Do you feel overwhelmed when you walk into certain rooms of your home? How about when you enter your office? What is your feeling when you look at your calendar? My guess is that for many of you the first word you think of is "overwhelmed" followed by frustration. The frustration may be because you aren't sure how to decrease your stuff or tasks. Your irritation might be directed at someone else. You might just throw up your hands and close the door.

Unfortunately,wishing the overwhelm away won't make it so! William Faulkner said, "The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones." The same is true of stuff. Put a hula-hoop over one area and just deal with those items. Decide whether each one is something to keep in that room, keep in another room, or delete in some fashion. Alternatively you can put on a song and go through items for the length of that song. Setting a timer for 5 minutes might be the "stone" you start with.

Use as a bulletin board tack

Lend a little personal style to your bulletin board. Use mateless pierced earrings to tack up pictures, notes, souvenirs, and clippings. 

Make a magnet

Fix skips on CDs

Don't throw out that scratched compact disc. Try fixing it first with a small dab of car wax. Spread a cloth on a flat surface and place the CD on it damaged side up. Then, wipe the polish into the affected area with a soft cloth. Wait for it to dry and buff using short, brisk strokes along the scratch, not across it. A cloth sold to wipe eyeglasses or camera lenses will work well. When you can no longer see the scratch, wash the disc with water and let it dry before playing. 

Use for storing and organizing

With a dozen handy compartments, egg cartons are a great way to store and organize small items. Here are some ideas to get you going. You're sure to come up with more of your own.

1. Instead of emptying the coins in your pocket into a jar for later sorting, cut off a four-section piece of an egg carton and leave it on your dresser. Sort your quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies as you pull them out of your pockets. (Dump pennies in a larger container, such as a jar, or put them in a piggy bank.)
2. Organize buttons, safety pins, threads, bobbins, and fasteners on your sewing table.
3. Organize tacks, small nuts and bolts, and screws.
4. Keep small Christmas ornaments from being crushed in handy, stackable egg cartons.

Start a fire

 Do you feel trapped? Chained to your computer or smart phone? It's not just surfing on the web; it's all the time spent looking at and responding to email. Sometimes it feels like you are sitting, focused on your monitor, and surrounded by metal bars.

Well, if you were in an actual jail cell, you would need two things to get out: the jail keeper and the keys. To escape from your email jail, you only need one thing- the keys- because you are the jail keeper!

1. Declutter: I don't mean just deleting emails because that is obvious! It's time to stop what's coming in. Unsubscribe yourself from articles, ezines, and other mailings that you receive on a regular basis but don't read. When it comes into your email, it is easy to say "I'll read it later". Unfortunately, "later" rarely arrives. However, guilt and email jail arrive on a regular basis! Also, if you don't read the jokes and stories that friends forward to you, ask to be taken off their distribution list. Blame it on me. Say, "A professional organizer told me to!"
2. Decide: Every email that comes in requires action. Choices include delete, respond, action, reference, calendar, and so forth. If you can't delete or take care of it within five minutes, then you have to make a decision:
1. Print out the email
2. Add the task to an electronic to-do list
3. Add the task to a paper to-do list
4. Create a folder in your email called "To Do" and create time in your schedule to work on tasks in this folder
3. Designate: Many email programs have the ability to establish rules. For instance, emails from a certain source go into a specific folder. When I was on the Board of an association, I had all emails from other Board members go into one folder so that I could process them all at once. I also have all electronic ezines or newsletters go into a Newsletter folder. Then I can read them when I am ready but they don't clog my Inbox. Don't establish too many rules because then you will just have a bunch of folders to look in! But if you create several meaningful folders, then you won't be overwhelmed by the number of new emails in your Inbox.

These aren't the only keys, but they should get you started. Which key are you going to use today to get yourself out of email jail?

Lift cookies off baking tray: Crumbled cookies may taste just as good as those in one piece, but they sure don't look as nice on the serving plate. Use dental floss to easily remove cookies from the baking tray. Hold a length of dental floss taut and slide it neatly between the cookie bottom and the pan. 

Slice cake and cheese: Use dental floss to cut cakes, especially delicate and sticky ones that tend to adhere to a knife. Just hold a length of the floss taut over the cake and then slice away, moving it slightly side to side as you cut through the cake. You can also use dental floss to cut small blocks of cheese cleanly.

Temporarily hem your pants:  You've found a terrific pair of jeans, but the length isn't right. You expect a little shrinkage anyway, so why spend time hemming? Besides, thick denim jeans are difficult to sew through. Fake the hem with duct tape. The new hem will last through a few washes too. 

Remove lint on clothing: You're all set to go out for the night and suddenly you notice pet hairs on your outfit. Grab the duct tape and in no time, you'll be ready to go. Wrap your hand with a length of duct tape, sticky side out. Then roll the sticky tape against your clothing in a rocking motion until every last hair has been picked up. Don't wipe, since that may affect the nap. 

Retrieve valuables: Oops, you just lost an earring or other small valuable down the drain. Try retrieving it with a just-chewed piece of gum stuck to the bottom of a fishing weight. Dangle it from a string tied to the weight, let it take hold, and reel it in.

Fill cracks: Fill a crack in a clay flowerpot or a dog bowl with piece of well-chewed gum.