Real Life Solutions

(ARA) – Pens, pencils, erasers, paper – these are the school supplies students need year after year and are on almost every parent’s back-to-school shopping list. However, that doesn’t mean they’re the only supplies students need to survive the school year with ease. Instead of waiting until your student realizes what he’s missing once it’s too late, shop now for these easily overlooked back-to-school essentials.

“Most students have that ‘oh no’ moment once they’re under a deadline and realize they don’t have the right materials to complete it or when they’re already stuck in a difficult situation,” says Rebecca Smith of Master Lock. “Using past experience to think ahead and shop early will help students – and parents – avoid those dreaded moments and navigate the school year a bit easier.”

1. Pencil sharpener. You’ve got the pencils, but sharpening them can be a real hassle as not all classrooms have a functioning built-in sharpener. To help students avoid trips to and from their desk during important tests, purchase a small pencil sharpener with a built-in shaving collection system that can be stored in a backpack pocket.

2. Portable stapler. Students are often in need of a quick staple, yet a stapler is nowhere to be found. A small, portable stapler can be a major timesaver for students who are frequently required to turn in multiple-page assignments.

3. Umbrella. Whether walking to class on a college campus or home from middle school, umbrellas are an easily overlooked school essential that pay dividends in student comfort. A collapsible model that fits in your student’s backpack or book bag will be easiest to carry whenever the weather looks questionable.

4. Correction fluid or tape. For last-minute, on-the-go fixes to important school assignments, a bottle of white correction tape or a correction pen is a must when re-printing or re-doing isn’t an option.

5. USB flash drive. Since so many school projects are now completed on computers, a USB drive makes it easy to save files and work on them anywhere. Whether your student is working on a paper at home, or on a group presentation at a friend’s house, files will be easily accessible.

6. Stain remover pen. From lunch spills, to grass stains to stray pen marks, students appreciate being able to touch up messy spots that wind up on their clothing throughout the day. Where water doesn’t always work, portable stain remover pens work well on hard-to-remove spots.

7. Security products. School supplies become useless if they’re stolen from your student. To help avoid theft, invest in at least four types of security products: a padlock for students’ school or gym lockers such as Master Lock’s Speed Dial combination lock, a backpack lock to deter pickpockets, a portable mini-safe that can help keep valuables safe in a dorm room or in transit and a lock to attach to your laptop or desktop computer.

8. Three-hole punch. From organizing class notes and handouts in a three-ring binder for easy review, to binding presentations before turning them in, students find endless uses for a three-hole punch after investing in one.

9. Mints or brush strips. Since many schools do not allow gum in classrooms, mints or brush strips are great options for students to carry with them for use after a potent lunch.

10. Water bottle. If your school allows it, help your student stay hydrated by providing them with a portable water bottle that can hang from a backpack via a simple carabineer. A hydrated student equals a happier and more productive student. Water bottles are particularly handy if the school is older and not equipped with air conditioning.

For more advice on back-to-school essentials, visit www.masterlock.com. Also check out our Time Saving Back to school Tips.

Whether you’re taking photographs of your family, scrapbooking a trip you just took with your friends, using your camcorder to capture your nephew’s first baseball game, writing in a journal, or simply putting special notes or cards in a memory box, many of us work hard to capture and preserve our memories each day.

Here are some quick ideas to keep your memories organized, so they’re available for you to enjoy at a moment’s notice.

1) Digital Photos

My husband and I are really good about handling any photos on our camera quickly. Generally right after we return from an event or a trip, we upload the photos to our computer, make any adjustments to the photos (cropping, touching up, etc.) using Picasa, and then upload the finished photos to Phanfare–our online photo backup and sharing service. We don’t allow them to build up on the camera until there are so many photos that they’re out of hand. We’re always caught up, and our photos are available to view, print, etc. whenever we’d like.

2) Printed Photos

Printed photos should, at minimum, be organized into Photo Boxes–organized by genre, or year (or decade), or family– with labeled dividers so you have an idea what photos are in which sections.

Alternately, you can organize into photo albums, which may take a bit longer, but are easier to view when you wish to see them.

3) Be choosey

When it comes to either digital or printed photos, be choosy about the ones you keep. Keep the ones that bring emotion to your heart when you look at them. Give duplicates to family members, or to the kids to scrapbook or to use for crafts. Don’t feel bad about tossing photos that are not meaningful to you…if you’re never going to enjoy them, they’re just taking up space.

