Children's Artwork

My children produce a TON of artwork daily. I love it all, I really do, but if I don't get rid of some of it, it will take over the house! I've tried having my children help choose which works of art to save and which to "pass along for someone else to enjoy", but that just brought hurt feelings.

What works for me is to stack up all of the artwork in a location that's out of sight with the hopes of out of sight, out of mind. This may sound very un-mommyish, but after a week or so, if I haven't been asked for any of those pieces of art, they go out in the trash. I felt like the world's worst mom the first time I threw away some of my kids' creations. Now, it still isn't fun, but I know that I can't possibly keep it all. I am very careful to date and save any handprints or footprints my children do, though. Those go straight to the kids' memory bins. I also tend to hang onto drawings of the family or self-drawings.

One idea I've heard from other moms involves scanning artwork into the computer to use as a screen saver or to save on disk. I may have to try that sometime.

How do you manage your children's artwork?

Saving Envelopes

Here's a quick thought for the day to get your mind going on how you can repurpose items. Well, this time it isn't truly repurposing an item, but you get the idea.

We choose to receive our bills in paper form. We like to have a hard copy on file to refer to later if needed. Most companies, however, will allow you to pay online for no additional cost. We'll generally go that route to save on the cost of the check and postage. I was throwing away the envelope and inserts until this week.

My 5 year old is often asking for envelopes to put things in. I hate to "waste" an envelope so he has one to use, but I also hate to stifle his creativity. I had an "aha" moment earlier this week. I now pull out any return envelopes from bills and place them in a bin for the kids. They now can use envelopes to their heart's content. I now have less paper waste and am saving money because I'm no longer having to buy so many envelopes. A winner all around!

Efficiency = Found Time

I usually start each day with a list of things I want to get done that day. I don't always accomplish the goal of crossing everything off that list, but I like to try. I can be really bad about not using every last minute to my advantage. Now, I don't mean that I have to be working all the time, but if I want to read a book, why not read a page here, a few there instead of not even trying?

It was 40 minutes until I needed to pick my daughter up from preschool today. My youngest needed a nap, but there was no way to squeeze one in before we needed to leave. I started to get into "hang out" mode to wait until it was time to leave. That's when it hit me. Yes, it's obvious, but why not get one task done before picking "Princess" up instead of waiting until afterwards? Um, hello?

I packed "Little Guy" into the minivan, and cruised on down to the library to return the books that were due today. I managed to get to "Princess's" school with time to spare. This extra time usually goes wasted, but not today. Today I thought ahead and brought along a sweatshirt that needed some sewing done to fix it. Voila! Lost time, found!

I was so impressed with my thinking ahead that I think I'm going to try to make a habit of it. I think I'll keep something I need to do in the minivan so I can be more efficient. Efficiency = found time!

This must be receipt week!

I don't know why I am doing so many receipt posts this week. I must have receipts on the brain! I'd mentioned before how important it can be to hang onto receipts. Well, it's equally important to check your receipt after each purchase, and here's why:

I've purchased chicken at the grocery store before and was overcharged for all three. I stopped at the customer service desk on my way out. That particular grocery store will give you an item for free if it rings up wrong. They only do that on the first of any particular item, but not only did I get back the extra I'd paid, but I received one of them for free. Wahoo! That saved me (with the freebie and overcharges refunded) about $5.00!

After eating at one of my favorite fast food restaurants, my husband handed me our receipt and pointed out the survey request. I'm guilty about not looking closely at fast food restaurant receipts, but I'll be more observant from here on out. I filled out an online survey in less than 5 minutes and will get a free chicken sandwich for my time. The best part was that my hubby and I ordered our food at different times, so we get two free chicken sandwiches!

Do you check your receipts? What's been the best deal you've received because of checking your receipt?

Funny Thing for Today...

I used to be the type of person who wouldn't buy anything unless I knew for sure that it was exactly what I wanted. I have fortunately been broken of that habit. With kids in tow, sometimes it's more important for me to just grab and go and hope whatever I bought works. This method of shopping has led me to become quite acquainted with the return process.

Recently I was back at Target to make yet another return. I hauled my bag and receipt up to the return counter, went through the return process, then continued on to do the shopping I needed to do that day. I didn't think anything of that day's return until yesterday.

Yesterday I was going through our receipts and breaking them down into the categories in which we made our purchases. (We like to track our spending in each category.) I entered the Target receipt into Quicken and started to file away the receipt until I noticed what it was that I had returned - a toilet seat and a utensil tray. Although the seat was unused and still in its packaging, I had still placed both items in the same bag. Yes, call me strange for even thinking anything of it, but ewww! At least I wasn't going to be needing that utensil tray!

Toys, Toys, and More Toys!

Oh my gosh do my kids have tons of toys! Granted, it does look a bit worse because most of our kids' toys are in one room in the basement, but holy cow! It's actually rather embarrassing. When you have three children of different ages and both boys and a girl, it's hard to get rid of toys.

I hit my, "We need to get rid of some of these toys!" point the other day. I tend to develop attachments to things until I start to get stressed out because of the clutter. At that point, everything is fair game! When I told the kids we needed to start cleaning up and they were complaining that there was too much, I knew some of these much-loved toys needed to go. I have a really hard time throwing away perfectly good items. I hate to feel wasteful, so I'll always garage sale, donate to Goodwill, or Freecycle something that I think still has a lot of life in it.

I did throw away all of those little kids' meal toys that just clutter up the place. Then, I pulled out some of the lesser used toys. We have so many kids' items, that I think we'll actually have a garage sale this year. To make preparing for a garage sale easier, I wrote prices for each toy on a sheet of paper that I tucked in the bag with the toys. Now, when garage sale time rolls around, we just have to write the price on some tape and stick it to the toy. (Okay, so in reality, my husband will be doing that because if I do it, I'll start to second-guess myself.)

