Hidden Art of HomemakingThis elegant and insightful lady, wife of theologian Francis Schaeffer, reveals the many opportunities for artistic expression that can be found in ordinary, everyday life.
Messie No More: Understanding and Overcoming the Roadblocks to Being Organized
Revised and Expanded! Felton’s foolproof strategies can help even the most frazzled reader become “Messie No More.” With humor and much-needed affirmation, she sheds light on emotional and physical reasons for messiness and shows why most organizational systems don’t work for “messies.”
How to Win (PLEASE READ and FOLLOW DIRECTIONS!)
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Get Three Entries: If you mention this TWO Home Organization Book Giveaway on you blog you get THREE entries! You can copy and paste the images above on your blog linking to this page. Both these books are SUPER and worth the mentioning on your blog. And leave a comment below.
Sometime after 8 AM (EST) during the weekend of February 1-3 I’ll randomly pick a winner.
Shipping only to USA (sorry). See my other blog for freebies open to the world.
How do we value ONE YEAR? Ask a student who failed a grade.
How do we value ONE MONTH? Ask a Mother whose baby arrived prematurely.
How do we value ONE WEEK? Editor’s of weekly newspapers know.
How do we value ONE HOUR? Ask someone who lies terminally ill waiting for a loved one who is late.
How do we value ONE MINUTE? Ask someone who missed a plane, a train, a very important engagement that would never be rescheduled.
How do we value ONE SECOND? Ask an Olympic Medalist, someone who just missed having an accident, or someone saying good-bye to a loved one they will never see again.
Our times are in His hands (Ps. 31:15), and the Father is always on schedule (John 11:6–10).
Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming (Matthew 24:42). Even Jesus worked under the shadow of a limited time. “We must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day; night comes, when no one can work” (John 9:4).
Time is a very precious commodity. No one knows how much of it he has left. Use it wisely.
This morning we put together a toy box for our puppies’ toys. I purchased the kit for $20.00 from Collections Inc. It came partially assembled. The boards are lightweight and easy to put together with just a screwdriver. I allowed them to figure out the steps following the directions. I kept my mouth shut when they went ahead of the directions and had to go back and remove a side so the bottom would fit. The boys are very proud, they built almost all of it by themselves.
Not only am I counting this schoolwork, I’m also counting it as organization for Tackle it Tuesday meme.
The project can be little or big – whatever you want. Basically, Tackle It Tuesday is about giving ourselves incentive, deadlines and satisfaction in getting our household tasks done. (It doesn’t even have to be housework… just whatever is on your To Do list.)
Is your definition of leftover something you put in the refrigerator until it turns green? Ewwww. The official title is UFO (unidentified fridge objects). Do you have to cram the milk back in or move 5 bottles and 3 containers to put in a new item? Have you ever found an expired item that had never been opened? Do you triple stack? Do you have to rush to shut the door before things fall out?
Our refrigerator is not organized well. I have a tidy meat and cheese container for sandwiches I can pull out, but that’s the end of the organization. I clean it out regularly but it seems disorganized and too full. Yesterday my hubby was making breakfast (yes, I am blessed) and found the turkey bacon had expired 2 weeks ago. I’m determined to find a better system to keep it clean and uncluttered. I found several posts and videos to share:
Staying in control of your refrigerator contents is an ongoing chore but you’ll save time and money by spending a few minutes wiping or organizing daily.
Computer cables drive me nuts. Every time my husband installs something I spend an hour rearranging the cables. I hate the tangled mess they make. I’ve had my eyes on this Cable Manager for quite a while but I’m cheap and it was a little pricey to me just to hold cords.
But then our puppies chewed through the printer cable. Now having cables on the floor had become a fire hazard so I ordered the Complete Cable Manager - Cable Safe that night. I installed it on the back of my computer and I love it! What a difference. The gazillion cords (computer, printer, external drive, 2 monitors, MP3 Player, speakers, phone, camera, etc, etc.) are now all hanging neatly behind my desk.
The black “tape” that came in the box is really neat. I’d love to get a roll of it. It works like velcro but is super thin and flat. It is much neater than the velcro and bread ties I’ve been using. I’ll let you know if I am able to find it.
Amy Verlennich from Dandelion Seeds created a series of lessons to help homemakers with cleaning their homes, with devotionals to help the women clean their hearts, as well. I love this idea. It started Jan 1 but I just found it this morning at His Favorite Daughter.
