As we near the end of September our thoughts jump to sweaters, everything pumpkin, and holidays! For most of us those thoughts are welcomed and exciting. For others of us, the thought of holidays and company mean stress. We stress over making our homes company ready and we may even stress about having people in our home that we have to entertain and prepare for.
If you find yourself getting a little anxious about having to prepare for company, we have a few tips Continue reading
Christmas is always such a wonderful time of year. The mood around town is festive, homes are decorated with lights, a Christmas tree and all sorts of festive décor fill our homes with warmth. But come January 1, most of us are ready to pack up Christmas and put it away. But boy, Christmas sure takes up a lot of room.
Every year, I am amazed that over half of the garage is filled with bins that hold Christmas items. Bins that are taking up precious garage space….bins that are only needed for a very small window of time. Continue reading
Kids grow fast. Before you know it, your little one will be walking, then going to school, then even driving. All these milestones are incredibly exciting, and watching your child grow up is a joy. Buying new clothes every six months – not so much. Kids often grow out of their clothes so quickly, especially as babies, that their clothes can look brand new. Often times, parents will donate these clothes or give them away to friends so someone else can benefit. Continue reading
It’s not uncommon for people to ask our managers about whether or not our storage units are equipped to become an office or if they can be used as a workout room. The short answer is no. Although we store a lot of office items and business inventory, and also a lot of exercise equipment that is temporarily not being used – units are just not able to be used for those type of ongoing activities.
However, it’s likely the real reason for someone’s desire to use a storage unit as something other than a place to store things in is that it’s clean, uncluttered, and often air-conditioned. It’s away from the distraction of family, co-workers, phones, and to-do lists stuck on the refrigerator.
Order and tranquility are what are wanted; an uncluttered environment to think or work-out in. Shape magazine had an excellent article of the benefits Continue reading
Tea and Pumpkin Bread
Spring cleaning is a great way to clear out the cobwebs of winter, but Fall cleaning, to my mind is more purpose driven. It’s kind of a crazy, but fun, time of year: the kids are back in school, schedules get filled up, and everyone is on the big countdown to the holidays. A clean, well-organized home helps us stay focused and calm during the hectic times. But true organization goes beyond an uncluttered kitchen counter. Streamlining routines like meal planning, grocery shopping, and keeping track of appointments and activities, can really help you carve some down time out of your busy schedule. This will give you more space to be creative and, well, just relax once in a while – with a cup of tea and some pumpkin bread! This article on 7 Fall Organizing Tips is really an excellent overview on how to bring order to busy lives during this busy time of year.
Fall is also a time when we may be preparing our homes for guests and visiting family members. Sprucing up the guest room may be on your to-do list, and this will be a lot easier if you have already de-cluttered and organized the rest of your home. If there are big items in your guest room, like exercise equipment or crafting materials, your storage unit can come to the rescue again. If you live in Southern California, Arizona, or Nevada, your local Dollar Self Storage facility is a clean, safe, and secure place to store your things, during the holidays and beyond.
If you are an empty-nester gleefully considering all the possible uses for your son or daughter’s old bedroom, here’s a great one: the walk-in closet of your dreams.
It sounds extravagant, but there are many advantages to this idea.
It is so tempting to just shove everything into your storage unit, lock the door, and run away! But you are going to have to use those items again – after all, that’s why you are storing them instead of getting rid of them, right? So make a plan, you won’t regret it. You will, however, regret storing your weight set on top of Grandma’s antique china, or all of those boxes of books on top of your memory foam mattress.
Here are some tips on how to organize your storage unit so that it serves you well:
Using a self-storage unit for document storage makes so much sense for businesses both large and small, and offers big advantages over either storing records onsite in your offices, or offsite in a document storage warehouse.
Although the digital age has had a big impact on the way most companies do business, there still seems to be a lot of paper floating around. Some of it can go right into the shredder or the recycling bin, but sometimes you have to keep it. Knowing what to keep and what to toss can vary from business to business; this IRS article on small business recordkeeping is very useful, as is this set of guidelines for record retention from Smead. Continue reading
Do you love to decorate for the holidays? If you do, you have plenty of opportunities. “Decorating for the holidays” is not just about Christmas and Hanukkah anymore. It can mean Halloween, Thanksgiving, Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, or the Fourth of July, just to name a few. It is pretty ingrained in us to recognize the change in the seasons: the bounty of fall (turkey and pumpkin pie!), the bright, glowing ornaments of Christmas that light the long, dark nights of winter; the lovely pastels of Easter eggs that mirror the new growth of spring; and the red, white and blue of the Fourth of July, a full-on celebration of summer as well as a marker of the birth of our country. For many people, the fun of transforming their home during the winter holidays has given them the bug to spread out the fun all year long. Continue reading
September always puts me in the mood to organize. I guess part of it is the old association with the beginning of the school year – a new backpack; clean, crisp notebooks full of potential; unbroken crayons in all the good colors. But unlike spring cleaning, which is all about squeaky clean surfaces, autumnal organizing brings out my creative side. It makes me want to decoupage that old wooden crate before I stow away my vinyl collection in it. It makes me want to put stickers on the old baby wipes container to make a new home for my kid’s marker collection. You get the idea.
So, if like me, September makes you want to sharpen a few pencils and get crackin’ on some “homework”, you might want to take a look at this article on Bob Vila’s website about creative storage solutions that feature clever, re-purposed items, like old books, dish drainers, cake pans, worn out luggage – and even last year’s cast off lunch box! These fun ideas will help you get organized and get your creative juices flowing. Who needs finger painting?
When you get done organizing, if you have a few things you need to transfer to your storage unit, don’t forget that Dollar Self Storage has boxes and packing supplies, including specialized items, such as dish packs and wardrobes, which will make that job easier. When they are all packed up, you can put some stickers on them!