Living On A Dime

Tag: organizing

  • 10 Organizing Secrets – Easy Organizing Ideas You Can Use Today!

    10 Organizing Secrets – Easy Organizing Ideas You Can Use Today!

    Have you ever wondered why organizing seems so easy for some people but not for others? Discover the top 10 effective and easy organizing ideas that will transform your cluttered space into a tidy and well-organized one. Learn the secrets of highly organized individuals and start implementing their tried and true methods today! Say goodbye to chaos and hello to a stress-free environment with these expert tips.

    Discover the top 10 effective and easy organizing ideas that will transform your cluttered space into a tidy and well-organized one. Learn the secrets of highly organized individuals and start implementing their tried and true methods today! Say goodbye to chaos and hello to a stress-free environment with these expert tips.

    Easy Organizing Ideas

    Organizing idea #1: Never stop picking up.

    • Try picking up during TV commercials or while you are waiting for something to boil on the stove. You will be amazed how much you can get done in five minutes.
    • Have the entire family spend five minutes picking up the family room or living room before they go to bed. Set a timer for young kids so they don’t get overwhelmed.If your family members go to bed at different times then have each member pick up his or her items before bed time. Once this becomes a habit, you will be amazed how much easier organizing becomes.

    Organizing idea #2: Stop making messes.

    • Keep a trash can in every room. No one likes carrying one small piece of trash from the family room to the kitchen so it usually ends up on the floor. Keep small trash cans everywhere. In our office we have two trash cans, one next to the desk for throwing away regular office trash and one next to the shipping table for throwing away envelope tabs, extra invoices and other shipping trash. If you need two trash cans in a room put them in there. Make it easy to keep things clean.
    • Throw that sticky food wrapper straight into the trash. Don’t lay it on the counter to make another mess that needs to be wiped up later.
    • Don’t lay that dirty spoon on the counter. Rinse it and put it in the sink or dishwasher.
    • As you’re undressing, don’t throw your dirty clothes on the floor or on the furniture. While they are still in your hand, put them in the hamper or if they’re still clean, hang them up.
    • Keep the hamper close to where you undress at night. If it is convenient, you will be more likely to use it and it’ll be easier to stay organized.
    • Before you leave the bathroom, hang your wet towel on the rod. Don’t drop it on the floor or leave it in a pile.

    Organizing idea #3: Think ahead and organize for the future.

    Organizing idea #4: Never, Never Procrastinate.

    • Keep straightening and organizing things all the time. For example, when you put away groceries and you see that the cans of soup have fallen over, take two seconds to restack them.
    • When you put linens or clothes in their drawers, make sure everything in those drawers is neatly stacked.
    • Pick up as you go. Each time you walk through a room, pick up something.
    • Stop thinking about it! Just do it.

    Organizing idea #5: Don’t give up. Practice makes perfect.

    • Train family members to rinse their own dishes and stack them in the sink (or better yet to put them directly into the dishwasher). It may take a while to develop this habit. For kids, you may want to do something like charge each member a dime for every dish not rinsed or make them responsible for doing all the dishes for a week.
    • Remember Thomas Edison? What if he had given up after his first 5, 10, or 100 light bulbs? Where would we be now if he had thrown up his hands and quit at his first failures? The same is true with getting and staying organized. Keep practicing and you will create a productive new habit.

    Organizing idea #6: Attitude, Attitude, Attitude.

    • Stop dreading getting organized and taking care of your home and start taking pride and pleasure in it. Think of an organized home as a special gift of peace and pleasure that you are giving your family. A disorganized one causes turmoil and frustration. Besides — You probably spend more time worrying about it than it would take to clean it.

    Organizing idea #7: Use rooms for their intended purposes.

    • Don’t let kids get undressed in the family room – that’s why they have bedrooms.
    • Eat food at the kitchen table or bar, not in bed. This alone can save a huge number of messes.
    • Fold laundry in the laundry room immediately after taking it out of the dryer and put it away immediately.

    Organizing idea #8: Be a wise steward of your time.

    • If you see something that needs to be clean, clean it as soon as possible.
    • If something doesn’t need to be cleaned, don’t waste your time. If there is no dust, don’t just dust because you dust every Saturday.
    • Don’t overbook yourself volunteering at schools, churches or charities. Learn to say “no”. Notice that I didn’t say don’t do these things at all, just control how much you do so they don’t take over your life.
    • Don’t overbook your children with their activities, either.
    • Get rid of fruitless activities. Many of us spend way too much time talking on the phone, watching TV, shopping unnecessarily or killing time on the computer. These are all time robbers when you devote a lot of time to them.

    Organizing idea #9: Keep on top of things.

    • If you do small cleaning and organizing tasks every day, you’d be surprised how much you can accomplish. In ten minute increments, you can do each of the following: wash the dishes, vacuum, file a pile of papers or clean your purse. It shouldn’t take more than ten minutes for each child to pick up and organize his room before bed and to lay out his clothes for the morning.
    • Don’t let the laundry, dishes, toys and paperwork get out of control.

    Organizing idea #10: Don’t be afraid to let go.

    • Don’t become so emotionally attached to your stuff you can let it go when it is no longer useful and not needed any more.
    • The less mounds and piles of things and stuff you have the less time you need to spend organizing it, finding a place or it and taking care of it.

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  • Get Organized and Get Out Of Debt – Where Do I Begin?

    Get Organized and Get Out Of Debt – Where Do I Begin?

    Some of the most common goals people have are to get organized and get out of debt but it can be difficult to know how to start. These easy tips will help!

    It’s almost New Years Day and many of us are already starting to think about making resolutions. Most resolutions sound something like: “I’m going to eat healthy and lose weight“, “I’m going to get out of debt” or “I’m going to get organized.”

    These are great things to WANT to do but I’m afraid that about 90% of us won’t keep these resolutions. Here are a couple of things to think about that will hopefully give you greater success in keeping your resolutions.

    I can’t, in this one sitting, give you all the details about how to handle every situation but I can give you some things to think about that will help you in all of these areas. Then for more details check out LivingOnADime.com, or our e-books to help you in each specific area and to give you practical ways on how to accomplish what you want to do.

    It helps to understand why we do the things we do. Most of us want to lose weight and eat healthy on New Year’s Day because we have just spent the past month gorging ourselves so that we now feel bloated and sick and can’t fit into our clothes anymore. Like a pendulum that swings from one extreme to another, we think that the answer is to eat carrot sticks for the rest of our lives. That usually lasts about 3 days and then we give up.

    The same applies to the idea of getting out of debt. Most of us have just spent the past few weeks spending more money than we had planned and now we feel guilty. We’re determined that we are not going to spend a penny on anything. Then we will panic every time we have to buy something like food or gas because the price is so high.

    Then there is the thought of getting organized. Right now you are probably surrounded by a Christmas tree and decorations that are starting to accumulate a thin layer of dust, which is giving a dingy look to everything. The once bright and cheery look of the Christmas lights have dulled. The candles on the mantle have burned down to nubs and look more like they belong in a haunted house or in a horror movie.

    There is leftover wrapping paper strewn here and there. Piles of Christmas dinner platters and dishes sit on every counter. You close your eyes every time you open the fridge so you don’t have to look at the piles of leftovers inside it. Then there are all the mounds of new toys, clothes and gifts. How do you stuff them into the already full closet? No wonder you have the urge to clean and get organized. You wonder, “Where do I even start?” Getting organized is a way to give yourself a fresh start.

    As I’ve said before, too much of even a good thing can make us sick and frustrated.

    Here’s my point: You can get organized and do everything you resolve to do, but you need to pace yourself. It’s like running a long distance marathon. You don’t just shoot out of the starting line going as fast and hard as you can. You will never make the distance that way, so you pace yourself. In the same way, pace yourself in everything and do a small amount at a time, breaking things into manageable pieces.

    Have a plan, whether it is writing menus for good balanced meals for each week, making a budget or, even more important, being bold enough to write down and acknowledge what your debts are.  Make a plan. Plan where to cut your spending or to start to get organized, try making a list of 1-2 areas of your home you are going to organize each day.

    Next prepare. When you are preparing for a race, you would ask yourself, “Do I have the right shoes”, “Are there water stations?”, “Have I slowly worked my muscles into shape?”, “Am I prepared for some pain?” and “When it hits, will I not be afraid of it but keep going in spite of the discomfort?”  In the same way, you may have to spend some time preparing things like planning good meals or making sure you have cleaning supplies and boxes for when you start to get organized.

