Will 2004 be the year you finally dejunk your junk drawer? Heloise, America’s household hints diva, is ready to cheer you on.
The widely syndicated columnist has a five-point plan to deal with the bloated homes many of us are left with now that the holidays have zoomed past. As you gaze around the house at the overflowing shopping bags, jammed fridge and crammed closets, it’s time to dig out.
“Get Organized With Heloise,” out this week, is a no-nonsense guide to putting your house in order and then setting up systems for storage, shopping and home record keeping. She even includes great tips for organizing a purse, a notorious jumble where many women waste time every day rummaging for pens and parking-lot tickets.
Over the years, Heloise has written books dealing with cleaning, spills and stains, kitchen tips and entertaining. In this, her 11th book and the first devoted strictly to organizing, Heloise takes you room by room and tells you what to keep and what to toss–dried-out nail polish, old directories and frozen food that has become antique are on the toss list.
OK, so not all of us are going to make boot trees by taping together paper-towel cardboard cores. But the book offers practical hints for setting up a home office and clearing out a basement.
One of the most useful concepts is her five-point plan. “I have been writing about this for several years now,” Heloise says, “and so many people have told me it’s worked for them.”
Basically, each day you focus on one organizing task for either five minutes or you cull five things. She mentions tasks such as bundling newspapers and magazines, rearranging a single bookshelf, putting away countertop clutter or sorting through a drawer.
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Edited by Cara DiPasquale (cdipasquale@tribune.com) and Kris Karnopp (kkarnopp@tribune.com)
