Things to Clean Now and How to Clean Them

The fall weather signals that it is time to get at least three things cleaned up before the winter: your window air conditioners, your ceiling fans and your grill. Get a head start to cleaning these items, so you won’t have to worry about them later. The Window Air Conditioners Fickle fall weather may mean that you will be turning the air conditioners on a few more times, depending on where you live. That is okay, you can still clean them now and use them a few times before you have to store them away. Air conditioners really need to … Continue reading →

How to Prepare Your Home for Winter: Furnace and Fireplace

After temperatures in the 80s with lots of humidity, the weather has taken a turn for the cooler here in Pennsylvania. The humidity is gone, and the air is in the cooler 60s. It is actually starting to feel like fall. Wasn’t it just last week that we had to keep the air conditioning on? The cooler weather signals that it is time to start preparing the house for winter, and taking care of all of those tasks that will make things more comfortable for the family. Conquering outdoor tasks will be easier now than when the snow and cold … Continue reading →

Preparing Your Home for Cold and Flu Season

Now that we have gotten through the back to school transition at home (my kids went back this week on August 29th), the next thing on my list is to start preparing our home for the inevitable cold and flu season. Once the cooler weather (and the school, sports and other activities) arrive, so will the sniffles, the fevers, the aches, etc. Getting the home ready early will save me a lot of headaches, some of them literally, I think. Get the Sick Day Supply Because sick days may mean that no one is going anywhere, it is really helpful … Continue reading →

Diaper in the Laundry

I have two very messy children. I should probably do laundry every day, but I can’t get my lazy self excited about doing it that frequently. I’m even worse about putting clothes away, so doing laundry more frequently won’t work. The other night the girls didn’t have any of their favorite pajamas to wear. I had to tackle laundry. I sorted the laundry and put the light load in first. I don’t always sort the laundry, but it worked out better for this particular wash. I went to take the lights out of the dryer and put the darks in … Continue reading →

Two Favorite Cleaning Products

Last year when I got married, I moved into my husband’s house and wow! Cleaning a whole house, instead of just my previous bedroom, kept me really busy. I enjoy having a house and taking care of it, but cleaning it can be a big chore if I don’t stay on top of it. To make cleaning a more speeding process I have found some favorite products to help me do a quick clean. To clean floors I love the Swiffer WetJet! They work great on wood, tile, linoleum, and almost any kind of hard flooring. What is perfect about … Continue reading →

Home Routines

I’ve written before about my disinclination to do housework. I’m sure that 90% of people probably feel similarly disinclined. The others? Well, I’d probably like to be them, and my house would probably like it too. I’ve found that the best approach to getting the housework done is routine. It might be boring, but having a pattern to the housework means that it gets done – or that I at least feel a twinge of guilt if it doesn’t get done. My pattern is one that allocates certain tasks to certain days. I also have a general cleanup day to … Continue reading →

Household Management: Life Skills 101

What do you need to know when you move out? If you’re the parent of a teen who’s looking at college in the next few years or simply a parent who wants the kids to know how to survive in the wilds of real life, you know that the kids need to know a few things. But what are the essentials of household management? Once you’ve been doing it for a while it’s hard to extract exactly what it is that you do to manage the house. In my humble opinion, here are a few of the basics: Houses need … Continue reading →

Household Management: Moving Out

I like organizing things. Oh woe is me. The attribute that is the delight of my husband is sometimes more of a trial, since I won’t rest until I feel like our household is organized. And trust me, organization never comes. I moved from my parents house into a home with my husband. He comes from a family where one key organizer did all of the household management tasks, and many of these tasks were done invisibly. I come from a family where two people did the management and integrated the kids into the management of the household. Yes, sometimes … Continue reading →

Household Management: More Inbox-Slimming Strategies

The bulging inbox: it’s a problem that’s oh so familiar to all parents. What are your strategies for managing the inflow of information and appointments in your life? Yesterday I mentioned some of my weekly and monthly strategies for budgeting and shopping. Here are a few more tips that I use to keep my inbox flowing. Filing systems. I have files for paper, and I must admit to being a bit of a piler. I stack forms and sort them into the files every few weeks. I also have filing systems for objects. For example, in the basement cupboard I … Continue reading →

Household Management: Reducing the Size of Your Inbox

You have email. I have email. And we all (pretty much) have a full inbox, I’d expect. But what about your home inbox? What is in there? When people think about the person who manages the home, they tend to think about the person who makes dinner and perhaps cleans the toilets (a big perhaps in my house!). However, the most important part of household management is the role of the inbox coordinator. When I talk about your home inbox, I mean the constant inflow of things that need to be done in your home. The dog needs to go … Continue reading →