Mandi Ehman's Blog, page 124

Day 22: Office or Craft Area {Spring Cleaning Made Easy}

This month we’re spring cleaning the easy way with our Spring Cleaning Made Easy series! The goal is to get the whole house clean — one mini task at a time — without having to set aside a whole week, or even a whole day, to clean.

Today’s task will probably look different for everybody, depending on whether you have a dedicated office or not, a lot of paper files or mostly electronic records or a craft area full of scraps and baubles. If you have both an office and a dedicated craft space, pick one area for today and save the other for your “choose your own task” days at the end of the month!

source: See-Ming Lee

For either of these tasks, the basic process is the same: start by emptying and decluttering drawers, etc. Then organize the items as you put them back. We’ve actually talked quite a bit about both of these areas in the past, though, so rather than try to fit it all into this post, I’ll leave you with some links so you can pick and choose the ones that match whatever you’ll be working on today!

Home Office

Get Organized with a DIY Memo Board Center


How to Increase Home Office Storage


Creating a File System That Works

Digital Life

Spring Cleaning Your Computer: Cleaning Your Computer and Dealing with Data


3 Ways to Declutter Your Digital Life

Craft Supplies

Organizing Children’s Craft Supplies


10 Containers to Reuse or Recycle for Craft Supplies

 

Track your progress this month with the Spring Cleaning Made Easy checklist, which comes in two versions — one with dates to coincide with the live series and one with generic labels so you can do it on your own at another time. Click here to download or print your copy!

Tomorrow we’ll be working on books, CDs and DVDs!

What task did you choose for today?

Mandi Ehman is the founder and publisher behind Life Your Way and the co-author of All in Good Time, as well as a wife and the homeschooling mom to four beautiful girls. She lives with her family on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia and loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.

Day 22: Office or Craft Area {Spring Cleaning Made Easy} is a post from Life Your Way

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5 Pregnancy & Baby eBooks for Just $7.40! {BundleoftheWeek.com}

Pregnancy, childbirth and welcoming a new baby can be overwhelming, but this week’s bundle is a collection of resources to help you make informed decisions about each. With a bent toward natural living, this collection includes real food recipes for pregnancy and beyond, plus tips for breastfeeding, natural birth and simple living with a baby. This week only, get all 5 ebooks for just $7.40 (a savings of more than 80%)!

With your purchase, you’ll get all five of the following ebooks:

Healthy Pregnancy Super Foods by Kate Tietje
Fearless Birth by Kristen Burgess
Unbound Birth by Jennifer Yarbrough
The Minimalist Mom’s Guide to Baby’s First Year by Rachel Jonat
Breast to Bib by Kate Tietje

Get yours today!

Even if you’re not interested in this week’s bundle, be sure to sign up for the BundleoftheWeek.com weekly newsletter so you can be the first to know about the newest bundle:

5 Pregnancy & Baby eBooks for Just $7.40! {BundleoftheWeek.com} is a post from Life Your Way

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Day 21: Catch Up or Rest! {Spring Cleaning Made Easy}

For the next month, we’ll be spring cleaning the easy way with our Spring Cleaning Made Easy series! The goal is to get the whole house clean — one mini task at a time — without having to set aside a whole week, or even a whole day, to clean.

Last week we tackled the kids’ rooms, and next week we’ll finish making our way through the family room, office, etc. But today? Today is your day to either catch up on anything you didn’t have time to finish last week or to rest and enjoy a day off from spring cleaning!

sourcestorebukkebruse

Here’s what we worked on last week. If you didn’t have a chance to finish one of these, take a little bit of time today to catch up. Otherwise, enjoy your day off!

Day 15: Kids’ Room Bedding


Day 16: Kids’ Clothing 


Day 17 & 18: Kids’ Toys


Day 19: Finish Cleaning the Kids’ Rooms


Day 20: Coat Closet & Foyer

Track your progress this month with the Spring Cleaning Made Easy checklist, which comes in two versions — one with dates to coincide with the live series and one with generic labels so you can do it on your own at another time. Click here to download or print your copy!

Tomorrow we’ll be working on our office or craft areas!

