Foyer Organization

When you walk into a fancy hotel or home, you get your first impression from the foyer. This entrance area of many homes is often ignored and can become cluttered, messy and neglected. There are some things that you use daily that are just more easily kept near the front door. The problem is that these things are not necessarily attractive and they don’t necessarily have anywhere specific to go.

Look at your foyer and figure out what your biggest problem is. It could be coats, umbrellas, school work, mail, pocket contents, cell phone chargers and more. Coats often become a problem because you want to shed them as soon as you come in the door. If you don’t have a coat closet nearby, then the problem can compound very quickly.

To solve the coat problem, you can install a hanging bar from the wall. You may be able to make an attractive hanging area out of a dowel rod and two brackets. You can paint, stain or decorate this bar however you would like. Use decorative or wood hangers to keep the area from looking junky or unattractive. Another option would be to utilize coat hooks. Make sure that you buy them large enough to hold your coats. If you have nicer wool coats or suit coats, they should always be hung on wood hangers or cedar hangers shaped to fit their design, or you risk damage to the garment.

Another common problem for the foyer area is mail. You come in the house with mail, paperwork, flyers from the door or school work. A vast majority of these paper products can be trashed almost immediately. The problem is that we sift through the stack, pick out what’s most important or interesting, and then toss the stack on a table near the door. You can solve this clutter problem by using bins for sorting mail, putting a small trash can near the desk or even keeping your shredder right there by the front door. Conceal it in a cabinet so that it is not an unsightly addition to your foyer. You can come in, throw important mail in one bin, things that you might need to look at later in another, shred personal information and throw away opened envelopes and junk mail all within seconds of walking in the door.

We like to empty our pockets when we come in the door. We need to keep cell phones, wallets, keys and purses near the door so that we know where they are the next time we leave the house. Make sure that you have specific hooks for purses, a charging station to keep cell phones, PDA’s and MP3 players charged, and a piggy bank for all that change. When you’re ready to go, everything you need will be neatly organized instead of crammed in with all of your other junk.

Whether you use hooks, wood hangers, a cabinet containing your shredder or charging stations, every little step you take helps to keep your foyer organized. When it all has a place to go, your life will quickly run more smoothly and your home will become more inviting.

About the Author: Joe Granville is on the staff of Only Hangers, a leading online resource for wood hangers, coat hangers and all types of clothes hangers which is recognized for the excellent quality and value of its wood hanger and coat hanger offerings. For more information, please visit http://www.onlyhangers.com.

Home Improvement Ideas: Bathroom

Vanities

Vanities are no longer the cookie cutter cabinet with a sink installed in Formica counter top like they used to be. Vanities can now be mounted to the wall, with glass tops and standing sinks. They can look like old world style dressers with granite tops and decorative mirrors. Vanities are rarely permanently installed cabinets anymore. Most have feet or legs that keep them up off of the floor. You may think that these nicer vanities are too expensive, but they are now being mass produced and some cost about the same as the regular old vanities used to!

Tile

Bathroom tile can give your bathroom more personality than just about anything else. Glass tiles, slate, marble and granite are luxurious options for tile that can last a lifetime. Add dimension by building up a step into the shower before you tile. Create a platform for your tub. Tile up the walls of the shower all the way to the ceiling. You can even tile the ceiling of the tub or shower for a closed-off, private room feel.

Faucets and Shower Heads

You can turn your bathroom from a regular place to shower into a spa that you can’t wait to escape to. High end faucets on your bath, shower and sink add beauty and value to your home. Add shower heads at different levels for an unmatched luxury. You can even add a showerhead from the ceiling creating a rainfall effect. Removable showerheads with hoses make showering pets and clean-up a snap. Interesting shower heads add luxury and style to your shower. It will have you dreaming about it throughout the day.