The same goes for photos you’ve taken with your cell phone. Upload the keepers to your computer and then back them up for safekeeping. If they’re not great and/or not meaningful, delete them.

Stop by Get Organized Now – and check out the amazing collection of 2,175 ideas, tips and techniques for organizing your home, getting rid of clutter, organizing your time, your schedule, your money, your paper, your family and much more!

4) Videos

The same rule applies for video clips as for photos. After you take your videos, upload them to your computer, edit them, and back them up.

If you have videos that are captured on small cartridges, label them and keep them stored Photo Boxes where they can all be found, organized by year, genre, etc. for safekeeping. If possible and the videos are important, back them up and keep the backups in a separate area or a safe deposit box.

Whenever my daughter has a dance recital, we get a video on DVD of her performance. We have these labeled, organized by year and stored in a photo box for future viewing.

5) Scrapbooking

I love to scrapbook. For every major event or milestone I want to capture, I do a 2-page layout. Each layout generally has 5-7 of my best photos (occasionally more or less but 5 or 7 as a rule of thumb).

I have scrapbooking page keepers where I store the photos I want to scrapbook–one page keeper for each separate event or milestone. The page keeper is like a large envelope, but I can see through it. Along with the photos, I store the papers I want to use to scrapbook those pages with, along with ribbons and other embellishments. When the mood strikes to scrapbook, I grab the page keeper I want to work on, and my quick bag of tools.

6) Recording in a Journal

One of the best ways to remember things–whether it’s memories of a past holiday, things your child said that captured your heart, a quote a friend mentioned that had an impact on your life, and so on–a journal is a great way to capture those thoughts.

One of the pretty journals available in stores may be just the ticket for you. Having something pretty sitting on your nightstand may encourage you to write something each day, and it’s always right near your bed when you want to refer to it.

Another possibility is getting a 3-ring binder with 3 hole punched paper. In doing so, you can easily ‘move and resort’ your memories as you’d like.

Another option is to use your computer to capture your memories. A simple Word file can easily be set up with sections for each memory category–just remember to always back up in case something goes wrong with your computer.

7) Greeting Cards

Although I certainly don’t keep every single greeting card I’ve ever received, I do keep certain ones that are extra meaningful for me. I have a greeting card box, divided by event (Mother’s Day, Christmas, etc.) and cards that I receive that I wish to keep are stored in this box.

Special Notes

In my filing cabinet, I have a section of file folders for notes I’ve received that have special meaning to me. One of the folders is labeled, ‘Immediate Family’, another is labeled ‘Extended Family’ and yet a third is labeled, ‘Friends.’ Whenever I get a note I wish to keep, it’s immediately filed for safekeeping, and for future reference.

It’s so much fun to look at these scrapbooks from year to year and see how much she has progressed and succeeded each year!

9) Trinkets and Such

For vacation souveniers, trinkets and kids creations (like pottery, for instance) that can’t be stored flat, a rubbermaid box with a lid keeps these treasures contained, but accessible.

Again, be choosey. Otherwise, you’re going to end up with tons of stuff. We allow ourselves ONE trinket box and we weed out/add new stuff from time to time.

Occasionally, if I don’t want to keep an actual item in the box, we take a photo of it and store it ‘virtually’ on the computer. This way, we’re keeping the memory, but not the physical item.

Stop by Get Organized Now – and check out the amazing collection of 2,175 ideas, tips and techniques for organizing your home, getting rid of clutter, organizing your time, your schedule, your money, your paper, your family and much more!

More and more people are going paperless at home and really seeing the benefits of less clutter. Are you feeling like you’re buried under an avalanche of paper sometimes? Most of us are right there with you. We’ve all gotten overwhelmed with of the paper that is around us. It seems like the more we talk about going paperless, the more paper it generates!

Here are a few tips to help you with going paperless at home:

1. Declutter…Declutter…Declutter – One of the first things to do to accomplish our mission of going paperless at home is to declutter the unnecessary paper around us. Much of the paper we have, we can eliminate. The first step is to invest in a shredder, preferably a diamond cut shredder that makes confetti out of your paper.

The second thing to do is invest in a safe deposit box, or a fireproof box for your home. These are the first 2 steps to achieving our mission.

The third step is to set aside a time each day to work at reducing the level of paper. In most cases it isn’t going to happen in a day or two, but rather it’s going to be a little bit of time. Start with 15 minutes each day until it is under control.

2. How Long To Keep What? – Some papers need to be kept for a short time, some for a bit longer, and some need to be kept for your entire life. The next few tips will deal with the length of time to keep which papers.

