homemaking tips

Organizing Kids’ Bedrooms – From The Kids’ Point of View

February 25, 2013 by 32 Comments

Boy, can kids’ bedrooms be a challenge! Trying to get kids organized can be tough and trying to get them to keep their rooms clean is even harder. I don’t have the secret to keeping their rooms spotlessly perfect at every moment but I do have a few tips that should make things more bearable for both parents and kids.

Make sure furniture is kid sized.

Every feature and piece of furniture in a child’s bedroom should be kid sized and kid friendly. So often, parents buy tall 3-4 drawer dressers and the kids can only comfortably reach the second drawer for the first 6-7 years of their lives. At the same time, parents expect the children to put their clothes away. This is setting a child up for failure.

Even adults have a hard time keeping our things picked up, even when we can reach the drawers and see into them. How would you feel if you had to put your clothes into a drawer a foot or more taller than you are?

Besides, tall chests can be dangerous in a child’s room. The kids, because they can’t always reach the top, will pull out the bottom drawer and stand on it to reach things. Some children who do this end up tipping their dressers over on top of themselves, which can seriously injure them. Another thing to consider is that if the drawers don’t slide easily, little fingers can get pinched.

Preventing Bills From Getting Lost

February 18, 2013 by 17 Comments

I thought I’d share a short post about preventing your bills from getting lost. If you keep things organized you can save money on fees and reduce the stress of worrying about bills being late.

Margaret Writes:

Our bills are sorted by date–the due date is written on the envelope. Then the pile is organized by due date, with the ones due soonest on top. These are paper clipped in the checkbook. Top bill gets paid first.

-Margaret

My system is similar. I line my bills in order in a napkin holder (one that just has 2 bars to hold the napkins because I can see the bills easier), with my checkbook behind them.

Picking Up Around The House

January 14, 2013 by 22 Comments

Picking Up Around The House

Many years ago, way way back in the last millennium : ) (that sounds impressive doesn’t it?), as a young bride (that sounds depressive – am I really that old?), I read one of the best tips on cleaning and housekeeping.

The woman who wrote it was an older woman and said she had been an awful housekeeper until she asked her friend who had a spotless house what her secret was. Her secret was that she never stopped picking up. No matter where she was walking to and from in her house, she automatically picked things up to take with her and put away. It really works.

Some of you are saying, “My kids and husband just need to pick up their own stuff.” I agree that the family needs to be responsible, but the reality is that kids and husbands have their heads in the clouds when it comes to these things. There could be an elephant in the room and if you ask them, “Why didn’t you pick that up?” they would say, “I didn’t see it there.” Duhhhhh!!

God has given us all different gifts and seeing the things that are out of place is not one He gave to kids and husbands so, in the same way I need them to help do things in the areas where I’m not as gifted I need to help them in their weaker areas. : ) That doesn’t mean they are off the hook when it comes to picking up. It just means I need to do a little extra.

For example, each morning, before anyone gets fed, their rooms must be picked up. Sometimes during the day or evening if things are getting out of control, we have a “pick up” time where everyone jumps in and helps. I usually try to make a game of this. Then at night before their snack and bedtime story the family room and, once again, their rooms get picked up.

I also taught everyone to clean up the bathroom after themselves and take care of all their dirty clothes and dishes so, as you can see, I am not solely responsible for all of the picking up. The type of thing I’m talking about is picking up that stray toy in the corner, that piece of paper or throw pillow on the floor and all those small odds and ends which so often get overlooked or that everyone refuses to claim as his or her own. With those things, it’s not worth the time to wait until the family gets home to demand to know whose it is. It seems everyone in the family is waiting for someone else to do it and then it never gets done. As the mom, you have to just do it and pick it up. It saves so many headaches.

As I walk through a room, let’s say on my way to the bathroom, I will scan the room as I go through to see if anything is out of place. If it is, I pick it up to deposit where it should go on my way to the bathroom. When I come out of the bathroom headed back, I pick up things from in there that need to go to the other end of the house.

Most of the time this takes me less than a minute. It has become such a habit that I didn’t realize how much I did it until I was over at Tawra’s the other day and started doing it at her house. As I was walking along, I spied a marble, then a Lincoln log and grabbed those up… next, a scrap of paper. I put the paper in the trash can that I passed on my way to the boys’ room, where I put the other things. I was headed that way anyway and it didn’t take me 5 seconds to scoop, grab and put away. It is such a habit that, even when I am tired, I do it without thinking.

