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Save Time and Money by Organizing Your Decorating and Home Improvement Projects
by Paula Austin Watson

Description: Tips for organizing your decorating and home improvement projects.

We all know that being organized can save you loads of valuable time, but can it save you your hard-earned money as well? You bet it can - especially when it comes to decorating and home improvements.

By following these simple steps to organizing your decorating and home improvements,

• you'll stop losing your paint chips, wallpaper samples, fabric swatches, magazine clippings, and receipts
• you'll always have your color scheme, measurements, and product samples ready to take with you when shopping
• you'll stop purchasing colors that don't match and sizes that don't fit you'll stop the relentless cycle of having to return items that don't work with your room or area
• you'll know how much you've spent
• you'll always know the size, color, product code, manufacturer, and merchant of your products

1. You'll Need

• A holder (i.e. 3-ring binder, pocket folder, or accordion folder)
• Stiff card stock paper
• Index cards or card stock cut into index card size
• Pencil and pen
• Durable metal tape measure
• Graph paper (optional)
• Scissors
• Small calculator

2. Choose Your Holder

I personally like using a 3-ring presentation binder with heavy duty clear storage pockets to hold all my decorating paraphernalia because it can sit on a bookshelf - making it easy to put away and retrieve, it provides a sturdy surface for writing on when I'm shopping, it opens out flat, the items won't fall out, it provides convenient storage for many rooms, and I can insert a bright front, back, and spine to help me find it should it be misplaced. However, there are other options as well. A pocket folder can organize one room or project and a plastic see-through accordion folder with index tabs can organize your entire home. Avoid manilla folders that are not pocket folders as your items will fall all too often.

3. Record Your Measurements

Record your room, window, wall, and furniture measurements on stiff card stock or cover stock paper. Since these items are referred to over and over again, card stock or cover stock is durable enough to stand the test of time and lots of use. You'll need all these measurements to determine how much you'll need for paint, wallpaper, flooring, and window treatements - never guess at your measurements or you'll more than likely purchase too much or too little and end up losing money or having to return something.

You may wish to record your room dimensions on graph or grid paper so that it's easier to plan your room layouts. If you have your house plans, which most of us don't, you can put a small copy of each room in your storage pockets. Draw an aerial view of your room and indicate the dimensions outside the perimeter of the room. Be sure to indicate doorways, doors, windows, vents, electrical outlets, light switches, and light fixtures.

For your window measurements, draw your window (there's no need to be timid if you're not an artist, a rough sketch will do) and include the trim around the window. Measure the height including the trim, the height inside the trim, the width including the trim, the width inside the trim, the space between the trim and the ceiling, the space between the trim and floor, the wall space on each side of the window, and the trim widths.

For your wall measurements, draw a square to represent the wall and include the floor moldings, crown moldings, chair rails, etc. Record the height from floor to ceiling, the height from the top of the floor molding to the bottom of the crown molding or ceiling, the width of the floor, crown, and chair rail trim, the space between the chair rail and the ceiling, the space between the chair rail and the floor.

4. Store and Label Loose Items In Pockets

It seems that I'm constantly looking through magazines to get decorating ideas, so when I see a room I really like or something in the room I like or a color scheme that attracts me, I tear out the pages and store them in the storage pockets for that room in my binder. I also store all of these items in my storage pockets:

• Paint chips - write on the paint chip, what it was used for (i.e. chair, table, above chair rail, etc.)
• Wallpaper samples - write on the back of the sample, where purchased, item number, color code, etc.
• Receipts - immediately write on the receipt what you purchased and circle that item, abbreviations and store codes can be difficult to decipher months or years later
• Warranties
• Product specifications
• Sketches
• Magazine clippings
• Fabric samples - Attach your swatches to an index card with manufacturer #, item code, store where purchased, quantity purchased, color code
• Flooring samples
• Countertop samples
• Fabric Trims - Attach your trim to an index card with manufacturer #, item code, store where purchased, quantity purchased, color code
• Wish lists
• Photos - Before and After, Photos come in so handy when discussing projects with store personnel

5. Make Your Contact List

Keep a list of important information like phone numbers, addresses, website addresses, and email addresses for merchants, subcontractors, interior designers, etc. and/or store their business cards in the applicable storage pocket.

6. Track Your Budget and Expenditures

Either create an electronic worksheet that you enter data into and print it out or a table for manual entry with the following column headings:

Item
Date Purchased
Cost
Running Balance
Purchased From
Qty Bought
Product Dimensions
Manufacturer, Item #, Color Code, etc.

You can download a free Budget and Product Tracker electronic worksheet from http://www.decoratingzone.com by going to the Free Decorating Tools pages.

7. Identify Your Folder or Binder

Last but not least, don't forget to put your name, phone number, and email address in a prominent place in case you leave it in a store or lose it.

8. Use a Tote Bag

I highly recommend keeping all your decorating tools in one place such as a tote bag, so all you have to do is pick up your tote bag and go. Here are the items I recommend you store in your tote bag at all times because you never know when you'll need them while you're out and about:

Your decorating binder or folder
Scissors
Pen and pencil
Calculator
Sturdy metal measuring tape

That's all there is to it. Put your new knowledge to good use as you begin new projects or continue existing projects.

© Paula Austin Watson and DecoratingZone.com. Paula Austin Watson is a mom, craft and decorating enthusiast, free-lance writer and web designer, and owner of several websites. For more decorating and crafting ideas, visit http://www.decoratingzone.com.