The ‘Forever Papers’ should be kept in the safe deposit box or fireproof box, along with the papers you should keep for 7 years.

In addition, purchase a file cabinet, or dedicate a file drawer or two, to hold the papers that you should keep for up to 3 years.

3. Keep Forever – When going paperless at home mindfull of types of papers that should be kept forever:

Wills, birth and death certificates, marriage licenses, prenuptial agreements, alimony and child-custody agreements, divorce decrees, adoption papers, military records, citizenship papers, passports, health care power of attorney, copies of your IRA or 401K accounts along with copies of the form that names your plan beneficiaries, current insurance policies, employment contracts, deeds, property titles, mortgages, and stock and bond certificates.

4. Keep for at Least 7 Years –

These are the types of papers that should be kept for at least 7 years.

Income tax returns (state and federal) with all supporting documentation. Supporting documentation is all that you use to figure your taxes. Also keep wage/salary records and annual payroll check stubs, canceled checks or bank statements, savings account records, monthly statements including information from banks, brokers, retirement plans, auto titles, guarantees and warranties along with dates and costs of improvements to your home.

5. Keep for Us to 3 Years-

These are the types of papers that should be kept for at least 3 years.

Papers that confirm buying or selling of stocks and bonds, pay stubs, credit card statements if they list tax deductible expenses or charitable gifts, utility and phone bills, ATM receipts/deposit slips, and medical bills.

Stop by Get Organized Now – and check out the amazing collection of 2,175 ideas, tips and techniques for organizing your home, getting rid of clutter, organizing your time, your schedule, your money, your paper, your family and much more!

Use Your Computer

6. Use the Computer for Filing – When going paperless at home be mindfull of what you are printing

 off of your home computer. Many of us print off documents that we could be storing on our computers. Instead of printing off a copy of what you have on the computer, and dealing with paper, backup your files on a 2nd hard drive, a removable drive, or even on the Internet.

Many external hard drives are very affordable and offer a vast amount of storage, and are very reliable. No matter how good computers are, they do fail and so an external hard drive, or even an Internet backup are good insurance against losing your data.

7. Electric Bill Pay - Another way to reduce the amount of paper coming into your home is to sign up for electronic billing. Electronic billing has made going paperless at home a bit easier. Many companies will be very happy to send you an electronic bill only. You will receive your monthly statement via email which will give you a link to view your bill.

In addition to sending you your statement electronically, many companies will also encourage you to pay electronically. This can be by means of an automatic deduction every month or a one-time payment. You not only reduce the amount of paper coming into your home, you reduce the amount of paper going out of your home too.

Many banks now offer free bill pay. You can sign up with your bank to pay your bills automatically each month or use them for a one-time payment, just like with each individual company. This gives you a one stop place to take care of all of your bills.

Shredder and Trash

8. Eliminate the Junk Mail – Contacting the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) and registering with their Mail Preference Service provides an effective way for you to fight the junk mail glut. The DMA does not provide marketers with consumer mailing lists or do consumer mailings. They provide their Mail Preference Service to marketers for the sole purpose of removing consumer’s names and addresses from their prospect mailing lists.

In the offort of going paperless at home avoid getting on even more mailing lists by taking precautions whenever you submit your name and address to anyone. If you’re filling out a form such as a warranty, subscription, raffle, customer info card, credit card application, membership for an organization, etc., add the phrase ‘please do not rent, sell, or trade my name or address’ next to the other information you provide.

Be advised that it is not necessary to fill out a warranty card to benefit from the warranty on your purchase. The warranty card is usually just a way to get consumer info from you.

Repeat these same magic words every time you’re giving a company or organization your name and address over the phone or Internet, such as when ordering a catalog, magazine, or making a purchase. The sales rep will then flag your name in their computer. These are just a couple of the things you can do to reduce the amount of junk mail coming in.

9. Sort Your Mail at the Shredder – When you are opening your mail EACH DAY, do so over the shredder. If it’s not a bill or personal correspondence, or a charitable donation request that you support, shred anything that has your name and address on it. It is important that you shred to protect your identity.

There is so much identity theft going on that could be prevented by shredding anything that has your name and address on it. This includes catalog order forms along with the back cover where your mailing address is.

10. Handle It Once – When paper does come into your home, handle it only once. That means you either shred it, attend to it (pay a bill, answer a letter, etc.) or file it. This way you don’t have a pile of papers to deal with all at once, it’s already taken care of.