You know, I just had a realization. Part of the reason I feel bad about getting rid of the kids' toys is that someone spent time and hard earned money to purchase each toy for the kids. Here's my "aha!" idea... I think I'll have my dear hubby keep track of how much money is earned from selling the toys. Once it's all done, we can split that amount of money into three, and deposit it into each of our kids' savings accounts. It's the best of both worlds. We don't have toys laying around that aren't being used, and the kids have extra savings because of those toys.

Now there are still a ton of toys in the kids' play area, but there's plenty of time until our garage sale to weed out a few more toys. Just don't tell my kids!

Organize the Recycling?

Thursday was recycling day for us. I started recycling when we lived in Ohio where there were drop-off places you could easily drop off your recyclables. Where we live now, there are drop-off trucks at particular sites on particular days. Recycling is fantastic for us because it means we only have one garbage can worth of garbage a week, it's good for the environment, and it's free!

We used to just drop our recyclables in an old clothes hamper we had laying around. Now, though, unlike in Ohio, we have to sort our recyclables. This wasn't a big deal for me to do when dropping everything off until it started to get cold. I'd rather just dump and go! I started sorting our recyclables in plastic grocery bags and leaving those lying on the floor of the garage. Well, dear hubby wasn't too hot on that idea. I can't say I blame him. =) That was when he came up with a free and very basic idea. Check it out:

My dear hubby labeled clothes pins so we'd know which type recyclable goes in which bag. The hamper on the floor is for our cardboard, paper, and glass items. We bag the paper and glass and leave them in the hamper because they can be so heavy. Our system isn't pretty, but it's working quite well for us. We plan at some point to pick up bins to hang in our garage, but that's way down on our priority list.

Hmmm, this gives me an idea.... Maybe instead of my coming up with ideas of how to organize everything around here, I should have the kids and my hubby come up with their own ideas. Maybe if I let them get in on the action, they'll be more likely to help me keep everything organized.

I'll have to test that theory...

Reusable Grocery Lists

Once a week I have to deal with the dreaded job of grocery shopping. I guess in some ways I don't dislike grocery shopping, just sometimes the preparation can seemingly take forever. You know what I'm talking about if you're a couponer like me - find the deals, plan your meals, make the list, clip the coupons, etc., etc., etc. The time invested is worth it to save a ton of money, but I love anything that allows me to spend less time on the prep work.

To try to streamline my grocery shopping "experience", I made a list of the major items in each aisle at the grocery store. This way, I don't have to write everything down. I can just circle or highlight most of the items I need to buy.

This may sound silly to you, but it bugs me that I am wasting two sheets of paper each week just for my grocery list. The only problem is that if it's not written down, I won't remember it. I think I might have a solution. Here's hoping that it works!

I'm going to pick up some notecards - maybe I'll color-code them - in addition to a metal ring clip and something to help me sort of laminate them. I'm going to have one card per area / aisle, leaving space to write in extra items not on the list. Then I'll laminate them, or possibly just cover them with clear packaging tape. After that, I'm going to clip them all together using the metal ring. Before each shopping trip I'll mark my needed items on the note cards using a dry-erase marker.

The only potential problem I see is the items being wiped off by accident when the dry-erase marker rubs against something else. On the plus side, though as I buy each item, I can simply wipe it off the list. With the metal ring, I'll be able to attach my shopping list / cards to the cart so I won't lose it. I may see if I can attach a pouch of some type to keep the coupons that I'm using that shopping trip together so I won't lose them. (I'll still take my regular coupon pouch with me.)

Alright! I'm ready to get started! Unfortunately I need to wait until I go to the grocery store again to make sure I have all of the items listed in the correct order. Phooey! I'll let you know how it goes and will post a photo once I have it all made.

Do you have other ideas? Please share!

Organizing, Finances, Kids, & Changes, Oh My!

When I started this blog, I did it to encourage myself to get my house and life in order. I love to organize, so I thought this would be fun. Well, while I've been enjoying writing and feeling like I have a daily "job", I'm just not really happy with the direction in which I have started taking this blog. I'm no professional organizer, just a wanna-be, so I really want to back away from the path I was starting to go down - a bossy one! =)

In addition to enjoying organizing, I really enjoy saving money and seeing how far I can stretch a buck. My husband and I currently don't carry any debt other than our mortgage. (We've both been very lucky and very strategic with our money.) At a couple of points, though, we've leaned on our main credit cards. This may sound silly, but I really got a kick out of figuring out how we'd go about paying off the credit card and how quickly we could do it. Now, we were never in debt by much, but I enjoyed the challenge that debt offered.

One other topic I like to talk about and makes me happy is my family. I love to share stories about my kids in addition to hearing stories about others' kids. Our two very different dogs provide a bit of humor from time to time as well.

I guess what I'm saying is that I may take this blog in a whole other direction than I had initially planned. I think I might try to figure out how to mix these three interests of mine. I know, good luck, huh? Unfortunately, this blog itself likely won't be very "well organized" for a while. Hopefully it'll be more enjoyable to read with changing things up and me writing more in the same style that I talk.

What do you think? Anyone out there? =)

A Lazy Day...and Changes

We've already gotten so much organizing and decluttering done that it's about time we take a day off. It's hard to stay charged up to get things done when you never take a day off. Besides, that's the whole reason to get all of this organizing done - to have more time for everything else.

