Announcing the all new MeckMom.com

For over a year now, I've been posting my favorite bright ideas on two separate blogs. Thankfully, it looks like those days of extra effort are over. Thanks to my brilliant husband's help and many late nights of work, the new MeckMom.com is finally ready to launch.

By creating a customized Wordpress site, I've managed to combine the best elements of each of my two blogs. The new MeckMom.com is easier to navigate, fully searchable, and more functional than ever.

Consequently, I've decided to make my life a little easier and stop dual posting. As of today, I will no longer be posting to this site. All new posts and downloads will be posted to www.meckmom.com.

If you subscribe to my blog via feedblitz and recieve my posts in your inbox, I will transfer your subscription to the new site. If you subscribe via RSS, you'll need to update the address in your feed reader. You can find the RSS link in the upper right hand corner of the new site.

Thanks for your support and I hope you enjoy the new site.

-MeckMom

Mud Room Mini Makeover

As I mentioned before, moving to a new house always has its challenges. In addition to finding new spots for our ocean of toys, I've also had to come up with a new solution for our mudroom. In our new house, the entryway from the garage is a small mudroom/laundry room. It's only about 5 feet wide and the washer and dryer take up a significant portion of the width. I needed a place to store backpacks, keys, jackets, purses, and other 'out the door' essentials without interrupting the traffic flow.

As I was wandering the aisles of Target searching for a cheap solution, I came across these awesome peg boards. Yet another successful Pottery Barn knockoff from our friends at Target, these square peg boards are a perfect solution for tight spaces. In addition to the cool peg boards, they also offer coordinating dry erase boards and cork boards to allow for tons of configuration options. But of course, the best part is the customization. Much like their garage wall predecessors, these peg boards offer tons of flexiblity. Target sells a wide variety of hooks, boxes, racks and clips to help you create a perfect spot for all your must-haves.

On our board, I've got several small silver key hooks, a few sturdier hooks for my purse, a box for things like sunglasses and sunscreen, and a 4-arm swinging hook for the kid's backpacks and jackets. At first, the hooks seemed a little loose and tended to pop out if I pulled at the wrong angle. I solved that problem by picking up a pack of ticky tack and placing a small dot of it around the peg of each hook. Now everything stays in its place and can the hooks can stand up to my kid's toughest yanks.

In addition to mud rooms like mine, they'd be a great addition to any kid's rooms, garages, craft areas and much more. We've used the system for a few months now, and it's held up beautifully. The total set up cost me around $35. Considering I haven't lost my keys or tripped over a backpack yet, I'd say it's well worth the price. Just thought I'd pass it on.

Finally...an organizing magazine for real people

As you may have noticed, my posts over the past few months have been a little irregular. Belive it or not, I actually have a really good excuse for my procrastination…I’ve been writing.

Earlier this year, I was approached by a new national magazine to write an organizing article for their inaugural issue. The founders of the magazine had read my blog and thought that my overall approach to organization fell in line with the mission of their magazine…to offer doable organization projects for real people with real lives. Naturally, I was thrilled to have the opportunity.

Several months and many edits later, I am still writing (hence my lack of posts lately). I am currently working on my third article for ORGANIZE magazine. It's been a lot of work, but the result is well worth it. The magazine is fabulous and I'm thrilled to be a part of it.

Granted, I’m a bit biased, but I can honestly say that after seeing the preview for the inaugural issue I would subscribe in a heartbeat. Not only are the articles down to earth and doable, but the advertising for various organizing tools and websites function as a great resource as well.

Please don’t misunderstand my intentions here; I’m not trying to sell you anything. I don’t make any money from this plug and the creators of the magazine did not ask me to promote it on my blog. I just love the whole concept of the magazine and wanted to recommend it to my readers. The first issue comes out in June. Although it will be carried across the nation by various distributors, I highly recommend getting your own subscription. The price is only $20 for the entire year.

If you’d like to see a preview of the magazine or if you’d like to subscribe, just visit their website: http://www.organizemag.com/. I hope you enjoy it.

-MeckMom