by: Karen Fritscher-Porter
(These seven baskets are like magic wands; they provide instant home cleaning and home organizing solutions)

Baskets are a perfect "tool" to use in organizing your home. They're often inexpensive, beautiful and functional items. And baskets are usually made of quite durable materials for the typical person's usage. You can use them in every room of your home. Use them to organize and store everything from your kitchen utensils to your bathroom towels to your child's toys.

In a way, baskets are a magical organizational tool. Why? Baskets are decorative items that hide mess right before your eyes (and those of your visitors). They're your home organization magic wand--the one that makes disarray disappear in seconds.

Here are seven types of baskets and how to use them to organize your home.

1. Stair Basket - A stair basket is shaped like the letter "L" upside down. Set one on your top step or your bottom step of your staircase. Fill the basket ongoing throughout the day with things that need to go up or down. That way you only make one trip. And whichever direction you go with it, up or down the stairs, leave it at the opposite end of the stairs once it's empty. That way your next trip with the basket will include items that go to the opposite end of your home.

2. Bushel and Peck Baskets - These look like wide, round pails and usually have swinging metal handles. They're deep baskets (that hold a bushel or a peck, for example). And unless you're a farmer (or selling produce at a farmer's market), you won't want to fill them with dozens of tomatoes, apples or other fruits and vegetable (unless you have a lot of immediate family members to feed!). Instead fill them with your children's miscellaneous toys divided into different categories for each basket (dolls, soldiers, rubber balls, etc.).

3. Wicker File Baskets - Wicker file storage baskets or boxes are becoming quite popular. You'll find them in lots of mainstream stores or specialty organizing stores. They're sort of square or rectangular shaped baskets (to accommodate hanging file folders or manila file folders). Usually the wicker file storage basket is made of rattan (because it's quite sturdy and durable). And they'll often have a lid and swinging handle so you can go mobile with the baskets from room-to-room. For instance, carry the file basket from your home office closet to the kitchen table to do your work. Just store the file basket on a shelf in your home office like you would a box. Or store the basket in the open; that's okay because wicker file baskets are much more stylish to look at than a plain paper file storage box or traditional metal filing cabinet. A wicker file basket is part of your home decor.

4. Utensil Caddy - You've probably seen these at picnics. They're a caddy or basket with dividers and a handle so you can tote it around. A picnic caddy might be used to separate the knives, forks, napkins, etc. The utensil caddy might be made of rattan or willow or something else even such as plastic. Use them in your kitchen to separate whatever you'd like (anything from straws and coffee filters to plastic forks and knives). These baskets work in the bathroom too for separating and toting toiletries.

5. Hanging Wall Pocket Baskets - These baskets, often wire or rattan, have a flat back so the basket hangs flat against the wall and a pocket opening. Stuff it with oven mitts in the kitchen. Or fill a "pot-bellied" wall pocket basket with a decorative flower arrangement and hang it in the foyer.

6. Wicker Hamper - The best thing about a wicker hamper is it's lightweight and durable. Fill it with guest pillows in storage or your child's large collection of stuffed animals. You'll find many sizes ranging from mini hampers to full-size hampers. Rattan is common in hampers. But look for rag basket/hampers too for ones that are more unique and stylish.

7. Wine Caddy - Store your bubbly in a vertical, cylindrical shaped wine caddy or tote it in one that has a top handle. A wicker wine caddy is an inexpensive way to jazz up a gift bottle of wine (and it's classier than a paper gift bag.). Just line the caddy with some colorful tissue paper that starts at the inside basket base and fluffs up all the way around the wine bottle where you can see it. Then tie some curly, sparkling streams of ribbon to the handle. When your gift recipients are done with the wine, they can use the wine caddy basket to store tall utensils.

