Home & Garden Blog » Organizing

Searching for a stylish and sturdy outdoor trash receptacle, well look no further! The Suncast Outdoor Trash Receptacle will look great on your patio, deck or driveway.

Long lasting resin construction ensures that it will put up with whatever manner of garbage you stuff it with! Best of all we offer you a variety of merchants who sell the Suncast Trash Receptacle, but the cheapest one seems to be offered by Target at a price of $39.99!

Sold for as much as $62.99 at some venues. To shop for or purchase the Suncast Outdoor Trash Hideaway, click here.

Check out this great deal on unique shelving options offered by Wrapables.com! Add a floral and contemporary touch to your home décor with Growing Together Shelf w/ Tube Vases. This wall shelf helps you get your reading material organized and can also double as a CD holder. Male and female figurines are molded into a kneeling position. The female figurine is holding a watering can and looks like she’s watering the test tube vases. One side of the shelf has three test tube vases where you can put decorative pebbles or fresh flowers.

I think this shelving option would make a great addition to your home office or perhaps as creative shelving by your entertainment equipment. The Growing Together Shelving Unit would make a wonderful addition to your college bound child or to decorate your child’s bedroom.

Originally priced at: $68.95

On SALE for: $44.99

To purchase the Growing Together Shelf with Test Tube Vases, click here.

Join one women’s quest (Astrelle) to turn Trash into Treasure at Apartment Therapy, Los Angeles.

Take your tunes to the shower, the kitchen sink, to the beach with tear drop, water resistant speakers that connect to your iPod or MP3 speakers. Read more about it at 2ModernDesign Talk Blog…

Check out the Organic Furniture with a Twist post on Blinkdecor.Features environmentally friendly furnishings and linens, their lighting selection is especially fun and original. It includes a twisted vine floor lamp made from old jungle vines and a chandelier made from reclaimed French Oak wine barrels.

This week in Smarter Home and Garden Blog:

Apple-Shaped Rattan Baskets - Take a bite out of these apples! Use them to store office supplies, napkins, whatever your heart desires.

Let Dine Without Whine help you plan nutritious and delicious meals for your whole family! Learn more by reading the “Dine Without Whine!“post.

If you do not possess the time nor the patience to hand select your sheets, you can shop online and select a “bed in a bag”! Read more about the great deals being offered at JCPenney online shopping store…

Comment on the Photo of the Week! “Hey Buddy the Erasures Won’t Erase the Smell!”

Rain, Rain Go Away, Come Again Another Day! Check out the Ceramic Umbrella Stand to house all those wet umbrellas this season…

Bedroom Furniture Deal of the Day! West Elm is has marked down their entire Narrow Leg Storage Collection, save up to $300 dollars on some pieces!

Ahhh, RAIN. Can’t drive on California freeways with it, can’t live without it! Ha! It is common knowledge that once it begins to rain in California, drivers lose their minds and start wailing and weeping. News stations become peppered with “Storm of the Century” alerts. Come on folks, it’s just water, not the seven biblical plagues.

One exceptionally annoying and yes dangerous bi-product of rain is the slippery floors and droplets from umbrellas. Sure we all snicker when some poor sap slips and slides while rushing into a restaurant or department store, but if they really fall it’s quite sad.

Thus, I feel it is my civic duty to recommend that you invest in some sort of umbrella stand. The ceramic umbrella stand I featured is from Lillian Vernon. Fully glazed inside and out to store wet umbrellas— it saves floors from drips and your hips from breaking. It is big enough to house your whole family’s collection of canes, putters and hockey sticks. Plus, it’s kitschy design is very cute.

Costs: $39.98

To purchase or read more about the Ceramic Umbrella Stand from Lillian Vernon, click here.

To shop for assorted discount Umbrella Stands, click here.

Slow down, and Drive Safely! Whats the rush anyway, is there some sort of sale I don’t know about? TELL ME!

Not since Melanie Griffith donned enormous shoulder pads in “Working Girl” and Dolly Parton fended off the roving hands of Dabney Coleman in “Nine to Five” have women been so entrenched in the workforce. We have come a long way baby, but as the saying goes, “A women’s work is never done”.

Well I recently came across a website called “Dine without Whine” that should help you score some major points with your family. The premise is simple and catered to busy families like yours. They send you shopping lists and menus every Thursday via email in the form of attachments or PDF files. The difference between “Dine without Whine” and other menu planning programs or cookbooks is that the menus are actually “kid approved” and the grocery lists are simple and easy. The grocery lists are detailed, down to the aisle, the ingredients are all familiar and open to substitution if you wish.

This saves you the stress of thinking up something healthy and nutritious for your family to consume and let’s face it more often then not, settling for fast food (yeck!). Plus, anyone who has done the math will quickly discover the savings available when you give up fast food and start making regular trips to your local grocery store.

Hmm, let’s sum up:

• they email you the menus and grocery lists on Thursdays (you don’t have to go anywhere for them)
• the meals are “kid approved” and yummy (your kids and husbo will think it’s delish and stand awestruck in your presence)
• the grocery list itself is easy, detailed, affordable and substitution friendly
• you get to actually sit down and talk with your family (please note: your daughter died her hair purple and your son now eats worms, ha!)
• Oops! I forgot to mention the most important detail of all, the price! It’s ONE PENNY ($0.01) for a one week trial and if you choose to continue on after that, it’s $6.95/a month. No obligation, you can end your membership at anytime.
• COUPON ALERT: Get 20% Off a 3, 6 or 12 month subscription to the Family Friendly Menu planning services. Just enter coupon code: 04AO (Expires on 4/15/2008)

Well I shall leave you with these fine lyrics from Ms. Dolly Parton herself, may it get stuck on repeat in your brain as it is in mine! Feel free to contact me with any complaints or good experiences if you sign up, I always love feedback. (Email: Michelle)

Workin 9 to 5
What a way to make a livin
Barely gettin by
Its all takin
And no givin
They just use your mind
And they never give you credit
Its enough to drive you
Crazy if you let it …

To read more or subscribe to Dine Without Whine, click here.