If you only pay bills on certain days, have an `immediate’ file set up that you put `bills to be paid’, `correspondence to be answered’, and other categories that mean something to you personally, after all, if it doesn’t work for you, you won’t use it.

11. Cancel the Subscription- Another key to going paperless at home is to manage the paper that comes in. How many magazines come into your home on a weekly basis that you don’t have time to read? Are they stacking up too? If that is the case, it’s time to re-evaluate whether or not you really need to continue to subscribe to those magazines. That includes newspaper subscriptions too. If you have time to read a newspaper then don’t cancel it, but if it piles up alongside the magazines you don’t have time to read, why have it come into the house in the first place. Most newspapers have websites where you can read the newspaper online, saving paper.

By using any or all of the systems above, your mission of going paperless at home can be accomplished. All of the systems in the world won’t do a bit of good if you don’t keep on top of them. By reducing the amount of paper you have to deal with on a daily basis, it is easier to keep up with it. Don’t let your `to be filed’ basket be filled to overflowing. Instead, file each piece as it comes into the house. Then it is no longer a mountain threatening an avalanche when you walk by.

To find out how to get organized and put these strategies to use right away, visit: The Definitive Guide to Home Organization for Busy People today and get your life and home organized and clutter free forever!

When incorporating frugal living tips into your life, be sure to include the internet. There are many frugal living tips that you can incorporate into your live while using the internet to your advantage.

In todays world, using as as many frugal living tips as you can find can make a huge difference to your bank balance, and this is now easier than ever thanks to the internet. Here are four ways you can get online and help make the task of saving money as simple as possible.

1) Use Price Comparison Websites

There are more and more price comparison websites popping up all the time. These are great for saving money, especially when you’re buying things such as insurance, as it won’t take you long to look something up. Never buy car, health or home insurance without checking these sites first, and it’s still worth checking even if you’re currently tied into a policy (you can switch as soon as it ends)!

But it’s not just the big things that count. Some of the best frugal living tips include using price comparison websites to search for the price of groceries and other common items you buy. It’s well worth it, as every little saving will soon add up.

2) Sign Up To Daily Deal Sites For Your Area

This is one of my favorate frugal living tips! You’ve probably heard of Groupon, a site that delivers daily deals for different areas. These are often things you don’t need, such as manicures or other beauty treatments. But sometimes you’ll find excellent offers that make it worth signing up. Do a search for various deal sites that serve your area, but before you spend any money make sure you search their names to check that they’re legitimate.

3) Sign Up To Coupon Mailing Lists

Many different companies will have their own mailing lists online, so get signing up to the stores you shop at frequently and you’ll probably get some great coupons sent directly to your inbox. This is far easier than signing up to traditional paper mailing lists, with the added benefit that you can cancel them with one click if you find they aren’t as useful as you’d hoped.

4) Use Forums To Keep You Accountable

Last on the list of online frugal living tips is to sign up to a money saving forum to meet likeminded people. This will stop you going mad during those moments where you feel as though you’re missing out by being so frugal. You can even post public saving goals and challenges to help keep you accountable.

One Important Thing You Need To Remember

There’s one thing you need to remember throughout all of this: a deal is a not a deal unless you wanted to buy it anyway! What that means is that you shouldn’t go spending extra money on “deals” you find on the internet, unless you already had a use for the item or service. If you do, you’ll actually end up spending more money than you would have originally. Use these frugal living tips wisely!

To find out how to get organized and put these strategies to use right away, visit: The Definitive Guide to Home Organization for Busy People today and get your life and home organized and clutter free forever!

When children or teens are depressed they often have a lack of hope for the future.

Teenage suicide and suicidal ideation is a profound expression of hopelessness. It is often experienced as an overwhelming feeling that what they do is never good enough and inside, they are never good enough.

A vision board helps depressed children or adolescents to start imagining their dreams and goals for the future. The very process of making the vision board together will open a door for your child or adolescent to talk about their experiences and to start to address the negative thoughts that are in their head. Some teens may prefer to do it completely on their own, but you will have plenty of grist for the mill to talk about when you see their finished board.

Below I will share some tips on how to create vision boards for children:

The vision board can be a bulletin board or simply a white Styrofoam board. The process is to make collages of photos, magazine clippings, written affirmations, lines from poetry, and quotes which all represent their “outcomes”. They can also include special cards, letters, and certificates, written by others that say positive things.