    Pace Yourself
    Plan
    Prepare

    One thing you must remember – discouragement and a sense of being overwhelmed will hit most of us once we start. Pacing will help but it is especially important to have a plan and be prepared when discouragement sets in so you can overcome it and keep going. Here are some things to think about when you start feeling discouraged:

    Have you ever looked up the definition of resolution? I did. It means to have firm determination, to be bold and steady and to reduce something to a simpler form. You need to be steady and pace yourself. Little by little and piece by piece, reduce your mess to something simpler and more manageable. You can’t accomplish any of it in a week or two. You took a long time to make the mess and you may have to take just as long to clean it up but like the tortoise in the tortoise and the hare, keep a slow but steady pace and you will win the race and succeed.

    Lastly, get up and do it. Stop blaming everyone and making excuses. You won’t even get out of the starting gate if you spend all your time standing there telling everyone why you can’t run. Even if you have a real excuse for not running then at least start taking baby steps and walk. You’ll at least be getting somewhere but if you just stand bemoaning your lot in life and how miserable the world is in these hard economic times, you will get nowhere.You may fall (or eat that piece of chocolate cake, spend more than you should have or leave dirty dishes in the sink one day) but pick yourself up, brush yourself off and keep going. The only thing that will keep you from getting there is if you stop (quit and give up), so keep at it.

    We will try to do the same and keep plugging along with ideas on how to accomplish all of the above. Now I must quit because I have a messy room that I really need to deal with today! : ) : )

    For more help with organizing, cleaning and laundry, take a look at our How To Organize And Clean Your Home e-books.

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  • How Much Is Clutter Costing You?

    How Much Is Clutter Costing You?

    Living with clutter can have serious financial and emotional costs many of us might not have considered. Here are some thoughts about the cost of clutter and ideas about how to get it under control.

    How Much Is Clutter Costing You? Living with clutter can have serious financial and emotional costs. Here are some ideas about how to get it under control.

    How Much Is Clutter Costing You?

    We live in a society of extremes. People seem to be extremely in debt, extremely overweight and extremely disorganized. People everywhere are trying to come up with newer and better solutions to solve these problems but not many of their ideas are working.

    The solutions aren’t working because they are focusing on the wrong problem. For example, if your child comes to you and says “I have a drug problem.” You don’t sit them down and say, “Well let’s work on a way to get your grades up and then we’ll work on your drug problem.” How foolish that would be. The real problem is not the grades but the drugs. You take care of the drugs and the chances are pretty good that the grades will come up.

    For some of us, instead of focusing on getting out of debt or losing weight, we need to first give more serious thought to becoming organized. Does that sound crazy, almost laughable? Before you start laughing too hard, look at these examples and see if you can relate.

    How often do you go out to eat because your kitchen is a mess? If your kitchen is clean, chances are you would not only be more willing to fix dinner at home but in the morning you would fix breakfast and pack yourself a lunch, too.

    Here are some benefits of getting your kitchen organized:

    Organizing can reduce your wardrobe and laundry costs.

    • Do you keep buying more clothes because you are gaining weight from fast food or from the stress of your clutter?
    • How big is your wardrobe? Do you or your children own 30 pairs of jeans at $60 a pop because you don’t keep up with the laundry or because your closet is so stuffed you can’t find anything? That adds up to $1,800 worth of jeans. If you cut it down to even 10 pairs you would save $1,200. How many tops do you own? How about those shoes? Before you say, “There is no way I have that many jeans, shoes, or tops!” go count you clothes. You may be surprised…
    • How often do you toss a suit jacket on the floor or on the furniture and then later have to have it dry-cleaned because it’s wrinkled? Just think about what you could save on your dry cleaning bill if you kept a little more organized.

    Organizing can save you money in every aspect of your life.

    • Do you buy new items because you can’t find something? The cost of things like tools, glue, tape, ropes, garden tools, kitchen items, light bulbs, batteries, office supplies and other things really adds up.
    • How much do you pay each month in late fees on your bills because you can’t find them, your checkbook or even a stamp to mail them?

    Who is taking care of your home?

    Often, we think that the solution to our debt problem is for both spouses to work outside the home. At times we even compound the problem when one or both spouses take a second job.

    When both spouses work out of the home, who takes care of the house? Frequently, there is a constant battle between them about whose job it is to take care of some element of the housework. After all, the husband has been out working all day, so he doesn’t feel like it. Oh, but the wife has been working, too, so why can’t she take a break?

    Imagine if your boss at work decided to work a second full time job. How would this impact your workplace? Who would you ask if you couldn’t find products for your customers? What if there was no change because your boss was at his other job until after the bank closed? What if you needed help or advice from your boss, but he said, “Not now… I’m too tired from my other job?” How long would that company last? The same thing happens in many homes every day.

    Try something different!

    Would your family be better served if one spouse stayed home? Someone needs to be responsible for the bulk of the care and maintenance of the home and family. Ideally, everyone will share the work, but like in any other business, there has to be one person in charge. Otherwise, everyone will avoid the work and everything will descend into chaos.

    If this sounds like your home, you might sit down with your spouse and seriously consider whether one of you might take off work to try to get your home in order. Instead of thinking of staying at home as a prison sentence, think of it as another job to help save you money, reduce family stress and add more family comfort.

    If you’re considering staying home, get rid of the emotions and, with pen and paper (hopefully you can find one) in hand, write down the ways that being disorganized is costing you money. Be honest and try to cover even the small things. You might find that the money you are spending dealing with disorganization is equal to or more than one spouse’s take home pay.

    Organization has nothing to do with what is politically correct or what the media or other people tell you you need to do. It is a practical choice that you can make. I am NOT saying that you can’t work doing something that you love. I am saying that regardless of how your family handles it, the work of keeping the home has to get done.

    But we both want to work outside the home…

    If you feel that you and your spouse have to or both want to work, then try to come up with other ideas.

    • Would spending your vacation organizing things and deep cleaning give you enough of a jump start to help keep things organized? Maybe once you organized everything you could consider hiring someone to clean your house once a week. Before you say you can’t afford it, think about this: Which would cost less? Paying someone $50 a week to clean your house or paying for all the things that cost you money because you are not organized?
    • Consider whether it would be worth one spouse working part time instead of full time.
    • Try one simple thing like hanging up your clothes so you don’t have a cleaner’s expense or getting the whole family to pitch in with cleaning the kitchen at the end of each meal.

    What if you don’t know HOW To get organized?

    Maybe you do have the time, but you just don’t know how to get organized. If that is the case, then learn. Check out books at the library or search for help on the Internet. Better yet, find someone you know who is organized and ask them to teach you. Don’t be embarrassed to do this. Most people are more than willing to show you how to do things. Remember, those older women (and men) that seem to have it all together now didn’t start out that way. They’ve had 20 years or more practice and they remember what it was like to not have a clue where to start. Just ask.

    Instead of wasting your time and energy trying to bail the water out of your sinking boat by bailing faster or using a bigger bucket, fix the hole. CLEAN UP THE CLUTTER AND SAVE.

    [dining]

  • How Many Clothes Do I Need? Do You Really Need So Many?

    How Many Clothes Do I Need? Do You Really Need So Many?

    If you’re wondering, how many clothes do I need, this easy clothing list and organizing ideas will help you reduce clutter and reduce stress! If you keep a reasonable number of clothes you can do less laundry, have less of a mess and have a lot less stress in your life!

    If you're wondering, how many clothes do I need, this easy clothing list and organizing ideas will help you reduce clutter and reduce stress!

    Too Many Clothes? How Many Clothes Do You Really Need?

    One thing that costs many families a lot of extra money and causes lots of stress is having too many clothes, but many people never ask, how many clothes do I need? Besides the cost of buying more clothes than you need, storing clothes, caring for them and trying not to constantly trip over them can be overwhelming.

    When you have more clothes than you need, it takes longer to find something to wear because you have so many options. The laundry seems more daunting because you are more likely to wait until there is a huge pile to get to it. Storage spaces can easily fill up and if you are like many people, it is hard to ever sort through everything you have.

    Save yourself time and trouble – Make sure your wardrobe fits your needs!

    How Many Clothes Do I Need?

    If you’re wondering, “How many clothes do I need?” we’ve put together a general list of how many of each type of clothing we recommend. This is a general guideline and you may need to modify it depending on your own circumstances. When my granddaughter was born she had a stomach valve problem and we had to deal with non-stop throwing up. She needed 3-4 times as many sleepers as a normal baby and more burp rags than usual. Additionally, my daughter and I had to change our own clothes more frequently during this time so we had to adjust the clothes list to the circumstance.

