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Organizing Tips |
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Here is my collection of things I do every day to help keep me on track, keep my house from becoming a jungle, and make sure I (sort of ) know what's going on. If you have any tips you would like to share send them to me and I'll add them to this page, with credit given to the author.
How many web sites do you go to that requires a
user ID and password? There are so many different requirements
My job requires me to work a different schedule every day and my daughter
works part time at an ice cream shop, so her schedule is variable also. I
took a large desk pad calendar and put sticky back magnetic tape (available in
the craft stores) on the back and hung it on the side of my refrigerator. I
keep our work schedules, the 3 kids events, weddings, showers, sales parties
my friends invite us to etc on this highly visible calendar.
I have 3 kids who always fought over who fed the dogs last, who takes out
the trash the most, and whose turn it was now. So, on the refrigerator calendar
(above) we took an orange highlighter and put a large first initial on each
day of the month, alternating days. So, now every three days, each child has
a "chore day". Anything that needs to be done that day, trash, animals,
helping with dishes etc. get assigned to that person. No more fighting or
arguing.
My Wal-Mart has meat in those sturdy plastic tubs. After washing and
rinsing, I let them soak in a little bleach water. Then they have all kinds
of uses.
I try to buy meat in the large family packs, then separate it out into
smaller packages. When I buy hamburger, I take a large zip top freezer bag,
put 1 1/2 pounds of meat in it, then mash it all flat. It lays flat in the
freezer, takes up less space and thaws out MUCH quicker. If you use a pound
or less for your family, the quart size bags work well.
I have never had a clean, organized house. I do manage to sweep and vacuum,
keep clothes clean and put away (sometimes!) and keep dishes washed, but I
never could keep up with ALL the things you need to keep clean around a
house. So I made a list and kept adding to it over a few months until I
think I covered just about everything. Then I divided everything up into
daily, weekly and monthly. I created a table in my word processor, nothing
fancy, just a list under each period heading. Then I laminated it. We use
either a water color marker, or a grease pencil to check things off as we
get them done. Now, as I go about my week, when I have 5 minutes or so, I
can look at my list and see what still needs to be done. I still can't say I
keep my house in magazine cover shape, but it's better than it was!
See my chart here.
Instead of doing a refrigerator purge every week, we have leftover night on
Friday nights. I place all the leftovers on the kitchen bar and yell at
everyone that it is first come, first served. Everyone gets a plate, puts
whatever they want on it and microwaves their customized supper. Whatever is
left after we all eat gets thrown out. This way, I ensure that nothing in
the refrigerator is over a week old and I don't have to cook one night a
week..
I became really tired of wondering what to fix for supper every night, and
it seemed like we ate the same things every week. So I sat down and listed
everything I knew that every family member would eat.
Main courses on one
list, veggies on another. Then I laminated them. I ended up with 34 main dishes. So every week, I stand in
front of my refrigerator calendar (see above) and write in a different meal
for every day that week, along with veggies. Then I go through my pantry and
see what I need to buy for that week's meals. I mark off the meals we have
already had on my master list. That way, we get a different meal every night for month, I
never wonder what is for supper, and my grocery bills have been kept to a
minimum.
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©Personal Management Systems 2007 |
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