Try doing this with one room. If the room is mostly picked up go in, scan the room and pick up those little overlooked things and see what a difference it makes in the room. Then get into the habit of always picking up those little “out of place” things. You will be surprised how many little things there are laying around and out of place in your house. One word of warning: Be careful of piles. I have the bad habit of piling things at the foot or top of the stairs and planning to take them up later but that is my weakness – not seeing the pile when I head upstairs – so try to do as I say and not as I do and keep the piles under control.

-Jill, the lean, mean, picking up machine

photo by: whgrad

A Home Decorated with Love

September 7, 2012 by 41 Comments

One day my daughter, daughter in law and I went to the Parade of Homes in our area.

The homes on display in a Parade of Homes are homes you always dream about but know you can never have– perfectly decorated and expensive model homes.

My son and son-in-law were moaning as we trotted out the door all excited to once again get some new decorating ideas. As we made our way to the car, they yelled, “Don’t even think about moving or remodeling when you get home.” They know their wives oh so well.

I don’t know why we torture ourselves, but we do it every year. My daughter called the next day and said, “I get so discouraged after looking at those houses when I walk into my house and see that there is stuff everywhere.” I know what she was talking about because I felt it too but at that same moment, in my minds eye, I was thinking about my daughter’s home and the way it looked the last time I saw it. I then started comparing it to the model homes we had just seen and these words popped into my head, “Her home was decorated with love”.

The Living Room

When you walked into the living room of the model home, there was a place for everything and everything was really in it’s place. I think they even measured the throws and pillows to make sure they were in the right spots. The pictures were of beautiful landscapes and there wasn’t a toy in sight. Contrast this with my daughter’s home, where there was a music stand and chair in the middle of floor where sister, who is learning to play the flute, had played Hot Cross Buns for the twentieth time and sat beaming as family members patiently applauded and praised her again and again and again after each attempt.

There was a very worn “security blanket” (not a throw) rolled up in a ball at the end of the couch. A favorite was pillow laying half on and half off of the couch where middle brother had laid when he was sick and where he had been given special love and attention from mom.

Instead of landscapes, there was mom and dad’s wedding picture and the kids’ school pictures, along with family pictures scattered here and there. There was a dog chew in one corner where big brother had just finished playing with the dog and in another corner was the cat bed where a well loved kitty contentedly slept. There was a stray toy here and there, a few books, a couple of Bibles and some magazines all having been shared and read together at different times.

The Kitchen

When you walked into the kitchen of the model home, there wasn’t a dish in sight- nothing on the counters. It was spotless and shiny. On the other hand, my daughter’s home had a handful of dishes left in the sink from when dad took over and made lunch because mom wasn’t feeling good. There was a pan of water on the stove where sister had fixed a cup of tea for mom and a pan of something burnt and unrecognizable that dad had burnt while trying to cope with lunch and feeding baby brother his bottle all at the same time.

The Dining Room

The dining room chairs in the model homes were lined up in perfect position. My daughter’s were all in different places from having been used over and over that day. Some were from doing homework, others crafts, coloring, painting, fixing a broken this or that, having a snack together, and always, at the end of the day, sharing dinner together with everyone talking a mile a minute.

Last but not least there was total silence in the model homes, but at my daughter’s there is music all the time. Someone is always singing, whistling, humming or laughing. The dog is barking, someone is always talking and there are even a few boyish burps followed by mom’s scolding them for doing it.

Yes those model homes looked beautiful on the outside but, like your mom always said, it is what is inside that counts. Inside the model home, it was empty, cold and lonely. My daughter’s home certainly wasn’t empty, there were lots of “items of love” scattered everywhere. As far as being cold, all that love and laughter spread warmth to every corner of every room and as for being lonely, you couldn’t find one spot to be lonely in even if you tried. Trust me, my daughter has tried to find a quiet place to be alone in and they still seem to find her.

So here’s to all the homes decorated with love and the moms and dads who decorate them.

