Guest Post

Organizing Headbands

 

 

 

 

Guest Post

Packing Tips

by Sunny Brady

Tips and Tricks to Packing the Perfect Carry-On

 

I consider myself very lucky; I not only enjoy my job, but I also have the
opportunity to travel all across the United States. As an account manager for a
storage company, I am required to visit our facilities. About a year ago, I realized
just how much of my “free” time was being spent waiting at the airport’s baggage
claim. It was then I became a dedicated carry-on traveler. Since then I have not only
saved a bundle of airline baggage checking fees, but I have learned many tricks on
how to pack a carry on. There is an organizational science to packing a carry on and
by following these tips you can avoid baggage fees and minimize travel time.

Preparation

1. Do Your Research: In the past few years, airport security has beefed up significantly. So before
   you start to pack, do some research on the airports you will be passing through,
   double check the regulation carry on bag size, the laptop policy and the rules for
   carrying on liquids. There is nothing more frustrating than having all your toiletries
   confiscated at the beginning of your trip. So it is well worth it to do a little research.
2. Make Use of Available Resources: When it comes to picking your carry-on luggage, be sure to maximize your
   options. Most airlines allow you one carry on and one personal bag or purse, which
   essentially means two carry-on bags. I often bring a small rolling suitcase, to stow,
   packed with my clothes and toiletries and a briefcase with my laptop, reading
   material for the plane and work papers, that I keep under the seat. For the carry-on
   bag that you plan to stow, make sure the bag fits airport regulation size. Most
   luggage is now sold based on airport regulations, but don’t be afraid to ask at the
   store to be certain. Depending on your preference, hard cased rolling bags or soft
   duffel bags make great carry-ons.
3. Be Budget Conscious: Since you will be carrying everything on, you will need to pack toiletries in
   your bags. Now that airport security regulations dictate the volume of liquid you can
   bring on the plane, you will need to purchase security certified sized bottles of
   shampoo, conditioner, or face wash. Instead of buying brand name, airport sized
   shampoo bottles, try buying a bunch of plain three ounce bottles. That was you can
   fill them up with whatever toiletries you already own and can reuse them for
   multiple trips.

Let the Packing Begin

Before you put anything in your bag, lay out everything you plan to pack. Try
to wear your bulkiest clothes and shoes on the plane so you can avoid packing them
and wasting precious space. Since you need to fit everything in one carry-on bag,
there are two strategic packing strategies to choose from. Folding clothes is one of
the least efficient ways of packing your carry-on:

1. Many of my friends swear by
   the “rolling” method that they claim allows you fit the most items in your bag and
   also keeps clothes wrinkle free. This method is pretty self explanatory, but consists
   of rolling your clothes up in to tightly compacted tubes. Then you pack them into
   the suitcase.
2. The other option is lying clothes completely flat on top of each other.
   This option eliminates the extra bulk of folds and allows you to fit quite a bit of
   clothing into your carry-on.

Once you have packed your clothes, put your toiletries in a quartz sized, clear
plastic bag on top. That way when you go through airport security, if they request
you remove your liquids and put them in a bin they are easily accessible. Remember
you can’t bring full water bottles through security. Instead back an empty water
bottle that you can fill up on the other side of security or once you are on the plane.
Also keep a jacket handy, there are usually drastic temperature changes on the
plane and it can also serve as a makeshift pillow.

Once you are all packed, you can print out your boarding pass, skip the hassle
of checking a bag and breeze through airport security. Carrying on saves a bundle of
time and money, once you make the switch you will never go back!

Sunny Brady is an account manager for storagearizona.com In her role she coordinates with a number of self storage facility operators so that potential customers can find the best self storage in Arizona online, including cities like Mayer. In her spare time, Sunny likes to bike and participate in outdoor activities.

 

photos provided by Sandy

Guest Post

Organizing The McGhee Sextuplets

by Melanie Dennis

Ohio Professional Organizers Organize the McGhee Sextuplets Storage Space for GO Month!

Melanie Dennis,  from the Columbus branch of NAPO (National Association of Professional Organizers) got to experience some fun when she and five other organizers  helped the McGhee family organize a room over their garage.  She offered to write a post for my blog telling of their experience.  See how these six organizers made life just a little bit easier for this instant family of eight!

The McGhee family is scheduled to be on Oprah Show today February 21 in a show called Miracle Births, Miracle Babies so be sure to watch it! You can also visit the McGhee family on the McGhee Sextuplets Facebook Page.

Sandy

GO Month – The McGhee Sextuplets

by Melanie Dennis, CPO®
Every January, members of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) raise awareness in a celebration of Get Organized (GO) Month. In the past, the NAPO-Ohio chapter members have gotten together to done Messy Space contests, an organizing lecture series, and decluttered non-profit businesses like the Waste Not Center and Susan G. Komen- Race for the Cure offices. This year a request came from the McGhee family in Gahanna, Ohio who needed help in a new home. Mia and Rozonno McGhee became instant Columbus celebrities after the birth of their sextuplets in June of 2010. Friends, strangers, church members, and family have blessed the family, helping them with the never ending daily needs of six babies.

They estimate they are using around 40 diapers per day at this point. This means they need lots of supplies on hand. The initial assessment of the family’s organizing needs and budget for the project was done by Ellen Limes .

Five other organizers, Susan Sugar, Terry Cowans, Mary Donovan, Debbie McRae, and I, volunteered to help on a very chilly January day to build shelves and sort baby clothes and supplies in an over the garage storage area.

“Before” Photos of the Space above the Garage

There were diapers, diapers, diapers everywhere

People had donated clothes for the sextuplets that had not yet been organized

After sextuplets and moving to a new house, the McGhee’s just didn’t have the time to organize this space above the garage.

The “After” Pictures

The clothes were sorted by age and sex. Everything was labeled for easy identification later.

Just by adding these shelves and getting things off the floor, the transformation was amazing!

Mia McGhee is one happy camper!!!

When we finished, the family invited us in to see the little ones and take some photos. Reluctant to enter with dusty shoes and boots, Mr. McGhee reminded us that he owns a carpet cleaning business so it wasn’t a problem. We posed around their custom built high chair for six. It is always a lot of fun to work on GO month projects with my colleagues, and even more so when the recipients are so darn cute!

Melanie Dennis, CPO®
Certified Professional Organizer
Neat Streak Professional Organizing
Blog: Room-inations

I’m linking this post to:

Keeping It Simple - Motivate Me Monday

Making The World Cuter Monday

Guest Post

10 Ways To Organise & Store Printed Receipts

by James Adams

Despite our ever increasing cyber and virtual worlds, it seems that printed, hardcopy items will still always be with us. As much as we loathe the paper mess and paper chase, especially when it comes to printed receipts, it’s just a necessary evil we have to accept. We require them for business reimbursement and for record keeping when it comes to proper accounting for tax purposes. Here are 10 ways to organise and store our printed receipts.

#1. Assort and collect your receipts by their very purpose. Use separate manilla file folders for each category. Put all your restaurant receipts in one file, all your gas receipts in another, all your travel receipts in a third, and all your other shopping related receipts in a fourth. This way, at the drop of a hat, you can quickly locate any subject-specific receipt.

#2. Organise your domestic and foreign receipts separately. You might be taxed differently on these. For travel purposes, for example, have two subfolders: one for domestic flights, cabs, rental cars, gasoline and repairs, and a second for all foreign travel expenses. You will easily be able to differentiate them this way.

