May 2025 Graduation Gift Ideas

Celebrating the accomplishment and milestone of graduation is a big deal. While some grads prefer cash, there are a handful of thoughtful gifts we’ve come up with. Take into consideration the goals and personality of the grad you are celebrating!

Graduation is a time of transition for the individual graduating as well as their family. We love serving clients in a season of transition - as your life season changes, so should your home so it can continue to allow you to live well in the space you have.

Gift Ideas

L.L. Bean Tote Bag - these bags are perfect for day to day use; classic, durable, and customizable.

Custom Stationary or Notebook - we found these beautiful designs at Papier.

Plush personalized bath towels - start them out with a fresh set.

Weekender Bag or Cosmetic Case - we love the unique options Village Exchange has in store.

Words of Encouragement - these Truth for Today cards by Emily Lex are perfect.

Endless Audiobooks - a membership to Audible is always a win.

Framed City Maps - to decorate a dorm or apartment and remind them of the place they call home.

Your favorite novel - Theo of Golden is a favorite on our team currently.

Houseplant - locals check out Oglewood Ave for a plant baby to gift.

Help You Dwell Gift Card - bring simplicity and organization through the gift of our services (packing, unpacking, decluttering, organizing). We can help prepare a dorm room, apartment, or shared living space for college students as well!

Plan a trip - make memories together and experience a new place to celebrate this milestone.

How are you celebrating the grads in your life?

Hosting a graduation party - we’ve got you covered with tips & tricks!

& Don’t forget

Our Mother’s Day Special 25% off gift cards is available now thru Sunday, May 11!

CODE: MOTHERSDAY25

Click HERE to Buy Gift Card!

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Tips for Hosting: Bridal showers, graduation parties, baby showers, and more!

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Tips for Hosting: Bridal showers, graduation parties, baby showers, and more!

You do not have to redecorate, deep clean, or renovate your home in order to host a lovely gathering in an organized way. We get it - the pressure to want to host well and to present your home at it’s best! The reality is, our homes are where we LIVE and that doesn’t always appear as tidy or organized as we hope.

Garden Shed Organizing Tips

Local flower gardener, Truett Gardens flower shed.

Spring is here and we’re sharing some tips to help you declutter, organize, and restock your garden shed. Sometimes it's hard to find the motivation to get a jump start on your yard and garden plots but having an inspiring potting shed definitely makes it easier. If you don't have a shed, think about possibly creating a gardening/lawn maintenance corner in your garage. Before you get all excited about the idea of becoming a master gardener and needing all the supplies, we’d challenge you to assess what you do have and clear the excess before making any purchases. Discard any old or dried out gardening supplies and get rid of excess pots, tools, etc.

Pick a sunny & pleasant day, and get to work!

Here are some of our tips for organizing your garden shed:

1. essential tools & care

There is nothing worse than rusted, dull gardening tools. To keep tools sharp and shiny, try storing them in a sand filled bucket or clay pot and mix in a little bit of oil. Your tools will be well kept and easy to grab on the go. Get rid of the tools you no longer use. Having your tools handy and neat will increase your likelihood of utilizing them!

Other essentials: comfortable kneeling pad is a must and a sturdy tool tote is useful to carry around the yard as well.  

Image by Creative Organizing

2. Be resourceful

Think outside of the box and repurpose items you already have. Use a chick feed as a shelf, use an old shutter as a shelf, mount old rusted tools to the wall to hang things from. Once you start thinking creatively you'll find you have all kinds of things you could probably put to good use.

Pegboards offer a ton of options for wall storage of tools and other gardening items.

Image from bhg.com

3. display seeds

To help keep track of when to plant what, try displaying your seeds by month. We love this idea of using ribbons and clothes pins. Seed packets are so pretty it's like displaying informal art. If you don’t have seed packets, just hang a classic clipboard with a nail and keep your list of planted vegetables, plants, and flowers handy!

Keep an active list on your phone with details for all that you are growing, include notes like watering schedule and fertilizer needs and harvest estimation dates.

Image from bhg.com

Image and tutorial from Turtles and Tails

4. optimize space

If you have limited space and you're sharing real estate in a garage, use this handy pull down table to create space for potting plants when you need it.

Or if you’re looking to invest in a stand alone garden work bench - this is a great and affordable one.

