Tag: clothes

Get the Jump on Back-to-School Season

Posted on by Jordank

For kids and the college-bound, the lazy days of summer will soon come to an end. School starts as early as mid-August in many parts of the United States, so it’s goodbye to campouts and cookouts and swimming pools and pickup games, and back to the books.

Parents will want to take advantage of the many sales. Retailers are promoting back-to-school #deals earlier to tap the average $875 parents will spend this year to get each child outfitted in new clothes, computers and backpacks.

College students need even more to set them up for success: $1,365, according to the National Retail Federation, because they also need basic housewares such as sheets and minifridges. Whatever the student’s age, Good Housekeeping offers a guide to the things they might need.

You’ll want to get your students looking the part, from outfitting them in the latest styles (baggy jeans and leopard prints are back) to getting them a fresh haircut. (Great Clips is offering 24,000 free haircuts and a glossary of Gen Z slang to get parents up to speed.)

“It’s tough to keep up with the latest slang kids are using, but it is important because you can’t help your child succeed if you don’t really know what they want,” says former NSYNC singer Joey Fatone, who stars in a promo with his teenage daughter.

Parents who want to cut the #clutter will also want to prepare for the inevitable onslaught of student projects. Now’s a great time of year to work with your kids to #clean out #closets and make room for new #clothes, #organize a desk and #file last year’s school work.

Set aside any #clothing that still has some useful life in it and contact ClothingDonations.org to schedule a #free #donation #pickup. Other parents appreciate the deals they can find at the #thrift stores supplied by those generous #donations, and #veterans benefit from the resale proceeds.

So (attempting Z slang here) don’t do back-to-school mid — gas up your kids for the new year. If your beige flag is organization, it’s a good time for you to cook. But start right away — letting kids start school unprepared is delulu!

The Difference Between Decluttering and Storage

Posted on by Jordank

#Decluttering isn’t easy. Even when you find the time to do it and prepare yourself to keep, donate or trash all of the clothes that don’t fit, tchotchkes and other #junk, you can quickly get bogged down in the decision-making.

Many of your possessions will carry memories that make you linger over the decision or leave it for another day. After a few of these quandaries, you may just throw in the towel, shove a bunch of random items in a box and “store” it out of sight.

That is not decluttering — nor is it storage. It’s simply putting off the inevitable.

Storage is for things you use. You may use such things infrequently but regularly, like holiday decorations. You can keep these things from adding to #clutter by sorting it into dedicated, labeled bins and putting the bins in a predictable out-of-the way location.

You also have things you use frequently that need to be stored. Think of your kitchen cabinets and closets; they already hold any number of items that you’ll usse this week, maybe multiple times.

When you have #stuff that doesn’t have a “home,” however (meaning its own drawer, shelf, bin, box or display), you have #clutter. And as a result, any serious decluttering is going to involve a lot of #organizing.

So your goal in decluttering is really twofold: to weed out anything that you don’t use, and to make sure that anything you do use has a place. This is a tall order, the Organizing Blog is well aware.

Start small with a single closet, kitchen cabinet or desk drawer. Figure out what kinds of things should “live” there, and separate out anything that’s broken, disused or just in the wrong place. You can toss, donate, and relocate or store these items, respectively.

Leave only what you know you use frequently in immediate-access locations — and if you don’t use something frequently in its current location, find a place where it can stay until you need it. Otherwise, it will just get in the way.

Once you’ve organized and/or stored the #stuff you use, contact ClothingDonations.org for a free, contactless #donation #pickup if — er, when — you want to get rid of the lightly used clothing and household items you don’t. We’ll help find them new homes, and help veterans at the same time.