PLAYGROUND COTTAGES HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS.

Doing a Little Bit of Spring CleaningPosted by admin on March 9th, 2011

Our house is due for some deep spring cleaning anytime soon. I am actually scheduling it in two weeks, once school is out for the kids (so I can throw, give away and recycle their school stuff). I haven’t really decluttered since before Christmas and I know I would need to throw out a few toys too. It’s a good thing we don’t have any carpets at home or else I would need to employ carpet cleaning raleigh nc services too.

According to a post by SimpleMom, the first thing you need to “spring clean” is your closet. So I need to prepare myself for it! I even downloaded her printable list. It says to make sure to try one EVERY SINGLE PIECE OF CLOTHING in the closet so you can decide whether it should stay or go.

Oh no. I might not have clothes left after this!

Great Way to Organize AccessoriesPosted by admin on December 2nd, 2010

Getting Your House Ready For Holiday EntertainingPosted by admin on November 26th, 2010

Guests are coming for a meal and an evening together. Chances are you are more worried about the state of your home than the menu. The hustle and bustle of holiday preparations can take a toll on your household cleaning routine. If the thought of cobwebs dangling over company, children leaving notes to you in the dust, or the discovery of dirty clothes piled high in the laundry room strikes you with terror, relax. Your house can be ship-shape and company-ready in no time.

Divide and Conquer
Repeat after me, “I will not try to do it alone.” You can’t do it alone and shouldn’t even try. Spending time together is what makes holidays memorable, but does that togetherness mean only playing together? Enlist the help of your family or friends in holiday home preparations. Take a deep breath and allow yourself a minute to organize. List everything you would like to be cleaned or organized. No cheating. There is a frightful story concerning an overworked hostess who saw that she was running out of time. Her daughter’s brand new Baby Phat t-shirt was sitting on top of the washing machine, which was full to the brim. Glancing around, she quickly stuffed it into the oven and promptly forgot about it. A thoughtful guest offered to help and was instructed to preheat the oven to 450 degrees. It didn’t take long for the shirt to cook and fill the home with smell of burning cloth. The moral of the story is, put everything back where it belongs.

Clean as You Live
You can clean your home as you go through your daily routine if you know what you want to have sparkling. Wipe down cabinets as you wait for pasta to boil. Fold laundry while you make phone calls. Look at your list and double up. Your house will be sparkling in no time.

Tips on Holding a Garage SalePosted by admin on October 22nd, 2010

Money can be found even in trash cans. Do you agree with that? It is like finding a gold bar among a pile of coal. As a mom, I would like to invest on a good and stable business but I am a passive risk-taker. I invest money on where I do not need to aggressively work. Investing on gold bars from the US Gold Bureau would be perfect for me.

That, and for me to regularly hold garage sales. Our stuff needs to go every quarter so we will not have any clutter. It also helps us to be able to have some funds to replace, repair or acquire new stuff for our house.

Here are some tips I found online:
1. Collect Clutter Year-Round
2. Have a Plan
3. Team Up
4. Location, Location, Location!
5. Timing is Everything (well, just about!)
6. Clearly Mark Your Prices
7. Price Things to Sell
8. Advertise well
9. Mark Things Down on the Last Day
10. Don’t forget the cookies and lemonade!

Giving Away Stuff: Gaining SpacePosted by admin on October 22nd, 2010

I have discovered a better alternative than investing on a the best weight loss programs, that is to clean the house all day. We recently had been able to finally acquire the things we need for our house. As a result, our home space got smaller so we needed to declutter.

I read this great piece of advice:
“You’ve probably heard this method before, but the easiest way to get started is to take three bags, bins or boxes and label them Keep, Give Away and Trash. Sorting through the clutter will involve some tough decisions, but keep your final goal in mind, knowing that the less stuff you have, the easier it will be to keep surfaces and spaces clutter free.”

