The “Monica Closet”

A couple months ago I was watching Mother Angelica on EWTN while ironing. I don’t recall the exact point of her message (not good I know) but she talked about how most of the viewers probably have drawers in their home that they aren’t even sure what is inside them but yet they are full. Her point had something to do with not sharing our abundances or the meaning of a true sacrifice versus giving of our abundance or something really meaningful like that (which I didn’t quite retain) but it made me think of my “Monica Closet.” If you don’t know what a “Monica Closet” is, well, it’s a reference to Monica’s catch-all closet on the show, "Friends". Yep that’s right. I just referenced Mother Angelica’s show and Friends back to back. Anyhoo, thanks to the help of a couple very generous friends, (one who painted and one who sat my 2 year old), I finally tackled my Monica Closet. When I have been asked whether I have such a closet I usually say, “Ahhh, there’s this spot in my basement but no, not really.” Lies lies lies! My laundry area of my basement has been such a dark secret. It’s been my dumping ground and it’d held junk that I couldn’t part with but knew that I should and who knows what else. Basically, it’s the spot of my house that I go to other people’s home to “fix.” Things finally got cleaned out, the walls were scrubbed and it is painted a bright white. No more Monica Closet. No more, “don’t look in there!” moments. No more feeling like I am holding onto material things unnecessarily. No more living with a dark secret. It feels good spiritually and intellectually.

Now I know I should have taken true “before” pictures with my big mess in it and I would have except I just um forgot, eh hem. Here is a picture taken while I was in the midst of emptying the room and an after picture (with a chaise lounge in it that my step-mom is coming to pick up soon). I ran out of tiles to finish the black and white floor, but hope to get to that soon. It was difficult to get a good picture of such a long room but if you are so interested perhaps you can get the jist.

Laziness is the Goal

This July I have been lazy. Very lazy. I never came up with a new menu. I was away for a week. I have not been doing all the proactive things that I usually like to do to keep on top of things. However, I have not become unorganized and chaos has not taken over. How can this be? I have been monthly planning long enough that once it was obvious that I was not going to get around to creating a new menu for this month I simply pulled last years July menu and roughly followed it. Of course I could have redone last month too if I wanted but I like to mix it up a bit more. This is the perfect example of why it pays off to put in some extra time and effort to get really organized. If you get organized in a way that is truly functional and works for you then you can turn on autopilot and get lazy later. Here is the 2008 menu I followed for this July:

Just Get a Box, or 2 or 3 and Have At It!

Sometimes getting some boxes or laundry baskets and just hacking away at the clutter that is bugging you is how to get the job done. Categorizing your clutter is often tedious and perhaps boring but it is almost always less painful, takes less time and feels better when it’s over than you initially imagine. If you should just NOT be able to force yourself to do it then call me. I love to do it. Actually I love to do it more if it is someone else’s clutter than my own (as evidenced by my hall closet right now and my desk space – shhh, don’t tell anyone). It is always easier to look at someone else’s situation and see through clear lenses than it is your own, in life or in clutter. So if you can’t afford a professional organizer or you don’t know someone like me who is starting up an organizing business and looking for Guiney pigs, then make a swapping organizing appointment with a friend. Sometimes it isn’t difficult to get organized, it’s just a dirty task that we put off. Spring is the perfect time for getting organized. The air is fresh and it just feels good. Putting off getting organized can waste so much of your valuable time (looking for things) and money (buying things you already have but can not find or don’t realize you have due to disorganization). If you make an appointment or a date with a friend or an organizer then you have no choice but to face the task. Just don’t let the friend that shows up to clear you of your clutter get talked into chips, salsa and margaritas instead. Really make a commitment to each other and you’ll be so glad that you did.

Organizing Your DVDs, CDs and other Disks

I am not sure what the purpose is of saving those breakable-space-robbing cases that CDs and DVDs come in so I haven’t thrown mine out yet. I have placed them in a box in the basement until I feel completely 100% certain that I can toss them. I have taken the disks out and put them in various CD books throughout the house. The kids each have a small book for the music that they like to play in their room (we rip them onto the computer first because they are bound to scratch them up). A larger CD book holds all the other music by the stereo and another book by the tv holds our DVDs. The books with the zippers are great because they prevent CDs from falling out when my kids drag them around. I am a little behind on technology but I do realize that one day we won’t have to have any disks to organize . . . at least for music. It seems that a lot of people, if not most, have fancy tiny things that hold their MP3 files and plugs into a sound system of some kind. One day our house will get up to date on such things but for now we store our disks in CD books.