Toilets

To most people, a toilet is a toilet. But, if you look at pictures of high end bathrooms, you will notice that the toilet is often understated, out of sight or not pictured at all. Low profile toilets use less water and do not draw attention. Additionally, toilets without a detachable tank are very easy to clean and keep your bathroom smelling fresh. A slow close lid will keep the bathroom serene. Detachable seats also make cleaning a snap. The best news is that these types of toilets and lids are very inexpensive!

Bath Accessories

The bath accessories that you choose can be almost as important as the tile and vanity. The accessories can really set off the style of the room. You can add delicate, personal touches with the accessories without overdoing it. A simple vase, decorative soap dish or interesting towel rack can turn a nice bathroom into a gorgeous one.

Linen Closet

If you have enough room, you can trade your linen closet for a linen cabinet. There are a lot of stylish options that will look great in your new bathroom. Some are tall and slender, like a grandfather clock, and take up little space. Some are longer with low shelves and they double as a changing seat. By freeing up the linen closet, you can install a rod, get some nice wood hangers or coat hangers, and use the linen closet to steam your work clothes while you shower or hang your robe out of sight.

About the Author: Joe Granville is on the staff of Only Hangers, a leading online resource for wood hangers, coat hangers and all types of clothes hangers which is recognized for the excellent quality and value of its wood hanger and coat hanger offerings. For more information, please visit http://www.onlyhangers.com.

Home Improvement Projects to Build Equity

Doing projects yourself can be an enjoyable learning experience. You can personalize, save money, learn a skill and be proud of what you have accomplished. Many times, we do home improvement projects out of necessity and sometimes we do them just for fun. But, sometimes you can make improvements that build equity by increasing the value of your home.

Putting in the time and effort that it takes to do a project right is something that you have to want to do. Projects often start out fun and exciting, but end up grueling. With the right attitude, you can keep it light and fun. Be willing to work hard and expect that a few things will go wrong. Remember that overcoming obstacles builds character and strength!

One of the biggest ways to increase the value of your home is to update the kitchens and bathrooms. Faucets and fixtures make a big difference. Investing an extra $100 in a fancy faucet can turn a room from mundane to extravagant. Faucets are pretty easy to install yourself, just make sure that you have no leaks when you are done. Tile is another addition that is not too expensive to do yourself. A framed mirror, fresh coat of paint and a cabinet refinishing can go a long way. Look into selling your old appliances and replacing them with high end, energy efficient ones.

Flooring can add value if you add tile or hardwood. Carpet won’t necessarily add a lot of value, but new carpet will definitely help a house to sell if you’re looking for that. Using wood, tile, granite, and other sturdy materials around the home help to raise house value. Stone and other natural materials not only look nice, but they give the house a more durable quality that buyers pay more for.

Another project you can do yourself is crown moulding and chair rail. Chair rails are a lot like base boards that go around the center of the wall. They set off a room and make it look more luxurious than just blank walls. Miter the corners and cut forty five degree angles at the seams. For a professional look, angle the seams so that they are not visible from the entrance to the room. Replace damaged baseboards and quarter round for a clean finish.

Landscaping is one of the most important improvements you can make. Buyers pay significantly more for homes that are beautifully maintained. Take care of your landscaping and a small investment could turn out to gain you real profits.

If you are selling your home, make sure that the lights all work with matching bulbs. Keep the lawn mowed and watered. Take down your own art and photos. Get rid of extras that are lying around. Make your closets look more spacious by organizing them and using high end products like wood hangers or cedar accessories. With a little diligence and care, your home’s value can be increased more than you might have imagined.

About the Author: Joe Granville is on the staff of Only Hangers, a leading online resource for wood hangers, coat hangers and all types of clothes hangers which is recognized for the excellent quality and value of its wood hanger and coat hanger offerings. For more information, please visit http://www.onlyhangers.com.

Be an Organized Mom

Working Moms have really tough schedules. Between working, shuttling kids around, keeping up with homework and a multitude of other tasks, there is little to no time for organization and cleaning. If you can’t stick to a good schedule, things can quickly get out of control.

