Organized Home
Moving On: Tips For An Organized Move
By Cynthia Ewer
Editor, Organized Home
Every year, one in five American families makes a move --- and this year, it'll be your family on the road.
No doubt about it, moving can present the organizational challenge of a lifetime.
Every habit, every routine, every tiny piece of the mosaic of your life is tossed at random into a huge, cluttered van, to be shaken out and reassembled at the other end.
It's a daunting task--but you can get organized and cut stress when the moving van arrives.
Moving on? Try these road-tested tips for an organized move:
Save at the Supermarket: Boost Your Price Power!
By Cynthia Ewer
Editor, Organized Home
On any trip to the grocery store, it's the first and simplest question: what's the price?
Time was, it was easy to know the price of any grocery item; before computers, each can, carton and bottle sported a physical price tag. Old-school physical price tags made food costs clear--and to raise prices, grocers had to re-tag food items.
This labor-intensive process discouraged wide swings in pricing. Shoppers knew what food cost, and it was easy to notice rising prices.
Hello, 21st century! In today's supermarket, finding the price of any item is no longer so straight-forward. What's a savvy shopper to do?
Start Small: Sneak Up On Freezer Cooking
By Cynthia Ewer
Editor, Organized Home
You've heard about bulk freezer cooking--an easy method of stockpiling prepared meals in the household freezer.
Commercial meal assembly franchises like Dream Dinners®, or Let’s Dish® have popularized the concept (at a cost), but smart home cooks know that feeding the freezer is an efficient way to feed the family. too.
Whether you know it as once-a-month cooking, freezer assets, OAMC or freezer cooking, the idea sounds intriguing. In a single day, freezer cooking lets you cook and freeze dinner entrees for a month--or more.
But the work! Loaded down with toddlers or balancing a full-time job, you can't imagine devoting two full days a month to shopping, preparing and cooking all those meals.
Take heart! Freezer cooking is not just for the energetic; it's possible to stock your freezer without the marathon sessions. Try these strategies to build your frozen assets bit by bit:
Store It! Create A Household Storage Plan
By Cynthia Ewer
Editor, Organized Home
How to handle household storage? It's a battle!
You, the innocent home manager, want only to find holiday decorations or seasonal clothing.
Your nemesis? Bins and bags and boxes. Crammed cabinets, bursting basements, and inaccessible attics. The Garage from The Black Lagoon. For most of us, an efficient household storage system seems like an impossible dream.
Squeezed by the storage shuffle, many home managers yearn for larger quarters. Let me burst the bubble (as one who knows): a bigger house is not the answer. Stored stuff has an amazing bread-dough quality--it rises to fill the space available, and then makes a sticky mess as it slops over the sides of the container. No matter how many closets, cupboards or square feet of attic space, surplus stuff will find a way to take over while your back is turned.
The answer? A household storage plan. Yes, it will take some work, but the principles involved are as easy as ABC:
Clean Sweep? The Case Against Spring Cleaning
By Cynthia Ewer
Editor, Organized Home
Spring blows in with warm wind and the promise of ... spring cleaning?
With the coming of spring, even the most casual home managers feel an inexplicable urge to move furniture, clean windows and vacuum baseboards to welcome the return of sunshine and warmer weather.
Certainly, there's a lot to be said for the notion of spring cleaning. It's a good time of year to rout out the dirt, dust and disorder that's crept into the home since the holiday season. By doing a thorough clean once a year, no area of the home gets too far removed from the results earned by energetic mops, vacuums and cleaning cloths. Longer days bring a new burst of energy for many of us, and using that bonus to deep-clean our homes seems like a good match for rising springtime spirits.
Cleaning Grand Plan Challenge: Front Porch Week
It's the place where your home makes a first impression: the front porch.
Whether you have a small apartment landing or wrap-around farmhouse porch, this is the week to declutter, clean and organize the entry area to your home.
It's a last "cherry on the cake" assignment at the Cleaning Grand Plan: putting the finishing touch on the hard work of the last 12 weeks creating a lovely entrance area.
Ready? It's Front Porch Week in the Cleaning Grand Plan!
Cleaning Grand Plan Challenge: Garage / Storage Week
Warmer weather's coming! It's time to take to the road.
Will your garage be ready for summer travel, sports and outdoor fun?
Time to bring new order to garage storage areas with a seasonal declutter, deep-cleaning and organizing session.
Ready? We're sorting garage storage this week in the Cleaning Grand Plan!
Challenge Day 71: Attic/Basement Storage Week
Spring weather puts storage areas into new prominence, as we search for outdoor equipment and seasonal clothing.
Time to head to attic and basement storage areas in the Cleaning Grand Plan Challenge!
This week, we'll plan, declutter and organize storage areas in attic or basement.
Ready? We're sorting storage this week in the Cleaning Grand Plan!
Challenge Day 70: Kids' Room Week Wrap-Up
It's been all things kid this week in the Cleaning Grand Plan Challenge, as we've decluttered, cleaned and organized children's rooms.
