Real Life Solutions

Are you a busy stay at home mom who feels like she’s working a full time job? Between children, activities and a spouse, being a stay at home mom can be really exhausting, but quite rewarding. If you’re a stay at home mom, or thinking about becoming one, the best thing to remember is to have a routine. Here are some tips for stay at home moms who are looking to save money and increase family time, all while living on one income.

Dress for Less – If you’re not going into an office every day, then it isn’t likely that you will need to spend hundreds of dollars each season on new work clothes. While you shouldn’t look like a mess, you can save quite a bit of cash by shopping at consignment stores or discount retailers. Keep your closet simple and organized and you’ll always find something to wear. As for your kids, they are constantly growing out of their clothes, so ditch the designer labels and focus on affordability.

Make use of shopping in bulk – If you have a large family, you may really benefit from shopping in bulk. Being a stay at home mom means thinking creatively. Buy out of season for certain items, and buy them in bulk if possible. Summer items like air conditioners, fans and sunscreen are often discounted in the winter and fall. Buy items like toilet paper and paper towels in bulk and store them neatly in a closet until use. Keep an eye on store sales to take advantage of the best prices or join a local warehouse club, like Costco or Sam’s Club.

Limit how much you dine out – Find weekly specials in your area when there are family deals or child discounts. If you’re not big on cooking, pick one day a week when you will cook for the whole week. Make dinners ahead of time and store them in the freezer. When it’s time to eat, pop them in the oven and you’re done!

Get organized one step at a time – If your home is messy or filled with clutter, set a goal to get organized. By learning how to have a more organized home, you will spend less time looking for things and cleaning around the house. Having an organized home will make you feel more relaxed, and you will feel more energized to get more accomplished. When you’re more organized, you’ll spend less time cleaning and decluttering and have more time to spend with your family.

About the author: Jacquie Ross is a professional organizer and award winning owner of CastAway the Clutter! Jacquie is a busy mom expert and works with moms, families and busy professionals to clear their clutter, manage their time and run their households more efficiently. She is active in her community and regularly speaks to social and professional groups and organizations on time management and organization.

Jacquie has written three e-books especially for busy moms and her twice monthly Timely Tips newsletter is chock full of organizing tips and techniques for busy people. Register today and receive a free copy of her special report, 21 Organizing Solutions to Cast Away the Clutter. Get your free copy now by clicking here.

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Many people are curious about the origin of Easter day. Easter is a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus. It marks the end of Lent, which is the forty day period of fasting beginning on Ash Wednesday and culminating on Easter Sunday. Preceded by Holy Thursday and Good Friday; the day Christ died, Christians attend Church services on this solemn day to participate in the Stations of the Cross, denoting his Passion and death.

On Holy Saturday, a time of contemplation and solemnity, the sacrifice of the Mass is not celebrated. On Easter morning, however, the celebration begins with church bells signaling His resurrection.

Easter Sunday is a time of great joy for families who observe this day with traditional egg-coloring; egg hunts; fun crafts for kids; a special Easter dinner and a myriad of desserts. What does the egg symbolize?

Along with the origin of Easter Day, the egg symbolizes a rebirth; a renewal of life. In ancient times, the egg was given as a gift. The ancient Saxons celebrated the return of spring with a festival in honor of the goddess of spring and her symbol, the rabbit. Some say the word “Easter” is derived from the Anglo-Saxon “Eostre,” the name of the fertility goddess of spring. Therefore, the custom of exchanging eggs in springtime has been said to date back over 3000 years.

Speaking of eggs! On Easter morning many kids wake up and find Easter baskets filled with chocolate and other goodies. Easter egg hunts and getting treats seem to be the most favorite part of Easter for lots of kids.

Hopefully this article has helped you to understand the origin of Easter Day.

Many parents often wonder how to get kids to clean up after themselves.  It is a common struggle in many homes.  There are ways to turn toy clean-up time into a manageable affair. 

