In the madness of everyday life in our house, I tend to overlook household organizing. A few spots in particular seem to collect old mail, receipts, pamphlets—just about anything. In a moment of clarity, I recently reclaimed an area in my kitchen— ironically the central hub for household management (cooking, planning, scheduling, bill paying, etc.)—that had become one such clutter “hot spot”. The mound of clutter was growing by the day as it became a catch-all for any miscellaneous items.  Pulling cookbooks became a game of Jenga – one false move and the entire pile came crashing down.

I cleared away some piles, created a separate space for some books, sorted and created a binder for recipes I had torn from magazines and newspapers, tossed unnecessary papers, and I now have an uncluttered space of my own. It really took less time and energy than I thought, and with a simple cork board I now can make a grocery list, find a gift card, and remember an invitation. Hopefully, this will inspire me to organize the rest of my house.

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I’ve always done a lot of my shopping online.  I can take my time to browse and comparison shop, but only recently did I begin to appreciate the value of looking for online promotion codes. Over the past 6 weeks, I have saved over $70.00 with online coupons on items we were prepared to pay full price for.

So, on top of finding exactly what I wanted at the cheapest price, here is what I saved:

• Fabric to cover a chair – $19.50
• Winter coats for the kids – $10.00
• Pictures to share with friends – $20.00
  
• Water filters – $12.00
  
• Baby shower gift – $10.00
  

The next time you shop online, look out for a promotion code field.  That’s your clue to do a search for the store name with the word coupon (for example “Fabric.com coupon”). Some promotions also include free shipping or free gift wrapping!

Photo Credit:  Bing Images

At first glance, I appear to be a woman of this generation — I have the requisite Blackberry and laptop, and I even have a Facebook account.  I have a dirty, little secret:  I’m addicted to paper calendars.  I have them at home and at the office.

I love the size and the ease of use of old-school wall calendars. These calendars are always front and center to remind me to check them. I even enjoy writing on them with a pen and crossing out changes. I like the size of the entries, the visual of the entire month, and the fact that I can look at it while I talk on the phone. The obvious downside of multiple paper calendars is that they either need to be synchronized manually (and regularly), or you miss deadlines (this blog was due yesterday.)

I could be more diligent about updating all of my scattered calendars, to refer to them on a daily basis, and to schedule reminders for myself…or I could give Google Calendar another try or really explore the features of Outlook Calendar. All of this might sound simple, but I guess I’m set in my ways.

My family and business schedules are growing exponentially. Some sort of change will need to come soon and I’m sure I’ll be blogging about it.

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Snacks are a huge (and necessary) part of my family’s life. With two toddlers, I don’t dare leave the house without Goldfish, pretzels, apple slices, etc. So for the past two years I have used hundreds of Ziploc bags, and I’ve felt guilty every minute of it.

While recently promoting a charity event my company is organizing in DC, I walked into a kid’s store and found my answer: Lunch Skins.  They are cute, sealable, reusable, snack- sized, bags. They’re dishwasher-safe and were created by a local company called 3greenmoms. So now we can snack-away without environmental guilt.

Now, if only the kids would eat something green.