Image and tutorial from Turtles and Tails

5. enlist help

You don’t have to do it alone, unless of course you want to! This is a great project to include a friend, family member, or neighbor who doesn’t mind getting a bit dirty. Clear the dust and dirt from prior planting seasons and tackle it. Ask for tips and ideas to set your garden shed area up for success. Our team loves to help bring new life to these often overlooked and dusty spaces. This is a great project to include kiddos too.

Our team of organizers has worked in many sheds over the years and we’d be happy to help bring order to yours.

Reach out today to get on our schedule!

Looking for more?

Here are some basics to get you started.

We hope these ideas give you reason to get outside, get a little dirt under your nails, and enjoy the season. If you need guidance regarding what to plant in your yard and other gardening how-to, check out a local nursery: Stanley’s, Thress, Pope’s, or Mayo Garden Center.

If you’re not interested in tending to a garden yourself, our area has plenty of beautiful community gardens to enjoy. Some of our local favorites are: Knoxville Botanical Gardens and UT Gardens. Don’t miss all the Dogwood Arts trails and gardens you can explore during the month of April.

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Spring Organizing + Knoxville Habitat ReStore

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Spring Organizing + Knoxville Habitat ReStore

Open a window and let the breeze in as you let organize your home this Spring. Keep reading to see the 4 steps to get you started! We're also excited to tell you more about a local nonprofit organization (Knoxville Habitat for Humanity ReStore) your donations can help impact. 

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Let's Celebrate Galentine's Day

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A special blog post just to cheer on some incredible women running businesses here in Knoxville. We are honored to be among so many women owned businesses and to work alongside our own team of over 26 unique and talented women. We love the services and products these companies offer.

So here’s to women doing great work!

A few ways to celebrate friendship with your gal pals:

  • Host a clothing (and accessories & shoes) swap

  • Schedule a girls night out at Zero Zero, Knoxville’s natural wine bar

  • Invite a few friends to participate in a pajama “secret santa” party where everyone brings a pair of jammies & goes home with a new pair too

  • Challenge each other to let go of a few household decor items, send photos in a group text & “shop” each other’s goodies

  • Bring a bottle of wine or unique cheese to a happy hour tasting event with your neighbors

  • Take a friend second hand shopping at Statemint West Knoxville’s sale (Feb. 13-16)

Happy Galentine’s Day to you!

5 Tips For Falling in Love with Your Home Again

 1.  Make a list of spaces in your home that need order.  Pay attention to how the space is currently used and what you'd like it to be used for.  Having vision and purpose for the space is key to getting motivated to start & finish. Try thinking about the things you wish you had space for in your home. When you start thinking outside of the box you may realize that you can re-purpose a closet into a crafting nook or a home office.

2.  Don't do it alone.  Call a friend, a family member or Help You Dwell to be a second set of eyes allowing you to envision creative ways to organize and re-purpose your space that you might not ordinarily think about.  Organizing with others helps you not get bogged down in the details and helps to make the decisions on whether to keep or share items with others.

3.  Make attainable goals, staying focused on one project at a time.  Set aside small, specific increments of time to accomplish your goals.  Setting aside an hour of focused, intentional time can be much more productive and less overwhelming than a whole day or weekend of work.

4.  Get supplies ready; trash bag, donation bag/box, "put away" bin (laundry baskets work great for this) and any storage containers you may need.  We recommend organizing before buying bins so you know how many containers you will need. If you prefer to buy storage bins before hand, make sure to keep receipts so you can return items you don't need.

5.  Get started. Half of the battle is taking the first step. Turn on some music, grab a bottle of water and stay the course so you can enjoy your space the way you've always wanted.

Shop With Us

Looking for the right products for your space? We can help find exactly what you need.

Shop our Amazon Storefront.

Don’t see what you need?
Reach out and we can help source a solution for you.

Valentine's Day Gift Guide

A few of our favorite Valentine’s Day gift ideas

A Hand Written Note. It doesn’t get much better than this. There’s something so thoughtful and intentional about some well meaning words in your own hand writing that goes further than a text or email or store bought card ever could. If you are short on words, just a quick little “XOXO” on a sticky note will work!

Something Sweet. You already know our favorite spot to grab local chocalate-y goodness, none other than Bradley’s. More of a pastry person? Hop into Wildlove Bakehouse for the croissant of your dreams. If your’e on a tight budget - store bought cookies are a simple sweet treat too!

