Expert Tips & Ideas

Quick 30-Minute Projects

June 21, 2007

Do you have just 30 minutes that you can devote to one area of your home? You'll be surprised at how much you can accomplish in this short period of time! Below are some of our favorite quick home organization projects that you can do in just 30 minutes that will really make a difference!

Bulletin & Magnetic Board by Umbra®
SALE $29.99 - $34.99

Create a Family Communication Center
Organize the "hub" of your home to gain maximum efficiencies for your family. Set up a family communication center in an area where the "stuff" piles up, either in the kitchen or near the most-often used entryway. Include a calendar to keep track of everyone's activities, color-coded by family member. A magnetic bulletin board hold notes, photos and lists. Incorporate a multi-pocket sorter to organize incoming mail for everyone in the household. Don't forget an outgoing basket to hold books or videos that need to be returned, or receipts needed to pick-up dry cleaning. Choose from a multitude of styles and finishes for space-saving solutions to get your family organized.

Get Your Junk Drawer Organized
Everyone has one. Junk drawers hold all of life's little necessities and are often crammed to the max. Dedicate just 30 minutes to organizing one drawer and you'll be amazed at the sense of accomplishment you'll gain! To get started, pull all of the contents out and decide what stays and what goes. Not sure? If you have a junk drawer in the kitchen, it should only hold the items you use when you're in the kitchen. If necessary, set up a drawer or even a decorative box in another room (like a bathroom or home office) to hold "necessities" that are generally used in those rooms. Choose from drawer organizers in a variety of sizes and materials – including our best-selling Custom Drawer Organizers – to make space for items that belong.

Custom Drawer Organizers
$14.99 - $24.99

Platinum elfa Door & Wall Rack System
$9.99 - $14.99

Set Up a Cleaning Station
When you're in the midst of cleaning, you don't want to waste time digging for the window spray deep in your lower cabinets. Create a customized cleaning station on a garage or pantry door or mounted to a wall in a laundry room to store all of your supplies and keep them easily accessible. With our innovative elfa Door & Wall Rack System, you can group like items together (for example, all of your kitchen cleaners in one basket, silver polishing items in another) and remove the Basket and take it wherever the items are needed to complete the task. And an added bonus: you'll end up with more space in your lower cabinets for items like extra trash bags or a recycling bin.

Make a Great Project Box for Kids
Kids love to be where the action is, so create a portable project box that they can fill with art and craft supplies and take to any room in the home. Include items like construction paper, crayons and a notepad that can keep your kids engaged while you tend to things that need to be done around the house. It's also a great solution for keeping kids entertained while traveling. Choose a container with handles for easy portability and use smaller containers inside for organizing different items.

Clear Storage Cases
$8.99 - $11.99

White elfa Mesh Craft Organizer
$373.35

Keep Your Arts and Crafts Organized
Do you love to be crafty but just don't have enough space to do it? Look for storage space in unsuspected places...in a spare closet, under a bed or in the corner of a bedroom. Our elfa Drawers store a lot of supplies in a compact space. The smooth-gliding, epoxy-bonded Drawers hold everything from rubber stamps and ribbons to paints and decorative papers. By identifying a specific area in your home to house all of your craft-related supplies – even if you don't have the luxury of a full room – you'll be able to keep the rest of your home neat and tidy.

Store and Protect Cherished Memories
From treasured family photos to irreplaceable children's artwork, families generate a lot of special memories that need to be protected. Dedicate several minutes at a time to go through your photos and organize them by date or occasion. Choose attractive boxes or binders to which you can add pages to store them. Go through your child's artwork with your child and choose the ones that mean the most that you'll keep.

Oversized Portofino 3-Ring Binder
$16.99

Platinum & Driftwood elfa Office in a Closet
$231.74

Create an Office in a Closet
No room for a home office? You may be surprised to learn you can transform a small hall closet or a spare bedroom closet into a functional workspace! Remove the contents of the closet and reassign them to another area of the home or donate or discard them. Take out the existing closet rod and shelf, apply a fresh coat of paint and install a shelving solution, like our best-selling elfa Solid Shelving – that provides a comfortable work surface and storage above for supplies. When not in use, you can hide your space-savvy office by simply closing the closet door.

Magazine Storage Know-How
For many of us, between the magazines we subscribe to and the catalogs we order from, periodicals can quickly pile up in our homes! Take a few minutes to set up an organization system for your favorite titles. Commit yourself to storing only the most recent issues (six months is a good guideline) and recycling the rest. If there's a certain story you want to keep beyond the six-month period, tear that page out and file it...there's no need to keep the entire issue.

Semikolon; Magazine File
$12.99

Platinum elfa Overdoor Media Rack
$129.92

Great Ideas for Media Storage
Keep your family's favorite movies and music within easy reach on an entertainment center or bookshelf in the den. Others that are used less regularly can be stored in another area or on a higher shelf. When organizing your DVDs, CDs and VHS tapes, decide which ones you really want to keep, and donate any you don't to create more space. There are a variety of colors and materials of media solutions available that will look fantastic in your home's decor.


