeping small extension cords under control...

She had bundled a long cord up and slipped it inside a toilet paper roll.  What a great idea!  This solution costs no money and it is so easy.  I absolutely loved her creativity.  I went back to the bag of toilet paper rolls and pulled a couple out for her...

Organize power adapters once and for all

My clients have some of the coolest organizational ideas!!  Especially my tech clients, the guys who deal with computers,wires and cables everyday.  I always enjoy learning about solutions other people create to make their lives easier.  This one is a simple but smart gem!

Every house seems to have an abundance of homeless and unclaimed power adapters.  It's easy to hold onto all of them because you are not sure what device belongs to which power adapter.  The last thing you want is to throw a way a power source to a machine you still use!  To avoid this problem it helps to label the adapters in some way.  But why invest in labels that peel off, don't work or cost money? 

My client took a fine tip permanent marker and simply wrote on the body of every adapter.  Brilliant!  He listed the device it powered and the voltage.  I was shocked to see that the red or black permanent marker would show up on black adapters as well.

Once you write on the adapters either store them with the device they belong to or put them all into a small container with the rest of your household utility items, labeing the bin “power adapters”.  Problem solved!

Cell phone storage

I am always on the lookout for cool organizing products that actually serve a purpose. As we all know, there is nothing worse than a gadget that doesn’t live up to its expectations and makes life more difficult. How about those unruly cell phones, PDAs and mp3 players? What happens when you charge them? Electrical cords end up all over the counter and the device just lays there. To solve this problem check out the driinn® Mobile Phone Holder available online. It hangs from the battery charger in your wall, corrals the charging cord and gives you an accessible platform to simply lift the device off of. On top of that it comes in great colors. So if your family share plan required you all to have the same phone at least the different colors will tell your daughter’s and son’s phone apart! This product can be bought online at the driin® website.