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Monday Mantra for Women: “I will differentiate between my needs & my wants. I will make sure my needs are met before I fulfill my wants.”
Tags: Balance Family, Work, Self, DIY organization, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, Monday Mantra for Women
My home on some not-so-good days-life happens doesn’t it ladies?
Not disorganized, just busy-messy!!
Tags: April Fool's Day, DIY organization, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, organizing
Usually kid’s clothes hold up longer than our kids actually fit into them. Wouldn’t it be nice to get some money back from those clothes as easy as 1-2-3? How does this sound: Order a bag, stuff it full of kid’s clothes, mail it for free, make money! Yippeee! OK, that was actually as easy as 1-2-3-4.
Thanks to an awesome site called DIGITWIRL, I recently learned about another great site called: thredup which allows you to do just this, stuff a bag and get money for kid’s clothes! Here’s what the site says:
When your child has a growth spurt, we can help turn your pile of outgrown clutter into cash! We send you the bag, you fill it up and send it back.
“Turn clutter into cash,” I love it! Be sure to check out the site when you are ready to let outgrown children’s clothes go. And if you are in the middle of purging and clearing, here as some tips to help you organize kids’ rooms!
Tags: digitwirl, DIY organization, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, kid's clothing, Make Money on Kid's Old Clothes!, threadup, tips to help you organize kids' rooms
Thank you, thank you to InGoodMeasure.net for the mention today as on of their 7 recommended organizing blogs!
Tags: DIY organization, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, InGoodMeasure.net
By now, you probably know that making meals is not a task that I really enjoy, nope, not so much. The way I look at it, at least when you dust you don’t have to dust again for a while. But when it comes to cooking, the task keeps coming back all day just like an episode of “Groundhog Day.” But cook we must!
You can mix a little bit of planning with a dash of effort and you should be able to plan meals quickly! Here are 8 meal planning tips to help you lay the groundwork so you can get dinner on the table quickly!
Meal Planning Tip #1: Make a “Master Favorites List.” No, not your hubby’s favorites (ha ha), a master list of tried & true recipes that you know your family loves. Don’t reinvent the wheel every week, brainstorm your list and work off of that in the future. This may mean a serious sit down session with your cookbooks & magazines.
Meal Planning Tip #2: Make a meal plan. Decide how far out you want to make your plans for which meals you will be making. Some people want to plan for the whole month, while some moms want to go a week at a time. It’s all good! This is where you will pull from your master list and decide what you will be cooking.
***Mega Tip: Save these lists and re-use them to save even more time!
Meal Planning Tip #3: Peek at your calendar. When you make your meal plan, look ahead to activities such as dinner out on the town when you won’t have to cook. This means one less meal to plan and buy for-yeah!
Meal Planning Tip #4: Take stock. Look at your list for the week or month and then search the pantry, fridge and freezer to see what ingredients you have and what ingredients you need to purchase. This is where you create your grocery list.
Meal Planning Tip #5: Clip your coupons. Once you have your list, be sure to clip your coupons or scan the store ads to find the best deals. We have 3 major grocery stores within a couple of minutes of each other so sometimes I hit all 3 to help my budget.
Meal Planning Tip #5: Shop ’til you drop. Head out to the store and stock up on spices and non-perishable items as well as perishable items that you will be using up soon. If you plan meals a month out, chances are good you will have a “round two” to shop for more perishable items.
***Mega Tip: Keep your grocery list that goes with your meal plan for future shopping.
Meal Planning Tip #6: Put on your prep chef hat. Make a day out of cutting, chopping and slicing prior to making your meals. This can be one of the longest parts of the cooking process. Just think of how easy it looks on TV when all they do is toss in the ingredients that are already prepared.
***Mega Tip: Get your family in on the chopping action.
Meal Planning Tip #7: Double your pleasure. If you’re already cooking it, then double it and freeze half. It really doesn’t take that much longer to make 2 instead of one and you will have a home cooked meal waiting in the freezer for a crazy, busy day!
Meal Planning Tip #8: Keep a running list of ingredients you are low on for a future shopping trip. This make it that much easier when planning your next trip to the grocery store.
Allrecipes.com is a great website to help when you’re in a bind. The other day, I typed in chicken breasts and cream of chicken soup and got a tasty recipe in return. To help you prepare meals even faster, please read about my kitchen organizing tips too!
Tags: Attention Moms Who Want 8 Tips to Plan Meals Quickly!, DIY organization, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, Kitchen Organizing, kitchen organizing tips, plan meals quickly
Hand me a toilet brush before you hand me a spatula because cooking is just not my thing! Now when it comes to baking brownies, that’s another story-yum, yum, I’ll take some! But cook I must and it just figures that the thing I don’t like to do is something that has to be done three times a day. Whadda ya gonna do? We must eat and fortunately I have no problem with the eating part! Whether you love to cook or you don’t, all moms benefit from an organized kitchen so you can get on with your bad cooking self. Here are 3 tips to help you get organized in the kitchen!
Kitchen Organizing Tip #1: Declutter your kitchen. Let go of the small appliances you no longer use (think juicer and bread maker), the duplicates and the ratty pieces like chipped plates and stained rubber scrapers. Make sure your kitchen is functional and stocked with the items that you actually use so you don’t have to sift past the items you don’t use. (Sift-get it?)
