Wow! You have lots of really good ideas. Some of you seem a little overwhelmed, like I am! Too many good ideas (and getting more every day), not enough time! Luvs, I never thought of actually sitting down with a cup of coffee and looking through my Christmas files (duh) prior to the Christmas shopping season (although most of what I buy is second-hand still there's more selection nearer to the holidays)... Karen--you can fit all your Decor ideas in ONE file???! Dreamgoddess--I love the idea of having all my jottings in one notebook--but once I turn the page the old ones are gone from my memory! You probably (undoubtedly) have more discipline than I have... OA--I do something like you do with the recipes but I use scrapbook software. I'm pleased with that because I can add text and the software treats it like a graphic--lets me move it around, put it on top of pictures, etc., but it still stays editable for when I spot a typo (very irritating to me) or want to rearrange the page. You can also add arrows or circle items in the photo or illustrations, and fancy them up if you want. I save the pages to .jpg files after I'm done. Then I can just view them with the Windows viewer. The disadvantage is there's no way to sort them or search them. I have to put them all in individual folders like Christmas, etc. If I want to have an index I have to make one in Excel or some such. I love the idea of putting all the things for each room in their own boxes. We will be moving into our new home this winter and as I unpack (my very disorganized) moving boxes I'll keep that in mind. Have to go get tons of plastic bins... Minnie tx--Yes. I've organized my articles like that in the past and there's nothing like thumbing through those nice page protectors--makes your pictures look even better. But I have SO MANY! Once I almost completed a system like that and I had 21 3-ring notebooks full and more coming all the time. I've weeded out since then (HAD TO!) and of course since I was younger there's many more formats--dvd's (stuff I recorded off HGTV, for example), Internet downloads, how-to videos on the Internet, of course digital pix that I sneak sometimes in stores, etc. So much mixed media! dd50- you've hit the nail on the head! That's me, wandering around the store, getting ideas, and wondering if I already have the stuff at home. After this over-budget house is finished, I'm not going to be able to afford buying (even something cheap) twice! neesie--DH uses a pencil and notepad for anything he wants to remember, and it works for him, but he's an engineer. They're BORN organized. lynn--I scan pix from magazines and catalogs too (they can sure mount up). But your system sounds so organized. I just finished culling about 300MB of graphics files duplicates that I had propagated all over the disk. BTW, make sure you all have backups. DH made us a little network with a big hard drive so we can back up to it. But if you don't have that, I like the little thumb drives--I got a 4 GB one for Christmas last year. That holds a lot of files! THANKS FOR ALL THE SUGGESTIONS! Seems nothing is perfect. As I mentioned, I'm using scrapbook software which makes graphics and text very easy to handle (OA--if you want "freeform" pages the scrapbooking software is better than a database like Filemaker. Databases usually require you to have your data in fixed format (which you define). For example, at least when I was using databases, you would have to define the number of pictures you could allow in each record. Of course, databases may be a lot fancier now, but their search-sort functions should require some rigidity in the format of each record.) What I really need to find to augment this is a calendar-shopping list-inventory program that takes all those ideas in my brain and makes them usable! - Magpie

You could actually do a couple different things. You could have one rod and use hangers. You would have to fold them a bit to fit on the hanger and not drag on the floor, but that's usually how they come from the cleaners. For heavy cloths, use two hangers together for added strength. You could also hang multiple rods at slightly different heights and depths. If you have a walk in closet this works great, but will still work with a reach in. Hang the highest rod the farthest back, then one a bit lower and closer and even a third lower and closer than the second. Then you can hang the cloths right on the rod instead of on a hanger. I like the rod because of it's larger diameter it doesn't leave creases in the cloths. You can also overlap them on these rods. For optimum use of space, you'd need to use multiple rods and overlap. Is that totally confusing?!

I'm a little obsessive, but I have them printed in 3-ring binders and saved electronically in several locations. I'm more tactile, so I like to flip through the binders, look at the recipes, and then the notes I've written about how it turned out underneath each recipe. After a while, I cull out the recipes that got "bad reviews". This helps my husband too, because sometimes I just hand him a binder and say, "Here YOU pick out what sounds good and we'll cook it." My electronic files are a mess...over 400 recipes and I don't have them categorized, so I usually just scan through them (while I'm at work sometimes) and either search for something specific, or whatever sounds good at the time. I've always said if the house caught fire, those binders would be one of the first things I'd grab! Even though I have my recipes saved electronically, there's about 25% of them I only have in print.

Goal: Store things near point of use. Ideal groupings: preparation, cooking, cleaning up, food storage, other storage. Limitations: existing layout and exactly how you and your household members use the kitchen. If the kitchen is poorly designed or doesn’t fit your usage, compromises will be needed. Example: A couple I knew lived in an apartment in a large city. They cooked and entertained a lot. They needed a large, well-designed kitchen, but their tiny kitchen was suited for making an omelet or heating take-out. In order to do what they loved, they had cooking equipment and even food squirreled away in some of the most unorthodox places I’ve ever seen. They made it work. Start with how you use the kitchen now. Make a list of tasks that are done often. You want to make these as easy as you can. Walk through each task, considering where everything should be stored. Example: Make a pot of tea. 1. Get kettle off stove, fill with fresh water, return to stove to heat. 2. Gather sugar, teapot, tea, spoon, tea ball from cupboard. Setup for brewing. 3. Fetch lemon from the refrigerator. I used the sink, stove, refrigerator and storage. Where should I make tea? I’m clumsy, so I put the tea-making station close to the stove to reduce the risk of scalding myself. Once I got an electric kettle, I moved tea-making near the sink. I no longer needed the stove, so I could reduce congestion in that area. Example: Unload the dishwasher. It’s usually placed next to the sink. Should the glasses and dishes be in a cabinet above the dishwasher? Test unloading those items from the dishwasher. Can you reach the cabinet with the dishwasher door open? If not, is it acceptable to stage the clean dishes to the counter so you can put them away or would you prefer to walk back and forth to a different cabinet? The “right” answer is whichever one works better for you. Once you have a basic usage plan that works for you, start unpacking. Do you need the item anymore? You haven’t used it in a year. Does it fit with existing tasks? If your plan is working, the correct storage location will probably be obvious. If it’s for a task you aren’t doing currently, do a walk-through of that task in order to understand where items for it should be stored. Also consider frequency. The best place for a cookie sheet might be next to the oven, but it you only bake once a year and need the space for something that’s done more often, the cookie sheet doesn’t even have to be stored in the kitchen.