How many pounds of candy will enter your home today? If you are handing out candy be sure not to go overboard with every type of bite sized candy. Get a few bags of popular candy and once it is gone it is gone. If your little ones bring home several bags of candy be sure you have a back up plan. Other wise you will have a lot of leftover candy just taking up space in your kitchen eventually going stale and uneaten. Go through candy when it first comes home to be sure that it is safe and check for candy's containing peanuts when food allergies are present. Divide up your candy and organize it for future consumption! Why not? Here are a few ideas for the extras.

#1 Freeze some of your favorites to use in recipes like Reece's or Junior mints

#2 Keep some of the sugary items like suckers or skittles in the car or work bag

#3 Let someone else enjoy the holiday by donating it

Happy Halloween!

As the leaves change, we search for our sweaters and we realize summer is over. Next thing you know we are eating pumpkin pie and opening presents. Get ready the holidays are coming it's time to get organized! I am not just talking about the stuff but the actual dates. A few years ago I was walking downtown Chicago and witnessed the collision of holidays. Too many holidays at one time. It was an unseasonably warm Halloween no jackets required. I looked around to see a variety of costumes and thought how fun! I love when everyone gets into the holiday spirit . Unfortunately my happiness quickly turned to confusion when I saw store windows advertising Thanksgiving specials. I get it, Thanksgiving is the next holiday. Its hard enough to see the Halloween candy filling the isle before Labor Day. But as I continued further down the street...Eeek! One of the major department stores was putting up the Christmas decorations!! Oh my, i was caught is a vortex of holidays I just wasn't ready for. What to do? A hot day with Halloween costumes, turkeys and Christmas decorations. It was confusing. I realize we can not do anything about the stores preparations because they play by different rules. But at least we can control what is going on at home and our own decorations. Keep the holiday decorations organized and labeled in separate containers. And if it helps add your own date for displaying. Maybe the 1st day of October you put out your fall decorations and so on.

Do you have a toothbrush in the kitchen, vitamins in the spice cabinet and aspirin by the coffee? If those are your "go-to" areas for some everyday items and it works for you...great! It makes a lot of sense to have these items where you use them and if this make your day run a little smoother even better. If you find that you are storing way too much in these areas it might be time for some cabinet or drawer organizing. Get rid of anything that is expired and send some the items you don't need everyday back to the medicine cabinet.

My son is at the age where he wants everything he sees in a store. There is no filter. A recent trip to the pharmacy lead us to a basket full of cheaply made toys, handfuls of greeting cards, a broom and several packages of of "D" batteries. None of which we needed. It was clear to me he just wanted everything he saw and that this was just the "thrill" of the shopping experience. I knew going in everything would be distracting. There are balloons on top of the isles, flashy signs and lots of other things that make getting through the store a challenge. In order for us to get in and out of the store quickly and without spending a lot of money I set a spending and time limit before even stepping foot in a store. I do not want to organize stuff at home that we do not need in the first place. So, I do a quick scan of the toys before I leave home to see what we are missing. Most of the stores have seasonal items out on the shelves which makes it easy to grab a go. Finding something we actually need is priceless. This also makes it easier to cancel out items in the basket that he thought we just had to have. Now if we could only make it past the candy at the check out!

Having the perfect storage container for your space can make your life so much easier. And yes, some containers are so perfect in the way the look and fit in a space we should almost have a celebration when placed on a shelf. But the reality is sometimes you do not have the time to shop, know what you need or have the resources to make it all happen. So instead of avoiding your project, use what you already have around the house as a storage container and get started. Your home or office probably contains many useful storage items that you got for free! Common items are plastic grocery bags, recycled store bags(I love the ones with handles) shoe boxes or any boxes that can be closed and stacked. Start sorting through your items and use what you have to categorize and store. Be sure to add a label so you know what is inside. A label maker does a great job but so does regular paper and tape or a post it note. Just because you don't have the perfect containers to organize, it should never hold you back from getting started.