Planning and Organizing a Successful Yard Sale

A well-organized and well-planned yard sale is more appealing and makes it easier for shoppers to see what you have for sale. After you've sorted through your belongings and decided what you're going to place in your yard sale, take a moment to sit down and think through how you want to organize your items. Categorize your items, as it demonstrates your hard work and forethought in planning your sale. Keep a close eye on things throughout the course of the day, as you'll need to resort and re-categorize your things as your items sell.

You can sort things into boxes when you're doing your initial sorting and purging. Grocery, liquor and discount stores always have plenty of empty freight boxes, and they're usually free for the taking. Make sure you gather several sizes to accommodate different items. As you

Take a box with you and survey your house and your belongings, place your unwanted items in the box until it's full. Select a central location or room in your house to coordinate your sale items. Continue with this process until you've sorted through all your belongings in both your home and garage. Be sure to go through places like your drawers, closets, sheds, cupboards and your pantry. Don't forget your attic or basement as well.

After you've gathered all your sale items, sort them into categories to group them into for your sale. This can be done either by category or price. Periodically during your sale, move items that haven't sold to another table or re-locate them on the same table. However, don't do this during times when you have lots of traffic. If you notice certain categories of items are not selling as well as others, you might want to adjust your prices accordingly or move them closer to the entrance to your sale so they are more visible to those who drive by to see what goodies you have to offer.

After your sale is over, don't take the items back in your house. Contact your local rescue mission or charity thrift store and make arrangements to donate your items. Most places will be happy to arrange a pickup time to come by and haul your things away, and will give you a receipt you can use for a tax write-off.

Organizing and Planning a Successful Family Vacation

Planning a successful family vacation can be tricky when you're trying to work around your family member's busy schedules. Coordinating requested time off from work with school vacations and summertime activities can be a daunting task.

Get your family actively involved in the vacation planning process. Everyone wants a trip to remember, and by obtaining input from each family member as to what they enjoy, what they'd like to do and where they'd like to go, it can be successfully planned.

Your children may surprise you with some of things they suggest to do on vacation.

Once you've got your plan mapped out, keep your kids involved by putting them in charge of at least one aspect of the trip. They may be good with landmarks and direction. If that's the case, have them be your navigator. Maybe they love to take pictures and would love to be the official vacation photographer. You'll feel less overwhelmed by everything that needs to be covered during the trip, and they'll feel a great sense of accomplishment in tackling their assigned project.

It's highly unlikely that your time or monetary budget will allow you to do every single thing that everyone wants to do on the trip. Work together to narrow the list, and place those things that everyone would like to do toward the top.

After the location, time frame, and activities have been settled, it's time to make the to do list. Figure out what clothes need to be packed, which neighbor or friend is going to check your mail and water your houseplants, and what bills need to be paid prior to your leaving. Put your children in charge of figuring out things like how much dog food you need to bring along for a vacation that will last for ten days, and make them responsible for locating their swim trunks, travel games, favorite books and music CDs.

With a little forethought and some careful planning, you can have the family vacation of a lifetime and live to tell the tale.

Careful Organization and Planning Helps Preserve your Favorite Photos

Photos can be a wonderful way to preserve memories and relive favorite past moments. However, they can also become a cluttered mess without an organized storage plan.

Probably the most important tool to have when you begin your photo organization project is a trash can. Statistics show the average person develops one roll of 24 pictures a month but only seven are worth keeping. That being said, you'll probably find many photos in your collection that simply aren't worth keeping.

Another tool you'll need during your organization process is several manila envelopes. Do your best to sort the photos by year, and place each group in the envelope with the year clearly marked on it. Place these envelopes in a strong cardboard box or storage bin. You'll probably be able to store a decade's worth of photos in a single container.

Collages and shadow boxes are great ways to display several photos from a selected year. Include mementos and keepsakes in the shadowbox to add a unique personality. Special photos should be enlarged and framed to be displayed around your home.

Take special care to purchase photo albums that are made with acid-free paper. The acid used in processing everyday paper can be very damaging to photographs over the long haul.

Scrapbooking is a growing trend and a clever and creative way to display your photos. Craft stores have an abundance of scrapbook supplies, including stencils, decorative scissors, background papers, rubber stamps and permanent markers. You can also utilize everyday items around your house such as ribbons, magazine clippings, and fabrics. Again, take care to ensure that the paper you use is acid-free or is displayed separately from your favorite photos.

Lastly, just in case something should happen to your photos, make sure you have a backup plan to replace them. Store the negatives of your most important and cherished photographs in your safe deposit box to also protect against theft or destruction from elements such as fires or floods.