Bulletin & Magnetic Board by Umbra® SALE $29.99 - $34.99	Create a Family Communication Center Organize the "hub" of your home to gain maximum efficiencies for your family. Set up a family communication center in an area where the "stuff" piles up, either in the kitchen or near the most-often used entryway. Include a calendar to keep track of everyone's activities, color-coded by family member. A magnetic bulletin board hold notes, photos and lists. Incorporate a multi-pocket sorter to organize incoming mail for everyone in the household. Don't forget an outgoing basket to hold books or videos that need to be returned, or receipts needed to pick-up dry cleaning. Choose from a multitude of styles and finishes for space-saving solutions to get your family organized.

Get Your Junk Drawer Organized Everyone has one. Junk drawers hold all of life's little necessities and are often crammed to the max. Dedicate just 30 minutes to organizing one drawer and you'll be amazed at the sense of accomplishment you'll gain! To get started, pull all of the contents out and decide what stays and what goes. Not sure? If you have a junk drawer in the kitchen, it should only hold the items you use when you're in the kitchen. If necessary, set up a drawer or even a decorative box in another room (like a bathroom or home office) to hold "necessities" that are generally used in those rooms. Choose from drawer organizers in a variety of sizes and materials – including our best-selling Custom Drawer Organizers – to make space for items that belong.		Custom Drawer Organizers $14.99 - $24.99

Platinum elfa Door & Wall Rack System $9.99 - $14.99	Set Up a Cleaning Station When you're in the midst of cleaning, you don't want to waste time digging for the window spray deep in your lower cabinets. Create a customized cleaning station on a garage or pantry door or mounted to a wall in a laundry room to store all of your supplies and keep them easily accessible. With our innovative elfa Door & Wall Rack System, you can group like items together (for example, all of your kitchen cleaners in one basket, silver polishing items in another) and remove the Basket and take it wherever the items are needed to complete the task. And an added bonus: you'll end up with more space in your lower cabinets for items like extra trash bags or a recycling bin.

Make a Great Project Box for Kids Kids love to be where the action is, so create a portable project box that they can fill with art and craft supplies and take to any room in the home. Include items like construction paper, crayons and a notepad that can keep your kids engaged while you tend to things that need to be done around the house. It's also a great solution for keeping kids entertained while traveling. Choose a container with handles for easy portability and use smaller containers inside for organizing different items.		Clear Storage Cases $8.99 - $11.99

White elfa Mesh Craft Organizer $373.35	Keep Your Arts and Crafts Organized Do you love to be crafty but just don't have enough space to do it? Look for storage space in unsuspected places...in a spare closet, under a bed or in the corner of a bedroom. Our elfa Drawers store a lot of supplies in a compact space. The smooth-gliding, epoxy-bonded Drawers hold everything from rubber stamps and ribbons to paints and decorative papers. By identifying a specific area in your home to house all of your craft-related supplies – even if you don't have the luxury of a full room – you'll be able to keep the rest of your home neat and tidy.

Store and Protect Cherished Memories From treasured family photos to irreplaceable children's artwork, families generate a lot of special memories that need to be protected. Dedicate several minutes at a time to go through your photos and organize them by date or occasion. Choose attractive boxes or binders to which you can add pages to store them. Go through your child's artwork with your child and choose the ones that mean the most that you'll keep.		Oversized Portofino 3-Ring Binder $16.99

Platinum & Driftwood elfa Office in a Closet $231.74	Create an Office in a Closet No room for a home office? You may be surprised to learn you can transform a small hall closet or a spare bedroom closet into a functional workspace! Remove the contents of the closet and reassign them to another area of the home or donate or discard them. Take out the existing closet rod and shelf, apply a fresh coat of paint and install a shelving solution, like our best-selling elfa Solid Shelving – that provides a comfortable work surface and storage above for supplies. When not in use, you can hide your space-savvy office by simply closing the closet door.

Magazine Storage Know-How For many of us, between the magazines we subscribe to and the catalogs we order from, periodicals can quickly pile up in our homes! Take a few minutes to set up an organization system for your favorite titles. Commit yourself to storing only the most recent issues (six months is a good guideline) and recycling the rest. If there's a certain story you want to keep beyond the six-month period, tear that page out and file it...there's no need to keep the entire issue.		Semikolon; Magazine File $12.99

Platinum elfa Overdoor Media Rack $129.92	Great Ideas for Media Storage Keep your family's favorite movies and music within easy reach on an entertainment center or bookshelf in the den. Others that are used less regularly can be stored in another area or on a higher shelf. When organizing your DVDs, CDs and VHS tapes, decide which ones you really want to keep, and donate any you don't to create more space. There are a variety of colors and materials of media solutions available that will look fantastic in your home's decor.