You may have discovered that there is rarely enough space for all your stuff in your home.

The good news is that there are many ways to organize your home and get all that clutter under control. You just have to get a little creative with creating storage space.

Here are a few tips and tricks to finding a place for all of your things so that you can have enough space to breathe and not feel the cramped pressure of clutter.

Reduce Your Clutter

• Closets were meant for ‘now’ items like linens, clothes, shoes and jackets. If you only use it once a year, it needs another home.
• Under the bed and under the stairs are great places to stash stuff. Get the right sized containers so that nothing gets crammed anywhere.
• Attics are actually pretty lousy storage space because you’re having to climb up a rickety ladder with arm loads of stuff to put it up there. It’s not climate controlled and if there are critters living anywhere in your house, the attic is the most likely spot. It’s a great place for Santa to hide presents, but other than that most attics are full of hassles for storing things.
• In the kitchen you can de-clutter your cabinets by hanging your pots and pans, mounting a knife rack on the wall and hanging a fruit holder from the ceiling as well.
• Renting a small storage unit is the best for seasonal items like holiday decorations and outdoor summer equipment or pool toys. Just rotate items in and out based on their use and enjoy the freed up space in your home.

There is no reason to live under the burden of clutter.

You and your family will feel better if you have everything under control and out of the way.

Tim Eyre works in the self storage industry, regularly traveling to see locations like East Boston self storage facility. In many locations, like self storage unit in York, Tim helps his customers store seasonal sports gear when it is not being used for outdoor activities or equipment for home improvement projects that are waiting to happen.

Trying to hunt down a document you need in a sea of unorganized piles of paper is a frustrating experience.

Whether it is the power bill that is due today, five years of mortgage statements for a refinance, or just the warranty for your lawn mower that broke, disorganization can lead to more than stress.

It’s costing you real money and time because you may be:

1. Replacing your appliances and electronics that are still under warranty because the booklet/receipt is lost.
2. Losing tax deductions because of lost receipts and paperwork.
3. Racking up late fees due to misplaced bills.
4. Missing opportunities to use the coupons buried in a pile on your desk.
5. And most importantly, wasting your precious time looking for documents.

How much is your time worth?

Would you agree that investing a few hours into organizing all the paper in your home is worth gaining the ability to quickly find any document you need in less than a minute?

If you are drowning in piles of paper and ready to make a change, my book “Crawl Out From Under the Paper” will help you get a filing system that is easy to manage set up in no time. I even give you preprinted file labels that cover almost anything you could need to file.

BONUS chapters include how to organize your bills, organize files on your computer, a family chore chart, and other time-saving tips.

In honor of January, the time to make resolutions to get organized, the ebook is only $5.99 to download for a limited time. PLUS this year $1 for every book purchased will go to Kiva.org. Get the book here and make 2012 the year you get organized.

The Spice Stack is a wonderful way to organize your spices.

This has been a particularly frustrating clutter problem for me due to an extensive spice collection.

For years I’ve searched for the perfect solution without any luck, so I was thrilled to discover the Spice Stack.

3 Advantages of using the Spice Stack:

• Not knocking over bottles while searching for one
• Finding the needed spice with ease
• Eliminating the purchase of duplicates

The Spice Stack holds 27 regular jars in three easy-to-pull-out drawers. I wasn’t concerned that the large, bulk-sized versions don’t fit since I only have a couple of them.

A sheet of pre-printed labels for commonly-used spices, as well as a sheet of blank labels, is included. Assembly is nothing more than adding your labels and spices.

You can place your spices in the drawers alphabetically or according to their use. I opted for organizing them alphabetically because I have so many. That is when I realized there were many duplicates simply because I didn’t know what I had.

The Spice Stack is made to fit in a cabinet, but I’m using it in the pantry. If you need more than one, they stack nicely.

I like how the drawers smoothly slide out and can then be lowered at an angle so you can get to them easily and they won’t fall out. The following video shows how easily they slide:

Another spicy tip

Write the month/year you purchased your spices on the bottom of the jar so you know when to replace them. They tend to lose their flavor over time.

Due to the number of jars I have, I’m ordering a second Spice Stack.