-Jill

photo by: colleen-lane

Organizing Kids’ Schoolwork

August 17, 2012 by 9 Comments

How To Organize Your Children’s Schoolwork

School has started in many places, which means more mounds of paper clutter to keep under control. Here are some tips to help keep all of that school paperwork from multiplying, reproducing and generally taking over your home and your life.

Set a certain time and place to go through your kids’ backpacks and paperwork each day. Use this time to sign all those papers you need to sign, mark upcoming meetings or events on the calendar and sort through everything.

The best time and place to organize schoolwork will vary for each family. For us, it was best to do it the moment the kids walked through the door while it was fresh on their minds. I would have a snack ready for them, they would explain the papers to me and while I was dealing with them (signing, writing on the calendar or admiring their handiwork), they would tell me about their day.

Then I would return everything that needed to go back into their backpacks, trash the rest or put it in a special place or folder. This helps prevent things from getting tossed on the counter or table where they are eventually lost or forgotten.

Of course you will need a calendar and/or small bulletin board or dry erase board.

My calendar has very large squares where I simply mark what needs to be done. If there is something very important that I must not forget no matter what, I mark it in red, but I write everything else in pencil in case I need to change it. Then I can just erase it and make the necessary changes.

There have been times when I used a purple pen if I wanted the kids to remember something. I read about a study which found that people will remember things better when marked in purple.

Use different colored markers or pens for different things. For example, one child’s events will all be in green, all dentist appointments are in blue or whatever works best for you.
If there are special papers that go with an event, I either paper clip them to the calendar page, pin them to a small bulletin board or place them in a folder, making a star on the calendar so I know to look on the bulletin board or in the folder for the paper that goes with the event.

All my events seem to fit fine on one large square of a calendar. If your events don’t fit, you might need to look at changing a few things in your life and cutting back on some things. This could be a sign you are too busy.
There are many many fancy and expensive calendar systems out there. I personally find them to be more confusing and more work than they are worth but if they work for you, use one.

I know that some of you who work away from home need day planners and other organization systems but that is another whole subject that I deal with in my e book Plan It, Then Do It.

Another system some people like is to have a folder for each child with special papers in it. For example, if one child is having a class party, I will mark the class party on the calendar but then place the paper with all the info about it in the folder. Once again, I would place a star by the event to remind me more info is in the folder. Once a week these folders should be sorted through so they don’t get cluttered.
Always keep folders of any kind in an upright position in a holder. Most folders or papers that are laid in a horizontal position get forgotten, lost, piled on or not used.
KEEP IT SIMPLE. This could be the most important point of all. If it is complicated and too involved neither you or your family won’t bother to use it. Sometimes it isn’t our families which are the problem but the system we choice to use. Just because it comes highly endorsed by a famous organizer or some such does not mean it will work for you so don’t fight it and try something different.

Well I will sign off for now. I am looking at the piles of paper on my own desk and think I might need to take a break, practice what I preach and clear my desk. : )

-Jill

Photo By: magma666

Fancy Inexpensive Dinner Breads

February 18, 2012 by 12 Comments

canned regrigerator biscuits in bundt pan

FANCY SCHMANCY dinner breads cheap…

Use a decoratively shaped Bundt pan,

a stick of butter or margarine,

3 cans of biscuits (jumbo or regular) (you could use frozen dinner roll too)

seasonings to suit the meal…for instance, serving Italian? Use basil and Parmesan cheese

Melt butter or margarine in bottom of Bundt pan evenly. Sprinkle seasonings. Then put biscuits in on end, like stacking dimes, one at a time, to allow seasonings and butter to ooze between each one. Bake as directed on the can. Then simply turn out onto a serving plate, and VOILA! –a beautiful bread ring. You can use cheddar cheese and jalapeno for Mexican…brown sugar and cinnamon for pull apart cinnabuns…rosemary and olive oil and olives for Italian or Greek… ANY assortment you can think of… dried tomatoes and olive oil… try it!

-Vicky B.

All I can say is yum! I am going to have to try this one!

Tawra

Photo By: C Jill Reed

How Do I Winterize An Outside Faucet?

November 5, 2011 by 9 Comments

How Do I Winterize An Outside Faucet

From: Janice J.

How do you use styrofoam to protect an outside faucet? It is getting colder and I am worried. Thanks!

I would duct tape a big chunk around the faucet. Maybe break it apart so it fits snugly around the faucet and then just duct tape away until it’s on there tightly.

