Organize Your Work Space
November 2, 2009 by Kathy Zengolewicz
Filed under General Housekeeping and Homemaking, Organizing and Clutter Control, simple living
Keeping your work space organized will help you to keep your work flowing. It doesn’t have to be a work space, it can be the place you go to do sewing, crafting or any hobby. If you have a blank wall in your laundry room you can use a pegboard. It will keep all of your supplies intact.
Place a small table under the pegboard to hold a couple of baskets. I save any gift bags or bows that I receive, that look nice, and re-use them for gifts that I give to others. You can use the baskets to …read more
October Highlights at Keeping the Castle
October 31, 2009 by Karen Weideman
Filed under Castle News and Chit Chat, General Housekeeping and Homemaking
It’s the end of another month and so once again I have put together a list of this month’s articles for easy access. I tried putting them into categories, but some of the categories overlapped a little. I hope this helps to find what you need or missed this month.
Food, Cooking, and Holidays:
Cooking with a Little This and That
10 Ways to Eat More Fruits and Vegetables
Your Last Minute Stop for Halloween Ideas
17 Halloween Cupcake Ideas
20 Pumpkin Inspired Recipes
Tips for Hosting Thanksgiving Dinner
30 Fall Inspired Desserts and Treats
Organization and Declutering:
Do You Have an All or Nothing Attitude
Tips to Get Your Organization …read more
Tips to Get Your Organization Started
October 29, 2009 by Karen Weideman
Filed under General Housekeeping and Homemaking, Organizing and Clutter Control
Some people have an all or nothing attitude. They feel that if their house can’t be perfectly clean and organized, then there’s no sense in trying. Rather than taking the clutter one pile at a time, they let it pile up and overwhelm them. As promised, here are some tips for tackling the clutter.
1. Commit to 15 minutes. Set the timer for 15 minutes and commit to work for that amount of time. Give yourself permission to stop working when the timer buzzes. This will help get you started and the time you’re working doesn’t seem so overwhelming. This way …read more
Do You Have An All or Nothing Attitude?
October 27, 2009 by Karen Weideman
Filed under Organizing and Clutter Control
Many people don’t get organized because they have an all or nothing attitude. They have unrealistic expectations that if they’re going to get organized, then everything must be perfect. There must be no clutter and everything must have it’s place. This is almost impossible, especially if you have children.
The all or nothing attitude results in piles of clutter throughout the home. The clutter and disorganization leads to feeling overwhelmed and trapped, which is definitely not good for your health. Rather than looking at organization as an all or nothing thing where you see failure try working on a compromise.
While I …read more
Recycling Containers for Your Home
October 16, 2009 by Karen Weideman
Filed under Green Home, Organizing and Clutter Control
Some folks don’t recycle because they feel it’s too much of a bother. Separating items in your home takes a little more time and can be messy. There are some attractive recycling containers out there which help to make recycling more organized and easier on the eye.
Mini Waste Hanging Basket – While this container isn’t the most attractive out there, it’s convenient and inexpensive. The hanging basket hooks on to the waste basket which makes recycling easier. This would be a convenient way to recycle at work. Simply throw your plastic bottles and paper into the hanging basket. At $4.51, it’s …read more
Tips for Hosting Thanksgiving Dinner
October 14, 2009 by Karen Weideman
Filed under Food and Drinks, Home Making, Thanksgiving
I know this is hard to believe, but Thanksgiving is only six weeks away! Eeek! How did that happen? Instead of pushing it out of our minds, it’s better to embrace it and make preparations for a less stressful and happier time. Planning is key to things running smoothly.
I remember the year we purchased our first home. I decided that I should host Christmas dinner. We had my parents and my husband’s parents over. I didn’t realize all the work that would go into hosting the meal, opening presents, and family time.
I learned a lot that day and now I …read more
Finding a Closet Organization System
September 29, 2009 by Karen Weideman
Filed under Organizing and Clutter Control
We just moved into our new home a few weeks ago and I’m still working on getting settled. This house has a pretty good amount of closets, but it’s needing some shelving and organizational materials to maximize the space.
One of my struggles is organizing the clothes in the bedroom that is shared by the two smaller children. We have future plans to turn some attic space into a fourth bedroom, but for now they’re sharing and I need to work with the space we have.
I hung up all of the hanging clothes, but I still had lots of pants and …read more
5 Tips for Organizing Your Kitchen
September 25, 2009 by Karen Weideman
Filed under Organizing and Clutter Control
Kitchens tend to be a dumping ground for everything. We walk in the door and drop our keys, purse, mail, and shopping bags on the counter. We put away the groceries and somewhere in our subconsciousness find it ok to leave the mail there. Next thing we know, we have a few little items scattered throughout the room.
I am guilty of disorganization in my kitchen. I am trying to get better though. Here are a few kitchen organizing tips.
1) Put things away when you’re done using them. If we did this with everything our lives would be so much cleaner …read more
My Ongoing Yard Sale Pile
September 23, 2009 by Karen Weideman
Filed under General Housekeeping and Homemaking, Organizing and Clutter Control
Some friends of mine have confessed to me that they still have their kid’s baby toys. Some still have the baby clothes. These are people whose children are 8-12 years old. Sure, I can understand hanging on to a *few* momentos. The key word being “few”. What I don’t understand is people that are hanging on to stuff just to have it. It just doesn’t make any sense to me.
I can hardly wait to get stuff out of my house. I know that I have way too many posssessions, but if there’s something that I know I’m not going to …read more
Storage Basket for Cooking Utensils
September 6, 2009 by Karen Weideman
Filed under General Housekeeping and Homemaking, Organizing and Clutter Control
After my husband and I first married, we rented a cute little house with a small kitchen. Being a young newlywed, I didn’t have a lot of kitchen gadgets, but the kitchen was so small that there wasn’t much room for even the basics. If I remember correctly, there were only two drawers in the kitchen. I found myself looking for alternative storage methods.
I immediately needed to find some way to storage my kitchen utensils. After some thought and searching around in the stores, I found this handy basket. It stores my most used cooking utensils neatly on the counter …read more






