As I type, I’m looking at a very unorganized dining room table. There’s toys, loads of candles, mail, and other “stuff” that needs to be put in it’s place. It’s become the dumping ground for all we didn’t want to just throw on the floor. This week’s challenge is about cleaning off the “dumping table”. This could be your kitchen table, dining room table, coffee table, or side table inside a door. Go ahead and clean it off right this minute. Didn’t take all that long, did it? Now the REAL challenge is keeping it clean. Every time you think about just tossing something down on that particular table, stop yourself. Don’t toss it in another place either – just put it away. A simple step that takes less than a minute, but has a dramatic effect on the organization of your...
Since I kinda blew my New Year’s resolution to work on one room of the house per week, I decided I needed to try this again. My house is still quite unorganized and in need of serious help. So instead of trying to force myself to clean like a mad man every day, I’m picking one day of the week to get just one job done. And the job is not an “every day” task like dishes, sweeping, or anything else I do everyday. Sound like a challenge? This week I’ve decided I need to get caught up on my laundry. Not so much washing, but putting away. We’ve got a huge pile of folded clothes in the laundry room that need to be put away once and for all. If we can get caught up, it will be a whole lot easier to SAY caught up. Not long ago I caught up on washing the clothes and it’s stayed that way for at least a month...
It’s about that time of year – time to starting thinking of great vegetable garden ideas! I can’t wait for it to be warm enough to start, how about you? Normally our garden is set up as a salsa garden. Basically you’ll find tomatoes, jalapenos, and green peppers. Sometimes we’ll grow red peppers too, and dry them (those plants produce quite a bit – far more than you’ll ever use in one year!). Tomatoes we always have an abundance of as well, and I’m tired of chopping them. Instead of our normal garden, I think it’s time for something different. Last fall we really got into the pumpkins both for pie and for decorating. So this year we might just plant two different types of pumpkins and see how that goes. Our main garden area is big enough to let them take over, so why not? I might sneak...
Before I dive in, let me first state this is my personal opinion only. I don’t claim to be a specialist in anything, but I AM a parent. Based on how I was raised, and how my children are, I can give you an honest opinion on the subject. Do be sure to seek out opinions of others as well. Personally I believe that yes, children should get paid for some chores one way or another. I believe we are setting them up for the real world, where their hard work is paid for with a job. I also believe by making them do certain chores, we are also creating independent adults who will take care of their own house. I think when you reward them for good deeds it keeps things in balance. Most don’t hesitate to punish bad behavior, but we often forget to reward when they behave. Paying them for good behavior (doing their chores) IS a reward. Some...
If you were looking for the weekly update last week, you didn’t find it. Yes I slacked off, lost my focus, and didn’t make any plans last week. Actually, I started to slip a little before that too. I was suppose to be cleaning this front room/living room two weeks ago. Some of it DID get done – I did manage to clean off the shelf above the TV. After that I’m not sure what happened. It might of been I was just consumed with cleaning the house as a whole, and trying to maintain some sort of non-trashiness in here. Maybe I just got lazy. I’m not sure. Regardless, I’m going to just start again where I left off. One minor setback is not going to keep me from hitting the goal of having a totally organized house. The goal for this week – clean this main room. The desk, the coloring book/crayon area, and...
Here we are with another week gone by. Last week I focused on the laundry room in hopes I’d get a little more organization in there. Unfortunately, I’ve fallen short. What I did not realize in that room was how much laundry there really was to be done (I dread seeing my water bill next month, it’s not going to be pretty). I also didn’t realize what a mess of laundry I had waiting to be put away. It didn’t matter how much I put away, it all kept coming back! Which is the case with laundry I know, but trying to “catch up” made my head spin. I’m not discouraged nor do I see this as a failure. Laundry is a time consuming task. But what I did get done is pretty amazing. See I have a tall hamper and regular sized laundry basket in there for dirty clothes. Before I started, the hamper was overflowing...
If you’ve been following my story about getting the house organized, you might benefit greatly from this ebook. I absolutely fell in love with this ebook the first time I saw it, because I knew once I was ready to really dive in, it would be very valuable to me. The ebook gives you tips for every room in the house, including the garage, basement, and even closets. But it doesn’t stop at tips for organizing – it goes one step further and teaches you how to STAY organized. For me staying organized is the biggest challenge. Interested? Be sure to check out Organizing Your Home at Idea Queen! Read More →
Here we are already in the first week of organizing the house. If you read the first post on this, you’ll know I started with the bathroom last week. While it might seem a bit lazy to only pick one room a week, it actually isn’t a bad idea. Instead of being overwhelmed with all I need to do in one room in one day, I was able to just do a little at a time each day. This helped to not become so overwhelmed and prevented me from quitting. It also helped to form a daily habit of organizing and cleaning each day. So after the first week, I have a completely clean bathroom. It was wonderful to walk into this morning first thing and see it clean. No clothes on the floor, no smudges on the mirror. I had to peek into my closets again to see how great they both looked. I was lucky to already have two very deep closets (one with shelves,...
While technically I don’t believe in setting “New Years Resolutions”, I have decided it’s high time my house gets organized. So I’ve made a plan to get my rear in gear and get this house organized once and for all. I’ve always been good with coming up with the ideas and plans, but I lack motivation for action. It could be I’m just overwhelmed and don’t know where to start – so I don’t. Either that or I lose interest have way through my ideas and plans, or get distracted by the next big idea. Regardless, I want to stick with this goal. Plus who knows, maybe posting this in public will help keep me accountable! So here’s the plan – the house needs to be deep cleaned and decluttered. All of it. Every single room in the house is a mess, and needs something done. HUGE jobs...
Finally, the kids are back in school and we’re back to some sort of normal around here. The house seems to be back in order, and the tree is already put away. Since two sets of family come here for Christmas and we usually entertain on New Years, Christmas vacation is usually spent cleaning and organizing. The tree comes down shortly after Christmas to make room for New Year’s celebrations, and all new toys find a home very quickly. Unfortunately, I had planned to do some rearranging and organizing over our vacation and that just didn’t get done. I won’t bore you with details as to why, but the kids “together toys” need to be moved into a new area. Thankfully the number of “together toys” are decreasing very quickly as they get older, so there’s not a whole lot to move. I’ve realized...
