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.