Trying to Organize for the Winter

This week has been a flurry of planning here at my house. I several things this weekend, some good-some not so good:


1: Our house is way out of control!


There is too much clutter and too much stuff. Paper and unread mail is taking a big chunk out of our visual space.

I am slowly working towards getting this under control. I sat down with a large garbage bag and did a little purge. However, I am going to have to go back through and get serious. We moved to a bigger house last year and slowly all surfaces and crevices are being filled. I realize I tend to save things for "just in case".

That has to stop.



2. Our budget is way out of control.


Actually, I realized that we have no budget that we are working from.

It is basically if we want/need it, I buy it. Do I need to tell you what that does to any possible money for savings? So starting this week I have set up a budget on Excel. It is a preliminary one and I'm sure I will be tweaking it as time goes along.


Would you be shocked to know that this a totally new concept for me? My parents never discussed anything related to money, so I am feeling my way along on this. I am going to make sure my boys are taught to budget. The oldest one is out on his own and not doing to well at the budgeting, so I need to teach the two youngest better obviously.

Two excellent home management blogs that I find myself going back to time and time again are
Small Notebook and Simple Mom. You will love these sights, I promise. I am using tips and charts from both to get my house under control finally.


3. Time Management
I tend to take on a lot of projects, then get overwhelmed and unable to accomplish any of them.


I am going to cut down on a lot of the busyness that I have going on so that I can get the house in shape. Part of the worksheets on Simple Mom is a daily docket and a chore list. I love these sheets!!! I made copies (she does give permission for personal use) and plan to start using them tomorrow. It is really cool to have a list like this already made up since I never remember a lot of this...It definitely does wonders when all you have to do is cross something off and go to the next step without getting bogged down in actually making list.