Smart cookies know that getting organized doesn't have to break the bank. That's why we were delighted to see this article from BHG.com:

Dollar Store Closets

You'll find tips to use Dollar Store finds to organize closets for kids and for adults. Colorful, fun and cheap!

Here at Organized Home, we love the concept of the family launch pad: a dedicated space for each family member to hold and organize everything needed to leave the house for work, school or errands.

Blogger The Abundant Life has a new and pretty take on the concept: family mailboxes. Simple wall-mounted containers for each family member are given a decor-worthy twist with personalized photos--and are a great way to keep paperwork and reminders organized and ready for use.

We like the teamwork-friendly aspects; cleaning chore lists and phone messages find a home, while coloring pages and occasional treats make checking the mailbox fun!

Get Organized With Family Mailboxes

Now that everybody and their dog (literally, in the case of Petsmart) is issuing club-card tracking devices for frequent shoppers, wallets are in for a serious case of overload.

Choices at the checkstand aren't that great. Either you fumble through a stack of club cards to find the right one, or use keytabs and hand over your keyring for manhandling by germy-handed strangers.

Enter the bar-code card hack from Instructables. Scanning all club-card bar codes into Photoshop, you create and laminate a single source for club-card bar codes. Kill the keytabs and cut wallet clutter:

Club Card Barcode Hack

Don't want to go the DIY route? Here's a free online service that will create a single printable barcode card from eight of your current club cards:

Just One Club Card

Online to-do lists come and go, and too often, they're pale versions of standard corporate task management programs. Not Zirr.us--a free Web-based service now in beta!

This intuitive online task tracker shows pending to-dos in checklist or tag cloud view. Left-brainers will love the color-coding and visual impact; right-brainers will like the simplicity and ease of list management:

Zirr.us Task Manager

Has the family drawn battle lines over housework in your home? Chill the chore wars in your home with Chore Buster, a free online service to organize household chores.

The premise is simple: enter people and enter chores in the easy online interface. Rate each chore for difficulty and desirability, and note how often it needs to be performed.

Chore Buster will generate fair, balanced chore lists for every member of the home, and e-mail them to you daily or weekly.

Take the hassle out of the chore checklist ... and did we mention that it's free?

Chore Buster

They're handy kitchen helpers, but can do so much more to organize life at home: zipper food storage bags!

Check in with blogger The Optimized Life for a list of 25 unusual uses for food storage bags. We liked this one:

"Turn a Ziploc bag into a pastry bag by snipping off a tiny corner. This allows you to frost a cake without any special tools.

Along the same lines, we'd add using a food storage bag to fill devilled eggs. Spoon the filling into the bag, snip a slightly larger corner, and heap the filling high! When finished, toss the bag for easy clean-up.

25 Uses For Ziploc Bags

RealSimple.com weighs in with ten more unusual uses for zipper food storage bags:

10 New Uses for Ziploc Bags