If you are looking for, well, great and useful home storage and organization solutions, you’ll find one stop shopping at www.greatusefulstuff.com.  This site is full of good ideas and well designed products to help you keep clutter at bay in your home.

I recently acquired this tie holder for my husband and let me tell you it has been a closet sanity saver for us!  It fits neatly in with his shirts and we haven’t had a tie avalanche with it yet!

I also love these shoe boxes:

My heels (seldom worn) all reside on the highest shelf of our master closet.  Doing away with manufacturer boxes and storing them in these neutral boxes with see-through sides will not only be so much more functional, it will look so much nicer!

I can’t forget to mention these mesh wire baskets, reasonably priced at $14.99, that will do wonders for your hall closet, laundry room or under counter space.

Check out the g.u.s. website and find other affordable solutions for:

cord spaghetti
closet avalanche
kids room chaos
tech travel trauma
guests with no room
photo pile-up

You’ll love what you see!

Here’s the problem: I see the first couple of cans, then it’s a huge jumbled mess.  Behind that big jar of Jif right there are 4 more because they got caught behind things, and I didn’t know I had them and bought more.

The bottom baking area was also a huge repository hidden away.  When I stock up on extra brown sugar, etc during sales, I couldn’t see them after I stowed them away.

Here’s where you can see how really deep these shelves were, which was great for storage, but not for retrievable storage…

Then ShelfGenie entered my life.

Joe came and talked me through the process, then the installer came to measure my cabinets.  Then all was quiet for about 2 weeks while my custom glide-out shelves were handcrafted.

Then this little miracle occurred….

See those 2 boxes there?  I just couldn’t wait to get everything organized and I took these before I remembered that you’d like to see the shelves without all of our consumables on them.

This is the middle shelf pulled all the way out.  I could sit a 75 pound kid on there just fine.

I wouldn’t do it, but I could.

But if I did, it wouldn’t break.

(And that’s probably the information you’re after.)

And here we are all loaded up: all 4 jars of pasta sauce, 5 bags of flour (!), 3 brown sugars, 5 jars of Jif, and 9 different random boxes of pasta I didn’t know I even had.

Obviously, I’m so much happier to open this now organized pantry.  It’s uber user-friendly.  I also hope it makes me a much wiser shopper.

Here are some other ideas from ShelfGenie:

Words aren’t necessary for this…

These folks may already have been neat.

I store our games, puzzles, etc in a similar hutch and this would be pretty incredible…

Can you imagine the change from the old pantry?  We don’t even need to see the before.

This one was actually the most dramatic change for me.  There’s even an extra empty shelf!!

Do you have glide-out shelves in your kitchen/pantry/laundry/bathroom?  How have they helped you?  If you want them, where would you use them first?

When I find a product I love, I tend to buy more than one for myself and to recommend it to all my friends.  What meets my needs so well is not always perfect for a friend, of course, but every so often a product proves so useful and reasonably priced that a ripple effect occurs and I find out about friends of friends of friends running out to get their hands on one!

I found these ClosetMaid Cubeical Organizers at Target this summer just after we moved into a new home.   New spaces called for new systems of organizing books and toys and these cube shelves became my new obsession!

First up was our picture book library.  This shelf is a dark, espresso color.  It sits in our great room amidst pieces of non-Target furniture and blends in seamlessly.  Aside from being stylish (enough for me!) it makes it easy to categorize and store hundreds of books while providing easy access to the shelves and disaster free book removal and, this is key, book re-shelving that even little kids can manage independently.  Gone are the days of the book avalanches we used to deal with!

I have since learned that when I used to buy 5 of the same shirt at Old Navy, varying only in color, that I was committing some sort of wardrobe faux pas according to the experts and I’m sure similar rules apply to furniture.   Apparently I can’t help myself.  I bought a shelf for each of my boys’ bedrooms, in colors to match their dressers (one espresso, one alder) and I chose white for our basement playroom:

These were just too useful, durable and reasonably priced not to buy more!   I love that the kids and their friends can see the toys we have, access them without assistance and put them away themselves.