While you are on the road, you need to keep your business receipts in one place. You are required to turn in an expense report to reimburse you for work-related expenses. Your saved receipts are scattered all over your glove box, your wallet, your briefcase and your car. How do you tame the paper trail? Here are some suggestions.

1. Invest in a Filing Cabinet

Your receipts will ultimately come to rest in a filing cabinet. Invest in a good locking filing cabinet and fill it with hanging folders, manila folders and small envelopes. Create a hanging folder for each month, placing labeled manila folders inside. Place the information that you have sent your accounting department into that folder. Include the printout of the PDFs, the actual receipts, and any copies of your accountant’s paperwork. This will provide proof in case anything gets lost.

2. Start a Spreadsheet

A spreadsheet can help you keep your categories organized. You do not have to use elaborate accounting software. All you need is a simple spreadsheet program which separates information into cells. Enter your pertinent information into the spreadsheet, including date, category, place, purpose, and amount. Keep a separate tab for each month.

3. Scan Your Receipts

Scan your receipts, one at a time, into PDF format. Use pertinent information in the name of the file. If you’ve got a gas receipt for October, label the file ‘October – Gas – 101010 – 2485.’ After you have scanned your receipts, put the originals into a single folder for that month. At the end of the month, create a single file of PDFs for that month and combine it with the information from your spreadsheet.

4. Shoeboxed

Shoeboxed will organize your receipts into an easy-to-use format. [Free, Plans start at $9.95 per month] If you do not have time to scan your receipts, place them into one of the postage-paid envelopes that Shoeboxed provides and mail them. Shoeboxed will scan your documents and organize them. For those businesses with backlogged receipts, Shoeboxed offers special plans to assist their customers.

5. Be Regular

Take a few moments every week to scan and file your documents. This keeps you from being faced with a mountain at the end of the month. The entire process of scanning, noting, and filing should take no longer than an hour. This process will save frantic searches and scrambling to get your expense reports filed on time.

6. Keep a Folder in Your Briefcase

While you are on the road, it is sometimes not feasible to scan and file your reimbursable receipts. Keep all of your receipts in one place by carrying a manila folder in your briefcase. This folder should have stapled edges. You should carry a single envelope within the folder for the smaller receipts. Nothing will get lost, and you can provide notations on the outside of the folder.

7. Know Your Accountant

Accounting departments will inevitably issue rules for reimbursement practices. Find out their requirements before you establish your personal filing system. Do they want to receive physical receipts? Are they just as pleased with scanned documents? Do you need to hand write everything for authenticity? For larger companies, there is usually a requirements list. Is there anything that will expedite the process?

The best way to handle the clutter of paper receipts is to attend to them immediately. When this is not possible, set aside a regular time each week to scan, sort, and put away your receipts. You will no longer have to worry about tiny slips of paper populating your wallet, billfold, or purse. If you are organized, your accounting department will reward you with faster reimbursement.

James Adams writes for Cartridge Save, but contributes guest posts regularly to other blogs. He analyzes and reviews Dell ink cartridges among other printer cartridges.

Do you shop online?

The convenience of online shopping makes it an attractive option when time is limited.

Want to continue to receive updates about clearance sales without cluttering up your regular email account?

Create an email to use just for online shopping

Use a free email account (Live, Gmail, etc.) which has many advantages:

1. All communication regarding shopping goes in one place.
   
   
2. Your regular email account isn’t cluttered with sales updates.
   
   
3. Live and Gmail have wonderful spam filters.
   
   
4. If spam ever gets to be a problem you can easily:
   • Create a new email account
   • Update your profile information only with the stores you purchase items from.
   • Delete the older email account.
5. If you change internet providers, your shopping email account isn’t effected.

Many people have photos everywhere: they could be dumped into boxes, mounted in stacks of albums, still in unopened envelopes from the developer, strewn about in drawers or displayed in an ever-increasing array of picture frames.

You would think that digital photos would be easy to manage, but often they are not. Some people print out all their digital photos, adding them to the stack of traditional photographs they have to deal with. Probably even more people have so many photos piling up on their computer that they can fill up their hard drive if they’re not careful.

