Prioritized Living

Master your money. Get organized. Take back your time.

Forget Spring Cleaning! How to Keep Your House Clean All Year Long

Note: This post contains affiliate links.  Read my policy here.

Raise your hand if you’ve done an exhausting cleaning marathon in the days leading up to a visit from family and friends.

Or if you’ve wondered when the last time was that you cleaned the bathtub, refilled your washer fluid, or mopped the floor that you’re pretty sure is supposed to be 3 shades lighter.

Or if you love springtime but hate the idea of spring cleaning!

If that’s you, it’s time to stop choosing between conducting week-long cleaning torture sessions and living in a disorganized or less-than-clean home. And the way to do that is with a fool-proof, year-long family chore schedule.

With a schedule firmly in place, you can routinely relax in a tidy, organized home and have an environment that’s nearly company-ready all the time. Here’s how it works . . .  [Read more…]

Christmas Cards Made Easy: How to Simplify Your Process

Christmas Cards Made Easy - How to Simplify Your Process

The holiday season is upon us again! I love heading out to my mailbox this time of year to find happy Christmas wishes from family and friends.

But sending out those cards? That’s not quite as fun. You wind up tracking down missing addresses, fumbling through drawers for extra stamps, and nursing papercuts.

But what if you could get all of your holiday cards out without the hassle? Here’s how . . .  [Read more…]

7 Free Chrome Extensions That Keep You Organized & Productive

7 Free Chrome Extensions That Keep You Organized & Productive

It’s easy for your Internet browser to be a clutter magnet that slows you down. Your browser is a mess of favorite sites and dozens of open tabs — videos to watch, articles to read, messages to which you need to respond, and more.

But, if you’re a Google Chrome user, you can transform your browser into a tool that supercharges your productivity and keeps you on task and organized. Check out these 7 incredible (and free!) Chrome extensions that are more than worth the download:
[Read more…]

How Parkinson’s Law Will Make You Insanely Organized

This post is part 3 in the series Embracing Parkinson's Law.

How Parkinson's Law Will Make You Insanely Good with Organized

This week, we’re wrapping up our series on improving your everyday life with Parkinson’s Law!

So far, we’ve looked at this important idea in its original format: “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”

And we’ve looked at a twist in relation to your money: “Your lifestyle expenses increase so as to use up the income available.”

Today, we’ll tackle one more twist on Parkinson’s Law as it relates to getting organized: “Your stuff expands so as to use up the space available.”

Yeah, this one is so true!

When I moved out of my tiny graduate school apartment, I loaded up all of my belongings into my little sedan. Seven years later, it was a whole different story! When my husband and I moved from our townhouse rental into our current home, it took a medium-sized U-Haul and a truck with movers to wrangle the big stuff.

Our stuff had expanded.

So how can you keep your belongings from multiplying like Tribbles? Growing into piles, seeping into tidy areas, and taking over your home? [Read more…]

How to Have Clean Clothes for Less Money

How to Have Clean Clothes for Less Money

Ahh, the laundry.  That never-ending chore that no one loves to do.  It feels as though you need to do it . . . all . . . the . . . time.

And that can add up to a lot of money.

You don’t always see the cost of doing laundry, since it’s hidden in your budget:

  • Water costs get absorbed into your water bill.
  • Power costs go into your electric or gas statements.
  • Detergents, fabric softeners, dryer sheets, and perfumed beads show up on your grocery store receipts.
  • Maintenance costs . . . well, those you might see!

If you’re looking for an easy way to save every single week, take a look at your laundry habits.  Let’s see how we can spend less money getting your clothes clean and smelling great! [Read more…]

4 Easy Ways to Organize Your Recipes Quickly

4 Easy Ways to Organize Your Recipes Quickly

Note:  This post contains affiliate links.  Read my policy here.

Are you buried under a mountain of recipes?  Piles of cookbooks, boxes of gravy-stained recipe cards, printouts of recipes you want to try – where does it end?  All you really want is a system for honoring your family’s special recipes and organizing new favorites. Try these four methods to bring order to your recipe chaos.

Piles of cookbooks, boxes of gravy-stained recipe cards, printouts of recipes you want to try – where does it end?

All you really want is a system for honoring your family’s special recipes and organizing new favorites.  If you’re ready to create a simple, effective, and foolproof system for keeping on top of your recipes, try these four methods to bring order to the chaos:   [Read more…]

Wrapping Paper Storage Solutions

Wrapping Paper Storage Solutions

Note:  This post contains affiliate links.  Read my policy here.

It’s that time of year again . . .

Once you’ve accomplished your mountain of holiday shopping, you steel yourself, open your wrapping paper closet, . . . and face the avalanche of wrapping paper tubes.

Your bows are squished and scattered.  Your tissue paper is crumbled.  Your gift bags and gift tags are . . . somewhere.  And you realize as soon as you sit down to wrap that your tape and scissors are stashed in your junk drawer at the other end of your house.

Getting organized for gift-wrapping shouldn’t take more time than the actual gift-wrapping.

Before you settle in with your mug of cocoa for this year’s wrapping marathon, get the storage tools you need to go from wrapping supplies mayhem to bliss.

Here are a few ways to bring order to your wrapping chaos: [Read more…]

How to Conquer Your Move While Pregnant

How to Conquer Your Move While Pregnant

On the day of our big move, the very first thing I did was throw up.

Nine weeks pregnant and overcome with morning sickness, I had the keys to our new place and a lease on the old one that told me it was time to get out. On that day, my husband handed me my Saltines and a barf bag, eased me into the car, drove us to our new home, and deposited me on the floor (since the furniture hadn’t yet arrived) of our new home with my trusty crackers.

Undertaking a move is a chore for anyone, but doing it while you’re pregnant is a special kind of challenge. It’s possible however to survive and even conquer the process by following a few rules . . .

[Read more…]

In the Zone: The Secret to an Organized Home

In the Zone - The Secret to an Organized Home

Are you struggling to find the magic ingredient to create an organized and functional home?

Do you refrain from doing enjoyable activities because it takes too much effort to gather the supplies you need to do them?

Are you stuck putting things away because your family members don’t understand your system (or lack thereof)?

Enter “zones.”

Organizing your home into activity zones is one of the single most transformative things you can do to end the chaos.  All that’s required is that you follow a fool-proof, two-step process: [Read more…]

Getting Your Stuff Together: Don’t Start from Scratch

Getting Your Stuff Togethe:r Dont Start from Scratch

Have you ever wanted to torch your entire house so that you could start over without the mess?

Shortly after my son was born — while we were still trying to figure out which end of the kid was up — we started to get behind on the dishes.  A tiny pile of used plates and pans began to turn into a full-blown mountain range of stuff.  I was sorely tempted to trash everything so I could have an empty sink and clean counters again.

Do you too feel as though you’ve lost control over some space?  Maybe it’s an area of your home, your office, your purse, your garage, or your hidden kitchen counters.  Whether the problem is a new one or an issue that’s been plaguing you forever, you don’t have to start from scratch to get organized.

Get your stuff together quickly by taking advantage of the fact that you’re more organized than you realize. [Read more…]