room by room storage solutions

Clearing Up the Clutter    post 3

What makes smaller spaces so appealing is their warmth, coziness, and intimacy. But those virtues may be overlooked when you feel like clutter is all you see. Here's good news: A little room can go a long way when you have great solutions for stowing your stuff. With a few tips from our room-by-room guide, see what a big difference storage can make in your home.

Family Room Start with your most heavily trafficked space: the family room or living room. Furniture with built-in storage space is your best bet for living areas.

1. An armoire is the perfect place to store electronic equipment, CDs, puzzles, board games, and other recreational materials. Place photo albums, out-of-season décor, and other items you don't use daily inside decorative, fabric-covered boxes arranged on top of the armoire.

2. A coffee or side table with built-in drawers is the perfect place to keep coasters, playing cards, back issues of magazines, and more. Use small baskets or plastic bins to keep the contents sorted.

3. A front hallway bench or built-in window seat can provide storage for gloves, scarves, and hats. It's also a great catch-all for book bags and other school supplies.

Kitchen. Smaller or galley-style kitchens rely on creative storage for ease of use. Tackle this high-traffic area for more efficient meal preparation.

4. For easy access, add vertical dividers to lower cabinets for storing pizza pans, cutting boards, baking sheets, griddles, and pot lids.

5. To create extra storage space, attach wire organizers to the backs of your cabinet doors.

6. Put dry goods such as pastas, cereals, and rice in labeled, stackable plastic containers to create more shelf room and easier accessibility.

7. Use tiered wire shelving units in your cabinets and pantry to eliminate dead space and double your storage capability for everything from plates and cups to kitchen wraps.

Master Bedroom. Nothing says “sanctuary” like a neat and orderly bedroom, but too often, this room gets ignored in the rush of everyday activity. Try these storage tips to make this space more inviting.

8. Under-the-bed boxes are a great place to store gift-wrapping supplies, out-of-season clothes, baby books, and memorabilia you don't need access to every day. You can also fill luggage with out-of-season clothes and hide it under the bed.

9. Get your closet under control by doubling your hanging space. Move the eye-level rod up slightly, and install a second rod at about waist level. On the shelf, install inexpensive, stackable shelves to create more vertical space for sweaters and handbags. Clear plastic storage bins are perfect for scarves, belts, gloves, and other accessories.

10. Use an upholstered ottoman or cedar chest—ideal for the foot of the bed—to store blankets and other linens. A cedar chest gives the added benefit of protecting wool blankets and sweaters from moths during the warmer months.

Your child's bedroom. With limited space, a child's room is even more likely to need creative storage solutions. Try these suggestions for added storage in unexpected places:

11. Consider a captain's bed, with drawers in the wood cabinetry beneath the mattress, for additional storage.

12. Sort toys by category (action figures, doll clothes, and so on) and place them in plastic stackable storage bins on the closet floor. This will give those little hands easy access. Because children usually don't have much need for hanging clothes, use an old dresser, a bookcase, or stacked plastic crates in the closet for additional storage.

13. Think vertically and hang anything you can throughout the room. Hang lower shelves to stow frequently used books, toys, stuffed animals, and games. Install higher shelves for your child's display items and pictures. Put an inexpensive closet organizer over the door to store coloring books, crayons, stuffed animals, and other small items.

Bathroom. It's particularly tricky to find extra storage space in small bathrooms, but try these tips to make the space work harder for you:

14. Store small towels and washcloths in coordinating colors on the countertop in a wine rack. Rolled and tucked into the holder, they make a functional decoration.

15. If you are installing a new sink, opt for a traditional cabinet vanity to store cleaning products and extra soaps, shampoos, and conditioners. Consider mounting an 8-inch-deep mirrored cabinet above the sink for more storage. If you have a pedestal sink, place small baskets at the base for extra storage.

16. Try shelving that won't interfere with traffic—an over-the-toilet tank, a top-of-the toilet tank, or on any other available wall space. Store everything from cotton balls to swabs in baskets or colored bins that coordinate with your décor to pull the look together.


making a craft armoir or other storage unit

Clearing Up the Clutter   post 2

New Year, New Storage Organization

making-a-craft-armoire

 

Since it is a New Year and way before spring cleaning, I thought I would have you get started on making room for that spring cleaning.  This information gleaned from a Martha Stewart mag. will help start you organizing those little nics and nacs found around the home.

Organizing A Craft Armoire Most people can’t set aside an entire room for craft projects, but a smaller, well-organized space can serve that purpose almost as well.  Here’s how Martha organized her craft “room” in an armoire. Left: Small prefabricated wooden drawers are perfect for storing a variety of craft supplies.  Each drawer pulls out entirely, so it can be carried to the work area. Martha painted these natural-wood drawers a pretty shade of green. Right: Another shelf contains a row of magazine holders. The shelf directly above the holders had to be removed (be sure to save any shelves you remove from an antique armoire), and Martha utilizes the extra clearance by attaching a row of small wooden drawers with L brackets to the underside of the next shelf. Left: Don’t overlook the inside of the armoire door when planning storage space. Here, a café-curtain rod organizes wide rolls of ribbon. Martha positioned the rod where it would allow the door to shut tightly. Below it, a self-healing mat and a ruler hang from C hooks. A stainless-steel wall organizer, sold as a wall-mounted magazine holder, holds several rolls of tissue paper. Right: Martha utilizes recessed corner space with rotating lazy Susans. Single-level lazy Susans are perfect for tall bottles and jars, while two-tiered ones hold smaller containers. Martha labels each side of each small container so its contents can be viewed without lifting it out of place. Left: Galvanized-steel, wood, and plastic bins organize items within the drawers of the armoire. Each container holds a specific category of items such as kids’ paint supplies, a flower-arranging kit, or safety goggles and masks. The bottoms of the drawers are lined with sheets of galvanized steel to protect them from wear. Right: Martha is very pleased with the number of tools and supplies that the craft armoire keeps organized and easily accessible.