Use these tips for keeping your home in running order, despite your schedule.

Pay your bills online. Most banks offer bill pay online. Call each of your debtors and service providers and ask about making your due dates late in the month. If they can do this, then you can pay all of your bills around the first of each month. Paying them all at once will free up the rest of the month not to worry about it. By paying them way before they’re due, you never have to worry about due dates. If you’re running low on money, you can always pay some bills later in the month, still without being late.

Prepare meals in advance. You can make a menu board that has entrees and sides that your family enjoys. Let a different family member select the meal that will be had each night of the week. Kids love feeling like they get to choose, but you are actually in control of what they can choose. Use the chart to do your grocery shopping and prepare as much in advance as possible before your work week starts. When you make too much of something, freeze the remainder and label it clearly with the date so that you can quickly prepare it the next time.

Make certain chores part of your nightly routine. Helping kids with homework, reading with them, getting them all bathed and in bed can take up a lot of your after-dinner time. Once you get this routine down, it is easy to add in just a couple of extra steps to keep things like cleaning and laundry from turning into huge jobs. Have kids wipe the counter top with an antibacterial wipe after they brush their teeth.

After the bath, gather up all of the towels and clothing from the day and wash them immediately. Once the kids are in the bed, you can relax, read or watch television. During this time, you can also fold the load of laundry from the day before. Toss the clean clothes in the dryer before you go to bed and they’ll be ready to fold the next day. You may think that doing a load every day is wasteful, but you can use a small load setting and save water, soap and power. Small loads help the job seem so simple that you won’t mind doing it.

The last thing you need to do to become a super organized Mom is to hang clothes by outfit. When all the clothes are clean, have your family choose which shirts they want to wear with which pants. Buy hangers that will allow you to hang shirts and pants together. When your family gets up in the morning, there will be no whining and searching, because what they want to wear will already be together and hung up. You can get nice wood hangers with clips for pants to avoid your clothes getting wrinkled.

When all of your clothes, bills, meals and laundry routines are in place, your home will seem like less of a job to tackle.

About the Author: Joe Granville is on the staff of Only Hangers, a leading online resource for wood hangers, coat hangers and all types of clothes hangers which is recognized for the excellent quality and value of its wood hanger and coat hanger offerings. For more information, please visit http://www.onlyhangers.com.

Provide Exceptional Customer Service

Providing appropriate customer service is perhaps the most important aspect of your retail concept. No matter what need you fill, what you sell, what you are the best at, or how wonderful your prices are, none of it will matter if you don’t provide exceptional customer service. You can’t control what a customer thinks, feels or spends, but you should definitely concentrate on trying to influence it in a positive direction.

Defining customer service as a concept can be a little fuzzy. Literally, customer service means servicing the customer. Basically, this only means answering their questions and helping them as they navigate and search your store. Good customer service is when you do this effectively or nicely. Great customer service is when you are in tune with what your customers might need and act on it.

Customers tend to say that they received great customer service if the level of service exceeded their expectations. For example, if you went into a thrift store, you wouldn’t expect to receive a lot of personal attention, help finding sizes, or anything of the sort. So if you did, you would be a little surprised.

Exceptional customer service is when customers are always delighted at the level of service they receive. So much so, that they are prompted to talk about it with their friends, fill out recommendation cards or participate in surveys. To meet the exceptional level of service, you will have to be very consistent. You will need clearly defined policies in terms of attitude and how to handle difficult situations.

There will always be situations to handle in a retail store. Teach your employees how to turn negatives into positives. If you are worried that they will not be able to handle it as you would, tell them to always get a manager to handle it for them. Now, there’s a difference in saying, “I’m getting my manager” with your eyebrows up and a frown on your face, and politely saying that “a manager would better know how to figure this out with you”.