Here you will find 10 tips for keeping family photos organized that will help you preserve your heritage without all the clutter in digital and in paper form.

Traditional Photographs

1. Choose your organization method: Grouping your photographs by size makes them more manageable when stored in a box or on a shelf. You can get special sleeves used for archiving photographs that match the size of your photographs. Although this method makes them look neat, they often don’t fit well chronologically, meaning that you may have to sort your photos by date or event and then by size.
   
   
2. Develop your old exposed film: It’s amazing how many rolls of film are sitting around in drawers never having been developed. It’s time to find out what’s on those images. Use a special developer that specializes in processing old film to get the best results.
   
   
3. Protect your color photographs: Many people don’t realize that color prints don’t last forever. In fact, the life of a color photo is estimated to be about fifty years. The way to extend the life of your photographs so future generations can enjoy them is to store them in archival quality acid-free sleeves.
   
   
4. Drop the bad shots: You probably don’t need those thumb shots, accidental photographs of the ground or sky, and photos that are so blurred you can’t even tell who’s in them. Throw them away: they are useless. By getting rid of the bad photos you will save space, while tidying up your collection.
   
   
5. Get a scanner: You can get one a special photo scanner or a general purpose high resolution scanner and convert your old photographs into a digital format. You will probably want to keep the originals, but you will be able to preserve them forever in digital format whereas time takes its toll on physical prints.
   
   

Digital Photographs

6. Control the bloat: By eliminating the cost and hassle of photo processing, digital photography has enabled camera owners to take as many photos as they like, resulting in mountains of gigabytes inside computers rather than the cluttered drawers, shelves, and boxes formerly associated with photographs. Choose the images you want to keep and delete the rest.
   
   
7. Name your files right away: You don’t need those generic names that start with “untitled” or “img.” Name your files right away before you forget what they are about. Also, adopt a naming system that makes sense so your images are easy to sort and search.
   
   
8. Tag your images: Photo managers such as Picasa, Flickr, Facebook, and others allow you to identify the people in each photograph, making your collection easy to search and sort. You can also add keywords that help you quickly locate images of certain types and events.
   
   
9. Use folders: Create folders to conveniently sort your photos. If something goes wrong you’re your photo manager, you need a system that makes photos easy to find using nothing but your operating system.
   
   
10. Backup regularly: Many people spend a lot of time organizing their digital photos only to lose them all in a hard drive crash. Use an online backup service, an external hard drive, or optical Blu-ray or DVD disks to make sure you always have a copy even if bad things happen to your computer.
    
    

Use these 10 tips for keeping family photographs organized and you will see how a small investment in time and effort can make your photos more enjoyable for you, your family, and your friends.

This guest article was written by James Adams, a tech analyst who works at a leading printer cartridges store offering franking machine supplies. Although most of his time is taken up writing about newly released hardware, James is particularly interested in posting about business processes and productivity.

Organizing things that tend to spread out through the house

1. Loose change

Designate a cup or jar to collect loose change around the house. I call it my tip jar since I seem to find money in the laundry and in the couch.

2. Store coupons

Use a mailing envelope to hold all your store coupons and keep them in your car’s glove compartment or in your purse. If you make an unplanned stop somewhere, you can quickly see if you have any coupons and take advantage of the extra savings.

3. Batteries

Keep all your batteries in one spot in the house so you aren’t rummaging through drawers and closets looking for what you need.

4. Charger cords

Store chargers for phones, cameras, etc in an assigned drawer or container. Labeling the cords saves time looking for the one you need. See Cord Identification for more details.

5. Nail polish/clippers

Store nail polish, clippers, emery boards, etc. in a small container so everything you need is in one location. Have small kids? Store it up high in a closet. It only takes one spilled nail polish experience to realize the importance of keeping these items safely out of the reach of curious little children.

Yard sales can be great fun for the entire family. You can get rid of the unwanted clutter in your house and bond over the experience of sharing an age-old institution.

A successful yard sale leaves you with money in your pockets and nearly empty tables.

