The kitchen is often known as the heart of the home. It is the place where we gather to eat, cook, entertain, and spend time with friends and family. As a result, the kitchen can become one of the most difficult rooms to organize and keep clean. Try some of these tips and time savers to organize your kitchen and simplify your life.

Countertops:

• Clean your countertops and remove any item or appliance you do not use at least once a week.

• Keep cookbooks to a minimum and store away the ones you don’t use on a regular basis.

Pots/Pans/Containers:

• Store pots and pans in a cabinet beneath or next to the stove for easy access.

• Place baking sheets, cake pans, pizza pans, etc. in a cabinet beneath or next to the oven. You can use a rack to help arrange baking sheets by size and those used most often.

• Consider suspending pots and pans on a wall or from a ceiling mounted rack to maximize cabinet and storage space.

• Store microwave safe containers in a cabinet near the microwave. Arrange containers by size and stack one inside of the other if possible. Throw away plastic containers that are no longer used.

Pantry:

• Store each item so that it is easily handy and visible.

• Group canned goods together and stack so that their labels can easily be seen. Discard canned goods and jars that have passed their expiration dates or are more than a year old.

• Place pasta, cereal, rice, and other dried foods in labeled plastic storage containers.

• Store gravy packets, seasoning packets, etc. in a small, clear plastic tub for easy access.

• Line up boxes with their ’spines’ facing front (like library books).

• If possible, store the most often used items at eye level.

• Choose a lower shelf for paper storage and place all napkins, towels and plates together.

• Store heavy items, such as boxes of soda and juice, on the floor or on a lower shelf.

• If you have extra wall space, consider hanging up storage hooks, a hand vacuum, a bulletin board or other helpful organizing items.

• Purchase handy space saving products such as stacking containers, caddies to store foil and wax paper, and sturdy baskets for onions, garlic and potatoes.

• If you have school-age children, create a snack shelf of parent-approved treats.

Refrigerator:

• Designate certain shelves in your refrigerator for specific items. For example, use your top shelf for beverages, your bottom shelf for leftovers, place produce in its drawer, and place condiments in the door of the refrigerator.

• Delegate one day of the week to tossing out old foods. Consider cleaning out your refrigerator on the same day you go to the grocery store. Since you will be adding new items in your refrigerator it is a great time to toss out old food to make space.

Spices:

• Organize spices on a spice rack and place the ones used most often in the front row.

• If you have a shallow drawer near your stove, consider laying all of your small spice jars in there. Place them label side up so it is easy to view them all at once.

• Most dried spices lose their flavor in six months. Discard any spices that are older than six months or you no longer use. To keep track of the freshness of spices, write the purchase date or throw away date on the bottle with a black marker.

Misc.

• Consider recycling products to help organize your kitchen. You can label shoe boxes and use them to store items such as cookie cutters, candles, appliance accessories, etc. You can also use checkbook boxes to store items such as matches, batteries, and smaller items.

• Square containers take up less space and fit more efficiently on shelves than round ones.

• Place hooks inside a cabinet door to hang cooking utensils on. This will help to clear drawer space.

• If you have school age kids or someone who carries their lunch to work, create an area in your kitchen for lunch-making. Stock it with lunch boxes and/or brown bags, plastic wraps/bags, thermos, quarters and small containers.

• Utilize bins and baskets to keep “like items” together.

• Store trash bags near or in the bottom of trash can for easy changing.

By using some or all of these tips, you can be well on your way to a more organized kitchen.

Happy Organizing!

Lesley Dietschy is a freelance writer and the creator/editor of The Home Decor Exchange. The Home Decor Exchange is a popular home and garden website featuring resources, a shopping marketplace, articles, decorating pictures, free projects, and more.
http://www.HomeDecorExchange.com

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Viburnum

Viburnum make up a genus of more than 150 species. They are the perfect tree or shrub for many gardens. The blooms on Viburnum, sometimes fragrant, can range from a snow-white to creamy pink in color. Berries of the Viburnum have been recognized in blues, reds, oranges and yellows. Viburnum is a species of evergreen, semi-evergreen and deciduous shrubs and sometimes large trees. Somewhat interesting are the many different leaf textures of the Viburnum. From leathery to glossy to variegated, there are many choices available to find the right Viburnum for your garden.

