July 14, 2010

Early in my IT career I was working for a home builder.  It was then I first heard of something called a mudroom.  It came up again when my husband and I were looking for a house.  We found a perfect one that had this GREAT mudroom (we eventually had to give up our claim on that house as our house in CA didn’t sell quickly enough).  So now we do not have a mudroom, but I’ve recently decided to create one! 

What a mudroom is, is a place to sit down and put your shoes on, or take them off.  Basically it’s a “runway”.  A place where people take off and land at the house.  It’s really essential to have this staging area to help you keep all of the things you need in one spot so you don’t forget things on  your way out the door.

You too can have a mudroom no matter what your home situation is (as long as you at least have a garage).  Pick a space in your garage for your “mudroom”.  Get some shelving or build some into the wall of the garage, make sure there are enough shelves for each person to keep their things.  A really good way to do this is to get some lockers (one per person).  I have a friend who said that she once found out about a school they were tearing down or rebuilding in her area, and she went to the construction site and asked if she could have some of the lockers.  They gave them to her for free!

Once you have shelves in place, then get a bench for people to sit on.  You can place all of the shoes everyone needs under the bench.

Finally, get some hooks to keep jackets, scarves, hats, etc. on. 

Now you have your very own mudroom runway!

July 9, 2010

I apologize about the lighting issues. I blame the fact I’m trying to clean a window right in the path of the sun.

July 8, 2010

My to do list is an ever changing creature.  I am really good about using one type for a while, then it falters (usually as soon as my to do list grows too large and too broad to be useful anymore).  Here’s some of the methods I’ve used, and maybe you can find one in here that works for you!

1. Daily Home Planner- Of course I’ve used my own program to keep track of my tasks.  Once I got my Pre and become much more mobile, this solution didn’t really work for me any more.  Plus Daily Home Planner is VERY simple, and I needed a lot more functionality in my to do list.

2. Small Franklin Planner- Next I went with a pocket size Franklin Planner with the binder and everything.  The problem here was the pain of changing out the months in the notebook every few months.  The size of the planner also didn’t allow me to add as many tasks as I typically have in a day.  Also, I didn’t like carrying around the notebook, I stopped using this one when I got my Pre. 

3. Palm Pre Basic Functions – The native task list on the pre left a lot to be desired, and I downloaded several different task list apps, none of which I was thrilled with.  I finally went with Pocket Mirror which would just allow me to sync my tasks with my Outlook tasks.  The problem with this method was also that it wasn’t QUITE what I wanted in a to do list (it was definitely the closest thing so far though).  I also tend to flag several emails to follow up on, but they aren’t necessarily to do items that need to be done in a certain time frame (some are though), but when it would add it to the to do list, the task name was always really long and hard to tell exactly what the task is referring to.  I installed a little widget on my computer so that I could see the to do list on the desktop, on my Pre and within my Outlook.  What I didn’t expect though was how much I hated having to sync when I had my computer on and was on the wireless network at my home with my Pre.  Usually when I wanted an updated task list on my Pre I was already out the door.  So with the Outlook email “tasks” cluttering up my task list, and the lack of true synchronization with the “cloud” instead of a physical workstation, this method no longer worked for me.

4. Franklin Covey Balanced Life Planner by Julie Morgenstern – Since I’ve been feeling pretty disorganized again lately, and forgetting tasks, I needed another solution, and FAST.  My sister has been using this system for over a year now, and is loving it.  I purchased the system, and immediately started getting back on track with my daily routines, and the tasks that I need to accomplish each day.  I am able to sit down each night, forward tasks that did not get accomplished, check off things I did, and write down the tasks I need to accomplish tomorrow.  It’s been working great, but there’s a problem… it’s PAPER!  One of the things I hate having, carrying, writing on.  Now with things getting done though it would be hard to get rid of it…. until I found…..

