A Cheap Motivational Device

Like many parents of toddlers, I've learned how useful timers can be. Something about that third party timekeeper makes life more fair and alternately speeds things up or encourages patience.

I'm in awe at how this device--which I used to think was merely intended for monitoring baked goods--can settle the score between siblings and make a game out of cleaning up.

Your timer doesn't have to be digital, or anything fancy, really. Oh how I loved winding these up and then forcing them down to zero to hear the ringing as a kid...over and over again.

You might not have kids in the house, but if you find yourself procrastinating, overwhelmed, or with a few idle minutes, I encourage you to "trick" yourself using a timer.

You see, we often over- or under-estimate the amount of time we need to do a project.

The other night I cleaned the bathroom (everything but the shower) while my husband was taking a shower and I was awaiting my turn. For some reason, this was a task that I'd been hemming and hawing about starting all week, but I finished it in the typical five-minute-guy-shower timeframe.

I've encouraged you before to try and time your weekly tasks so that you can better budget the time you spend on cleaning. But today I wonder what you could accomplish if you set the timer for 15 or 20 minutes, and tried to beat the clock. (That's why I like the constant tick-tick-tick of the dial timer.)

As you work, remember the left to right, up and down technique so you can stay as focused as possible. Good luck!

Nightly Routine

Call me boring, but I crave routine. Since November 4, my life has been a lot less predictable than I like. Fortunately, my babe is starting to establish a schedule and I am feeling healthy again. Recovering from a c-section, then the holidays, then strep throat. Enough!

I am thankful for a husband who really helps out around the house, but since he also works outside the home, I feel like the lion's share of household duties are indeed my responsibility. It's easiest for me to keep up with clutter and projects in small segments, so rather than having one big weekly cleaning session, I try to tackle a few things every day. So, before going upstairs for bed each night, I try to:

• Clear off and wipe kitchen counters and dining table
• Empty and reload dishwasher
• Decide on/do any prep for breakfast for the next day (so starving toddler can be quickly fed)
• Pick up toys
• Gather things to go upstairs

I find that I operate much better if the kitchen is clean and everything is (close to) in its place before I go to bed. Tripping over something in the middle of the floor before I've had my morning coffee isn't good!

A word about the dishwasher: I try very hard to make sure it gets started right after dinner if possible, even if it's just 90% full. Unloading is not my favorite thing, but it really only takes five minutes. It's important to me, because boy do I hate doing it after a quantity of dishes have accumulated on the counter and there's no room to put the clean ones as I work. Minor things in the scheme of life, I know, but as I read and shared recently "outer order contributes to inner calm."

Yea and Amen!

A few weeks ago I posted on the six commandments of organizing and I'm still sticking to them. But this article essentially covers them in three points. I love it!

"Outer order contributes to inner calm."  Oh yeah.

Shout Out for An Organized Lady

Overwhelmed? House full of clutter? Already planning how to simplify in the New Year?

You're going to want to keep an eye on Glynnis' blog for the next month or so. Love her ideas!!!

Greeting Cards

I was recently invited to a gathering with some of the moms from my MOPS group. One of the organizers prepared a bunch of great conversation starters, including the question "What are you good at?" There are many talented women in this world, and I really enjoyed hearing the answers from around the table. They included everything from 'loving my kids' to 'keeping an attractive home' to 'keeping in touch with others'. The last answer sparked some conversation about greeting cards.

A lot of us want to send nice cards and notes but have trouble following through. One woman noted she has a friend who buys cards and sends them right away. Her friend wants the card to go out when she thinks of it--before it is too late--even if that means it's weeks ahead of the birthday!

That comment got my wheels turning and I've compiled a few tips for you on how to make the prep work of sending cards a bit easier:

Pregnant, Barefoot and in the Kitchen

This description may not always be the most flattering, but this is exactly how I found myself today. I spent the entire day making soup to freeze for quick and easy meals after the baby is born. Call it nesting or call it crazy, I now have 29 quarts (more than seven gallons!) of soup put away.

