Master your money. Get organized. Take back your time.
Note: This post contains affiliate links. Read my policy here.
With Christmas right around the corner, you may be searching for that perfect gift for the special people in your life. (Or you may be looking to treat yourself to a surprise from Santa!)
Either way, if your gift recipient loves being organized — or wishes that she were! — this holiday gift guide has got you covered with awesome, budget-friendly presents.
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 three shades lighter.
Or if you just can not seem to get everyone in your home on board with what needs to be done when and by whom.
Sure, you could hold out for spring cleaning. But that just seems like a great way to turn beautiful spring days into drudgery. And what about the dirt and mess the rest of the year?
It’s time to stop thinking that you need to choose between succumbing to an endless chore list and accepting the reality of a messy home!
There’s a third option — strategically distributing your household chores throughout the year so you can enjoy a clean, organized home year-round . . . without nagging, complicated systems, and that massive time-suck.
Fortunately, it’s incredibly simple to customize a fool-proof, year-long family chore chart schedule and system that will beautify your home and keep it that way for good!
Here’s how . . .
Note: This post contains affiliate links. Read my policy here.
It’s finally happened. You’ve officially hit your clutter limit.
“Today’s the day!” you resolve. “I am going to get organized. I am going to be an organized person!”
You hear yourself say it . . . and it sounds impossible!
After all, most of us think like this:
But here’s a secret: Getting yourself organized doesn’t require lots of time, space, energy, or tools.
In fact, there’s a lot you can do quickly and easily. Here’s how . . . [Read more…]
Note: This post contains affiliate links. Read my policy here.
I’ve heard that there are people who enjoy doing the laundry . . . but I’ve never met a single one.
Odds are, you wish that you had a magical helper — a laundry fairy who would pick up, sort, wash, dry, iron, fold, and stow your family’s clothing without your needing to lift a finger.
But, failing that, it’s up to you to face the never-ending chore of doing the laundry.
But what if you could make doing the laundry faster and easier? [Read more…]
Raise your hand if you’ve ever wanted to move to a new home just to get away from the mess at the one you’ve got!
It’s hard enough when you’re single to keep your home organized and tidy. But when you mix in a spouse, kids, and maybe some pets, it can feel as though you’re fighting a losing battle.
So how do you do it??? How do you get your busy family unified and working together? How can you get everyone to conquer that never-ending chore list so that it’s actually done — without tears or screaming? And how can you get organized quickly and easily?
To find the answer, I collaborated with Citi to find the real experts — organization gurus and parents who have successfully rallied their families to maintain ship-shape homes!
I rounded up their secret strategies and recommended tools. And I’m sharing those with you today.
There’s no better time than now to get your family organized. So get ready to conquer your crew’s collective goals and manage your household responsibilities with this easy action plan.
Note: This post contains affiliate links. Read my policy here.
Shoes have a sneaky way of walking themselves where they don’t belong. Kids’ shoes especially wind up under beds, strewn across floors, and underfoot in doorways.
It’s messy, it’s disorganized, and it drives you crazy when you constantly hear, “MOM!!! Where are my shoes?!”
So it makes sense that the right shoe storage solution for your family must be kid-friendly. (If they don’t use it, it won’t work!) Your shoe organizer has to sit where it makes the most sense for how you live your lives. And it has to meet your mom standards for functionality, quality, and even aesthetic appeal.
I have tried a number of approaches to shoe storage over the year, and these are some of my favorite products and solutions:
[Read more…]
Note: This post contains affiliate links. Read my policy here.
Is your home slowly transforming into a kiddie art museum?
I know mine is.
My son’s day care teachers entertain him with a steady stream of cute, Pinterest-worthy art projects. He happily brings home crayon scribbles, clay molds, flung-paint abstract art, glitter-covered drawings (aah!), and animal drawings built around his footprint . . . which answers the question of why his heel was ever-so-slightly-tinted blue recently.
If your kids are anything like mine, they mass produce kiddie art. They draw pictures at home, finger paint at school, create mosaics in art class . . . you name it. You want your kids to get creative and make art. But what do you do with the thousands of masterpieces your little artists crank out day after day?
Here are some fantastic ways to display, consolidate, store, organize, and enjoy your kids’ artistic creations. [Read more…]
The mommy blogs are silently judging me.
I feel their condemnation every time I scan through pictures of the cool moms’ color-coordinated lives, perpetually clean children, and hyper-organized homes.
There are some things that are just part of motherhood, according to these blogs, and no one bats an eye to question that. No more! I’m not ashamed to admit that I fail to meet these ten “basic” requirements for life as a mom . . .
Read the rest of my recently-published blog post on Parent Co!
Note: This post contains affiliate links. Read my policy here.
It’s a fact of life that, when you have a little kid, relatives and friends will shower that kid with toys. It doesn’t matter how much you vow to live a minimalistic toy lifestyle. If you buy not a single toy for your child, you will still find yourself living in a toy store. You’ll have the huge toys, the tiny toys, the toys with a million parts, the fuzzy toys, the teething toys, and — my personal favorite — the noisy toys. If you’re not prepared to flee and let the toys run amok in your house, then you need storage solutions that work for you and for your kids. Here are some of my current favorites. [Read more…]
Note: This post contains affiliate links. Read my policy here.
Ziploc bags are a godsend when it comes to babies and their stuff. Never much of a bagger pre-kids, I now boast a full assortment of Ziploc bag sizes in my cabinet — with extra boxes of them stored elsewhere in case I run out! These beautiful bags can truly keep you organized and sane when wrangling your baby’s essentials: [Read more…]