While visiting the U.K. a few weeks ago, I was struck by two things: the sheer amount of people on every street corner—something like 12 million in London alone—and the number of cyclists. While hardly reaching Dutch levels, Londoners are increasingly mounting bikes in effort to curb traveling time and costs, reduce carbon emissions and, of course, work off the seemingly endless pints and fish and chips.

But here’s the rub: if you live in a big city, chances are you’re working with limited storage space, so simply locking up your bike in a shed isn’t an option, and leaving it locked to a fence makes it vulnerable to rust and theft. So what are the options for indoor storage—options that don’t clash too much with the décor? After all, city living is meant to be a mix of style and substance.

Luckily, there are more options these days than the simple-but-ugly large S-hook mounted into the ceiling. The Art of Storage is one of many retailers now selling innovative storage units, including designs specifically made for interiors, both freestanding and attached to a wall.

Longtime cycling retailer Delta also offers cool storage solutions, including this one with a built-in shelf for bike accessories.

Those with a DIY sensibility can build their own system, made as pretty or utilitarian as you wish. The beauty of these systems is that they don’t have to be confined to bike usage — tuck away seasonal clothes, perhaps some luggage, or make your own book storage system.

It’s official: I’ve entered my Carlsberg years. it seems like only yesterday conversations with friends revolved around derelict landlords, overdue philosophy papers and who did what at weekend house parties. But these, as it turns out, were minor stresses compared to thirty-something worries over marriage, new homes and—the crux of the matter—home renovations.

Renovating a home is a rite of passage most of us go through, the lucky ones at least, and yet few things in life create such high stress as figuring out what projects to set in motion, how to pay for it, and whether or not to hire a contractor. It can be overwhelming to say the least, especially since most of us have never encountered anything of this sort before, which often results in nothing getting done. Sad but true, this is the new wing-night chat.

Not surprisingly, the web is full of blogs created by newlyweds with renovation on the brain, whether they’re greening their lives or trying to turn an old home new, complete with his and her shopping trips. But for every keen couple there’s a flipside—those who barely made it and those that broke down, thanks, no doubt, to the fantasy world of home renos depicted on TV.

Rather than planting a few platitudes on how to manage stress (count to 10, breathe deeply…as if this ever works), let me leave you with one tidbit of real reno advice: plan ahead. Like everything else in life, remodelling is all about deciding on a plan of attack and executing it.

Project derailment (and that other D-word) is avoidable with preparation, so before saying “I do” to that bathroom fix-up, make sure you’re both in tune.

In a follow-up to Jay’s previous post, I was incredibly excited to hear the announcement today that Sony Canada is trying to divert 100% of its products from landfills by offering customers various options for disposal. According to their press release, you can do it one of three ways: drop your “end of life” (a fantastic term that calls to mind a yellow ’80s-style Walkman grinding out the final notes of a Hall & Oates cassette) products at a pre-approved recycling centre; bring them to a Sony Style store; or mail them in to the company.

Probably the best part about this is that the offer extends to any Sony product, so that old-school TV that you’ve kept for years in the hopes that it’ll be of use again someday can finally stop taking up space in the basement. Now it’s just a question of where to recycle all of those cassettes …

Every spring my street puts on a block-long yard sale. It’s a day-long event and often the entire neighbourhood can be found sitting outside in raincoats, shivering as we sell $2 books and household junk. I’ve found some great stuff walking through the driveways—computer speakers, a ratchet set—and yet, for every useful item, there are dozens of broken, seemingly useless objects being sold. Who wants a computer hinged with a “Doesn’t Work—$10” sign? Believe me, I’ve seen this.

Now I say “seemingly useless” because while these broken items might not sell to Joe Consumer, they are sometimes useful to non-profit organizations and other community-minded groups. So rather than simply throwing out old stuff, or wasting away an entire day for a $40 profit at your garage sale, consider donating your stuff. Now that it’s all organized, this should be easy enough to arrange. Here are a few options.

Building Materials

Depending on where you live, there are likely dozens of resell stores and drop-off centres for used—but still useful—building materials such as windows, doors, paint, tools, you name it. Habitat For Humanity, for example, sells donated materials through their ReStores and uses the proceeds to fund Habitat projects, while at the same time reducing the amount of waste sent to the landfills. If you’re looking for a ReStore near you, you can find options in Canada, as well as the U.S.

Computers and electronics

There’s nothing worse than seeing an old computer monitor sitting on the curb getting soaked by the rain. As PCs have dropped in price, many of us are upgrading our clunky desktops with tiny laptops. In fact, some municipalities have made it illegal to throw away computer parts without paying for a disposal fee. So while you won’t get much for a massive monitor, you can still donate it to a school, shelter or retailer that will fix it up and sell the “renovated” machine at a discount, often donating part of the funds to charity.

Computers With Causes takes your computer and gives you a tax receipt, just like you’d get with any registered charity. Computer Hope offers a similar service, as does ReBoot Canada.

Furniture and Household items

Almost every community has a Goodwill or Salvation Army drop-off centre for used couches, chairs, carpeting, dishes and toys—things that wouldn’t necessarily sell in your neighbourhood yard sale but would be useful to less-fortunate or simply frugal people (hello, students). We’ve got the links at the top, but you know your own Sally Ann.

For a more comprehensive list of donation spots near you, for every purpose, visit CharityVillage (Canada) and the Household Goods Donation Program in the U.S.

Last week I talked about portable tool organizers, a topic that’s dear to my heart now that I’ve begun my springtime cleanup. Having a mess of screws, glues, tape and tools tangled together inside my front-hall closet was causing me to curse. Now that I’ve got that under control, it’s time to tackle the rest of the house.

If you’ve ever worked in a professional kitchen, or even watched shows on The Food Network, you know the French term “mise en place,” which means, loosely, “put in place” or “prepared and ready to use.” The term is equally applicable to every room in the house, but especially shared areas. Is there anything more annoying than looking for something—scissors, bike tire pump, the remote—and discovering it’s nowhere to be found?

Luckily, the web is full of home organizing tips, although like exercise and dieting sites, most offer “the easy way” rather than giving effective, realistic tips. There are some gems though:

Organized Home is like an online magazine dedicated exclusively to getting your home in order. While it may drift into women’s magazine clichés (“Many hands make light work! Reward the team with dinner at a pizza parlor!”), it does contain some great ideas for cutting clutter and getting kids motivated to help clean.

Organization can become a personal religion for some—that’s why some of us dust and vacuum when we’re feeling anxious—and it follows that those who are passionate about keeping clean become tidying evangelists. Blogger Tracy runs a site dedicated to her passion: tips and techniques for an efficient, well-organized house. Tips to Organize Life includes room-by-room plans for keeping clutter at bay, and runs the gamut from a step-by-step checklist for the bathroom to creating a schedule for your home office.

OnlineOrganizing.com has a very cool tool in its clickable house; click on a room and up pops a list of organization tips and ideas. The site also features a clickable office, 15-minute quick fixes and checklists used by professional organizers.

Most often, the obstacle to getting organized is knowing when to let go of useless clutter and collections and how to keep regular, everyday items in their mise en place. General rule: if it’s something you use regularly, keep it in an easily accessible spot; if it’s something you use infrequently, put it away and take note of where it’s hidden so the next time you need that tire pump ASAP, you won’t need to tear apart the garage to find it. Now if I could only find where I put that note …

What is it about springtime that makes us want to clear out the clutter? Walk down any residential street in the spring and you’ll encounter garage sales—or better yet, a pile of free stuff—offering you more junk to replace the items you just got rid of. Still, the trick to spring organizing isn’t just what you remove from your home, but how you organize what you keep.

A few weeks ago, I faced this problem after cleaning out my front hallway shelving, where I keep a small assortment of everyday tools and fasteners, items I want at-the-ready for quick fixes, like small screws and nails, a multi-head screwdriver, duct tape, and so on. Rather than jimmy an awkward storage system, I’ve been considering getting a small storage container for these items.

Virtually every hardware store offers its version of “the ultimate” portable tool storage solution. Of course, “ultimate” depends on your needs and space, but the three storage solutions below should work for most lifestyles for everyday tools and fasteners.

Order a Bucket

Milwaukee’s Bucket Organizer: finally, a sensible solution to lugging tools around the house in one easy-to-carry tote. Milwaukee gets it right with its heavy-duty, 55-pocket bucket organizer made from water-resistant polyester. The various-sized pockets can house everything from a flashlight to screws and fasteners; inside the bucket is a holster for a cordless drill; and there’s a dedicated square sleeve. At $15, it’s cheaper than the Colonel’s bucket.

Fast Fasteners

Keeping screws, nails and other fasteners in jars or large, wall-mounted storage containers is fine for the home workshop, but not in spots where space is limited, like the garage. Enter Stanley Hardware’s portable, 684-piece kit (pictured below, not yet online) filled with everyday fasteners—nails, thumbtacks, pushpins, anchors, screws, picture hooks—all neatly sorted into 14 separate compartments. Made of plastic, this lightweight tray can hang on the wall or sit on a shelf. Retailing for $13 and available at Wal-Mart, other versions are sold North American-wide at other retailers.

Box it up

Toolboxes are a dime a dozen; unfortunately, most of them aren’t worth the 10 cents. For basic storage of everyday items, keep it simple and don’t overload yourself with a hefty, hard-to-carry tool box filled to the brim with tools you don’t need. Stack-On has the right idea with their 26-inch box with two removable storage boxes. Rugged, built-to-last, and inexpensive—what more could you ask for? Retail: $20.

Stayed tuned for Get Organized, Part 2: keeping your stuff in its place.