#3. Store your receipts by the specific amounts on the tab. A good suggestion is to have one file folder allotted to all receipts under $50 and another for every receipt over $50. You can further subcategorise them by, for example, domestic travel under $50, and domestic travel over $50. Or by flights under $100 and for those over $100. This way you’ll know which are your biggest tax write offs right up front. You’ll be prepared by utilising this method and you’ll be able to pluck each one right out of it’s respective folder.

#4. Organise everything chronologically. Have separate physical files organised by each week or by the month. Pick coloured files for easier recognition. You can select blue for January, red for February, and so on. Simply label each file by month as well for ultra fast chronological recognition.

#5. Use Shoebox.com  to do organise them for you. Since the old shoebox method is not very organised, a company came out with a virtual shoebox. Shoebox.com will allow you to mail them all your receipts in a postage paid envelope. They will then scan and organise all your receipts in any organisational category you desire, Plans start as low as $9.95 per month.

#6. Scan your receipts and store as PDFs. If you have a quality scanner, you can easily scan all your printed receipts into easy to read PDF format for organisational purposes. One top scanner that’s out there is Fujutsu’s ScanSnap. For around $399.95, software included, you can own a state of the art scanner that scans black and white pages at the fast rate of 18 pages per minute. Go to ScanSnap.com for more information. Make sure you immediately name your files the moment you store it. You can easily get into the habit of scanning 40-50 receipts a day for a most effective and efficient organisational approach.

#7. Make sure all your receipts are in one place. Don’t have them scattered all over the place, such as some in your wallet, some on the back seat, some in your suit pockets, others in your desk draw, and so on. Using just one separate file folder or even just an old shoebox is a good start if you’re not in the habit yet of being very organised with your printed receipts.

#8. Keep a fixed routine vis-a-vis how often you organise your receipts. Most organised people perform this task quite frequently, say once a week, on the same day each week, such as a Friday. If you let it stretch too far without any organisational effort and muscle thrown in, you’ll quickly grow overwhelmed, and you’ll probably throw your hands up in the air in frustration and stop trying at all. So stay regular with this.

#9. Use a simple spreadsheet program to help keep track of receipts. The one that comes with your MS Office suite is perfectly fine, such as PowerPoint. Such a free program will allow you to enter information such as date, amount, place, category, and purpose. It can make all the difference in the world, and help your organisational efforts get up and running.

#10. Try a simple filing cabinet. Get a sturdy. locking one with the hanging files and the colour-coded, alphabetised tabs. The best way to go here is to organise alphabetically either by category purpose or geographical place. It’s fast and easy, and you should drop your receipts into each respective file as often as you receive them. Don’t let them pile up.

As you can see, organising your printed receipts is not such an arduous, overwhelming process, after all. Get started today, and feel that peace of mind that comes with being on top of things.

James Adams reviews products for Cartridge Save, the top store in the UK specialising Cheap Ink Refills. James has written articles including this one on 25 of the Best Home Office Mac Set Ups

Your Mission if you chose to take it is: Organize Your Store Receipts

Link up Your Office Mission Post

You can find the linky by clicking on the button above or going to my Organizing Mission Link Party. Feel free to keep linking up your different office projects that you accomplish during this Office Mission. I am ok with also linking up organizing projects that aren’t office related. This link will be up until Feb. 24 so you will have time to add your office projects in. If you aren’t sure how to link up to a link party, be sure to stop by and read my link party tutorial

I would love it if you could vote for my blog! You can vote up to once per day. Just click the button. Thank you!

Photo by Sandy Jenney

Guest Post

Work at Home Balance

by: Jennifer  Ascher

More and more women today are work at home moms. Balancing both running a household and a business can sometimes feel like a juggling act. Even as a Professional Organizer and always being good at time management. I can’t help but remember back when I started my own work at home journey how overwhelmed I felt trying to balance both worlds. But over time and a lot of trial and error I discovered that it is possible to do both. Here are some suggestions that will hopefully help you balance being a work at home mom.

• Take the time to research and invest in a good planner. Tweak it to meet your needs.
• Spend time on the weekend planning the upcoming week.
• Identify your time wasters and get rid of them or at least cut them down
  • Keep a log for one week of all your activities. You might just discover that you spend more time than you thought watching TV, surfing the net etc. Those are all extra hours you thought you didn’t have to invest in your business or home.
• I discovered that having check lists for various things such as cleaning, business tasks etc. where very helpful when it came to planning my day and week.
• Menu planning and cooking ahead is a huge time and sanity saver.
• Have daily routine in place and stick to them.
• Don’t force yourself to get up earlier or stay up later. Know when you are at your peak and use that extra time to work on your business.
• Make sure to schedule time for yourself everyday even if it’s just 10 minutes.

At the end of the day the most important thing to remember is that you are a mom first and your kids will only be kids for a certain amount of time. Remember to take time everyday and just play.

Jennifer (better know as the Organizing Geek) is the owner and founder of Organizing Without Limits a Professional  Organizing Company in Oakland County, MI. As a busy work at home mom with 2 boys, Jennifer believes that  organizing goes beyond pantries, closets or even time management it’s about taking control of your whole life.  Organizing without Limits offers both hands on and virtual organizing services to help you gain control of every aspect  of your life. You can reach Jennifer at Organizing without Limits or for more organizing tips and tricks visit her  blog at  Organizing without Limits (blog)

Guest Post

How to Do a Job You Hate

by Adrian from Adrians Crazy Life.com

I had a slow day at work today, so I decided to catch up on my most hated task – FILING! I don’t know why I dislike filing so much, but I always have and that isn’t likely to change soon.

So the question is, how do you approach a task you really dislike doing?

- Put it off and hope it chokes and dies! (Appealing, but not likely)

- Pay someone else to do it for you (could you outsource it to India??)

- Foist it off on someone who doesn’t mind doing it? Or maybe you could trade a job someone else hates that you don’t mind. I do this one a lot at home. Everyone has different likes & dislikes. For example – I will take dishes over mopping every time.

- Maybe you could do a little every day so it doesn’t pile up to a big ugly job.

- Simplify the task so you can get it out of the way faster.

- Offer yourself a small reward for doing it (hey, this works on my kids!).

- Get someone to do it with you so you can at least have some company.

For filing, I take an approach that hits several of these points. First of all, I can put it off for a while. It’s not a critical task in my job, so I can do that without too much guilt. That’s better for me than having to face it every week or so.

I’m rarely able to foist it off on someone, but I have managed to a couple of times. When my kids come to the office with me, I can usually bribe them into doing it for me. Also, my co-worker doesn’t mind filing, so sometimes I can trade a job with her or at least get her to help me with it so I’ve got someone to talk to.

I’ve also simplified the job so it is much easier and quicker to do. I used to file things in a very detailed manner, and it would take me 3-4 hours to do. Then I realized that I only dig into them a few times a year, so it’s not really worth the time and effort to sort them so much. Now, I just sort them into a few general categories and dump them into larger folders. So if I need to find something it might take me an extra 5 minutes of digging, but the filing job takes me half the time.  That’s a win-win in my book.

What hateful job do you end up putting off the most? How can you use these ideas to make it easier?

Adrian hangs out at her very aptly named blog AdriansCrazyLife.com. It’s a good name because she works full time, runs both Pampered Chef and Stampin’ Up! businesses, attends every blogging conference she can manage, and is raising a husband, three sons, four grandkids, a pair of crazy cats, a St. Bernard, and a rotating assortment of goldfish. Obviously, it is a very crazy life!