Also, after trying out my posting schedule for a few weeks, I think I'm going to change it up a little. I'm going to keep the schedule essentially the same, but instead of organizing an area on Wednesdays, I'm going to take that day to share about either a fun organizing product I've found, a great organizing post I read elsewhere, or to share wonderful organizing ideas I've gotten from you! Let me know what you think of the new schedule!

I hope you have a wonderful Friday! I'll be back tomorrow with my weekly review!

Today's task... enjoy the day!

Decluttering Your Purse

I know we've been working on our kitchens this week, but I'm going to change things up a little. I was digging through my purse the other day trying to find a particular receipt. There is so much stuff in my purse, it was rather embarrassing. What does your purse, diaper bag, and/or wallet look like?

What prompted the need to clean out my purse was lost money. Nope, I wasn't missing actual cash, but while looking for that darn receipt, I had missed a great opportunity to save money. Ugh, I hate that! You know how much I love loyalty programs for the "free" items we can get as a result of simply shopping for things we're going to buy anyway. Well, I had a coupon for $10 off any purchase at a store I shop at often for my kids' clothes. Because I didn't have a system for making sure I used the coupon, I forgot about it and lost out on $10 worth of free clothing, which we could use. UGH!!!

Time to dump everything out and start fresh. Honestly, while I don't care for the process of going through everything, I do love having a clean, organized purse. I'm going to file in this month's receipt file the receipts I don't need to keep in my purse. All of those extras pens are outta there! I only need two - one for use and a second pen for backup. Do I really need three lipsticks in my purse - especially since I rarely even remember to put it on anymore? Buh bye clutter!

Probably the main culprit for cluttering up my purse are all of those store coupons such as 20% off your purchase at _________ in addition to gift cards. I need a system for all of these coupons and cards because I don't want to miss out on any more opportunities to save money! (Let me explain that I hang onto these coupons for if I happen to need to purchase something at those particular stores. I don't buy things just because I have a coupon.) I have a coupon organizer for my regular coupons, but that would be too bulky for my purse. I have used envelopes in the past, but have still forgotten about money off coupons until it was too late.

I plan to place all of my gift cards in one particular compartment in my purse. At least then they will all be in one place. I just need to make a habit of checking it periodically to see what all is in there and use the gift cards when applicable.

As for those store-specific coupons, I think I'm going to use an envelope again to keep them all together in one place. This time, though, I'm going to use technology to my advantage to help me remember I have them - specifically the "free money" coupons such as $10 off your purchase of $10 or more. From this point on, I plan to make an entry in the calender on my phone and possibly even on a paper calendar about five days before the money off coupon expires. This way, I'll have a reminder if I forget the coupon is there, yet I'll still have five days to get to the store if I want to use the coupon.

Now that I have my coupons under control, it's time to put back in my purse everything that I actually need. Ahhhhhhh, much better!!! This may sound silly, but I'm so excited to finally have a plan to help me remember I have those fantastic "free money" coupons.

How about you? What have you done or are planning to to do to help keep your purse organized? I'd love to hear any ideas you may have!

Task for today...organize your purse - your shoulder will thank you for it!

Utensils and More

How are you feeling after going through your dishes and cups? Are you ready to tackle another part of the kitchen? I'm thinking that since it's the middle of the week, maybe we should do an easier task today. Sound good? It does to me! Today let's organize our utensil drawers!

As with all of the other kitchen areas we've organized, let's start by pulling everything out of the utensil drawer and giving the drawer a quick wipe-down. What all is in your utensil drawer? We fortunately only have our utensils and coupons in our drawer. I put some of our coupons there because to get to our regular coupon drawer, I have to go through a baby gate. It's just easier to put them in the utensil drawer. I guess it's time to start putting them where they belong!

I'm a huge fan of utensil organizers. My only problem is that we recently received new utensils that are too long for our organizer. I haven't been able to find a new one that's the right size. I'm thinking I may have to do some work in my dear hubby's "man cave". Hehehe. Just don't tell him!

Organizing this drawer is pretty much self-explanatory. Sometimes we all could use reminders to straighten it up from time to time, though.

Task for today: organize your utensil drawer

Receipts can help you save money!

Receipts can equal either clutter or savings. It's all in how well you are able to keep them organized. How can someone save money with receipts? I've learned a lot over the last few years and would love to share my thoughts and ideas with you. Some of these I've learned on my own, others I've learned through reading others' blogs.

Returns

You may not view saving your receipts in case you need to return an item as saving money, but I definitely do. Because I have young children, I don't get to leisurely shop anymore. Now, I tend to find what I think will work, make the purchase, and then return the item(s) if it / they don't work out.

Some stores can do receipt look-ups for you, which is wonderful. You bring the item back to you, and they'll find the receipt for you if the purchase was made in the past 3 months or so. I still recommend bringing in the receipt for returns, though, simply because it can make the return process go a little quicker.

One more reason to save your receipts, is that some stores will accept returns without a receipt, but you can only get in-store credit for your return. In most instances, this works just fine for me. Sometimes, though, you can only get the return valued at what the item is currently selling for. This may mean losing money on the item. As far as in store credit goes, you then have to be sure to save the card the credit was put on, otherwise you're out that money.

Price Adjustments

Price adjustments are a wonderful thing! Some stores will allow you to bring your receipt back in and get money back if an item you purchased goes on sale within a set amount of time. One blogger, Money Saving Methods, suggests keeping receipts in your car so you'll always have it if you're out and an item you'd purchased went on sale. If you already have a lot of stuff in your vehicle, you may want to consider only keeping the few receipts for larger items with you.

Some stores will give you an item for free if it rings up wrong. (They'll nearly all adjust the price of an item if it rings up wrong.) I try to remember to check my receipt before I leave a store. I've gotten free meat because of it ringing up wrong. Yea for receipts!