Kitchen Organizing Tip #2: Organize your kitchen logically. Make sure your kitchen is set up in a logical way so the items that you use the most often are close at hand. If you make toast every day, you should have easy access to the toaster. If you make waffles twice a year, you should store the waffle iron in an area that’s harder to reach.
Kitchen Organizing Tip #3: Create zones. Create zones to store supplies that you use frequently. If you make lunches for school every day, create a lunch zone with lunch supplies. If you like to bake a lot, bring all of your baking supplies to one area so you don’t have to move around the kitchen gathering supplies before you can even start baking. If you can’t store them where you use them, then make them mobile. You can create a baking kit in an organizing bin that you just carry on over to the counter.
Make it easy on yourself to prepare meals so you can either enjoy cooking or get through the task as quickly as you can like me! For more kitchen organizing tips, please continue to read right here!
Tags: DIY organization, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, Kitchen Organizing, kitchen organizing tips
Do you want your home to be “company ready” 24/7? Do you want you closets and home to be “perfect?” “A place for everything and everything in its place,” right? Well, do you know what happens when you want your home to be perfect? You end up stressed. And, interestingly, it’s common for people who want their house to be “so perfect” that they give up and go completely the opposite way. Instead of perfect, they let everything go and end up with lots and lots of clutter. Organization and perfection do not go hand-in-hand, they are actually frenemies!
Instead, aim for a balance in your home so you are not constantly running after every little toy or item that gets taken out, but you still feel comfortable. Follow these organizing tips to prevent perfection overload:
1) Let go of excess ‘stuff’ in your home so you don’t have unnecessary items to deal with. Get it down to the things you really need and want in your home.
2) Create “homes” for all items that you keep. This may be in labeled baskets, bins, shelves, cubbies & hooks. Make sure everything has a place to be stored so you can easily and quickly put things away and restore order in your home.
3) Take time every day to restore order, putting things away. When my kids were little, I would restore order at nap time and then again at bedtime. I prefer to wake up to a home that’s in order and start the day fresh. That’s my preference, but that’s not always how things go down. Sometimes I have to throw in the towel if it’s been a long day and start over in the morning.
4) Let go of your own pressure to be perfect, to look perfect, to act perfect. None of us our perfect and our friends and family are more comfortable when we keep it real.
Home organization and balance are truly best friends and that’s a couple that will keep you sane too! Please enjoy my short video on home organization and perfection.
Tags: DIY organization, home office, Home Organization and Perfection Are Frenemies, Home Organization Blog, home organizaztion, organizing tips, restore order in your home, short video on home organization and perfection
My oldest daughter loves history and retro items, so recently I shared one of my special keepsakes with her. It’s a very old purse that belonged to my grandmother’s sister when she was a teenager. Sadly, she went to the hospital as a teen where she passed away. I was always fascinated with the purse and the belongings inside and many years ago, my grandmother passed it on to me. From time to time, I take it down and go through it, it’s truly a fascinating, little time capsule.
My daughter recently took a photography class where they taught the students that they should photograph keepsakes. Before I knew it, she was shooting away at the contents of my little purse. When I teach classes on keepsakes, I too share this tip to take pictures of keepsakes, but my take on it is to take the pictures and then let the items go. It didn’t occur to me that even keepsakes that you want to save should be photographed in the event of damage or loss.
So, whether you are parting with keepsakes or keeping keepsakes, consider shooting a few photos for good measure! For more tips on how to organize keepsakes, please stay with me right here!
Tags: DIY organization, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, how to organize keepsakes
Monday Mantra for Women: “I will make this an awesome week, stay positive, help someone else with a random act of kindness and give myself a treat at the end of the week.”
Tags: balance, DIY organization, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, Monday Mantra for Women
File Cabinet from Storables
I see a lot of things when it comes to papers shoved into file cabinets and it isn’t always so good, that’s why I’m there to help. The good new is, I know that you CAN turn file cabinets from frightful to fantastic and it’s not even hard or painful!
Here are your 6 “Must-Haves” to create proper files so you can find your papers again!
- A good, sturdy file cabinet with enough drawers to support the volume of paper that you are keeping.
- A shredder to get rid of all those old papers that you choose to purge.
- Hanging file folders in a color that is appealing to you, it’s OK to feel happy when you open the drawers dazzled by the beauty!
- Center position manila folders so all of your folders inside your hanging file folders are in alignment. Here is the link to order them from Staples.
- 3.5″ clear tabs so you have more room for labeling your files, those itty bitty ones that come with the hanging folders are so small.
- A label maker so you can create clear, professional, readable labels-I love them! Nothing says, “I put some effort into this.” like a printed label.
Label Maker from Staples
Look at those lovely files-awwwwww! If you are thinking about organizing your papers, you can read more here about the 5 warning signs that your paper is out of control. I’d love to hear from you about what you are currently working on!
Tags: 6 "Must-Haves" to Create Proper Files, center position manila folders, DIY organization, file cabinet, files, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, label maker, paper organizing, Staples, Storables
