Two of my favorite things to do are planning and organizing.  Yes, that may be a little weird, but I can't help myself.  ;)

Since Christmas, I've been in a spring cleaning sort of mode.  Bags and bags of Goodwill giveaways have been loaded.  Bags and boxes of baby things have been given back to my sister.  Toys have been sorted, clothes have been organized, nooks and crannies dusted, and office spaces decluttered. 

I've planned menus and clipped coupons.  I've browsed through all my magazines to tear out anything important and pitch or give away the rest.  I've even been hanging pictures that have been patiently waiting for TWO years since we moved into our house.

No, I'm not pregnant.  I'm just ready to breathe some fresh air.  I've let too many things go over the last 22 months when I was pregnant then keeping up with the demands of an infant.  I'm ready to get the house in order, so I don't have to fly into panic mode when guests are coming over - or mope around wondering where to begin with the massive amount of things to do.  Do you feel a weight lifted off you when the house is in relatively good order?  I sure do!  And I'm finally beginning to feel lighter.  The kids are, too.  Even though organizing and deep cleaning hasn't been their idea of fun, I see happier children bouncing around my house.  Even if that happiness is the result of a mom who isn't hounding them all day to pick up this or pick up that, they're happier nonetheless!

I asked a question about keeping up with chores a few days ago.  Thank you to everyone who answered!!  Keep the answers coming if you find wonderful resources!  Even though I think I've settled on something for now, my urge to reorganize will land me in this spot again sooner or later.  ;)

I'm very excited to share Motivated Moms with you.  As soon as Sandy from Falling Like Rain told me about it, I knew it was just what I've been looking for!  For $8.00, I had immediate access to a year's worth of chore sheets to keep me on top of my house.  I'll print out one page per week.  Daily chores are listed on the left with little squares for me to check when they're completed.  On the right are the days of the week, with various chores listed under each day.  As far as I've looked, no day seems too overwhelming.  There are several chores to do each day, but most of them don't take too long.  This system even includes things like "clip your children's nails" and "change toothbrushes"!  I am so excited to start!!

I've decided to use a highlighter for chores that I want the kids to do.  Green are chores I expect Mahayla to take care of, blue for Caleb.  I'll take care of everything not highlighted.  We'll keep the list on the refrigerator for the week and everyone can check off their jobs when completed so I can keep up with them.

I'm sure I'll keep you posted as to how well it goes.  I know you'll be sitting by the computer waiting for my chore updates!  lol  I've also been reorganizing my school planning just a little, but that will have to wait for another post.  Happy New Year!

Around here, summer’s the time I take to get organized.  I try to work on everything from my pantry to my files to my homeschool room. 

I don’t know about you, but by the end of a long school year, I’ve let a lot of things slide in the area of organization.  A pile of school papers that need to be filed here, a stack of coupons to be clipped there. 

I know this won’t cover everything – it probably won’t even be the tip of the iceberg – but here are some things I’ll be organizing this summer.  Please share your tips!!  I’m always looking for great ideas to pull myself or my house together.

Homeschool Room

            -Go through all of ‘06/07 schoolwork.  Keep a select few samples, pitch the rest.

            -Go through all book shelves.  Pull out things to sell, pitch & give away.  Organize the rest by subject.

            -Go through all supplies (art, writing, manipulatives, etc.)  Pitch the old, organize the good and make a list of things to buy at the back-to-school sales.

            -Start gathering next year’s curriculum, planning sheets, notebooks and such.

Pantry

            -Get everything organized (yet again) with like items.  Put older cans and boxes in front so I’ll use them first.

            -Make a “permanent” grocery list of items that I buy frequently.  I’ll keep copies of this list on a clipboard (with pen attached) in my pantry.  As I notice I’m running low on something, I can quickly check it off on the list.  Organize the list in the order of the aisles at my grocery store so I don’t miss something and have to backtrack.  (I copied, pasted and slightly modified a list for myself from what I found here.)

            -Print off several copies of a weekly menu planner to keep in the pantry, too.  (I found a great menu/grocerynotes/daily notes planner here.)

            -Organize my coupons and figure out some good way to use them before they expire!  (I’m so bad at this one – any suggestions would be appreciated!!)

Kitchen

            -Reorganize all my spices so that I can actually find them without having to unload every bottle from my cabinet.  (I ended up only keeping the spices I use frequently in the cabinet.  I put the rest in a box in the pantry.)

Before

After

            -Organize the plastic containers so that all the bowls and lids don’t fall out on me every time I open the cabinet. 

            -Buy plastic shoeboxes to organize the smaller containers in my refrigerator.

            -Clip only the recipes I actually use from the mountain of cookbooks I own and put them into a notebook.  Pitch or give away the rest of the books.

Office

            -Set up a better system for in/out/to do mail and paperwork.

            -Go through file cabinets and purge everything I can. 

            -Organize manuals/warranties alphabetically.

            -Go through all magazines.  Rip out and file important stuff.  Give the rest to friends, family, nursing homes…

            -Figure out some way to organize all the pens, pencils, paper clips, staples and hundreds of other little things in the office space.

Clothes & Toys

            -I usually do these twice a year when we switch out clothes for the fall/winter and spring/summer seasons.  We go through everything and decide what needs to be stored for another sibling, what can be given away and what needs to be pitched.  I don’t do yard sales.  (Oh, but I do shop them!!)  First reason, we live to far off the yard sale path.  Second, everything I would put back for a yard sale would find its way back into the life of one of my family members before I could sell it!!  

Basement

            -Try to find LOTS of cheap, but sturdy shelving.  Everything down there needs to be organized.  In fact, I may just pretend none of that is even there this summer!

Computer

            -Download all pictures onto disks to have a hard copy in case of a computer crash.  Make extra disks to give to my parents, so there is an extra copy in case I lose mine or something happens to it.

            -Download all important files onto disks for the same reasons.

Pictures

            -Organize all loose pictures into photo boxes in chronological order.

            -Buy some frames to display more pictures.

Okay.  I think I’ll stop.  If I organize just a few of these things this summer, I’ll be doing really well.  It is summer, I want to play, too!

Related Tags: homeschool, summer, organize

Anyone else SRING CLEANING this week?  With a new baby in the house, things have gotten pretty unorganized around here!  We're hosting a big family get-together this weekend for my brother-in-law's graduation, so I HAVE to get some of the bigger jobs taken care of.  We're working on sorting clothes for the new season, reorganizing toys, cleaning the fridge, organizing the pantry, and general deep cleaning all over the house.  That's a lot to get done on top of school, party preparations and baby care, but Spring Fever has hit - I CAN do it!    I'll post some before and after pictures soon - assuming I make it to the "after" place!! 

Well, we've actually completed two bedrooms and three closets so far, but this is the only before/after set I've remembered to take.  Mahayla and Caleb switched rooms a couple of weeks ago.  Caleb now has the bigger bedroom, but has to share with Eli.  This is the boy's newly arranged closet.  How long do you think it will stay this nice???

Ha!  What a topic to talk about right now.  Being organized and having a 4 week old DO NOT go together.

Normally, I'm a very organized person.  Children sort of take over a household, though, and leave even the most organized people wondering what happened!  Add a newborn to the mix and you just have pure chaos - at least in the eyes of someone who really enjoys to be organized. 

Well, anyway, a friend recently reminded me of a great website to get yourself organized and I thought I'd pass it along.  http://organizedhome.com/content-36.html

Hope you enjoy.  Baby's crying......