Thanks to my wonderful cousin, Miss Klutzy Mama, I have found a new website called Organizedhome.com.  I am probably one of the last people to know about this site, but it is wonderful.  Tonight Miss Klutzy Mama showed me her Home Organization Binder and I fell in love with it.  Yes, I know I am weird.  I do not have one of my own yet, but after tonight I am making one right away!

I do like to organize although I have stated before that I am not an organized person by nature.

I have my cleaning list and I did organize my closets.  I need to finish organizing my recipes and a few other things around my house, but this website has so many good articles and great printable resources.

This is my cheap and frugal (and free) tip for Frugal Friday.

The baby countdown is on – I am now talking in terms of weeks instead of months (6-8 weeks left depending if I go early or not).  And I think I have had a whole trimester of nesting instead of just a few days or weeks.

This week I am planning to get some more spring cleaning done since I am done organizing my closets.  I will be doing a light version of my weekly cleaning schedule and everyday I will be adding a spring cleaning task:

Monday: Dust ceilings in bathrooms and Clean Windows/Sliding glass door in Kitchen

Tuesday: Dust ceilings and ceiling fans and clean windows in Bedrooms and flip mattresses

Wednesday: Dust ceilings and ceiling fan and clean out fridge in Kitchen

Thursday: Dust Ceilings in hallway and ceiling fan in living room and clean Windows

Friday: Clean oven in Kitchen; Clean out car

Saturday: Transfer movies from mini DVD to DVDs

This is my plan for the week.  I don’t plan on doing too many outside activities except for my bi-weekly doctor’s appointment and I also have my dental cleaning this week.

UPDATE:  I did not do the ceilings in the bathroom so I am adding that to tomorrow, but I did do the window and sliding glass door in the kitchen/dining room area.

How about you, have you done any spring cleaning or organizing recently?

To see what others are tackling, please visit 5 Minutes for Mom.

My daughter would not get out of the closet.

I think I have said before that I am not an organized person by nature.  It takes a lot for me to get and stay organized.  Although the more organized I become, the easier it gets.  I have been working on getting my closets organized for the last week or so.  I finally have that done!  I organized my children’s closets, my storage/sewing closet, my own closet and our new baby’s (who has yet to arrive) closet.

Just so you know when I was pregnant with my first son, 3 days before he was born I was cleaning all the windows in the house and scrubbing the top of the refrigerator.  Ah, pregnancy, the thing I love about it is that it gives us a definite deadline.  Maybe that is why I get so much done when I am pregnant.  I need deadlines.

I also organized our computer armoire.  Now I am going to do some spring cleaning.   The main things that I need to do are:

Kitchen – refrigerator and oven

Windows!

Dust ceilings

Once these jobs are done I think I will be better able to maintain.  If anyone has suggestions for cleaning windows, I would love to hear them.

I am usually always decluttering in some way or another.  I think I am almost to the point that everything we have we use pretty regularly.  I have paired down all of our wardrobes considerably.  I am trying to simplify that even more.  I am still working on it, but I think I am almost there.  I am trying to avoid garage sales at this point because I know I have plenty of clothes for all of us.

My cleaning schedule is still working out wonderfully.  I really like the structure of it.  I do at least one to two loads of laundry a day so it doesn’t get overwhelming.

Here is what I did to organize our closets:

I took everything out.  I put them in piles:

1.  Keep/Store

2.  Give away

I bought those banker boxes whenever they went on sale.  I did use tubs, but I like this better.  I still use some of the plastic tubs for in the garage or shed.

My closet - before you couldn't even see the floor.

With each box, I numbered them, drew a colored circle on them and labeled them.  I then made a corresponding 3 x 5 card and put the same color on it.  I wrote the number, the name of the room where it is stored and the contents of the box.  This system came from reading the Duggar book.

My son and daughter's closet

Now if I am looking for something and know that it is in a certain room, I can look up the card and see which box it is in.  I have stored all of the kids clothes by size to be used by future children (child).

I also put a box in the kids’ closet that I labeled “Outgrown” and I throw shoes or clothes into there to be sorted and boxed up later.  Before this I just kind of threw them in a pile.

So sorry I did not take any before pictures – just imagine the disorganization and mess.

Well, at the very least, it will make moving easier – right?

I did not get to take any pictures of the baby’s room, but I do have his closet organized as well.  I also have his clothes washed and hung up by size.

Here you can see how I numbered and color coded the boxes.

Oh, one other thing that I need to do badly is go through our mini DVD home movies and record them onto regular DVDs and label them, but we will save that for another week!

I am linking this post at Tackle It Tuesday’s at 5 Minutes for Mom and Blissfully Domestic.