-Tawra

Depending on your faucet, I have taken 2 large styrofoam cups and put one inside of the other then taped. Be sure to get it as close to the house as you can.

This really works. I had my outside faucet freeze one year and what a mess so I don’t chance it any more especially since it is so easy to do.

-Jill

Mike: It might also be good to stuff some rags into any places where air might get in, wrap the outside with a plastic trash bag and tape it with heavy duct tape to prevent moisture from getting in. (If it’s in a sunny area, a black plastic bag will keep it warmer in the daytime, too be cause the black absorbs sunlight.) If you manage to keep cold air and moisture out and provide some insulation with the foam, rags and/or some other insulating material, it should not freeze.

Of course, if it’s possible to turn off the water to that faucet from inside the house and then open the faucet to let any water drain out before you wrap it, that would be even better.

Photo By: rwkvisual

Great Things To Do With Baby Food Jars

March 4, 2011 by 26 Comments

With a baby and two preschoolers, I don’t have the time or inclination to make homemade baby food. My Meijer grocery store puts Gerber baby food on sale frequently, and with coupons it’s the same price as generic.

One way to reuse those Gerber plastic fruit/veggie tubs is to rinse them out and put cheerios, goldfish, pretzels, and/or raisins in them for trips to the park, zoo, or car trips in the van. They contain just the right amount of snack for a preschooler, the child can get the lid on and off, and I don’t care if they get lost or are used as a sand toy!

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Menu – Yankee Noodles, Bottled (Canned) Fruit Cake

February 24, 2011 by 45 Comments

Tips:

Sometimes we tend to make our meals so much more complicated than they need to be. I was blessed to be able to watch many women prepare their meals who learned to cook during the 30’s and 40’s. Some were busy stay at home moms. Others were moms who worked away from home and some were moms who helped their husbands on the farm.

These women used some tricks to prepare their meals that made meal preparation easier and faster. Here are a few of them:

They didn’t worry if they had homemade biscuits or muffins for every meal. Often for a daily meal they would just place a plate of bread (not always homemade bread, either) on the table to eat with butter and jam or honey. In some homes, this was a staple at every meal.

They would keep things cleaned and ready to use for a relish dish like carrot sticks, celery sticks, olives, pickles, sliced cucumbers, tomatoes or fresh cauliflower.

Hard boiled eggs or pickled beets were kept on hand to place in a bowl at the last minute.

They didn’t hesitate to open some canned fruit to pour into a bowl and set on the table to eat by itself without whipped cream or any added extras.

Canned vegetables were a life saver for many of them. Then they could just warm some canned peas to set on the table.

They served some combination of all of these at most meals. Then they would add a potato dish, rice or noodles and a meat and they would have dinner.

Sometimes we read cooking magazines and see very elaborate meals on TV and think if this isn’t the kind of food we make we must have failed as good cooks. Each dish doesn’t need five or more ingredients in it to make it good. That is probably one of the places where our diets started going down the tubes. We forgot to keep things simple.

You also save money when you keep it simple because you’re not using as many ingredients or extras like whipped cream or special spices.

Just like in the old days, your family will probably enjoy an icy cold canned peach just as much as a fresh organically grown peach you had to study to determine how ripe it was before you took it home to try to peel and slice it. It’s you, mom and dad, who make the meal special just by being together with the family, not the pedigree of your fruits and vegetables.

Menu:

Yankee Noodles*
Relish Dish
Bread and Jam
Bottled (canned) Fruit Cake*

Yankee Noodles

From: Alice B. (I learned this recipe in junior high. It’s tasty, quick to cook, inexpensive, and dirties only one pan!)

1 lb. lean ground beef
8 oz. uncooked noodles
1/2 large onion, chopped
1 large can tomatoes
Salt and pepper (to taste)

Brown meat and onion. Drain off excess grease. Add noodles and canned tomatoes. Chop tomatoes a little bit while in the pan. Bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and simmer covered for 7 minutes. Stir. Cover and simmer 8 more minutes. That’s it!

You can add other ingredients you may have on hand like chopped green peppers, black olives, mushrooms, fresh herbs, etc. You may want to top with grated cheese. (Never cook the noodles first. They must cook with the rest of ingredients to absorb their flavors.)