The Viburnum shrub is excellent for a shrub border and woodland gardens. The berries attract beneficial wildlife to a garden setting. Viburnum branch and leaf structure can make for a safe place for birds to nest.

Almost all Viburnum grow well in any moderately fertile, well-drained soil in full sun to partial shade and adapt very well to a large variety of environmental conditions. Insect resistance of Viburnum is remarkable. Viburnum make an excellent choice for the busy gardener because of the low maintenance of these shrubs and trees.

Listed below are several Viburnum species and cultivars:

●Korean Spice Viburnum - Viburnum carlesii

A deciduous shrub that is ideal for spaces with only three or four feet of planting area. In spring Korean Spice Viburnum is covered with pink fragrant flower clusters the size of grape fruits. The standard form of Korean Spice Viburnum is a good intermediate landscape plant as it only grows five to six feet high with an equal spread. Its dull green foliage turns bright scarlet in the fall. Zones 5-8.

●Mohawk Viburnum - Viburnum x ‘Mohawk’

Mohawk Viburnum is covered in spring with amazing scarlet-red flower buds that last for several weeks finally revealing wonderfully fragrant white flowers. Mohawk Viburnum is a compact, rounded, deciduous shrub with dark green leaves that turn orange-red in autumn. Remarkably resistant to bacterial leaf spot and powdery mildew. Zones 5-8.

●Cranberry Viburnum - Viburnum trilobum

Also known as the American Cranberry Bush, this viburnum is a native bush that produces edible red berries in autumn, which are perfect for making jelly, but be sure to harvest before the birds as they consider the berries a delicacy. Yellow to red foliage in fall. Matures to a height of 15′ by 12′ width.

●Tea Viburnum - Viburnum setigerum

The Tea Viburnum is a deciduous, bushy, upright viburnum shrub growing into a somewhat vase-like shape. This viburnum exhibits dark blue-green leaves. Flat-topped cymes present white flowers which are followed by bright reddish-orange berries Zones 5-7.

●Judd Viburnum - Viburnum x juddii

The Judd Viburnum is a rounded deciduous viburnum shrub with dark green leaves that sometimes turn red in autumn. Its’ pink flower buds open to reveal strongly fragrant white snowball-type flowers with just a tinge of pink. Matures to a height of 4′ by 5′ feet width. Zones

Visit our Plant Nursery for great deals on Pink Dogwood trees and Japanese Magnolia trees.

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It doesn’t matter whether you’re just starting out with your rose garden, or whether you’ve been growing roses for years. There will be a rose gardening book that’s just perfect for your needs. A rose gardening book can help you choose the right rose bushes for your garden, and give you ideas on how to care for them effectively. In return, your garden will flourish and produce magnificent roses year after year. So what exactly can you learn from a rose gardening book.

As a beginner, that question is much easier to answer. Preparing your garden properly before planting roses can make a huge difference to how well they thrive. There’s also a lot of important ongoing maintenance that you need to do, to keep your rose garden in top condition. If you’re looking for a “set and forget” type of garden, then don’t bother planting roses. You need to regularly monitor and maintain your roses, otherwise you’ll find they quickly become unhealthy and fail to bloom well. Although roses will probably survive and do all right without any attention, they will reward you a great deal more if you spend some time on them.

Even if you’re more experienced with gardening in general, or roses in particular, you can gain a great deal from rose gardening books. New rose breeds are always being developed, and you can keep up to date with what’s available in the new guides that are released. Also, caring for roses is a constantly changing field, with new techniques and ideas being developed and tested. Sometimes a book may contain just one new idea you’ve never heard before, but that one tip may make a big difference to the success of your rose garden. We can all do with a greener thumb!

