School is starting next week.  That means getting back on a schedule, finding our routine again, and instilling some time management strategies.  Let’s face it – getting out of the house on time can be a struggle, especially if you have kids.  Here are a few tips to try that may help your mornings become a bit less stressful.  Remember, all of these may not work for you, but you may find a few to try.

1)  Get the clothes ready the night before.  My daughter is known for her morning issues of deciding what she wants to wear to school.  …read more

I want to share with you how I organize my planner to juggle tasks for my home and for work.
As far as planners and calendars go, I’ve always been partial to paper. My planner of choice is a FranklinCovey compact binder, which I think is on its 4th or 5th year with me. Aside from FranklinCovey, there is only one other paper planner that I love. That is the Quo Vadis Trinote, which worked very well for me as a graduate student. But it’s a bound notebook, and I’ve since found more flexibility in my refillable binder.
For those …read more

I like to think that the ability to multitask is an asset in homemaking. It’s great to be able to do the laundry, cook dinner, and pick up after kids all at the same time, right?
Sometimes, though, I have a nagging suspicion that I may be able to accomplish more if I focus on just one task at a time. Sometimes, I find myself so easily distracted that I’m running off to do a second thing right in the middle of doing the first thing. Do you know what I mean?
How many times in a day do you …read more

Today is the first day I enjoyed the fruits of yesterday’s marathon cooking session. I had breakfast (pancakes), lunch and dinner ready without having to do anything more than press re-heat on the microwave. It was wonderful to be able to clean the stove and the pots and pans, and know that I only have to do it once a week!
I now want to get into the details of how I plan to cook several meals at a time.
I’m a spreadsheet kind of girl, so of course I put my plans in a spreadsheet. I started with the monthly …read more

  I was at the home of a relative last week. As I always am every time I visit them, I was impressed by how well they keep their home.
I have never seen their home in a state of disarray. Everything is neat and tidy, and tastefully decorated. People are always welcome to stop by, and I know they don’t do any last-minute clean-up to prepare for guests. The amazing thing is that these guys have a newborn and a first-grader, and jobs to boot. I tell you, the lady has some mad homemaking skills.
I decided to find out …read more

What homemaker hasn’t used a to-do list to manage day-to-day activities? But we don’t have to use what our grandparents did. The old standby, the pen-and-paper method, has evolved into online planners and calendars.
Solution Watch has a review of “25 To Do Lists to Stay Productive”. These are websites that help the user organize tasks, reminders and various other lists. I didn’t realize there were so many good ones out there. I’m a paper person myself; I use a paper planner to keep track of most of the things I need to do. But I also use MS Outlook to …read more