You can find these awesome shelves in a bevy of colors at Target – the ClosetMaid Cubeicals Cube.

Many thanks to Sarah, in her debut as Contributing Writer at The Good Stuff Guide!  How about a little comment love?

Oh and I’ll race you to Target for these!

Next, I LOVED this vidcast by Professional Organizer Susan Stewart of Perfectly Placed on how she organizes her refrigerator and pantry. LOADS of great tips and ideas here friends:

Wow, right?  There’s a lot in there!

I really loved Susan’s handled clear containers for all of her baking needs.

So what are your tips for the kitchen?  What works for you?

Have a great day!

You’ll see…

Tracy writes, “When we moved into our home, we had a coat closet right next to the front door. Not really needing a coat closet in Arizona, my husband asked if I would like him to turn it into a Scrapbooking Closet. Of course I said, YES!!!”

And here is what she received:

I’ll just sit here quietly while you collect yourself.

I daresay Tracy has one gifted husband.

Tracy explains, “It had a single door, but was large inside, so he opened up the wall a bit and installed two doors.

The space also includes a laminate countertop, a pegboard across the back wall, a magnetic whiteboard and corkboard which he painted white,

hanging shelves/baskets on each door,

(I can feel your pain here.  It’s just too beautiful for words.  Notice the brass lock at the top of the door to keep “little hands” out – Tracy just had her 5th baby 3 weeks ago!)

And it is so beautifully organized!  Tracy – you have a gift!!

and overhead shelves for additional storage.

“This closet is one of my favorite spaces in our entire house. The best part with 5 kids around? It has locking doors which I can close (hides a mess quickly) and keep little fingers out of my stuff.”

Tracy adds, “I love the counter-height workspace, which is good for sitting or standing;  I love that everything I need is within arms reach; I love that I can see all of my supplies so I don’t forget what I have; I love the door-mounted shelves because they are a great use of otherwise wasted space; I love the clean look of all white and it helps to not give any color-cast to anything I’m working on.”

Tracy, you are one lucky, lucky girl.  Thank you so much for sharing your special space.  I am uber-jealous!!

We need more “Momspace” rooms to oogle and ogle at – do you have one at your home?  If so, send me photos!  What does your dream room look like?

A Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day to you!

Peter Walsh’s new Home Office Collection launches at OfficeMax stores nationwide this Saturday.

But we get a sneak peak at the goods

- and a chance to win them!

Is this a great Monday or what??

Here’s a photo of Peter’s collection that will whip your home office into shape well ahead of tax season!

Aren’t these colors great?  Elegant yet feminine at the same time.  Perfect for making me want to tackle my home office monster.

Here’s the best part:

Giveaway

One lucky, lucky winner can win either a stand-alone expanding file (for tax season coming up) or a set of notebooks and Peter’s planner simply by leaving a comment by Friday, January 21st. I’ll choose the winner using Random.org and announce it on Saturday.

Because I just LOVE comments, here’s how to gain extra entries (please leave them as separate entries):

1. Do you subscribe by email or RSS to The Good Stuff Guide? I love my subscribers, so you get an extra entry. Wahoo!

2. Email 5 of your friends about The Good Stuff Guide and tell them what a rockin’ website this is. We’d love to have them join us!

3. “Like” The Good Stuff Guide on Facebook and receive the latest news and your chance at additional giveaways. (I LIKE you too!)

Good luck!

Many thanks to Office Max for sponsoring this awesome giveaway!  Be on the lookout for Peter Walsh’s new Home Office Collection in Office Max stores starting this Saturday.

As the owner of Peace by Piece Organizing and also the mother of three small children (ages 5, 3 and 1), Renee Kutner definitely knows playrooms!

Stage 1: the beginning.  Ha!  This looks just like my house!

Stage 2: It’s contained, but you know it’s going to look like Stage 1 about 3.2 seconds.