Medical Receipts

There are so many reasons to hang on to medical receipts. Depending on how detailed they are, they can help you remember what medicines you were given and when in addition to when you were seen for whatever reason.

You may be able to deduct some medical expenses on your taxes. You will need to keep your receipts to back up your claims.

In our house, we save our medical receipts so we can reimburse ourselves for our medical expenses out of our medical savings account. Like with taxes, it's very important to save receipts to be able to back up your claims.

We save our medical receipts in their own file separate from our other receipts. This allows us to find them easily when we need to refer to them.

Rebates

I love, love, love rebates!!! (Can you tell?) Many manufacturers have rebate programs. Manufacturers love them because rebates get you to buy their products, and because many consumers forget to request their rebate. I'm one of those consumers who fills out every rebate offer available to me. With that said, I typically don't fill out the money back guarantee ones, though, unless I truly disliked the product. I just feel that's the honest thing to do.

I suggest making a file for your rebates. As soon as I get home from purchasing a rebate item, I look over what is needed for that particular rebate. If UPCs are required, I try to cut them off immediately so they won't get thrown away accidentally. I also like to attach the receipt to the rebate form with a paperclip so the paperwork won't get lost. Once I've gathered everything I'll need for the rebate, I make copies of everything to keep in my rebate file for my own record. I try to get my rebate forms mailed that same day, or the next one at the latest so I won't miss out of this valuable money back. I will remove the rebate copies from my rebate file and file them with the rest of my receipts once I receive my rebate.

One rebate-type program I like to use is The Caregivers Marketplace. If you purchase items on their list, you can apply for money back. You may want to keep a separate file for this group because you cannot receive your money back unless you send in your original receipts. In the past, I would get money back when I bought Huggies diapers for my little guy. They've changed the eligible items a little, and Huggies items aren't included anymore. I did receive an email, though, saying that they're working on a program for those of us with young children. Yippee! You won't get rich off of the money back, but every little bit adds up. Add these savings to sales plus coupons, and you can save a lot of money! Actually, work it right and you can sometimes "get paid" to take an item.

One note on rebates... Make sure you aren't spending money on items you don't truly want or need just because you can get some money back on the rebate. Otherwise, have fun seeing how far you can stretch your buck by being organized!

Today's task: continue to keep up with organizing those receipts, make files for rebates and medical receipts, look into how your receipts can make or save you money

Cups, plates, and bowls, oh my!

My husband and I have quite the collection of cups, plates, and bowls in our kitchen. We started out with a normal amount of plates and bowls - well, about 12-16 place settings that we inherited from my grandparents when we got married. As for cups, we started out with those my husband already had and a few of my own. Over the years, kids' place-settings have been added to our collection in addition to many (and I do mean many) mugs and other types of cups. Sometimes I feel as though the cups are multiplying in our cabinets at night. Do you have the same problem?

Here are the steps I'm taking to get these dishes under control:

Step 1: Pull those cups, plates and bowls out of the cabinets.

Step 2: While everything is out, I may as well do a quick swipe of the shelves to clean them up a bit.

Step 3: Make three piles - keep, give away / garage sale, and throw away. We often end up with tons of plastic kid's cups from restaurants and mugs from various places. Plastic cups can often be used for other purposes such as scoops for pet food, cat litter, or potting soil. They can also hold screws and nails in the garage. Any plastic cups that we don't currently have a use for will be recycled (if it's recyclable), saved for garage sales, or thrown away. Those extra mugs we have laying around will be either sold at a garage sale or taken to a thrift shop. Since we still have young kiddos in our house, we'll have to find room for their plastic plates and bowls for now.

Step 4: Now that we've gotten rid of all of those extra cups and/or dishes, there will hopefully be plenty of room for what we have decided to keep. Look at everything you have and, like with the refrigerator and freezer, try to picture where you would like everything. If you plan it out, you hopefully won't have to pull everything back out to rearrange it so it will all fit. Which shelf will be for each item type? Keep in mind who will be needing to reach the dishes.

Step 5: Time to get all of those dishes put back away and enjoy your work!

Today's task: de-clutter and organize those cups and dishes, make a commitment to maintain those cabinets

There's never enough time...

"There's never enough time..." seems to be my mantra lately, unfortunately. With three young children and everything that goes along with keeping a household running, I rarely seem to be able to get everything done. It can be frustrating knowing that if I will just stay on task, I can get a lot more done in a shorter amount of time. Unfortunately I easily get side-tracked and often move on to other tasks before the first one is completed.

Making a schedule has helped with my cleaning schedule. Has it helped you stay on task? I have found that it's easy for me to forget to do things if I don't have them written down. That is why today we're going to talk about using lists to help get things accomplished.

Using Lists as a Tool to Get Tasks Accomplished

There are many pros and cons to lists. Lists are great in that they can help you use your time more efficiently. They help you keep your thoughts organized and remember what needs to be done. Lists give you something to cross of when you've finished a task which can give you a wonderful sense of accomplishment. Unfortunately, lists can also overwhelm you with everything you need to do. Also, lists can get lost resulting in you forgetting something potentially important. In my opinion, though, the benefits far outweigh the negatives if lists are used properly.

If you're a list-maker like me, pick one place to keep all of your lists - your computer, phone, or notebook. Keeping your lists all in one place helps eliminate clutter and helps you ensure you don't lose anything important. I keep all of my lists in my phone so I'll always know where they are.

Because I often have more than one day's worth of tasks to remember, I like to have a couple of lists - short term and long term lists. I tend to start each day by making a short term list of everything I want to accomplish that day. The trick here is to make sure you don't over estimate what you think you can get done, because having too many things on the list can be very overwhelming. My long term list generally includes tasks that need to be done but can't get done that day. Having two lists allows me to remember everything without feeling like I have to get it all done today.

