Upgrade Your Closet With Wooden Hangers

If you are tired of the old boring wire hangers or you have just renovated your closet then it might be time to upgrade to classier wooden hangers. These hangers fall into three categories: Regular Wood Hangers, Cedar Hangers, and Bamboo Hangers. These hangers can hold a shirt or pair of pants or a combo variety that holds both. Here are a few details about each type to help you make your selection.

Wooden hangers allow for a variance of stains from dark woods to lighter woods which you will be able to match your closet shelving and cabinetry. Of course they can be painted any color, and their elegant shape will add to your closet’s style. They are strong and will not break easily if dropped or manhandled, unlike plastic hangers. For childrens hangers consider painting them with a theme such as Walt Disney princesses, trucks and cars, or a space theme.

If you have a musty closet you might want to try a cedar hanger. Cedar hangers have a lovely scent and can protect your clothes from insect damage. Mothballs are pesticides and their vapors apart from being malodorous are unhealthy, especially to children. The properties of cedar will repel moths without having to expose your family to danger. Placing cedar planks in a dresser can accomplish the same preserving and scenting effects for those clothes you have folded. Since, they are a softer species of wood they may dent slightly easier than other hangers.

The bamboo tree is one of the fastest growing trees on the planet and some species grow up to 1 meter a day. It is used to make just about anything from building materials, flooring, furniture, and even clothing and clothes hangers. Bamboo hangers may be the right choice if you are environmentally conscious, since they come from a sustainable resource. The unique wood grain of bamboo has style unlike any other wood. This hard wood hanger is among the strongest and sturdiest available and will not dent.

Daintier garments, such as a nice evening gown or lingerie, may be prone to falling off wood hangers. This can be easily remedied using anti slip hanger covers. These strips of plastic or foam can be stick on or slip over any type of hanger and will keep clothes from falling off.

About the Author: Ron Maier is the President of Everything Hangers, a leading online provider of plastic hangers and wooden hangers. For more information, please visit http://www.everythinghangers.com.

Manage Your Time Achieve Your Dreams

Where did the time go? With such busy lives these days filled with cell phones, email, and multiple jobs it is easy for the time to get away from you. We get moving so fast that we do not see how we spend our time and then wonder why things are not getting done. Are you constantly searching for your keys in the morning or struggling to find the right clothes to wear in the morning? More than likely there are numerous energy leaks in your life that you may not even notice.

One of the most important life skills to develop is time management. How you use your time directly relates to what you can accomplish. By organizing your life and generating good habits you can eliminate unnecessary energy leaks and gain back valuable minutes or hours each day. Don’t procrastinate any longer.

Understand how you spend your time. Keep a journal or daily time log. Many top CEOs attribute their success to continual self analysis. Plot out what you are doing each hour in each day. This may seem like it will eat up even more minutes out of your day, but it is dangerous to deny yourself the time it takes to make your life better. Eventually you will begin to identify patterns and a better understanding of how much time specific tasks require. You may not be allotting enough time for certain tasks or getting bogged down with unimportant activities. Invest in a day timer, planner, and wall calendar. This can help you better plan out your days and weeks around your goals instead of just letting them happen.

Clear the clutter out of your house. The state of your environment directly affects your concentration level, approach, and outlook on your life. Keep a clean house inside and out. Hire a maid and have the lawn mowed if you are too busy. Take a weekend and go through all your belongings and give anything you do not need to charity. If you are not sure about an item, make note of it and box it up. If you have not used it after several months then donate it then. Think twice before making new purchases understanding that everything you own has to be stored, cleaned, and maintained.

The closet is a critical area where time seeps away. Often it is visited several times daily. A disorganized closet makes it difficult to find what you want to wear, sort through, and put away clothes. Putting some attention in this area can save you hours over the course of a week. The goal is to maximize you storage space and functionality at the same time. Hang shoe bags, or tie racks on the back of closet doors. Upgrade your clothes hangers so they are all the same style. Slim line hangers or multi slack hangers can increase storage capacity two or three times. Put similar items together in a closet organizer, on a shelving system, or plastic storage bins.

The idea is to create systems for anything you do on a regular basis. When you come home the keys go on a hook, cell phone on the charger, and wallet on the dresser. Other systems might be laundry, workouts, grocery shopping, children’s activities, or paying the bills. The important thing is to start developing the system and you will find ways to improve it over time.
Developing good habits takes time. You only have one life to live. No more excuses. Take action today and begin streamlining your life and achieving your dreams!

About the Author: Ron Maier is the President of Everything Hangers, a leading online provider of clothes hangers and hangers. For more information, please visit http://www.everythinghangers.com.