Adrian is not a professional organizer, but is a “Recovering Messie” and is sharing a lifetime’s worth of lessons she has learned with her Clutterbugs series (every Monday) and her new Women and  Finance feature (every Thursday).

Guest Post

Decluttering The Toys

by Stephanie Calahan

She has some great advice and was wonderful to offer me two guest posts on kids and organizing.
Please read Stephanie’s post as she offers her thoughts on helping kids to sort through their toys.

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‘Disappear’ Toys or Ask Your Child to Choose Which Ones to Give Up?

One of my Twitter friends @CarlaYong posted this question

“A question for the Moms out there: better to ‘disappear’ toys or ask your child to choose which ones to give up?  A bit more info on my Q: DD just turned 4YO & has previously willingly given up toys to younger friends & does get attached to everything!”

I am asked this question frequently, so I thank Carla for the blog post inspiration!  Keep reading for my reply.

When my son was about 2 years old, we started teaching him how to make choices about his belongings.  He was very into picking toys, books, clothes, etc. that could go to another kid that did not have as much as he did.  He was excellent and empathetic, and we thought, “Wow, this is going to be easier than we thought.”

At about the same age he was a complete and total Elmo fan. He had all kinds of Elmo things.  There was one in particular — it was a simple stuffed Elmo.  Nothing fancy to him, but Elmo was his best buddy and went everywhere with him.

Well, over time, he of course lost interest in Elmo.  When he was about 5 years old, we were in his play room in the basement going through his things.  Out popped Elmo.  Since he had not played with stuffed toy in at least two years, I suggested that Elmo should go to a new home.  This is somewhat of how the conversation went…

“NO!!!!!“ he screamed, quite passionately.  “I don’t want him to go….” he whimpered

So I tried to reason with him first…

“But D, you have not played with him in a long time.  Do you really think that you are going to play with him again?”

He then looks at me with those loving, pitiful eyes that only your child can get away with…

“Momma, I’ll play with him now that I remember him.”

OK, reason did not work like it used to.  He is now old enough to have learned that “things” hold some kind of emotional value.  Elmo represented his first best buddy.  Elmo was comfort and fun times.  Elmo was before school work….  This would require a totally different strategy… how about greed?

“OK, but what if we sold Elmo at the resell shop and he will go to a little boy or girl that really likes him?  You can take the money and get something else.“

“No, I don’t want Elmo to go to someone else.  He is MY friend.”

AAAHHHH!!  I had it figured out now.  I could do a lesson on friendship and still de-clutter.

“But how do you think Elmo feels?“

“What do you mean?”

“Well, have you been a very good friend to him lately?  I mean, think about it D.  Elmo used to go with you everywhere.  He played with you and visited cool places with you and stayed in your nice comfy bed at night. Now look at him.  He is in the cold basement in the back of a dark cabinet!“

“Oh no!  I have been a terrible friend.  I am so sorry Elmo.” he cried hugging the toy.  “Mom, I don’t want Elmo to feel sad.”

It was at that point that he acknowledged (to himself) that he really would not play with Elmo anymore.

“OK, I tell you what… Ms. Jeannine has a little boy who LOVES Elmo now.  How about we drive over to her salon and we can give her Elmo for her little boy.  That way, you know where he is going and you know that he will continue to be loved.“

“OK.  Can we do it now?”

So, we drove over to my friend’s salon and while we were parked, my son had a tearful goodbye with his first best friend.  We then walked into the salon and he talked with my stylist and explained that he wanted her son to have him.

She was touched—you could tell that this was a difficult parting for my son.  She even teared up a bit.

As we drove home, we stopped by Dairy Queen for a little treat.  As we ate our ice cream he was already giggling and talking about other things.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I told this in a story form because I think it is important to see how this technique can play out in a situation with your child.  By personifying Elmo – by giving him feelings and making him more like a live person – my child had a totally different way of looking at the situation.

Yes, the drive to the salon took more time than I had originally allotted for that particular project, but my son learned so many good lessons:

• Empathy – thinking of how his actions could make someone else feel.

• Charity/Generosity – thinking of how my stylist’s son would enjoy playing with the toy.

• How to Make Difficult Decisions – it was not easy for my son to make the choice he did, but by helping him learn to make that choice at 5-years-old, other more difficult choices at a later age would be easier to make.

• Mom Was There for Him – because I did not take the toy out behind his back, or tell him that he had no choice…because I took the time to help him make a decision his way and gave him the respect to say goodbye to a good friend and understand his feelings.

Overall, I’d say that was worth it for me!  Since then, we have had other challenges when it is time to let things go and as he gets older, I use more of the techniques that I use with my adult clients.  But this, by far, is one of my favorite de-cluttering stories.

How would you have handled this situation?  Do you think I took it too far?  What are your thoughts?  How have you helped your child let go of things?  I know my Twitter friend would love the tips and my other readers would too.  Please share in the comments section below.

To your success!
Stephanie
@StephCalahan

You can hear more from Stephanie at her business blog or her family/home blog or get social/network with her!

Guest Post

New Magazine Launch

by Charlene Bert

There is a new online magazine coming July 20th!! It is going to be great ladies!! You will HAVE to join as soon as it launches!
Charlene Bert has been great to work with and I am thrilled to be one of the contributors to her magazine. With all she has going on with the launch of this magazine, she still was gracious enough to write a guest post for me when I asked! CHECK IT OUT!!

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IT’S TIME…

www.GALTime.com

It sounds ridiculous, but my business partner Susan Krivelow and I literally had an ah-ha moment early this year, a strange sense of clarity in a world of chaos. The economy was tanking, dozens of friends were losing their jobs, and the collective mood was, well, crap. Susan and I had been talking about ‘doing something’. She had been toying with starting an online magazine with a mission and I had become hooked (OK, more like the 10-step-program, get-yourself-some-help sort of addicted) to Twitter. Originally, I used it to find and distribute news. See, Susan and I are broadcast journalists and distribute stories to media outlets nationwide. We are definitely old school—‘nuthin’ but the facts ma’am’ , triple check, never go with anything that you can’t prove 100%, type journalists. We stake our reputations on each and every story. We’ve spent our careers informing people, uncovering scandals and revealing the truth. But, we’re also new edge social media mavens and I had discovered an amazing community online through places like Facebook and Twitter. In the midst of turmoil and negativity, I found– and became immersed in– this generous group of people willing to help each other succeed, especially women. Within one conversation, we knew, IT WAS TIME. We merged the online magazine idea with the ‘it takes a village’ philosophy. The result:

The premise for GALTime.com– A for women/by women community meant to help each other. How could we be different from all the other women’s sites out there? Think…Think! What if we could bring women real access to the experts we’ve met throughout our years but not in a ‘newsy’ way. Nope—instead we’d bring them video conversations to get real, down-home advice from the best of the best in all the areas that matter most: health, family, money, careers, DIY, home organization projects, cooking, travel, even car care tips…and more. We’re video vixens, so production is ‘our thing.’ We’d up the ante on the quality of video on the Web and, of course, provide compelling text as well. OK, we thought. Let’s see if the idea holds water. We reached out to a few of our contacts. Marquee women who could just as well be on the Today Show as GALTime. They said yes. A few more—OF COURSE. The next few, SIGN ME UP. WHY? Everyone wanted to help women. We knew we were onto something.