In the centre of the vision board should be a photo or picture of your child or teen. It needs to show through their facial and body language that they are feeling happy. We suggest the most recent photo if possible. This reminds then where they were and they can be and feel happy again. Revolving around this centre-piece are visual images of goals that the child wants to achieve that will contribute to feeling happy again. For example, feeling happy at school, having a closer inner circle of friends, feeling joy and creativity, a special project they want to be involved in, or their dream job or career in the future.

It can also include other goals such as working somewhere, learning to play an instrument, getting back to playing tennis again or another sport, submitting their poems to magazines or designs to companies, showing their artwork at exhibitions. It therefore is a mixture of inner and outer manifestations that the child wants to create and new beliefs that they want to install in their brain.

Help them to set their sights high; dream a little, but also be realistic. They will need to show the visual manifestations of what they want in each of these four areas:

1. School
2. Sports/activities
3. Family life
4. Social life

Examples include making new friends, improving their sport or getting something they really want.

They think about what they want to achieve in the next five years from now. For a younger person it might be 1) obtaining GCSEs or 2) going on a special trip or adventure.

For adolescents, it might be: 1) what kind of person they want to be as an adult, such as a loyal and honest friend or a hard worker, and 2) what kind of job they would like to have.

Encourage them to imagine what sort of qualities they want to have in the next five, and then ten years. Since the dominating thoughts of a child with depression have been disempowering, hurtful, painful and negative, it is important to write very strong affirmations which will eventually eclipse the irrational destructive and toxic beliefs and gradually transform themselves into physical reality, helping the childs mood to become more on an even keel again.

The positive statements on the vision board should reflect the opposite of the negative thought patterns that they have. For instance, if your child has low self-esteem and suffers from a lack of confidence, then the statement could be something like “I am becoming more confident” or “my confidence is growing each day”. Another example is “I am” or “I am becoming” more… joyful, self-assured, positive in my thinking. These are important statements to help your child think of and write down.

It is very powerful to sit with your child and in a quiet place with beautiful peaceful music, and say “lets just try this exercise, nothing to lose. Imagine yourself already feeling as though your dreams have become a reality, your prayers are answered, or you have already reached your goals. This lifts one to a much more elevated mood.

Explain to your child that an affirmation can become even more powerful when it is turned into a song or chant. This is called an incantation because it is said with a focused purposefulness accompanied by body movement. Sometimes people proclaim this loudly when drumming, dancing or whatever movement they prefer.

Children and adolescents also can find and use quotes of their favourite person in history, current day celebrities or great role models in their life. Usually these great people have been resilient through trials, tribulations and adversity. They can choose their role models who are celebrities or famous people from both past and present who also suffered from depression (e.g. Mandela, Gandhi, Winston Churchill, Einstein, Mother Theresa, Mozart, Abraham Lincoln, and Melanie C of the Spice Girls, Princess Diana, etc.).

Using the information above will help you to create vision boards for children that they will be happy to look at and aspire to.

Be sure to visit ‘How To Help Your Child Beat Depression. is a great resource that gives practical advice on recognizing depression in children/teenagers and offers essential tips on how you can cope with the challenges.

With our busy lives each and every day, streamlining and simplifying is vital. Here are 6 simple ways to do just that.

1) Clothes

Above all else, it’s important to know what you have and what you need. Go through your closet and drawers and pull out anything that doesn’t fit you or make you feel fabulous. Make an inventory of what you have now and then make a list of the items or outfits you need. Try to stick to a certain style or color palette so that items will mix and match more easily.

When buying shoes, purses or other accessories, aim for pieces that will work with a number of outfits as opposed to just one thing.

Try to group pieces in your closet in a way that works best for you. Perhaps hang all of your pants together, blouses, skirts, etc. Or maybe instead it would work best to hang complete outfits together.

2) Cosmetics

Does your cosmetics drawer or cabinet look like a bomb went off? Could you lay your hands on your favorite hot pink nail polish in seconds or do you end up buying another bottle because you can’t find the one you already own?

For makeup, cosmetics, hair products, etc., the only way to make sense of it all is to containerize. It doesn’t have to be a bunch of fancy matching boxes although those are fun too! Shoe boxes work just as well or the disposable food storage containers.

Gather everything you currently have and toss away any obviously old, no longer usable product. Now is not the time to lament money spent and wasted on stuff you didn’t use. Bacteria can grow on old cosmetics and be dangerous. Just toss. Once you are sure that you have only kept the newer, safe products you will definitely use, then sort according to category. For instance, consolidate all nail polishes, all lipsticks, all hair products and so on.