As I accomplish tasks, I like to cross off or erase the task. It's silly, but I get a very satisfying feeling of accomplishment when I get to cross tasks off as completed.

Time Wasters

I have found so many time wasters that sometimes I think I've become a professional procrastinator - you know, if there were such a thing! Anything that is a "black hole" of productivity or keeps you from accomplishing your goals is a time waster. My biggest time waster is the internet. Believe me, I can find plenty of reasons why I need to be doing things on the computer to keep from getting things done. What are your biggest time wasters? Take your time and consider what they may be. Having this knowledge will help you with this week's challenge.

A Challenge for Myself

I have two goals for myself this week. My first goal is to actually complete one task on my daily list before moving on to the next one. (This is huge for me!) My second goal is to avoid getting on the internet until each of the tasks on my list is done. If one of my tasks requires me to be online, I will commit to doing nothing other than that task until my entire list is complete. Now it's your turn... I challenge you to stay on task and finish all items on your list before giving in to your time wasters. Hopefully we'll all learn to work more efficiently by sticking with this challenge.

What do you do to help you stay on task? Do you have any tricks? I'd love to hear them - I could always use more ideas!

Time management task for this week: identify your biggest time wasters, each day / week (whichever you prefer) create your list of tasks to be completed, commit yourself to completing your daily task list before giving in to your time wasters.

Evaluating the week of January 10

How are things going at your house? I was doing quite well at keeping everything organized until yesterday.

I don't know exactly what happened other than it was just "one of those days". Yesterday I didn't get right on the mail and it's already starting to get backed up. I'm getting the mail in order again today. Ditto with our videos and refrigerator - already. I need to show my sweet dear hubby how I had the fridge organized so we can both work to keep it in order. The videos are my fault. Although it only takes two more seconds to put the videos away, for some reason I felt the need to just set them next to the video drawer. Um, hello? I know, I know... Can you tell I'm still working on being more efficient by doing things the right way the first time? It'll take time for all of this to become habit.

How are your new organizing habits holding up? We're not that far along, so if things are falling apart, it won't take long to catch back up. You can do it!

Plan for the upcoming week: keep working at organizing the kitchen, talk about being efficient with our time, receipts in regards to rebates, medical bills, and taxes, and de-cluttering our purse / diaper bag / wallet

Tackling that freezer

On Wednesday, we tackled our refrigerators. How is yours looking? It's a bit of a struggle to maintain it, but they say anything done for two weeks can become a habit. I'm hoping for that!

Today it is the freezer's turn to get a makeover. We're going to follow the same steps as we did with the refrigerator. If you have a chest freezer, being organized is even more important so food doesn't get left at the bottom forever, as it would if we had a chest freezer.

Step 1: How many shelves do you have to work with? Because we have a side by side unit, we have three main shelves and two drawers/baskets. In the door, we have three small shelves. The freezer can be a bit more of a challenge than the refrigerator because depending on your type of freezer, you may have a lot less shelf space.

Step 2: Who uses your freezer? We have four people who go into our freezer throughout the day - two adults and two children ages 5 and 3. This means I'll have to leave space down low for my kids to be able to reach the items they need, just as I did with our refrigerator.

Step 3: What are the categories of items you keep in your freezer? For us, I'll use meat, veggies, ice cream/desserts/popsicles, and frozen meals.

Step 4: Pull everything out of the freezer. If you feel moved to wipe down the freezer shelves while you're at it, go for it. Just move quickly!

Step 5: Group the items into their categories and decide which shelf/shelves make(s) the most sense for each group.

Step 6: Finally, re-pack that freezer. You may need to get creative if you have a freezer with one shelf, like we used to. You can group like items by placing them in open bins/plastic storage containers in the freezer. Small containers will often stack well, even without lids, and can be easily marked!

Task for this week: challenge your family to see how long you can maintain the organization in your freezer

Getting rid of clutter

Before I go any more into de-cluttering, I thought it would be a good idea to brainstorm all of the things we can do with items we no longer want or need. We're not doing any actual de-cluttering right now, just making plans on where to take our clutter once we decide we don't want or need any more.

Following is a list of ways you can get rid of your clutter, some of which can be quite profitable.

Friends and family: If you have items in excellent condition, you may want to ask your friends and family if they might want those items. This is a way I like to go with some items that I really like but don't need anymore. If you go this route, though, you may want to consider giving the items for free or asking a lower price. These are your friends and/or family members, after all. Plus, you'll get to watch them enjoy the items, which is a huge bonus!

Ebay: If you have items in good condition, you can try to sell them on Ebay. Some people are able to make enough profit off of Ebay selling that they consider it a business for them. I'm not that good at it, and the fees drive me nuts. I have sold a few items on Ebay, though, and did enjoy putting a little extra money in my pocket. Before taking the time to list an item, do some research to see how many other identical items are being sold and how much they have sold for. From there, you can decide if it will be worth your time. Don't forget to figure out shipping costs as well.

Craig's List: Craig's List is essentially an online classifieds ads site. Once on their site, you can locate the page for your area. It doesn't cost a penny to post your items for sale on Craig's List which is a huge benefit. I do know some people who have done very well selling items on Craig's List. Be very careful, though, with meeting people when selling an item. Use common sense.

Resale shops: I personally don't have any experience with selling my items at resale shops. I have friends who swear by them, though, with their baby items. This may be a good way to go if you have children's items that are in good condition and brand name. You may also want to consider this if you have larger baby care items. Before taking your things in, though, I suggest deciding how much you want for each item. That way, if they offer you less, you can try your hand at selling the items on Ebay, Craig's List, or at a yard sale. A benefit to resale shops, though, is there is a whole lot less work required on your part and you can make money on your items quickly.