Teach your employees to avoid sayings that could be interpreted as negative. “I don’t know” is never as good as “Let me find out for you”. “It’s over there” doesn’t exceed expectations as much as “I will get that for you”. Yes, the question was answered and you did technically provide customer service, but customers that expect good service would see your answer as rude. If your employees carelessly answer questions like this, then they are unknowingly sabotaging your image and your business.

It all comes down to the customer’s expectations. If I walk into a store where everything costs around a dollar, then I don’t set my customer experience level too high. If I go into a restaurant where I’m paying $100 per plate, then I expect to be treated with great respect. Even the atmosphere affects the service expectation. If I’m in a store with fluorescent lighting, giant sale signs and piles of clothes on tables, I don’t expect much help. If I’m in a store with relaxing lighting, smiling faces and wood hangers on decorative clothing racks, then I expect a certain level of service and help.

Keep your employees on their toes about exceeding customer expectations day after day. It will help to brand your image, keep and make new customers, and can translate into a lot more sales.

About the Author: Joe Granville is on the staff of Only Hangers, a leading online resource for wood hangers, coat hangers and all types of clothes hangers which is recognized for the excellent quality and value of its wood hanger and coat hanger offerings. For more information, please visit http://www.onlyhangers.com.

Fashion Merchandising for Promotion

To effectively merchandise a retail store for promotion, you really have to have a creative mind. But, it does take more than “knowing what looks good” to create display designs that are pleasing to the eye, focused on a goal, and that entice shoppers to buy. You can make a career out of merchandising design. But, for the retail store manager or boutique owner looking to give their promotions a professionally merchandised feel, use these guidelines to get you started.

Effective retail merchandising begins with researching your company’s history. Hopefully you have company records that show which promotions, display arrangements and merchandise were most effective at particular times of the year. If you don’t have this information, then you will need to watch and carefully document your customers’ reactions to certain promotional attempts.

For example, if you put a large display right inside the door of your store with big sale signs, then you probably drew in a lot of customers. But, were the customers buying? Large signs and “in your face” displays signal a really good deal to consumers. If they get in and realize that your clothing is not extremely cheap, then they aren’t really getting the deal that they thought. They’ll probably turn and leave the store. Over emphasizing a sale that doesn’t deliver is a good way to attract the wrong customers and inflate the expectations of your customers.

If you use smaller signs, or something as simple as a sticker price tag over the regular price, then you are not screaming that you carry cheap merchandise, but you are communicating that the items are marked-down. When customers feel that you are giving them an honest idea of what quality and price will be before they even pick up the tag, they are more likely to buy, regardless of the price. Another good way to make a personal impact and gently communicate a promotion is to have your sales staff direct customers towards sale areas, then let your merchandising do the rest.

It is up to you to determine when your heaviest shopping times are. If you are having a big sale, if it is tax-free weekend, or you are approaching the holiday season, part of your merchandising plan will include ordering enough inventory to keep your displays stocked. Make sure that sales associates keep your store displays full, neat and clean at all times.

Fully stocked displays give shoppers the feeling that they will be able to find their size and that you are not planning on discontinuing an item anytime soon. If it seems that you are not restocking, then customers may think that it is due to a lack of quality, or that it is the end of the season and what you have left is what no one else wanted, so why bother?

To keep the loyalty of customers, you need to always send an honest message with your promotions and merchandising. If you are promoting clearance items, you might hang them on plastic or acrylic hangers. For pricier merchandise, you can prepare your customer by using nicer wood hangers so that they don’t get that dreaded sticker shock.

Effective merchandising and promotion are all about the promise that you make to your customers. Through your signage and displays, you can adequately prepare the customer for your prices without saying a word.

About the Author: Joe Granville is on the staff of Only Hangers, a leading online resource for wood hangers, coat hangers and all types of clothes hangers which is recognized for the excellent quality and value of its wood hanger and coat hanger offerings. For more information, please visit http://www.onlyhangers.com.