This was the first time that I spent the better part of a day in the kitchen cooking (aside from making applesauce). It also took a few hours of planning and shopping before the cooking. I pulled out the recipes and made my list, then checked it twice. Here's a picture of my canned goods stacked alongside their recipes, just to be sure I had enough beans, tomatoes, etc.


Since I had five types of soup to make, I borrowed a pot from my neighbor (thanks, Jen!) in addition to my dutch oven and stockpot so that I could keep the process going. I was able to chop vegetables, clean up, or package a cooled batch while the current pot was simmering. Of course, the kitchen didn't always look so organized...

It must have smelled pretty good wafting out into the backyard. Look who showed up!

Here is what my soup looked like as it finished freezing solid. The goal is to have nice, firm rectangles that can stand up on their own in the freezer. I debated on what might be the most eco-friendly storage solution and determined that reusable containers are great, but also take up more space in the freezer. And of course, I can't afford to buy all glass containers. So, I feel pretty justified in using less freezer capacity/energy even though the bags will only be reused once or twice at best.

I guess you can imagine one of my next projects is organizing the freezers to make room for applesauce!

Here's what I made:

• Minestrone Soup
• Chicken Wild Rice Soup
• Pasta Fagioli (I'll have to reprint the recipe sometime)
• Tortilla Soup (double batch), similar to this one
• Amish Chicken Corn Soup

A very special thanks to Nana for watching my boy while I worked. :)

Found Money

This is my second full week working as a Domestic Engineer (stay-at-home-mom) and I'm enjoying it quite a bit more than I might have anticipated. As one of my friends has commented, it does tend to make you a bit more OCD about the house!

As you might imagine, I like making lists. I've developed a full-page list of things that I'd like to do before baby #2 arrives November 4. This includes making meals ahead and freezing them, deep cleaning most of the rooms in the house, and prepping the nursery. I hope I can get it all done, considering the number of naps I seem to need right now.

Since we are operating on one income, there's a renewed frugality in me. I'm finding myself interested in evaluating the house to find items I don't use much and can sell. I have a few items up on eBay and was thrilled to find a new consignment shop with adult clothing just opened up a few miles from my house. I'm already planning to rent a table at a Mother's Mart when we're ready to pass on some of the larger baby items.

Flipping through the channels last night, I found a show with people trying to do the same exact thing, only the items are much bigger ticket. It's called Buried Treasure and it's sort of like door-to-door Antiques Roadshow. Very cool, though I kidded my husband that I don't keep anything around long enough to let it become an antique!

Have you found a particularly effective way to recoup some value from items that you are no longer using? I'd love to hear it!

Maintaining a Happy Home

Do you ever find yourself wishing you could get another family member a bit more on board with organizing, helping around the house, or some other project?

I found Mark Gungor's analysis of men's and women's thought patterns to be so interesting (and quite funny). He explains that women think in a winding trail like spaghetti and that men tend to compartmentalize. Take a few minutes and hear what he has to say.

Boggling Principle

What can you learn about organizing from a family game? More than you might think!

I just returned from several relaxing days at a mountain cabin with my husband's family. It was wonderful! After the kids were in bed, we chose to play a few rounds of the game Boggle. I enjoy word games because I read so much, but I also devised a system for winning. See, the Boggle letters are arranged in a four by four square. I mentally divided the letters into two by two quadrants and started looking for word patterns in each quadrant. This really seemed to work and keep my mind focused when all the letters were facing different directions and it seemed easy to get distracted.

So, how to apply this to real life?

Start with a logical system to keep you from getting distracted. I've found this really helps me in the kitchen, where I can clean or straighten from left to right. My dishwasher is one of the right-most things in the kitchen, so I can keep funneling dirty dishes to the dishwasher or food to the fridge. Obviously, you can work right to left or in another patten if your kitchen is different, but I bet you'll find it's easier if you work with the same system every time.