5. Done! by Tiger Country Software - So today I was browsing around my Pre’s App Catalog, and saw “Done!”  I was definitely interested (hey anything with a task list gets my attention no matter what)  Here are the things I like about it.  I can “repeat” tasks on different time frames, so I can put “Change Air Filter” and schedule the task for every 3 months!  I can add “Clean Kitchen” and repeat the task every week so it will automatically appear on my to do list every week on Monday.  It’s got priorities, folders (categories), etc etc etc.  For now I think it’s fantastic!  I’m going to use it for now, and see if I can keep on top of it the same way I have been getting things done with my paper planners!

July 7, 2010

It seems like every time I have a super productive day, a day/night comes along right behind it to try and derail me.  On Monday I had a super productive day!  I woke up before the kids, exercised, read scriptures, said a prayer, checked the backups on all of our client servers for my job, fixed a virus on one of my client’s computers, and brought my daughter to swim class (all before 10:30 AM!).  The day continued on in a similar fashion.  I was able to get the database updated for my church job, cleaned all the bathrooms in the house, played with my kids, and finally did something for a website project for my brother!  I seriously felt on top of the world.  I was ready to take on the entire week.  I stayed on track with my diet, and really felt like I could wake up early and be that productive every day.

This is when the law of “equal and opposite reaction” comes into play.  In the middle of the night my 5 year old comes in and wants to sleep in our bed.  I let her for a little bit, cause I”m tired.  As soon as I get sick of the tossing and turning I send her back to her bed.  Then at 5:30 AM the 1 year old decides to wake up crying.  He very rarely wakes up before about 7:30.  I get him a bottle and try and put him back to sleep.  So now I’m awake and the kids are asleep, so it sounds like a great time to try and workout.  WRONG.  I try and eject the DVD from the DVD Player.  It’s stuck.  So after a little while I finally get it to peek out a little bit.  I grab some tweezers and extract the offending DVD.  Now I put in my workout DVD.  The player freezes up!  At this point I’m thinking to myself that I should just give up, and go to bed.  Clearly the world is working against me.  My kids AND my electronics are all telling me that I’m clearly not going to get anything done today, so I just need to give up now.

I decided to proceed with the rest of my tasks.  I refuse to be derailed today after such a great productive day the day before!  After my husband woke up I was able to go for a run (I’m hoping the DVD player will have had time to think about what it’s done before my appointment with it tomorrow morning.)  It still seemed like all day the forces of nature were working against me.  I ended up working 8 + hours at my real job (the work from home help desk that has variable hours, as I only work when calls actually come in).  I got the kitchen cleaned.  Not as clean as I would have liked to, but I did get the dirtiest parts of the floor mopped.  That has GOT to count for something as at every turn either the dog, the 1 year old or my super “helpful” 5 year old were right there to walk through the freshly mopped areas.

I was still able to get just about everything on my to do list done.  I even did something on my to do list for this coming Saturday! 

Lesson learned: Kick that lame guy Newton in the teeth, and just keep trying even when it seems like the world is working against you and your to do list.  Find creative ways to accomplish your tasks when the world seems to conspire against you!

July 6, 2010

On Friday I had a really great post.  It was to be a vlog.  I’m not going to tell you what the vlog is about, because I’m still hoping to do it this Friday.  Here is what DID happen though.  I had the camera all set up.  I had the props ready to go.  I had spent forever getting the angle on the camera just right.  I was about to hit “record” and the phone on my laptop rang.  Then I was on help desk calls for the next 3 hours!  This was actually very unexpected, since Friday’s are typically slower for me, and especially the Friday before a holiday!  I thought for sure the afternoon would be help desk free!

So what did I end up doing?  By the time I was able to do the vlog, the kids were up and in the way, the sun had set further, making the lighting impossible, and it was time to just scrap the whole thing.   

When do you decide to scrap the whole thing?  When it’s not going to turn out nearly as well as it would have if you could have done it right. 