Stage 3: It now has a system!  Clean-up now has some direction and hopefully the room will look like this after a 5-7-minute group cleanup.

She has some great tips to offer us to organize the toy mayhem:

Lose the lids.

Storage systems with open bin containers enable kids to just dump the toys in and move on.  Lids are great for stacking, but they are difficult for kids both to open and close.  Of course, if they want to play with something they’ll find a way to open it…but they’re not quite as motivated to put it back!  Besides, stacking can be a disaster for little kids who inevitably want to reach something on the very bottom.

Label, label, label.

Use pictures for young kids and words for pre-readers and readers. When kids know where something belongs, they are much more likely to put it away because it’s not such an overwhelming task.

Rotate toys.

Not having all your toys out at once obviously decreases clutter. Further, though, it keeps kids excited about the toys they have out so
they want to take good care of them and keep them in order.  When they lose interest in a toy, they really don’t care how it is being treated.

Avoid the large toy chests.

If everything can go in, then everything will come out – every time they play.  Kids can stay more focused on only what they want to play with if their toys are sorted.  Further, this is what they are used to from school.  Think about your child’s classroom where they spend most of their day – every activity has its own zone.

Store your toys bottom-up.

Think about the room from your child’s vantage point – they are relatively short.  Therefore, keep those things they use most closer to the ground.  As you move up in your storage unit you can start to put the toys less frequently played with or, if you have multiple kids, put the older kids’ toys higher up.

Many thanks to Renee Kutner, the Chaos Advisor, of Peace by Piece Organizing.  Renee can be reached at 404-309-4807 or online www.peacebypieceorganizing.com.

Today, we’re talking entryways.  Lisa Montanaro, “The Solutions Expert,” of LM Organizing Solutions has some really great ideas for us…

Depending on your home, it can be an entire mud room with lots of space, a formal foyer at the front of your house, a breezeway from the garage, or a portion of a hall in a small apartment. Regardless of where it is, or its size, if it is organized, your homecoming will always be less stressful, not to mention that you may actually want to have visitors over!

The following are some tips to help make your entryway more organized:

* If you have a front or back hall closet, use it for everyday outer wear for the current season only. Add a shelf, a shoe rack and any other organizing products that help contain clutter. If there is room, you can even add a hanging shelf system (a canvas one will work fine) for accessories to be handy, such as hats, umbrellas, scarves, and the like.
* If you are not lucky enough to have a closet in your entryway, then you need to create the storage system by using cubbies, pegs, a bench, a shoe drying mat, umbrella stand, hanging mail and key slot, etc. Make this your launching and landing pad for outerwear, knapsacks, briefcases, keys, etc.

* Accessories go in containers (baskets, bins, or any other type of container): gloves, hats, scarves. Organize by family member or by accessory category, whichever makes the most sense for your home and family.
* This may be a good place for a “return and repair center” if you have space. It is where you keep items that need to be returned to the store, the library, or to rightful owners that you borrowed them from. Likewise, you can store items to be repaired here so that you are reminded to grab them as you head out the door.

* You may opt for a hall table if you have room for a mail, key, wallet, and cell phone area.
* Put all keys in a small container and label the keys, either with a permanent marker or key tabs, so that you know what each key corresponds to. As a security measure, you may want to use a code instead of labeling the keys “back door,” garage,” etc.

Many thanks to Lisa Montanaro, “The Solutions Expert,” of LM Organizing Solutions for these fabulous ideas. Lisa publishes the monthly “DECIDE™ TO BE ORGANIZED” e-zine. Subscribe by visiting www.LMOrganizingSolutions.com. Lisa publishes a blog at WWW.DECIDETOBEORGANIZED.COM. Lisa is the author of the upcoming book “The Ultimate Life Organizer: An Interactive Guide to a Simpler, Less Stressful “.  You can contact Lisa at (845) 988-0183 or by e-mail at Lisa@LMOrganizingSolutions.com.