Here are some great pieces of advice to make life easier, and over-all, simpler:

1. Have a plan.
2. Start your morning in a peaceful way.
3. Simplify your wardrobe.
4. Do as much as you can the night before.
5. Develop a laundry system that works for you.
6. Even if you’ll be home at noon, make lunch the night before.
7. Carpool.
8. Spend time regularly to plan menus for your family’s meals.
9. Read good books about cleaning, housekeeping, organizing, and making your house a home.
10. When running errands, take a few minutes to map out your route.
11. Avoid huge piles of wet towels and dirty cups through color coding.
12. Quit wasting time crunching numbers with pen and pencil.
13. Organize your bookkeeping.
14. Prepare packing lists for different activities so that you always have what you need.
15. Clean as you go.
16. Set your maids to work first thing in the morning.
17. Use little minutes.
18. Cook ahead and freeze several meals.
19. Clean the bathroom while you’re in there anyway.
20. Delegate.
21. Develop a method of cleaning and tidying for each room.
22. Include a child with you in your errands.
23. Store like items with their kin and locate them where you use them.
24. If you bake often, consider preparing your own homemade mixes.
25. Maximize relaxation.
26. Find a calendar system that works for your family.
27. Prioritize your tasks.
28. Clip coupons? Don’t leave home without them!
29. Create shortcuts to dinner prep.
30. Find yourself buried? Take some time to climb out from under.
31. Ask God for help.
32. Start going to bed earlier.
33. Lower your standards.
34. Get moving.
35. Use the penicillin method for decluttering.
36. Find the quickest route from messy to clean.
37. Learn to say NO.
38. Look at the path ahead of you and plan accordingly.
39. Be willing to take a shortcut.
40. Only keep what is useful and beautiful.
41. Be satisfied with enough.
42. Have a potluck.
43. Catch some rays.
44. Don’t fold the laundry.
45. Wear an apron.
46. Expect good behavior from your children.
47. Go to the doctor.
48. Clean out the car.
49. Be prepared for an emergency.
50. Don’t make promises you can’t keep.

Read more: http://lifeasmom.com/2010/05/to-be-more-joyful-simplify-your-life.html.

More Links:

Cleaning and organizing from The Nest
Quick tips for room organization from HGTV
Ways to get organized from Woman’s Day

Getting Your Office Supply OnlinePosted by admin on September 3rd, 2010

I maintain a small office in my home. I consider myself a stay-at-home working mom and I strive to maintain an area in our small household to be exclusively for my work. This is where I concentrate on everyday work tasks. I maintain my own office supply too, from office paper, folders, staples, pentel pens, tape, stamp ink and ball pens. I do this more for my sanity because I have two kids in school and my biggest pet peeve is to go out in the middle of a work week to an office supply store just to buy missing supplies.

That is until I discovered the joy of getting your office supply online at CleanSweepSupply.com. They have over 37,000 products categorized by type or brand making shopping using a credit card a breeze. They offer free shipping, next business day delivery on orders over $50. Shopping for office supplies online allows you to quickly do comparison-shopping without leaving your home or your office. Instead of driving from store to store looking for the best deal, you can find it with just the click of a mouse. As you probably already know, there can be big differences in price for common supplies depending on the brand and the retailer.

Clothes De-ClutteringPosted by admin on May 28th, 2010

Since school is about to start for my two kids, I went through their closet to find out what they need for the incoming school year. I gave away all the small clothes they have and they were many. I need to shop for some big and tall clothing that are about two sizes up so it can last longer. We also need to get them new pairs of shoes.

Benefits of DeclutteringPosted by admin on May 13th, 2010

Here are a few benefits of decluttering that you may or may not have thought of:

• The more you practice evaluating the value of things in your life, the less attached you become to stuff in general.

• As you purposefully declutter your home, you’ll realize how much stuff you truly have and start to evaluate future purchases more carefully, which will ultimately save you money as well.

• If you are more of a keeper and your spouse is not, starting the decluttering process can reduce the conflict around that issue. Of course, decluttering can cause conflict if you start giving away your spouse’s things without their permission, so I don’t recommend doing that!

• You’ll spend less time dusting and cleaning.

• You’ll have a better idea of where things are in your home and be able to find them more quickly and easily.

These are better than acne treatments you need to contend with, if you think about it!

DeclutteringPosted by admin on May 13th, 2010

“Have nothing in your homes that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”

Decluttering: Getting rid of anything that’s not useful or beautiful.

This involves getting rid of things that you haven’t touched or used in six months. It  might be too much so you can cap a year on it but still, things such as paper clutter need to be updated every week so you won’t drown when you try to declutter them. When you see a huge pile of paper, think of it as a sign (like those neon exit signs in theaters) that it’s time 75% of them go into the trash.