So where do you get all these nifty baskets? From everywhere. Here are six places where you can purchase baskets (or perhaps even get them for free):

from online stores that solely specialize in baskets
from flea markets
from yard sales
from home decor bricks-and-mortar stores
from home decor online retailers
from friends who are discarding empty gift baskets (Ask them ahead of time to save them for you year-round.)
And don't forget, even the plainest, ugliest basket (in your opinion) can be painted or adorned and decorated in many other ways. Don't discard these functional, handmade works of art.

About The Author


Karen Fritscher-Porter

Learn lots more about home organizational and decorative uses of baskets and specific places to buy baskets in the eBook "How to Organize and Decorate with Baskets" by Karen Fritscher-Porter. Buy the eBook at www.OrganizeWithBaskets.com. Also visit www.EasyHomeOrganizing.com for more free home organization ideas and articles like this one.

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Labels: home, others

by: Sam Serio

Whether you presently own a retail or web based business and are looking for an additional profit center or you are thinking of starting a business, jewelry is a “no-brainer” choice for a proven product category. The buying public, (particularly women) never tires of jewelry as the choices in color, materials, finishes and styles are endless and innovations are continual. Every generation reinvents jewelry for itself in much the same way that it reinvents music and fashion. Styles change but the basic facts remain the same. If you are a seasoned professional, please consider the following a refresher course. To the new comer, use this information as a foundation for your ongoing jewelry education.

The Facts About Pearl Jewelry

Because natural pearls are very rare, most pearls used in jewelry are either cultured or imitation pearls. Cultured pearls, because they are made by oysters or mollusks, usually are more expensive than imitation pears. A cultured pearl’s value is largely based on its size, usually stated in millimeters, and the quality of its nacre coating, which give it luster. Jewelers should tell your if the pearls are cultured or imitation. Some black, bronze, gold, purple, blue and orange pearls, whether natural or cultured, occur that way in nature; some, however, are dyed through various processes. Jewelers should tell you whether the colored pearls are naturally colored, dyed or irradiated.

Clams, oysters, mussels and many other mollusks with limy shells are known to produce pearls. But very few kinds yield gem pearls of jeweler's quality. The pearl is an abnormal growth of mother-of-pearl, or nacre, imbedded in the soft bodies of these shellfish. It is built up, layer upon layer, in the same way as nacre is added to the lining of the growing shell and always has the same color and luster. For example, over the country, hundreds of good-sized pearls are found each year in the oysters we eat. Unfortunately these have no commercial value regardless of whether they have been cooked or not because they are dull opaque white or purple like the shell of the parent oyster. In recent times almost all pearls of gem quality come from the oriental pearl oyster which has a bright shimmering translucent nacre.

A pearl starts growing when some irritating foreign substance such as a sand grain, bit of mud, parasite or other object becomes lodged in the shell-producing gland called the mantle. Pearls formed in the soft flesh where nacre can be added on all sides are most likely to be spherical and the most highly prized. By far the great majority are flattened or variously distorted and have little value. Size, color, luster and freedom from flaws are other essential qualities. Unlike other gems, such as diamonds, pearls have an average life of only about 50 years. In time the small amount of water in a pearl's make-up is lost and its surface cracks. Because they are mostly lime, necklaces which are worn often are injured by the acid secretions of the human skin.

Natural or real pearls are made by oysters and other mollusks. Cultured pearls also are grown by mollusks, but with human intervention; that is, an irritant introduced into the shells causes a pearl to grow. Imitation pearls are man-made with glass, plastic, or organic materials.

Though, the pearl is not technically a stone at all, it’s beauty has earned it a place in the Big 5 of precious stones. Jewelry artists have long appreciated the pearl and continue to utilize it’s charm in their creations

About The Author
Sam Serio is an Internet Marketer, musician and a writer on the subject of jewelry and gemstones. For more information on jewelry and gemstones, we cordially invite you to visit www.morninglightjewelry.com to pick up your FREE copy of “How To Buy Jewelry And Gemstones Without Being Ripped Off.” This concise, informative special report reveals almost everything you ever wanted to know about jewelry and gemstones, but were afraid to ask. Get your FREE report at www.morninglightjewelry.com.

Labels: buying pearl jewerly