Quality Time. This can be with your spouse, partner, or gal pals. Spend your Valentine’s Day evening participating in a hands on couples wood-working class at Able Trade. A few ideas: play a new card game, work on a puzzle while listening to your favorite music, get together to read quietly, go on a walk, make an over the top cheese board.

A Bouquet of Blooms or a House Plant. Instead of the stereotypical dozen roses, opt for something a little more creative and unique from a local florist. We love: Flourish Flowers, Sassafras Floral Design, and Melissa Trimble Floral. Peruse the variety of house plants available at Jacks of Knoxville and Oglewood Avenue.

Help You Dwell Gift Card. A Custom Consult or 2 hours of services would be a great way to show some love this Valentine’s Day. Give your spouse, sister, neighbor, or parents the gift of our services (organizing, packing, or unpacking). We can make progress in any area of your home. Let us help you get started with the organizing projects on your list.

Custom Consultation Gift Card Custom Consultation Gift Card Custom Consultation Gift Card Custom Consultation Gift Card Custom Consultation Gift Card
Custom Consultation Gift Card
$125.00
Help You Dwell Gift Card Help You Dwell Gift Card Help You Dwell Gift Card Help You Dwell Gift Card Help You Dwell Gift Card
Help You Dwell Gift Card
from $210.00

Which gift are you giving or wishing for?

Organizing Your Phone Photos + Videos

If you’re anything like me, you have a phone FULL of photos and videos. First off- this is a wonderful thing that we have such an easily accessible tool to capture real life moments with pretty high quality thanks to ever improving phone camera capabilities. While there are some priceless treasures in there, there are also admittedly lots of duplicates, accidental screenshots, and maybe ten thousand photos of a finger or carpet taken by my toddler. In order to fully enjoy your favorite photos, we’ve got to clear the clutter and create some order in our digital photos. This is also a really lovely way to reflect on a year, month, or week past as you go through images and videos to reminisce and streamline what you keep. Pro tip: attempt doing this in brief segments of time so you don’t get too sucked into your device. Set a timer for 10-15 min and see how much progress you make!

Remember that photos and videos you delete will still exist in your Recently Deleted album for 30 days so go for it!

Let’s clear the clutter…

Month by Month

Pace yourself by going one month at a time. Start with a quick overview of all the photos and videos from that month and delete the obvious uh-oh photos you didn’t mean to take, and then begin to cull the rest by making decisions regarding photos that look super similar. You don’t need them all, you are much more likely to use and enjoy just ONE that you saved out of a bunch. In this quick sweep, look for the ones your eye is most drawn to, the one your heart swells at, and the elusive photos with everyone’s eyes open.

Create Specific to You Albums

If you are someone who is always scrolling through your library to find something specific, consider creating a custom album in your phone to keep things you’re often referencing. This is great for things like: a specific recipe, something you snapped a photo of to trigger yourself to remember to follow up, or an exercise schedule. Creating an album puts selected items in a custom-to-you spot in your phone. One album we highly recommend creating and using is a “To Print” folder where you move your most favorite images that you’d like to incorporate into your home (more on that below).

Person Specific

If there are a few folks in your life whose faces appear continually in your Photos, you can now (in iPhone Photos or Google Photos) sort photos by a specific person. This can help eliminate unnecessary duplicates and allow you to choose the best out of a multitude. Be sure to “heart” or “favorite” your photos as you sort and delete.

Low Lying Fruit

The Utilities section of iPhone Photos is a great place to start- it auto populates folders of duplicates and screenshots. There are also folders of various types of files like videos, selfies, live photos, and portraits. These are groupings that allow you to approach sections of your library without having to go one by one through the whole library.

What Next?

Managing Storage

If your device is full - there are options! You could subscribe to additional iCloud storage or pay a small fee to other storage solutions like Google Photos - This is a great option to streamline your digital world if you have a gmail account. It allows all of your photos and videos to be stored in the cloud with unlimited storage (up to 16 mp an 1080p HD). When connected to wifi, all you have to do is open the app to begin syncing up all of your recent photos to the cloud. Then, you are able to delete all photos off of your device to free up internal storage, yet you still have access via the Google Photos app. Another great feature is the ability to categorize photos into albums that you can share with others. One fun feature is the ability to search for what photo you are looking for by keyword. Learn more about how to use Google Photos here. 

