20 Effective Tips to Organize Your Home

An organized home is one that's pleasant to live in. Things run more efficiently in an organized home. People can locate things they're looking for. A home free of clutter not only operates more efficiently, it looks better, too! Here are 20 tips to help you organize your home:

1. Put things in logical places. For example, place your keys on a peg or in a basket close to the door. Store your pots and pans under the stove and your dishes and utensils close to the sink or dishwasher.

2. Use vertical space. Try wall shelves in living rooms and bedrooms. In the kitchen, hang the pots and pans you use the most.

3. Purchase a fireproof safe box for important documents like birth certificates, vehicle titles and other vital information.

4. Go from room to room with 3 boxes labeled keep, toss and donate. Take care of the toss and donate boxes right away. The last thing you need are boxes full of worthless clutter lying around.

5. Try organizing your child's room into activity centers. For example, there can be a reading center, a doll or stuffed animal center, an art center, a clothing center, and so on.

6. When storing seasonal and holiday items, use clear, labeled and stackable totes. It will be so much easier when you're ready to find and use these items than it would be if you used large cardboard boxes.

7. Try a mini-muffin pan or egg carton (cut to size) and slid into your "junk" drawer. Now, all your tiny items like buttons, paper clips, rubber bands, nails and other miscellaneous things have a home and there will be no more frustrated rummaging through a messy drawer.

8. When organizing your home office, make use of hanging file folders. Many computer desks have drawers that easily accommodate hanging files.

9. To easily organize your mail, have one file or box for urgent pieces of mail like bills, and another file for pieces that aren't as urgent like personal letters or advertisements. Deal with the urgent pile first, then get to the not so urgent pile when you have a little spare time.

10. For closets, try the various closet kits on the market today. With these easily assembled organizational kits, you can make room for clothing, shoes and more in even the most cramped closet.

11. Use a computerized financial software like Quicken or Microsoft Money to keep track of all your family finances. Switch to online bill paying whenever you can, which cuts back on a great deal of paper clutter and can automate the bill paying process.

12. Implement a shower caddy in which to store your shampoo, conditioner, body wash and soap. Store extra towels on a hanging towel rack or use an attractive basket.

13. Utilize bursts of time when decluttering your home. Every day, set five or ten minutes on a timer and collect all clutter in a large basket or box. Then, simply put each item in the box back in its proper place.

14. For young children, try color coding. Install shelves in different bright colors like blue, red, green and yellow. Then place a sticker in a corresponding color on the bottom of each toy. All your child has to do is look at the bottom of the toy to see which shelf it goes on.

15. Implement a menu plan for your family. By planning all meals in advance, everyone in the family will know what to expect. With a menu plan in place, your grocery shopping will go more smoothly and you won't have to stress over what to cook at the last minute.

16. Alphabetize your canned foods and non-perishables. You'll save time when looking for a particular item, and your cabinets will look better.

17. To keep your refrigerator tidy, keep all leftovers in labeled containers. Write what is in the container and the date it needs to be discarded.

18. If you have a large book, movie or music collection, keep a spreadsheet that tells you each title and where it is stored in your home.

19. Clear computer clutter once a week. Go through all your saved files, throw out anything you don't need, clean your email inbox and clear all cookies. Your computer will function more efficiently and you'll be able to find what's really important more easily.

20. Get your family involved. Staying organized is a team effort, and by recruiting all the members of your household in your quest to declutter, you're more likely to be successful in your efforts! 