Usually after playing, children are easily overwhelmed when it’s time to clean up their toys.   You can take the struggle out of cleaning up with a few simple changes. Start early to teach good cleaning habits. Keep the amount of toys available for play to a minimum. Develop cleaning routines and engage dad to help put toys away at the end of the day.

1. Beat The Clock

You would not even believe how well this works in my house. If your kid gets very excited about challenges, this is definitely for your family. First, I come up with what I want my child to organize, whether it’s to clean up her toys in the living room, or to organize a drawer in her room. Then, I say, ‘I wonder if you can do ______ (fill in the blank with whatever you want done) before the timer sounds. Set small goals that your child can realistically complete within 3 minutes or 5 minutes. Promise your child a reward of YOUR time when you’re done. Perhaps you can go outside together and blow bubbles or maybe you can go for a bike ride–something that will truly entice your child to want to get the job done as quickly as possible. Once you start the timer, cheer your child on. Show your excitement, and be as silly as possible.

2. Turn up the tunes.

Cleaning and organizing doesn’t have to be a boring, monotonous task. Turn up the music–your child’s favorite– nice and loud. Then encourage your child to dance and dust (or whatever needs to be done) at the same time. Join your child and get some stuff done yourself while you’re at it. It’s energizing and makes it more like a party.

3. Think up little rewards your child would love.

My daughter loves it when my husband chases her around the sofa, while she giggles endlessly. A friend’s child loves it when her mom plays silly face games with her. Promise your child that when he or she does whatever it is you want them to do for 3 minutes, you’ll do the fun thing you come up with for 3 minutes. Then, keep repeating organizing, fun, organizing, fun, etc. about 4 to 5 times. Your child will get lots accomplished and have a great time while doing so.

4. Play ‘Basketball.’

For clothes, stuffed animals and other fairly soft items that won’t break, set up a clothes hamper in the middle of the room. Have your child toss the items that are strewn about into the hamper. He or she earns a point for each item that goes in–and gets second, third, etc. chances for those items that do not. Pre-designate some fun time together or fun rewards for so many points. For instance, 10 points gives your child the opportunity to have his favorite book read to him, 15 points gives your child her choice of the board game to play after dinner.

5. Role play.

Tell your child to choose an animal and then pretend they’re that animal while they’re cleaning and organizing, such as a frog or a bunny. A bunny might grab their stuff and hop somewhere to put it away. A kangaroo might hold some stuff in their shirt and bounce to the storage area. But, they can’t tell you what animal they are. You have to guess before the one minute timer runs out. Take turns with your younger children doing this. They’ll get a kick out of it, and the job will be done at the same time.

Get Organized Now – An amazing collection of 2,175 ideas, tips and techniques for organizing your home, getting rid of clutter, organizing your time, your schedule, your money, your paper, your family and much more!

When you think about Valentine’s Day you probably think about spending a romantic evening with your partner. Unfortunately this can leave your children feeling left out in the cold. They love Valentine’s Day as much as you do, so why not think of some family fun Valentines Day activities for the whole family to enjoy together?

You can plan a family fun Valentines Day Plan together for the entire family and then leave some time for your partner. Make heart-shaped pancakes for breakfast. For a different twist, add red hot candies to the batter. Allowing your children to eat candy for breakfast isn’t something you’ll do every day, but Valentine’s Day does come but once a year.

When you’re preparing their lunch or making sure everything is in their school bag, slip in a special Valentine for each one. Perhaps you can include a coupon for a ‘date’ with either parent to be used at a later date. Of course, if your children are older, you’ll want to be sure not to include anything that would be embarrassing to them if their friends saw it.

Another family fun Valentines Day idea is to take a little time to create a family photo collage or scrapbook from pictures taken during the previous year. You don’t have to make something elaborate, rather something your family can enjoy looking at as the years pass. Depending upon the ages of your children, you may want to allow each child to create one page to be included in the scrapbook.