Yard sales: A yard sale may be for you if you don't mind people haggling with you and you have a weekend to set aside for the actual sale, in addition to the prep time. I know many people are able to make a lot of money off of yard sales. We've only hosted one yard sale, and that was because we had way too much stuff (right before our first move) to haul off to Goodwill. We did make a decent amount of money and got rid of tons of stuff. If you have a whole lot of baby clothes and items, this may be a great way for you to go.

Freecycle: This is a great way to go if you have odds and ends that someone else may be able to use, but the items aren't ones thrift stores would take. Freecycle is a fantastic group where you list items you no longer want, and those who are interested contact you. You then pick who gets the item(s) and they come pick it/them up. The main requirement is that everything offered is free. I've passed along clothes hangers, baby food jars, and lots of packing paper and moving boxes. I've even seen broken electronics offered for anyone who may be interested in the parts. You can find your local Freecycle group at freecycle.org. Something to keep in mind... be sure to be smart about meeting people you don't know. I prefer to set the item outside my closed garage when my husband is home, just to be on the safe side.

Thrift stores: If you have items you don't want to try to sell, you may want to consider taking them to a thrift store. Thrift stores such as Goodwill will accept most donated items, give you a receipt so you can take a tax deduction on the items, then the store will sell the item. If you itemize donations on your taxes, this can be a great way to go. One things to keep in mind, though, is to be sure you document everything. You don't want the IRS asking you to prove your donation and then not have anything to back up your claim. We like to take items to thrift stores when we don't want to wait to get the items out of our house. Also, this is a great way to go if you have items such as adult clothing that just doesn't sell well.

Garbage: Finally, if it's true trash, into the garbage it goes. If it's stained, broken, smelly, etc., throw it away. If you would be embarrassed having someone else take the item, that's a good sign you need to throw it away.

Do you have other ideas of what to do with items you no longer want or need? What are your secrets?

Today's task: make a plan deciding which methods you will use to get rid of items you no longer want or need

Getting that refrigerator in order

Ugh, our refrigerator is a mess! I really don't care to organize it because it's just going to get messy again, but I know I should... Okay, here goes nothing!

The refrigerator is a great example of how being organized can save you money. If you have food items shoved in the refrigerator, like we currently do, chances are you'll forget what all is even in there. If you forget about it, it will eventually go bad and have to be thrown away. Thrown away food = thrown away money. I hate that! Before we moved, I had a shelf location for each type of refrigerated food. When we moved to our current house, though, we ended up with a different style of refrigerator. I now get to start from scratch, which can be a good thing. At least that's what I'm going to keep telling myself!

Step 1: How many shelves do you have to work with? We have four main shelves and three main drawers (two larger, one smaller). In the door, we have four shelves, two soda can holders, and one shelf with a "door".

Step 2: Who uses your refrigerator? We have four people who go into our refrigerator throughout the day - two adults and two children ages 5 and 3. This means I'll have to leave space down low for my kids to be able to reach the items they need.

Step 3: What are the categories of items you keep in your refrigerator? For us, I'll use meat, veggies, fruits, cheeses, dairy, beverages, condiments, and leftovers. Yep, I said leftovers. I found at our old house, that if I had one particular place for our leftovers, we were less likely to forget about them. Remembering about and using leftovers that were previously thrown away is like putting money back in our pockets. Gotta love that!!!

Step 4: Pull everything out of the refrigerator. What the heck, while everything is out of the fridge, why not wipe down the shelves, too.

Step 5: Group the items into their categories and decide which shelf/shelves make(s) the most sense for each group.

Step 6: Finally, re-pack that refrigerator.

Task for this week: challenge your family to see how long you can maintain the organization in your fridge

Getting receipts in order

Before I start, let me reiterate again that I'm not a financial advisor, at all. I'm just a mom who helps manage her family's money. I love finding new ways to make and save money, and those ways typically require being organized with our finances.

To me, being organized with our finances means knowing where my family's money is coming from and going. Today, I'm just going to chat about tracking where the money is going. It's hard to know what the money is being spent on if we don't track it. There are many tools you can use to track your money. We decided to go with a computer program called Quicken because with just a few clicks of the mouse button, we're able to download all of our financial information from our banks to our computer. Talk about a time saver! Of course I also know someone who sticks with keeping track of their finances simply using a notebook. I suggest choosing a method that works best for you and your family so you'll be more likely to stick with it.

Have you been collecting your receipts in one location this last week? Whether you use cash, check, or credit cards, you receive a receipt with all of your purchases. These receipts will allow you to track your expenses. Before we can create a budget to help keep everything in order, we have to know where our money is going. Some people wait until they receive that month's credit card or bank statement to see where their money went. We prefer to take a more proactive approach.

Each day, or at least once a week, I record my (and my husband's) spending in Quicken. We have broken our spending down into different categories such as auto, books, clothing, children, education, entertainment, groceries, medical, etcetera. The computer program then calculates our spending in each of the categories for us. Bonus! If you prefer the notebook approach, simply make charts with columns listing your spending categories. If you prefer, you could also use one page per category. However you choose to track your spending, the important thing is that you know where your money is going. This can take a little time, especially when breaking down receipts into the different categories. It will be very useful later, though.

Once you've recorded your expenses, everyone has a differing opinion on what to do with those receipts. Some people choose to hold onto them in case they need to return something, refer to a receipt later, or "just in case". Others immediately throw the receipts away except for on the big-ticket items. Yet others choose to do a mix of the previous two methods.

