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Here are some specific tips and resources to help get you started.

Tips for your Living Areas
1. Make your own magazine
You can accomplish two goals at once: eliminate the clutter of magazines and newspapers, and make sure you read the things that interest you. First, go through them quickly and tear out the articles you want to read. For magazines it's easiest to just scan the Table of Contents.

Then, simply staple the articles together, place them in a folder, and put the folder in your bag or briefcase. You'll always have something good to read during downtime.
Supplies for this tip:
- Stapler
- File folders

2. Transform a book collection into your personal library.
Make books a pleasure both to look at and to read by organizing them by topic. Grouping art books together is like designing your own private museum; having reference books in one place makes it super-easy to look up the odd fact.

Anchor your bookshelves by putting the weightiest books at the bottom, and go up from there: novels, mysteries, travel.... It's easy and fun to have a library that beckons to you, whether you want to re-read a favorite mystery or dream about Paris.
Supplies for this tip:
- Bookshelves and Bookends

Tips for your Kitchen
3. Kitchen Cabinet magic
The magic word for kitchen cabinets is: lazy susans. The 10-½" size fits standard 11"-deep cabinets; I use the double-decker version for spices, and the single-layer version for vitamins, oils, canned goods, etc.. No more moving things around every time you want something at the back of the cabinet!
Supplies for this tip:
- Lazy susan turntables (Rubbermaid, item # 2936 & 2937)

4. Food measuring made easy
If you, like me, routinely measure out the same ingredients at mealtime -- coffee, hot cereal, flour -- eliminate the wasted effort of measuring and then washing a single utensil day after day by simply storing the utensil inside of the container. For instance, I keep a ¼-cup measuring cup inside of my oatmeal storage container.
Supplies for this tip:
- Measuring cups
- Food storage containers

Tips for your Home Office
5. Keep your desktop clear of anything you don't use every day.
Desks have a natural tendency to become cluttered with supplies we need but that get in the way until it's time to use them: stapler, tape, a calculator, scrap paper for notes, paper clips….the list goes on.

Stow these things on a shelf within arm's reach of your desk, or in an easy-access drawer. You'll love having the space freed up on the desktop, while giving your necessities a handy home.

6. Set up a bill-paying center
Keep your checkbook, stamps, return-address labels and blank envelopes in a single, easy-to-access location, gathered together in a small rack that's dedicated to this purpose.

At bill-paying time you'll write the checks, stamp the envelopes, and put them near the door to be mailed, in one easy motion.
Supplies for this tip:
- #10 envelopes
- bill-holder rack

Tips for your Closets
7. What to wear, and where to find it
The daily getting-dressed dilemma -- what to wear, and where is it, anyway? - is easily solved with a well-organized closet.

Group your clothing first by type - hang all jackets together, all pants, skirts, shirts or blouses - and then by color: all white shirts together, all blue, etc. This simple trick will significantly reduce your morning search time.
Supplies for this tip:
- Good-quality hangers

8. Preserve your favorite shoes forever (almost)
Prolong the life of the shoes you love by taking good care of them even when they're sitting in the closet. The faithful use of shoe trees -- even plastic ones -- will help shoes retain their shape no matter what torture you've put them through that day.
Supplies for this tip:
- Shoe Trees (find them at your local shoe repair shop)

Tips for the rest of the house
9. Give yourself the supplies you need, and keep them where you use them
For example, scissors come in handy in just about every room. Rather than having just one set that you have to search for every time you need them, why not put a pair wherever you use them: in the office for dealing with papers, in your art/craft/gift-wrapping area, in the kitchen, at your bill-paying center (see above), in the bathroom, and even a small pair near your closet, for cutting price tags and loose threads from clothing.
Supplies for this tip:
- Various sizes of scissors

10. Binder clips are the answer
Medium-sized office binder clips provide the solution to a myriad of common kitchen, bathroom, and craft/gift-wrapping annoyances. I use them to seal chip and cookie bags, to roll up my toothpaste tube, and to hang lightweight artwork. And now that they're available in a variety of colors, they look great, too!
Supplies for this tip:
Medium-sized binder clips

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