What are your ideas for your entryway?  What works for you?

Have a great day!

Our series on organization cooks up with this tremendous giveaway from Kangaroom Storage!

Just wait until you see the following items – I had the hardest time choosing.  Their website is chock-full of great organizational solutions!

1.  Collapsible Linen Closet Storage ($19-25)

Get your linen closet under control with these collapsible sheet and towel organizers.  Organize by bedroom, by bathroom, etc.  Oh man…  I didn’t know these existed and this would certainly fix my tall (and often toppled) piles in our linen closet.

2.  Media Wally ($35)

Tuck all the minutiae of gadgetry (GPS units, flash drives, blackberry/iPhone cords, battery chargers, etc) you have ensconced around your home into one unique place.  Phew!

3. 2-sided Cord Pouch ($20)

Organize all those cables and cords into one handy little pouch.  The flip side houses 5 more cords too.

And now for the really good part:

Giveaway

One lucky, lucky winner can win a $50 shopping spree at Kangaroom Storage simply by leaving a comment by Friday, January 14th. I’ll choose the winners using Random.org and announce it on Saturday.

Because I just LOVE comments, here’s how to gain extra entries (please leave them as separate entries):

1. Do you subscribe by email or RSS to The Good Stuff Guide? I love my subscribers, so you get an extra entry. Wahoo!

2. Email 5 of your friends about The Good Stuff Guide and tell them what a rockin’ website this is. We’d love to have them join us!

3. “Like” The Good Stuff Guide on Facebook and receive the latest news and your chance at additional giveaways. (I LIKE you too!)

Good luck!

Many thanks to Kangaroom Storage for sponsoring this awesome giveaway!  Be sure to visit their website for oodles and oodles of other great storage solutions!

If you’re like many people, your garage resembles that of a storage unit—not so much a place to park your cars (Ha!  That’s exactly ours!!).  But, with freezing temps and ample snow on its way, you might want to rethink that strategy.  After all, who wants to scrape icy windshields in a foot of snow when you don’t have to?

This year, make a resolution to get organized. You’ll find that an organized life leads to less stress and more productivity.

To achieve this goal, the experts at Closets by Design offer their assistance:

1.   Reclaim the garage floor – The trick is to use the space on the garage walls to your advantage.  Toys such as golf clubs, tennis rackets and skates can be stored along the walls, while bikes can be hung on hooks from the ceiling.  Rakes, shovels and other yard supplies can also be easily organized on an interior wall.  Using this space wisely will not only help you to increase your storage space but make items easily accessible.

2.    Cut the clutter – It’s amazing how many “things” you acquire over the years, and finding a place for each one is not always possible, or necessary.  It’s important to discard items you no longer want or need.  Sort through all of your tools and home maintenance supplies, and separate items into those you can sell, donate, throw away or recycle. If you haven’t used it in a year, you can probably get rid of it.

3.     Sort and label – It’s not enough to simply get organized.  The real test is to stay organized.  Labeling boxes and containers eliminates the frustration of rummaging through all of your belongings to find one specific item.  Put similar items into categories (i.e. tools, holiday decorations, etc.) so you will be able to maintain an efficient organizational system.

4.   Safety first – Since you’re already sorting items, be sure to keep potentially hazardous chemicals together and locked.  It’s best to use a lockable tool chest or cabinet for extra caution. Also, make sure that any power tools with an on/off switch are stored securely out of children’s reach.

5.       Increase storage with sturdy cabinets and shelving – Because paint cans, tools and other bulky items will be stored in the garage, it’s important that cabinets and shelving are sturdy enough to support the extra weight.  Not all cabinets are built the same and it’s important that you understand the construction behind your cabinet and the weight limitations.  A proper storage solution can organize your items and keep them out of site.  An important note when purchasing garage cabinets – make sure the doors will open when your car is parked in the garage.

Thanks to Closets by Design for these ideas!  To learn more of contact them, visit www.closetsbydesign.com.

What garage strategies have worked for you?