3) Kitchen Pantry

Create specific areas in your kitchen depending upon your cooking habits. Baking, canned goods, spices and sauces, oils and vinegars, dry goods (such as sugar, rice, pasta, flour.) Creating these areas, you will cut down on the amount of space where you will be searching for things. For instance, you will know if you need vanilla extract to look in your baking area.

Also recommended are lazy susans that turn easily so you can see what’s there without knocking stuff over.

4) Pre-packed Snacks

Rather than having to stop everything you’re doing each day when your kids ask you for pre-lunch and after lunch snacks, come up with you-pack-’em packages in advance.

For instance, using small baggies, make individual snack packs of goldfish crackers, pretzels or dry cereal. Keep them on a specific shelf in your pantry.

Perishable snacks like grapes, baby carrots, or cheese, can be stored in a specific drawer in the fridge.

5) Snail Mail

Mail can become a pile of chaos in no time at all if not tended to promptly. Bills can get mixed up with store flyers and other junk mail. The only way to avoid the trap of the bottomless pile of mail is to deal with it each and every day as it arrives.

Immediately toss anything that is junk mail. Flyers for stores you never go to would be one example. Open and shred all of the credit card offers and other personalized pages.

Sort all bills and file in one central place. If you create a current bill file and are conscientious about using it, then you won’t have bills scattered around in numerous places. If that happens, you run the risk that you will misplace some and they won’t be paid on time.

For any invitations received, decide if you care to attend, then jot the date on your calendar or in your planner.

6) Banking

There are many easy ways to streamline and simplify your banking. First of all, take advantage of direct deposit if at all possible. This will alleviate the possibility of lost checks and the need to physically go to the bank which will in turn save you time and even gas money.

Avoid having too many different accounts at different financial institutions. Often, if you have your checking, savings and other accounts at one bank, you will be able to receive one statement which will cut down on the amount of paperwork you have to open and file.

Stop by Get Organized Now – and check out the amazing collection of 2,175 ideas, tips and techniques for organizing your home, getting rid of clutter, organizing your time, your schedule, your money, your paper, your family and much more!

There are many benefits of meanu planning that people just dont think about.

Menu planning is a life saver for most families.  Just imagine creating an easy meal plan and knowing what you are going to be serving up for meals each day of the week? You will save time, money and your sanity.  

You  can visit Meal Planning Central for a free meal planning report and free resources too!

1) Get Dinner On The Table Faster

If you know what you are going to fix for dinner, and you have everything you need at your fingertips, getting the food on the table becomes a snap. You don’t have to spend 2o minutes searching through the freezer and cookibooks trying to figure out what to make. If you are stuck at the office, and your spouse knows what’s on the menu for the night – he or she can even get started on the easy recipes without you. When you have hungry family members, getting dinner on the table as fast as possible will make your evening much more enjoyable.

2) Run To The Store Less Often

How many times do you run to the grocery store to buy something to cook for dinner. I don’t know about you, but it takes me at least 45 minutes every time I do that. Menu planning allows you to get all your shopping done once a week, and make sure you have what you need to prepare every single dinner for the week.

3) You’ll Eat Better

You have the best intentions to prepare wholesome, healthy meals for your family. Then you get home late, everyone is hungry and there is nothing in the fridge. You head for takeout or call the pizza delivery guy. The is is asnother one of the  benefits of menu planning, if you plan your meals and have what you need at home you are much more likely to actually cook healthy dishes for your family.

4) It Saves You Money

How much food do you throw out each week because you just didn’t get around to cooking it? Plus every time you go to the store there are a few extra things that just make their way into your cart and on your grocery bill. One of my favorite benefits of menu planning is that  if you shop less and only for those items that you actually need, you spend a lot less money on groceries each week. We won’t even think about how much we spend eating out each week.

5) It Saves You Time

In addition to saving you money, meal planning also saves you time. You only have to go grocery shopping once a week, and there is no more walking around the kitchen each evening for 20 minutes frantically trying to figure out what’s for dinner tonight. Everything you need from the recipe to the ingredients is right at your fingertips.

6) Quality Family Time

When you think back to your own childhood, family dinner is sure to come to mind as a time when everyone got together to eat a meal and talk about the day. You can recreate that experience for your family and spend some quality time each week over a home-cooked meal.

7) It Is Easy

Last, but not least, menu planning is easy when we let us give you a hand. Our easy recipes are family friendly and our grocery shopping lists make your trips to the supermarket a breeze.