    It takes just a couple of minutes when you are organizing your children’s clothes to really figure what they need. Do they wear 7 t-shirts a week and you wash t-shirts twice a week? Then 7 t-shirts should be more than plenty. If they wear 7 pairs of socks and underwear a week and you wash twice a week, 10 pairs of everything is more than plenty. Why put 15-20 pairs of clothes back into the drawer, especially if you don’t have a lot of room?

    Be sure to go through and weed out too small or worn-out clothes in your children’s drawers every couple of months. Children easily become frustrated trying to put their clothes away into drawers that are already full of clothing they have outgrown. Sometimes when this happens, they get in trouble for not putting everything away properly. Don’t make it too hard on your kids. There’s a scripture that says “do not provoke your children to anger”. This is one of those cases where parents do it all the time.

    Plan how many outfits each member of your family needs. Most families wash the laundry once a week or more. You don’t need 15 pairs of jeans for each child. Three or four pairs will work just fine. A newborn may need 10 pairs of pajamas since the newborn lives in them and spits up on them, but a 10 year old only needs three or four pairs.

    Here are a few guidelines to help you get started. As I said, feel free to adjust this to best fit your family. Hopefully, by following these guidelines you will be able to cut back on your clothes budget and get more use out of what you do have.

    Toddlers and Pre-Schoolers

    9-10 everyday outfits
    3-4 dressy church outfits
    3-4 casual dressy outfits
    4-5 pajamas
    2 pairs play shoes
    1 pair dress shoes
    1 pair casual nice shoes (optional)

    School Age

    (including teen boys– If your teens complain about the clothes, make them responsible for their own clothes, including paying for the extras that they want.)

    3-4 pairs of jeans or school pants
    7-9 school shirts
    1-2 pairs dress pants
    3-4 dress shirts
    1-2 casual dressy outfits
    2-3 pajamas
    1 pair school shoes
    1 pair casual shoes or 1 pair of shoes for dirty work
    1 pair dress shoes

    Women (stay at home)

    5-7 everyday comfortable attractive outfits
    1 outfit for dirty work such as painting
    4-5 casual dressy outfits (depending on your social life)
    4-5 dressy church outfits
    2 pairs of comfortable shoes (one for painting and one for wearing every day)
    2-3 pairs of casual dressy shoes like loafers
    4 pairs of dressy shoes for church (black, navy, white and tan pumps or flats)
    Adjust shoes for your wardrobe.

    Women (who work outside the house)

    7-9 work/dressy outfits
    5-7 casual outfits
    2-3 outfits for relaxing at home
    3-4 pairs of work shoes (depends on your work. Only 2 if you wear tennis shoes or similar shoes to work)
    3 pairs of casual shoes

    [dining]

    Men

    Without knowing a man’s weekly work schedule and exact type of work this list will have to be a little general. This is mostly based on only doing laundry once a week. If you wash the laundry more often, you can cut back on this list.

    If you work in an office with air conditioning you will need:

    2-3 pairs of “casual” dress pants like Dockers
    5 button down “casual” dress shirts
    2 pairs of jeans
    1 pair of grunge jeans
    1 pair of sweat pants
    3-5 t-shirts
    2 pairs of shorts
    1 pair of really nice dress pants
    1-2 ties
    1 pair each tennis shoes, casual dress shoes and dress shoes.
    Most men used to have 1 black suit but so many things are casual now that you might be able to get by without one. Once again, that depends on your lifestyle.

    If you need to dress in a suit and tie for work, you will need:

    2 neutral colored suits
    4-5 dress shirts
    3-4 ties.

    Make sure you can mix and match the ties and shirts and that they can go with both suits because you can get more variety that way.

    If you wear jeans to work, you can get by with 1-2 pairs of “casual” dress pants and 3-4 pairs of jeans.

    Of course, this is a general list to get you started and you can add take away where you need to. Men generally need more tops than women because – well how do I say this delicately?? Men tend to sweat and get their shirts dirtier than women. There’s an old joke about why this is true and also why men get ring around the collar more. It’s because God made Eve from Adam’s rib and He made Adam from dirt. : ) : )

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    Everyone needs these items if you have any kind of winter:

    1 winter coat
    1 dress coat
    1-2 pairs boots, short and long

    Remember, these are just the bare bones of a wardrobe. Add or subtract according to your needs. The main thing is to be ruthless. Most women wear only 20% of the clothes 80% of the time. Get rid of everything else! It is just clutter that takes up too much storage space and causes too much stress!

    You can get most children’s clothes at garage sales for a fraction of the new price. Be picky and only buy the few things you love. By spending one morning going to garage sales, I found all the clothes I needed for my 3 year old son. We usually receive enough clothing as Christmas gifts, but this year he didn’t get everything that he needed. I spent three hours and $5 buying everything from shirts to shoes. I got 10 shirts, 5 pairs of jeans, 3 pairs of shoes and 4 pairs of pajamas. I saved myself $225. That is $75 an hour I “earned” by going to garage sales or 24 hours (3 days) less my husband would have had to work to buy the clothes.

    Linens

    Sheets – 2 sets per bed. You can get by with one set if you wash and put it back on the bed the same day.
    2 towels and washcloths per family member
    5-6 hand towels
    4-5 towels for guests
    10-12 dish rags
    10-12 dish towels
    10-12 kitchen hand towels
    Shoe box of small rags
    Small box of large rags
    Stack of old towels for large emergencies like the toilet overflowing

    These are minimum suggestions. Adjust according to your needs.

    Laundry and Children

    I am probably the only mom who would not allow my children to put their clothes away until they were older. Why? Because, by the time I had carefully washed, beautifully folded and ironed everything, I didn’t want it to be dumped, wadded, smashed and mooshed between the laundry room and my children’s bedrooms. It’s amazing what a husband and child can do to a clean pile of laundry!

    Even though I say that, children do need to be taught how to do laundry from beginning to end. From the age of four or five, I would have the kids help me fold wash rags and underwear. Once they succeeded in those things, we moved on to other things.

    As soon as they were tall enough, I had them help put clothes in the washer, then move them to the dryer to fluff and finally take them out of the dryer. Young children seem to love doing this, so let them.

    By the time they are old enough to start cooking simple things on the stove, they are old enough to start ironing with supervision — This is just as important for boys, too.

    Once kids reach high school, they should be able to take care of their own clothes from start to finish. Until I had them very well trained, I didn’t expect them to do the laundry alone. This wasn’t a bad thing. I enjoyed visiting and learning about their day while we folded clothes together or while I was ironing.

    Jill and Tawra

  • Clean and Organize in Five Minutes!

    Clean and Organize in Five Minutes!

    Using these tips, you can clean and organize your house 5 minutes at a time! You’ll be surprised how much you can get done during time you already have!

    Using these tips, you can clean and organize your house 5 minutes at a time! You'll be surprised how much you can get done during time you already have!

    Clean and Organize in Five Minutes!

    I have always dreaded cleaning and organizing. I was not born organized so I have really had to train myself to do it. Often, my problem staying organized is that I think so much about the thing that needs to be done that I begin to dread it. Here are a few tips I used to change my attitude about the things I dreaded:

    Time yourself to see how long it takes to do a chore.

    • Two days ago I cleaned the fridge. It took me two minutes to clean off one shelf. After a child meltdown, I came back and finished. It took me 10 minutes to clean the entire refrigerator and that included three minutes cleaning up a mess from my two year old “helping” by dumping something on the floor.
    • I used to hate to make the bed. Then I timed myself. It takes me exactly 1 minute. Now that I know that, it doesn’t seem difficult at all.
    • It took me five minutes to clean out my “plasticware” shelf.
    • To clean the bathroom sink and toilet took me just five minutes, including wiping down the floor. Cleaning the tub (removing the contents and cleaning) took another 5 minutes, so it took only ten minutes to clean the entire bathroom!

    It really doesn’t take as long as you might think to get cleaned and organized. When you realize it only takes one minute or five minutes or ten minutes to do something, the task doesn’t seem so bad!

     

    Do one thing for five minutes and see how far you can get.

    Identify the thing that is bugging you the most and do it first!

    Often, we have lots of little things that need to be cleaned, repaired or organized, but we don’t want to deal with them right now. Sometimes it pays to just make the time rather than to keep putting it off.

    cleaning and organizing

    Our front door is mostly glass and the fingerprints on the front door were driving me crazy! While David was eating, instead of doing the dishes, I ran over and wiped down the door. (It took 3 minutes.) It has been bugging me for days. As soon as I took the three minutes to do it, it was off my mind and I could go on and do the dishes.