Design a scavenger hunt for Valentine’s Day. Write up clues (or draw pictures for younger children) to lead them through the house. Have a wonderful sweet treat or movie the entire family can enjoy together as the final prize.

You may want to eat dinner with the children and get them to bed early. That will leave you at least some time to spend with your sweetie.

Rather than going out for Valentine’s Day, enlist the help of the children to prepare a family Fun Valentines Day dinner. Pizza is a great meal for Valentine’s Day. There is red sauce and white cheese on each one. Your children can also place some pepperoni on the pizza in a heart shape if that’s what they want to do.

Be prepared for there to be a mess in the kitchen, but try not to stress over it too much. Having toppings already prepared will make clean-up a little easier and you won’t have to worry about a little one cutting themselves slicing onions or another topping.

After dinner you could snuggle together on the couch and watch a movie together. If you think your family watches too much television you could also play a board game. When bed time comes, kiss the children goodnight and tell them you’re glad they are your Valentine.

When the children are finally down for the night you can concentrate on your main Valentine sweetie. Create a spa-like atmosphere in your bathroom. Draw a bubble bath you can share with your partner if your tub is large enough for both of you. Be sure to lock both the bedroom and bathroom doors to avoid any interruptions.

Use one of more of the above family fun Valentines Day ideas to ensure that the entire family enjoys this special day.

Valentine’s Day is a day for lovers but that doesn’t mean your children don’t need to feel special, too. Take time to do something special with your children to make them feel important. However, you’ll also want to get them into bed early enough to spend quality one-on-one time with your partner as well.

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When people start to organize their home they can easily become stumped when it comes to how to organize bills and mail in order to keep paper clutter to a minimum. It is easy within the shuffle of life to forget about a bill here or there. This article will focus on several different ways that will show you how to organize bills and mail and reduce the clutter caused by paper at home.

The first thing that needs to be done when looking at how to organize your bills and mail at home is to sort through your mail every day and collect the bills and set them aside. This only takes a couple of minutes and you want to strip away everything that is not needed…including all the advertisements normally inside.

When you’re done with this, you should make sure that you only have the actual invoice and return envelope left. This will cut down on the amount of extra paper that can get mixed in with your bills every month.

Your bills need to be kept within a specific place within your home. This is important because if you have bills floating through different rooms, you will not know when they are due and what bills still have to be paid. Put the bills in one specific spot every day after you have sorted the mail.

You might want to use a monthly spreadsheet as far as what need to be paid and that yes…the payments were made.

Knowing this information when you sit down will cut down on the amount of time needed every month and will be good so that you can come back to the bills weekly instead of making it a daily task.

With the demands on our time and energy today, it can be very hard to know what has been paid and what hasn’t been paid so the spreadsheet will be a friendly reminder for you. You should also have one person who normally does the bills because having two different hands in the pot can make things difficult to accomplish.

Finally, when keeping up with how to organize bills and mail, you may want to see whether or not you can build this into your weekly routine. Maybe you spend half an hour or 45 minutes on a Sunday balancing your checkbook and paying the bills. This will reduce the amount of time that you need every month to potentially pay bills because it is happening on a weekly occurrence.

Hopefully this article on how to organize bills and mail at home has given you some insight into some different methods that you can use. Remember that this is an ongoing process and you cannot just be organized with the bills by doing this exercise once a month. Work on this daily with the mail and weekly with the bills and watch how much easier it is when your bills are organized.

Remember that it only takes a couple minutes a day to keep yourself organized. This will cut down the amount of stress that you can potentially feel each month and you will feel much better in the long run from doing this.

To find out how to get organized and put these strategies to use right away, visit The Definitive Guide to Home Organization for Busy People today and get started.

Children who have food allergies may not understand why they can’t eat peanut butter like their friends, or why they react so badly to milk or wheat. As a parent, you want to know how to manage child food allergies so you can help them have a long, healthy and happy life.

