Staying Sane With Three Under Three

September 28, 2011 By 4 Comments

Some days I feel like I am running from one end of the house to the other. Picking up and putting away toys. The same ones I just did not even an hour ago.  Folding mounds of laundry. Which never get put away.  Attempting to stay on top of the cleaning. Cleaning? Honestly?  Patting the baby’s back and putting her back to sleep.  Sigh.  Breaking up a sibling squabble.  More like an all out brawl.  Sushing the girls’ screaming so they don’t wake the baby.  For the love of all things good, please use quiet voices!

It’s a lot. Three under age three is much harder than I anticipated! And it’s enough to make me go back on birth control. Almost. ;) (We want a big family, FYI.)

This is how I manage to stay sane.  Most days.  These things help me stay on track and not give into the Mommy Monster.

Readjust Your Routine

Realistically, I cannot function the same as I did before I had kids. Or when I only had one child. Having three littles to clean up after, feed and keep safe is quite a chore! So when it comes to my other chores, those things that keep the house looking pretty, well… they kind of just get put on the back burner. And I’ve learned to be ok with that. Honestly, when people do come over and I apologize for the mess, they tell me they would be shocked if the house was super clean and put away. So, for now, I attempt to stick to this low maintenance routine. Which seems to be too lofty some days around here!

Make a To Do List

There is a lot to get done around the house with just one kid. Now times that by three and it gets overwhelming! My mind just can’t keep up. In order to give myself some mental stability, I take it all to pen and paper. Or nowadays, my iPad because I always seem to lose those stinkin’ stickies! To not load myself down with too much, my daily “To Do” list usually only encompasses a few easy tasks. It’s all about being realistic at this stage in life.

Start Your Mornings Out Right

I cannot even begin to tell you how important this is, especially when your day becomes all about three little people and your husband. From sunrise to sundown. That’s why I attempt every morning to wake early before my girls, make hubby’s lunch and send him off with a kiss. Then I resist the urge to climb back into bed, and instead grab some coffee and my Bible. I spend some good, quality time in the quietness and then try to make myself comfortable yet presentable for the day. There is just something about being fully dressed, hair brushed, teeth cleaned, that makes the day so much more bearable.

Let Things Slide

As I mentioned before with our routine, some things just have to slide. I try to keep most of the dust and dirt from piling up around here, but if you were to squat down and look closely…. Well, it just wouldn’t pass Mary Poppins’ test, if you know what I mean. And like I said, I am ok with that. My amazing husband is ok with that. And my little girls don’t seem to mind their dirty feet. I surround myself with people that will offer help and grace, instead of criticism, who can also look past the dirt and hopefully see a beautiful family! :)

Visit Carolyn over at A Purpose Driven Home.

Pin It

Filed Under: Homemaking, Mom's Health & Wellness Tagged With:

Organized Home: Containing Clutter

August 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Take a look as Molly Green from Econobusters.com share really great ideas for organizing your home with practical ways to clear the clutter and uber unique storage solutions.

 

In Moms In A Blog’s very own 30 Days to an Organized Home, you can work your way through organizing and decluttering every room in your house in only 30 days.

Daily tasks make it easy.  Just follow along don’t get overwhelmed.

There are also some helpful printable checklists that will keep you on task and allow you to track your progress.

Get your copy for more tips and tricks on organizing your home at 30 Days to an Organized Home

 

Pin It

Filed Under: An Organized Home, Homemaking Tagged With: , , , ,

Spring Cleaning for an Organized Home

February 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment

After all of your hard work spring cleaning and organizing your home, you certainly won’t want to see things back to the way they
were in a matter of weeks. Staying organized takes a little work and is certainly a learned habit, but for this small amount of daily effort, you will have a cleaner home and a happier family. Try some of these tips to help keep your home looking like you just wrapped up your spring cleaning efforts.