One draw back on the CD books that I use is that the pages do not come out to rearrange things. I like to have my music disks and DVD disks in alphabetical order (probably doesn’t surprise you, right?). If a new disk is acquired it is nearly impossible to alphabetize it without moving every single disk in the book and who has time for that. So I am on the hunt for 3-ring binder inserts that hold disks or for an inexpensive CD book holder with pages that can be removed and rearranged. I am certain it is out there, I just haven’t seen them yet.

My neighbor keeps a small CD book for his computer system disks. You know, those important-if-disaster-should-strike disks that float around in a box somewhere. Keeping those important CDs in a zipped up little CD book will certainly help you to sleep better – that and a reliable external backup system of course.

Organize your Family's Library Books

As most people with kids, we are frequent library patrons. My mother-in-law has passed on some wisdom to me for keeping track of our library books. Pick a number, any number, one that you feel is a manageable number of books to have checked out. I like the number 4. It’s my birthday month and it’s just a nice round number. So each time we visit the library each child may select 4 books. If they choose less than 4 books I just grab a couple on our way out so our total is 4. This way I always know how many books I need to return. Our school’s library has a similar system but the limit is 2 books per child. If a child returns only 1 of her 2 books checked out then she may only check out 1. So the total checked out is never more than 2 per child.

Thankfully my kids love books. Many months ago I deviated from my 4 book system because one of my kids wanted to check out a gazillion books. I decided that it would be an opportunity for him to appreciate my system. I allowed my 7 year old to check out as many books as he could carry thinking that the heavy load would be enough for him to want to limit his book selection. He carried a pile of books up to his nose all the way out to the car grunting and struggling! He didn’t care! He was thrilled! So much for that experiment. I got loosey goosey on limiting the kids to 4 books after that but it got out of control and a bit confusing so now we are back to the magic number 4 system. It certainly is easier to manage.

At home you can make a habit to read your library books in a designated spot like a favorite couch and keep a tote, bin or what-have-you to keep them in. Then you don’t have to go hunting for them. I am all for being organized but if my child wants to dig into a book in her room I am going to let her. So I don’t have any one designated spot for ours. Our limit of 4 is a sufficient system for us.

Purging Feels Goooooood

I just did some major toy purging this weekend. I got rid of 5 very full trash bags. It feels so good! No, my kids have not yet noticed which is why it is still feeling good.

To get organized sometimes you have to purge your household of all your useless excess stuff. It can be tedious work. You have to be in the right mindset. You have to be ready. You have to be tired of the status quo. You have to be willing to let go. It has always interested me as to what causes people to hold on to stuff that they don’t use. Sometimes there is an emotional attachment to an item or memories that surround the purchase of an item like a special trip. Then, there is the fear that as soon as they rid themselves of an item they haven’t used then they will come up with a use for it and wish that they had it. I believe that the latter motivation for holding onto stuff has deep roots in our past. For instance, if you grew up in an affluent household and were able to easily replace a broken or lost item as a child, you are probably more likely to discard items that you aren’t currently using. You have little fear of never being able to replace the item if necessary. On the other hand, if your parents barely scraped by with what little they had you might appreciate coming across items that might possibly have some obscure purpose sometime in the distant future and therefore have a difficult time parting with stuff. I must confess that it is rather easy for me to discard things. I do not suffer from sentimentality. Besides, you can’t take things with you when you die. We’ve all heard that before. So, unless I am using something or going to use it in the immediate future, I don’t want it cluttering up my home. Photos are a great way to compromise getting rid of a useless item. Take a digital photo of the item. It won’t take up physical space in your home but you can easily keep the image forever.

There are many different approaches that professional organizers use to get their clients to purge clutter. Usually 90% of clutter is easily identified as such and tossed. Beyond that, see if you can discard items by going through these questions: I don’t think it’s all that complicated.

1) Is it useful or necessary?
2) Do you have the space to keep it?

3) Do you have a duplicate/triplicate/etc so that you can purge the extras?
4) Why are you holding on to it?
5) Is there a reason that a digital photo / scanned image cannot replace the original?
6) If you still cannot part with it can you find an immediate use for it even if simply for display purposes?

