Bicycle Safety

With sixteen years worth of kids sporting equipment, school projects, camping gear, construction left-overs and tools this Palo Alto garage was cluttered enough before a relative died and family memorabilia to sort "later"wound up the middle of the floor. Getting the bicycles out became a hazardous assignment.

Our goal was to make the garage passable, evaluate the family items, eliminate the ones we could and integrate the rest into a safer storage arrangement until the owner had time to really focus on them.

We accomplished our goal and in the process filled a van with items for Goodwill, freecycle and recycling.

The family things  are now in plastic storage bins, in one place and on a elevated shelf to keep them from the damp floor. Clearly labeled, it is easy for the owner to retrieve one box at a time for sorting .

Although the garage still needs more work, we met our goal to organize the family heirlooms and have safe and easy access to the bikes. After this initial project, organizing the rest of the garage will take no time at all.

Travel Tip

Lay your credit cards, license and passport on your scanner and scan them all at once. Flip them over and scan the backs. Import these two files into iPhoto and add them to your smartphone photo library where you can enlarge them to read the pertinent numbers to report lost or stolen cards. Just be sure password protect access to your phone.

Walk-in Pantry

The owner of this pantry has an eye for art and likes to entertain in style but finding the right serving piece in her jumbled pantry was no fun.

We evaluated, eliminated and integrated her collections, grouping her vases, pitchers, serving bowls and platters by function and color.  Now, not only is her pantry more useful, it is so visually pleasing that just peeking in the door is pleasure. Time to accomplish this: one hour.

rePURPOSING Things: Single Earrings

If after organizing your jewelry box you are left with single post earrings, rePURPOSE them into pretty push pins. They will be a subtle, unexpected eye treat in your kitchen or home office.