Food allergies are more common than you might think. However, they may not be as severe in some children as they are in others. Thankfully, some children who have food allergies while they are very young can often outgrow them by the time they are five years old.

It is important to understand food allergies and recognize the symptoms. With an allergy, the body sees the allergen as dangerous and will start attacking the food or its components with antibodies. Food allergies have the potential to be life threatening so you’ll want to take them seriously. The antibodies cause irritation which can manifest as these symptoms:

* Swelling of the lips
* Difficulty breathing
* Tingling in the mouth – lips or tongue
* Hives
* Itchy rash
* Abdominal cramps
* Diarrhea
* Vomiting

Prevention is the best way to manage child food allergies. Keep your child from having access to foods containing their allergen. Learn to be diligent in reading food labels each and every time you go shopping, as foods may change without notice. Teaching your child to read labels will train them to do this once they get older.

Teach your child to recognize the food they’re allergic to. This might mean doing some research to find out what food items might contain their particular allergen. You’ll need to learn how to properly read food labels and if there are allergens listed it would be wise to avoid purchasing those foods.

Explain to you child the importance of not exchanging food with their friends. Even though their friends’ lunch may look good, there’s no guarantee there aren’t allergens in it. It is best that they eat only the food you prepare or purchase for them. Be aware when eating out that even though some foods aren’t on your child’s allergen list, there could be cross-contamination with foods that are.

Inform your school’s cafeteria and teacher of their food allergy. Talk with your child’s doctor about keeping medicine with them just in case they have an allergic reaction while at school. Your child’s teacher and front office should have contact information for you and your child’s doctor in case of an emergency.

Having to manage children with food allergies can be stressful, but it doesn’t have to be impossible. With knowledge of your child’s allergens, you will be able to learn along with your child which foods are acceptable and those that aren’t.

With the pediatrician’s help you will also know how to treat your child should they have an allergic reaction. Finally, you’ll be able to let others know of your child’s needs and know that they can react quickly should it be necessary.  The key is to be diligent when you manage child food allergies so that the child stays as healthy as possible.

Moms all over the world often spend the morning frustrated because their children run behind. They know there has to be a better way. Using these sure-fire tips to make your morning routine run smoother, your day can start on a positive note rather than a sour one.

Your day will run much smoother if you do as much as you can the night before. It will reduce the amount of time everyone takes to get ready and there will be much less stress. Here are a few things you can do the night before to help you be better prepared to have a great morning:

* Shower or bathe – Schedule showers or baths for all of the children. If they can get clean the night before, that will be one less thing they’ll have to do in the morning. Having the children bathe the night before will also ensure you have plenty of hot water for your own bath or shower.

* Set out clothes – Teach your children to choose and set out their clothes the night before. You can approve each outfit and ensure there are no repairs to be made. Don’t forget to have your children find their shoes and socks to place with the outfit so all they have to do when they get up is get dressed.

* Pack their bag – Look through each child’s book bag when they bring it home each day. Ask them what homework assignments they have and ensure they work on them. You’ll also want to check to see if there are any important papers you need to see. Transfer any significant dates to your family calendar. Sign anything which requires your signature and then place everything that goes back to school back into your child’s book bag. Place their book bag by the door so it’s ready to pick up and go.

* Check the family calendar – It is very helpful to have a centralized family calendar that is easily accessible to everyone. Check the calendar the night before so you won’t have any surprises. There may be doctor’s appointments or your children may have after-school activities to attend. By checking the calendar before you go to bed you’ll be able to make any necessary car pooling arrangements if necessary.

* Make lunches – Prepare lunches the night before if possible. If you can’t pack the entire lunch, do what you can. Keep refrigerated items in the refrigerator until morning. Grab what you need to finish up what needs to be done and then pack each item in your child’s lunch container.