My children are a bit old for this frog organizer, but I thought this was a great idea. It has a scoop, rinse, drain and store function, to scoop the toys. A built-in shelf behind the frog’s head stores shampoo and soap bottles.
Baggies are the most economical storage solution ever! You can see through them and they come in several different sizes. Freezer baggies cost more but they are much sturdier and last longer.
Use ZipLock Baggies to Organize Your:
Purse: Use snack size baggies for receipts, candy, change, makeup and other loose items. I keep receipts in my purse baggy until full, then transfer to my office drawer designated for just for taxes. Keep a plastic shopping bag wrapped in a baggy in your purse for emergencies like car sickness or potty training accidents.
Toiletry Bag: When you pack your toiletry bag for a trip, slip the hotel-sized bottle of shampoo or conditioner, bottles of lotions, toothpaste and other goo into Ziploc bags before packing in your toiletry bag. If something spills it stays in the baggy.
Homeschool Room or Area: Store items like puzzles, game pieces, flashcards, and crayons in the proper size baggy. I store these baggies in baskets on bookshelves next to our dining table.
Toys: Keep tiny pieces together by storing in separate baggies (like all the pieces to one lego set). Store these bags in baskets on a shelf.
Cables and Cords: Baggies are great for loose electric cords, computer cords, MP3 cords, camera cables, extension cords, phone cords, printer cables, etc. I organized every electrical cord in our home in one box by storing each in the proper size ziplock baggy. When we need a cord, everything is in one box and nothing is tangled.
Gadgets: When you get a new item like a cell phone, MP3 player, or digital camera you want to keep all the manuals and cords together. Label the bag with the name of the device and the date. Keep all gadget bags in one large box in a closet.
Basement and Garage:Giant Ziploc® Brand Big Bags can be used to store clothing, bedding, holiday decorations, sports equipment, and more. This can cut clutter in the garage, the basement, or your car. They have the natural, flexible shape of a bag so they can fit into places where storage boxes can’t.
America, land of plenty. This photo reminded me, I need to organize my pantry.
Wordless Wednesday: Post an image on your blog that needs no explanation. Go to Wordless Wednesday.com and enter your link into Mister Linky’s Autolink Widget to share with other Wordless Wednesday’ers. See more memes here.
Library Thing is the program for book lovers (bibliophiles). Years ago I spent days attempting to record all the books I own (and want to keep). It took too long just to type in the title and author (forget copyright and ISBN) so I gave up. Now I am using Library Thing. Below I show you several ways to view your library.
Librarything.com is a free program (for up to 200 books) allowing you to click on a book to make your own library database (from Amazon or the Library of Congress). This program is incredibly well-designed and very easy to use. With LibraryThing you can enter dozens of books in your personal database in less than a half-hour.
ChoreBuster is an easy and free way to automatically create fair chore lists, or chore schedules.
Enter in people and chores Specify how hard / undesirable each chore is ChoreBuster generates a fair schedule of chores Schedule emailed to you weekly - no need to log in
Here’s what it does - it divvies up the chores (use the preset and/or add your own) amongst the family members (based on user defined settings such as workload, days unavailable, chore difficulty, etc.) and emails the list (daily, weekly, you make the call) along with a downloadable version (word, excel, html) or get it on an RSS feed.
Bookmarking - Keep links to your favorite research, articles, homeschool blogs, music, book reviews, recipes, and more, and access them from any computer on the web.
Share favorites with friends, family, other homeschoolers, church friends, and the del.icio.us community. (more…)
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Is your definition of leftover something you put in the refrigerator until it turns green? Ewwww. The official title is UFO (unidentified fridge objects). Do you have to cram the milk back in or move 5 bottles and 3 containers to put in a new item? Have you ever found an expired item that had never been opened? Do you triple stack? Do you have to rush to shut the door before things fall out?
that night. I installed it on the back of my computer and I love it! What a difference. The gazillion cords (computer, printer, external drive, 2 monitors, MP3 Player, speakers, phone, camera, etc, etc.) are now all hanging neatly behind my desk.
Don’t spend a fortune on drawer separators. Ice cube trays are an economical $1-$4 per tray. Try using an ice cube trays:
Enter in people and chores
Specify how hard / undesirable each chore is
ChoreBuster generates a fair schedule of chores
Schedule emailed to you weekly - no need to log in