I love, love, love recipes that take only one pan and this one really does! Often, people will call something a one dish meal but they end up using 3 pans, 2 mixing bowls and 1 casserole dish. (That’s the one dish, I guess.) Now you can see why I really appreciated your recipe. : )

-Jill

Bottled Fruit Cake

From: Ruth P.

CAKE USING BOTTLED FRUIT – (Sometimes we have an excess of home bottled fruit and need to use it up before it gets old. This is a great way to use it!)

1 quart of fruit with liquid
4 cups flour
4 tsp. soda
2 cups sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. cloves
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 cup oil
4 eggs
Raisins and nuts if desired

Blend all of the above ingredients at the same time. Bake at 350° for 35 to 45 minutes. This makes one sheet cake or two cakes in 9×13 inch pans. This is a nice change from just using the fruit for a crisp, cobbler. or pie. You don’t need to put frosting on this, which can save time, too.

Photo by: Yoames

Organizing Kids’ Rooms

February 2, 2011 by 14 Comments

Organizing Kids’ Rooms

I posted a few tips about getting kid’s rooms decluttered but once you get it together, how do you get them to keep it that way?

One thing is to place a chart at their eye level. We often put the chore charts in the kitchen, which is fine, but you might consider putting a chore chart with just bedroom chores in their rooms. Write or place pictures of things like make your bed, pick up clothes, pick up toys and so on and, as with other charts, be sure to give lots of praise, stars or stickers when they do a good job. Kids tend to respond better to things that are put in writing (or in pictures) than they do with barked orders.

Train your kids. Show them how to do a chore. Then show them again and then show them again and again and again. We often think if we show children something once, twice or even three times they should be able to do it on their own but they can’t always learn things that fast. When I start a new job, if they show me how to do a job I have never done before for just one or two days, I can’t always get it. I would become very overwhelmed, discouraged and stressed. A good company will train you for at least two weeks every day. Our children need the same training and more.

Be specific when you tell a child to do something. Their idea of a clean room and yours are worlds apart. If you say, “Pick up your room,” don’t be surprised if they pick up two things and call it good. You need to say something like, “Pick up everything off of your floor.”

Work with your children. Whether you are an adult or child, you feel so much more motivated to do a job when you have someone helping you or encouraging you on. How many of you come to our website for encouragement and motivation? Children need encouragement from their parents so when you can, work together on their rooms, especially if they need a big clean up.

Make any cleaning up project a game. I was watching my grandkids today while Tawra was at the doctor’s office and told the boys I would race them to see if they could pick up all of the toys in the living room before I cleared the kitchen table and counters. You never saw any kids move as fast as they did trying to beat me. Of course I let them win.

I also get them to see if they can clean their rooms in less then 10 minutes or we all see how fast we can pick up 10, 15, 20 items.

We all do a better job if we have the proper tools, so buy small sized cleaning things for them like little brooms, dust pans, small dust rags (socks made into hand puppets are fun) and stools so they can reach things.

The biggest factor in helping control kids’ rooms is to get rid as much excess stuff as you can. They don’t need 50 race cars, 25 dolls or a shoe box crammed full of crayons. I used to have one box of 24 crayons in my room and you had better believe I took care of them because I didn’t want to lose that “special” color. If you don’t think your children have that many things, lay out their dolls, cars and other toys and count how many they have. I think you will be shocked.

Be sure to check out our Saving With Kids e-Book Series for many more tips like these.

Warning: Don’t become discouraged. It may be that only a couple of tips from this article may work for you. It has been a never ending battle throughout the ages (well maybe for the last 50 years) to get kids to pick up their rooms and to find functional ways to store things. Bigger people than I have tried to find the answer and so far have failed. Even if they get the storage down to a science, getting the kids to use the storage has failed.

The main thing to keep in mind is not to give up. It takes patience, time and work. This is one area where you won’t see the rewards of your hard work for many years – like about 20-30 years, but it will happen. It comes when your 20 year old son takes your trash out without being told. You sit there in amazement and wonder, “When and how did this happen?” Then there is the phone call from your daughter bemoaning the fact she can’t get the kids to keep their rooms clean.

Ahhhh, the sweet sweet rewards of seeing your offspring being tortured in the same way they tortured you years earlier! : ) : ) : )

-Jill