Some things you can get by with doing a job that’s “good enough”.  When that is the case go with it, and try and cross that thing of your to do list ASAP. 

Lesson learned: Buy a spotlight so I can do my vlog’s at night when the kids are sleeping and the help desk is quiet. 

July 1, 2010

I have two children.  I HAD one child.  When I had one child she was in bed by 7 PM every night.  I had a nice long evening all to myself to blog, watch movies or TV, hang out with my handsome hubby.  Yes she wakes up at ungodly hours of the morning, but I could handle it.  Since I had those wonderful evenings, my early mornings weren’t hard to live with.  I’ve always been somewhat of an early bird myself anyway. 

Cut to 1 year ago when my Son was born.  I should have known something was up when he refused to go down to sleep early.  The kid is a night owl.  Every night it’s the same thing.  I put him down to sleep at 7… he may or may not be quiet for an hour.  Then he starts to scream.  And he is MAD!  So we get him out of his crib, and he’s happy as a clam playing by himself until he finally decides he’s ready for bed, and goes right down (at 11!)  Yes, I know there’s the whole “Crying it Out” thing… but I never really did it with Maddie, and she goes to sleep just fine on her own.  I just don’t have the heart to do it, and my husband REALLY doesn’t have the heart for it.  So this leaves me with a dilemma. 

I have the one kid, who is extremely cranky if she’s up past 8:30, and wakes up before the crack of dawn, and another kid who sleeps in a bit, but refuses to go to sleep in any sort of reasonable hour.  What does this leave me with?  ZERO time to myself.  It’s driving me quietly insane. 

So what am I going to do to solve this little “problem” I have.  First I have reduced Michael’s naps to once a day.  He’s 1 now, and I know that Maddie was even completely done with naps at 2, so I have very little hope that naptime will continue for a whole lot longer.  BOOOO!  When he was taking an afternoon nap, he’d wake up at around 4-5 PM, and then of course be UP forever!  Now that I’ve done that, if I am able to get him in bed by around 6 or 6:30, he will be down for the night.  The problem with this theory now is that it’s summertime.  This week alone we have had something to do every night, which doesn’t lend itself to getting the children home and in bed at what I consider a reasonable time for them to go to sleep.  So here it is 11:30 at night, I was able to get Michael in bed at 10:15 (which has been a feat of strength for this week). 

So lesson for today… when your child doesn’t seem to go by the schedule you think they should, figure out what you can change to fix it.  Obviously for me it’s eliminating the afternoon nap.  Makes for a cranky pants around 4-5, but definitely a happier mom in the long run.

June 30, 2010

Our friends had a 14′ pool just sitting in their basement.  My husband told them that we would gladly take it off of their hands.  Cue to how my routine got throw out the window today….

I started out great, got my backups for work done, took a shower and got Maddie ready for swimming lessons.  We had left the hose in the new pool because it needs a whole lot of water to fill all the way up.  On the way to dropping my husband off at work, he was worrying about the pool saying that he hadn’t flattend out the bottom before starting to fill it up.  I thought how much could that really do?  Boy was I WRONG.

Now Maddie and I are are walking in from her swimming lessons and she wants to go play in her new pool.  I know, the girl can NOT get enough of water.  I am offiically calling it that she will be an Olympic swimmer when she is older.  She runs outside and I notice that the pool is spilling over (even though it’s not full yet).  I go to check out the situation, and see the problem.  The bottom isn’t flat so it isn’t letting the sides of the pool rise like they should.  Dang… Trevor was right (again).  Now I have to try and drain most of what is already in the pool so I can lift it up enough to pull the bottom so it’s more flat.  I’m sure if I drained more it would have gone easier, but nope, I wanted to do it the hard way. 

After about 30-50 minutes of hard labor (dang water is HEAVY), I finally got the bottom mostly flat, and started to fill up the pool once again.  Maddie was happy, I was spent, and the floor didn’t get mopped once again.

