The Budget Casa

Spring is in full swing its time for you to clear your clutter and clean your closet. Our friends over at Threadbangers.com have a video that show you how to clean and organize your closet in a crafty and budget-friendly way.

Here are some of our favorite closet-organizing tips.
1. Over the door shoe holder. We got ours from Lowes for $6.88. It was the best price in town. It gets our shoes off the ground and declutters the space. We love it.
2. We also love the sweater shelves from Lowes, again $6.88. We like to stack sweaters there in the winter and t-shirts in the summer.
3. Stash away out of season items. Every season go through your drawers and your closet and fold up your out of season items and put them in a large plastic tote or plastic bag and stash them away under the bed or in the attic until it’s time to pull them back out again. I use this time to go through and decide what to keep and what to give to Goodwill.
4. Hang purses, belts and scarves on hooks and within eyesight. Or else you might forget about them and then how will you accessorize?
5. Everyone says to hang your clothes by color in your closet. We have never been able to make this work for us, but maybe it will work for you. Let us know.

More ways to organize your space:

Organize your kitchen

Three ways to organize in five minutes

Do you have your own organizing tips? Let us know in the comments or the forums. Also, if you have a organizing dilemma, tell us about it in the forums, we’ll help you find the answer.

Celebrate your mommy this weekend by treating her to her just deserts—Angel food cake and fabulous presents! Here is a great desert recipe and some gift ideas to show your mom how much you care this Mother’s Day.

Angel Lush Cake
This Angel food cake recipe is from Kraft and is simple, delicious and easy to make. Not only is it perfect for Mother’s Day, but it’s one of our fabulous-in-a-pinch cake recipes. This recipe is taken directly from the Kraft web site. If you don’t have pineapples or JELL-O, simply layer the cake with strawberry flavored Cool Whip and top with srawberries. We promise. You won’t be disappointed.

Ingredients
1 can (20 oz.) crushed pineapple in juice, undrained
1 pkg. (4-serving size) JELL-O Vanilla Flavor Fat Free Sugar Free Instant Reduced Calorie Pudding & Pie Filling
1 cup thawed COOL WHIP LITE or COOL WHIP Sugar Free Whipped Topping
1 pkg. (10 oz.) round angel food cake
10 fresh strawberries
Directions
MIX pineapple and dry pudding mix in medium bowl. Gently stir in whipped topping.
CUT cake horizontally into three layers. Place bottom cake layer, cut-side up, on serving plate; top with one-third of the pudding mixture. Repeat layers two times.
REFRIGERATE at least 1 hour. Top with berries just before serving. Store leftovers in refrigerator.



Decorate for mom
Make this day extra special by decorating the table for mom. These fabulous bud vases from CB2 can be filled with single flowers and spread around the table for a dramatic look. The bud vases are $1.95 each and you can buy a discount flower bouquet for under $10 from Wal-Mart or Sam’s Club and take it apart and fill the bud vases with the flowers. It’s a great look for a small budget.

Then, at the end of desert, surprise your mom by giving her the bud vases and the flowers that go with them.

Gift ideas


Moms deserve presents and presents they can use. Give your mom some resusable eco-friendly grocery bags. Loft party is selling a set of 5 for $35.


Give your mom a chance to brag about her kids, her grandkids, her grand-dog, or whatever it is she is most proud of. Get her one of these adorable brag bags from the Brag Ladies and insert your mom’s favorite photo in the slot. They have bags to fit any budget, starting from $19.95 to $34.95 (pictured above).

What is your favorite way to fete your mom on mother's day? Let us know in the forums.

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A good...

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