Getting Organized Day 15

Do you have 15 minutes a day to spend on a simple task that will make your home life run easier. Here's how I'm doing it. With a little help of Home Storage Solutions and their 52 week challenge, I am going to get things organized a little at a time.

Today's Challenge:
Declutter food storage containers

Well this was the easiest task so far . . . 

Before

 

 

 

After

Yep I didn't have to do anything. I love having stackable containers. It makes life much more organized. 

How did you do?

Getting Organzied Day 14

Do you have 15 minutes a day to spend on a simple task that will make your home life run easier. Here's how I'm doing it. With a little help of Home Storage Solutions and their 52 week challenge, I am going to get things organized a little at a time.

Today's Task:
Declutter foil, kitchen wrap, and plastic bags

Not too hard of a task. It gave me a chance to see what I had and wipe out the drawer.

Before

After

 So how did you do today?

Getting Organized Day 13

Do you have 15 minutes a day to spend on a simple task that will make your home life run easier. Here's how I'm doing it. With a little help of Home Storage Solutions and their 52 week challenge, I am going to get things organized a little at a time.

Today's Challenge:
Junk Drawer

Before

Throw away pile, picture to hang up, pile of things that go somewhere, anywhere else

After picture with my awesome top tray

After! Look at what hides under that top tray. Love this junk drawer organizer from Target. 

 

 

 

Well how did you do today?

Getting Organized Day 11

Do you have 15 minutes a day to spend on a simple task that will make your home life run easier. Here's how I'm doing it. With a little help of Home Storage Solutions and their 52 week challenge, I am going to get things organized a little at a time.

Today's Task:
Declutter potholders and kitchen towels

Potholder to keep

Donate

Towels to keep (plus a couple bibs for any babes that come visit)

All pretty put away

To throw away

To re purpose. Wash clothes were given to the girls for their babies. Towel was from a grandma and will be used as a curtain whenever my curtain rod is hung.

All done! How did you do?

Getting Organized Day 10

Do you have 15 minutes a day to spend on a simple task that will make your home life run easier. Here's how I'm doing it. With a little help of Home Storage Solutions and their 52 week challenge, I am going to get things organized a little at a time.

 Today's Task: 

Declutter everyday tablecloths, napkins, placemats

I have two tablecloths, no napkins, and a few placemats. This was pretty easy to declutter. I kept the tablecloths and got rid of a few placemats that I just don't need. 

Keep pile

Donate pile with added bonus find

 

Getting Organized Day 9

Do you have 15 minutes a day to spend on a simple task that will make your home life run easier. Here's how I'm doing it. With a little help of Home Storage Solutions and their 52 week challenge, I am going to get things organized a little at a time.

Today's Task: 

Clear off kitchen table

Since moving into our home almost 4 years ago, the table has been keep pretty clear. We eat at the table at least 2 of our meals.

Most days my table actually looks like this: 

 One area in my kitchen that is usually easy to keep clean.

Getting Organized Day 7

Do you have 15 minutes a day to spend on a simple task that will make your home life run easier. Here's how I'm doing it. With a little help of Home Storage Solutions and their 52 week challenge, I am going to get things organized a little at a time.

Today's Task: 

De clutter and organize kitchen sink area

I did this awhile ago because I was so tired of having too much around the sink. When we got a new faucet, it had a soap dispenser so we filled it with hand soap. The dish soap went under the sink. All my little things are in a small container and my husband got a small hanging basket for over the cabinet under the sink.

Getting Organized Day 6

 Do you have 15 minutes a day to spend on a simple task that will make your home life run easier. Here's how I'm doing it. With a little help of Home Storage Solutions and their 52 week challenge, I am going to get things organized a little at a time. 

Day 6 task is decluttering kitchen utensils and silverware drawer. I didn't think I'd actually get rid of a lot. Surprise, Surprise! 

Here is what my lid and medicine drawer looked after I cleaned (I forgot a before picture). 

I put many lids on the cups and on our top shelf since we typically use them when little ones are over. I had a vary large pile of medicine dispensers. Every time we get a new bottle of something, there is a medicine dropper and it just kept getting tossed in the drawer. Lots of room for a few little items that were crowed into another drawer. 

The drawer that was crammed full of odds and ends looked like this: 

After moving this into the other drawer and throwing things away, it looked like this:

Nice and clean and no digging for things anymore.

Lastly was the large utensil drawer that has to be a certain way for it to close and not get stuck. Here's what it looks like and it wouldn't shut at the time of the picture:

And since I had room in another small drawer, here it is all organized: 

It was nice being able to discard things we didn't need and wipe out the drawers so they are nice and clean. It's the little things in life that make your day.

Getting Organized Day 3 and 4

 Do you have 15 minutes a day to spend on a simple task that will make your home life run easier. Here's how I'm doing it. With a little help of Home Storage Solutions and their 52 week challenge, I am going to get things organized a little at a time. 


The weekend organization was super easy. To get caught up here's what you need to do:

1. Make a to do list. I made one, laminated it, and put it in my household binder.
2. Declutter old Christmas cards or something else. 

Here's what I decluttered as I put away the Christmas tree. 