by www.dotcomwomen.com

5 Characteristics of a Professional

1. Take advantage of every opportunity. I started my career as a hairstylist. At conferences I am often asked how I become a professional keynote speaker, author, and executive speech coach? By noticing and using every chance that turned up. Opportunity doesn't knock just once. It knocks all the time, though you may not recognize the sound. One technique is to learn from successful people by finding out how they achieved their success. 2. Start by asking questions. Successful people will share their knowledge and experiences with you if you ask good questions that stimulate their thinking and responses. The quality of the information you receive depends on the quality of your questions. The key to connecting with others is conversation, and the secret of conversation is to ask the right questions. A conversation can lead to a relationship, and a nurtured relationship can produce amazing results. 3. Dedicate yourself. Two questions you should ask yourself on a fairly regular basis are, "What can I do to contribute to my profession--to my employer and my professional association?" and "How can I be professionally accountable?" When you can do this, you'll get so much more than you give. 4. Use stories. Be inventive in selling yourself and your profession. Learn to network, one on one, by using memorable stories. Sometimes, it's appropriate to fade into the background. Most of us are shy in some situations. But, to be professionally accountable, you must be able to stand out and speak up. When you are in any situation where you're meeting the public, how do you introduce yourself? When people ask what you do, can you tell them in a way that will stick in their minds? I challenge you to come up with a one-sentence way of presenting yourself and your profession so that people will never forget. Create a vivid,visual picture of your job, its challenges and triumphs. People will remember the picture you create in their minds, rather than your words. 5. Develop your persuasive powers. Being professionally accountable means knowing how to influence people. President Dwight Eisenhower, said, "Leadership is the ability to decide what has to be done and then getting people to want to do it." How do you influence people? One of my clients is Horst Schulze, president of the Ritz Carlton hotels. He advises prospective employees,"We are all ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen. Our guests pay our prices to have an experience, and it is your job to be part of that experience. You will never say, 'That is not in my job description,' and you will never bring your own problems to work." Obviously, this works at the Ritz Carlton. Do you have a similar motivator for yourself, your colleagues,and your fellow professionals? Are you persuasive in representing my company, department or association in public? * * * The future belongs to the competent. We need to be multifaceted in our competence and become charismatic communicators with technical competence and excellent people skills, especially in negotiating. This means developing the habit of learning everywhere, every day. Take the initiative. Go meet people who perhaps don't look like you or think like you. I remember attending a five-day conference where most of the audience members were ministers. As I walked into the coffee shop for breakfast, I looked around to see which group was the most unlike me. I sat down with two Mennonite families, and, over the course of the conference, we became great friends. As I got to know them and enjoyed their conversation, I asked if they would mind telling me what they believed in and why. I realized that, as fascinated as I was to meet them, they were equally fascinated to talk to me. You inspire others, both personally and professionally, through your actions and the environment you create. When you are professionally accountable, people watch what you're doing as well as listening to what you're saying. (661 words)

Patricia Fripp is an executive speech coach, sales presentation skills trainer, and award-winning keynote speaker.

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Humor for Selling Products and for Selling Your Message