Sharing

Inviting friends or family members to a shared album can be a great way to share special moments. Give grandparents and close friends access to the photo album you created from your children’s birthday gatherings so everyone can share what they captured on their phones. Folks can even give a thumbs up or leave a comment on a photo or video. Here are some helpful tips for navigating shared albums on Apple devices.

Using Your Photos

Websites like Shutterfly and mPix often offer discounts for printed photo products. Artifact Uprising features high quality clean line designs for your photos. Coffee table photo books, paperback monthly photo books, calendars, and magnets are just a few of the ways to incorporate your images into your home decor. Another way to enjoy your photos at home is by incorporating a Digital Photo Frame (the Skylight or Aura are great options) or a smart home digital display like the Amazon Echo or Google Hub. These devices can display your favorite moments (and are easily updated from your phone).

PS - Are your little ones interested in taking their own photos and videos? A gift we love for kiddos is a kid friendly digital camera. It’s so fun to see the little glimpses and moments they capture with their own camera. Be prepared - you may have to incorporate a habit of clearing the countless blurry or blank images.

Looking for more inspiration?

Best way to Organize your Fridge

Are you tired of random leftovers and holiday meals taking over your kitchen and refrigerator? It’s the perfect time to give our fridge & freezers some attention.

A fresh year, a fresh start.

Whether you are hoping to save some time or money, putting some energy into your fridge will reap benefits to your everyday. Are you tired of wasting food or accidentally spending too much on groceries? Take these practical tips into account and you will be on your way.

FIRST THINGS FIRST

Before you even open the doors, let’s handle the exterior. Take everything off - including magnets, lists, kids artwork, invitations, photos, coupons, and more. Give it a good wipe down once it’s clear.
All the items you removed should fall into one of 3 categories:

  • Discard what is no longer necessary (things like expired promotions and past event invitations)

  • Save and store items that are sentimental (things like photos and children’s artwork)

  • Place the pieces that either bring functionality (current sports schedule) or joy (recent family photo or art) back onto your fridge or freezer doors.

Now onto the inside - you’ve got this!

SYSTEM

It may feel overwhelming to do a one time fridge/freezer overhaul… so what if we implement a couple recurring habits to keep our appliances in neat order.

One way to save space and money is to do a quick inventory check of your fridge, freezer, (and pantry or cupboards) before doing a grocery run. While you’re in there, check dates and freshness of perishable items. For dressings and condiments, group the oldest ones together and pull them to the front so they are more likely to be used soon. Make a list of items that are running low or need to be replaced asap.

Secondly, schedule a reminder or task for yourself to do a quick leftover assessment the day before your trash is collected. We recommend dating your leftovers (this can be as simple as a sticky note, masking tape, or writing with whiteboard marker on Tupperware) so that there is no confusion about what food is fresh. Toss any food that is no longer good.

These two small actions will help ensure your fridge and freezer are not overlooked or overflowing with extra or outdated items, which will make meal prep and cooking much smoother. You’ll thank yourself later!

ZONES + CONTAINERS

Based on the needs of your home, create areas for the items you always have on hand (ie. school lunch items, baby food, fresh fruit, grab & go yogurts, etc.). We recommend using clear containers to corral similar items. This allows you to remove and discard the cardboard or plastic wrapping on food items so you can easily see how many you have left. Bonus points for using containers and bins that are dishwasher safe in case of a mess. This will also save you time & trouble in the event of a spill. The open top file box item below is actually a perfect fit for many freezer drawers (hack from The Home Edit gals).

PLACEMENT OF SPECIFIC ITEMS

As far as food safety goes, there is a way to best utilize the different shelves in your fridge. Food that does not require cooking should be on the higher shelves, while items that do need to be cooked are placed in the lowest areas to avoid cross contamination.

Placing a small open box of baking soda really does add freshness and reduce odors.

Example: cream cheese, fruit, and leftovers up top while raw meats should be placed in the lowest drawer.

Need a hand in organizing your fridge?

 
 

We would love to help. Our team of organizers bring a fresh perspective and resourceful ideas to create order in your unique space. Take this first step and you’ll be on your way to enjoying cooking, eating healthier meals, and saving money on groceries.