I recently attend the National Association of Professional Organizers Washington, DC – Metro Chapter’s June meeting. Members featured new products and resources from the NAPO Conference in Orlando, Florida which I attended this past April. One by one, members demonstrated various products and explained the highlights of some new services. Everything shown was new, unique or a great resource. Below is a list of eight items featured. I’ll blog about the other five items in a future post. Thank you to all the companies who donated their product. Each product was given away as a ‘door prize’ at the end of the meeting! Read on to discover which item I won.
Shelf Improvement Rollout Shelves
Shelf Improvement makes glide out shelves which only require four screws to mount and have a “2 minute” estimated installation time. They were very solid in construction and had beautiful dovetail corners. I was very impressed with the quality and price. The glide out shelves are $79.00 plus $10 shipping for any size. The widths available are: 10″-30″ wide increasing in 1″ increments and the depths are 21.5″, 18.5″, or 16.5″. If you’re a do-it yourself type, check out these glide out shelves.
Clearly Noted
These designer note cards were created specifically for Professional Organizers. They are the concept of my friend and colleague, Jill Revitsky of Discover Organizing from Pittsburgh, PA. The designs are fresh, unique and feminine in style. They’re also very reasonably priced at $15.30 for a 6-pack. If you’re an organizer and need stylish stationary to stay in touch with your clients, buy these cards!
SaveMyPix.com
The owners of SaveMyPix.com, Maxx & Monica attend the meeting as guests. Their unique service will scan your precious photos, old slides, and convert your old VHS Tapes and 8 mm film to DVD. I love the idea of their service called – Stuff ‘n Send. A prepaid box which will hold up to 1600 photos. The photos are scanned at 300 DPI and returned on your choice of digital medium for the current sale price $99.95. They really couldn’t make it any easier. Make this your Father’s day gift!
Brother P-Touch 1230PC
This easy to use label machine connects to your PC via USB. You do not have to load software on your PC because it’s preloaded on the machine. You can conveniently design durable, laminated labels up to ½” wide using your PC keyboard and monitor. The labels print on their TZ label tape which comes in white, clear, and various other colors. You can load additional logos or any True Type Font on the machine. Brother says it’s “Perfect for home or home office labeling needs.” I won this label machine in the ‘door prize raffle’ at the end of the meeting but I’m a Mac user – so, it’s not so perfect in my opinion. For PC users, at $49.99, you could use this label machine – a bargain in my opinion.
List Planit
Jen Tankersley has branded her company as “List to Put Your World in Order”, and I agree! List Planit has over 400 attractive, printable lists and planning pages for you to manage life. They’re conveniently organized on their site by categories – life, business, kitchen, finance, etc. They have three types of membership – print, download, or professional ranging from $20 – $50 yearly. That’s If you like paper lists, I highly recommend this service.
Time Timer®
If you saw the episode of Time Makeover on The Fine Living Network when I worked with the Lucchesi family, you would have learned about the very cool, Time Timer®. Their products demonstrate how much time has elapsed. If you see the color red on the face, that shows you how much time remains. If you have trouble managing time or if you’re teaching the concept of time, there is no better tool than a Time Timer®. Their website boasts “This innovative tool constantly reinforces the sense of elapsed time in order to promote better time management.” You can buy the 3″, 8″ or 12″ version or their handy wrist watch style. They even have a new PC/Mac software that runs on your computer screen. I’ve been using it since April to help manage the time I spend on Facebook and Twitter. Prices start at $30 and I recommend you purchase the timers with the optional audible signal.
Recipe Nest® by Recipe Relish
I’m in love with this concept because I frequently tear recipes out magazines, dreaming of the day I’ll learn to cook. The Recipe Nest® is perfect because it’s designed to store full-page recipes from your printer or from magazines. They’re organized with tabbed dividers. No more trying to punch holes in the flimsy magazine paper! The built-in easel easily folds out and works with the clip-on the front to display the recipe you’re using. This keeps my dirty hands off the recipe when cooking and I use a plastic sheet protector, or you can buy the specially designed ‘Recipe Sleeve,’ to keep the recipe clean as you cook. The surface of the Recipe Nest® is also spill proof, so you can splash and splatter all you want! There are great colors to choose from and the Recipe Nest® easily fits inside most kitchen cabinets or on a bookshelf. Choose the color that matches your unique style. Mine is Kiwi Green! This is perfect for anyone who likes to cook at $38.95.
Easy Find Lid Food Storage Containers by Rubbermaid
I blogged about these Easy Find Lid Food Storage Containers by Rubbermaid back in September 2008 which I featured them on a WUSA 9 TV Appearance.
Their unique design allows you to snap the lid to the base of the containers. You’ll never lose a lid again! They come as small as .05 cup up to 2.5 gallons and all sizes in between. With this graduated size design, they easily nest together. I’m a huge fan of square storage containers because they optimize your storage space. Yes, you can microwave and freeze meals in these containers. A 20 piece set is around $15.99. I’ve seen them for sale at Target, Harris Teeter and Giant.
We had five more products featured at the meeting which I’ll feature in a different blog post. Did you find anything above that would be helpful to you at home or that would make the perfect gift for anyone? Please leave a comment below to share your thoughts and ideas.
A cluttered home adds to the stress of daily life, and most often when we tackle organizing our home, we focus on the public rooms, such as the kitchen and family room, because we fear the dreaded unannounced guest. We often neglect the bedrooms. It’s easy to close the bedroom door, but at the end of the day, we are restless in our cluttered bedrooms.
De-clutter every surface. Overcrowding the surfaces of your dressers and nightstands with knick-knacks presents a cluttered look and makes it more difficult to dust. Select the top two or three non-essential items that are special to you to feature in your bedroom. The others can go into storage, be displayed in another room or maybe be rotated every few months. Remember – less is more.
A peaceful, clutter-free bedroom is ideal for a restful night’s sleep and piles of clothes don’t create the relaxing oasis you desire. A basic rule of thumb for clothing is if it is clean enough to wear again, it’s clean enough to hang up. Using The Art of Storage valet is a perfect way to store the clothes you’ll wear again soon and the coin tray is a convenient place to empty your pockets at the end of the day.