I did clean the downstairs bathroom toilet though!  Not the whole bathroom, just the toilet.  That counts, right?

Lesson learned to avoid lengthy and laborious tasks… read the instructions BEFORE you fill the pool.

June 28, 2010

I attended a conference this weekend (EVO Conference), where it became a bit cliche around the phrase “being authentic”.  There was a ton of truth behind it though, even though my friend Angry Julie and I are constantly mocking the phrase now.  It’s not that it’s a bad phrase, or a bad thing to be.  It just seemed like the phrase was EVERYWHERE during the conference.  I realized a few tough things though while I was listening some great people (Brene Brown and Karen Walrond).  Brene said something about a person creating an online persona that she ended up resenting.  I completely agreed with that. 

I initially started this blog as a way to drive traffic to my super duper software called Daily Home Planner back in August of 2007.  What I DIDN’T expect, or plan on, was the many opportunities that ended up coming with this blog, or the popularity that it would gather.  I’m DEFINITELY not complaining about the last 3 years.  They have been fantastic.  I’ve been invited to various full expenses paid brand events, I’ve blogged for other companies like SC Johnson, and I’ve even spoken at a few expos and conferences.  I especially didn’t expect to even appear on TV several times! 

I’ve come to a point though where I’m not FEELING very authentic, and I’m starting to resent my online persona.  I have always tried to incorporate personal stories into my tips and posts.  It’s not that I’m not organized.  I’ve been to some other people’s homes, and I am definitely not super messy.  My husband’s biggest pet peeve is clutter, so our home is definitely tidy, I mean heck, our 600 DVD’s are in alphabetical order for crying out loud!  But do you know what my worst fear is?  What my worst fear has been ever since I STARTED this blog?  That the news would want to do a story on me and they would want to tape all of my cupboards and drawers! 

The problem with me is I have all the tools and systems in place.  It’s the implementation that sometimes falls short.  Definitely not for a lack of planning.  I plan.  I plan A LOT.  The problem lies in the fact that my daily routine typically gets thrown out the window within the first few hours.  Whether it’s by a help desk call that comes in (which is usually the case about 90% of the time), or I end up distracted on the internet by something shiny.  So in a day where I have planned out things for my entire day, and then I end up on help desk calls for my job for 5 of those hours, it doesn’t leave much time for cleaning the bathroom.  It also doesn’t leave time for making my husband that dinner that I planned to make, that I purchased the ingredients for at the beginning of the week, whose ingredients sometimes go bad before I actually get around to making the meal.  (Have I mentioned how much I despise cooking?)

So what’s the point of this post?  First, please don’t think I’m perfect, that my house is perfect, my kids are perfect, and that I use every minute of every day effectively, cause I SOOOOO don’t.  Second, to let you know that the tone of this blog may be changing a little bit.  Mainly because I feel like I’ve exhausted all of the “tips” I have.  I mean really how much more can I get organized through the blog?  You can probably find a post about any topic in the house already.  Just do a little search.  So it may turn into more of a how I struggle to keep it all together every day. 

Another reason for this post is to inform you that I’m thinking about selling the blog/domain/twitter/facebook.  Everything must go!  If you are interested in becoming “The Organized Mom” and want to just start out on a Google page rank of 4 website, with subscribers, traffic, and search engine results already built in, then contact me at sarah@organizedmom.net  Like I mentioned previously… I am feeling resentful of “The Organized Mom”.  While organization is important to me, it’s not what I’m PASSIONATE about.  I beat my head against the desk every day trying to come up with posts for this site.  My passion is in technology.  My passion and what makes me irresistible (TM @lizstrauss) is explaining technology to and helping to fix technology for non-techie women.  I LOVE helping women achieve their goals, using the technical tools that are at their disposal.  I can whip out a tech4mommies.com post with the snap of a finger.  I LOVE writing on that blog, and one of the things I love about it is that technology is constantly changing.  There is ALWAYS something new for me to talk about. 