Are you using today to catch up on last week’s tasks or are you enjoying a day off?

Mandi Ehman is the founder and publisher behind Life Your Way and the co-author of All in Good Time, as well as a wife and the homeschooling mom to four beautiful girls. She lives with her family on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia and loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.

Day 21: Catch Up or Rest! {Spring Cleaning Made Easy} is a post from Life Your Way

© 2010-2013 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved - This feed is provided for the convenience of Home Your Way subscribers. Any reproduction of the content within this feed is strictly prohibited. If you are reading this content elsewhere, please send an email to contact@yourway.net to let us know. Thanks.

Day 20: Coat Closet & Foyer {Spring Cleaning Made Easy}

This month we’re spring cleaning the easy way with our Spring Cleaning Made Easy series! The goal is to get the whole house clean — one mini task at a time — without having to set aside a whole week, or even a whole day, to clean.

One of my favorite parts about welcoming spring is being able to pack away all the extra stuff that comes with winter. At this point, I’m tired of blankets on the couch, a space heater in the bedroom, a front closet packed full of winter clothes and random gloves and scarves that seem to end up spread across the house! Cleaning the front closet is one of my favorite tasks because it doesn’t take a lot of time and it feels so much better once its done!

source: jdog90

We have a fairly large front closet where all of our coats, shoes, bags, seasonal gear get stored, so my method for cleaning out the front closet is to pull everything out and spread it across the foyer and then begin putting things back in order of importance.

Shoes


With 6 people in our family, shoes can quickly overrun the closet, so we limit the girls to 3-4 pairs each (for spring/summer: a nice pair of sandals, a pair of casual flats and 2 pairs of flip flops) — which is still a lot of shoes — and I keep mine in my bedroom wardrobe. Right now we’ve got a mixture of spring and winter shoes in the closet, so my first order of business is to pack up the winter shoes.

If you don’t have a big closet, you could use a nice shoe rack, a bench with built-in storage or cube-shaped baskets to store these things in your foyer. Shoes and coats don’t necessarily have to be hidden away as long as they’re kept neat and everything has a place.

Snow Clothes


We’re thankfully ready to pack up snow clothes as well, so the next step is to wash the jackets and snow pants (and any scarves and gloves that need it) and then pack those away in a plastic bin. We actually keep a bin of summer gear  and a bin of winter gear in our closet all year long, but I’ll move the summer gear to the top so it’s easier to get to our towels, swim gear, etc.

Bags/Purses


One of the areas where I struggle with minimalism is with bags and purses. I love cute bags, and although I have a lot fewer bags than I have in the past, I find that I still need to declutter those when I clean out the closet (especially since my mom is generous with her hand-me-downs!). We keep a variety of tote bags on the shelf in our closet to use for trips to the library, taking snacks to the park, etc., but they tend to get messy over time, so it’s good to reorganize them.

Miscellanea


The thing about the front closet is it becomes home to a variety of random items over time — random toys, items that need to be returned, sweatshirts that never make it to the laundry room. Now is a good time to find permanent homes for all of those things.

Although I’ve accepted that the closet will have to be cleaned out every few months, one way we keep it neater longer is by dealing with the stuff we bring in from the car as soon as we get home. I empty the trash and random junk from my purse, have the girls empty their backpacks and put their shoes away, and we work together to find homes for anything else we brought it. We’re not 100% consistent about doing this, especially after a long day, but we try to make it a priority because it doesn’t get easier to go back to it the longer you wait, and once it’s done, it’s done!

Track your progress this month with the Spring Cleaning Made Easy checklist, which comes in two versions — one with dates to coincide with the live series and one with generic labels so you can do it on your own at another time. Click here to download or print your copy!

Tomorrow’s a rest or catch up day — enjoy your Sunday!

How big is your front closet? What’s the most random thing you found in your closet?

Mandi Ehman is the founder and publisher behind Life Your Way and the co-author of All in Good Time, as well as a wife and the homeschooling mom to four beautiful girls. She lives with her family on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia and loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.

