When I worked outside the home, I was very organized, efficient and dare I say, hugely successful…

For today’s Simply Sunday post I wanted to share with you my journey to create a Home Management Notebook. I was first introduced to this concept by simplemom, who you know is one of my favorite bloggers.

What intrigued me about this idea comes from my frustration, which I have shared with you before, about not being organized at home. This Home Management Notebook is like a stay at home mom’s day planner. I had one when I was in the work force and performed wonderfully with it, so why not re-apply it to home.

The basic premise is to plan your days and have all relevant information for running the house in one location. I am in the process of creating mine and will fill you in next week on all the forms I found useful for mine.

One of my favorite forms from simplemom is her Daily Docket! You can download a copy HERE. I love that it has a to-do list along with an hourly calendar. It reminds you to drink your water and plan dinner. It just seems to be the perfect form for me. She uses a Master Checklist to help determine her to-do list for the day. She then picks 3 items as the MIT (most important items) for the day. These are the 3 MUST DO items!!

I cannot wait to set up my notebook for February and incorporate her great forms along with the minimum maintenance ideas as well. I have so many ideas I have to watch out and not OVERDO the notebook. Next week I will share my notebook along with my favorite calendar, meal planning, cleaning, and budget forms… so stay tuned!

In the meantime, check out simplemom’s Home Management Notebook and associated posts to give you some ideas.

Do you have a home management notebook? What do you keep in it??

Happy Sunday!

I am the first one to admit I am not organized when it comes to figuring out how to keep up with all the house work OR any stay at home mom responsibilities. How can this be when I was a very successful engineer with a dayplanner filled with TO-DO lists neatly checked off or forwarded to the next day. I had notes of phone calls and conversations and could chronicle everything that needed to be done at any given time/day. Why aren’t things like that at home? WHY CAN’T I GET MOTIVATED TO DO THAT AT HOME??

Why am I living in CHAOS-(Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome) says the FlyLady!

I will talk more next week about the idea of a Home Management Notebook and what that entails, but I figured out what part of the struggle is – I DO NOT KNOW WHAT TO DO! How can I plan when I am not sure what things need to be done and when. That was why I was SOOO happy when I found Home Sanctuary’s post about the this very same thing! Was she reading my mind?

She talks about what she calls MINIMUM MAINTENANCE.

Minimum Maintenance in a nutshell is this: acknowledging that every day a minimum amount of effort will go into that day to make it work.

So I guess leaving the laundry until it is overflowing all over the house is NOT a good idea. Here are a few highlights of how to get started on minimum maintenance:

• Spend 5 minutes per room, picking up and straightening
• Don’t let the needs of others control your life – phone, TV, etc
• Make the dinner decision early.
• Start from the outside in – counters and tables before delving into re-organizing a drawer
• Learn to pick up before the mess becomes monstrous – this sentiment is echoed by simplemom in the Best Kept Secret to a Clean Home
• Make the picking-up process a habit

OK, I follow along with those ideas, but what does that look like for me – everyday? How do I schedule that in and make sure I do it? Rachel at Home Sanctuary followed up her Mimimum Maintenance with a Real World Housekeeping Schedule – now this is something I can work with!

I also love FlyLady’s Beginner’s Baby Steps – she believes you should ALWAYS go to bed with a clean sink so your morning is greeted with a clean “smiling” sink to start your day. I have to agree. When ever I come down to a clean kitchen sink, I feel more motivated to keep groovin’. Her simple steps do not require you CHANGE everything overnight. You start by just cleaning your sink. She build up habits over a 31 day baby step cycle.

I am soo excited to combine all of these things into a schedule for my home starting next week. I will be doing a rough Real World Housekeeping schedule as well as beginning the FlyLady baby steps.

SO, relax – grab a cup of coffee and check out these ideas. What helps you stay on top of things? Do you have a schedule or do you wing it? Are you living in CHAOS too??

SHARE YOUR tips and tricks with us!

I have so many things I want to share with you all. Since I have begun blogging, I have found so many awesome posts about organization, simplifying life and more. I keep trying to write posts to share these with you and link to these places, but I get wrapped up in all the deals and posting and my poor family I have been neglecting – YES I said it, I have been neglecting my family.

What I hope to do with this new series – SIMPLY SUNDAY – is to find the best of the best and post or link to other bloggers who share awesome tips on organizing and simplifying. As my little log above notes – Happiness is most definitely the place between too much and too little. Unfortunately, I am in a state of way too much – clutter, laundry, unused stuff – so as I do this, I will also be dedicating Sunday to my own personal simpliying & organizing. This means you will see a decline in postings on Sundays. I need a day of rest and need to get caught up in my own journey of simplification.

I hope you enjoy this series as I introduce you to some bloggers you may have seen before and some new ones too.

To kick us off quickly I had subscribed to this blog called Econobusters. I honestly cannot remember how I found them, but they just started a series – 31 Days of Organization. Now, I have not been able to follow all the tips day by day (because I am not prioritizing properly – LOL), but one of the posts in this series shows an incredible HOMEMADE Mail Sorter by bright and blithe.

photo by brite and blythe

Now I do not know that I can actually make this, but I LOVE the idea of it. There are pockets for:

• ACTION REQUIRED
• TO BE PAID
• TO BE FILED
• TO BE SORTED

I do not know about you, but my desk is filled with piles, as is my kitchen table, when the mail comes. This system not only reminds you what need to be done, it is adorable! Maybe I will get crafty. CHECK IT OUT!