By Ranka Burzan • December 8th, 2010

You might think that organizing a house is not really a big deal, that is just common sense. If you have a lot of stuff, you simply reduce the amount, use what you have and stop shopping. But many of us are aware that organizing is a big business especially in the case of container companies. According to a newsweek report, the home storage products business has become $4.36 billion industry in USA. All of sudden, having a tidy house is becoming very expensive and it’s not helping those that are struggling with disorganization. A growing number of professional organizers in Canada and USA are passionately promoting reusing, reducing and recycling. The word GREEN is becoming very popular among my fellow organizers.

Before you go on your shopping spree, walk through your home or office and find out what you already have to contain your stuff. A word of caution, if you skipped the process of purging and sorting, there are not enough containers in the world that will help you to get organized. So let’s Go Green and get organized.

Re-use your stuff

• Reuse plastic coffee lids or any other lids under cooking oils or any other messy containers.
• Use old dresser drawers as under the bed storage.Casters will allow you to easily slide them in and out
• Baby jars are ideal to contain your small houshold items such as buttons, paper clips, and push pins. Ideal for craft material. Let you kids decorate and label them.

• Use small, plastic, square or rectangle containers, those that you are planning to recycle and use them to store all the items in your junk drawer, hopefuly you have one. Organize and contain your batteries,paper clips, envelopes pens etc.

Reduce Your Stuff

Living green doesn’t mean living below the poverty line. It simly means being conscious about  your shopping habits and the negative affect it will have on your finances and your family. If you shop till you drop, the clutter is the price you pay. I have clients who simply use their shopping habits as their hobby or to make themselves feel better. Shopping addiction is just like any other addiction, it feels good for a while and then reality checks in.

I urge all my clients to give a gift of time to their families and friends. Let me explain the meaning of a gift of time.  If your grandma is eighty years old, she doesn’t need another basket...

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Location:  Vancouver, CA

Ranka Burzan first shared her organizing tips with readers in the Surrey Now newspaper back in 2003. Her article "Helpful Hints to Organize and Clean Your Home" was well received by readers. She followed that article...