    I have always dreaded unloading the dishwasher. One day, I timed myself and it takes only three minutes for me to unload the entire thing. Keeping that in mind, it doesn’t seem so bad.

    Mike wanted to change the door knob on our front door. It didn’t work correctly and we kept getting locked out. He bought a new door knob, but he was in the middle of another project and didn’t change it right away. One day, after sidestepping it for a while, he decided to stop everything else and change it. It took five minutes. He said if he had known that’s all the time it would take, he never would have waited so long to do it.

    Most of the time we spend more time thinking about these things than just taking the time to do it and get it over with! Now walk away from the computer and take care of that thing that is bothering you! ;-)

    -Tawra

    For more easy cleaning tips to make your life easier, take a look at our How To Organize And Clean Your Home e-books.

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  • Get Organized Now! Motivation And Practical Tips To Get Organized!

    Get Organized Now! Motivation And Practical Tips To Get Organized!

    Here’s some motivation to help you get organized now including a look at how getting organized today will dramatically improve your life and tips to organize better!

    Motivation to help you get organized now including how organizing will dramatically improve your life and practical tips to get organized!

    Get Organized Now! Why It’s Important to Get Organized

    I’m not sure if it is because I’m taking down the now very dusty and sad looking Christmas decorations or because it is the beginning of a new year when we all want a fresh start, but I always get the urge to clean and get organized in January. I love to get organized. Just ask my kids. As a matter of fact, I drive them crazy trying to organize everything. That’s a mother’s job isn’t it? (Not to organize but to drive your children crazy. HA!HA!)

    I have even started writing a book on how to get organized but, ironically enough, I can’t seem to finish it because I can’t get the material “organized” :-). Well, I guess you win some and you lose some. (Update: We did finish part of it here. :-)

    At this point you are probably wondering what organizing has to do with saving money. Lots. Being disorganized is not just frustrating, but expensive.

    Hopefully you have read my article, Dirty Dishes Cause Debt. So often we go out to eat because our kitchens are such messes it is impossible to cook in them. Keeping in mind that going out to eat is one of the leading causes of debt, you can see how just having a clean organized kitchen can help save a lot of money.

    Have you had to pay a late fee on a bill because it was buried under a pile of papers and you didn’t find it until 2 weeks after the due date? How often do you have to pay fines on your taxes because your paperwork is so disorganized? Are fines on those late or lost library books adding up? Have you bought something very expensive and used it once, only to have it break, but you couldn’t find the receipt to return it?

    I frequently hear people say they have to buy a larger house because they need more room. Big expense. But often it isn’t a bigger home that they need. They need to organize what they have and get rid of some stuff.

    I could make a list a mile long explaining why it pays to get organized, but I think you are getting my point.

    I know you are dying to get to the part that says “101 easy steps to getting organized,” and it is coming later in this article. For many of us, it isn’t so much that we don’t know how to get organized, but that we are discouraged or can’t seem to get motivated to start. Knowledge is worth absolutely nothing if you don’t use it. I can tell you 101 ways to get organized but if you don’t get up and do it, it will have been a waste of my time and yours. So here are some things for you to think about and hopefully help motivate you to get started.

    Getting Organized Is Important For You And Your Family

    One of my pet peeves is how little importance we put on our homes and taking care of them and our family compared to how much importance we put on the outside world. We get all up in arms about air pollution, yet most homes have more polluted air inside them than the air outside.

    What causes the air pollution in most homes? The garlic, onions or fish stuck on the dirty dishes piled in your sink and all over your counters. If the dishes have been there several days, there’s probably mold in the water, too. Then there’s the mold growing in those towels that are piled on the bathroom floor and, by the way, could all that stuff on a dirty toilet be making the house smell bad? Did I mention the dirty laundry piled everywhere, the neglected cat box and the piles of smelly diapers that haven’t made it to the trash can?

    Most of us wouldn’t dream of throwing our trash out the car window. When we buy a home, one of the first things we look for is a nice, well kept neighborhood. But all too often, we think nothing of leaving empty food wrappers, pop cans, and assorted papers everywhere at home. Many of us also leave piles of old newspapers and magazines laying around from one end of the house to the other.

    We worry so much about recycling to spare our landfills (we used to call them “dumps” but I guess to be politically correct I have to call it a landfill). I think one woman I knew, decided to make her home a landfill to save the city’s landfill. She was very excited about recycling but had no place to save anything, so she just “dumped” it on her kitchen and dining room floors. She had no less than twenty milk jugs and piles of empty cans and cereal boxes thrown on the floor.

    Before we start puffing up our chests with pride because we aren’t that bad, consider how many of us have trash cans full and running over or desks and tables piled with junk mail and magazines that should be thrown out? There are times I stand guilty as charged, too, I’m afraid.

    We protest and carry on about how we are destroying the environment that we will be passing on to our children and grandchildren, but what about our children’s present environment? I’m not saying that we shouldn’t think about their future but, like so many things, we get lopsided and unbalanced in our thinking. It is so much easier to think about the future than to deal with the reality of the present.

    We get overly involved in church, community and things outside of our homes because they provide great excuses for not taking care of our main responsibility — the care of our families and homes. Have you ever noticed how, if you ask your child to do something, he moans and groans and makes all kinds of excuses, but if a neighbor or a friend asks him to do the same job he willingly does it? Adults are guilty of this, too. It is so much easier to do things for “others” and for what the world considers a “noble” cause than it is to do things for our own families. We need to get serious about making our family’s well being at home our top priority.

    Often, we hear how our children are under so much more stress than earlier generations. I don’t totally agree with that but I do know that every generation of children has its own different kinds of stress. Ask yourself this: Is your home adding to or taking away from that stress? Is your home one of order and peace? Are you keeping it as orderly and clean as the environment outside? People get angry at the president because there isn’t world peace, but how can you expect there to be peace in the world if your own family is living in conflict and chaos all the time.

    Once again, we have the cart before the horse. Instead of concentrating on teaching our children so much about the environment and world peace, we should work harder at giving them a loving, orderly and peaceful home to grow up in. Home is still a child’s main world. If a child is raised in this type of atmosphere, he will have a better chance of growing up to be an unselfish, loving and responsible adult who will naturally be concerned for the world outside of his home, too. Children can much more easily deal with what happens in their outside world if they have comfort and peace at home.

    Kids get frustrated when they can’t find their coats or shoes and mom or dad keep yelling at them, “Hurry up we’re going to be late.” Then, when you are late, they feel guilty. They get frustrated and overwhelmed when mom says, “Go in and clean your room.” Like you, they don’t know where to begin. To make matters worse, they have been allowed to have mounds and mounds of toys and clothes — so many, in fact, that mom doesn’t have a clue what to do with them all, but expects the kids to know.

    To add to their confusion even more, they are told to pick up after themselves as they watch mom and dad leave their own shoes laying in the living room where they took them off, along with empty pop cans, dirty dishes, and magazines. The kids are told to clean up the mess they left in the kitchen when, right next to it, are the things dad left out when he fixed his sandwich and the pile of un-rinsed dirty dishes mom left on the counter.

    Is it any wonder that so many kids are so full of anger and frustration? They have nowhere orderly, peaceful and comfortable to go. Kids love order in their lives. It gives them a sense of security. We can’t always have control over the world outside of our homes, but we can make their lives easier by giving them positive environments inside our homes.

    One time when my daughter moved, we really got to see how getting organized can make life a lot more pleasant. Moving, in and of itself, is a chaotic mess but, to add to the chaos, their septic system failed the week they moved in. We are talking major chaos. I thought we were never going to get organized. Finally one day, trying as hard as we could, we got the living room pulled together. We were able to get the pictures hung, the furniture arranged and some knick knacks in place. When the grandkids came home from school that day they were in awe. With a sparkle in her eye, my granddaughter said, “Oh mom! It’s sooooo beautiful!”

    [organizing]

    You can do it!

    Don’t panic and get overwhelmed or discouraged. I don’t expect you to be Martha Stewart. I heard about a woman once who read an article on how to be a good homemaker. After reading it, she decided the best thing she could for her family was to put them up for adoption. HA!HA!

    Don’t get extreme and think that if your house is not spotlessly clean 24/7 that your children will grow up to be total failures as adults. I’m just saying be careful not to make your home and the care of your family a low priority on your list. Don’t be too hard on yourself. There is a season for everything. If you are ill, if you have a new baby or 4 children under the age of 5, if you have a child or spouse that is ill or if you are in the middle of moving, your housekeeping standards cannot be as high as say a woman who lives alone with no children. Be kind to yourself and set up reasonable standards but do your best to get organized.