Home Office Setup for Success

If you run a home based business your home office is probably where you spend most of your time. How you setup your office will likely affect how you think about yourself and your business. Studies have proven our environment is a critical factor that goes in to how we think and feel, and the actions we take or don’t take. Treat this task lightly and you will begin to think the same way about your work. A well designed professional office will boost your posture and confidence with clients no matter the size of your business. It becomes a place you are eager to be when you start your day. It can be whatever you want, so here are some tips to get you started.

Plan the layout on paper first. Determine what furnishings and equipment you will want in your office. Where will you put your desk, filing cabinets, bookshelves, and computer hardware? Will you need lots of desk space or workbench to layout hands on projects? Whatever you do make sure it is comfortable and accessible. Don’t cramp your style, especially if clients will be visiting. Choose the right sized desk for the space and include a comfy ergonomic swivel chair on a mat and an adjustable table lamp. Organize and stock drawers with a full array of office supplies such as pens, pencils, highlighters, paper clips, and rubber bands. Solid shelves held up by classy metal hangers fixed to studs are quick and easy to install.

One of the most important aspects beyond simple functionality is to decorate your office with things that arouse your passion and remind you of your goals. This could be literally anything from framed photographs, posters, or artistic paintings to model cars, statues, or sporting memorabilia. Be creative. Plants are a nice touch as well and oxygenate the room.

A large part of success is simply being organized. Setup your office in an organized fashion and spend a little time each day keeping it that way and your half way there. Running a business from home means more freedom, more time with family, and more fun, but it also means more responsibility. If your office is not everything you want it to be stop griping about it and take action. It is part of building your business, so expect to put some time and energy into it. It is up to you to be successful.

About the Author: Ron Maier is the President of Everything Hangers, a leading online provider of metal hangers. For more information, please visit http://www.everythinghangers.com.

Organize Your Work Shop

The garage or workshop is a sacred place. Here is where we store all our precious tools. It is a refuge from an angry spouse where we can cool off from a heated argument and a place to spend unforgettable quality time working on projects with our children. Unfortunately the old adage our shop teachers preached, “a place for everything, and everything in its place” often falls by the wayside in our own shops. Getting things in order is a valuable investment that will save you countless hours of time and money by making your workshop a more enjoyable and efficient environment.

Store similar tools in a toolbox or hang them from metal hangers on a peg board. Find a cupboard or shelf for larger tools. Using labels, tracing the tools picture on the wall, or taping a photo of cabinet contents to cabinet doors can help you find things quickly. Allow for adequate space for items. If you cram cabinets and shelves chockablock full you will end up pulling half the shelf down each time you reach for something. Get shovels, brooms, and rakes out of the way using special hooks or metal hangers placed high on the wall.

Put power chords and air hoses on rollup coils near an air compressor or power plug. Installing locking wheels on big machines such as a table saw, drill press, or router table to quickly reconfigure your shop setup. Use twist ties or rubber bands to bind up excess chord lengths and eliminate tangling. A fishing tackle box, glass mayonnaise or baby food jars are perfect for storing assortments of screws, nails and other hardware.

Improper workbench height can cause strained muscles in the arms, back and neck. Medical research studies on ergonomic table heights for surgical doctors suggest ratio between 0.7 and 0.8 of the person’s elbow height. To figure out the most comfortable work surface height for you simply measure the height of your elbows standing up and multiply that number by 0.8. The resulting number should be the most comfortable work surface height. For example, a person that is 5’6” tall with an elbow height of 41” the optimal workbench height to reduce muscle strain is around 33”.

If you are doing a lot of wood or metal work, sanding, or bondo you may want to look at installing a dust collection system. Excessive exposure to dust particles can cause chronic bronchitis or emphysema. These systems operate from a single vacuum and will filter dust out of the air and can be connected to multiple machines.

Whatever work you are doing always have a special place for safety gear such as ear muffs and eye goggles. This way you will be more likely to use them when you should. Eye injuries can be life changing matters that unfortunately happen all too often though easily preventable.

About the Author: Ron Maier is the President of Everything Hangers, a leading online provider of metal hangers and plastic hangers. For more information, please visit http://www.everythinghangers.com.

Maximize Your Garage Sale Profits – Sale Presentation

Part one of this series discussed the importance of effective advertising to attract customers to your garage sale. This article will give you great ideas on how to get organized for your sale and how to present your sale items in a way that will make customers want to buy.