Next, we knew there was an AMAZING array of women online, many experts in their own rights who deserve to share their advice with as many gals as possible. So, of course, we tweeted! Twitter became (and still is) an invaluable resource. We met fast friends who couldn’t wait to share. Within weeks, we had DOZENS of contributors, including Sandy Jenney. (Thanks, Sandy!) Uh, oh… guess we’d better build a site!!! That was mid-winter. First step, as any girl knows, a good logo! I think Susan and I took two weeks designing it. Yes, we drove the poor logo company crazy. We hope you like the results. Next, the site. We’ve been through A LOT with the site, but we have moved heaven and earth to make sure it is something our members and contributors will be proud of… and you’ll get to see it next week… at our 7/20 launch!!

Our goal is to ‘pay it forward.’ We will provide an open community where we will help drive traffic back to the sites of all 50+ contributors. It will help them succeed and help members find everything they need in one place. We will profile charities and have plans to help our female soldiers. We will cover light topics like home design and fashion/beauty, but will also offer support for serious subjects like eating disorders and domestic violence. We will look for feedback and will evolve according to our members needs.
Managing content areas, learning technology, thinking about giveaways, marketing, writing, editing, and giving our fabulous contributors the attention they deserve. A lot of work? It’s like building a house and getting ready to give birth AT THE SAME TIME. Like an impending birth, however, you know it’s about to change your life, but it’s something you wouldn’t change for the world.
Check out our preview at www.galtime.com, sign up and get ready for an unforgettable journey. It’s time women help each other.

Charlene Bert

Guest Post

Yard Sale Princess for Digging For Treasures

by Yard Sale Princess

Have you ever wanted one of those craft rooms that you see in the magazines? But then you think, “But I don’t have a room for it.” Here is someone who took her craft room to a new place….her closet! She is lucky enough to have two walk in closets and she uses one of them for her craft room. I think it is great and love what she did with it. You would never know from the pictures that she is even in a closet. Check it out!
This is her first guest post and I think she did a great job!! She will be doing more soon I am sure.

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Thank you, Sandy, for inviting me to be a guest blogger! This is my first time ever and I am super excited!
Well let’s just jump right into this. Okay, I have a deep dark secret place that I even hide from Hubs, it is my crafting closet.


It is a long closet space that is in our master bedroom. (We have two walk in closets and my wonderful husband designated one as my crafting space.)
I try to keep it clean and organized but I also use it as a hiding place for things that I want my kids to stay out of. I literally toss something in and shut the door. I call this my “STASH AND DASH” system.

Due to this fact, it has become uninspiring. Hubs has tried to help me in the organization process. The cabinet and table were Christmas gifts 3 years ago and he is bummed that they are being abused. The pathetic wire shelves around the top were put in by the home builders and are just too high for me to really use effectively. It really has inadequate storage. When I found myself pulling my hordes of crafting supplies all the way down stairs to do a project just so I could spread out, well, I knew that I had reached my breaking point. So we have decided that if we are going to do a “craft room redo” then it should be done right! So we have taken EVERYTHING out of the room! We have repainted it a bright and inspiring color! Hubs was not allowed to have any input on the color, otherwise it would have been “tan”. Then we rearranged the existing furniture and added some new storage! I am so glad that I put everything into plastic tubs and labeled them. It is totally working out for me!
Ta Da….
Here is the end result!

This cabinet fit perfect in the cubby space! Look at the great paper sorter, it makes it so easy to see what paper I have and they are right at my fingertips.

Bins and baskets are used to contain items. The clear containers make it so easy to see what I have. Every container is labeled! Notice the spice rack that I used for all the little beads. They work great!!

I am absolutely in love with this room! I love the jars of yummy treasures and colorful tidbits,like buttons, corks, ribbon and such. I may add some of my own framed photography around the perimeter for inspiration but I LOVE IT!

Thanks for taking a look at my craft closet. You can visit me and see more of what I do at Digging For Treasures.

Yard Sale Princess

Guest Blogger – Patty Kreamer from Bye Bye Clutter

I am thrilled to have Patty Kreamer for a guest blogger today. Her web site Bye Bye Clutter has resources, books she has written to buy and her blog. She gives a great thoughts on how clutter can make you feel. Read on!

— ORGANIZING TIPS FOR WORKING WOMEN —

Clutter, Clutter Everywhere…
and Not a Thing Can Be Found!

By Patty Kreamer
Certified Professional Organizer®
Stressed out? Check out the effect that clutter can have on your life. Remove the clutter, and you’ll immediately notice the difference!
Stress is a major contributing factor to poor health. Physical clutter adds to that stress, often without your knowledge, because clutter is what you no longer see. You walk around the piles of magazines, and you really don’t see them. But I can guarantee that your head and stomach “feel” them; you get a wave of guilt from ignoring the problem. Perhaps you fear throwing things away because you might miss something.

A way to test this stress theory is to remove the clutter and feel the difference. If you are having a difficult time seeing the clutter in question, take a look around your space through a stranger’s eyes, as if company were coming. This is a surefire way to bring into awareness all of the items that you have been ignoring for a long time.

Clutter has no conscience.
Clutter can:
· Make you sick
· Make you feel tired
· Affect your body weight
· Keep you living in the past
· Cause or worsen depression
· Make you put your life on hold
· Induce a feeling of shame and guilt
· Be the main cause of procrastination
· Add unnecessary confusion to your life
· Make you feel that there is no alternative
· Affect how people treat and/or respect you
· Cause disharmony among family, friends, or co-workers

Clutter is nothing more than unmade decisions.
The existence of physical clutter should come as no surprise since we live in such a prosperous country. The problem is that we want everything and we want it NOW. Since we live in a climate of instant gratification, we can have most things whenever we want them. But we don’t need most of what we have in our lives. The “stuff” accumulates and is never given a proper home. Thus, clutter is born.
If you’re able to get your physical clutter under control, the mental clutter is likely to follow without much effort, since one usually causes the other. Have you noticed that when you go into a cluttered room or office, you immediately tense up? If you go into that same room or office after you have decluttered it, you feel liberated. Your time becomes yours again, your priorities fall back into place, and best of all, your health may improve.

Patty Kreamer, Certified Professional Organizer® and owner of Kreamer Connect, Inc., provides speaking, coaching and consulting services to businesses and organizations who value effective practices that will leave their people being more efficient, empowered and proud of their accomplishments.
Do you want to be a much more organized person? Patty’s groundbreaking books, “…But I Might Need It Someday!” and The Power of Simplicity are available for purchase at www.ByeByeClutter.com. Or if you prefer a “baby-steps” online/workbook-based course, check out the Clutter Rescue Course®, which will transform a life of clutter, wasted time, frustration and overwhelm to one of power, simplicity and organization.
If you’re looking for a fun, dynamic, and effective speaker, or if your company would benefit from a productivity coach or consultant, Patty is available in person, by teleconference, webinar and phone. Email her directly at patty@ByeByeClutter.com or call her at 412-344-3252.
Patty can also be contacted via Twitter, LinkedIn, FaceBook, Plaxo/Pulse, or her blog. For useful tips, sign up for her free monthly e-newsletter at www.ByeByeClutter.com.
©2009 Kreamer Connect, Inc. Permission granted to reprint this article as long as the text and by-line are not changed. Complete text must be reprinted intact with all links made live.

Guest Post

Menu Planning

by Laura from I’m an Organizing Junkie

Laura from I’m An Organizing Junkie helped to inspire the feel of my blog. Once I discovered blogging I looked at many. I felt most comfortable with hers as I felt it was inviting and fun. I liked the colors, the feel of it and I decided that I also wanted to have a “comfortable” feel to my blog rather than “stiff or stuffy” feel.
She is by far the most recognized organizing blog and I am thrilled to have her being my guest blogger today.
I am so glad she is doing menu planning because it is something that I am not good at. I wish I was….I wish I liked to cook….I have attempted menu planning many times and never seem to stick with it. (See organizers aren’t always organized at every aspect of their lives – although I think we hate it when we aren’t!)
I am going to try her method and give it another shot. Just like I have started couponing..I am going to incorporate menu planning.