  • Keep a small basket in each room for things that do not belong. Get in the habit of checking the basket as you leave the room
    for items that might belong in your next destination.
  • Keep all of your cleaning supplies together, along with rags, paper towels, scrub brushes, and any other items you may need to
    complete any cleaning task. Using a bucket or cleaning supply caddy will make grabbing the necessary tools a snap when it is time to do your daily chores.
  • Sort through your mail each day when it is brought in. Immediately throw away junk mail, saving only important letters and
    advertisements that you are planning to use. Place all the mail in a designated area and file the bills away after they are paid.
  • When choosing containers for storage, look for lidded boxes, bowls, and bags that are clear. When you go looking for an item,
    it will be easier to find if you can see into the containers without opening each and every one.
  • Every night after dinner, make sure that all the dishes are cleaned and put away, or at least rinsed and put into the
    dishwasher, until there is a full load. Don’t let the dishes get away from you or you’ll find yourself in the midst of a marathon cleaning
    session.
  • Wipe counters and tables after each meal, knocking the crumbs to the floor. Sweep up after washing the dishes each night and
    use a damp rag to wipe up and spots, splashes, or spills on the floor.
  • Always make sure the sink looks clean and sparkling. After washing the dishes, wipe it out well and dry it to prevent water spots.
  • Set aside a little time each week or on the weekend to do a more in-depth cleaning. Check the fridge and pantry for expired food, wipe the stove, cabinets, table, and counters thoroughly, and clean the floor well. If you have kept up on your daily straightening ritual, you will be shocked at how quickly the kitchen cleans up. When you get up the next morning, you will be able to start your day with a fresh start (without having to worry about
    yesterday’s mess!).

Ready for more Spring Cleaning Tips? Grab your copy of the Hillbilly Housewife’s Spring Cleaning Guide today at http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/ebooks/springcleaning.htm


Pin It

Filed Under: Homemaking, Moms At Home Tagged With: ,

Overcoming Disorganization

February 2, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Strategies of a Disorganized Mom
by Lori Kelley of LOLforMoms.com

I am not an expert on home organization. Just come into my house and you will see this for yourself. However, I have something worthwhile to say on the matter. There is something to learn from the highly unorganized and I am here to represent them. I have written a list of several things you can do to live like me. Read my list of clutter-friendly, mess-making strategies and tell me at the end if you haven’t learned something.

Strategy # 1 Keep Everything
I never throw things away; it’s my own green initiative. I feel good about my efforts to potentially recycle an item ten years down the road. Plus, if I collect for long enough I could be featured on a number of popular TV shows where people either come and clean your house for you or people come and buy some junk off of you. Yes, there’s actually potential money to be made off of this particular strategy.

Strategy # 2 Always Accept Other People’s Junk
Even for the organizers out there, it’s not always easy to get rid of your once valued possessions. The difference between me and the organizers is that they make the commitment to do it. When the organizers don’t want to just throw something in the trash, they’ve found a way to make the task more agreeable to them. They give their junk to people like me.

For example, I have a neighbor who is particularly skilled at this. My neighbor gives her children’s hand-me-downs to my children. Not the good hand-me-downs mind you. The good hand-me-downs go to her nieces and nephews. My children get all of the hand-me-downs that are ripped, stained, or worn thread-bare. She insists they make great play clothes, as if my children don’t already have stained and torn play clothes of their own. So my neighbor’s hand-me-downs, over time, have become their own entity piled on my laundry room floor.

Strategy # 3 Don’t Use the Public Library
Reading is important for our children. We must provide them with books at every stage of their reading. Only a bad parent would not see to their child’s intellectual and literary needs. That’s why I have purchased well over one hundred children’s books.

We don’t need to go to the library at my house because we have become a library. Of course, our library has no shelving system, or shelves for that matter. Oh, and I guess the books are not labeled or categorized by any certain age group or theme. Umm… and there is no librarian on hand who either recycles or gives away the books we don’t use anymore, or that have been wrecked from wear and tear. Well, other than that we have our own private library at my house.

So, perhaps you have learned something after all. It does take strategy and intent to be disorganized as well as organized. Which one would you choose?

Lori’s blog LOL for Moms is a blog of lists on life that she has written about mom issues. Her lists are lighthearted depictions of life as a mom based on her own experiences as well as the experiences many mothers have shared with her.