As you can see, there are many benefits of menu planning. You can also visit Meal Planning Central for a free meal planning report.

(ARA) – These days, we’re all trying to make small changes in our everyday habits to live a little more “green,” from switching to energy-efficient light bulbs to carrying reusable shopping bags and composting kitchen waste. But many don’t realize that one of the easiest ways to be more eco-friendly is by de-cluttering and donating gently used items that you’re no longer using.

“We know millions of families across the country are already clearing out their clutter with spring cleaning,” says Tony Shumpert, vice president of recycling and supply chain operations for Savers, Inc., a thrift store chain. “By donating these items, instead of simply throwing them away, you can give back to the community and save quality goods from polluting the earth. In fact, we operate one of the largest recycling programs in the world, keeping more than 500 million pounds of goods out of landfills last year alone.”

But if the thought of going green has you turning red in exhaustion, consider some of these tips to make the task easier:

* Bring a friend in to help with spring cleaning. Not only can the two of you spend a great afternoon together, but your friend can also give you an objective opinion as you sort through items to keep or donate.

* Be organized about getting organized. Start in one corner of one room, and make your way around the room in a circle. Don’t move on to the next room until you are finished with the first. If you need to take a break, go for it, but always return to where you left off.

* Designate a specific place for donations. Your “clutter corner” should be in a handy, but out-of-the-way location in your home. Encourage family members to place items – clothes, toys, housewares – that they aren’t using any longer into the bin. For parents, your children will see that gently used items shouldn’t be thrown away, and something they don’t want any longer can have a new life with someone else.

* Be realistic about what you think you want to keep. If you haven’t worn that shirt in more than a year, it’s ready to go. Another way to determine what to donate is to put items you’re not sure about into a box. Seal it and store it. If you haven’t opened that box a year later, donate the entire thing. Chances are, you don’t have a clue what’s in the box and don’t need it.

* Know your nearest donation drop. Once you’ve designated items to donate, you don’t have to spend hours tracking down a location to drop your items off. Simply visit www.communitydonationcenter.com to find a nearby Community Donation Center where you can drop off your goods. This site also provides a list of nonprofits in your area with donation home pick-up service where they’ll come straight to your door to collect donations.

“Even donations not suitable for resale, or that just don’t sell on our shelves, find a second life with Savers,” says Shumpert. “A portion of these goods are sent to developing countries where they support micro-economies and help improve the lives of people in other parts of the world. Remaining items are sold to domestic material wholesalers who recycle the products into new materials such as wiping rags, car insulation and much more.”

Another bonus to donating your gently used goods – Savers partners with more than 140 nonprofits and pays these organizations for every item they collect. These partnerships turn otherwise unused goods into sustainable funding that supports the nonprofits’ programs and services.

When you donate your unused items to Savers’ nonprofit partners, another person can put them to use, which helps save space in landfills, and charitable organizations in your area will benefit as well. And you can feel good about taking one more step toward living a little greener.

Stop by Get Organized Now – and check out the amazing collection of 2,175 ideas, tips and techniques for organizing your home, getting rid of clutter, organizing your time, your schedule, your money, your paper, your family and much more!

What does getting organized bring to mind for you? Does it mean putting in many hours and blood, sweat and tears before you will become more efficient? Does it mean lots of hard work to accomplish important and necessary tasks? Do you procrastinate when it comes to getting organized because you feel it is too daunting a job? Organizing does not have to be thought of as a chore.

Here are some fun organizing ideas that you can use to make getting organized a bit more fun.

1. The easiest and simplest way to make organizing a fun activity is to put on your favorite music. Pick out a few upbeat songs that get your spirits running high and your body wanting to move. Put on the music, start tapping your feet, pick out an area you would like to organize and begin organizing. This fun organizing idea not only gets your home organized but it also serves as exercise too.

2. Do not try and tackle all of the organizing on your own. Get everyone in your home involved in becoming organized. Make it a family affair. Assign each family member a task or tasks to complete and decide on a time frame to complete. As tasks are accomplished, everyone celebrates together.

3. Create a party atmosphere. Another fun organizing idea is to consider organizing as a big celebration! Put on clothes that make you feel festive and put on a few party songs. Serve pizza and punch and celebrate your achievements. Be creative. Do whatever makes the mood festive for you.

