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Organization: Switch-a-Roo Time

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Organization: Switch-a-Roo Time

Photograph Credit: Microsoft Images

The birds are chirping, the toads are croaking, and the temperatures are in the high 60s. Woo hoo!

Spring is peeking around the corner which means it’s switch-a-roo time.

Yep, time to switch our family’s clothing from sweaters, jackets, and pants to tank tops, capris, and swimsuits.

Though we still keep out some long-sleeved outfits for those cold mornings, I will need to start making the change in the next week or two.

To stay organized and to keep the mess to a minimum, I follow this organizational system for switching out my children’s clothing:

1. Prepare to organize my children’s clothing

2. Purge any soiled or worn clothing from winter

3. Pack up clothing and shoes to keep and any donations

4. Place spring clothes from bins into closets, dressers, and bins

5. Preserve the remaining items by putting everything away safely

As Paul and I are able to keep both our winter and our summer clothing housed in our closet and dressers year round, we do move our clothing around a bit to make getting to flip flops and short-sleeved shirts a tad easier.

In the next few weeks as you embark on switch-a-roo time, remember that extra outfit you stash in your vehicle, the coat closet downstairs, and/or the sports backpack that is sure to have a couple pairs of socks. I list these items more to remind myself as these are spots where I find items after putting everything away.

Enjoy these last days of winter as we wrap up the cold weather activities and prepare for days outside. Switch-a-roo time is coming along with warmer weather, visits to the park, and neighborhood walks. Happy preparing!

Question: How does switch-a-roo time look at your house?

Cleaning: Combine Tasks for Better Efficiency

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Cleaning: Combine Tasks for Better EfficiencyMy spring cleaning is underway.

In getting our routine maintenance completed for our heating and air conditioning units and having our home pressure washed, I was ready to get the inside clean.

In between loads of laundry, I worked to dust, organize, and vacuum our downstairs.

With our kitchen needing more attention than most of the other rooms, I found that I could combine tasks for better efficiency.

Needing to soak some soiled clothes before adding them to the washing machine, I decided to soak them in my kitchen sink.

Usually, I soak the clothes with OxiClean in our utility sink located in the garage. Knowing that OxiClean gets my kitchen sink sparkling white and my sink needed cleaning, I chose to let the cleaner do the work for me.

Once the clothes had soaked for about 2 hours, I washed that load of clothes and drained my kitchen sink. The result was a sparkling white sink and stain-free clothes. By combining laundry and cleaning my kitchen sink, I saved money from using 2 cleaning products, energy from scrubbing my sink, and time doing two tasks.

As I continue working on spring cleaning, I seek opportunities to combine tasks for better efficiency. Another combination I use is boiling 2 cups of water for homemade baby wipes while steam cleaning my microwave.

In using time wisely, remember to combine tasks for better efficiency. From making phone calls while checking e-mail to making tea while cooking dinner, you can save time while knocking those tasks off your to do list. Happy combining!

Question: What tasks do you combine for better efficiency? 

Scheduling: Adjusting Moment by Moment

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Scheduling: Adjusting Moment by Moment

Photograph Credit: Microsoft Images

If you saw my planned schedule for this week and then saw what actually occurred, you would think that I had mistakenly given you another week’s plan.

This is because this week has not gone as planned since I have been adjusting moment by moment. Some weeks proceed on schedule while other weeks seem to get derailed from the start.

When the plan gets bumped, I adjust and try to strategize again. Sometimes it works, and other times, I just embrace the time I have and accomplish what I can.

Even with the unexpected e-mails, phone calls, and visits, I was able to accomplish the following this week:

Though I did not get many items crossed off my to do list, I did get much accomplished. Sometimes in adjusting moment by moment, I get more done than trying to fit my schedule into the confines of that day.

In looking back, I did get much accomplished this week even though it was not what I had originally planned. If your plan gets derailed, then relax and see what you can get done.

Sometime life is more like a chess game. Though you have a plan, your opponent makes a move that you did not see coming. Instead of giving up, you adjust, rethink your move, and then forge ahead.

In using time wisely, plans will fail, but you may get more done and develop deeper relationships by adjusting moment by moment. Happy adjusting!

Question: How do you cope when your planned schedule does not work? 

Guest Post: 4 Cleaning Hacks to Make Cleaning Your Home Easy

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Guest Post: 4 Cleaning Hacks to Make Cleaning Your Home EasyToday, I’m privileged to have Bobby Smith, a regular blogger at SelectAware, an online coupon site, share four ways to make cleaning easier.

When it comes to an easy way to keep my home clean, I have a listening ear. As a task-oriented individual, I prefer to clean from top to bottom within a few days and be done with cleaning for the next week or two.

For some reason that next week or two turns into five or six weeks requiring  another top to bottom cleaning.

Realizing that my current cleaning is not really working for me anymore, I am listening and receiving these tips from Bobby as Cleaning Hack #1 is calling my name.

As you consider your cleaning strategy, listen as Bobby shares these insightful solutions to keeping our homes clean. ~ Tracy

4 Cleaning Hacks to Make Cleaning Your Home Easy

Guest Post: 4 Cleaning Hacks to Make Cleaning Your Home Easy

Photograph used by permission from Suzanne Dubose Photography

Cleaning is one of those tasks best fit into the “habits” territory. Generally, people either tend to love it or hate it, but changing how you go about it seems to take major effort.