Tonight, hubby and I washed our cars. This is a perfect example of how a grid or sectioning system works in your favor. Start with the roof, then windows on each side, then doors, moving from left to right and top to bottom. This ensures you get every nook and cranny without having to do spot cleaning later.

I envision the same principle to tackle papers on my desk, reviewing items from left to right and prioritizing projects.

How can you see this applying to your life? I'd love to hear your suggestions!

Five Tips for Maxed Out Moms (Link)

Check out this post (and giveaway) from Karen Ehman. I really appreciate her encouragement to do what's next, not what is easy. It's also very guilt-reducing and refreshing to hear her say that she doesn't scrapbook!

Time Savers

Every minute is precious.
 It's also an opportunity to
get something done!

When you have young kids, people frequently admonish you to enjoy the time because children "grow up so fast". It's especially fast when you are the parent. Unfortunately, I don't know how to put life on pause.

There are a million things that drain your valuable time each day. How can you capitalize on what feels like wasted time?

A few ideas that will hopefully get your organizational juices flowing:

1. Multitask when you are on the phone: unload the dishwasher, throw in a load of laundry, wipe the counter. These all take little concentration and won't distract you from your conversation like, say, replying to an email would.
2. Keep mail, a magazine or other reading material that isn't time-sensitive in your purse or diaper bag. Look over it when you are waiting at the doctor's office, in line somewhere, or waiting in the pickup line at your child's school.
3. Keep a microfiber cloth or swiffer in your car. When you are stuck at a light or getting gas, give the dashboard and console a quick swipe.
4. Use any time you are sitting and waiting as an opportunity to clean out your purse.
5. I check my pockets and purse when I'm in line at the grocery store, and toss any trash on my way out.
6. Keep a pad and pen handy to write down things you need to do. You can refer to this list when you have a few minutes for a project; you can probably find one that will fit into the time that you have available.
7. I find myself wasting a lot of emotional and mental energy saying, "I need to remember to ______". If I don't have paper handy, I often email myself, or call and leave myself a voicemail at home. Those are easy to delete and they're paperless, too!
8. If you find yourself a few minutes early for an appointment and need to kill time, stop to get gas. Even if your tank isn't empty, you're less likely to run out or need a special trip later.
9. Find some time to put your most frequently called service contacts (hair stylist, dentist, physician, pharmacy, etc.) in your cell phone so that you can call for an appointment any time you have a spare minute, no matter where you are.
10. Waiting in the kitchen for a dish to finish cooking? Use that time to straighten items in a cabinet or glance through your fridge to see what needs to be used up, put on the grocery list or tossed out.

Weekend Getaway (Packing Checklist)

My sincere apologies for not having any new posts for awhile. Work has been busy and thus preempted some free time during naps. DH has been working hard too. Fortunately, we were recently able to get away for the weekend at a lovely bed and breakfast in Lancaster County. Thanks to the grandparents for watching our boy!

I don't know about you, but there are two parts to going away that really bother me: packing and laundry. It's not especially easy for me to figure out what to throw in a bag, even for a 36-hour excursion. (Will they have a hair dryer? How fancy a restaurant are we going to go to on Saturday?)

So Many Errands!

Just about everyone I've talked to this week has spring fever. Enough of the winter, dashing from heated house to hopefully warm car, trying to avoid the bone-chilling cold. Doing errands in this weather is no fun, bundling up and toting a toddler around. I'm freezing or sweating, and there is no happy medium.

So, let me share with you my new, favorite way to do errands: Amazon.com. I've been a longtime Amazon buyer for books, but a few months ago found out about Amazon Subscribe and Save and Amazon Mom. Silly me thought a lot of people knew about this, but I've mentioned it a handful of times in recent weeks and no one knew what I was talking about. So, here we are.