4. Treat organizing like a puzzle. Organizing can be a challenge. However, this can be considered rather daunting and not much fun. If you treat organizing like a puzzle, it can become more like a game instead. The more pieces you fit together (the more organizing you accomplish), the more complete and whole the puzzle becomes.

5. Rewards make a huge difference when it comes to getting a task done. Organizing does take time and effort, but to make it more worthwhile, do not forget to give yourself a reward for your accomplishments and achievements. If you do not give yourself a pat on the back or a reward for getting an organizing goal finished, you are not going to be motivated to continue toward more goals. Pick a reward that is something you enjoy doing or something you really want. When you achieve another organizing goal, plan another reward to work toward.

6. Use fun organizing tools and supplies to boost your mood and your level of wanting to get organized. Plan a trip to stores with organizing supplies to get new and fresh ideas. Look for new storage items you can use to improve your living space and help you become more organized. This fun organizing idea also spruces up the look of any space.

7. Make organizing a friendly competition. A competition between family members or friends can put a whole new spin on getting organized. Set several goals for participants to work toward with varying levels for each accomplishment achieved. Designate a corresponding treat as a prize to attain for each level. Begin the competition. When finished and goals are achieved, hold a reward ceremony.

8. To get children more involved in organizing, play ‘beat the clock.. Assign a ‘put away’ basket for each child. Set a timer for 30 seconds and see who can pick up the most items. Keep score and be sure to award the winner with a prize, such as a movie or getting to stay up later for an evening. This fun organizing idea is sure to get the kids excited about organizing.

9. Associating organizing with something you enjoy can help make the tasks more fun. For example, you can watch your favorite TV show as long as you also sort through the paperwork on your desk. Or make it a fun milestone. If you finished an organizing project, treat yourself to a movie. Decide what works best for you and then work toward the milestone.

Using any of the fun orgainzing ideas above is sure to add a bit more joy into organizing any space.  

Stop by Get Organized Now – and check out the amazing collection of 2,175 ideas, tips and techniques for organizing your home, getting rid of clutter, organizing your time, your schedule, your money, your paper, your family and much more!

Keep these ten outdoor dining tips in mind the next time you have a gathering of friends and family. Outdoor dining can be inconvenient when done haphazardly. Plan ahead and you’ll increase your chances of an enjoyable, memorable event.

1. Check the weather. Don’t take chances on being rained out. If the event is planned well ahead of time, consider reserving a pavilion or renting a canopy in the event of inclement weather. For spontaneous outdoor dining, be flexible and understand that weather often changes quickly and you may have to alter your plans.

2. Keep hot food hot. Be sure hot foods are cooked to above 140 degrees F and kept to at least 140 degrees F if not eaten promptly.

3. Keep cold food cold. An upset stomach is not something you want to remember about your outdoor dining event. Use coolers and lots of ice to keep potentially hazardous foods well chilled and don’t leave food dishes out in the hot sun where bacteria will thrive. Keep filled coolers in air- conditioned vehicles when traveling, not in the trunk, and refrain from opening and closing the lid often.

4. Bring wet wipes. Eating outside is often messy and having the ability to wipe off hands with a moist cloth is helpful when no hand-washing facilities are present. Keep a pack in your car for unexpected outdoor dining gatherings and include a bottle of hand sanitizer as well.

5. Think about the eating surface. You may want to bring along a large vinyl tablecloth to make dining more pleasant. Picnic benches are often nasty surfaces and difficult to clean, so covering the picnic bench or other surface with a tablecloth makes good sense. Weigh down your tablecloth with rocks in the case of windy conditions, or purchase clips or weights to be used for that purpose.

6. Don’t forget the sun block. Even on cloudy days, your skin is quickly susceptible to burning. If there is a lot of reflective surface around, such as pavement or water, sunburn is a risk as well, even in winter. Even if you remember yours before leaving your house, someone may forget theirs, so bring some sun block along.

7. Bring activities for outdoor dining events. If food is cooked on site, it may be a long time before being served. If kids are involved (or even just adults), having activities planned helps pass the time and keeps people active. Bring a ball, flying disk or maybe even a kite if the location is right.

8. Consider net covers for serving food dishes. Purchase inexpensive umbrella-like, fold out mesh covers to keep flying insects out of the food. These covers are often found in discount stores during the summer season.

9. Bring an empty trash bag. Clean up well after yourself and leave the outdoor dining site as you found it, or better, so that others may enjoy the location after you leave.

10. Take note of your surroundings. Don’t concentrate so much on the food, that you forget where you are. Savor your meal, but look around and take in the scenery around you.