Pin It

Filed Under: Homemaking Tagged With: ,

Living On A Dime Extravaganza ~ Don’t Miss This!

January 2, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Jump Start Your New Year’s Goals!

Living On A Dime Extravaganza e-books

Does your budget need a boost? The Living On A Dime Extravaganza e-book series can help turn it around!

The Living On A Dime Extravaganza includes 13 money saving Living On A Dime e-books to save you money and make your life easier by helping you fix the leak in your pocketbook!

Our friends at Living On A Dime have offered a very special deal to our readers… At the special price of 13 e-books for $13, they’re practically giving this amazing e-book series away, but only until Monday! Learn more about it here!

Pin It

Filed Under: Frugal Living, Homemaking, On A Budget Tagged With: , , ,

Organizing Paperwork :Taming The Beast

December 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Paperwork is an ever-present part of most people’s work lives. Anyone with a position of any greater prestige than the burger-flipper at the local fast food restaurant most likely has to deal with paperwork at some level. And you may have discovered, as many people have, that papers have a tendency to pile up. Things get mixed together, lost, and jumbled, leaving you spending hours going through endless stacks of the stuff looking for that one lone order form or bill that you need right away.

Although this sort of frustration and wasted time is all too common, it is by no means necessary. There are simple ways to be sure you will not run into this sort of trouble with your documents. The first and most important rule is to put everything away and filing them in folders when you do not need them. The easiest way to lose track of papers is to leave them laying around where they can be shuffled together, slid under something, mistakenly thrown into the trash bin, or fall into a corner somewhere.

Once the documents are filed away, you need to be able to quickly and easily find the papers you need at any given time. Be sure to clearly label your folders to avoid confusion as to where a specific paper or document might be filed. Also, you should consider using a color coding system to organize your files so you can easily find something at a glance. A black folder, for instance, may be used for your professional documents, a blue folder for personal documents and a brown folder for filial asset documents, and so on. This will help streamline your filing and retrieving process. Keep a note posted somewhere nearby of what each color means, in case anyone else needs to find something in your files.

Pin It

Filed Under: An Organized Home, Homemaking Tagged With: ,

Managing Family Schedules

December 29, 2010 By 1 Comment

Today’s world is one of ever-increasing activity. Families rush around from one thing to the next, juggling work, school, numerous extra activities,

Balancing It All!

and maybe (if they are lucky) some sort of social life. Understandably, this is often a hectic and stressful process for all those involved. Parents in particular may find it difficult to orchestrate the numerous soccer practices, ballet lessons, and swim meets their children must attend. And that is not even mentioning any extra time that might be required for work or other activities not related to their kids.

So how can you make all these thing work without ripping your hair out in frustration? Well, the best way is to streamline your planning. This can be accomplished with a number of methods, but they all essentially boil down to planning your activities in advance and in detail to avoid hassles and confusion.

You can use some kind of organizer or planner as a central point for your family’s activities. This can be a professionally designed system, such as those you might find in office supply stores, or it can be a simple ring-binder notebook. Divide the notebook into sections for each family member, and use it to keep track of any appointments and dates, as well as notes and important phone numbers.

Bring your family together once a week to make out a master schedule for the week and place it in the front of the binder. This should include any activities your children will need to be taken to, and who will be taking them. This will prevent the confusion over who needs to go where, which is far too commonplace without any scheduling. This also gives you a good idea of just how full your schedule is, and will help you determine if you need to cut back on anything to make your schedules easier to manage.

Pin It

Filed Under: Homemaking Tagged With: , , , ,

Get Organized: The Refrigerator

December 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment

There is no doubt that nearly every aspect of your life can be improved by at least some amount of organization. Things simply run more smoothly when they are working under a well-organized system. Take, for example, your refrigerator. In most cases, people simply put whatever food they have into their refrigerator, and then just use the food as they need it. This works fairly well for the most part, but every now and then there will be a problem. Something will get tucked into a back corner of the refrigerator and forgotten for weeks, or someone will forget how long the meatloaf has been laying around and end up eating leftovers that went bad days ago.