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Menu Planning Made Easy

I started menu planning three years ago when I became a stay at home mom. It literally changed my life and now I don’t know how I ever managed without it. I use to be under the impression that menu planning was too rigid and wouldn’t offer me any flexibility. Yet that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Menu planning allows me to prepare and shop for a whole week of dinner options at one time and even though I menu plan what I’m having on certain days I am by no means restricted to that. Having all the necessary ingredients on hand allows me the flexibility to switch days around if I need too without any problems. The menu planning itself takes me no time at all. Let me take you through the process of what works for me step by step:
If you can, choose a regular grocery day and stick to it. For instance I like to get groceries on Monday mornings at 8:30 am when the grocery store is less busy and I can get in and out in no time flat.
The night before grocery day sit down with a notepad and create sections for each day of the week.
Then looking through cookbooks or online start putting together a list of 5 or 6 different meals your family might enjoy that week. To make it a little easier for me when I do it, I start by figuring out which “meat” I’m going to have on which day. So on my notepad I might have chicken marked down for Monday and beef marked down for Tuesday. I also usually try to include at least one meatless dish. Once I know what meat I’m having I can do a quick search for say chicken recipes to find one that I want to use in my menu plan.
As you are doing your menu/recipe search you will certainly come across some more dishes that you’d like to try. I created a folder in my bookmarks called “recipes to try” with sub-folders listing the various food categories (ie: veggies, chicken, desserts, etc) and as I find recipes I’d like to try in the future I bookmark them for quick and easy access in subsequent weeks.
Don’t forget to create a night for leftovers. I purposely make extra on the other days so that I can afford myself a leftover day or two and that way nothing is wasted. This is especially helpful if scheduled for nights when you are busiest. I also do Simple Supper Sundays where anything goes.
Some other considerations to keep in mind when creating your weekly plan is what you might already have on hand in your freezer or pantry that might need to be used up. Select recipes around those ingredients and save money on your grocery bill that week.
Have a look at the grocery store sale flyers. If roast is on sale it is a good time to include roast in your menu plan. Also cross reference with any coupons you might have on hand.
Write a grocery list of the foods you need and post your menu where everyone can see it. No more having to answer the annoying “what’s for dinner?” question.
Join Menu Plan Monday to share and get menu plan ideas from other participants.
Smile and relax knowing that come 4 o’clock each evening you’ve got dinner covered. No panic necessary.

Guest Post

I Did a Guest Post On Ellie Merritt’s Blog from NBC 4

Ellie and I are tight.
LOL No, not really – but she did post a 2nd guest blog from me.  It is called Spring Cleaning – Get Organized Tips, so I am thrilled.
She has her own News show on NBC channel 4 here in Columbus. It is called First at 4 with Ellie Merritt. She does the normal news stories for the day, but what is really nice is that she has a little more focus on woman and mom’s. On Mondays she rotates having on Marcy from Stretching a Buck and Tara from Deal Seeking Mom (local mom bloggers) to give tips on saving money, coupons and free deals. She realizes the value and how much the bloggers can teach, so she features us often.
Check out her blog called, Elaborating with Ellie and you can check out my post, but you can also look at the other information she has and learn a little more about her. (She is really nice)

Guest Post

Make Your Own Household Cleaner

by Heather

Heather of Just Doing My Best has a great blog with all kinds of information and cost effective solutions. I saw this post and thought it was great. I didn’t know you could make a cleaner this easy so I thought my readers would be interested too!
Thanks so much Heather for your blog and being gracious and sharing with us.

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Thank you to Sandy for asking me to guest post on her website. I know she is diligent and careful in the content and information she shares with her readers, so I have been honored.

How to Make a Powerful Cleaner From Your Pantry

If you are anything like me, when an item in my kitchen inherits a stubborn stain, I have a hard time putting it away with the stain still taunting me. At one time, it took quite a bit of elbow grease, time, and product to remove the stain. Even then sometimes, the stain remained. After a few years of fighting that losing battle, I learned that I already had the 2 ingredients in my kitchen that would take care of most of the stains that I would encounter.

Chances are, you probably have baking soda and lemon juice hiding in your fridge. Fresh lemon or bottled are both fine. Sprinkle a little baking soda into a bowl and enough lemon juice to make a paste. This powerful concoction has removed a myriad of stains from my white counter tops and even rust spots that would not budge, left on white dishes from a dishwasher. If the stain still will not budge after the initial cleaning, spread the paste over the item and let it sit for a bit. If it the stain still will not budge, cover it with paste and let it sit outside in the sunshine for a while.

Homemade cleaners are becoming increasingly popular due to their low cost and health benefits and this powerful concoction has become one of my favorite solutions to keeping a clean kitchen.

I own and write at Just Doing My Best where my mission is to help and inspire ladies to do their best in their own homes. I believe none of us are perfect but ideally, we are just doing our best and our best is all we have to offer.
Heather

Guest Blog

Ali from Blessed Treehouse

Ali Hooper is a riot! I have been lucky enough to get to know her through this wonderful avenue we are working on right now..the internet. We went to Blissdom together even though we hadn’t met in real life prior. Ali’s writing will keep you laughing along with filling you with great info. She is the Editor of Homeschool Bliss  at Blissfully Domestic too! Ali is a great green advocate and gives some good tips concerning organizing. (seriously, she won’t harm you if you don’t save all your butter tubs…I will give you her address so you can mail them all to her though, because we don’t believe in hoarding here on my site!! ROTFL! But seriously, donation would be wonderful if you have too many extra plastic tubs. ) I can say this cuz I luvs The Ali!
We visited the Rainforest Cafe on our trip to TN. I’m on the left, Ali on the right. We had a great time, learned alot and even got stuck on an elevator for 45 minutes with 11 other woman. We called it Elevator 13. Ali was the pregnant one on the elevator (don’t you always have to have a pregnant woman in the mist of a crisis?

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So you already know Organizer Sandy, the genius organizing guru who is slightly Sleeping-With-The-Enemy (she knows exactly if something has been moved out of its place) (actually, I don’t think she’s that way at all. We shared a hotel room at Blissdom, and though I can confirm that she is super organized in real life, my psycho sensors weren’t alarmed).

But you might not know me. I’m Ali of Blessed Treehouse. I blog and vlog and spill the beans on the not-so-sunny-side of motherhood. Oh, and I try (and often fail miserably) to live green-ish. It’s more of a sour shade of green that I live, but heck, every bit counts, right?

So sweet Sandy asked me (me? me! of all people) to share with her readers a few tips about Green Organization. Though I’m far from an expert, I do have a big, puffy green heart, and I often pretend that I’m organized, so that’s close enough, right?

