Omegapolis – Home Improvement Blog

With the holidays around the corner this is a useful tip. Organize and plan your gifts ahead of time. The first thing you want to do is make a list of all the people to whom you are planning to give a gift this Holiday season. Start with listing your close family members and then, relatives, friends and maybe some co-workers. Also, include the names of people to whom you are just sending a greetings card as a present. Then beside the name list a possible gift or a couple that you would consider buying for the person listed. Also, you can write the store names where those gifts can be bought (especially if you are sure of the gift you want to buy). I also think it is a good idea to write an estimate amount you want to spend on the gift to be able to better stick to your holiday budget. When you go to the store take the list with you, so that you can shop for a couple of people at the same time, because you might end up buying a few gifts in the same store. Also, you can plan your shopping trip by looking at the stores that you listed for gift buying and making a trip so you can go to a couple of stores in the same day that are located close by. Another tip, keep on hand a couple of extra gifts (for emergencies- i.e someone comes buy to give you a gift and you were not expecting, so you can give them something in return) keep a couple of different gift cards, or box of chocolate maybe a unisex children toy.
Enjoy the Holidays.

Helpful hint to reduce accumulation of clutter in your home and create space to store new bought items especially around the time of Holidays. This time of the year is essential for getting rid of clutter, because you will be bringing in new things from shopping and gifts from people. Here is a simple rule you buy one more t-shirt ( you have to get rid of 2 that you no longer like, that doesn’t look good or simply doesn’t fit), this rule applies to everything you buy, planning to buy some toys around the holiday throw out some old ones. If you really feel like you only have a few toys for example, and there is really nothing to throw out ( because they all look good and kids play with them) – get rid of any 2 items in your home by donating or throwing out. So the rule is bring one and take out 2. If you bough a whole bag of clothing, take new clothing out of the bag and fill up this bag with things you do not want or like and take it to trash or to your car for donating immediately.

Why not organize your make-up today? I have a make-up drawer in my washroom where i store all my make-up. First of all, take all the makeup out of the drawer and sort into 2 piles: keep and trash. The trash pile should have items you no longer like, things that dried ( like lipstick), colors you stopped liking and expired make-up products. Throw out trash pile immediately. The keep pile should be sorted by type (so put all lipsticks together, all brushes together) and wipe these things down. Next step is to clean out the drawer i used Clorox spray cleaner for bathroom and then let the drawer dry. The next step is to put in some drawer dividers(containers) (preferably plastic- for easy cleaning), you can also use like a lid from plastic box (from candy). Put make up by types in separate containers. Also a hint, some make up is used only once so often (like that glittery eye-shadow you apply at Christmas time-take these rarely used products and put them in one container and store at the back in the drawer.
Have fun organizing and good luck, hopefully you will have room for some new make-up - reward yourself for cleaning by buying a new make-up product!

Here is a bunch of organizing/cleaning tips:
1. Store your cleaning supplies in a plastic carry caddy under the sink, when you clean your bathrooms take the caddy from one bathroom to the next. The caddy should have in it: Windex, all purpose cleaner, toilet bowl cleaner, paper towel, air freshener, rubber gloves, rag.
2. Store your dog toys inside ottoman in the living room. Ottoman will create extra sitting and store the toys. When guests come over you can quickly pick up the toys from the floor and throw it inside your ottoman.
3.When dusting use Pledge spray- it keeps the dust away for longer.
4. When baking frozen food like (pizza, french fries, chicken fingers) use foil or parchment paper to line your baking dish, when done throw out the foil or the paper and your tray is clean.
5. Use Lysol or Clorox wipes to wipe down your kitchen counters every night after cooking and washing dishes.

I would like to share a couple of ways to organize in the kitchen using the Lazy Susan. Lazy Susan is a plastic tray usually round, comes in different colors and it rotates. They are used in places like Chinese restaurants and usually placed in the middle of the table with appetizer so that people eating can have easy access to the different appetizers by rotating the tray. I bought mine in Winners, they are also sold in Kitchen Stuff. The one way I use Lazy Susan is to store my olive oil, sunflower oil, cooking wine and soy sauce. I put all these bottles on my tray and store it right on the counter top beside my stove top. I can rotate it to access the bottle i need and if anything spills it is easy to clean up in the sink with warm soapy water. There are other ways to use Lazy Susan in your kitchen. It can be used to store can goods or spices inside a cupboard. This way you do not have to take out all the cans from the shelf to get to the one at the very back; you can just rotate and pull out.