So, what do you think? 

This is me…authentic. 

(phew!  This was probably the easiest Organized Mom post I’ve written in a while!)

June 25, 2010

Today I’m headed up to EVO conference in Park City, UT.  It should be so much fun, so I’m going to keep this post brief and to the point.  My BlogHer sponsor KitchenMonki.comsent me 12 bags.  I decided that I wanted to fill the bags with stuff from my favoritest brands.  I contacted them, and they were MORE than generous to me. 

First, obviously is the bag.  I really love their monki logo, and the bag is sturdy and will be able to hold a lot.  It already can hold my 16″ laptop!

Next we have an iGo Power station (you can check out my review of the larger version on my tech blog)

Then I’ve got a coffee mug and USB drive from Bosch Appliances!  Have you checked out the Tassimo?

Moving on to the next brand Don Aslett’s Cleaning Store.  You should already know how much I pink puffy heart Don Aslett!  The awesome people at the Cleaning Store gave me the book “How to Handle 1,000 Things At Once“, a Microfiber cleaning cloth and of course the catalog so you can order all of his fantastic cleaning products!  One of the things I love the most about the Don Aslett products is that they work amazingly well, and are SOOOOOOOOO cheap!  (although when I end up spending about $100 at the store cause I just have to have EVERYTHING it doesn’t feel as cheap anymore, but really I get a lot for it)

Dell was also extremely generous to me.  They gave me some OPI Nail Polish and lotion.  Now what is a computer company giving me nail polish for, you ask??  Well, did you know that you can buy a laptop or netbook with an OPI design that matches an OPI color!  You can match your laptop to your nails!  Talk about stylin!  They gave me their latest catalogs for their main consumer lines and one for the Alienware line.  They also gave me a Dell branded Poken. 

Microsoft Hohm gave me a 1 GB branded USB key. 

Last but most certainly not least the wonderful lady behind the Healthy Meals for Healthy Kids blog, Amy (AKA My sister), gave me her Healthy Habits Plate to put in each bag. 

So, the bottom line?  You WANT this bag!  There are only 12 though, so hopefully you can find me at the EVO Conference and request a bag, and all of these items can be YOURS!  Or you can just go to their websites and buy their products… same thing, right?

June 24, 2010

Cleaning doesn’t have to be a chore, it can be quick and easy if done regularly. A clean bathroom is only 6 minutes away if you use these easy to follow steps!

Step One – Put away anything that is left out on the counter, and move the things that remain on the counter so you can clean underneath them.

Step Two – Spray everything down. Start with the shower using a cleaner designed to cut out soap scum like Scrubbing Bubbles® Mega Shower Foamer. Then move on to the counters and sink with an all purpose cleaner like Fantastik, do not start wiping yet! Let the products do the scrubbing for you by releasing the dirt underneath. Now spray the outsides of the toilet with an antibacterial cleanser like the Antibacterial Scrubbing Bubbles® Bathroom Cleaner.

Step Three – Clean the toilet bowl. Wipe the inside with a toilet bowl cleaner and brush like the Fresh Brush® from Scrubbing Bubbles. Leave the brush in the bowl while you go onto step four if there are some stains you will need to scrub out. When you are done with step four finish off the bowl by scrubbing out the stains with a pumice stone.

Step Four – Wipe all of the sprayed surfaces. Again start in the shower and wipe and wash away all of the cleaner, then move onto the counters and sink, and finally wipe the outside surfaces of the toilet.

Step Five – Wipe the mirror with a Windex Glass Wipe.

Step Six – Sweep and mop the floor at the same time with a microfiber cleaning cloth attached to your mop.

Take out the trash as you walk out of the room and you are done! Doing this process once a week will guarantee you always have a spotless bathroom, and will keep the cleaning time down since there will be no buildup to scrub!