Let me begin:

* Before you whip out the plastic (pun intended) to buy some new-fangled organizer, look around your home and turn on your creativity cap. If you don’t have a creativity cap (let’s face it, some people are so far from being creative it’s painful), find a creative friend and borrow theirs. Either way, look around your home and find ‘organizational’ uses for things that you might not think could be used to stay organized. For instance, I use flower pots for storing office supplies. It’s a fun and attractive way to keep my desk clutter free. And who am I kidding – I kill plants, so only God knows what I am doing with flower pots in the first place.
* Don’t throw away containers of any kind! I’m serious. Next time you think of tossing that yogurt carton or butt wipe tub in the trash, think about how you can reuse it. I’m not kidding. I will sniff out your garbage, hunt you down, and hurt you if you dare throw away another plastic container. And if you are concerned that someone will judge you for reusing a butt wipe tub to hold cotton balls, get over it (I suggest investing in large sticky labels to smack on containers so that no one is alarmed when they are looking for butt wipes and they actually discover your Valium – seriously, a butt wipe tub is the perfect size for storing medications).
* Become an eBay, craigslist, and freestyle whore. Excuse my language, but seriously, sell your soul to these websites. DON’T buy new if you can buy used! Ebay now even has a local site allowing you to search for things in your area. Next time you are in the market for a book shelf or storage unit, PLEASE check these sites first. Again, I can smell ‘new’. I will hunt you down and hurt you if you buy new when you could have easily found something gently used.
* Become “that neighbor.” Seriously, be the one who the neighbors talk about, saying things like, “oh, there she goes again, digging through our garbage searching for reusable plastic containers.” Save your neighbors the gossip by letting them know that you will gladly take any of their plastic containers off of their hands. Afraid they will think you are weird? Who cares! They are probably the same neighbors having scandalous affairs and scheduling their next liposuction.
* Finally, organizing IS green. The more organized you are, the less likely you are to buy yet another fabulous lip gloss (okay, so this is what I tell my husband when he catches me spending $20 on another shade of pink gloss, “but honey, I’ve searched the whole house and car, and I cannot find that gloss!” Seriously, ladies, can you blame me?)

Being organized and living green go together beautifully. And with the wealth of resources, awareness, and digital information available to us, there is no excuse not to live a bit more green.

Don’t make me hurt you.

ALI The Blessed Treehouse

Guest Post

Command Hooks by 3-M

by Jessica
Jessica has so graciously offered to write a post for me on the 3-M hooks she loves to use with all the cool ways she uses them! Please visit her blog called Lackadaisical Motivation Thanks so much Jessica!
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First of all, thanks so much to Sandy for featuring this post! Although I’m not nearly as organized as Sandy, I try my best and she’s already give me great ideas that I’ve incorporated into my life. I’m happy to share this post with others.
I love 3-M hooks. I use them to help create more space in all of my living places. With as much as I use them, I thought I’d share how I incorporate them into our lives….maybe you’ll love ‘em too! There are two great things about using them– they remove from the walls very easily (they don’t leave white residue that you have to Goo-Gone away) and the hooks come in different sizes, so they’re very versatile. They’re not very stylish, so I usually tuck them away inside a door, cabinet, or inside of a wall. I hang my bath towels, measuring cups, keys, bathrobes, belts, purses, jewelry, etc using the hooks.

I hang my measuring cups inside a cabinet door. They’re a weird shape and kinda big, but I love the cups, so hanging them inside the door keeps them accessible and frees up space.
I hang the dish towel inside the cabinet under the sink. Hanging it up dries it quickly and keeps us from using it as our hand towel.
I hang my apron in the little space between the fridge and the wall. Keeps it out of the way, yet easily accessible!

Also hanging on the side of the fridge is my flip chart that list important dates. Each month when I advance the calendar to the next month, I grab this chart and use it to add dates to the new month. Of course I use one of the small hooks to hang the chart on the side of the fridge!

When we lived in Omaha and had a small apartment, the coat closet was right next to the front door, so when we come in from outside, we just hang them right up when we hang our coats and dump our bags (purse/briefcase).

This is the hand towel I use every morning in the bathroom. I lay it out on the counter (to keep my eye shadow from dirtying up the counter top) and then use it wipe my hands after gelling my hair. Then, I hang it up on the wall.

This was our bathroom door in Omaha (we had an apartment). We had three hooks we used to hang our bath towels on after we’d used them for the day. When we moved out, we just pulled off the sticky thingy and were done! No holes in the walls or doors. It was great!

Even though we own our home now, I don’t want to put holes in the doors, so I still use the hooks in our bathrooms to hang our robes.

In our closet, I use the hooks to hang my lingerie bag (keep the delicates separated from the rest of the laundry).

Here are some other random uses of hooks around our place:


And, quite possibly the most unique use for the hooks is how I hung my razor in the shower. I didn’t actually use the plastic hook, but the I did use the sticky strip that comes with a hook to attach my razor to the shower wall. Helps keep the razor dry and rust free!

You can find 3-M hooks at Target, Walgreens, Wal-Mart, etc. They are typically found in the hardware departments.
Thank you, Sandy, for this opportunity!

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These can be found at The Container Store also.

Guest Post

Organize Your Email

by Beth Davis

I asked Beth from Plus Size Mommy to be a guest blogger because she is such a wonderful person. I had the pleasure of meeting Beth at Blissdom 09. What a great time we all had! She and I had been twittering and she is always very nice and up lifting. Her blog is great with information and giveaways. Please make sure you visit her blog!
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When Organizer Sandy asked me to do a guest post on her blog, I was so honored. I had never been asked to do one before. I thought that this was so nice of her to ask me to write one. Then I started to think, wow, I am not a very organized person. I mean I have my things organized but it is by my own “system” that probably no one else could ever figure out.

My husband thinks I am nuts and he doesn’t understand how I ever find anything, but I always do. As a matter of fact, I think if I ever was “organized for real” I would probably not know where to find anything !!

So I kept thinking and thinking, what in the world I could post on an Organizers blog?
I asked around and got a lot of idea’s from people but the idea’s weren’t good enough. After all this IS my first guest blog and I wanted to be sure it was something special. So I kept asking my friend who you all know as @craftymamaof4 (Kim) what she thought. I had her thinking for me for a few days, and then she came up with a wonderful idea !!
Something I never really thought about as organizing but it definitely IS !

KEEPING YOUR INBOX ORGANIZED :

I keep my email organized. As a matter of fact, Kim told me I was the one who taught her how to do this, and that it has really made a difference in her inbox and she can find what she wants much easier. Now a lot of you may already do this, or know how to do this, and it is quite simple, but Kim, who to me is very computer savvy hadn’t done this until I mentioned it to her, so maybe a lot of you who could be doing this aren’t ?

Here is how to organize your email inbox. (I use yahoo email by the way, but I think it is possible to do this with any email system)

1. When you open your inbox there is a column on the left hand side that has
a. inbox
b.drafts
c. sent
d. spam
e. trash

2.Then if you go further down there is a place where you can add folders.

3.You should definitely set up a spam filter in within your email settings.This will screen out any unwanted mail and also helps t block viruses. I do check my spam folder from time to time though because somethings can get sent there that aren’t spam, especially if your waiting for an email that doesn’t/hasn’t come.

4.The drafts folder is where you can keep emails that might not be quite done or are needing more info. before you hit the send button. Hint: this is also a great way to vent!!
I have used this folder many a time to write an email if I am upset over something and I save it to drafts overnight, if when I wake back up I still feel I want to send it I do, but usually those get deleted because it was something I felt like saying but really shouldn’t and what a difference a day makes when your mad, lol It still feels good to write that down though, even if you go back and delete it.

5.The SENT and TRASH folders are self explainable, but the sent mail is useful to go back and refer to if you need something in the future.