    Anytime you try to improve yourself there is the chance that, at first, it will not come easy and you will be tempted to throw up your hands and quit. Do the best that you can and press onward. Even if you can only do one of the things I suggest at the beginning, that is fine. Do what you can, improving slowly if you need to. Just be careful that you don’t allow yourself to use different excuses to keep from doing it.

    You may be tempted to say, “I’m just too busy to get organized. Moms are so much busier now than years ago with working and such.” Don’t even go there. Years ago most moms had to work in the fields or factories for 12 hours a day 6-7 days a week with no paid vacations or holidays. Then they had to come home, do the laundry with no washer and dryer, prepare 3 meals a day from scratch and clean and sew most of their family’s clothes.

    Being too busy for your family is never an excuse. You are in control of your schedule. You can say no to all those extra kids activities or to the extra things that others ask you to do. Just say no. In the same way that you expect your kids to just say no to drugs, you also need to refuse to give in to peer pressure. Just say no when others ask you to do something that you know you don’t have time for.

    One of the main excuses we use for not getting organized is we don’t know where to start. We can become so overwhelmed that it can actually paralyze us mentally so that we can’t figure out what to do. I was at that point myself the day after Christmas this year. Boy did I have a mess, plus my CFS was really bad. I was caught in a vicious cycle. I was too sick to clean, but sitting in a mess was making me worse.

    Finally, I decided I needed to practice what I preached and, using sheer grit, I made up my mind to clean off just my fireplace mantle. While I was doing that, I noticed some other things in other areas that I didn’t want to forget to box up, so I started gathering those things together. Then I figured I might as well bring in the boxes for the things I had just gathered. One thing led to another and before I knew it I had cleared most of my living room.

    Hopefully this has given you the motivation to get organized and cleaned. Next, I’ll give you some specific tips to make your cleaning and organizing efficient and painless!

    -Jill

    Read Get Organized Part 2
    Tips to Make Organizing Easier

  • 10 Easy Ways to Get Organized and Save Money

    10 Easy Ways to Get Organized and Save Money

    One of the easiest ways to save money and reduce stress is to stay organized. Here are some easy organizing ideas to get the most benefit for the least work!

    One of the easiest ways to save money and reduce stress is to stay organized. Here are some easy organizing ideas to get the most benefit for the least work!

    10 Easy Ways to Get Organized and Save Money

    1. Hang up your keys. (Preferably by the door.)
    2. Find a place for your purse, coat, gloves and other frequently used items and always keep them there.
    3. Make your bed each day as soon as you crawl out of it.
    4. Get dressed. Even if you are a stay at home mom or a mom who works from home, get dressed. Clothes really do make the man or woman. You’ll be just as productive as you are dressed which means if you are dressed for sleep (pajamas, sweats or a robe) then you will get about as much work done as you would when you are sleeping. That may be stretching it, but you get my point.
    1. Wash the dishes and wipe the counters after each meal. No matter how large or small the meal or how tired and in a hurry you are, do the dishes. Even if you are hurried or late in the morning you wouldn’t dream of leaving the house half dressed. Make leaving your kitchen clean as important a priority as getting dressed for work. This may seem impossible at first but once you are on top of things it should only take five or ten minutes to clean your kitchen.
    2. Get rid of trash. About 50% of what unorganized people have in their homes is trash or stuff they will never use again. Stop wasting time taking care of it, moving it or stepping over it. As you walk through the house, pick up garbage and toss it.
    3. Control your laundry. Don’t let it control you. Follow these simple steps to help keep your laundry from taking over your home and you.
      1. Place a hamper or basket for dirty clothes in each bedroom and/or bath. Make sure that everyone’s dirty clothes are put in the hamper before bed and in the morning. Laundry laying around is the second biggest cause of clutter after trash, so arrange things to prevent it!
      2. The laundry isn’t done until it is put away. Get out of the mindset that if it is washed and dried it is done. Folding and putting it away is equally as important.Some of us think that if we get the laundry washed and dried that’s all we need to do and it’s okay for the family to just pull stuff out of a pile. That makes as much sense as cooking a meal and expecting everyone to stand at the stove and take turns scooping the food out of the pan and eating it one spoonful at a time. You wouldn’t dream of doing that. Yes the food is cooked, but the meal is not complete until the table is set and the food is put on plates. Do the same for your laundry. Put it away.
    1. Pick up continually. This may seem like a pain to do at first but if you stick with it, it will become a habit. I didn’t realize how much of a habit it had become for me until I was visiting my daughter’s the other day (Hey! That’s me! ;-) -Tawra). As I was walking into the kitchen, I picked up empty glasses and odds and ends on my way. Then when I walked from the kitchen to the bedroom I picked up toys as I went in there. It wasn’t even my house but I had seen something out of place and out of habit picked it up.
    2. Read and dispose of newspapers and magazines. There are usually two reasons people have stacks of newspapers and magazines piled around:
      1. They want to save one article from it. If that is the case, then cut the article out as you are reading the magazine and file it. Trust me, you not only won’t cut that article out at a later time, but you probably won’t remember what or where it is.
      2. They don’t have time to read them. If you aren’t going to read the magazines, the why are you subscribing to them? You’ll never catch up later if you’re not reading them now. Stop your subscriptions. This doesn’t have to be an all or nothing thing. If you can’t keep up with the daily newspaper, then just get the Sunday paper. Most people usually have more leisure time Sunday to read it. Pick out one or two of your favorite magazines and stop subscribing to the rest.
    3. With any item, if it is broken or you don’t use it anymore, get rid of it. That includes clothes, toys, furniture, decorations, dishes and exercise equipment ;-). If it’s not important enough to fix right now, you don’t need it!

    [organizing]

  • How Getting Dressed Can TOTALLY Change Your LIFE!

    How Getting Dressed Can TOTALLY Change Your LIFE!

    There is one thing that can help you get organized now! Getting dressed first thing every day can totally change your life! Here are some reasons why… (more…)

  • Foods You Always Need In Your Pantry

    Foods You Always Need In Your Pantry

    Part of saving money in the kitchen and being prepared is keeping a well stocked and organized pantry. Don’t know how to do it? We’ve got helpful tips!

    An essential component to cooking frugally is keeping a well stocked pantry. The concept of a pantry is more than storage. Your pantry should be a place where you always have a good supply of basic ingredients and a few less expensive convenience foods.

    Part of saving money on groceries and being prepared is keeping a well stocked and organized pantry. Don't know how? We've got helpful tips!

    Foods You Always Need In Your Pantry

    When you have the opportunity to buy something that you use frequently at a great price, buy a lot of extra and keep it in the pantry until the next time you can get such a good price. This allows you to opt not to buy an item except when the price is very low, “flexing” your pantry.

    Here is a list of items that we keep stocked in our pantry virtually all the time. I plan meals around what I have in the pantry and I buy what is on sale to keep my pantry well stocked.

    (For more easy tips and tricks to save money in the kitchen, check out Groceries On A Dime!)

     

    Baking Supplies

    • baking powder
    • baking soda
    • yeast
    • cocoa
    • salt
    • cornstarch
    • vinegar
    • food coloring
    • coconut
    • eggs
    		 Beverages

    • tea
    • coffee
    • sometimes lemonade mix

     

    Breads

    • wheat bread
    • white bread
    • saltines
    • graham crackers
    • croutons (we make our own)

     

    Cheese

    • Cheddar
    • mozzarella
    • American
    • parmesan
    • cream cheese (occasionally)

     

    Cereal

    • Only when I can find them for less than $1.50 a box.
    		 Condiments

    • jelly/jam
    • catsup
    • mayonnaise
    • mustard
    • salsa
    • pickles

    I make most of my salad dressing, BBQ sauce, and jelly when I can find a free source of fruit.
    Fats

    • vegetable oil
    • olive oil
    • shortening
    • margarine
    • cooking spray
    		 Kitchen pantry
    Fruits

    Canned

    • peaches
    • pears
    • pineapple

    Fresh

    • apples
    • oranges
    • grapefruits
    • raisins

    Anything else when it’s on sale or free (strawberries, kiwi, pears, etc.)