* Set the table – Before heading to bed, set out the dishes you’ll need for breakfast in the morning. Depending upon what you plan to prepare, you can also do some of that the night before. Pre-scramble the eggs or make the egg and milk mixture for French toast. Keep the milk or orange juice on a lower shelf so your younger children can help take things out of the refrigerator.

* Get kids to help with breakfast in the morning – Unless your children are very young they can, and probably should, help you with breakfast. Teach them to get the things necessary for the meal such as cereal, and bread for toast.

Finally, as you’re working toward a morning routine that runs smoother, keep some often-needed things in your car. Hair brush, pencils, juice box and extra socks can be kept in a box and easily accessible if your children aren’t being particularly helpful. Good luck at having a morning that runs smoothly.

Get Organized Now – An amazing collection of 2,175 ideas, tips and techniques for organizing your home, getting rid of clutter, organizing your time, your schedule, your money, your paper, your family and much more!

There’s something almost dreary about the winter months. The sun may not shine for weeks on end and then there are the snow clouds which make the days seem dark. You may not be able to do anything about the weather outdoors, but decorating your own cozy winter home  for the dark winter months can make all the difference in the world in your outlook.

Even though it’s dark and dismal outdoors, it doesn’t mean indoors has to be the same way. In fact, depending upon how much effort you want to expend you can create a different atmosphere for each season of the year. Use some of these decorating tips to create a cozy winter home for the darker months of the year.

Create more light sources to brighten your home. You can do this in a number of ways: place additional table lamps in corners that might be dark, set groups of candles on tables and light them as the day draws to an end, or hang fairy lights throughout the room. Using one or more of these lighting ideas can make a huge difference in how your room looks and how you feel.

You probably aren’t prepared to repaint your room when moving from one season to another. Even if you don’t want to paint, you can remove some items and add others into the room to give it a totally different appearance and atmosphere. How do you make your room look different during each season? You can change the floors, the walls, the ceiling or the fabric.

Fall colors are usually dark but they don’t have to be bold. To create your cozy winter home, you can find muted shades of grey, gold, rust, burgundy and orange which will work with most color schemes. Add rich, luxurious fabrics in fall colors. Snuggly blankets and pillows can be placed around the room where you spend the most time. Try to find bright colored fabrics which will help spread natural sunlight if you suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

Find large rugs in fall colors to add warmth to the room. Not only does a rug anchor your room, it can be used as a focal point and an inspiration to find the right accessories for your room. Throw rugs also help keep your feet warm when you have cold floors. They add texture as well, which can be warm and inviting.

Bring the outdoors in. Even in the coldest part of the year you can find bouquets of flowers. Place them in the areas of your room where you spend the most time. Set out bowls of potpourri (fragrant herbs, flowers and citrus fruits) around the room to fill it with delicious aromas. Natural items are great to add to cozy up your home.

Decorating  your cozy winter home for the dark winter months will take a little bit of forethought. You can purchase decorating items at the end of each season while they’re deeply discounted. When the winter months get closer you can start changing out items in your home to make it cozy and warm.

With the ever expanding commercialization of the Christmas holiday, the majority our organizing efforts during the month of December are focused on presents. How long is your list? The majority of us, each year, face the daunting task of not only shopping for a long list of family and friends, but also determining who should be on said list, how to wrap and store appropriately, how much to spend, potentially shipping gifts to different regions or countries and any number of tasks that threaten to overwhelm us.

Below are some tips and tricks intended to help you have a stress free Christmas by organizing your list and your spending.

1) Shopping list creation Create your gift list as soon as possible. Write down names of every person for whom you intend to purchase a gift in a spreadsheet. As you generate names you will probably discover that the list is much longer than you anticipated. Don’t forget to brainstorm for those unexpected small gifts: a box of candy for the mail carrier, a plate of cookies for the administrative assistant and a gift card for the paperboy or girl. Create additional columns labeled ‘gift ideas,’ ‘budgeted amount,’ ‘actual amount,’ ‘items purchased,’ ‘purchase deadline,’ and, if appropriate, ‘shipping deadline.’