These problems can be solved with a little organization. The first thing to do is to organize the food itself. You can use any system you like to accomplish this, and it does not have to be complex. You might simply make one shelf for foods that need to be used quickly, one for foods that keep longer, and so on. Or you can separate the foods into different groups such as dairy products, meats, vegetables, etc. This will make finding things inside your refrigerator easy, and will keep things from being lost in corners.

Once you have the interior organized, make a list of everything that is inside your refrigerator and post it on the door. As you put new things in, and use old things up, you should update the list. This will give you an idea of how long things have been in the refrigerator, so you will know when to throw things out. This will also keep you up to date on what you have and what you need, for when you are planning meals and shopping trips.

Pin It

Filed Under: An Organized Home, Homemaking Tagged With: , , ,

Family Budget: Savings Suggestions

December 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment

You and your spouse have come to an agreement on the family budget. Part of that budget and part of your goal as a family is to have a regular savings program and save for high-priced items. The plan sounds great but how you go about implementing the plan is another issue altogether. The task seems quite difficult and overwhelming. The key to remember to help you get started saving is to start small. Take small steps to start getting in the habit of savings.

Think of this: if you were to just put aside one dollar a day you would have $365 at the end of the year to put into savings. Just two dollars a day would double that. Think about it carefully. Some of us spend two dollars a day just buying coffee at the coffee shop when we could maybe cut back and find another more economical way to get our coffee, such as have our coffee fix in the morning right before leaving for work. We could start at the one dollar a day and over time increase it to $5 a day or $150 a month. $150 a month is $1,800 a year in savings. It adds up very fast.

Some experts suggest that a family should set aside 10% of their income for savings. However, if a family studies their budget and realizes that they cannot save 10% then it would be wise to save whatever they can. It would be better to save 1% than to not save any money at all. The key is to start small, as the overall task won’t look so overwhelming. Just look around and carefully analyze where you spend your money on a daily basis. Look at the small things like those two sodas you buy from the vending machine everyday. You could buy a week’s worth of soda at the grocery store at a much cheaper price and put it in the refrigerator at work for usually a lot less and save the difference.

Just One Dollar

Just One Dollar

Pin It

Filed Under: Frugal Living, Homemaking Tagged With: , ,

Family Budget: Retirement Saving Starts Today

December 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Most young adults do not think about retirement too much. This is definitely the case with young teenagers as well. However, it does not change the fact that we all will grow older and that retirement day will fast approach. It stands to reason that we are never too young to start planning for retirement and part of that plan is to start saving money and getting a good return on the investment of what is saved.

Just think about it. If a young person starts saving at age 18 and retires at age 65, then that is 47 years of steady saving. If a person were to save a dollar a day then that in and of itself would be $17,000+ dollars without even the consideration of interest. If a person is to save $1 a day for 47 years at a 5% return and a 3.1% inflation rate, that savings would grow to around $70,000. Thus, you cannot start too young. In fact the younger you start saving for your retirement, the better.

Initially, you might want to invest your money into some investment vehicles that provide high rates of return. These of course will be the riskier investments, as they tend to return higher rates. When you are young, it is advisable to do this because you can bounce back from market downturns with plenty of time to recover. As you get older and closer to retirement, you want to protect what you have accumulated and keep the investments in less-risky vehicles. Of course, you won’t achieve the high rates of return that you would in the risky ones but the idea here is to protect yourself from taking losses close to retirement. Also, make sure that all of your retirement investments are tax-deferred in that you do not want taxes to negatively impact you while you are building your retirement fund.

Pin It

Filed Under: Frugal Living, Homemaking Tagged With: , ,
« Older Posts

Freebies

If you know of a free resource you'd like to see listed here or on our main page, please email me at … [Read More...]

Affiliates

Get Paid To Spread the Word about our eBooks & Products     You'll receive 50% … [Read More...]

Posts from the Past

To the Top

Find Us On

Let's Get Social!