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Day 20: Coat Closet & Foyer {Spring Cleaning Made Easy} is a post from Life Your Way

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Weekend Reading: April 6, 2013

source: mandiehman on Instagram

I’m not exactly enjoying pregnancy at this point, but I am so, so thankful to be 10 weeks pregnant and still pregnant, so I’m trying not to take it for granted, even through my whining and misery! I am really looking forward to the end of nausea and the return of my energy, because I have so many blog ideas and no get-up-and-go to make them happen. It’s just a season, though, right?

We’re also busy winding down the Classical Conversations year in our homeschool (although we will continue to school year round, a schedule that gives us a lot of flexibility!), and preparing for a big trip to Florida to spend time with my parents and attend the Disney Social Media Moms conference. And my husband’s gotten his version of the spring cleaning itch — working on house projects left and right!

With all of this planning for the summer, it seems crazy to me that May is just around the corner — didn’t the year just start?!

Our weekly newsletter is currently on hold because of the aformentioned first trimester-itis, but be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss future issues!

Here are some of my favorite posts from this week. As always, check out what I’m reading to see the other posts that make me stop and think. You’ll find new posts all week long!

Family {In the Trenches}

To Parents of Small Children: Let Me Be the One Who Says It Out Loud | The Actual Pastor


10 Motherhood Secrets | Finding Joy


Parenting Your Great-Grandmother Would Recognize | Short Fat Dictator

Faith {A Perspective Based on Love}

What If Jesus Meant All That Stuff? | Esquire


Same-Sex Marriage and How Offended Christians Should Be | Pastor James Hein’s Blog

Money

| Simple Mom


On Making Do | The Finer Things in Life

Have a great weekend!

Mandi Ehman is the founder and publisher behind Life Your Way and the co-author of All in Good Time, as well as a wife and the homeschooling mom to four beautiful girls. She lives with her family on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia and loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.

Weekend Reading: April 6, 2013 is a post from Life Your Way

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CommentsSo happy for you! Not that you're feeling sick, but that all is ... by MomForHimCongratulations on reaching 10 weeks! We, too, are finishing up ... by Sarah Mueller

Why You Don’t Need Another Productivity Tool to Manage Your Time

The following post is from Prerna of The Mom Writes :

source: morguefile

That’s right.

You don’t need that smart looking planner.

Or that shiny calendar.

Or even that time management app for your new smartphone or tablet.

You don’t need another tool to make you more productive. This is coming from someone who just wrote a whole eBook on productivity. I know.

So, I hear you say, Prerna what do I need? How can I overcome this overwhelm that threatens to engulf my life and leaves me feeling totally helpless? How can I avoid missing another appointment? How can I stop forgetting when I’m supposed to be volunteering at the preschool?

Here’s my answer:

1. You need to take action.

All the time management tools in the world are a waste if you don’t take action. Yes, even the free ones.

Whether it is a calendar, a planner, a timer, a notebook, it is a BIG fat waste of your money or energy, if you aren’t going to use it and act on it.

 2. You need to know where you’re headed.

What are your time management goals? Do you just want to streamline your days? Then you don’t need that new calendar? You need a routine or a ritual.

Knowing where you’re headed on the time management travel track is important so that you can choose wisely and not drown in productivity tools that actually will kill your productivity even more.

 3. You need to use what you have.

Nearly all of us already have the tools we need to get started in order to be more productive. Seriously, how many of us don’t have a calendar? Or a notebook to jot down to-dos? Yeah, I thought so, too. We all have the tools we need, we just need to use them. I know, I am repeating myself but it is worth it.

 4. You need to commit to a habit.

Finally, we need to commit to a habit. Whether it is waking up earlier than usual or tracking our time, we need to commit to it and see it through so that it can make a difference. To say, “I tracked my time, but it made no difference” makes little sense to me unless I know for how long did you track your time. A day, a week, a month, three months? Commit to a time management habit to really decide whether it works for you or not.

So, now that you know you don’t need another time management tool, what will YOU be doing to improve your productivity?

