Most of us have, in the past, bought too much stuff: too many clothes, too much bedding and too many knick-knacks and holiday items that all need places to live. My Mom still collects those scary-looking Snow Babies which she “promises” that I’ll get when she dies (I’d rather try to get her Nativity sets past my Jewish husband). If you, like me, have too much stuff and are in need of some frugal home storage solutions, we have some ideas for you.

Under-bed boxes – If you have a bed that has a standard-size bed frame, under-bed storage is a great option for you. You can get boxes with rollers (more expensive) or simply large, flat boxes that slide under your bed. I keep wrapping paper, seasonal clothing and extra bedding under the bed in these handy boxes.

Over the door hangers – I use these in both of my bathrooms. They come in the version that has five hooks so that you can hang up all the stray towels, your robe and the clothes that you need for the next day… all on the door to the bathroom. There is zero installation. Just hang it over the top of the door!

Book Cases – When was the last time you purged your bookcases of the books you’ve read that you don’t need to keep? Send them along to your favorite charity and open up your bookcases for other items. Grab some decorative photo storage boxes (Michael’s always has them on sale) and stash whatever you need to stash.

Double Closet Bars – If you have an older home and have a single bar in your closet, you MUST invest in a hanging double-bar. It immediately doubles the amount of things that you can hang in your closet and installs just by hanging the hook over your existing closet bar. You can get them for as little as $9.99.

Just remember, you don’t have to do an extreme home makeover to get more mileage out of your space!

Happy Storage!

Darcy Ratner
Rubbingnickels.com

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Imagine if you could get your family dinners for the week cooked on Sunday afternoon and share the shopping, prep time and clean-up with your girlfriends. Our Book Club Moms did it, and it has made for a number of relaxing nights this week in our kitchens!

Getting Ready

After discussing food allergies and preferences, we each selected one of our family favorite recipes and purchased the ingredients for all six participants. We also communicated what kids of pans were needed to transport/cook the meals (e.g. my Turkey Meatloaf required a loaf pan). The hostess provided vegetable oil, olive oil, dried spices, and cooking utensils. Not knowing how long it would take, we gave ourselves 3 hours. Our respective husbands were thrilled to be left home to watch football, while our kids played and wandered in the kitchen to help/snack.

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We know that the term homemade holiday gifts brings to mind the crocheted Kleenex box covers that your Aunt Irma used to make, but this year, we have some money-saving gift ideas that you can make and give with confidence. In a year when everyone seems to be cutting back, many of these gifts can be used by the recipient as they enjoy their family time and will add some yumminess to their parties. There are so many resources on the internet to coax you along with these projects, and we’ve included a few that you can visit and use. For many of these gifts, you may have the ingredients and supplies on-hand, which makes them perfect as a Rubbingnickels.com gift.

Here are our ideas:

Potpourri and Bath Salts – Potpourri is really a snap to make, it just takes time to dry out the items you are putting in the mix. www.pioneerthinking.com/potpourri.html has great tips on the potpourri technique and then marvelous recipes like “purple haze” and “citrus delight” that will freshen up any room. To help make your own bath salts, Martha, of course, has great recipe for naturally scented salts on her website. Visit www.marthastewart.com/good-things/homemade-bath-salts.

Homemade Granola – Our granola recommendation comes with a cute story about the origin of the recipe. Visit www.slashfood.com/2007/08/31/a-granola-recipe-from-my-moms-hippie-youth for a fabulous and healthy concoction. This is great to have on-hand when you have company.

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This blog is from our friends at www.cityhammer.com who are our Guest Authors this week.

Everyone talks about Spring Cleaning, but its oft-neglected cousin, Fall Cleaning, should be on every homeowner’s to-do list right now. Some of these tips apply to people in houses as opposed to apartments and cityhammer.com is proud to announce our new category of Pro’s who handle roofing, siding, windows and more. In the fall, many contractors have a shorter lead time for new jobs so they can get in for an estimate and to do the actual work much faster than at other times during the year. So now that the days are getting shorter and we’re spending more time at home (suffering through another Jets or Giants season), it’s a great time to tackle these 5 maintenance and improvement projects before winter.

• Duct Cleaning: This fall and even more so during the holidays, there is nothing like spending quality time indoors with the family. But now, keep in mind you are all breathing the same air and that air is circulating through the ducts of your home. What else besides air is trapped or lingering in the ducts? Because you really don’t even want to know, get your ducts cleaned for only a few hundred dollars. This involves a super-powered vacuum being hooked to your intake vent so that whatever’s in your ducts will be sucked or swept away. Now take a deep breath and enjoy yourself.

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Is your utensil drawer starting to look like your junk drawer? Do you have a pile of Tupperware with no lids? Is your fridge so full that you don’t have room for your leftovers? If so, you need a Quick Kitchen Re-org to boost your meal prep potential. If you stay focused, this should take between 45 minutes and 90 minutes (depending on how many phone calls, Facebook posts or emails distract you) but will give you more room to function and a feeling of Zen when you open your fridge, pantry or drawers.

To get ready for your re-org, you’ll need three or four paper bags. Label one with “Goodwill” or a charity you know will take kitchen items, label one “recycle,” label one “trash” and label one “food bank”. Make sure your dishwasher is empty so that you can toss in containers and jars from the fridge once they’re emptied. Clutter-free counters are essential to provide a good “staging area” for emptying out drawers and sorting items. Put on some music (I prefer disco when organizing) and zip down this list of areas that will need the most attention.

Refrigerator – You would be surprised how quickly things go bad in the fridge. There is an informative webpage called whatscookingamerica.net/Information/FreezerChart.htm that will help you decide what is still good. Some shocking examples include the fact that chili and soups only stay good in the fridge for 3-4 days and ketchup and chili sauce last only one month. Pull out those crisper, cheese and meat drawers as well for who knows what lurks in the bottom. If you’re really ambitious, pull everything out and wipe down the entire fridge with Fantastic or Windex.

Utensils – This is the drawer that is usually the most problematic when I do a kitchen re-org. Pull out all of your utensils and put them on the counter. If you have doubles or triples and things that you never use, put them in the Goodwill bag. Sort the remainder by how you use them. I keep stove-top utensils in a crock on the counter so I can reach them quickly when I’m cooking. I keep baking and food prep utensils in a drawer, organized in shallow baskets so they don’t get tangled.

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Do you really need that gym membership? Many of us have them and don’t use them enough to justify the money we spend. There are lots of creative ways to get a workout at home and put the money from your $50-150 a month membership in your Wish Jar. Here are a few:

• Brisk walking with your MP3 player or ipod is an excellent way to get the cardio you need. You can download music tracks online by entering “workout music” into the search box of the site where you buy your music. It will give you tunes with lots of beats per minute to help you keep up your pace. If you have time but not money to purchase tracks, you can make your own playlists from CDs that you already own using upbeat selections from your library.

• If you have a DVR, you can access free workouts on your cable box to get your body sculpting, yoga and cardio for free. You can choose a target area for sculpting where the workouts run for 5-10 minutes or do a couple of 20 minute cardio sessions. If you don’t have a DVR but have a VCR, there are exercise programs on cable to record for free. The Lifetime channel has Denise Austin’s workout shows, the FitTV channel has shows and if you don’t have cable, PBS and local stations often have early morning workouts that you can record.

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