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Archives for December 2012

How to Get The Most Out of Your Closet Space

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Organizing your closet can be one of the most daunting tasks, especially if you have an excess of clothing and other miscellaneous items. Regardless of whether you have a big closet or not, you’re always looking for more space to put things. By following these simple tips, you’ll be able to maximize your closet space and for once your closet will have the opportunity of looking de-cluttered!

Throw things out

Take a good look at the clothes in your closet. Can you spot something that you haven’t worn in over a year? If you can, then that’s an indication that you need to throw some things out. Go through your wardrobe and look at everything you own. See which items you can live without and which one’s you absolutely can’t. Make a goal to at least get rid of 10-15 items of clothing and you’ll be amazed to see how much space that can free up in your closet!

Don’t think that by getting rid of clothes you have to just throw them out either. A great incentive to cleaning out your closet is the potential to make money off of what you’re getting rid of. Try selling your old clothes online or bringing them to a consignment store. This way, you’ll be cleaning out your closet while putting a little extra money in your pocket!

Measure

After you’ve cleaned out your closet and you’ve gotten rid of the unnecessary items, it’s time to start planning. You might have big plans for your closet, but it’s important that first you measure the dimensions of it. Look beyond the regular clothing racks and determine how much additional space there is for shelving units and space below racks. If you maximize your closet by using the space above regular clothing racks as shelves and the space below for baskets or shoe racks, you’ll be surprised how much extra space you actually have.

Money

If you want to have an organized closet, you don’t have to put a huge sum of money into it. There are plenty of materials that you can buy from home improvement stores that are very low in cost and highly effective with helping you organize your closet. Look at your bank account and decipher how much you have in your budget to spend on this project. This way when you’re out looking for storage shelves and racks, you’ll know how many and how much you can spend on them.

Be resourceful

Your own bedroom closet doesn’t have to be the only space you keep your clothes in. If you’re fortunate to have additional bedrooms in your home or apartment, don’t be afraid to use that space. Using extra bedroom closets for storage of off-season clothing or even shoes or extra bedding is a great use of space and way to utilize all the room you have available to you. By doing this, you are freeing up additional space in your closet and it gives you the option to maybe even take a trip to the store and reward yourself for all of your hard work! Either way, make sure you’re making the most of all the space your home has to offer.

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Jackie Ryan is a freelance writer and self-proclaimed neat freak! After re-organizing the closets in her home, she doesn’t know what she would do without her storage shelves. She hopes her knowledge and advice will be able to help anyone who’s looking to de-clutter their spaces.





The Gift of Giving – Ways to Give Back During the Holidays

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This is the time of year everyone begins wondering how they can give back, yet others are still wondering what the joy is in giving. Joy is that moment that you have given, when you see someone’s appreciation in his or her eye; a tear that falls down his or her face, knowing that you have done something to truly help someone. Sometimes just doing something good lifts a person’s spirits, even if they do not get to see a response. Below are a few ideas of how you can give back during the holidays.


Donate to charity – During the holiday season you will surely see the “Marine Toys for Tots Foundation” with the big boxes in front of stores such as Wal-Mart, Target, etc. This would be a great way to donate, go into the store and purchase a small toy and drop it off before leaving. Donate $1 to $5 to a charity in someone’s name. There are other charities such as the Make-a-Wish foundation and UNICEF. Always make sure to check with the Better Business Bureau before donating money to ensure they are legit.

Adopt a child for the holidays – You know those Christmas trees in the store that have a star or a child’s name on them. The backs always have one wish of what the kid would like, sometimes it is something simple like a jacket, shoes or socks and others they are requesting a Barbie, etc.

Leave a treat – Leave a goodie or a gift for someone not expecting it. An example might be an elderly neighbor that never seems to get visitors. Pop in a card in their mailbox or a plate of cookies for them or a fruit tray.

Donate items – This time of year you will see many places calling for donations. You can donate old or new jackets, clothes, gently used toys, canned goods, pet food, etc.

Volunteer at a soup kitchen – Find a soup kitchen in your area and volunteer for a few hours, a weekend, etc. You will be amazed with how many people really need a meal, but it will feel amazing seeing the gratitude on their face and you give them a spoonful of soup or another dish they are waiting on. The truth is you will not only be helping yourself by volunteering to do something good, but you are helping the person that needs that meal and your community. Soup kitchens are by donations only, this is not a profit organization, they only stay running with volunteers and donations of food items and/or monetary donations. Do not worry if you are not a cook, you can help serve, wash dishes, greet guests, etc. There is always a job if you want to volunteer.

Apart from being a licensed veterinarian, Susan Wright is also a freelance writer. Susan enjoys sharing gift giving ideas for friends, family and pets.

Last Christmas You Gave Me Your Heart…This Year I Want Gadgets!

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Christmas time is rapidly approaching, and that means more than just mistletoe and wine. It means gadgets. Because Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without at least one new hi-tech toy, right? So, if you’re looking for present ideas, or just to reward yourself for getting through another year, then hopefully this list will provide some inspiration.

Nintendo Wii U – The successor to the game-changing Nintendo Wii, the Wii U will bring HD visuals, DS-inspired dual-screen gaming and touchscreen controls to the table. With two options, the 8GB Basic pack and 32GB Premium pack (£250 and £300 respectively) the Wii U isn’t the cheapest of gifts, but given Nintendo’s track-record for enthralling family entertainment a Wii U could make the perfect accompaniment to your Christmas holiday.

Polaroid Z2300 – Think instant cameras are a thing of the past? Polaroid beg to differ. This 10-megapixel camera may cost £150 but let’s you print out the image you just snapped in under a minute, while also saving it directly to the camera or an SD card. Perfect for capturing all the fun of the festive season and sharing with family members of all generations.

Kindle Paperwhite – Want to escape the Christmas chaos by diving into a good book? Do it in style with the new Kindle Paperwhite. With 62% more pixels and 25% better contrast the new Kindle has crisper text than ever before. It also comes with built-in lighting so you can read it in the dark without disturbing anyone.

Sennheiser IE80 Ear Canal Phones – £212 might seem like an insane amount to spend on headphones, but when the traditional Christmas family argument gets going, you might be glad you splashed out. Offering outstanding sound-quality, these rugged yet stylish Sennheisers come with a variety of interchangeable ear buds to give you the perfect fit. Vital for drowning out unwanted background noise.

Nike+ FuelBand – This is one for when the festive season is over and you realise how many inches all that turkey and stuffing has added to your waistline. The FuelBand uses a 3-axis accelerometer to judge how active you are, instantly calculating your activity level in ‘NikeFuel’. You set yourself daily NikeFuel targets, then the FuelBand keeps you constantly updated with how you’re doing. At £120 it’s not the cheapest fitness gadget, but for simple, ever-present motivation boosters the FuelBand is hard to beat.

2012 has been a bumper year for new technology, so here’s hoping you get at least one exciting new bit of kit in your stocking this December 25th. Even if it is from yourself.

Ed Prior is a third year student, writer, very amateur Brazilian Jiu Jitsu practitioner , gamer and part-time vegetarian. He is here writing for Synergy ICT, retailers of business focused software.

Importance of Caring for Your Garden

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Homes with gardens are more attractive and pleasing to the eye. They can make a house look like a home, and the flowering plants and trimmed shrubberies can easily make any home look elegant.

Gardens are an extension of the house. You can have your meals and parties outside; your children can play in it; you can even take a nap under a shade in your garden; or you can simply use the garden as a source of solace, peace, and tranquility. As an extension of your home, it should also receive proper care and maintenance. But why is a regular clean-up good for your garden, aside from making your property pretty and relaxing?

It Can Help Keep Pests Out

Without a doubt, a clean garden can help keep pests out. Pests can live just about anywhere, but their population can really flourish in dirty places. Gardens that have stagnant pools of water, mounds of debris and leaves, piles of rotting wood, tall grass, untrimmed shrubberies, etc. are more prone to pest infestation than those gardens that are clean and regularly cared for. This is because dirty gardens attract pestiferous insects such as mosquitoes, cockroaches, beetles, ants, giving the ample hiding places where they can easily feed and breed. Dirty gardens also attract rodents and reptiles that are scavenging for food. If the garden is pest infested, there’s no stopping them from invading your home.

However, if you regularly give your garden a good cleaning by trimming the bushes, pruning the trees, moving the lawn, getting rid of debris, you’re reducing the population of pests and decreasing the risk of having them inside your home.