Prerna Malik is a mom, a wife, a writer and woman who believes in being postively productive, parenting with love and creating a home that invites you to put your feet up and relax. Find her sharing her journey and experiences with productivity and parenting at The Mom Writes.

Why You Don’t Need Another Productivity Tool to Manage Your Time is a post from Life Your Way

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Day 19: Finish Cleaning the Kids’ Rooms {Spring Cleaning Made Easy}

This month we’re spring cleaning the easy way with our Spring Cleaning Made Easy series! The goal is to get the whole house clean — one mini task at a time — without having to set aside a whole week, or even a whole day, to clean.

If you’ve survived the spring clothes rotation and the great clean up, we’re almost done with the kids bedrooms! Today we’re going to finish deep cleaning all the hidden corners.

source: Clarkston SCAMP

Today is another great chance to open the windows for a couple hours while you clean to bring in the fresh air!





Then, we’re going to follow the same method we used when doing the master and guest bedrooms:

Grab a duster or vacuum cleaner and clean off the fan blades (and I still didn’t remember to have you do this before we did the bedding — oops!).


Using your duster or vacuum, clean the corners between the walls and ceilings.


Dust window frames and clean blinds. Hang curtains outside or tumble them in the dryer to get rid of any dust in them.


Next, wash the windows and any mirrors.


Dust any shelves and knick knacks as well as picture frames.


Clean the baseboards and behind any furniture.


Finally, vacuum and steam clean or sweep and mop.

And you’re done!

Track your progress this month with the Spring Cleaning Made Easy checklist, which comes in two versions — one with dates to coincide with the live series and one with generic labels so you can do it on your own at another time. Click here to download or print your copy!

Tomorrow we’re hitting the foyer and coat closet — time to pack away the winter gear (at least for most of us!).

How long will your children’s rooms stay clean after all of your hard work this week?

Mandi Ehman is the founder and publisher behind Life Your Way and the co-author of All in Good Time, as well as a wife and the homeschooling mom to four beautiful girls. She lives with her family on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia and loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.

Day 19: Finish Cleaning the Kids’ Rooms {Spring Cleaning Made Easy} is a post from Life Your Way

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Three Steps to Wanting Less

The following post is from Rachel of The Minimalist Mom:

source: Wonderlane

I grew up wanting a lot more than I had.

Six kids + one parent = a lot of hand-me-downs.

I thought my life would be so much better if I just had the right clothing, jeans with a Guess triangle symbol on the back pocket and things, a Sony Discman.

The cliche is true. If only my thirteen year-old self knew what thirty-five year-old now does: things can’t make you happy.

When I decided to embrace minimalism I had to deal with how I tied things to social status. I also had to get over thinking that buying something, or owning something, would make my life different.

I make my life better. Not stuff.

It may seem like getting rid of your stuff is the hard part to embracing minimalism. For some people it will be. For others, living with less will only be accomplished once they want less.

How do you want less? Here are three steps:

Unsubscribe and avoid.

Did you ever notice how your kitchen looks that much older and dingier after flipping through a home decor magazine?

Skip reading the magazines full of advertisements promising a happier life from stuff. Only step foot in a store if you have a list of what you need to buy. Do not shop when tired, hungry, stressed out or bored. Stop browsing online and in real life. Unsubscribe from retailers newsletters, catalogs and emails.

Put up barriers.

Keep a list and wait 30 days before you buy something. Budget.

Know what you can spend and stick to it. Try having a no-buy day each week where you leave your wallet at home. Only have enough cash on you for what you need. You’ll want that impulse purchase a lot less when you have to go home to get your credit card to pay for it.

Shift your focus.

Enjoy what’s free in your life.

Fresh air, your family, phone calls on Skype, reading a book from the library. Remember that a satisfied and content life does not hinge on a sweater or an iPod. Build your days around the people and activities that you can spend love and energy – not money – on. When you find your happiness in strong relationships, and rewarding hobbies and work, it’s easy to want less stuff.

Wanting less is a process and it won’t come overnight. Start taking small steps in your life to remove advertising from your day, spend less time in stores and enjoy the many free things in your life.

Slowly you will find that buying and spending no longer has the allure it once did. And your life will be all the richer for it.