Don’t stifle your inner child, admit it, you find these hampers as adorable as I do!

These hampers offered by Home Decorators Collection is the perfect piece for your child’s bathroom or as an eye catching statement in their bedroom. I feel it will add a touch of whimsy and fantasy to your child’s boudoir. Say what you will, but they are definitely conversation starters!

On top of being just to darn cute for words, they serve a very practical purpose to boot, housing the piles and piles of laundry your young ones accumulate. Good bye floor, hello hamper! Start picking up the dirty laundry and chuck it into the fish’s mouth or the elephant’s head, that alone seems like a lot of fun. The fish hamper and elephant hamper are both handwoven out of wicker. The are available in assorted sizes and colors, here is a color and price list:

Fish Hamper:

• Color Options: Warm Brown, White (featured above) and Honey
• Price: (29″Hx14″W) - $99.00

Elephant Hamper:

• Color Options: Honey (featured above), White and Brown
• Prices: (22″Hx14″W) - $69.00 ( 25″Hx17″D) - $99.00 ( 28″Hx20″D) - $129.00

To purchase the Fish Hamper, click here.

To purchase the Elephant Hamper, click here.

To shop for more great deals and bargains in Children’s Decor-Hampers, click here.

Have you broken your New Year’s resolutions already? Well one of mine is to get my life organized, I mean physically and mentally! But let’s start with the “physical” realm for now.

I have been searching for a home office desk, but in my quest I came across this beautiful file cabinet from Home Decorators Collection. The handsome design of this piece will complement almost any decor. The 4 drawers offer ample storage for letter- and legal-size files. So start organizing all your scattered mail and paperwork in the Chesterfield Double 4-drawer file cabinet.

It is constructed from hardwood veneer with decorative, recessed door and drawer panels. Here comes some details:

• Available in: Rubbed Black, White and Chestnut
• 29″H x 39″W x 16.5″D.
• Assembly required.
• Best part is the very reasonable price of $299.00

To purchase the Chesterfield Double Drawer File Cabinet, click here.

To shop for more bargains on assorted Office Furniture, click here.

The Container Store is having a storewide SALE and you can take 25% OFF everything in the store. If you have never shopped at The Container Store you are missing out on really great deals. Their specialty is offering every single type of container or storage unit known to man. I first discovered them because of my cousin Charm who is just as into “organization” as I am, she took me to the store in Orange and I was hooked.

They truly have every size and manner of container or storage unit. Everything displayed in the image above is marked down. I believe the highlight of the image is the Wall-Mounted Galvanized Steel Cubes.

These Italian designed, solid steel Cubes feature a rust-resistant, galvanized finish that’s ideal for use in humid environments like a bathroom. Of course, they look spectacular in any room of the home, too! The modular system allows you to customize a solution to your needs. Start with a Cube and add Doors or Shelves to divide the interior of the space. Mount them on the wall as shown or stack them to create a free-standing solution. The possibilities are endless!

Galvanized Cube
14″ sq. x 14″ h
331010 - In Stock

Was: $59.00 each

Now: $44.25

Galvanized Cube Shelf
14″ sq.
331040 - In Stock

Was: $12.99 each

Now: $9.74

Find more great deals and free coupons for The Container Store, click here.

To browse or purchase items visit The Container Store.

So there I was stuffing an obscene amount of clothing into the washing machine. To my left was a plastic laundry basket that housed 4 dingy mis-matched socks and a towel, to my right was another nappy plastic basket, chalk full of oil and greased stained mini towels and rags that my roommates use for assorted garage work (I have 3 MALE roomates! Take a moment to let that fact marinate and you will understand my grief).

This moment in time inspired me to research stylish hampers that can be folded up and stored away after use! I guess my biggest grievance with plastic laundry baskets is that you can’t hide them away. I am very much about putting things back and storing them neatly out of sight!

Thanks to some quick search action on the ol’ internet highway, I discovered the following awesome solution to my dingy dilemma. Collapsible microfiber hampers! These hampers are made of soft and durable microfiber and they come with handles for easy transporting. But the best part is that they are “collapsible” which means when you are done with your laundry, you can collapse the sucker and put it away. Leaving the laundry facility nice and clean, imagine that.

Retails for $34.95

They are offered in the following patterns:

Microfiber Collapsible Hamper - Damask A53931

Microfiber Collapsible Hamper - Floral A53932

Microfiber Collapsible Hamper - Basket A53933

Read reviews, get coupons or purchase at Smarter.com, Click here.

Click here to view Wrapables.com

Always on the hunt for that fine balance where beauty meets practicality? Well look no further for I have found a wonderful storage set from the people at chefs.

I don’t know how your stomach and brain works, but for me, out of sight equals out of mind. If I do not immediately see something when I peruse my fridge, chances are they will die a slow rotting death.

Countless fruits and vegetables have met their end in this fashion, not to mention some hairy loaves of bread!

Solution: Sturdy glass containers that keeps food fresh, are stackable, and make it a breeze to view what is rotting or growing hair as we speak. Plastic gaskets give the lids a snug fit and they are hand washable.

Large set of 3 - $39.99
Small set of 3 - $29.99
Save the life of a fruit or vegetable near you!