Summer Entertaining Made Quick and Easy
May 17, 2012
Now that the (hopefully) final cold snaps have come and gone, most of us are dusting off our lawn furniture and getting ready for the summer. Between barbecues, graduations, and holidays, most of us have plenty of entertaining to do over the next few months; it’s easy to get overwhelmed in a sea of entertaining, but we have plenty of products to make your summer entertaining easier, faster, and as classy or as casual as you need it.
Formal and buffet dining may not be the first type of summer entertaining that comes to mind, but between graduation parties and wedding season, you might just be surprised how often the occasions can come up. To that end, we have some fantastic lines for just about any price range.
Two of our favorite buffet serveware lines – one an old high-end favorite and another a new, unbelievably affordable addition – are these chafing dishes from Old Dutch and serving trays and stands from InterDesign. Whether you can splurge or not, both the trays and chafing dishes offer elegant, old-world designs in a variety of finishes sure to look fantastic in just about any setting. Both sets come in small and large, round and rectangular, and a variety of other options, ensuring that you can tailor your party to whatever you happen to be serving or celebrating.
But if you’re more of a barbecue with friends kind of person, we have you covered too. From brands like Boston Warehouse, Coca-Cola, Snapi, and many others, we’re happy to bring you a wide selection of serving trays, bowls, chip and dip trays, utensils, straws, tumblers, travel cups, and just about any food or entertaining-related product you need.
Bamboo or plastic, modern or traditional, serious or super-fun, we’ve put together a pretty fantastic selection for your next party.
Between Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day, a big part of summer entertaining in America has ties to our country’s history and the celebration of some of its highest points. Whether you want to celebrate with a big theme or just sneak in a little patriotic flair, we have American flag products both small and large to serve your needs.
We’ve outlined some of what we have in stock for your summer, or tried to, but there’s a lot of fantastic product that we just don’t have space to cover in one blog post. Shop all of our best and newest suggestions for summer entertaining by clicking here: Summer Entertaining
How to Organize Your Garage for Spring
April 5, 2012
As the temperatures rise, the birds start chirping, and the flowers begin to bloom, it is a sure sign that spring is in the air! The changing weather signals that it is time for a seasonal changeover in the garage. Put away the shovels and snow blowers and get out the bikes, scooters, lawnmowers, gardening gloves, etc. The easiest way to ensure a smooth transition between the seasons is to have storage space dedicated to seasonal items. Then when you are switching seasons, you can empty everything out for the upcoming season and place all of the out-of-season items in this storage space. This can be a corner in the basement, a shed, or even overhead storage in the garage.
Schedule Time – Set aside a day when you are expecting good weather. Make it a family project and get everyone involved. Have boxes for donation items and garbage bags for trash on hand in case you need them. If you are anticipating items for donation, schedule your favorite charity to come and pick-up your donation items a couple of days later.
Identify Winter Items – Pinpoint all winter things and group them together in the driveway.
Clean – Now that these things are out, take a few minutes to clean your garage before bringing in your summer belongings.
Sort – This changeover is a great time to donate unused items, fix broken things, and clean up the belongings you intend to keep. Before storing your winter things, make a decision – toss, donate or keep. If it is toss, put it right in the garbage. If it is donate, put it right into the box, and if it is keep, it goes to storage.
Gather Summer Items – Bring out all of your summer things and put them in the garage. If you don’t already have “homes” for these items, then take a minute and designate areas, or zones, for your various categories (e.g. sports equipment, tools, gardening, lawn care, car care, etc.). The saying “a place for everything and everything in its place” applies to every room in your house…including the garage.
Put It All Back Together – Shop for any needed garage organization products and install if necessary. Put your summer things in their new designated locations, and label any boxes or containers. Place your winter items in the designated seasonal storage space.
Now that you have completed your seasonal changeover, put the donation boxes out for pickup, the trash bags in the bin, and sit outside and enjoy a cold glass of lemonade!
Donna Lindley, Certified Professional Organizer and owner of Rochester Hills, MI-based Organize Your World, Inc.
Everyone Needs a File Cabinet
April 4, 2012
In my last post I wrote about how moms need desks. Now I’m imploring moms, dads, students, seniors, space aliens–anyone who will listen…
BUY A FILE CABINET.
When a prospective client tells me of their paper challenges, one of the first questions I ask is, “Do you own a file cabinet?”
They often reply…
“File cabinets are really ugly.”
“I have a plastic one that broke.”
“File cabinets are just expensive boxes.”
These statements bring a tear to my eye. Continue Reading