Beyond that, if you do not have space for something that is not useful, then it is your choice to be tripping over it until you get the courage to discard it. I have some boxes of things in the basement that I have not yet had the courage to toss. I would love to rid myself of these things but cannot. I do not like them. They are not useful. My dear grandmother values things a lot more than I do and has given me some things that I feel too guilty to get rid of because I know she would not be happy if I did. She is also of the mistaken impression that they are valuable antiques. After much research I have proved that they are not valuable but I still cannot discard the items. I need to get the courage to toss them or talk to her about it. Maybe I can push them off on another relative instead (hello mom, Aunt C or Cousin C). Hmmmmmm

Turn Room Clutter into Fabulous Closet Shelving

Do you have a little book case or old shelves sitting with “stuff” on it making your room feel cluttered? My son had one in his bedroom with his banks on it, some Leggos and miscellaneous books that never stayed neat. By moving the shelving unit into his closet we uncluttered his room instantly. It made such a huge difference in the feel of his room that I am convinced that nearly all open shelving units in a room should be abolished. Of course, I am not into “stuff” or displaying “stuff.” The feel of an uncluttered stuff-less room makes me breathe easier. But let’s face it, we all have stuff whether we want to have stuff or not. So try moving your stuff to a shelving unit inside a closet. Don’t have closet room to spare, you say? You’d be surprised at how much more storage real estate you can gain on shelves in a closet as opposed to empty hanging air space. If you have such a situation, try it out and see how much harder your shelves can work for you when they are hiding inside a closet as opposed to being out in the open and having to look pretty.

Keep your Hand Towels Off the Floor

If your kids are like my kids and every other kid that visits my house, they find it impossible to keep a hand towel off the floor. They just can not do it. So rather than fight them about it just clip the towel on the towel bar with a large binder clip underneath.








Or have a knitting relative make these button towels for you:

Consolidate Your Grocery Bags!

I just made this handy dandy grocery bag holder and I am quite pleased with it. I used to have all my grocery bags stuffed on a bottom kitchen cupboard shelf which was fine but they took up the entire shelf. So, I took one of those plastic Cascade Capsule boxes that you get at Sam’s, Costco or BJs., turned it upside down and cut a hole in it. I taped around the hole so the jagged edge from my not-so-smooth cutting did not rip the bags as I pulled them out. Then I filled the box with my grocery bags using the little door on top where you get your capsules out. Check it out. It holds plenty of bags and takes up minimal space. I also just happen to like anything square in shape. Round containers waste so much space. Ahh, it’s nice to live a simple life where the little things can make you so happy.

This could also be done using a plastic coffee can or a coffee can with a plastic lid or an oatmeal container or, well, just about anything. First consider the shelf space that you want your bag container to fit and then start thinking of your recyclables that would work in that space.

Closet Door Real Estate

Valuable storage space that is often overlooked can be found on the backs of your closet doors. There are better alternatives to those over-the-door organizers which almost never allow a door to close. I am no decorator by any stretch but even I know that the hooks that are visible into the room when the door is closed looks terrible.

These great adjustable shelves can be attached to the inside of a closet door and the items it can store are endless. You can create a much needed pantry out of otherwise wasted real estate behind a closet door in an older home that lacks much needed kitchen storage. I use a couple smaller shelves like these to store my cleaning supplies out of reach of little hands and freeing up closet shelves for other things without taking up kitchen cupboard space. You can find these shelves at Walmart, Home Depot and similar stores but be sure to measure your closet door first so you purchase the correct size.

Hooks, hat holders and so many other organizers can be utilized on the back of a closet door. Nearly any organizer designed with a hanger (like this jewelry hanger), can be hung on a door with a hook and secured at the bottom to prevent it from flopping around. Attaching these organizers to the back of a closet door is better than hanging them inside where things can fall out of the pockets as they get snagged on clothes that you move while looking for the right outfit. If you've ever used one of these hanging organizers on a clothes rod you probably know what I mean. They are also more visible and accessible attached to the back of closet door than hanging with your clothes. If you have hollow doors like I do, don’t discount the closest door real estate, there are screws that can be used to properly anchor screws and hooks, just ask your friendly hardware store employee and they will show you which hardware to buy.

You can get creative with the backs of your doors to really utilize their valuable real estate. Things that I can think of to store behind a closet door include shirt ties, belts, any pantry items, light bulbs, tools, extension cords, cleaning supplies, jewelry, scarves, most any clothing accessory, medicine or linen closet type goods, children's hair accessories, etc. The possibilities are endless.