If I haven't used it in the past few years, I threw or donated it. Most items were my mom's old toss off or dollar items from our first Christmas.

Getting Organized in 2015!

Are you ready to organize your home. Do you have a list of things you'd like to someday get to? I do and that list keeps growing and it starts getting overwhelming.

I do have 15 minutes a day I can spend on a simple task that will make my home life run easier. Here's how I'm doing it. With a little help of Home Storage Solutions and their 52 week challenge, I am going to get things organized a little at a time.

I'm starting a day behind but the great thing is the first few days are just getting us geared up to have a great organized year. 

Bonus Mission: Write New Years Goals. Here are mine.

Day one assignment: Set up donation and selling collection station. 

• I have a spot in my room that always has a box for donation. When it's full I donate and put a new box in it's place.
• In the closet in our school room I have the sell pile for our garage sales. Most of this is clothes and shoes the girls grew out of and a few toys. 

Day two assignment: Create a binder for household notebook.

• My favorite item is the password list. I use it all the time.
• I did this last year so I just need to make a few adjustments.
• Of course I had to replace my goals for the year
• I am making a daily to do list that is a simple list that is separate from my cleaning list.

Would you like to join me? Head on over to Home Storage Solutions and sign up today.

Cleaning up fun!

Cleaning up the play room almost always is a struggle for us. The girls can make huge messes in a matter of minutes but don't seem to see the need to clean up the mess. 

I know this is so common in many households. Who wants to clean anyway? I'd rather not clean. I hate cleaning most days. For some reason the mess never goes away. 

Even though I hate cleaning, I don't want to teach my kids that someone else is going to pick up their mess. It is so important for them to learn responsibility for their own things. 

To instill this I have come up with a few ideas and found a few on Pinterest and came up with our cleaning up routine.

The first thing I did was taking pictures of different toy groupings. I have Barbies, stuffed animals, colored pencils and coloring books, books and several more.

 I printed those pictures on then cut them out and glued them on to Popsicle sticks.

 The girls can then pick out what they are going to clean up. Each child gets one to start and when they are done they pick another until they are gone and the toys are all cleaned up.

 Each Popsicle stick earns them one ticket. The tickets can be used to purchase items from my store or traded for a quarter and put in their spending jar. 

 They love shopping in the store. Most items are four tickets and are Dollar Store purchases.

 I still have to keep encouraging them but with a promise of a reward they are much more inclined to help. 

I know some out there might not agree with a reward system but I encourage you to think about this: when you go to work what do you receive? A paycheck. The chores you reward at 3 years will probably not be rewarded at 12 but you are starting to develop a work ethic in your children that will continue to grow. If you didn't receive a paycheck would you continue to show up everyday and do your work? I'm sure the answer is no. 

As your children grow the chores and rewards will change. There are things around the house that my kids will do without rewards. As a parent you can decide what is worth rewarding and what isn't. Cleaning up toys is the hardest chore to get them to do so it makes sense to reward that job. Making beds and wiping down the kitchen table are things they want to do so they need no external reward. 

Just think about what you want your children to look at 18 as they move out and on their own. What do you want to teach them before then?

My NEW Cleaning Schudule

After participating in the 30 Day House Cleaning Challenge in April, I decided I needed to change my cleaning a bit. There were things that I was not cleaning that I realized should be done every week if possible. It seems almost overwhelming when you see the list but most of the items take maybe 10 minutes and my kids are involved in some of the cleaning.

Here is my grand list:

• Pay bills (Monday morning)
• Strip beds (kids help)
• Vacuum (kids help)
• Spot clean bedrooms
• Wipe down light switches and doorknobs
• Clean toilets, sinks and bathtubs (kids help with their bathroom)
• Dust
• Clean out van
• Wash windows and mirrors (kids help)
• Mop kitchen and entryway
• Mop Bathroom floors (kids do their bathroom)
• Wipe down kitchen cabinets
• Clean out one closet/cabinet/shelf/fridge
• Sew one item

There are items I do first so I make sure they are getting done. The rest I try to get to if time allows.

The things I added has made a huge difference in the cleanliness of my house. My room usually becomes a dumping ground but when I take time every week to declutter it is much more organized and cleaner. I had to add dusting and wiping down surfaces. I didn't realize how long I would go in between dusting and wiping. 

One thing I am really glad I added was cleaning out the van. My husband gets frustrated when he gets in it on Sunday and toys are everywhere and garbage is on the floor. It takes 5 minutes for me to grab the garbage, put toys in container, and take the hand vac to clean it up. My husband has been very happy to have a clean van.

How do you get all your cleaning done each week? Do you have a list or a schedule? What has worked for you?

Mommy's Store

In order to motivate my girls to help out around the house I have created my own store for my girls to go shopping in. After having some tough weeks with my oldest I decided I needed to change things a bit. She was getting paid for her chores but since she has no concept of money, it was taking too long for her to get her reward of a shopping trip. 

Our new system was created after seeing many different ideas on Pinterest. When the girls do chores they are rewarded with tickets. They can then trade the tickets in for different items in the store I created or trade it for money to save for something else. 