    		 Grains

    • white flour
    • wheat flour
    • oatmeal
    • cornmeal
    • white rice
    • popcorn
    • grits
    • cream of wheat

     

    Juices

    • orange
    • lemon

     

    Meats

    • chicken (whole or parts, hardly ever boneless chicken breast) (.99 or less per pound)
    • ground beef
    • ground turkey
    • pork chops
    • ground pork
    • ham
    • bacon
    • round steak

    (As a general rule, I try not to pay more than $2.99 per pound for meat.)

    		 Milk

    • dry milk
    • whole milk
    • evaporated milk
    • sweeten condensed milk
      (occasionally)

     

    Pasta

    • pre-packaged macaroni and cheese
    • spaghetti
    • macaroni
    Seasonings and Flavorings

    • maple extract
    • peppermint extract
    • vanilla
      (I make my own with vanilla beans and vodka)
    • bouillon
    • Worcestershire sauce
    • spices and herbs
    		 Sugar

    • white sugar
    • brown sugar
    • powdered sugar
    • honey
    • corn syrup
    Vegetables

    • onions
    • potatoes
    • instant mashed potatoes
    • carrots
    • frozen broccoli
    • canned green beans
    • canned and frozen corn
    • green pepper
    • mushrooms ( purchased on sale)
    		 Miscellaneous Canned Goods

    • spaghetti sauce
    • whole tomatoes
    • diced tomatoes
    • olives
    • tomato soup
    • cream of mushroom soup
    • cream of chicken soup
    • ramen noodles
    • pork and beans
    • pumpkin
    • Tabasco sauce
    • peanut butter
    • dried beans (hubby likes beans)

    [dining]

     

     

  • Use a Dresser to Organize Your Garage!

    Use a Dresser to Organize Your Garage!

    It seems like organizing your garage can be a never ending task. Here’s a way to simplify garage organization by using an old dresser to organizing the garage! (more…)

  • Reader Comments about “Get Dressed!”

    Reader Comments about “Get Dressed!”

    Getting dressed first thing every day can totally change your life! Here is a reader comment posted in response to the story “Improve Your Life Right Away — Get Dressed!“ (more…)

  • Dream Laundry Room Ideas

    Dream Laundry Room Ideas

    Dream Laundry Room Ideas

    Dream Laundry Room Ideas

    From: Cindy M
    This is an idea for handling laundry/clothes that I wish I would have used when my kids were still at home. It would require a good-size laundry room but save a lot of bedroom space. There would be cubbies for everyone – socks, underwear, t-shirts, jeans, anything foldable would go in the cubbies – being folded straight out of the dryer. This would eliminate the need for dressers in the bedroom and the space they would take up. Hanging clothes could either go on a rack in the laundry room if space allows, or in the bedroom closets.

    I have to admit this would be my dream laundry room! Since my laundry room barely has room for me stand in I dream of this type of a laundry room everyday! LOL Tawra

    My dream laundry room would have an eight foot long and four foot deep table that is the perfect height to fold my clothes on easily with the cubbies and rods above it to place things as I fold them. It also would have a place to keep the ironing board up all the time with a rod and cubbies by it to hang the clothes on. Last but not least it would have a rack to hang all those things like dirty dish rags or towels which need to dry before you dump them in the hamper.

    To be honest I love laundry so much I wouldn’t mind dedicating one whole floor to a laundry room. I wonder if more people would enjoy doing it if they didn’t have to do it all in a little 5×3 closet all the time. Cooking and doing laundry are two of the main “have to do” things done in a home and yet they always make theses little tiny rooms to do it in but we create these bathrooms that are so big you could play tennis in them.

    I mean how much room do you need to sit on a toilet or stand at a sink to wash your face??? They give you an 8 foot vanity just to brush your hair and put on make up and often don’t give you even one foot of space to fold clothes.

    They even are now giving you an area in the bathroom so you can have a couch to sit and read on. I’m sorry but I can think of much more pleasant places I would rather read then laying and looking at a toilet that 4 male members of my family just used.  Makes no sense to me. Although if you are a mom with 4 little ones under the age of 5 that might be your only place to relax. : ) : )

    Jill

  • How To Stay Organized

    How To Stay Organized

    Try these quick and easy organizing tips you can use to stay organized every day. Staying organized will reduce stress and let you focus on other things! (more…)

  • 7 Tips To Keep Your Home Clean And Organized

    7 Tips To Keep Your Home Clean And Organized

    Try these quick and easy tips to keep your home clean and organized! These are just a few simple ideas, but you’ll be surprised what a difference they make! (more…)

  • 25 Practical Tips To Help You Get Organized

    25 Practical Tips To Help You Get Organized

    It’s time to get organized! Here are 25 easy practical and specific tips to help you start getting organized and to make organizing as easy as possible!

    Time to get organized! Here are 25 easy practical tips to help you start getting organized and to make organizing as easy as possible!

    25 Practical Tips To Help You Get Organized

    If you missed Get Organized Part 1, you can find it here.

    One of the main excuses we use to avoid getting organized is that we don’t know where to start. We can become so overwhelmed that it can actually paralyze us mentally so that we can’t figure out what to do. I was at that point myself the day after Christmas this year. Boy did I have a mess, plus my Chronic Fatigue Syndrome was really bad. I was caught in a vicious cycle. I was too sick to clean, but sitting in a mess was making me worse and I was desperate to get organized.

    Finally, I decided I needed to practice what I preached and, using sheer grit, I made up my mind to start to get organized by just cleaning off just my fireplace mantle. While I was doing that, I noticed some other things in other areas that I didn’t want to forget to box up, so I started gathering those things together. Then I figured I might as well bring in the boxes for the things I had just gathered. One thing led to another and before I knew it I had cleared most of my living room.

    Just find one small area to get organized and start working on it. You usually feel so good just getting that one area done that you become motivated to do a little more and then a little more. It doesn’t matter what area it is in life. Whether it is dealing with debt, losing weight, getting organized or something else, stop looking at the whole picture. I’m not saying that you should live in denial, but when it’s time to get the job done, you’ll just get overwhelmed if you keep looking at the whole picture. Pick one small area and work on it. Once you have mastered it, then you can move on to the next one.

    Instead of saying I’m going to clean all the closets in the house, just decide to clean one closet or if it is really bad, decide to do just one shelf in that closet. The same goes for the kitchen or any room. Start with one shelf at a time.

    It would be impossible to cover everything about how to get organized in just one article, but here are some tips to help you get started. These ideas aren’t in any particular order and some are short tips and others are longer. I hope they help you.

    General Points to Get Organized:

    • If you are sick or are having trouble getting motivated to get organized, try my 5 minute trick. I make myself get up and clean during the 5 minute commercial on TV. For example, I try to bring in the laundry off of the line, wash my dishes or pick up a room. That way, when I’m not feeling good I don’t overdo it but, at the same time, I feel like I am accomplishing something.
    • Start organizing the easiest area to clean or the area that is bugging you the most.
    • Work quickly. Don’t pick up that cute snowman your child drew and ooh and ahh over it for 10 minutes trying to decide what to do with it. Either toss it or put it in the “memories” box.
    • Have boxes and trash bags ready to use. I designate boxes for “items to give away”, “things to pack”, “things that go in another room” and “trash”. Once you have filled a box or trash bag, set it outside of the room. This makes it easier to see what still needs to be sorted, gives you more space in the room to work and gives you the feeling that your are getting somewhere.
    • When you first start to get organized, do a quick once over in the room. Quickly go through and pick up all obvious trash and take out very large items that don’t belong there.
    Time to get organized! Here are 25 easy practical tips to help you start getting organized and to make organizing as easy as possible!

    Quick Ideas to Give Your Organizing a Jump Start:

    • Make your bed. (2 minutes) Don’t assume that this will take too long. Some people spend more time trying to decide what to eat at a restaurant than it takes to make a bed.
    • Wash dishes and clean counters (depending on the level of the mess, 15 minutes to an hour)
    • Designate a spot for keys, purse, backpacks, shoes and coats.
    • Clear off the dining room table. If it is really bad, clear off the easy stuff and put the rest in a box to sort later while you’re watching TV.
    • Quickly go through the house and pick up all items of clothing. Hang them up or put them in the hamper.
    • With a trash bag, go through the house and pick up obvious trash.

    You’ll probably be surprised to see how much difference toward getting organized it makes just getting the trash and clothes picked up… You should be able to do all the above things easily in a couple of hours on the first day. Then make sure you keep doing them each day. If you did a good job the first day, it should only take you about 15-20 minutes each day after that to keep it picked up.