.6. Now for the REAL organizing part. If you go to where you can add folders, under MY FOLDERS. You can make a folder for anything you want. for example, Kim told me she does a lot of surveys, but only when she feels like it and has time. So she created a survey folder, Tons of surveys come into your email everyday so now she has them all going into that “Survey” folder and it doesn’t clog up her normal emails. To do this you just have to tell it to put anything with “survey” in the subject line to go to that file.
I use this for Home Interiors, I buy home interiors a lot so my consultant sends me emails about sales and things, so all of them go into that designated file and when I get a chance I will go there and read them.
It is a wonderful system and really keeps your inbox organized well. ..

Thank you Sandy for asking me to do a guest post on your blog I am touched and honored you asked me to do this.

Beth AKA PlusSizeMommy

Guest Post

Keep a Family Calendar To Help Organize Your Family

by Donna
My guest blogger this week is Donna from Stop and Visit the Zoo. This woman is amazing (and sweet!)…amazing that she even has time to get on the computer, let alone maintain a blog. She is the mother of 9 children (and one in heaven). Ok…but she has 2 sets of triplets! Two ladies!!
I have people tell me that I am amazing having 8 children..but 3 of mine are out of the house, and of the 5 I have at home, Dave’s kids (including his triplets) go to their mom’s every other week…so I feel like an impostor!! Be sure to check out how she manages her day….and notice the laundry! (And you thought you had a lot of laundry)

I want to thank Sandy for giving me the opportunity to be a guest blogger. Sandy, you and your site are definitely an inspiration for me on my organizing journey. I hope I can help others along their way too.

First of all hello everyone! I am Donna from Stop and Visit the Zoo. I have a large and unique family, 9 living children which include 2 sets of triplets. My oldest daughter, 17, is a senior in a science and math magnet program. She is currently working on her senior capstone project. This is a year long project that involves working with a local scientist and staying after school to do the required work. My 14 year old is a freshman at the local high school. She is in the International Baccaleurate program. Both of them are on their respective high school speech and debate teams, which also known as the Forensics Team. So they have a weekly practice and tournaments bi-weekly.

My middle four are in elementary school. One is in fifth grade, and other three are in third grade. The two boys are currently in Cub Scouts and the girls are Brownies. My oldest son will be moving up to Boy Scouts soon. Plus I have the three two year olds at home. Since they were born 10 weeks early, the currently have a monthly visit from the Infant and Toddler teacher to monitor their progress.

My husband Richard is a career fire fighter for a local county. He is currently assigned to the training academy, where he works four 10 hour days a week. I am blessed to be able to stay home with the children. Our parental activities include Richard being an officer in one of our church’s men groups. I belong to the affiliated woman’s chapter and also teach Faith Formation to the kindergartners on Monday nights. I am also the treasure of the elementary school’s PTA.

All of this background is to give you an idea that we are definitely a busy family. I am sure by now you are wondering how we manage it. The most important tool is our family calendar. We purchase a large desk blotter size one and hang it on the wall. This becomes our family’s communication center. My favorite saying is: If is not on the calendar it does not exist! So if one of the teens comes up to tell me about something they HAVE to today. If it is not already on the calendar, it is not a high priority. They learned very quickly to mark it on the calendar when they first hear of it.

Every night I look at the calendar and plan the next day. Are there appointments, meetings, events? I try to keep errands to Wednesday. For me it limits the time out of the house and makes for a smoother week. I check the menu for day and get the meat out or bring every thing upstairs and put it in the pantry. I do plan my menu out for the month. So anyone can tell what we are having and can fix it if I am not around

My oldest two daughters are out the door very early, high school starts at 7 AM here. My daughter in the magnet program is on the bus at 6:15 AM. They each have one morning chore. The oldest unloads the dishwasher and puts the dishes away. My 14 year old starts the 1st load of laundry.

What follows is the school year schedule. Most of the boy scout meeting are Monday evenings at 6:00 PM and the Girls Scout meetings are on Wednesdays so dinner those nights are a little earlier and quick and simple . During the summer, we are bit more relaxed. Stop laughing please. Yes, I can relax if I have to.

5:00 Oldest High schooler up
5:30 Richard up and off to work
6:00 AM Donna gets up, personal hygiene, devotional time, eat breakfast, computer if time allows, make sure 14 year is up
7:00 Get the middle four up, if they aren’t already up, they get dressed and eat.
7:30 Middle four do their morning chores. Straighten room, trash collected, etc.
7:30 Get the toddlers (the girls) up, dressed and fed
8:00 Finish breakfast clean up, reboot laundry
8:15 Load up the car to take the middle four to school, run errands on Wednesday
8:45 Back from school, if no errands
9:00 Play time with the girls
9:30 Reboot laundry, fold and put away laundry, morning cleaning. Start dinner in crockpot if using. Computer time for Donna.
10:30 More time with the girls, reading, playing, sometimes a video is played
11:15 Lunch time! Reboot laundry, fold, put away when the girls go up for nap
12:00 PM Girls down for nap.

This is when I can get the heavy cleaning I need to get done, done. Wash the floors, scrub the bathrooms. Or if I need to work upstairs, this is when I do it. I will do the pantry cleaning, closet organizing, etc. I may only get one or 2 shelves or drawers done, but it is done. Then I can get on the computer and play for a block of time

2:00 First high schooler home. She will check the laundry and reboot if there is any left, have a snack and then do her homework.
Between 2:30 and 3:00 Girls up from nap. Then weather permitting we will go on a walk or just play inside.
3:00 2nd high schooler home. She will do a laundry check and reboot if necessary. Snack and homework.
3:20 Leave to pick up the middle four. (The older two watch the girls while I do this)
3:45 Home from pick up., snack for the middle four
4:00 Homework. They sit at the kitchen table to do their homework while I start dinner preps. I can help them if they need it and I can get my work done too. After they are done, their book bags go into a basket in the garage. Then they can play for a bit either outside or in the house.
5:15 Evening chores. The children all have a job to do. It rotates through the days. Monday could be feed the pets, Tuesday is wipe down the bathrooms, Wednesday is trash detail, etc. Each day a different child is responsible for a different chore. Everything is posted so no one can say it is not my day.
6:00 Dinner
6:30 Dinner clean up and baths start
7:00 Evening family prayer time for those at home. Final chores for the day. Basement toy room picked up, rooms picked up. Make sure all the laundry is put away, etc
7:30 Girls bathed
8:00 Older set of triplets to bed
8:30 5th grader to bed
9:00 Girls to bed
9:30 High schoolers to their rooms for chill out time, finish up their home work, etc.
10:00 Lights out for High schoolers. Finish up any lingering things that need to get done, start dishwasher
10:30 Time I try to head to bed, some nights are later, much later

So that is our day. Do all days go as planned, heck no! More often than not only the bare minimum gets done. But I have an outline of what needs to get done. I know what I am working on in my house so it will eventually get done.

Guest Post

Organizing a Coupon Binder

Kim and I met on Twitter and have become twitter/blogging buddies! We both knew that we were going to be at Blissdom but I had no idea how we were going to find each other in the 250 woman that were there. Ali and I no sooner walked in but Kim and Beth (Plus Size Mommy) spotted us and said hi! We had a great time with them. Kim has been more than generous with me in teaching me things about this blogging world. You will have to visit her site Crafty Mama of 4. Thank you Kim for being my guest blogger today.
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I want to start this post by saying I am honored that Sandy asked me to do this for her! Sandy was one of the first people I “clicked” with on Twitter and we became instant friends. Thanks Sandy, I hope your readers enjoy my input.