One note on the receipts. These can add a lot of clutter if you don't keep them in order. Be sure to select a location such as a small box or drawer to save your receipts until you get a chance to enter them into your finance tracking system. If you're planning on saving your receipts, have a plan for how to file them away. A simple accordion file can do the trick if you want to save the receipts by month, category, or even by what the item is. We prefer to file by month since we can look in Quicken to see when we purchased an item to help us find the receipt.

What does your system look like? What has or hasn't worked for you in the past? Do you have a hint or tip with a method that has helped make this process easier for you?

This week's financial task: choose and start a system to help keep track of the finances and decide how to keep receipts from becoming clutter

Tackling that dreaded junk drawer

I have a confession... Although I love to organize, I have one location in our house that will likely never stay organized, and I'm okay with that. Actually, I'm more than okay with that. I have this need to have a junk drawer in our kitchen where we can throw small odds and ends that may not really have a good "home".

While I'm okay with our junk drawer not always being organized - it is, after all, a junk drawer - I do still feel the need from time to time to de-clutter and organize it. Here's what our junk drawer currently looks like:

Does it look familiar to you? Most of what you can find in our junk drawer probably belongs in our home office, but we don't really have the place for it there, either. Besides, I like having ready access to pens, paper, batteries, rubber bands, etc. Let's get those junk drawers under control!

Step 1: Pull everything out of the junk drawer. This is the only way to see what all is hiding in it.

Step 2: Throw away anything that is obvious garbage.

Step 3: Set aside items that belong elsewhere. Once you have all of these items sorted out, put them away before moving on. I've found that it's frustrating to seemingly get to the end of a task just to discover you still have more to put away. Ugh, I hate that!

Step 4: Wipe out the drawer. Why not? It'll take two seconds and the drawer will thank you!

Step 5: Time to get creative, or not. There are tons of drawer organizers you can purchase to help keep your junk drawer under control. If you don't want to buy more stuff, you can see if you have anything around your house that will do the job. One freebie way would be to cut boxes of various dimensions down to size - short enough to allow the drawer to open and close. I ended up using a small box and its lid to organize our loose batteries, paper scraps, and random odds and ends.

Step 6: Step back and admire your work!

Here's an "after" photo of my junk drawer:

Today's task: de-clutter and get your junk drawer under control

Cleaning schedules

Cleaning, ugh!!! I love to organize but boy do I dislike cleaning! Maybe I should pair up with a friend who loves to clean, and we could swap organizing/cleaning jobs. Hmmm...I might be on to something! Unless I make it a priority, the cleaning just doesn't get done. Believe me, with three young children, I can always find something else to be doing. That is why we're creating a cleaning schedule today. A cleaning schedule can help you be more efficient with your time. You know what that day's task is so you can spend less time trying to decide what needs to get done.

The thought of cleaning our entire house makes me want to not even bother starting. Talk about an intimidating task! I have found, though, that by placing my cleaning jobs on a schedule so I have a smaller job each day, I'm much more likely to get the cleaning done.

To create my cleaning schedule, I listed all of the tasks I would like to get done each week: vacuum/sweep floors, dust, water the plants, clean the bathrooms, de-clutter the minivan, and wash the bedding. Your tasks may be completely different from mine depending on your situation.

Once you have your list of jobs, break the list into smaller chunks deciding how much you feel you can readily handle each day. At this point, look at your weekly schedule and decide which day would work best for you to tackle each cleaning task. Here's what mine looks like in addition to my reasoning behind why I set each task on the day I did (if there was a particular reason):

Sunday: sweep/vacuum and mop floors

In reality, the mopping doesn't happen every week, but that's my goal. I set this on Sunday because it's the best day for me to try to squeeze it in.

Monday: wash all bedding

I almost put this on Friday so we'd have wonderfully clean sheets for the weekend, but I had other tasks I wanted to tackle then.

Tuesday: vacuum and sweep

Wednesday: dust and water plants

For some reason, I have a really hard time remembering to water plants. That's why I put that task on my schedule. If it's not on the schedule, it's probably not going to happen. (Most of the plants in my house are very draught-resistant!)

Thursday: de-clutter minivan

Three young children... need I say more?

Friday: vacuum and sweep - again

With three young children and two dogs, there's always going to be stuff on my floors. I figure there isn't any point in my going crazy trying to vacuum/sweep more than two to three times a week.

Saturday: clean bathrooms

This is my least favorite cleaning task. I stuck this on Saturday because it takes so much time.Also, it's a lot easier for me to clean the bathrooms if my husband can take the children so they aren't getting into the cleaning supplies. Depending on when we're likely to have guests, I'll sometimes stick this on Friday.

Once you have created your cleaning schedule, post it on your calendar or somewhere you're likely to see it on a daily basis. Stick to your commitment to get the cleaning job done each day. If some part of the schedule isn't working for you, change it up so it will work better. While it's important to stick to the cleaning schedule, it's just as important to be flexible with it as needed.

Now, let's get cleaning!

Evaluating the week...

Phew, we made it through our first week. That was relatively painless! How are your videos and magazines looking? How about your mail clutter? Are you managing it well?

I am happy to report that our videos are still looking good. Fortunately the video "drawers" are easy enough for the kids to use which helps keep the mess down. The only one in our family sad to see the magazine pile go was our one year old. He misses making a mess with those! =)

The mail clutter has taken a bit of effort on my part to maintain, but so far so good! It helps that the amount of mail we've received this week was pretty light. I can't even begin to tell you how much more relaxing it is to go into the kitchen without that mound of mail waiting for me.

What has worked for you this last week? Do you have additional ideas or suggestions? Please share!