    Deep Cleaning or Organizing

    • Start organizing one shelf or closet at a time. Don’t flit from one room or closet to the next.
    • The main idea here is to purge! Get rid of it. Toss it out. Call it whatever you like. Just stop holding on to this stuff.
    • If it is not adding to or making your life easier, get rid of it.
    • If it is ugly and doesn’t work, toss it. (No I’m not talking about your husbands… now ladies we must be good ;-).
    • If you don’t use it or if it was the wrong thing or the wrong color, throw it out, sell it or give it away. I don’t care how much you originally paid for it. Why are you keeping it — to punish yourself for making a mistake?
    • Don’t use the excuse that “It will take too long to get organized now, so I will do it later.” I was waiting for something to cook on the stove the other day and, once again, noticed that my spice shelf was a mess. I thought, “I really need to clean that,” but my very next thought was “No, it will take too long.” Then this little voice said, “You know, you can have it done before your sauce is finished cooking.” Don’t you just hate it when you hear those voices like that?! Sure enough, it only took me about 3 minutes to do it.

    Find out where your “mess spots” are, think about why they are that way and find ways to change them. (I know with some of you, your whole house may be the trouble spot! :-)

    Here are some examples of how to get organized and stay that way:

    • I kept piling Kleenex, small bits of paper and other trash on the corner of my dresser. It drove me crazy. Why did I keep doing that? Because that was where I stood to empty out my pants pockets before I tossed them into the clothes hamper. The solution: I put a small trash can on the floor by that spot so I could easily drop everything into the trash can instead of the dresser.
    • Do you always have trash overflowing around the kitchen trash can? Start emptying it twice a day instead of once a day or buy a larger can.
    • Are you usually frustrated about stepping over mounds of clothes each time you walk into the bathroom? Make it a rule that no one can get dressed or undressed in the bathroom. Buy everyone robes. Get undressed in the bedroom, put on your robe, walk to the bathroom, shower, put on robe and go back to the bedroom to get dressed. This is also a great way to free up bathroom time in the morning if everyone has to share a bathroom.
    • Do you have a cabinet in your kitchen that starts an avalanche every time you open the door? Ask yourself these questions: Do I really need everything that is in this cabinet? Could I get by with 15 plastic cups instead of 35. Could part or all of what is in this cabinet be put someplace else? I keep all of my mugs on one shelf. In some homes, I haven’t had room to do that, so I would keep 8 mugs that I used virtually every day on that shelf and then put the extra mugs in a less accessible place. Then I didn’t have to fight 15 mugs falling all over each time I opened the cabinet.
    • Organize any cabinet this way. If your canned goods keep falling all over, try storing only 4 cans on the one shelf and putting the rest in another place, like a higher cabinet, another room or the garage.
    • This applies to organizing other rooms besides the kitchen. My bathroom doesn’t have much storage space, so I keep all my extra toiletries for the bathroom in a basket in my bedroom closet and keep only the item I am using now on my bathroom shelf.
    • Use the same method for organizing linens and clothes. If you don’t have a linen closet, store extra linens or guest linens in a guest room or spare bedroom. Also, store the sheets in the bedroom where they will be used.

    Read Getting Organized Part 3
    Clothes, Laundry and Toys

    For more helpful tips to get organized and making cleaning and laundry easier, check out our organizing e-book set:

    [organizing]

  • Preventing Bills From Getting Lost

    I thought I’d share a short post about preventing your bills from getting lost. If you keep things organized you can save money on fees and reduce the stress of worrying about bills being late.

    Margaret Writes:

    Our bills are sorted by date–the due date is written on the envelope. Then the pile is organized by due date, with the ones due soonest on top. These are paper clipped in the checkbook. Top bill gets paid first.

          -Margaret

    My system is similar. I line my bills in order in a napkin holder (one that just has 2 bars to hold the napkins because I can see the bills easier), with my checkbook behind them.

     

    (more…)

  • Are You a Slave to Debt?

    Are You a Slave to Debt?

    Are You a Slave to Debt? Land of the Free and Home of the Brave?

    We Americans are proud of our freedom and our opposition to tyranny and slavery, but because of lack of self discipline, most of us are not free at all. We are enslaved by our emotions and our debt. Most of us would never consider agreeing to become indentured servants and yet, by our own lack of self discipline, many of us have sold ourselves into slavery. Have you ever thought about the fact that indentured servants usually had to work 7 years for their freedom and people who claim bankruptcy have black marks on their credit for 7 years? Are you a slave to debt?

    By now all those well meaning New Year’s resolutions have flown out the window, but don’t despair: all is not completely lost. Here are a few money saving tips and ideas that will get you back on track, save you money and will actually work.

    You say “I don’t want to be a slave to debt but I don’t know where to begin.” Just begin. Don’t over-think it. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to know that you have to stop spending more than you earn.

    Have you ever told your child to go pick up the toys in their room only to have them start whining and crying, “But I don’t know what to do.” It’s frustrating to hear that in a child because you and I both know an eight year old knows he’s supposed to put his toys away and his dirty clothes in the hamper. He just doesn’t want to do it. That whining and excuse making in an adult is even harder to take. As in a child, it’s just an excuse to get out of doing something we don’t want to do. Stop spending more than you earn.

    Stop living a life of fear. Remember if you’re an American you live in the land of the free and the home of the BRAVE. There are two things that always amaze me. The first is grown adults that cower before a child a quarter their size and who is throwing a fit while demanding to buy a toy. The second is to watch a grown adult cower when looking at a desk or table piled with papers and bills. It’s just a bunch of paper, not a snake that is going to reach out and bite you. Be brave and start dealing with the papers and bills. Get them in order. Yes you may have to face some mistakes and things you don’t want to think about, but do it anyway. Then get on with your life. You don’t have to be a slave to debt! Learn from your mistakes and don’t make them again.

    Here are a few suggestions to get that overwhelming pile of papers under control:

    Quickly look at each paper and lay it into one of these 4 categories:

    1. TRASH – Throw out and/or shred immediately.
    2. FILES – Put in a box and set by file cabinet to sort and put in order some other day.

    3. BILLS – Sort them in order by the date that they are due. If things are really out of control write down a list of all your bills and how much you owe. This will help give you a reality check of where you stand with your bills. You need to be brave and honest with this.

      Using some common sense, start paying those bills. Pay your bills first. For a while, that may mean you have no money left for fun and entertainment, but that is the sacrifice you make for freedom.

    4. CORRESPONDENCE – Put correspondence in a pile. Read and deal with it after you have your bill pile out of the way.

    If you are a slave to debt, it’s time to get angry and say enough is enough. I will no longer be enslaved and start fighting for my freedom from debt, even if my biggest enemy is myself!

    Jill

    From: Dig Out Of Debt. For more easy and practical ways to save money and get out of debt, check out Dig out Of Debt and learn more about how to keep more of your money and free yourself from being a slave to debt!

  • Using Wrapping Paper Scraps

    Using Wrapping Paper Scraps

    wrapped christmas present - gift wrap

    Using Wrapping Paper Scraps

    I was cleaning out my wrapping paper today and had a bunch of “pieces” of wrapping paper. You know– all of the ends you cut off and hate to throw away. Well, recently I have been getting everything organized again. The wrapping paper has been driving me nuts so I decided to tackle it.

    I was trying to figure out what to do with all the those wrapping paper scraps. Yes, you can use them to wrap small gifts but it seems like they just multiply. The kids are getting a large gift from their grandmother in Colorado that I will need to wrap, so I’m going to take all those pieces and make a quilt type wrapping with all the scraps. That way, I will use the wrapping paper scraps and get them out of my hair! Yeah!!!!

    Here’s another tip: When purchasing large items like coats or bigger toys, be sure to ask for extra large bags to bring them home. These make great trash can liners! You will be able to save on buying trash bags!

    Tawra

     

    Have you ever had a wrapping paper that you just loved and only have a small piece left? It is often too small to wrap anything. I will take a large package and wrap it in tissue paper or solid paper of some kind. Then I will carefully cut out the figures or part of the little piece of wrapping paper I loved and glue it to the tissue wrapped package.

    I also once had a little piece of snowman paper I loved but not enough to use for wrapping gifts, so I made what I call “Santa” sacks for my grandkids. I cut out the snowmen from the wrapping paper. Then I took small brown paper sacks and glued one on each one of my sacks. Then I filled the paper Santa sacks with goodies for the kids. I don’t do this with all my scraps of paper; just my special ones.

    Jill

     

    Photo By: voxtheory

  • Organizing Kids’ Rooms

    Organizing Kids’ Rooms

    Organizing Kids' Rooms

    Organizing Kids’ Rooms

    I posted a few tips about getting kid’s rooms decluttered but once you get it together, how do you get them to keep it that way?