My store is stocked with many items from the Dollar Tree. I also have a few dollar aisle stuff from Wal-mart and a some $3-$5 movies and a Barbie.

Each item is priced from 2 tickets all the way to 24. I want to have a few things which they have to save for. My oldest is currently saving for the Barbie. Each shopping trip she will buy on item and save the rest. I am very proud of her. If they choose to, they may exchange a ticket for a quarter and put it in their spending jar for a shopping trip to a real store. They have not done this yet but I believe it will be done soon. 

Putting the tickets in their containers

Counting the tickets

She bought a dinosaur

She bought a coloring book

My store which is slowing depleting

30 Day House Cleaning Challenge: Day 4

Today's Task . . . Play Room

Today was a little different for me. It was a nice warm day for us in Minnesota, and my husband returns to work next week, so we headed out to the zoo. Since we were gone for at least half the day, I didn't have time to really clean what I would have liked to. If we had stayed home, I would have cleaned my sewing room and laundry room instead. 

Well I didn't want to miss cleaning something, so I got reinforcements and we cleaned the kids play room. It was nice doing it as a family. Since it is their toys and their room they should be helping. My 4 year old helped clean up toys. (The battery on my camera was dead so I couldn't take pictures of everyone cleaning till the end.)

After toys were picked up, my girls helped vacuum the carpet and mop the tile under their table. I got the carpet cleaner ready and cleared the carpet. My husband was such a trooper and helped so much. He did more cleaning in the play room then I did. The last thing we did is clean the carpets with my Hoover SteamVac Carpet Cleaner with Clean Surge. The carpets smell great, the carpet is dry within a few hours and I love the feeling of clean carpets. 

My goal is to clean the carpet in that room once a month. They end up very dirty with the girls playing, eating, and having accidents in there. We vacuum everything once a week but do many mess cleanups in between. It is the hardest room to keep clean and the one that takes a lot of energy from me. 

If you are looking for a carpet cleaner I really love my Hoover. We use the deodorizer cleaning solution with it and it makes the carpets smell so much better.

30 Day House Cleaning Challenge Day3: Bedroom

Today's task . . . My bedroom

Before:

Well my bedroom definitely needed work. It is the one room that hasn't been painted or had any decorating on the wall at all. It has become a catch all for things we want to hide when people come over and things just keep getting piled higher and higher. 

I only cleaned my room today because the other two rooms aren't as bad. It took me all morning to get everything done. I wish I had time to organize the closet and go through some of our clothes. I also didn't have a chance to vacuum since my littlest was sleeping after I got everything straightened up. 

There was a long list of things that needed to be done. Here is all I did today:

• put away clean clothes
• changed sheets and put our spring quilt on the bed
• cleaned off wash table and sorted through the mess, threw things out and put the rest where it belongs
• Cleaned off the cedar chest and put everything where it belongs
• Dusted the cedar chest and wash table
• Picked up the girls' books and toys and put them away (downstairs with the rest of their stuff)
• Picked up all the other odds and ends on the floor

Here is the after:

I had a very happy husband when he walked into the bedroom. Hopefully I can keep it this clean so we can paint very soon. Now that it is cleaned up, I am more eager then ever to get rid of my white walls and decorate my room.

How did your room(s) go? I'd love to hear from you. Don't forget to LIKE my Facebook page.

Saving money by cleaning with vinegar

 In my quest to find affordable, non-toxic cleaners for my house I came across many people starting to clean with vinegar. For 4 years now I have been doing almost 100% of my household cleaning with only vinegar and baking soda. 

It is so incredibly cheap and very efficient. My allergies have been much better. Commercial  products add a lot of extras that I am very sensitive to and the vinegar and baking soda do not bother me at all.

Around the house I have spray bottles in both bathrooms and the kitchen for all surfaces. It is made up of about 1 part vinegar and 4 parts water. I soak my vinegar in orange peels for about two weeks and it gives it a slight orange smell. When I don't have orange peels or any other citrus fruit available, I add a few drops of essential oils. This helps with the strong odor from the vinegar. The good thing is once the vinegar is dry you can't smell it any longer.

In the bathroom I not only use it on the counters but also the the toilet. I spray down and wipe the seat and rim and throw in about a cup of vinegar in the bowl with about a half cup of baking soda. I let that sit for 15 minutes before scrubbing it. The bath toys all get sprayed or soaked in vinegar and I will spray the shower down with my vinegar spray between deep cleanings.

Vinegar is so versatile that I also use it in the laundry room. As I said I have very sensitive skin as does my 4 year old. There are so many detergents and fabric softeners that irritate my skin. I now make my own laundry detergent and instead of using fabric softener, I put vinegar in the rinse cycle instead. Once it is dry there is no smell except a clean smell. When I need to clean my wash machine, which should be once a month, I pour a little in then to help disinfect my wash machine.

Vinegar is versatile. I don't have bottles of different cleaners laying around. When my little ones get a hold of the bottles because they want to help too, I never worry about them getting it in their eyes, on their hands or putting the spray bottle in their mouth (although it is really gross). I feel safe cleaning for my family. 

Vinegar soaking in orange peels. Reusing some old jars to do so.