Large amounts of holiday stress come from failure to budget for gifts ahead of time. By creating columns on your spreadsheet, you’ll start to realize where your holiday dollars are being spent and be able to stop inadvertently buying too many presents for your special niece, nephew or grandchild. Do you give a calendar or special framed photo to several individuals in the family? Don’t neglect to include it on your list. Little things like frames or printing costs can add up quickly and you’ll want to account for them as you create your budget.

2) Shopping list completion This is the fun part of having a stress free Christmas! Go shopping for all those great gift ideas that you generated on your spreadsheet. Take a look around the webpage of the stores you plan to visit before going into the store. This will give you a chance to see if free shipping is being offered or if there are special online sales that will give you a better deal than what you would find in the store. Most stores also publish their sale flyers in advance, so you can take note of any items you are planning to purchase that will be on sale in the next few days. By waiting to make your purchase, you may save one or two dollars and, as you probably already know, every dollar counts in December!

As you make purchases, keep a small wallet or pouch handy for the receipts. When you receive the receipt from the clerk take the extra few seconds to write the name of the person on the back of the receipt, so you’ll be able to insert gift receipts in the appropriate packages later.

Finally, after each shopping experience, whether online or in-store, log your purchases on your shopping list spreadsheet.

3) Shopping storage and wrapping organization Pick a space in your home that is off-limits to everyone else and make it your own ‘Wrapping Central;’ a home office or a corner in the basement are great options. Gather your essential supplies: tape, scissors, wrapping paper, gift bags, tissue paper, shirt boxes, bows, to/from tags, etc. As you wrap gifts, create labeled boxes or areas to ensure nothing is left behind. All presents for the in-laws’ party go in one stack, everything going to the office in another.

Check back with your spreadsheet to remember which presents are being shipped and which are being delivered in person. Wrapped gifts are much easier to package than bagged gifts, so plan accordingly. The US Postal Service also offers flat- rate boxes at all of their locations or delivered directly to you by your mail carrier. By having your shipping boxes on hand, you can pack as you wrap and then pay for postage online as soon as the package is ready to go–removing the extra trip to the post office or shipping store later in the month.

4) Distribution It may look great on a Hollywood screen, but a car trunk filled with loose presents is anything but picturesque as you try to get them all unloaded at Grandma’s house. Take stock of how many gifts will be going to any given location and then choose a storage tub or laundry basket of appropriate size to contain all the packages together.

Once the presents have been placed beneath the tree, take the container back to the trunk to avoid cluttering the hosts’ house, retrieve it again at the end of the celebration to contain all the received gifts that need to make their way back to your house.

If shipping presents, consider shipping them directly from an online retailer. Many retailers offer gift-wrapping for a small fee. Though it may seem like $6 is a lot to pay for wrapping paper, it may end up being cheaper than the cost of shipping it to your home, wrapping it yourself and then shipping it to the recipient.

5) Etcetera and Miscellany Undoubtedly there will be some new acquaintance that will purchase a gift for you unexpectedly. Be sure to account for these experiences by adding a couple extra ‘unnamed’ lines to your spreadsheet. They may not have names, but they should have a budget!

While you’re out shopping, don’t forget to pick up a couple of interchangeable gifts for those ‘unnamed’ lines on your spreadsheet. A set of coasters or a bottle of wine are usually great options when you don’t know for whom you are buying.

To keep having a stress free Christmas, you may want to consider including on your spreadsheet would be any cards or letter you plan to send for the holidays. If printing pictures or purchasing cards, your budget could dramatically shift after you account for the costs of those items and the postage necessary to mail them.

If you are looking foward to having a stress free Christmas, use one or ALL of the great suggestions in this article.

Get Organized Now — An amazing collection of 2,175 ideas, tips and techniques for organizing your home, your clutter, your time, your schedule, your money, your paper, your family and much more!