Well, here is my cleaning schedule since Lindsey said she wanted to see it (it is all for you Lindsey).  This is probably going to evolve and change, but right now it is working wonderfully.  Next week I plan to add some monthly to do things into my weekly but for right now I am working on just being consistent.  Also, today is day 2 of No Soda.  We don’t really have any in the home (except my husband’s Dr. Pepper which I think taste like the can anyway!).  But we did go to my dad’s tonight and they had Coke and I was oh so tempted, but I did not give in.

Onto the topic at hand, here is my cleaning schedule.  In italics below are the jobs for my son to do.  He has been doing pretty well, not a whole lot of complaining.  Tonight he took a $1.00 with him because we were going to Rural King to buy some seed potatoes and he decided to pick out some watermelon gum to buy with his $1.00.  So, he earned it so we let him buy it.

Monday: Bathrooms

Clean shower, toilet, sink

Wipe down fixtures and baseboards

Clean mirror and lights

Mop

Change towels

Launder rugs and shower curtain as needed

Child does: Take rugs to washer, wipe down sink and baseboards, empty trash

Tuesday: Bedroom

Pick up

Dust fans and furniture

Launder sheets

Dust baseboards and ceiling

Clean mirrors

Vacuum

Child does: Dust baseboards, pick up, help vacuum, help with mirrors

Wednesday: Kitchen/Laundry room/Dining room

Wipe down appliances and cabinets

Clean counters

Dust computer and computer armoire

Dust baseboards and ceiling

Wipe off washer and dryer

Sweep and mop floor

Shine sink

Child does: Help wipe down cabinets, dust baseboards, wipe off washer & dryer

Thursday: Living room/Hallway

Dust pictures, etc. (baseboards and fans as needed)

Clean hallway mirrors

Wipe fixtures and light switches

Sweep and mop floor

Vacuum rug

Child does: Help clean mirrors, vacuum with small vacuum, wipe light switches

Friday: Miscellaneous

Pick up house

Wipe down bathrooms

Sweep and vacuum floors if needed

Clean out car

Organizing projects

Child does: Help with wiping down bathrooms, take out trash or help clean out car

I have just started throwing in a load of laundry in the morning everyday and just finishing one or two per day.  So far this has been working.  We do the sheets on Tuesday (bedroom day).

And below is a picture of my little girl’s Easter dress.  I have to take it in because it is a little big.  She is in the 18-24 months and the pattern was a 2 so I knew it would be just a little big.  It isn’t fancy and I am NOT a seamstress but I think it is cute.  I am making a skirt (hopefully this weekend) of the same material.

This staying home has made me really productive (I hate it when my husband’s right – just kidding).  Hopefully I will keep it up!  Tomorrow I plan to post my next OAMC meal plan if you want to see it.

Have a great day!

I know that I was posting cooking things all the time and I felt like people should know that I do clean and I do have children as well.  I have noticed that since doing my new “Keeping the Home” more I haven’t had as much time for baking (which I love).  Although, I just finished sewing my daughter’s Easter dress so that could explain part of it.

Anyway, Sunday night I sat down and actually wrote out my daily and weekly cleaning list.  I had a cleaning schedule before, but I have found that I really need to revamp it mostly because we seem to have A LOT more laundry than we used to and we even reuse our towels.  I have it written out right now, but I will try to type it up and post it later if you all are just so interested (I know you are).  It really helps me to have a list written out to go by otherwise I just stumble around all morning and never really get anything accomplished.

Another thing I am doing starting this week is weaning myself off of soda.  I know, I am six months pregnant so I shouldn’t really be drinking it anyway but now I really am trying not to.    So that is my life – cleaning and drinking water – WOW could it get any better!

Does these posts seem like they are sounding like Deep Thoughts by Gretchen or what?

Anyway, I want to share some more verses with you.    All from Matthew 6 (Do not worry) -
²⁵ “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?

²⁶ Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

²⁷ Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

²⁸ “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin;

²⁹ and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

³⁰ Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
³¹ “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’

³² For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

³³ But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

and the NIV version:

4Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Planning is not a bad thing.  It is always good to have a plan, but worrying will not help anything.  So do your best, have a plan and leave the rest up to God, remember He will direct your way!

For Part I – the Kitchen, go here.

The bedroom is also a place that you will spend a lot of time, but most of it will be sleeping. So your room should be comfortable and not too cluttered. This room should be a little easier to care for. Again you will want to have your daily, weekly and monthly schedule (to remain sane and have a clean house). Here is a sample of mine:

Cleaning

Daily
Pick up clutter/Make beds

Weekly
Dust (including base boards – not that I always do this)
Change sheets
Vacuum floor

Monthly or semi-annually could be to clean the windows and wash the curtains and turn the mattress.

Here is the Flylady’s detailed cleaning list for the bedroom.

