Grow Seeds in Just About Any Container

If you choose to start seeds for your garden, use a seed-starting kit with multiple cells for seedlings and add a grow light and/or heat mat for a technical assist. Or you can start seeds in “practically anything,” says HGTV. Use newspaper pots, disused seed trays, cardboard tubes, used cans and jugs, egg cartons or eggshells as containers. Just remember to label your pots or rows so you know what’s growing. Give seeds warmth, wetness and indirect sunlight Once the seedlings poke through the soil, move them to a sunny window ledge or greenhouse environment to mature into transplantable starters. #StartingSeeds

Start Some Easy-to-Grow Seedlings

If this is your first year starting plants from seed, start small, Gardeners.com says. Easy-to-start vegetables include herbs, tomatoes, cucumbers, broccoli and leafy greens such as spinach, kale and lettuce; easy flowering plants include cosmos, zinnias, marigolds and sunflowers. Fussier seeds require a temperature change to trigger the end of dormancy and germinate; the good news is that many of these are perennials that will return year after year in your garden. Whatever you choose, be sure that soil and air temperatures don’t ruin your carefully cultivated seedlings; schedule transplant according to the final frost date in your area. #StartingSeeds

Give Seedlings Plenty of Light

As you start to care for your homegrown seedlings, be sure to give them plenty of light — 12 to 16 hours per day. Mist the plants once or twice daily to keep them moist, and try a greenhouse-style covered tray to maintain light dampness. “If your seeds dry out, they won’t germinate, but if they stay too wet, they could rot,” says Swanson Nursery. When your seeds sprout, thin them to concentrate growing energy on the strongest. Once they have several leaves and a week or two before the transplant, “harden” your seedlings by giving them a few hours of outdoor time in a shady or protected spot every day. #StartingSeeds

Start Your Summer Seeds Indoors

Starting seeds indoors can save money over buying plants, and the time to start is now! Depending on your plant hardiness zone, you can determine when you’ll need to plant seedlings outdoors and work backward from that date. Many plants need about six weeks to grow from seed to outdoor starter, so if you start this week, plants should be ready by May 1. Simply sow your seeds in soil or seed starter in a tray or small container, planting them only as deep as the seed is large. You can replant harder seedlings such as broccoli and onions as soon as two weeks before your area’s final frost. #StartingSeeds

Breaking With the Decluttering Trends

We at The Organizing Blog like to think that we’re a respected authority in the #decluttering knowledge space, continually lending tips and strategies to get your home and life in order while #donating the things you don’t need to a worthy cause.

We weren’t the first on the scene, of course, and we won’t be the last — dozens of experts and gurus have made careers out of helping people #declutter, and there are as many trendy strategies to help people #minimize and #organize their excess #stuff.

While the scholarship agrees that a #clean and #organized home environment is optimal for one’s mood and health, today we’re going to remind readers that there is no single “right” way to tackle the problem. The right way to #declutter is the way that works for you.

“Decluttering is very much a personal process — it’s your home and your belongings,” says Homes & Gardens. “Some may find it harder than others, preferring a more gentle approach to a more ruthless one, and vice versa.”

For example, Marie Kondo’s much-vaunted KonMari method asks you to sort every category of possession, keeping only the things that “spark joy.” But consider the lowly vegetable peeler: It probably does not spark joy, but it is undeniably useful — and you can feel good about holding onto it.

Some #organizing schemes are just too gimmicky to keep up, Apartment Therapy says. For example, you may overlabel your stuff. You might buy too many organizing products. Or you may be too meticulous about folding and sorting small items such as socks and underwear, wasting time and energy on a single drawer.

Because #organization and #clutter are widespread challenges, the clutterati will keep inventing new ways to deal with them. Try one or invent your own. The strategy that works for you — the one that you can follow and get results — is the best to follow.