Tips to declutter your kitchen

Many complain to me about the never-ending load of dishes in the sink, on the counter, in the fridge- waiting to be emptied and washed.

Three simple tips to follow to start over from scratch, and to prevent the cluttering of dishes:

• Wash all the dishes in your sink or on your counter tops at three different times of the day: the morning after kids drop off, consisting of breakfast dishes and dinner prep dishes.
• Mid-afternoon time- around 2 or 3, from any pile-up of cups, plates, sippy-cups or the like
• At night at around 8 p.m., or after your kids are in bed- but not too late, consisting of dinner dishes and any late-night snack cups or plates that may have piled up.
  

DO NOT go to sleep with any dishes needing to be washed. The idea is that at the end of the day, it will be like the day did not happen at all- with a clean sink, and clear counter-tops.

Good Luck. let me know how it goes!

Overwelmed by clutter?

Most of us can not dedicate hours upon hours of time towards organizing. Here is a simple method to get the job done:

• Pick one area or room of your house for one week. Tell yourself- "from Sunday to Sunday, I will be organizing the playroom
• Start your day with the intention of spending two 30 minute slots in that specific room. no more, no less.
• Use my method of bringing a basket into that room that will be used to throw anything that does not belong in that room
• Remember, this is not "cleaning" it is organizing, putting things where they truly belong
• Bring a large garbage can or bag into the room with you. YOU know there is for sure garbage in it.

Good Luck!!

Cleaning from one room to the other

Tired of the mess that never gets completely cleaned up?

Try this:

• Take an empty laundry basket and get started in the largest room of the house.
• Throw anything that does not belong in that room in the basket.
• Move to the next room and do an exchange. Take stuff from the basket and put it in the room if it belongs there and put items in the basket from that room that do not belong there.
• Keep going like this around the house, you will find that everything DOES have a place.

Good Luck!!

Kitchen Dishes Challange

Who is up for a challenge? Try this tomorrow

• As soon as you pop something in the oven, wash the dishes used to prepare it. Towel dry said dishes and put them away.
  
• Do not start anything else until that is done
• When you are done for the day, you will have little to clean-up
  

Pen/Pencil/Marker Storage

An easy way to organize pens, markers, scissors and other assorted arts n crafts materials is by putting them in separate cups in one section of your playroom/ bookshelf

This enables you to:

• Easily spot what is needed
• Keeps things organized and clean
• Teaches children that everything has a place. Even a pencil!

Try it, let me know how it goes!

You have your menu, now what?

The following post is what I personally am doing as far as when I am planning on cooking all the food:

Tuesday Morning while the kids are napping

Make a double batch of fish patties, potato kugel, berry oatmeal kugel

Tuesday afternoon with my 4 and 2 year old- Make trifle

Tuesday evening after kids are in bed:

Stuffed cabbage, corn salad, trifle salad, egg salad, pumpkin cake

Wednesday Morning while kids are napping: Chicken, Soup, dressings for other last minute salads

By splitting up the menu in four parts, you are allowing yourself to have structure thru the next few days. This gives you a decent amount of breathing space in between blocks of cooking time.

Stressful cranky moms make for cranky children. Follow my plan with YOUR menu, and you will see how stress-free YomTov prep can be!

Tips on unpacking moving boxes

Posting this for a friend who is moving:

Moving can be a very exciting time! It can also be a stressful time, as unpacking and sorting moving boxes can be a tedious job.

An important point to remember is that labeling of boxes is a crucial part of successful packing/unpacking.

By labeling boxes with the room that they belong in, you are saving yourself major time.

Store all the boxes in the appropriate rooms and pick one room a week to focus on.

Before you know it , you will be done!!!

What an organized week looks like

The following is a sample plan of organization/cleaning and scheduling for one week:

Sunday

• Do the laundry
• Pick two rooms of the house and completely clean them

Monday

• Vacuum
• Put away any laundry that wasn't put away on Sunday
• Pick another 1-2 rooms and completely clean them

Tuesday

• Pick an area of the house that is a cluttered mess, and attempt to find places for whatever the clutter is made of. i.e- toys, important papers, garbage, accessories... Any free time today will be spent on just this area

Wednesday

• Mop any floors that need mopping
• Pick two appliances and thoroughly clean them

Thursday

• Come up with a menu for shabbos and the coming week
• Do a complete shopping
• Pick two shabbos items to make and cook/bake them
  

Friday

• Shabbos cooking
• rooms should be pretty clean, do a last sweep thru of them
  

Childrens Clothing Organization

We all know that young children are incapable of being fully organized when it comes to their clothing

Follow these easy steps in order to provide a means with which to raise your children with the organizational skills they need for a lifetime!

• Get a bunch of bins or empty shoe boxes
• Cut them down to size if they are too big to fit in dresser drawers
• Designate each one for a different category of clothing- specifically the smaller pieces that get crumbled and lost i.e- underwear, socks, undershirts, tights...
• Show your children that each category has its own place, and tell them that you expect them to be clean, organized and in-control of their own clothing.

Let me know how it goes!!

The Never Ending Pile of Winter Accessories

For us on the East Coast, winter means 10 degree mornings and lots of snow, sleet and hail.

It also means tons of gloves, scarves, mittens and boots!

For those with young children, getting bins for each child will:

• Keep all items organized, leading to no lost mittens etc.
• Allow for headache-free mornings because all items will be ready for grabbing and wearing

Now is the time to get organized, before the real cold sets in.
Go to your local target or walmart and grab decent size bins for every member of the family.

If your house allows it, an actual piece of furniture with room for bins can be purchased.

If possible, put their names on the front, or have them color a picture and glue it on their bin. Let your children know that you expect for no lost winter accessories this winter!

Good Luck!

Let me know how it goes!