Often, we clean based on how we were raised. If our parents showed us a number of useful cleaning tricks, we just continue to use them as adults, rarely seeking out new methods or products.

We’ve heard it takes 21 days to form new habits. Try using these 4 cleaning hacks to make cleaning your home easy over the next 3 weeks and see if new habits are formed for you!

Cleaning Hack #1 – Clean Daily

Although it sounds terrible to clean every day, by dedicating a small amount of your time daily to cleaning, it’s remarkably effective. With a small checklist, like this one from Real Simple, you can cover the basics of picking up and wiping down surfaces quickly.

No more embarrassment when an unexpected guest shows up at your door!  Other benefits: keeping up with your stuff, feeling more productive and an increased positive outlook.

With daily cleaning underway, it also cuts out time for a more intense scrub down later. The more intense oven scrubbing and refrigerator clean out are more likely to get done quickly when everything else is already in order.

Cleaning Hack #2 – Simplify Your Products

The grocery aisle is loaded with various cleaning products, all designed to help you tackle specific cleaning tasks. But, are they really necessary?

Chances are, you can eliminate most of what’s in your cleaning basket and pare it down to a few key products. Baking Soda, vinegar, ammonia, dish detergent, and hydrogen peroxide can do wonders in cleaning your house.

Buy in bulk when you do need to purchase cleaning products, and be sure to utilize all available coupons for discount stores to save both time and money in the long run.

Cleaning Hack #3 – Use the Right Equipment

While reducing the number of cleaning products makes cleaning your home easier, sometimes you have to pay more attention to the tools needed. It’s remarkable how much faster and easier cleaning becomes with the right sponges, rags, and scrubbers.

Another trick is to use cleaning gloves. People become more inspired to scrub harder and tackle dirtier jobs while wearing gloves.

And don’t even think about buying cheap equipment. Find the best vacuum you can afford by seeking out coupons, rebates and more  to maximize savings opportunities and eliminate frustration down the road.

Cleaning Hack #4 – Get Organized

One of the simplest and most effective ways to make cleaning your home easy is to get organized. Purge closets of unnecessary junk and straighten them out with a system for where things go.

Quit throwing junk into drawers and use drawer organizers instead to keep everything in order. Try bins and boxes with labels to help keep stuff contained.

When everything has a place, it makes it far easier to put it back there and take care of your stuff.  Which leads us right back to Cleaning Hack #1….

At first glance, good cleaning habits can seem hard to get implemented. However, with these four cleaning hacks to make cleaning your home easy, it’s far more manageable. And like every good habit, once you see the results, it’s worth it.

This post is authored by SelectAware, a leading online coupon portal for thousands of major retailers and merchants.

Cleaning: It Doesn’t Have to be All or Nothing

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Cleaning: It Doesn’t Have to be All or Nothing

Photograph Credit: Microsoft Images

Spring is in full swing, and spring fever abounds.

With visions of summer already dancing in our heads, we are working to control our excitement.

With only a few days left of our school year, we are zooming to the finish line.

With yearbook distribution, the last field trips, an award ceremony, and field day still coming up, our year is not yet over.

Though I am running back and forth to school for the next 2 weeks and my time at home is limited, I am not concerned about cleaning.

This is because I have a new cleaning process that is working for me. It’s called cleaning daily whereby I’m starting small and seeing encouraging results.

Cleaning Daily

Inspired by Bobby Smith’s guest post recommending cleaning daily, I tried it. The first week, I concentrated on my bathrooms.

For some reason, dirty bathrooms drag me down. I also get really tired after cleaning all of them at once. However, when I followed Bobby’s suggestion of cleaning daily, I found that I wasn’t worn out.

Starting Small

Starting small and only concentrating on one task – my bathrooms, I had to first change my mindset and remind myself that it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. I could take the project and break it down. So, for the first week, my daily cleaning went as follows:

Sunday: Make a plan

Monday: Clean all the bathroom sinks and surrounding areas (mirrors, lights, picture frames around the sink, etc.)

Tuesday: Clean all the toilets and surrounding areas (medicine cabinets, child’s doughnut seat, trash cans, etc.)

Wednesday: Clean all bathtubs, showers, and doors

Thursday: Sweep and hand wash all the floors

Friday: Pickup

Saturday: Rest

Encouraging Results

By the end of the week, I had 3 clean bathrooms, and I wasn’t exhausted. I was tired on some days. For example, Monday, I had to scrub the sink in my children’s bathroom because the toothpaste mess had hardened.

Also, I had a strip of plastic covered in mildew behind the shower door that needed scrubbing with an old toothbrush. Even though these tasks were tedious, I was able to concentrate my efforts on those items.

I did not need to hurry to finish cleaning that bathroom. In taking time to work with only one or two cleaning products, the cleaning went smoothly. With the first big cleaning taking the majority of my time, I now only need to maintain the bathrooms each week.

Having tackled our bathrooms on the first week, I will maintain the bathrooms and focus on laundry for the second week. Trying to re-establish a new routine with the laundry may take me more than a week, especially with being on the move so much in May.

No matter how long the process takes, I am learning and taking small steps. Thus far in this cleaning journey, I’m liking the daily cleaning with small tasks and great results.

Though my house is not in perfect order, it’s okay because it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Happy cleaning!

Question: How is your cleaning routine working for you?