    One thing is to place a chart at their eye level. We often put the chore charts in the kitchen, which is fine, but you might consider putting a chore chart with just bedroom chores in their rooms. Write or place pictures of things like make your bed, pick up clothes, pick up toys and so on and, as with other charts, be sure to give lots of praise, stars or stickers when they do a good job. Kids tend to respond better to things that are put in writing (or in pictures) than they do with barked orders.

    Train your kids. Show them how to do a chore. Then show them again and then show them again and again and again. We often think if we show children something once, twice or even three times they should be able to do it on their own but they can’t always learn things that fast. When I start a new job, if they show me how to do a job I have never done before for just one or two days, I can’t always get it. I would become very overwhelmed, discouraged and stressed. A good company will train you for at least two weeks every day. Our children need the same training and more.

    Be specific when you tell a child to do something. Their idea of a clean room and yours are worlds apart. If you say, “Pick up your room,” don’t be surprised if they pick up two things and call it good. You need to say something like, “Pick up everything off of your floor.”

    Work with your children. Whether you are an adult or child, you feel so much more motivated to do a job when you have someone helping you or encouraging you on. How many of you come to our website for encouragement and motivation? Children need encouragement from their parents so when you can, work together on their rooms, especially if they need a big clean up.

    Make any cleaning up project a game. I was watching my grandkids today while Tawra was at the doctor’s office and told the boys I would race them to see if they could pick up all of the toys in the living room before I cleared the kitchen table and counters. You never saw any kids move as fast as they did trying to beat me. Of course I let them win.

    I also get them to see if they can clean their rooms in less then 10 minutes or we all see how fast we can pick up 10, 15, 20 items.

    We all do a better job if we have the proper tools, so buy small sized cleaning things for them like little brooms, dust pans, small dust rags (socks made into hand puppets are fun) and stools so they can reach things.

    The biggest factor in helping control kids’ rooms is to get rid as much excess stuff as you can. They don’t need 50 race cars, 25 dolls or a shoe box crammed full of crayons. I used to have one box of 24 crayons in my room and you had better believe I took care of them because I didn’t want to lose that “special” color. If you don’t think your children have that many things, lay out their dolls, cars and other toys and count how many they have. I think you will be shocked.

    Be sure to check out our Saving With Kids e-Book Series for many more tips like these.

    Warning: Don’t become discouraged. It may be that only a couple of tips from this article may work for you. It has been a never ending battle throughout the ages (well maybe for the last 50 years) to get kids to pick up their rooms and to find functional ways to store things. Bigger people than I have tried to find the answer and so far have failed. Even if they get the storage down to a science, getting the kids to use the storage has failed.

    The main thing to keep in mind is not to give up. It takes patience, time and work. This is one area where you won’t see the rewards of your hard work for many years – like about 20-30 years, but it will happen. It comes when your 20 year old son takes your trash out without being told. You sit there in amazement and wonder, “When and how did this happen?” Then there is the phone call from your daughter bemoaning the fact she can’t get the kids to keep their rooms clean.

    Ahhhh, the sweet sweet rewards of seeing your offspring being tortured in the same way they tortured you years earlier! : ) : ) : )

           -Jill

  • 5 Minutes to Organized

    5 Minutes to Organized

    Hi I really appreciated reading how to clean and organize in 5 minutes. Timing yourself to do tasks is a great idea – I never thought about it quite in that way.

    I have done something similar – for example, if I am waiting for something to heat up in the microwave (my coffee) – I think to myself that I have “found” 1 minute to do something – so I clean the front of the microwave, or take the rubbish out – some little chore rather than standing there watching the coursel go round. 

    It almost becomes a little game – gee – it only took me x seconds to do that. Also, I use ad breaks – another slot of “found” time.  When I have stuff to do, I will watch a TV program, and the start of the ads is my signal to get up and do a little chore.  For example, I might have the dish washing to do (I don’t own a dishwasher), so in the first ad break, I run the water and put the glasses in to soak.  In the next break, I wash the glasses and put the plates in to soak and so on.  It’s amazing how much gets done.  Or, you can do a little bit of dusting or vacuuming in the break.

    Cheers for now Kate in Cleveland, Queensland, Australia

     

    Hello Kate,

    I love to hear from our readers from down under. As a matter of fact I am reading yet another book that is set in Australia. I just love to read about your country.

    I did the same type of thing you mentioned when I was really sick. I couldn’t clean the whole bathroom but I would make myself get up and clean the sink during the first 5 minute TV commercial and then the toilet during the next. That way I didn’t over do but at the same time I manage to get huge amounts done. I totally agree with what you said. Thanks, Jill

     

  • Organizing Tips

    Organizing Tips

    • On those exhausting days or the days when you’re too late getting home to fix dinner, have a breakfast night and let each person pick their own favorite frozen breakfast food . If you have the strength, fry some ham or bacon and cut up some fresh fruit .
    • Anyone who works in an office knows the best way to get a good start on the next day is to leave your desk clear that evening before you go home. The same goes at home. If you want a good start to your day, make sure your kitchen sink is empty, the counters are clear and the table is cleared off and wiped.

     

    photo by: kitchendesigner

  • Frugal Living – Is It Too Time Consuming?

    Frugal Living – Is It Too Time Consuming?

    Is Frugal Living Too Time Consuming?

    When people ask me about getting out of debt, they often ask “Doesn’t frugal living take quite a bit more time than not living frugally?” Of course, doing work yourself does mean you spend more time doing certain things, but frugal living also means that you will spend a lot less time and money working to pay someone else to do it. Many people work more hours to pay someone else to do a job than it would take them to do it themselves. Of course, if you make a million dollars a year and have no manual dexterity, this article is not for you.

    Here are some practical frugal living examples based on my own experience with a family of 4. Because your household income is probably not the same as mine, some things that make sense for me will not make sense for you. I suggest that you read my examples and consider your actual costs.

    Example #1: Buying clothes- One great way to save money on clothes is to go to garage sales. This seems very time consuming to many people, but it really isn’t. In the summer, I usually spend 3-4 hours every 2 weeks (May – September) going to garage sales. That may seem like a lot, but if you compare that to how much time the average person spends shopping at the mall, it really isn’t any longer.

    Example #2: Meals- Frugal living can really save you money and stress when it comes to meals. I usually average an hour and a half each day preparing and cleaning up from meals. Compare that to going out to eat: It takes the typical person 20 minutes to drive to the restaurant and 20 minutes to return home. That is 40 minutes. Then you spend 15-20 minutes ordering and waiting for your order. You are now up to one hour. If you plan an hour for eating, you are up to two hours total. Don’t forget the 2-3 hours you had to work to pay for it! This assumes an income of $30,000 per year and a $40 family meal.

    If you go to fast food restaurants instead, you could cut your time down to 40-50 minutes and 1-2 hours working to pay for it.

    If you stay home and cook, it will cost you 15-30 minutes preparing the meal and less than $5 paying for it. I’m not saying that you should never eat out but, that if you do it regularly, it will cost you a lot more (in time and money). Is it really worth it?

    Example #3: Buying a car- If you buy a new car with $500 a month payments for 5 years, you pay $30,000. Let’s say you earn $30,000 per year at your job. If you assume 25% income tax, you must earn $40,000 to pay for your $30,000 car. This means that you have to work 1 year and 4 months for no other reason but to pay for that car. Is it really worth working over one year just to pay for a new car? If you decided to buy a $7500 car instead, you could afford to take a vacation from work for a year. Haven’t you been saying you need more free time? (If you didn’t get that, get out your calculator and do the math. This is important.)

    Always consider the hidden costs, too. Would you feel more inclined to buy a security system for that $30,000 car? How much will that cost? Are the parts more expensive for the $30,000 car when it breaks down? Trust me, your new car will still break down almost as much as a used car. Ask my brother…

    Be very careful when you start saying things like “Doesn’t frugal living take too much time?” or “I can’t seem to find time to be with my husband or children” or “I don’t know where to start saving.” Often, those are excuses that you have created to ease your guilt. If you think about it and do the math, living simply will give you more free time. If you’d rather not, you can always keep spending money and wishing you had more family time. It’s your choice! But take heart- if you have read this far then you get and A+ for taking the first step and trying!

          -Tawra

    For more easy and practical frugal living tips to help you save money and get out of debt, check out Dig out Of Debt and learn more about how to keep more of your money.

     

    photo by: Robbert van der Steeg