The only closet doors that do not offer storage real estate are those pesky bi-folds. I value the real estate that the backs of closet doors offer so much so that the bi-fold closet doors in our 1970s home was one of the first things to go when we bought our house 5 years ago. Our coat closet door stores ball caps with a handy organizer and the other closet door holds my kids’ backpacks on hooks. I am so glad we replaced the bi-folds with usable storage real estate. It was well worth it.

Fabulous Bulletin Boards!

I can not imagine running my house without a bulletin board or two, (or three or four). I suppose a lot of people put papers in sight with magnets on their fridge but that just feels cluttered to me so I prefer to use a bulletin board. If you don’t think that the papers you have on your fridge make your house feel cluttered and the fact that they fall off now and again when the fridge doors are opened, try this. Clear your fridge of every magnet, paper and doodad and clean the doors and the exposed sides of your fridge. Now look at it. Doesn’t that feel good? Ahhh. I can’t explain why a bulletin board with papers tacked to it is better visually than a fridge with the same papers magnetized to it but it just is.


The paper clutter issue bugs nearly everyone I know. If it isn’t the papers on the fridge then it’s the papers piled on the counter that is bugging them. A bulletin board can be one of the first steps in solving a paper clutter issue. I have a couple of small corkboard squares inside my computer armiore for passwords, receipts that I want to put into my pricebook, laminated Nicene Creed, and other papers and notes that relate to anything I will be doing on the computer. The kitchen, being central station of our house, has a prettier pottery barn bulletin where I keep our pocket calendar, my son’s class schedule, beatitudes ( We can always use a reminder of those), a photo or two, gym exercise class schedule, basketball game schedule and any school papers that require attention in the immediate future. My bigger kids have a small bulletin board in each of their rooms for motivational sticker charts, routine charts and calendars. Bulletin boards keep paper easy to find and prevent paper clutter from growing on horizontal surfaces. Even if your bulletin board gets cluttered, it will seem less cluttered visually than having a counter or table cluttered with paper piles.

Have you Gotten Your 2009 Calendar Yet?

Every January, it seems that everyone I talk to is having calendar issues. I have friends who are missing appointments, not feeling back into the school routine and generally needing someone to kick them in the behind to get going all because they “NEED TO GET A CALENDAR". Being the planning dork that I am, I get my next year’s calendar by August. Did you know that they come out in July? Put that info. in your 2009 calendar right now (assuming you have one), for July. In big black marker letters write at the top of July 2009 “GET 2010 CALENDAR!” It feels good when it’s September and you are scheduling your next dentist appointment for March. The appointment has somewhere to go on your calendar because you already have one. Also, I encourage you to buy one with a pocket on each month (see pic). I have been using these pocket calendars for years. They are simple to use and they work. Got tickets for a football game two months away? Put the tickets in that month’s calendar pocket. Got directions to a birthday party next month? Put it in February’s calendar pocket. Flyer for a church retreat? No problem. It’s a foolproof way to always be able to find invitations, directions, tickets, and other info relating to calendar events.

With Kids, you Need to have a Clothing System

I have heard of several great ways to get your kids, especially girls, to put matching outfits together. You can invest in hangers of several different colors or put colored paper on your existing hangers and hang the coordinating pieces on them. Or you can put colored paper around the hangers for the same thing. I personally have no desire to have a 3 or 4 year old coordinate. I would rather see my daughter in a polka dot skirt, striped sweater with flowered tights than a perfectly coordinated outfit. It just makes me smile when I see young girls who have clearly dressed themselves. I mean really, you only get to be young and get away with it once and if it makes her happy then I say go for it. My only rules are that their clothing be weather appropriate and fit. You can bet that if there is a spaghetti-strap sun dress two sizes too small within my daughters reach during zero degree temps in January THAT is going to be the only thing she is going to want to wear and a tantrum will ensue when she is told that she can not wear it. So I must be sure that such clothing is out of reach.

My kids' closets have clothing bins that make up our simple clothing system. It has worked for us for a few years now. I put clear bins in my two oldest kids' closets that they use for clothes that are to be worn in the future. I label the bins with size and either “winter” or “summer.” Those two season categories tell me whether it’s long or short sleeved, long pants or shorts, etc. My youngest has a tall dresser of drawers so I use his drawers to do the same thing. We are often lucky to get hand me downs which go into the appropriate bin/drawer. I also try to hit big sales at the end of the seasons and I am never too shy to buy something that won’t be worn for 2 or 3 years if the price is right (if you could read the labels on the drawers in my 1 year old's room you'd see that the last drawer is for size 4). My daughter’s bins are up high out of reach (or she would cause trouble as explained) but my son’s closet makes it best for them to be piled on the floor and he doesn’t get into them.