Amazon Subscribe and Save lets you order consumable stuff and have it shipped to you at regular intervals. Cereal, shampoo, diapers, Sonicare toothbrush heads, and pretty much any personal hygiene item you can think of. Set it up to ship any quantity at one, two, three or six month intervals, and automatically save 15% with no shipping charge. Plus, you can change the shipping pattern or cancel at any time. Just be sure you stop the subscription before you have a garage full of cereal. You only have a short window to tell them to stop a shipment. On the bright side, you can also speed up a shipment if you are running low on something. The full details are here.

Amazon Mom is especially cool, because you get the free two-day shipping that is part of Amazon Prime, with no minimum purchase (normally $79 a year if you sign up for that program outside of Amazon Mom). For every $25 you spend on baby stuff, the Prime benefits are extended another month. For instance, I bought a $100 item with Christmas money and the benefits were extended four more months. Plus, it's better than subscribe and save because you get an additional 15% off (total 30% off) many items, including diapers! Plus the stuff comes right to your door.

Due to the two-day free shipping, I have been seeing a lot of my UPS guy. He's a very nice man, and with all the visits he has been making, I'm thinking he's going to deserve a Christmas gift this year!

Seriously, if you are tired of running to the store for the stuff that runs out--vitamins, makeup, coffee--take a look at these programs. I bet you will save some time and cash, not to mention the chance you'll have to develop a special bond with the guy in brown!

Room by Room: Laundry (Products)

Ah, the smell of fresh, clean laundry. There's nothing like it, right?

Well, unless you get that fresh scent from hanging your clothes and sheets on the line, you may want to think again about why it smells that way. (There's one particular baby detergent that makes me sick to my stomach because of the artificial fragrance they use.) The more I get away from using mainstream cleaning products, the worse the others smell.

I've been saddened to learn that a lot of commercially available detergents use things like optical brighteners to make whites look whiter, and can also contain a host of carcinogenic ingredients. A lot of fabric softeners coat your clothing with chemicals and the dryer sheets are polyester, so once you throw them away, they don't really break down.

Here are a few more eco-friendly products that I've checked out in the past year or so, which you might want to give a try:

My wool dryer balls

• Seventh Generation detergent and biodegradable dryer sheets
• Maggie's Soap Nuts
• Dropps Baby Laundry Detergent (what I use on my son's cloth diapers)
• Wool Dryer Balls (I just received these as a Christmas gift courtesy of my mother-in-law!)

Finally, I can't entirely vouch for objectivity of this article, or find out enough about the financial ties between organizations, the information about dioxane is interesting. I keep hoping the Environmental Working Group will come out with a database like their Cosmetics Database, where you can learn the ingredients and relative safety of a large percentage of cosmetics and toiletries.

Making a List and Checking It Twice

Key idea: Make holiday shopping simpler by tracking your purchases in one place.

I love buying presents. I love watching people open their gift. I don't like stressing about gift buying.

Lots of people set a holiday budget, either based on amount per family member or a grand total. I don't have a firm budget. However, for the past four years, I've been tracking my holiday purchases in a basic spreadsheet. Each year my total spending is about the same.

Here is a sample of what the sheet looks like:

Who	Item	Store	Amount
Mom	Sewing Book	Amazon	$    20.00
Suzie	Spa Socks	Ulta	$     6.00
Jim	Gift Card	Best Buy	$    25.00

Why I like this system:

• I can sort by name and see who I purchased gifts for last year. That way I don't forget someone.
• I can see how much I spent in previous years.
• It's easy to input ideas for next years' gifts. (Or remind yourself of what you bought ahead and stashed away.)
• Rather than having a huge stack of receipts, I enter gift info as I make purchases. I still save the receipts for the less decisive family members.
• The spreadsheet is a quick reference to what I have. I don't need to visit the hiding spot or sort through wrapped gifts and try to remember what's in them. (I tend to wrap immediately in order to prevent peeking.)
• I can sort by store and see where I've been most successful with finding gifts. That saves me time in future years.
• A quick scan shows me who still needs something or what else I wanted to buy.