Today, take the last steps to bring children's rooms to a state of clean and orderly..
Tomorrow, the Cleaning Grand Plan Challenge moves storage areas in attic and basement. Are you ready to clean out stored stuff to welcome Spring?
Challenge Day 69: Spring Cleaning With Kids
Days are getting longer and the temperature's rising: it's time for spring-cleaning!
Why work alone?
Today in the Cleaning Grand Plan Challenge, get tips to bring children onboard when it's time for seasonal cleaning.
Working together teaches skills, builds teamwork, and shares the fun! Try it today in your organized home.
Challenge Day 68: Try a Toy Jail
Tired of waking each morning to a sea of toys left out after yesterday's play?
Try a toy jail!
This simple concept helps train children to the put-away habit and brings an end to early-morning stumbles over Lego creations.
Designate a toy jail in today's Cleaning Grand Plan Challenge assignment.
Kids and Chores: Chilling The Chore Wars
By Cynthia Ewer
Editor, Organized Home
When it comes to kids and housework, the blasted terrain is familiar: a dirty house, balky children, and frazzled, frustrated parents.
Tired parents try it all, from chore charts to screaming fits. Canny children engage in housework sabotage, selective hearing or childish irresponsibility to duck assignments. The noise levels--and stress levels--rise along with the stacks of dishes.
How to negotiate a peace on the issue of children and chores? Try these family-tested strategies to calm the conflict and gain the goal:
Challenge Day 67: Chill the Chore Wars
Kids being kids, keeping a clean house is a struggle on a good day--and getting them to pitch in with household chores can rise to the level of a battle.
How do you chill the chore wars?
Today in the Cleaning Grand Plan Challenge, we'll consider ways to build teamwork and teach important life skills when it comes to cleaning house.
Try these ideas to bring the family onboard.
Challenge Day 66: Cut Down On Toy Clutter
One big obstacle to organizing children's rooms? Too many toys!
Whether it's fast food freebies, mushrooming collections or over-buying by doting grandparents (Guilty!), it's easy for children's toys to pile up well beyond their play value. How do you pull the plug on toy excess?
Try these tips to identify toy keepers, turf surplus toys, and rotate the family's toy collection to cut down on toy clutter.
8 Great Tips To Organize Kids' Rooms
By Cynthia Ewer
Editor, Organized Home
It's the battle cry of millions of parents: "Clean your room!" Will it ring out in your house today?
Seasonal events like birthdays, the holidays or a new school year bring fresh motivation to the drive to get kids organized--and nowhere is the battleground more intense than in the children's bedrooms.
How do you help your child organize and clean up life in the bedroom?
Try these eight easy organization strategies to calm clutter and bring order to kids' rooms:
Challenge Day 65: Organize Children's Rooms
What's the secret to happy order in children's rooms? You've got to get 'em organized!
Child-friendly storage solutions and daily maintenance routines are key to keeping children's rooms in a state of livable, but children aren't born with innate organizing skills.
As a parent, it's your job to play professional organizer to teach the little ones the skills they need.
Today in the Cleaning Grand Plan Challenge, we'll consider eight great ideas to get the children and their bedrooms organized--and keep them that way!
Challenge Day 64: Kids Room Week
Today's the day, and we're jumping for joy: it's Kids' Room Week in the Cleaning Grand Plan Challenge.
Kids and their stuff bring special challenges to an organized home.
We'll investigate solutions to storing children's toys, games and clothing, tapping right-sized organizing options and kid-friendly maintenance routines to keep children's rooms ship-shape.
Along the way, we'll declutter and deep-clean children's rooms, and prepare for warm-weather activities ahead.
Ready? Bring on the small stuff--and their stuff--for Kids' Room Week!
Today's Assignment:Kids' Room Week
Do little ones (or not-so-little ones) make a home in your household? This week, we're taking on children's rooms in the Cleaning Grand Plan Challenge.
Challenge Day 63: Guest Room Week Wrap-Up
It's been a free-form week here at the Cleaning Grand Plan Challenge. We've tackled the guest room (if we have one), and have used the week to catch up or to work on a bonus area in the household.
Today, take the last steps to clean, declutter and organize the guest room or bonus area.
Tomorrow, the Cleaning Grand Plan Challenge moves to the children's rooms. We'll take on the small stuff next week; are you ready?
Challenge Day 62: What's Your Clutter Personality?
This week at the Cleaning Grand Plan Challenge, we've been learning more about how to create a custom path to an organized life.
Today's question: what's your clutter personality?
Understanding what lies behind your need to hold onto clutter can make it easier to free yourself! Consider your unique clutter personality with today's assignment.
Challenge Day 61: Know the Core Four
What does it mean to be organized?
While the answer is different for every person and every household, there are four core elements of an organized life. Knowing the Core Four--and where you fall in relation to each element--is essential to craft a get-organized plan that will work for you.
Today in the Cleaning Grand Plan Challenge, we'll meet the Core Four. Where will you focus your get-organized energies?
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