Here are some great yard sale tips:

1. Frequency: At the most, you should have a yard sale once a quarter. You do not want to be known as the family who has a yard sale every single weekend, come rain or shine. That adds strain on your relationship with the neighbors. That schedule does not give you ample time to replenish your inventory. If you wish to have a yard sale every week, think about setting up a booth at a flea market.
   
   
2. Planning: Start planning for your yard sale a month in advance. This will give you ample opportunity to collect the items within your house as well as coordinate with the rest of your neighborhood. Create a yard sale box and place items into it each time that you clean up the house. Let everyone within the family help you out with filling the box.
   
   
3. Coordination: If possible, coordinate your yard sale with other families in the neighborhood. Have a cul-de-sac sale or a series of garage sales. The more families that are involved, the better. This increases the items that are available, making it more appealing for passers-by. If the neighbors do not want to participate, giving them the advanced notice will help them know when parking might be strained.
   
   
4. Location: Look at the location where you want to hold your yard sale. If your street cannot handle having five or six cars lined up in front of your house, you might want to consider having your yard sale at the local church or community center. You can rent out space for a small fee as well as having the chance for multiple vendors. Since you are starting a month in advance, you can turn your sale into an event.
   
   
5. Advertising: Once you have determined the day and location of your sale, you can work on the advertisement. Craigslist is an excellent way to promote your sale, as is the local newspaper. If this is a multi-family event, assign someone to make some signs. You want the signage to be consistent and simple. Make sure that all of you are aware of the rules for sign hanging in your area.
   
   
6. Weather: The week before your yard sale, make sure that the weather is going to be cooperative. Only hard core bargain hunters will want to buy things in the rain. Make sure that you have rain location or consider holding the yard sale the next week. A lot of your traffic will be from the road signs.
   
   
7. Staging: A couple days before the sale, you want to start staging the items that you will be including. This includes pricing as well as making sure that there are no second thoughts about what you want to sell. You do not want to find out that the dusty jacket in the cellar was a piece of prized memorabilia from your husband’s college days at the last minute. Get everyone involved in the process.
   
   
8. Pricing: Put clear pricing labels on your items. There is nothing so frustrating as to find something that you enjoy and not knowing how much it costs. For multiple little items, place them into a box where you can sell them all for the same price. If you are selling large items like furniture, you want to have signs large enough that people can see them and not be forced to look for the sticker.
   
   
9. Money: Have $100 in change on hand so that you can make change for your visitors. Make sure that you have a roll of each coin as well as enough $1′s and $5′s. There is nothing so frustrating as to have to run to the store in the middle of a yard sale to make change for your customer.

Your yard sale success depends on proper planning.

If you throw something together the day before, you won’t attract many visitors. You will have a spectacular yard sale if you involve the whole family.

About the author:
James Adams blogs about technological developments and reviews newly released products similar to the HP Q6000A at one of the leading suppliers of toner cartridges based in the UK. Follow James on Twitter.

Handmade gift idea

Bake some delicious cookies and present them in a beautiful gift package created from a Pringles can.

This is a great idea for a back-to-school gift for your child’s new teacher. Add a tag saying “Have a great year!” to the front.

Find the recipe and package creation instructions at The Paper Pony. Print this easy gift idea and keep it in your Custom Cookbook in a tab called “gift ideas”.

Endless cooking advice and recipes

Ever realized you are missing an ingredient and wish you know what you could use as a substitution?

Check out Chef Tom’s recipe forum at Recipesnoop.com. It is full of recipes, tips, definitions, and advice. I don’t think there is a cooking question that doesn’t have an answer in this extensive collection of cooking information.

You can get his free cookbooks, too. I have been trying out his recipes 2-3 nights a week for awhile, and they are easy and delicious.

Quarterly room clean out

I periodically go through the kids’ rooms and clear out the junk, but I like the idea of scheduling it on a quarterly basis. Find out more at PenelopeLovesLists.com.

Cheap decorating idea for a small kid’s room

Check out how cute little dresses hanging on a clothesline looks in a little girl’s room at Momspark.net. You could use sports-type shirts and baseball hats to create a boy version.

Shameless self promotion

Check out my new blog at Finding The Humor. My favorite post is “What I could have done with $900″.

Did you discover any cool finds this week?