Are you often tempted by new, bigger and better? How do you quell wanting things that will not bring you happiness?

Rachel Jonat is a former world medalist rower turned marketing professional turned SAHM/writer. At The Minimalist Mom, Rachel writes about living a rich life with less stuff. Currently living on a windswept island in the middle of the Irish Sea, Rachel owns two pairs of jeans, lives without a car and is attempting to become a tea drinker.

 

Three Steps to Wanting Less is a post from Life Your Way

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3 Ways to Declutter Your Digital Life

The following post is from Michelle of Mommy Misadventures :

source: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Springtime has always been a symbolic of rebirth and new beginnings. Just as a physical spring cleaning can help you get focused and enthusiastic about the new start spring brings with it, so can a good digital decluttering.

Here are three quick and easy tips to help clear the clutter that may be clogging up your digital life.

Unsubscribe from unwanted mailing list.

Just like physical junk mail, messages from unwanted mailing list can really clutter up your inbox. If you’re finding yourself overwhelmed with messages from mailing lists that you don’t read, take the opportunity to go through and unsubscribe from them. All email lists are required to have an unsubscribe link; it is usually at the bottom of the message.

source: Michelle Mista

If you have Gmail, you can sometimes unsubscribe directly from the message. (This does not work for all mailing lists. It does work with Yahoo Groups and other mailing lists that have a similar type of unsubscribe list.) Open the mailing list message and click the “Show Details” arrow. From here, you can choose the “Unsubscribe from mailing list” option.

Clean up your apps.

Just like on your computer, unwanted programs take up extra room on your tablet or smartphone’s storage. Cleaning out your unwanted apps can help free up extra room and help your device run smoother.

To uninstall apps on your iOS device (iPhone/iPad), long press the icon of the app you want to remove until it wobbles and then touch the “X” to uninstall it.

For Android based devices, go to your Apps tab and long press the icon until the “Uninstall” option appears. Then drag the application to the Uninstall option to remove it.

Review your social networks and privacy settings.

Spring cleaning is a good time to review your general digital presence as well as your individual social networks, like Facebook and Linked In.

source: Michelle Mista

In addition to checking who is on your Friends list (because let’s face it: Do you reallywant your kinda-sorta frenemy from junior high school reading about your family’s daily life?), check your Privacy Settings to ensure that your page is only showing to the people you choose to show it to. To check your Facebook Settings, click on the gear icon in the upper right hand corner and choose “Privacy Settings.”

What are your digital clutter hotspots?

Michelle Mista is an IT professional, writer and blogger with a love for all kinds of technology. She writes about tech tips and trends for work at home professionals on her portfolio blog and muses about motherhood at Mommy Misadventures. She is on the constant quest to balance life, work and geekery.

3 Ways to Declutter Your Digital Life is a post from Life Your Way

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Giveaway: Good Cook Touch Prize Pack (2 Winners!)

I’m excited to share with you that I’m working with Good Cook, a leading kitchenware brand, to bring you all kinds of fun kitchen tips, giveaways and contests in the coming months:

We’ll have a fun non-stick knife giveaway next week, and the week after that we’ll be participating in the Good Cook Touch Treasure Hunt, where you’ll have the chance to search participating sites for hidden Touch icons for a chance to win one of several sweet prize packages!

Today, the countdown is on for the Treasure Hunt, and I’ve got a couple little gifts to give away as well. Be sure to come back on April 16th for more details, though, because you won’t want to miss the big contest.

Enter to Win

This week, Good Cook is giving TWO lucky Life Your Way readers a Good Cook Touch Prize Pack each, including a Touch flex turner and a Touch slotted spoon!

We’ll also send an email reminder when the Good Cook Touch Treasure Hunt launches to everyone who enters this week’s giveaway!

To enter, fill out the form below:

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This giveaway ends at 11:59 p.m. ET on Monday, 4/8. The winner will be selected randomly and notified by email, and this post will be updated with their name as well. Open to U.S. residents 18 years old and above.

Giveaway: Good Cook Touch Prize Pack (2 Winners!) is a post from Life Your Way

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