Bed making

Go here for exact instructions for how to make a bed. We all have been making our beds for a long time so we just do it how we always have done it. I recently read a book about organization and it said to tuck everything in on the bed. Maybe you do this, but for some reason I haven’t been tucking my top sheet or quilt under the mattress when it hangs longer than the mattress.
So, her suggestion was to tuck everything. It makes everything look neater and it really does. It is a simple suggestion, but it really does help.

TV

Many people advocate that you NOT have a TV in your bedroom. I am of this group. We have had the TV in our bedroom and we have NOT had it in our bedroom. I personally do not like it in there. I like to rest and relax there. It is a personal choice, but you will be a happier couple if you leave the TV out of your room!

Decorating

If my sisters are reading this they are probably laughing that I would even talk about this. I am so not a decorator. I put decorating off. I buy a picture one month, then hang it the next month and then wait 5 more months to decide what curtains to buy. So I will leave this to the experts. There are many of them.

HGTV
Dollar Stretcher
The Glam Guide – this was so cute (the picture is above)

I am starting this series because my sisters are getting married within a week of each other in less than 2 months. I wanted to put a book together to help them in their new homemaking adventures.

The kitchen is the place that I spend most of my time. There is the cooking, the baking, the cleaning, and of course, the feeding. I am going to start with cleaning the kitchen, because, let’s face it – who wants to cook in a dirty kitchen? You will need a to make a list of what needs to be cleaned when. Start with the daily, then the weekly, and then move onto the monthly.

I. Cleaning

Daily
Pick up clutter
Empty/Load dishwasher
Wipe counter tops
Sweep floor/Wet Swiffer floor as well

Weekly
Wipe down cabinets/Clean Appliances
Clean stove/burners (this might actually be more monthly)
Mop floor
Wipe out/clean out fridge

The Fly Lady is also a good place to start to organize your cleaning schedule.

How to Speed Clean your Kitchen by Real Simple online is another great resource.

Odds and Ends about Cleaning your Kitchen:

Cleaning the microwave made easy – Take a glass container, fill it with 2-3 cups of water or vinegar and microwave for 5 minutes. Take the water/vinegar out and wipe down the microwave. The steam helps to loosen any particles that have hardened and it is very easy to clean after that. I put the glass plate in my dishwasher to wash.

II. Menu Planning

I do not profess to be an expert here. I will just share what I do and I will also share a few links from others that do it differently, for you to choose from. You can see all of my past menus here.

First of all, menu planning is a must if you want to save money and not pull your hair out everyday. What I do is to keep a list of staples and pantry items that I use all the time. I try to not run out of these items. I asked my husband to name some meals that he likes that he could eat almost every week. I then made themes – 5 of them. Basically it is a master list of meals.

Monday Stir Fry/Main Dish Salad/Freezer Meal*

Tuesday Meat/Poultry**, mashed potatoes, corn and salad

Wednesday Fish/Lentils/Meatless (Chickpea/black bean burgers)

Thursday Italian Night*** (usually a meatless night)

Friday Homemade Pizza/Calzones (Alfredo or regular)

*I always have 6 freezer meals on hand to choose from, from our OAMC Cooking Club.
**This will be a choice of meat from the freezer or chicken that I got on sale or meatloaf made ahead and frozen.
***This can be Lasagna, Fettuccine Alfredo, Manicotti or Garlic Butter Pasta

I do try to make things ahead and freeze them as much as possible.

III. Grocery Shopping

If you are using coupons or want to, go here on Today’s Daily Dose to see a wonderful post my friend just did regarding coupon questions and answers.

If you do not want to or cannot use coupons, Money Saving Mom has some good tips for grocery shopping without using coupons. Basically, what I have been trying to do is make as many things from scratch as possible. When I am about to run out of something (such as Hershey’s chocolate syrup), I do some research and see if I could make it from scratch with the things that I have on hand. If we like it then I won’t buy it from the store again. Basically, I am trying to find a way to rarely enter a grocery store (wish me luck).

On that note, if you do shop at Aldi please go to Mom Advice and see her Aldi Menu Planner.

I also really enjoyed Heavenly Homemaker’s “Getting Real with Food” series. You can read her answer to a question that I e-mailed her.

There are many ways to menu plan. I have tried a lot of them. I find that the way I am doing it now works well for me. Some people plan their menus around what sales are going at the grocery stores. Some people plan their menus a month in advance. Some people do the Once A Month Cooking plan (which I do some of). There really isn’t a wrong way to do menu planning (unless you just don’t do it). You need to find out what works best for you and your family.

And a great menu planning resource is to check out OrgJunkie.com’s Menu Plan Monday. You will get all sorts of ideas and great recipes.

I find that I enjoy the time I spend in my kitchen. I really enjoy it when it is clean and I have a plan. Now, it isn’t always clean and there are times when the best plans don’t work. The point is that you will be spending most of your time in the kitchen so make the best of that time!

For more kitchen tips and all sorts of wonderful recipes, visit Tammy’s recipes. She has wonderful kitchen tips.