It Can Decrease Health Risks

As mentioned earlier, dirty gardens attract pests. The more pests you have in the garden, the higher the chances that they’ll infest your property, and the higher the risk of these pests bringing sickness and diseases into your home. Pests, after all, are very notorious when it comes to spreading diseases. In fact, it was the rodents that spread the Bubonic Plague that wiped out millions of people. It’s the mosquitoes that are spreading diseases like dengue fever, malaria, and West Nile disease. Cockroaches carry viruses and bacteria that can cause food poisoning and gastrointestinal problems. Rodents like rats, mice, rabbits, squirrels, etc. can carry rhabdovirus, which causes rabies. Ticks carry viruses that cause Lyme disease, tularemia, and Rocky Mountain Spotted Feve; while fleas can cause flea tapeworm infection. There are also the ants, spiders, bees, wasps, scorpions, and other pestiferous insects to think of. If someone with weak or compromised immune system gets stung or bitten by one, he can suffer from severe allergic reactions, necessitating immediate hospitalization. Really, there are so many diseases that humans can get from pests.

If you want to avoid these diseases, then see to it that your garden is clean and neat. Make sure that the pest population is controlled, if not eliminated. If usual trapping of rodents, using repellents and simple pest control, and regular thorough cleaning of your home and garden are not enough, then it’s time to avail of the services of your local pest control company to completely get rid of them for you.

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Jennifer Dallman is a freelance writer for PreventivePestControl.com. Your garden is the most visible part of your property, and as such, it also deserves proper care and maintenance, one of which is keeping it pest-free.

 

6 Tips for Effective Product Displays

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With so many options for purchasing items, having the appropriate product display that shows off your inventory is imperative. Knowing the right angles to capture your products for selling online and being able to communicate to potential customers with these displays is crucial to your sales. While many people think it’s an art to set up the perfect product display, it doesn’t have to be that difficult. Here are some tips for having an effective product display, online or in your store.

Highlight products to their appropriate target markets

When creating a product display, a great approach is to highlight product features with the highest appeal to your target markets. Drawing attention to a products’ features that make it better than others or emphasizing it’s competitive advantage will help keep people focused on the positives surrounding the products.

Position displays at eye level

Have you ever walked through a store and became sidetracked by a display? Chances are, that display was positioned at eye level, making it a focal point and attracting people to it. For displays that are higher than eye level, shoppers are more likely to walk past the display without even taking notice of it.

Change displays regularly

If you have a holiday display up in the middle of May, people are going to know something’s not right. Be sure to always change your displays regularly and only use holiday themes to enhance your displays appeal. Be creative with the way you change things up and make sure not to repeat the same types of ideas over and over again. Keep in mind that holiday-themed displays are a great way to refresh the visual appeal of products while at the same time encouraging a holiday spirit in customers.

Use the right lighting

Lighting can make all the difference, especially when it comes to product displays. By using effective lighting, you will be sure to enhance the attraction to and appeal of your product display. The trick is to position your lighting to focus the shoppers’ attention on the products as a whole as well as whatever the most appealing features of the product are. Just make sure you watch to make sure that the lights aren’t casting shadows on or near your display and that your lighting is balanced throughout your display.

Be artistic and creative

The artistic and creative aspect of product displays can be as simple or as complex and you’d like it to be. One tip you should be mindful of is to always use artistic principles when creating displays. Think of things such as balance, focal points, simplicity and color psychology as well as viewing patterns. It might even be worth while to hire a local student artist to help you in creating, arranging and lighting your display so that your material is showcased in the best way possible.

Sketch or draw your designs before attempting

Before doing anything, you should always draw out what you’d like to do. Sketching your designs prior to actually assembling the product displays allows for your to really look at what you’ve been envisioning and figure out the measurements and what’s necessary to create it.

Having the right display to highlight your products is extremely important for sales. Rather than blindly thinking of a display that you think might look nice, do the research before starting on your product display. By following the tips above, you can ensure that your product display will look great and be a success!

 

Jamie Aldson is a freelance writer and business professional. She loves creating beautiful product displays while using Structural aluminum extrusions to ensure products are safe and secure. She hopes these tips can help with any business who needs guidance with their product displays.

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