Twenty to thirty years ago, humor was commonly used to sell low-priced products. We remember Mr. Whipple squeezing the Charmin and Clara Peller asking "Where's the beef?" Today, when you watch TV, you're likely to see humor being used to sell automobiles. Over the years, advertisers have gained a greater appreciation of the value of humor for feeling good, building relationships and selling products. And so have speakers come to appreciate the more sophisticated value of humor for selling their message.
As advertising campaigns become more expensive ($2.6 million for a 30 second Super Bowl ad), we realize that the success of humor goes far beyond the question of humor or no-humor. And as speaker, the importance of our speech has also risen as the cost of holding the meeting soars. Although humor definitely helps with getting attention, getting remembered, getting repeated, building trust...it's really a complicated process as one goes from the writer's pen to actually making the sale or selling an idea.
1. Target Market
The right match to the target market is critical. A humor piece that falls flat to the general public but which is mostly loved by your target market, is not a bad thing, it's a good thing. Customization of the humor to your target market is part of what will make the humor click. If people outside your target don't get it, that's not a major concern. If your target market doesn't like it...we have a problem. And in speaking from the platform, it's also humor customized to the audience that hits the home run.
2. Brand Identification
The linkage of the product being sold to the commercial advertisement is often missed in humor ads. Having an advertisement which people love is good, but if nobody remembers what product was being advertised, that's very bad. A television commercial I have enjoyed three or four times is one that features a businessman making a phone call to his wife from a new car or a rental car. He's using a hands-free phone to make the call and at the same time is using a GPS to give him directions to his hotel. The wife hears the GPs computer synthesized woman's voice over the phone. "Is that a woman's voice?" The computer then says, "The hotel is on the left." The wife hangs up. The driver speaks into the hands-free phone, "Call florist." Cute commercial, and afterwards I thought it was selling a car (not a GPs system or a cell phone), but even though I had watched it several times I couldn't remember which brand of car. I saw it again last night. It's a Toyota commercial. I had to make myself pay attention to see what brand was being advertised. Probably not a good thing. Brand recognition should be viewer tested before launching the campaign. And maybe it was and I'm the only one who missed the brand in the ad. Make sure you don't lose the product in the middle of a joke. And as a speaker, be sure that your message isn't smothered by irrelevant jokes. The humor must help people remember the brand and the message.
3. Relevant Humor
The challenge advertisers face is the same challenge public speakers run into. Because speakers know that humor has a certain power, they often force fit a joke into their talk that has nothing to do with the message. Often it's the open-with-a-joke formula that gets a talk off to a bad start as the audience is thinking "why did he/she tell that joke?" Magician speakers often fall into the same trap. They LOVE their magic and often force-fit a magic trick into their talk linking it to a contrived message. The trick, whether you're an ad writer or speaker, is to make the humor an organic part of the message. It has to blend in as a natural part of the storyline and product message or speech theme so that it compliments it and does not conflict or compete with it. When there is a disconnect, although the audience might be somewhat entertained, they are also confused and no points are scored. And nothing, neither a product nor an idea, gets sold.
4. Culture Link
Another factor is the linkage between the culture of the operations staff, the marketing people (especially the customer-service front line) and the PR folks. A humor-driven advertising campaign for a company which has a low score on the corporate-culture-sense-of-humor scale is a mis-match. The prospect sees one thing on the ads and another when contacting or visiting the company. The speaker has the same challenge to walk-the-talk. If you're going to use humor in your talk, let's hope you have a sense of humor off the platform!
I've never had the task of finding an ad agency which was great at advertising strategy AND humor skills. But from the ads I've seen, I can tell that it would be a challenging search. Being funny AND selling to your target market is not an art easily mastered. Being a funny speaker with a message takes work too. However, it's worth the effort! 

by  John Kinde

investment in education

First of all investment in education. .
(Robert T. Kiyosaki)
It is said by Robert T. Kiyosaki that we have the power of choice about what we put in our brains. If most of the time we use for important things then we will produce things that are important. If most of the time we devote to things that are not important, then we'll get things that are not important too. We can choose to see the TV all day (soap operas all day) or attend financial planning classes, can you imagine if we devote time 2000 hours a year (a very much) to watch cartoons, so are we? .... (Like a cartoon! .)
In fact, the only asset we have is real-our minds, the most powerful tools and inherent in ourselves. 90% of the population to buy a TV but only 10% who buy books, tapes about investing. Most people prefer to buy an investment rather than first invest in learning how to invest.
Robert Kiyosaki invest U.S. $ 385 for 3-day seminar on how to buy real estate with no money down at all in 1973, and seminars that generate U.S. $ 2 million. And since one seminar, Robert Kiyosaki does not have to work for the rest of his life. The average person when asked which ones make more money? Neck up or neck down? Most of answering the neck up, but when they asked how much money, time, energy, thoughts that were devoted to investment in the neck and above, they say very little or never at all.
I personally continue to invest (buy books, tapes, seminars) to continue to improve themselves and a personal commitment to constant and never ending improvement. The most expensive book I ever bought, a book costs U.S. $ 400, from this book result in tens of thousands of dollars and still continues. The most expensive seminar I ever attended was U.S. $ 13,500, of these seminars change every direction of my life, and generate hundreds of thousands of dollars and still continues.
If you want to change lives, there are 2 things that will change your life, namely:
1. Whatever is included in our brains.
2. Anyone who knows us.
For the second explanation, anyone who knows us, will be discussed in subsequent tips. My advice immediately begin investing in education! Now!
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