Getting organized will help you to know what you have, what you need, and what to do with it. When going through your garage sale goods start sorting them into categories such as household items, sports and recreation, toys and games, etc. This will help you during the presentation part of the sale later. Once you have a good idea of what you have make a list of what you might need for the sale such as tables for display, stickers for pricing, coins and small bills for giving out change, clothes rack and hangers, chairs and a table to sit at, snacks and drinks for your sales people (you and your kids). Having everything you need ahead of time helps to eliminate some stress and the mad dash feeling when customers start showing up and your aren’t ready yet.

The layout of your sale can encourage or deter shoppers. Most will agree that they are more likely to peruse a sale if items are visible, easy to find, and the prices are clearly marked. The same goes for your garage sale customers. Lay similar items near each other on tables if available or in clusters on your lawn and driveway. Do not crowd too many things together. Make use of other sale items to prop things up and make it look nice. If you have clothes to sell, put them on hangers and hang them on a rack. No one likes to paw through a box of messy clothes to find something that might fit or look nice on them. This is a great way to get rid of wire hangers or the old plastic hangers. If you don’t have a clothes rack, you can improvise with a rope or broom tied or propped between two ladders. Arrange the clothes by color or type and size.

Pricing can be done with stickers or signs on tables clearly marking that these items are a certain price. Color-code your stickers so that a particular color sticker represents a particular price and make a sign to illustrate the color pricing. This method saves huge amounts of time, since you do not have to write a price on each individual item. Pricing items is entirely up to you and you will find many people like to barter, so do not worry about setting a price too high. You can always lower the price as the sale goes on throughout the day.

Customer service is part of presentation as well. Greet your customers as they arrive with a friendly smile and hello. Ask if there is something you can help them find and let them know you are available if they have any questions. Play a little upbeat music to set a fun and positive atmosphere. Shoppers in a good mood are more likely to buy.

When you advertise in multiple sources, organize your sale items in a way that is easy for shoppers to find what they are looking for, and present those items in so people can see things they did not know they wanted and you are guaranteed to get the most bang for your buck. Remember, garage sales are a great time to be outdoors with your family and neighbors, so have fun.

About the Author: Ron Maier is the President of Everything Hangers, a leading online distributor of hangers. Check out our new line of plastic hangers at http://www.everythinghangers.com.

Maximize Your Garage Sale Profits – Getting Customers

For a lot of people, summer time marks the start of garage sale season. Everybody likes to find a bargain. If you have a garage full of items like old sports equipment, clothes the kids have grown out of, hangers, dishes, or knick-knacks have a garage sale of your own. This article will discuss the importance of effective advertising to maximize your garage sale profits.

According to a recent survey, most garage sale shoppers locate the sales they are going to peruse in three different ways: newspaper ads, internet ads, and signs. If you do not advertise you will not have very many customers. If you decide to take out a newspaper ad ask a few of your neighbors if they might want to do a garage sale the same weekend that you are planning. A multi-family sale is much more likely to attract interest among those who peruse the classifieds.

Most newspapers offer package deals for garage sale ads that will allow you to run a 4 line ad for 1-3 days for about $20. The best days for garage sales are Saturdays and Sundays. You want the ad to be in the paper the morning of and the day before your sale, so be sure to submit your ad the Monday before your garage sale weekend since this is the deadline most papers have for ads to be included in the weekend paper. You can submit your ad in person, by phone, or online on your local paper’s website.

Advertising on the web in places like Craigslist.com is a great source for free advertising. Follow the easy to use instructions on their website to post your ad. You will want to post your ad on craigslist.com closer to your sale date to be towards the top of the list. Other internet sources for advertising your sale include facebook.com or myspace.com if you already have an account and network base with those sites.

Be sure to place clearly marked signs, so garage sale connoisseurs can easily navigate their way to your driveway. Cardboard works just fine for this, but if you want to get serious purchase a few pieces of brightly colored poster board, a large permanent black marker, and some duct tape. Plan out your signs and their slogans before you start writing them up. Determine how many you will need to make by mapping out where you will be placing them. The best locations are at the major intersections surrounding your sale location and at any right or left turns along the way. At each intersection you will need to have a sign facing both directions of traffic. The intersection signs should have the address, the time the sale begins and ends, as well as the words GARAGE SALE clearly and legibly written. Place a sign with the words “garage sale” and a directional arrow at any left or right turns on the way to your location from the intersections. Utilize smaller pieces of poster board with arrows drawn on them to post below your signs. Put your signs up either the night before or the morning of your sale.

Advertising in the paper, on the internet, and with bright, easy-to-read signs that lead to your sale will significantly increase your customer base. However, getting customers to come is only half the work towards a profitable garage sale. The sequel to this article will talk about how to maximize your garage sale profits through organization and presentation.

About the Author: Ron Maier is the President of Everything Hangers, a leading online provider of plastic hangers. For more information, please visit http://www.everythinghangers.com.