I have recently purchased 2 Hermit crabs and i think they are awesome. They require little maintenance, they are cheap to maintain, do not carry any diseases and pretty cheap to buy. If your child is asking to have a pet-this is a great pet to start with. You can teach your child to be responsible and take care of them. Here are some things you will need- a terrarium (plastic is okay), 2 plastic little dishes, soil or sand for crabs, some wood pieces or branches for them to climb on, bottled water and food. It is also a good idea to buy them a thermometer and a humidity meter. Hermit crabs like it nice and moist and humid. In terms of taking care of them. You want to buy at least 2, because they are social creatures. Water and food should be changed daily- so you can put some crab food into one bowl and some bottled water in another dish. It is also recommended that you wash all their things with bottled water (so the dishes and their branches for climbing). The soil should be thrown out and replaced once a month the bag costs around 7$ and is enough for half year. Everyday you should spray their habitat with bottle water to make the environment moist. They can be taken out and let to run around a table or your clothe but under supervision. If you do take it into your palm make sure it is as flat as possible to avoid pinching. They also like all sorts of treats like, apple, grapes, bananas, shrimp. They will also require some real shells that are a bit bigger than the ones they have right-now, because they grow and like to change shells. Lastly, i recommend staying away from colored shells that pet stores sell, because the paint on them can be toxic and will kill the crab. As well as, it is a good idea to put a little sponge in the water dish to avoid drowning. If you have a pretty big habitat you can put a 3rd dish with salty water for them to swim in.

Whether it is a finished basement or unfinished basement every house has some free space under the stairs. In some houses that space is made into a closet with walls and a door. People usually put all sorts of things there in boxes and empty boxes just in piles. However, a great idea is to get one or as many as fits plastic shelves (looks like a bookcase made of plastic and doesn’t have a back wall). Then you want to get different plastic containers, baskets to store all your items. I got some plastic containers from dollar store. I got about 6 in different colours and they are like bins used in lockers to store things. Then you want to sort your things into piles of alike things and decide which piles will be stored under the stairs. I have one bin for gift bags, 2 for instruments, one for extra cords and electronics and one for some of the camping things. As well as, I also use the free floor space under the stairs to store my Christmas tree, Christmas decorations, box of old bills and receipts and box of old textbooks. Also, I am planning to label the containers on the side for easy finding of things.

Here is a great tip to organize all your shoes. Buy yourself some plastic shoe boxes which can be found in the store in the container section. You will put one pair of shoes in each box. Also a good idea is to label the boxes for faster finding even if you buy clear boxes. These boxes are stackable so you can put many on the top shelf of your bedroom closet or entrance closet, they can also be put on the floor of your closet. Also, these boxes are easy to wash with just some soapy water and they are reusable for many years so save the environment. A variation of these boxes can even be found in dollar store.

One of the things i recommend for everyone is to get a hand vacuum or some sort of small, light weight vacuum. One of the light vacuums is swiffer vacuum. However, i like this one: Shark 2-in-1 Stick Vacuum Cleaner it is sold at Canadian Tire and it is light and inexpensive it comes on sale for about 20$. I like how it has a long handle that you are able to remove, which means you don’t have to bend to vacuum. This vacuum collects garbage into a canister that you have to empty into the garbage after using, so it is bag-less. I think having such vacuum is wonderful, especially if you have kids that leave crumbs on the floor or if you have pets and there is a lot of pet hair on the floor. I use it on daily basis to give the house a quick clean, i use it only in the kitchen, dining room, living room, hall and powder room. These vacuums are only good for laminate, hardwood and tile floors. So the good idea is to vacuum the kitchen after every meal that you cook and vacuum around dining table after eating. I love this vacuum, because it is so light and easy to pull out. It is also easy to use and clean. Also, it leaves my living room and dining room and kitchen floors looking clean without any crumbs everyday.

The first thing you might want to do is create a daily and a weekly chore list. The daily list will include little things that you have to accomplish every day, for example doing your dishes, feeding your pets, making your bed, wiping down the table after each meal. All together these little things might take only about 20 minutes a day, but they will help you to have a house that is manageable. Also, after doing them every day for about month these things are likely to become a habit and you will do them automatically. However, it is also important to have a weekly cleaning list that has items on it that are longer to do, but have to be done on weekly bases. This list will include things like vacuuming the carpets, scrubbing the bathrooms, cleaning the fridge, moping the whole house. This way if you do the daily and weekly checklists your house will always look clean. It is also a good idea to add to the weekly list a couple of areas in the house that you want to organize within the week period. So for example, you might want to organize in the cabinet under the sink and organize the cupboard in the kitchen where you keep all your plates. So I recommend typing out these 2 lists based on your needs and printing out enough copies for the month –date them and everyday and week cross out the things from the list that you have accomplished. After the one month period it will most likely become a habit or a routine for you and you will not need the lists.