Next week's goals: start tackling the kitchen (including that overflowing junk drawer), get that dreaded cleaning on a schedule, and get our receipts in order

Are you ready? I am! Together we can do it!

Magazines

To go along with the snail mail clutter theme from yesterday, the task for today will be to organize those magazines we all have laying around. You know, the ones we plan on reading when we find the time yet are still sitting around months later? At our house, magazines tend to collect on the tables in our living room, just in case guests want to look at them. Now that I think about it, though, I sure hope we're good enough hosts that our guests aren't dying for a magazine to read!!! Goodbye junky-looking magazine piles!

1) The first step is to decide which magazines you really want to keep around. Recycle any and all that you really don't feel you need to keep around. If you have a hard time throwing away magazines, see if your friends, your library, or local doctor's office would like to have them. There, now doesn't that feel better? At this point, you may want to consider discontinuing any magazines you no longer care to read. This will save you money in addition to saving you from the unnecessary clutter.

2) The second step is to decide which magazines you want to keep as reference material and which ones you just want/need to read.

For those you want to read, ask yourself why they haven't been read. If you aren't truly committed to reading them, recycle them! Are they just not handy when you want to read them? Find a way to put them in a more handy location. I have a tote I keep next to my bed that neatly holds all of the magazines I want to read. For some, hanging a magazine rack in the bathroom works well too. Just be sure to recycle those magazines after you've read them so you're not just moving around the clutter!

For those magazines you would like to save as reference material, Consumer Reports and Handyman Magazine for example, I suggest finding a location where they will actually be used as reference so they don't just become more clutter. We have magazines filed in our basement and in our garage depending on the magazine.

Once you've chosen your location, you'll need to find a way to keep them organized. There are many magazine racks and holders of all different types, materials, and colors available on the market today. I prefer ones that keep the magazines such that you can read the date on the magazine's spine. I also like to be able to label the holder so I can find what I need at a quick glance. Find a magazine holder that works for your space and style. We like using just the basic holders. You may prefer something completely different. If you prefer a free option, you can always use a cereal box cut to the same shape:

You can also paint or cover it to make it more fun!

From here on out, as soon as you receive a new magazine, your task is to either recycle it, place it in your "to be read" location, or file it away. It will take some time to get into the habit, but you can do it! Bye bye magazine clutter!

Mail as clutter

One thing I constantly find myself trying to work on is de-cluttering the house. If I didn't know better, I'd think papers, toys, and other items are multiplying in my house. We'll get the house all straightened up, and the next thing you know, there are papers and toys on every flat surface within sight!

Today is the day you and I tackle our snail-mail clutter together by making and implementing a plan to keep it at bay!

In our house, one major cause of clutter is mail. It arrives daily - bills, magazines, local papers, product samples, and that beloved junk-mail. As soon as we bring it into the house, it gets dropped on the island in the kitchen for us to deal with later. As you can probably guess, "later" around here usually translates into, "in a few days when we have a large pile". I do tend to pull out the bills and place those on our office desk, but then that equals clutter in the office. Yep, yet another place where we're constantly fighting clutter! Do you have the same problem?

One idea I have heard is to only touch papers once. If you don't have children at home, this method may work great for you! The idea is you deal with each piece of mail immediately so you won't have to pick it up again later - discard junk mail, put away samples, pay bills, and deal with any other mail as soon as it comes in the door. This is tough for me. With three children needing my attention, it's nearly impossible for me to do.

My plan instead is to sift through the mail as soon as I bring it in. It should only take a minute or two to immediately throw away any junk mail, remove samples from their packaging and throw away the packaging. From there, I plan to put the magazines and newspapers I want to look at on the end table in the living room. The samples will be set next to the steps to be taken upstairs when I go up next. Also, bills will continue to be taken to the office desk so that they can be paid once I get a free moment. Nope, these aren't really ideal locations for the samples, magazines, and bills, but we're working on baby steps, right? Those other areas will be dealt with soon enough.

What are your ideas for dealing with snail mail clutter? Do you have a system that works well in your house?

Movies

As I was looking around our house getting psyched up to get organized, I'll be honest... I got pretty darn overwhelmed. There's so much to do and seemingly so little time each day in which to do it all.

I thought about starting with our "junk" drawer. Do you have a junk drawer - you know, the one that is the catch-all for all of your odds and ends? We have one. Honestly, when we first moved into this house, my first question to my husband as we started unpacking the kitchen was, "Honey, which drawer is going to be our junk drawer?". I know, pitiful, huh? I got all charged up ready to dive in, until I opened the drawer. It was closed almost as quickly as it was opened. I figured I'd better start will something a bit more manageable.

Our first project of the new year is to get those DVDs, Blu-Ray disks, and VHS cassettes (if you still have some like we do) organized. Do yours look anything like this...

or this...?

This is actually pretty straightened up from what they sometimes look like. To start getting our videos under control, we decided to find a bin to put them all in. We took measurements of how large the shelves were for our DVDs/VHS cassettes so we would know how large a bin we could use. Unfortunately, every bin we found was too big for the shelf space - usually too tall. One other issue was that we didn't want to waste all of the space in the back, because we knew we'd need that space.

Since we couldn't find any DVD/VHS organizing bins that suited our needs, it was time for us to start thinking outside the box. We ended up finding sweater bins that were both cute and the perfect size for our space. Check it out...

Since we have two shelves for our DVDs and VHS cassettes, we decided to purchase two bins - one for our kids' videos, and one for all of my husband's action movies and my chick flicks.

The great thing is now we can quickly see all of the video titles. Also, we're utilizing the space all the way in the back.

Now it's your turn... you can do it!