Those who could be considered master rose gardeners can still find helpful information in rose gardening books. Any good expert knows that when you stop learning, you start to go backwards. Learning from other experts in the field is a great way to continually expand and enhance your own knowledge.

Rose gardening books are also a great way to choose the breed of rose you think would look perfect in your garden, or may even give you some clever ideas for designing your rose garden. Books are a fabulous way to find more information about rose gardening, and there’s always something new that you can take away and apply in your own garden.

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Have you ever tried starting plants from seeds? It’s actually one of the most fun and rewarding things I like about gardening. Plus, it doesn’t cost you much either.

The basic materials you will need for this are containers, soil or a soil-less mixture, light, water, a fan and a plastic cover. In case you’re wondering, the plastic cover will be used for the containers.

The first thing is to put soil into your container, then sow the seeds in it, water and, once done, cover the container securely with the plastic. Now place the container in the brightest and sunniest are of your house for maximum exposure to sunlight. However, there are exceptions to note. For example, the seeds of plants like nasturtium, schizanthus, phlox and verbena grow best in the darkness so don’t put them in the light.

The next move is waiting for the seeds to germinate. This period will vary depending on the kind of seed you used. For instance, if you used marigolds, the germination process will take three days. That’s a short germination phase. In others, germination takes as long as 40 days. After the seeds have germinated, remove the plastic cover to expose the seedlings and turn on the fan. The force of air from the fan when applied to the seedling will make them stronger.

After a while, note that the seedlings develop a second set of leaves for the plant. That’s the signal to start transplanting the remaining seedlings outdoors or possibly into a larger container. Once these have been transplanted, the next step is to nurture the plants with regular watering and prolonged exposure to sunlight. They need warmth to grow.

Here is a procedure for transplanting seedlings outdoors. First, leave the containers out in the open for a few days to allow the seedlings to acclimatize themselves to their new surroundings. Second, wait for the seedlings to acquire a more “hardened” look. This takes about a week or sometimes less. Again, the length of time varies depending on the kind of seeds used. Third, once hardened, transplant the seedling. Fourth, nurture the seeds with regular warmth and watering.

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Kitchen drawer organizers save more than time - they can also save your sanity! Have you ever had one of those moments when you know you just bought a great kitchen gadget the other day, but can’t find it now to save your life? Well, that’s the great thing about kitchen drawer organizers. If you’d had one or two (or more for those of us chronically compelled to misplace things!) and had put whatever it was you just bought into it, you’d have said item right at your fingertips! So, we’ve done the legwork - or rather, surf work - for you and found some cool places to order kitchen drawer organizers online without even venturing away from your home.

Kitchen drawer organizers can be found in the multitudes at Stacks and Stacks (www.StacksandStacks.com). This site sells everything from silver- and flatware organizers to cutlery inserts, knife trays, expandable in-drawer spice racks, and more. For just about anything you can put in a drawer to be organized, Stacks and Stacks makes an organizer - in wood, bamboo, plastic, or chrome! Not only does this online retailer sell kitchen drawer organizers, but all other different types of space-saving, organizing goodies for those with an agenda for order.

Another place to snag a deal on kitchen drawer organizers can be found at Always Organized (www.AlwaysOrganized.com). One favorite is their Perfect Fit drawer organizers that come in three sizes and can be trimmed to fit any drawer - perfect for those odd-sized drawers!

And kitchen drawer organizers from the queen of the kitchen herself, Betty Crocker (www.BettyCrocker.com), include something not often seen. This site features an all-wood adjustable tray for utensils with a special section for large knives that keeps them separated and in their own protective slots. Other kitchen drawer organizers include one made from heavy-gauge, rust-resistant steel - sure to last a lifetime!

Kitchen drawer organizers can be found at many sites throughout the World Wide Web, but if you can’t find what you want at one of these online retailers - well, we’d be surprised. So quit procrastinating and get organized! Find yourself some kitchen drawer organizers and save time, hassle, and yes, maybe even a little bit of your sanity!

Carlo Morelli writes fro OnlineTips.Org, where you can read tips on
hammock chairs,
power pressure washers and other home/garden topics.

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