Clearing Up the Clutter         post 1

I have decided that since I know of so many people with a lot of clutter in their homes and in their lives, who have asked me for input; I will be doing a few posts on clearing clutter and making spaces to organize those items you do eventually decide to keep in your life.  Enjoy  Herm.

Enjoy Your Thanksgiving Holiday

Happy Halloween - We've officially added California Homes Network

Something to Think About

Delays in bank processing push likely US foreclosures until 2012, stalling recovery

Those of you who have been sitting on the fence about purchasing, please do not let this opportunity pass you by, yet once again.  this is the time to jump off and use those monies you have been diligently saving towards a downpayment and finally get in the game.  following is an article that really does support my thoughts well.:

Report: Delays in bank processing push likely US foreclosures until 2012, stalling recovery

Foreclosure activity slowed in first half of 2011

By ALEX VEIGA ; ASSOCIATED PRESS ; Jul 13, 2011 11:07 PM CDT in Money

The number of homes taken back by lenders in the first half of this year fell 30 percent compared with the same 2010 period, the result of delays in foreclosure processing that threaten to stall a U.S. housing recovery.

FILE - In this Sept. 14, 2010 file photo, a house in Homestead, Fla. sits empty, for sale as a foreclosure home in a neighborhood where half of the houses were empty and up for foreclosure. The number... (Associated Press)

Banks seized 421,212 homes in the first six months of the year, down from 529,633 between January and June last year, foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday.

The decline reflects lenders taking longer to move against homeowners who have fallen behind on their mortgage payments. The banks are working through foreclosure documentation problems that first surfaced last fall and an ensuing logjam in some state courts. Lenders also have put off on taking action against delinquent borrowers as U.S. home sales have slowed this year.

As the processing delays mount, however, so has the backlog of potential foreclosures _ homes that otherwise would have been repossessed by lenders this year.

RealtyTrac estimates that 1 million foreclosure-related notices that should have been filed by banks this year will be pushed to next year. The filings include notices for defaults, scheduled home auctions and home repossessions _ warnings that can lead to a home eventually being lost to foreclosure.

The delayed filings buys more time for many borrowers behind in payments to remain in their homes, perhaps giving them time to catch up or simply to stall their inevitable eviction. But it also means any eventual foreclosures will happen next year, extending the shadow of distressed properties that hovers over the market.

"The best-case scenario is we don't get back to normal levels of foreclosure activity until 2015, which means the housing market recovery gets delayed by at least a year," said Rick Sharga, a senior vice president at RealtyTrac.

And given delays in the time it's taking lenders to move a home from default to foreclosure and then sell the property, the housing turnaround could conceivably be pushed out to as late as 2016, Sharga said.

"It could be the new reality is we're going to have to accept the fact that home prices in most markets aren't going to budge much for the next several years while this overhang gradually, painfully makes its way into the market and gets purchased," he said.

In all, some 1.2 million U.S. homes received a foreclosure-related notice in the first six months of this year, RealtyTrac said.

That's down 29 percent from the same period last year and down 25 percent versus the second half of 2010.

Put another way, one in every 111 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing between January and June.

In addition to repossessing fewer homes, banks also fired off 36 percent fewer initial notices of default in the first half of this year than in the same period last year. The notices are the first step in the foreclosure process.

Foreclosure activity did pick up slightly between May and June, although lenders repossessed fewer homes than they did in June last year.

At the current pace, banks are on track to take back between 800,000 and 900,000 homes this year, down from a record of 1 million lost to foreclosures last year, Sharga said.

The firm had originally anticipated some 1.2 million homes would be repossessed by lenders this year.

Foreclosures typically sell at a discount to other types of homes, weighing down home values. As a result, housing experts say U.S. home prices are unlikely to recover until the glut of foreclosed homes on the market is cleared out.

Lenders have been careful not to unload all of their foreclosures on the market at once, and have financial incentives to continue doing so. But the prospect of more foreclosures hitting the market for years to come makes it difficult to predict when home values will stabilize. And that keeps many would-be homebuyers on the sidelines.

Between April and June, it took an average of 318 days for a home to go from the first stage of foreclosure to the point where it was sold at auction or taken back by the lender, RealtyTrac said. That's up from 298 days in the first three months of the year and up from 277 days in the second quarter of last year.

The foreclosure process took longest to play out in New York at an average of 966 days, or 2.6 years, during the second quarter. New Jersey was second-slowest at an average of 944 days, RealtyTrac said.

Homes were on a relative foreclosure fast-track in Texas, taking an average of 92 days to go through the process, the fastest turnaround time in the nation.

Despite slowdown in foreclosure activity, several states continue to have outsized foreclosure rates.

Nevada continued to lead the nation, with one in every 21 households receiving a foreclosure notice in the first half of this year.

Rounding out the top 10 states with the highest foreclosure rate in the first half of this year are Arizona, California, Utah, Georgia, Idaho, Michigan, Florida, Colorado and Illinois.