I hope this helps you as you gift buy in the future. This tip comes with a caveat: I am the annoying one who emails family on October 1 asking what everyone wants. This allows me to spend another month politely hounding them for their list. My Mom and I usually go out on Black Friday to finish up our lists. So, when my shopping is done by early December, I can kick back, decorate, bake,  put on the music and think about the real Reason for the season.

Here's hoping that your holiday isn't too stressful. Of course, if you have any tips for gift buying, please share them!

Prioritizing for 2011

Happy Thanksgiving Eve (and Happy Birthday to me)! Sure enough, we are in full-tilt holiday season and will be going, going, going until sometime in mid-January.

But for today I am reflecting on Thanksgiving and all the people and things that are dear to me. I am also wondering what it means to enter my fourth decade of life. (Wow, did I really say it that way? It makes me sound even older!)

All this thinking reminded me of dear old Dad and his frequent refrain that, "To Fail to Plan is to Plan to Fail." Dad's ideas aren't as corny as they once seemed. Raising my son has made me think a lot about what things I want to do intentionally with him. I have also thought about how, if left to ramble through each day, we might just eat, sleep, play, and then wonder where the time went.

It's good to have a plan. To-do lists are helpful (and can even be fun!) but a plan allows for more direction and includes long-range goals. If I don't prioritize and make plans for vacations, trips to the zoo, art classes and dates to the bakery, life will go on and we'll miss making special memories. And I certainly don't want to wind up in a nursing home filled with regrets and "shoulda, coulda, woulda's."

As you navigate the holiday season and 2011, may I encourage you to be more intentional about defining your priorities and putting them on your calendar first? For me, in addition to the zoo type stuff, that will include planning a few free days that I can enjoy being with the people I love. You know, things like spending the day in my pajamas, baking, playing music and dancing around with my son, and taking time to be thankful for it all.

Have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

A Calendar and To-Do List That Works (Part 2)

So now that we've considered a calendar option that hopefully works for all members of your group (family, work team, etc.), let's talk about efficiency with to-do lists.

Generally, you can classify your to-do items in one of the following categories:

• A task or appointment that must be completed at a set time.
• A project or task that must be completed by a set time.
  
• Rolling responsibilities or chores that need to be done regularly, but with no deadlines.
• Things you'd like to do, but will only do if you have time.
  
  
  

A Calendar and To-Do List That Works (Part 1)

Key idea: Handle a piece of paper only once. At most, twice. 
Key idea: Find a system that works, then trust the system.

My brother-in-law saw my recent post about mail and questioned me (in a loving way) about my suggestion to handle paper just once. He started telling me about a manila file folder system his former boss encouraged him to implement (like the one described here). Important papers were filed based on the date that they needed to be addressed.

Don't get me wrong, I love nothing better than a fresh stack of files or papers (oh, the lovely school supplies in stores right now), but there are some limitations to a hard copy system. You can perform tasks if you have the paper to remind you, but we all know that things can get lost. Hard copies are also only accessible from one location. So I'm sure it's no surprise to you that I recommend going electronic with your calendar and to-do list if you haven't already.

At work, I use and adore Outlook. Say what you will about Microsoft, but I love having e-mail, my calendar, a task list and business contacts all in one place. Plus, isn't it cool to be able to assign tasks to your coworkers?  However, for personal priorities, Gmail and Google Calendar have become our go-to programs. A lot of the systems hubby and I now use were devised because we had issues like paying bills twice or booking conflicting appointments. Plus it's great being are able to access our calendar, tasks and messages from any computer or phone.

Here's a snippet of what our calendar looks like. My appointments are in purple and hubby's are teal, but you can adjust those settings however you like. We can see each others' calendars because we both use Gmail and set our accounts to share calendars. This is especially great for families, but works in small offices, too.

Another nice feature with the calendar is that you can set a pop-up reminder or request an email for upcoming appointments (or both), so you don't forget what's happening next.

For more information on Google calendar, see here. My next post will address an efficient way to categorize your to-do items. It will be full of good stuff you won't want to miss.