There is a separate place in each of their closets for clothes that they outgrow. My kids are boy 7, girl 4, boy 1, so I only get to pass down the 7 year olds clothes within our house. So the oldest boy has a large bin for the things he outgrows that will eventually be worn by his little brother. When the bin is full they get filed in the youngest boy's room. The 4 year old girl has a shelf of outgrown things that gets bagged regularly to hand down to a friend’s daughter as does the youngest boy.

I find that having a place that is easily accessible to store future clothes can be a real money saver. You can buy clothes for the kids ahead on sale and you can be sure to find them when you need them. Of course I am hesitant to do this with pants because once kids have grown out of the toddler sizes they almost have to try pants on to get a good fit. However, shirts, sweaters, underwear, socks, pajamas, etc. can always be bought ahead. How many times have your kids grown something like pajamas mid season so you go and buy a couple pairs only to find that you had some tucked away in the back of a drawer. Well I have in the past, but not any more!

Another Reason to Love a Label Maker!

As much fun as friends like to make of my labeling around my house I do think it's great for kids sight words. I have my son's clothes drawers labeled more for his sight word vocabulary than anything. We have labeled socks, underwear, winter pjs, summer pjs, sweat pants, short sleeved shirts and shorts. For toys we have several bins labeled also. I'll have to quiz him some day soon to see if these words have seeped into his brain yet.

Organizing Winter hats, mittens & scarves

For a long time I wondered what people could be purchasing those large plastic drawer sets for. I just love organizational tools and so I must know all the multiple uses for them. But these large drawers had me puzzled. You can’t put anything in the drawers of much weight or the bottom of the drawer will bend down below the frame making it difficult to open. You also can not pile anything on top of the set of drawers or the plastic frame will bend down preventing you from opening the drawer below it. I have found that a set of drawers works perfectly for winter hats. lint rollers (for when you are going out the door), mittens and scarves. I put a few umbrellas on top which is also a light load perfect for the plastic drawers. The drawers we have has a set of wheels on it which makes it easy to roll out of the coat closet into more light so everyone can dig for what they want before a play day in the snow. I can imagine using them to store undies, socks and the like in a bedroom closet but I'm not sure what else. If you have found other uses please share.

Extraordinary Uses for Hanging Produce Baskets

Our basement is circa 1970. The ceilings are on the low side and filled with water pipes and gas pipes and some mysterious phone pipes that are no longer used. Our electric box is right behind the washer and dryer which is annoying because I would have liked to put shelves there for dryer sheets, stain remover and detergents and the like. So, I found a perfect use for this hanging produce basket which was once very useful as a produce basket at our last house which was skimpy on the kitchen cupboards. In the basement of this house I hung it over the pipes in the ceiling and it hangs at perfect arms reach for grabbing stain removers, dryer sheets and other laundry necessities above the dryer. I am sure these hanging baskets could come in handy in many places. I love finding unintended useful purposes for cheap things or in this case for something I already had.

Grab-N-Go Snack Bin

In our cupboard I keep a little bin labeled “GRAB-N-GO SNACKS.” I am not big on giving kids snacks as they usually will not eat their more nutritious meals if given snacks but there are occasions when a snack on the go is necessary. For instance, the post office visit this Monday. I KNEW it was the post office’s most busy day of the year and that’s just hard on a one year old. I grabbed a snack and off we went. It kept him busy, that and the playing with the flap on the trash can (YUCK!) while waiting in line.

Grab-N-Go Snack Bins can be stored with trail mix, granola bars, mixes of cheerios/raisins/nuts/mini marshmallows/pretzels and I keep some lollipops in mine for the really tough trips. This bin has been very handy for me this season while doing my most dreaded task . . . shopping with a one year old!

Extraordinary Uses for Binders

Binders can organize so many things. If you have some shelf real estate to plop them on they are so accessible and have so much potential. Of course there are obvious uses for binders. I use several for recipes. I have one binder labeled “Culinary Experiments” (recipes I have not yet tried but intend to), another “Culinary Collections” (the tried and true recipes), and one for “Desserts and Breads.” I don’t get bogged down with details like cutting and pasting recipes. I just slide cardstock in clear protector sheets and put the cut out recipes on top so they are easier to read. I don’t paste or anything, that way if my Culinary Experiment recipe is a success I can easily slide it out and move it to the Culinary Collections binder.

