ABOUT THIS EPISODE

In this “Get It Done” episode we’ll show you how to organize your closet clutter and maximize your space.

Clearing the clutter in your closet can be a daunting task, but with a manufactured off-the-shelf closet system like ClosetMaid you are able to transform your closet into a more functional space. Home Depot Associate Yvette Williams is on hand to show you how to organize your home’s closets with shelving, baskets and storage bins. It’s a project that the entire family can participate in. See how with the use of Martha Stewart Living and ClosetMaid organizing solutions the Pratt Family was able to create a more functional and better organized closet for their sons Jackson and Christian in this episode of Home Savvy.

FEATURED PRODUCTS USED IN THIS EPISODE:

• ClosetMaid Selectives 16 in. White Custom Closet Organizer  - SKU #220117
• ClosetMaid Selectives 30 in.- 48 in. Adjustable Teardrop Closet Rod - SKU #228430
• ClosetMaid Selectives 48 in. White Laminate Shelf - SKU #225452
• Martha Stewart Living 10-1/2 in. x 11 in. Fabric Drawer - SKU # 282317
• Martha Stewart Living Hemisphere Telescoping Curtain Rod Set - Internet #202195009
• Martha Stewart Living Monk Cloth Thermal Tweed Back Tab Curtain - SKU #776286

CLOSET DESIGN TIPS:

• Measure the back wall and the two return walls of your closet before you begin. We recommend that you measure across the wall at three different heights and take the smallest dimension.
• Reach in style closets need to be at least 22″ deep to accommodate hanging clothes.
• Donate or throw away any clothing items you no longer plan to wear.

• Invest in the right kind of hanger for the type of clothing you’re choosing.  Use plastic hangers for button down shirts and wooden hangers for suit jackets.

• Remove all wire hangers and plastic dry cleaner bags.
• Personalize your closet solution with shelving, baskets and storage bins. Home Depot carries various Martha Stewart Living and ClosetMaid products, to help you create a more functional and better organized closet.

MEET THE CAST:

• Suzanne Rust
• Shenell Leighton
• Yvette Williams

WANT MORE HOME SAVVY? WATCH THESE EPISODES: 

SEASON 2

• Episode 1: How to Install a Bathroom Vanity 
• Episode 2: How to Install a Bathroom Faucet
• Episode 3: How to Save Money on Your Home Energy Bills
• Episode 4: Home Decor Tips
• Episode 5: How To Decorate For The Holidays

SEASON 1

• Episode 1: Creating a Container Garden
• Episode 2: How to Grow Vegetables at Home
• Episode 3: Interior Painting
• Episode 4: Closet Makeover 
• Episode 5: Kitchen Backsplash

Source: victimsheartland.forumotion.com

Some people should not be allowed to have kids.

29-year-old Jacole Prince was arrested and charged with assault in the first degree, child abuse, and endangering the welfare of a child in the first degree after law enforcement found her ten-year-old severely malnourished, covered in her own urine and feces and locked in a closet.

ABC News reports:

The girl weighed just 32 pounds, and hospital records indicated that she has only gained 6 pounds since she was 4 or 5 years old, according to a police probable cause statement. The girl also suffers from “multiple healing skin injuries and failure to thrive,” the statement said.

“She weighed a little over a third of what a 10-year-old should weigh,” Kansas City Police Capt. Steve Young said. “We don’t know how long or how frequently she’s been in there [the closet], but it’s clear she’d spent a significant amount of time in there.”

Kansas City police met Missouri Children’s Division workers outside the apartment building Friday morning after the division received a hotline call about a girl who was locked up and unable to eat or use the restroom.

When a division worker told two women outside the apartment that three children lived in the apartment, the neighbors said they had never seen the third child even though they’d lived there for “several years.”

“We never knew of her the whole three years we’ve been down here,” Kimberly Kelley, another neighbor, told ABC’s affiliate in Kansas City, KMBC-TV. “She told us she only had two kids.”

The girl was found standing in the closet, according to the statement. She told officers “the closet was her room,” and she couldn’t go to breakfast with her mother and sisters because she “messes herself.” She also sleeps there, she said.

At the hospital, the child told detectives she had not been let out of the closet for two days, and she does not eat every day. She said her mother gets mad and “punches her on the back” because she “keeps peeing on herself.”

She is not allowed to play outside like her sisters, and instead has to play behind the couch, the girl said.

Jacole and her boyfriend were both arrested at his house. Jacole says she hid her daughter because she would get in trouble if someone saw how malnourished and dirty her daughter is. As for the other kids? CBS News says that neighbors told the Associated press, the woman’s other daughters were clean, happy and, if anything, “spoiled.”

The boyfriend is the father of Jacole’s other two kids, but not the ten-year-old. He says he had no idea she was locked in the closet.

There are a lot of questions in this story that will probably be answered when this case goes to trial. Such as, where is the father in this story? And if the boyfriend didn’t know the little girl was locked in a closet, where did he think she was? Were there no grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins or friends who inquired about the child?

Thankfully, the police were tipped off after someone called the child abuse hotline. That phone call likely saved this little girl’s life.

I don’t understand these mothers who treat their children this way. If someone has a child they don’t want, can’t they put them up for adoption or even drop the child off at the foster care office without legal repercussions? There has to be a solution beyond nearly starving a child to death and forcing her to live in her own bodily waste. If this little girl’s dad is still alive, maybe they’ll find him and arrest him too.

What do you think about this story?

Alissa Henry is a freelance writer living in Columbus, OH. Follow her on Twitter @AlissaInPink

More on Madame Noire!

• HALF ON A BABY: The Top 7 Ways You’ll Know He’s Ready For Kids
• Race To The Ring: Will These Women Get Their Famous Men To Put A Ring On It?
• Are You an Alpha Female?
• Let’s Talk, Ladies: Are You Afraid Of The “S” Word?
• My Story: For Colored Girls Who’ve Considered Suicide When the Law Couldn’t Protect Them From Incest
• Locs to Love: 7 Celebs With Fabulous Locs
• Noire Naturals, Episode 1: The Natural Twist Out

Source: ew.com

In news that won’t surprise anybody, former American Idol and The Voice contender, Frenchie Davis, announced she is gay.

If you remember, after a controversial dismissal from Season 2 of American Idol, the big girl with a bigger voice found herself back in the spotlight singing “I Kissed a Girl” on the premiere episode of The Voice.

How telling.

After that, she posed for a picture with America’s Next Top Model Eva Marcille at the Atlanta Gay Pride festival that fueled speculation of her (and Eva’s) sexual preferences. Now, Frenchie confirms she is a lesbian.

The Huffington Post reports:

The “American Idol” and “Voice” alum has revealed to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that she’s been dating a woman for the past year, though she offers no other details on the relationship.

“I wasn’t out before the relationship, but I wasn’t in,” she told the publication. “I dated men and women, though lesbians weren’t feeling the bisexual thing. Now I’m in love with a woman I think I can be with forever.”

The singer, who performed in Broadway’s “Rent” and toured with a production of “Dreamgirls,” also professes her love of gay men in the interview. “I love the gays,” she says. “I love the gay boys. They have that awesome, masculine energy, but there’s also something else going on as well.”

Frenchie, who is a staple at gay pride events around the country is performing at Chicago Pride Fest this weekend and she is also working on a new album.

How long until celebrities don’t feel the need to come out of their gay closets? Especially when the doors on that closet were wide open anyway?

Alissa Henry is a freelance writer living in Columbus, OH. Follow her on Twitter @AlissaInPink

More on Madame Noire!

• True Life: I REFUSE to Do That in the Bedroom
• He Wrote That? Part II: More Surprising Songwriters Behind Some of Your Favorite Jams
• Strength, Great Skin and 5 Other Black Girl Privileges
• Looking For Trouble: The Day I Hurt Myself By Snooping on My Man…
• My Story: For Colored Girls Who’ve Considered Suicide When the Law Couldn’t Protect Them From Incest
• Ask a Very Smart Brotha Live: What’s With All the Diva Dudes?
• Noire Naturals, Episode 1: The Natural Twist Out

If you haven’t been shopping in a few months, then you probably didn’t get the memo or notice that peplum dresses are the hottest trend out there right now. Classy and cute, these pieces can be great looks for work, for fun, and even special occasions. It just matters how long your skirt is and how flirtatious and fun your peplum detail is as well. We’ve compiled a few printed, pastel colored and creative dresses adorned with a peplum waist for your viewing pleasure. And even if you don’t buy from these exact retailers, I’m sure they’ll cause you to be on the lookout during your next shopping excursion. Enjoy!

Source: ASOS

The “Oh My Love” Jersey Peplum Dress: ASOS – $60.88

Got a party to attend? Looking to turn heads? Well baby, you’ll be killing two birds with one stone in this mint-colored dress from the good folks at ASOS. With mesh detailing at the top that helps you play a little game of peek-a-boo, and cut-outs on the side that show off your waist, you’ll be giving a bit of fun and flirty to all those staring. Can’t forget to shout out the full flared peplum frill around the waist. This color is to die for by the way…

Source: blog.convertible-heels.com

I’ve heard it said that diamonds are a girl’s best friend. While I can’t knock the allure of cut clarity, color and carats, I can and WILL say that my heart sides with a deeper Marilyn Monroe quote: “Give a girl the right pair of shoes, and she can conquer the world!” There are two things that a woman can never possibly have too many of…really great girlfriends and shoes, of course. In my book, shoes are just like friends; they support you or take you down. I promise that every “friend” you have can be described in terms of shoes, and with that, ladies, I submit that every now and again it’s simply good business to do friend-ventory: To open your (proverbial) closet and check out your shoe game.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!” sings Andy Williams in the back of my head every August when the fall fashion mags start to come in the mail and bring with them good deals.  Around this time the mail carrier bears a bit of a heavier burden since all of my September issues of Glamour, InStyle and the like are stuffed with all of the latest fall fashions and I start making a list (and checking it twice) of leather knee boots, high-waisted skirts and pea coats that I need to buy.  In fact I am currently infatuated with a French Connection two-toned trench featured in Glamour’s September issue, the one with red-hot Rihanna gracing the cover.

This past weekend after unburying myself from the stiletto avalanche that I fell victim to after opening my closet, I decided I absolutely needed to clean out my closet to make room for new purchases.  As my mother would say, “You have to get rid of the old to make room for the new.”  Would I be subscribing to this philosophy if I had a huge Mariah Carey-style walk in closet?  I don’t think so.  But that doesn’t mean I didn’t find items that had been living in my closet rent-free for years that I know I absolutely would never wear again.

Are you confused about what to keep and what to toss from your closet? To avoid being featured on a future episode of Hoarders check out these rules that I live by to make the most of the little space I have:

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