March 13, 2013 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • Page 33 Try these tips to get your home organized likely prevent you from just adding random items to desk drawers. Bundle all those cords. Nowadays, the average television has roughly one dozen cords attached to it. HDMI cables, video game consoles, DVD players, home theater systems, and, of course, the television cord are among the many cords that can make a mess near your television. Bundle these cords with a cord organizer to make wires and plugs much more manageable. Toss the junk mail. Thanks to paperless bank statements and online billing, many people no longer receive important documents through the mail. Instead, mailboxes are filled with junk mail. Rather than placing junk mail on the kitchen counter or storing it in the desk drawer, shred it and recycle it as soon as you receive it and you will no doubt notice considerably less clutter almost instantly. Stop losing things to the couch. Few things are as frustrating as a missing remote control. Too often remotes get When colder weather arrives, many people stay indoors and fight the harsh weather with hot chocolate by the fireplace. It’s no surprise, then, that most homes accumulate quite the amount of clutter over the course of a typical winter. The more time we spend indoors, the more clutter we seem to amass. Clutter can contribute to the sense of cabin fever many people begin to feel as winter trudges forward. But a few home-organization tips can help make all those extra hours spent indoors during the winter months a little less claustrophobic. Buy a coat rack. Just about everyone bundles up in a warm coat once the temperatures dip. But once you get home and the warm air inside welcomes you, the first instinct is to take the coat off and lay it down on the first chair you see. Instead of tossing all those coats on an armchair or a bench in the kitchen, buy a coat rack and place it just inside the main entrance. This way you will always know where your coat is, and the house won’t look so messy with coats strewn about in a variety of places. Have a tray set aside for keys. As clutter accumulates throughout the winter, the chances your keys will go missing increase. Save yourself the frantic search for keys in the morning by setting aside a tray for keys or just hanging a hook on the wall where everyone places their keys. Partition the desk drawers. It’s easy to fill a desk drawer. It’s much harder to remember a drawer’s contents. Save yourself the stress of rooting through desk drawers by installing partitions so everything is not just lumped in together. This will make things easier to find and will lost in a sea of throw pillows that, while decorative, serve little purpose. Don’t overdo it with throw pillows and designate an area for all those remote controls. Clean out the refrigerator. Another culprit when it comes to clutter is the family refrigerator. Half-eaten meals or expired items can be found in almost every refrigerator on the planet. If you are putting leftovers in the fridge after every meal, then chances are you have lots of leftovers that have passed their prime. Have a potluck night where you eat all of the leftovers. Clean out the refrigerator once a week to ensure that it only contains fresh foods, beverages, and additional items. Add storage space. Using drawers and only drawers for storage is a great way to become disorganized. If you have any bare walls, particularly in the kitchen, use them to hang shelves you can use for storage. If the walls are full or not sturdy enough to hang a storage shelf, install an extra shelf or two in the pantry.