I used to enjoy browsing through home magazines (who has time for that now with three kids?) and I would always tear out a picture of something that I really liked. I have a “Home Ideas” binder that includes several categories of my magazine tear outs. The tabs include “Architecture,” “Gardening,” “Decorating Projects,” and “Gift Ideas.” The binder came in very handy when we moved into our untouched 1970s house that was in terrible need of a new kitchen. I had collected pictures of kitchens that I liked for years and even though I didn’t know exactly why I liked the pictures, it gave the cabinet makers a place to start when trying to figure out what we wanted.

The best housewarming gift ever given to us was a binder labeled Menus. Several years ago we moved from the east coast to the Midwest when I was 8 months pregnant. A friend of ours drove around our new town before we arrived and gathered take out menus. Not only did she put the menus in clear protector sheets in a binder that was cleverly decorated in old photos but she even categorized the menus by food type: Italian, Chinese, Sandwich Places, etc. This binder is a permanent fixture in our house.

My most recent binder creation of a couple years ago is labeled “Greeting Cards.” In the front I have a sheet that lists everyone’s birthdays by month and I included greeting card holidays like mother’s day and father’s day by month. Behind that sheet I have 17 clear protector pocket sheets. Each clear pocket is labeled with my handy dandy label maker at the top right hand corner. The first twelve are labeled the months of the year, then there are clear pockets for blank cards, generic birthday cards (those that aren’t for anyone specific), get well cars, sympathy cards and thank you cards. So, you know how sometimes you will be looking for a birthday card for Amy and as you are reading them you come across the perfect card for Jim? Well now I can get the perfect card that I found for Jim even though his birthday isn’t for another 10 months because I have somewhere to put it that I know I will find it again. I’ll put it in my October pocket. For some reason card shopping is one of the most challenging things to shop for with my kids. They have no patience for me to pick out the perfect card and if they aren’t restrained in a shopping cart they love to run down the card isle and pull them out and destroy any card organization the store has in place.

I use binders when we go home to the east coast to visit family. I print out the phone numbers to our friends and family out east as well as favorite restaurants that we want to visit and phone numbers of our neighbors in case we would need to check up on something back home. I include maps, activities for kids and the hours of the various establishments we hope to visit and I keep our receipts in one of the clear protector sheets with a tally sheet so we can stay within our vacation budget.

I know there are many more ways to use a simple binder with clear protector sheets to organize various things. I have several empty binders waiting to be filled.

Simple Method of Organizing Sheet Sets

One of the many reasons I get happy when I open my linen closet that I shared in a previous post, is the super simple way that I store our bed sheet sets. It looks somewhat neat and keeps the linens under control. I got the idea from a Martha magazine years ago but I can't say that I do it "Martha," I don't have time for that. I fold the fitted sheet, flat sheet and one pillow case in a pile and then I stuff them into the second pillow case. It's not quite "Martha" because the picture in her magazine showed a perfectly boxed folded stuffed pillow case whereas mine are not so picturesque. It must have taken the photo set person a couple hours to get Martha's to look like that. Who has that kind of time? Mine is just stuffed in there and thrown on the shelf and it might not be pretty, but it works.

Homework Task Schedule - Keeping Order in the House

One of the many reasons I like “To Do Lists” is because I get great satisfaction crossing things off the list. Having a list of chores for myself allows me to cross stuff off and it keeps me on task. I have not stuck with a household task schedule since having my one year old so I am looking forward to using a schedule again. For each child I have, my task list gets more scaled down so that it is doable. I do not like having a list that never gets checked off.

So if you are feeling that your house is out of control and want to get some order BUT you want to do it while feeling that you are spending very little time and effort keeping order try using a task schedule. Sounds tricky, doesn’t it? It really isn’t. I tape this list on the inside of one of my command central cupboard doors. I cross the boxes off throughout the week as they get done. At the end of each week I can either print a new list or I can use the same list and cross the items off in a different way. I have a pencil taped with a string to the cupboard by the list. It isn’t strict or time consuming to stick to because I try to keep each days’ tasks simple. If I don’t get to everything or if I don’t even get to an entire day or two I know that my house won’t be spiraling out of control because I will get to it next week. Of course bathrooms with a household of five need to be tended to at least weekly but other things can certainly slide now and then.

If you can not read the above list you can double click on this one to enlarge: