Our daughter was married last month, and we had some pictures made. The ceremony was beautiful, and I am so blessed with my family.
Children are a heritage. Here we are with my Mom on the far right.
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Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool
This is the last day we will be working in the kitchen this month. Today I want you to clean out the refrigerator or microwave. You can pick which one needs the most attention. Start with the top shelf in your refrigerator and work your way down. Set the timer for 15 minutes. If you don’t get finished, you can go back to it later. I try to clean my refrigerator out once a week when I am making my grocery list. This keeps the job manageable. It also ensures that I am not growing science experiments in my refrigerator.
Have a great week-end!
If you have any questions or tips, please email me. I enjoy hearing from my readers.
Zone Mission: Clean out your refrigerator or microwave
Routines:
Home:
- Make Your Bed (Do this as soon as you get up.)
- Get Dressed Down to Your Shoes
- Swish and Swipe
- Start Your Laundry
- Decide on Dinner
- Check Your Calendar
- Start the Day off with a Shiny Sink. Don’t leave the breakfast dishes sitting.
School:
- Schedule a field trip for this winter. If you can’t think of one, do some research. See what’s going on close to you.
Afternoon Routine:
- Eat Lunch
- Clear off One Hot Spot
- Reboot the Laundry
- Declutter for 15 Minutes (Be sure to have your children declutter, too.)
- Drink Your Water
Before Bed: (This starts right after dinner.)
- Check the Calendar for Tomorrow
- Lay out Your Clothes for Tomorrow (Have your children lay their clothes out, too.)
- Put things at your launch pad
- Shine Your Sink
- Clean Off a Hot Spot
- Go to Bed at Decent Hour
Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool
Today we are going to spend 15 minutes cleaning out under the kitchen sink. If you have a lot of stuff under that, it might take more than one 15-minute session. Have a trash can handy because you will likely find things under your kitchen sink that just need to be thrown away. Look at this as a 27-Fling Boogie Mission. If you have not used it in years, throw it out. You don’t need to keep hanging on to it. If this is where you store cleaning supplies, be careful of how you dispose of them. I want you to have an organized area under your sink, so you know what you have and what you need.
Zone Mission – Clean out under your kitchen sink.
Routines:
Home (Morning):
- Make Your Bed (Do this as soon as you get up.)
- Get Dressed Down to Your Shoes
- Swish and Swipe
- Start Your Laundry
- Decide on Dinner
- Check Your Calendar
- Start the Day off with a Shiny Sink. Don’t leave the breakfast dishes sitting.
School:
- Look at your bookshelves. Do you need to do some reorganizing or purging?
Afternoon Routine:
- Eat Lunch
- Clear off One Hot Spot
- Reboot the Laundry
- Declutter for 15 Minutes (Be sure to have your children declutter, too.)
- Drink Your Water
Before Bed: (This starts right after dinner.)
- Check the Calendar for Tomorrow
- Lay out Your Clothes for Tomorrow (Have your children lay their clothes out, too.)
- Put things at your launch pad
- Shine Your Sink
- Clean Off a Hot Spot
- Go to Bed at Decent Hour
Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool
Today, I want you to pick one kitchen drawer to declutter. It can be any drawer in your kitchen. You will use the same system that you are using with the cabinets. Pick one drawer a month, and after several months, you will have them all decluttered and organized. Last month, I decluttered my 2 junk drawers. They were not bad, so, I was able to do two of the in 15 minutes. That is the goal I want you to use. Declutter for 15 minutes, and if you can get two drawers done, great! If not, it’s ok. We are all in different places and have different needs in the decluttering department. The drawers that take me the longest to declutter are the ones in my school cabinet. They house a lot of school supplies, so I spend 15 minutes at a time and stop. I can go back to them another day. If you get used to decluttering one small area in your home at a time, you will work you way around your house over time.
Zone Mission: Declutter 1 Kitchen Drawer
I will be speaking at the Teach Them Diligently Conference in Nashville, TN, March 17-19, 2016. If you are in the area, please sign up and attend. I would love to meet some of my readers. I will also be at the other two Teach Them Diligently events in Atlanta, GA, and Sandusky, OH. In June, I will be speaking at the North Carolinians for Home Education conference in Winston-Salem, NC. You can read more about these events on the Events Page on my website.
Grocery Shopping and Errand Day – Take your list, pack snacks, and water bottles.
Afternoon Routine:
Grocery Shopping and Errand Day – Take your list, pack snacks, and water bottles.
Home:
- Make Your Bed (Do this as soon as you get up.)
- Get Dressed Down to Your Shoes
- Swish and Swipe
- Start Your Laundry
- Decide on Dinner
- Check Your Calendar
- Start the Day off with a Shiny Sink. Don’t leave the breakfast dishes sitting.
School: Are you doing a read aloud book for the whole family? If not, pick one out and read at lunch time or in the evening. It will bring a new dimension to your school day.
Afternoon Routine:
- Eat Lunch
- Clear off One Hot Spot
- Reboot the Laundry
- Declutter for 15 Minutes (Be sure to have your children declutter, too.)
- Drink Your Water
- Errand day: Make your plan for grocery shopping and errands. Pack water bottles and snacks for everyone. Pack up your library books that need to be turned in.
Family Fun: Plan a fun activity while you are out. I am in the habit of checking for free activities that are going on while we are out doing errands.
When you get home from doing errands, have everyone work together to unload and put away everything.
Before Bed: (This starts right after dinner.)
- Check the Calendar for Tomorrow
- Lay out Your Clothes for Tomorrow (Have your children lay their clothes out, too.)
- Put things at the Launch Pad that you will need first thing in the morning
- Shine Your Sink
- Clean Off a Hot Spot
- Go to Bed at Decent Hour
Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool
Most of us do not have time to pull everything out of every one of our kitchen cabinets and clean and declutter. Each month I give you a mission to clean out one cabinet. Over the course of several months, you should be able to work your way through all of your cabinets. This keeps you from getting burned out with big projects. You can also see progress this way. So pick the cabinet that bothers you the most, or you can start on your left and work your way toward the right each month. You can start with top cabinets or bottom cabinets. The goal is to maintain them once you declutter them. I do know that if you have children helping in the kitchen, this can be difficult. If you find things you have not used in years, give it away. It is taking up valuable real estate in your kitchen.
Click on the link below if you would like to download a copy of all of the Misssions for March 2016.
Zone Mission: Declutter and clean one kitchen cabinet.
I will be speaking at the Teach Them Diligently Conference in Nashville, TN, March 17-19, 2016. If you are in the area, please sign up and attend. I would love to meet some of my readers. I will also be at the other two Teach Them Diligently events in Atlanta, GA, and Sandusky, OH. In June, I will be speaking at the North Carolinians for Home Education conference in Winston-Salem, NC. You can read more about these events on the Events Page on my website.
If you need more help with organizing your home and homeschool, you can download The FlyLady’s Homeschool Teacher and Homeschool Student Control Journals for free.
Set your timer for 15 minutes for the Home Assignment and 15 minutes for the School Assignment
Home:
- Make Your Bed (Do this as soon as you get up.)
- Get Dressed Down to Your Shoes
- Swish and Swipe
- Start Your Laundry
- Decide on Dinner
- Check Your Calendar
- Start the Day off with a Shiny Sink. Don’t leave the breakfast dishes sitting.
- Clean out your refrigerator. Toss the science experiments.
School: How’s the weather where you are? Add some weather tracking to your school day for the rest of the month. Track high temperature and low temperature. Track precipitation. Track the sunrise and sunset.
Afternoon Routine:
- Eat Lunch
- Clear off One Hot Spot
- Reboot the Laundry
- Declutter for 15 Minutes (Be sure to have your children declutter, too.)
- Drink Your Water
- Write up a menu plan for the next 7 days. Check your pantry and freezer and make a grocery list. This habit will save you time and money. Try out some new recipes with the slow cooker. It will save you time once you start back to your school schedule.
Family Fun: Take your children for a walk.
Before Bed: (This starts right after dinner.)
- Check the Calendar for Tomorrow
- Lay out Your Clothes for Tomorrow (Have your children lay their clothes out, too.)
- Put things at the Launch Pad that you will need first thing in the morning
- Shine Your Sink
- Clean Off a Hot Spot
- Go to Bed at Decent Hour
Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool
Happy Monday! I hope you had a wonderful weekend! I can remember the years when Monday was one of my hardest days of the week. When the children were all little, it seemed harder to get all of the weekly routines going on Monday morning. With persistence and rewards, it got better over time. Now, I enjoy Monday morning. If you struggle with routines on Monday mornings, try to decide why that is happening. For me, it was because we did not have the children pick up properly on Sunday after they played with their toys, so we had a lot of picking up to do on Monday mornings before our Weekly Home Blessing Hour could get started. I also had two large loads of laundry on Mondays plus bedding, so I moved some of the bedding to other days of the week. I also started a load on Sunday night, so it was ready to move to the dryer on Monday morning. That helped, too.
If you have not filed your taxes, start collecting information this week and set your appointment to get your taxes filled out. April 15 will be here before you know it.
Here are your Zone Missions for the week for
Zone 2 – The Kitchen
Monday – Hot Spots & Kitchen Counters
Tuesday – Declutter 1 Cabinet
Wednesday – Declutter 1 Drawer
Thursday – Declutter Under the Kitchen Sink
Friday – Clean out Refrigerator & Microwave
I will be speaking at the Teach Them Diligently Conference in Nashville, TN, March 17-19, 2016. If you are in the area, please sign up and attend. I would love to meet some of my readers. I will also be at the other two Teach Them Diligently events in Atlanta, GA, and Sandusky, OH. In June, I will be speaking at the North Carolinians for Home Education conference in Winston-Salem, NC. You can read more about these events on the Events Page on my website.
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Home – Morning Routine:
- Make Your Bed (Do this as soon as you get up.)
- Get Dressed Down to Your Shoes
- Swish and Swipe
- Start Your Laundry
- Decide on Dinner
- Check Your Calendar
- Start the Day off with a Shiny Sink. Don’t leave the breakfast dishes sitting.
Weekly Home Blessing Hour:
Spread these out over the course of the week. Put a note on each day of the week with one or two of these per day.
7 Parts of the Weekly Home Blessing Hour from The FlyLady:
- Quick Dust
- Sweep/Mop
- Purge Magazines or Paper Clutter
- Change Bedding
- Empty Trash
- Clean Windows/Mirrors
- Vacuum
School:
- Plan one fun activity for this week.
Afternoon Routine:
- Eat Lunch
- Clear off One Hot Spot
- Reboot the Laundry
- Declutter for 15 Minutes (Be sure to have your children declutter, too.)
- Drink Your Water
Family Fun: Have some outdoor time with your children today. Play. Do some nature journaling. The point is to add some movement to your day.
Before Bed: (This starts right after dinner.)
- Check the Calendar for Tomorrow
- Lay out Your Clothes for Tomorrow (Have your children lay their clothes out, too.)
- Lay anything out that you will need first thing in the morning
- Shine Your Sink
- Clean Off a Hot Spot
- Go to Bed at Decent Hour
Welcome to my Getting Organized Series. I have been writing blog posts for several months, and now I am going to add in some videos to encourage you as you work on decluttering your home and making it peaceful and welcoming.
This week we worked in four main areas in our homes. We worked in the Living Room, Front Porch, Main Entryway, and Dining Room. It was a lot of different areas for a week, and if you did not get finished, we will go back around to these rooms again next month. We work through our homes in small steps each week, and that will help keep us from doing big spring cleaning and fall cleaning projects. We have busy lives, and my working 15 minutes a day in the zones, we can accomplish a lot! I have a bag of items to donate once a month from my small decluttering projects. I also declutter an item when I buy something new. Sometimes, I declutter more than one item. This keeps me from having to deal with massive amounts of clutter. Right now, I am finishing up decluttering and finding homes for the items left from my daughter’s wedding two weeks ago. It’s been a methodical process, and it has kept me from overdoing it by dealing with it in small pockets of time. I know you will find success in decluttering and making your home peaceful, if you will just commit to decluttering 5 to 15 minutes per day. Next week, we will be working on decluttering in the kitchen!
Have a wonderful weekend!
Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool
How does the front porch and entrance into your home look? What about the dining room and living room? Today, I want you to go into each of these areas and spend 5 minutes taking care of hot spots and any clutter that has found its way back into these areas. Once you have them you like you want them, strive to teach each person in the house to pick up behind themselves. These areas can stay clutter free with minimal time spent if everyone puts their stuff away instead of dropping it when they come into the house. I hope you enjoyed the pictures this week. I tried to find photos that would encourage you to make your home inviting.
Have a great week-end!
If you have any questions or tips, please email me. I enjoy hearing from my readers.
Zone Mission: Zones 5 and 1 – Spend 5 minutes in each area from this week and make any last changes to invoke a feeling of peace and welcoming.
Routines:
Home:
- Make Your Bed (Do this as soon as you get up.)
- Get Dressed Down to Your Shoes
- Swish and Swipe
- Start Your Laundry
- Decide on Dinner
- Check Your Calendar
- Start the Day off with a Shiny Sink. Don’t leave the breakfast dishes sitting.
School:
- Schedule a field trip for this winter. If you can’t think of one, do some research. See what’s going on close to you.
Afternoon Routine:
- Eat Lunch
- Clear off One Hot Spot
- Reboot the Laundry
- Declutter for 15 Minutes (Be sure to have your children declutter, too.)
- Drink Your Water
Before Bed: (This starts right after dinner.)
- Check the Calendar for Tomorrow
- Lay out Your Clothes for Tomorrow (Have your children lay their clothes out, too.)
- Put things at your launch pad
- Shine Your Sink
- Clean Off a Hot Spot
- Go to Bed at Decent Hour
Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool
Your Dining Room is a part of your hospitality area when you have visitors. It may not be used much other than special meals or company, so you probably use it as an adjacent storage area, school area, or adjunct office area. Today, I want you to declutter and organize in your dining room and make it pretty. You might use it for other functions, so be creative on how you store those items. If you are piling stuff on top or under your dining table, purpose to not do that anymore. Make a welcoming place and start using it more.
I will be traveling and speaking at homeschool conferences across the Southeast this spring. Come see me! You can learn more on my Events page.
Zone Mission – Declutter and decorate your Dining Room.
Routines:
Home:
- Make Your Bed (Do this as soon as you get up.)
- Get Dressed Down to Your Shoes
- Swish and Swipe
- Start Your Laundry
- Decide on Dinner
- Check Your Calendar
- Start the Day off with a Shiny Sink. Don’t leave the breakfast dishes sitting.
School:
- Look at your bookshelves. Do you need to do some reorganizing or purging?
Afternoon Routine:
- Eat Lunch
- Clear off One Hot Spot
- Reboot the Laundry
- Declutter for 15 Minutes (Be sure to have your children declutter, too.)
- Drink Your Water
Before Bed: (This starts right after dinner.)
- Check the Calendar for Tomorrow
- Lay out Your Clothes for Tomorrow (Have your children lay their clothes out, too.)
- Put things at your launch pad
- Shine Your Sink
- Clean Off a Hot Spot
- Go to Bed at Decent Hour
Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool
This week we are working on the entrances of our homes. We want the entryway to be welcoming and not cluttered when someone comes to our front door. Today let’s declutter and decorate the main entryway into our homes. Look at your entryway like a visitor would look at it. Make it pleasant and inviting. If you store things close to the front door, consider how to make it look pretty or consider storing it somewhere else. If your family has a habit of dropping things as they come into the door, work on redirecting them. It is much easier to put things away when you come into the door versus having to do it in bulk later.
Zone Mission: Declutter and Decorate your Entryway
Grocery Shopping and Errand Day – Take your list, pack snacks, and water bottles.
Afternoon Routine:
Grocery Shopping and Errand Day – Take your list, pack snacks, and water bottles.
Home:
- Make Your Bed (Do this as soon as you get up.)
- Get Dressed Down to Your Shoes
- Swish and Swipe
- Start Your Laundry
- Decide on Dinner
- Check Your Calendar
- Start the Day off with a Shiny Sink. Don’t leave the breakfast dishes sitting.
School: Are you doing a read aloud book for the whole family? If not, pick one out and read at lunch time or in the evening. It will bring a new dimension to your school day.
Afternoon Routine:
- Eat Lunch
- Clear off One Hot Spot
- Reboot the Laundry
- Declutter for 15 Minutes (Be sure to have your children declutter, too.)
- Drink Your Water
- Errand day: Make your plan for grocery shopping and errands. Pack water bottles and snacks for everyone. Pack up your library books that need to be turned in.
Family Fun: Plan a fun activity while you are out. I am in the habit of checking for free activities that are going on while we are out doing errands.
When you get home from doing errands, have everyone work together to unload and put away everything.
Before Bed: (This starts right after dinner.)
- Check the Calendar for Tomorrow
- Lay out Your Clothes for Tomorrow (Have your children lay their clothes out, too.)
- Put things at the Launch Pad that you will need first thing in the morning
- Shine Your Sink
- Clean Off a Hot Spot
- Go to Bed at Decent Hour