I recently started “couponing” after hearing lots of people talk about how much money they save using coupons. I used to do it a little, but this time I jumped in full force and I have had great results. When I said I jumped in full force I really meant it, I made arrangements with the manager of the convenience store down the street from me, and every Monday morning I go pick up the leftover Sunday papers. This results in me having around 25 copies of each coupon insert per week, that’s a lot of coupons to organize and keep track of and here’s how I do it!

I use a coupon binder.

Here are the steps I took to set up my binder.

I started by buying (or finding around the house) the following items:
*A zipper binder (I actually have to use 2! One for food and the other for everything else)
*Sports card album pages (9 slots per page)
*A cheap 3 ring photo album (remove the pages to use)
*Clear plastic page protectors
*Tabbed dividers
*Address Labels
*Zipper Pouch for Supplies

In the front of my binder I have a zipper pocket where I keep pens, sticky notes, scissors, and paper slips. I also keep the current store ads in the accordion section in the front.

I have divided my album with tabs into main categories. Each section then includes sports card pages (on right) and photo album pages (on left) to hold the coupons. I sues the photo album pages to hold oversize coupons and when I have too many of one coupon to fit in the baseball card slot.

I use address labels to label the first pages in each subsection so I can quickly find what I am looking for.

I have the coupons in order by the layout of my primary store which is Giant Eagle. Here is how I have organized my categories and subcategories:

*Baby and Kid
-Diapers and wipes
-Bath/hygiene items
-Food
*Food
-Bread
-Baking
-Beverages
-Candy
-Snacks
-Cereal/breakfast
-Soup
-Canned
-Fruit
-pasta
-Rice
-Potatoes
-Sauces
-Mexican/Chinese
-Dressings
-Seasonings
-PB&J
-Frozen dinners
-Frozen Veggies
-Frozen Sweets
-Frozen (whatever else is left)
-Meat
-Dairy
*Pharmacy
*Household
-Paper
-Plastic
-Dish washing
-Laundry
-Cleaning
-Air fresheners
-Batteries/light bulbs
*Health and Beauty
-Dental
-Shaving
-Feminine
-Make up
-Hair Care
-Soap
-Deodorant
-First aide
-Lotions
*Pet Products
-Cat
-Dog

I also have a section for rebates where I keep the receipts, upcs and forms, I need to send in mail in rebates. Each rebate has its own clear page protector where I put all the required documentation for that rebate.

*Restaurant/Store coupons

When I am ready to go to the store I look through the ads and match up my coupons that I want to use. the site I like to use for coupon match ups is Deal Seeking Mom . I make a list on a large sticky note of the items I want to buy and I stick it to the front of the ad. Then I take out all of the coupons I have cut out for a particular item and paperclip then together and place them in a smaller coupon file that is divided by store with one section in the back where I put the coupons I don’t use that need refiled. Then it’s off to the store for me and my coupons! I take my large binder to the store with me also jut in case I missed something or find a great deal that was not advertised.
Organizing my coupons this way had made it very easy to find what i need quickly and efficiently. I have saved so much money with my coupons in the last few months I have even surprised myself! The best tip I can give you is to stock up when things are on sale and you have coupons for them. You may not need scalloped potatoes this week but when you do you will be glad you bought them with your coupons!
There is SO much more I could go into about how I use my coupons, but I am sticking to just the organizing aspect of my couponing adventure since this is an organizing site!

KIM

Guest Blogger – Stesha Sims from Hot Chocolate Caramel Mocha !

Running a Large Family

by Stesha
I have decided to have some guest bloggers do some postings on my site. These are ladies that I think are fantastic and I love following their blogs, but I also want you to meet the bloggers behind the blogs.
Stesha is like super mom!! Not only does she have 5 children, she is pregnant with twins and on bed rest. Hello out there….how many of us could handle that? But she keeps her sanity, her family and her blog; Hot Chocolate Caramel Mocha in tack and takes us along with her into her world. Plus the fact that she has been soooo nice in the blogging world to me!
As mom’s we all handle our routines differently. Notice some of the things that help Stesha to keep her world working. She keeps her cool (not easy to do), she has a routine planned out. Everyone knows their roles and how they need to fit together in the piece of world. The kids take on responsibility and are able to handle help out. (Don’t miss that she or her hubby irons their kids clothes!!! Oh my gosh…I am like on my knees!! Just unbelievable to me!!) She is blessed with what must be an amazing husband and sounds like she handles it all with some humor. You go girl!
Thank you for being my first Guest Blogger!

When Sandy asked me to be a guest blogger on her blog I was so honored. Then reality set in and I began to ask myself several questions. Where do I begin? Do they really want to read about another large family? Of course, all of this was utter nonsense. Today I will give you a glimpse of a typical morning with our family of 7 soon to be 9.

My husband Michael and I have 5 children. We have 2 girls ages 3 and 1, and 3 boys ages 11, 4 and 5. Also, I am currently pregnant with twins due in several more weeks. As you can imagine life for us can be hectic, but very manageable.

If I could use two word to describe my family, they would be laid back. People ask me all the time how am I so calm with such a large family, and I always say trial and error. You make the biggest mistakes with the first and then as more children are added to your family you begin to realize that children, like life are very unpredictable.

A typical morning for us begins at 5:30 AM. The alarm sounds and no one moves. The snooze button is hit more often than not. Around 5:45 AM I will finally wake myself and our oldest son and point him in the direction of the bathroom. After he is finished in the bathroom, I will wake the younger 2 boys. One needs to get ready for kindergarten and the other for daycare. Around this time my husband is waking up also. Since I am currently on bed rest, the bulk of the work is done by him.

Around 6:00 AM the younger boys have finished brushing their teeth and washing their little faces, so now it is time to wake the girls. The girls both attend daycare. The oldest girl goes to the bathroom to do her girly things and the 1 year old is placed in the bed with me so I can comb her hair. After combing her hair, my husband will take her into the bathroom to brush her teeth and wash her face. Then she comes back to the bed with me, where I get her dressed.

It is around 6:30 AM now. The boys are dressed at this point because all clothing is ironed by either my husband or myself the night before. The boys will then come into the room so I can look them over and make sure everyone has on their belts, no toothpaste is left on their faces, lotion is applied and they have their jackets, backpack, etc.

At 7:00 AM the hubby will go outside to warm up the car, because it is still cold here most mornings. This also lets the children know that they have about 15 more minutes before it is time to load up. The girls are now both dressed. Our oldest daughter dresses herself, so after I comb her hair she is ready to go, usually she likes to wear her hair in a bun with a ribbon. Pretty easy and simple for me to do.

On the weekdays the children don’t eat breakfast at home, they like to eat with their friends at school or the daycare.

Around 7:15 my husband will give the 2 oldest boys their lunch money and make sure that the youngest children each have their bags for daycare. At this time we are saying our goodbyes and telling each other to have a wonderful day as hubby begins to load them into the car.

My husband or myself will scan the house to make sure that nothing is left behind before he leaves. Off they go. We only live 5 minutes away from the daycare so they usually have a smooth drive. All the children are unloaded at the daycare, even the oldest who attend school. The bus will pick them up from the daycare in the morning and drop them off in the afternoon. Don’t you just love small town benefits?

It should be around 7:30 AM because my husband has to be at work for 8:00 AM. He only works 20 minutes aways, so he has plenty of time to get to work.

On a typical weekday morning I would say it takes our family 1.5 to 2 hours to have everyone up and dressed and at their destinations on time. You have to remember every morning is not typical, but for the most part they are.

So there you have it. A morning with us!

Stesha Sims

http://hotchocolatecaramelmocha.com

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