Money Saving Mom®

Okay, so I have a confession to make: I never made it out of my PJs today, nor did I exercise. I think that sort of means I failed today’s assignment–at least when it comes to the first project on the list.

I had every intention to run and take a shower, but after reading my Bible, making a list of goals for the week, making a to-do list, blogging, homeschooling, having a radio interview, more blogging, and taking care of a bunch of little details in prep for our trip, I finally decided late in the afternoon that it just wasn’t happening today.

The good news? I had a productive day.

I told you that my house was a mess this morning.

Why yes, that’s a box of Annie’s mac & cheese on our bedroom floor. You mean you don’t store those on your bedroom floor?? Ahem. I’m not sure how it got there!

And I certainly wasn’t kidding.

But it’s clean tonight — thanks, in part, to my husband and children pitching in to get it all picked up.

So. much. better!

And I also got the silverware drawer cleaned — though it wasn’t too messy to start with since it had been cleaned out not too long ago. But I found a few things to get rid of and some crumbs to wipe out.

My 7+ items to get rid of — mostly from the silverware and utensil drawer.

Tomorrow, I promise I’ll make getting out of my PJs a priority — especially since I really want to head to Target to buy some Starbucks coffee before our store is cleaned out. 🙂

How did you do on Assignment #11? I’d love to have you share your progress and success with us so we can be inspired. Either post a link to your blog post below or leave a comment with your update.

Missed some of the first assignments? See the links at the bottom of this post for Assignments 1-10.

It’s Monday and that means we’re back to cleaning and organizing our homes again. And boy does our home need some cleaning and organizing!

It was a bit of a crazy weekend around here — especially with all the stormy weather and tornadoes. In light of the tornado damage and destruction others experienced this weekend, I can hardly complain about a messy house.

But I still need to whip this place back into shape. I think it may look worse than these mess house photos I posted last month!

Day 11 Assignment

::Get dressed in something that makes you feel great {there’s something about dressing in clothes that make you feel great that just gives you more energy and zest for life! Get your free copy of SarahMae’s ebook, Frumps to Pumps, if you need more motivation in this.}

::Sit down with a cup of coffee or tea and make a list of weekly goals. I’ll post my goals along with a link-up around 1 p.m. ET this afternoon.

::Complete your morning routine {if you don’t have a morning routine, take some time to create one today! Read my How to Develop a Routine That Works–And Stick With It series for step-by-step help.}

::Set the timer for 15 minutes and quickly pick up your house and put things back into order after the weekend. If your house looks like mine, you might need to spend longer than 15 minutes. 🙂

::Clean out your silverware drawer. Remove all items, vacuum out the crumbs with your vacuum’s attachment, wipe down the drawer with a damp cloth, get rid of anything you don’t need or no longer use, and then put everything you’re keeping back into the drawer in an organized manner.

::Find 7 items to get rid of today. Throw them out, stick them in a donate or garage sale box, give them to a friend who can use them, or list them on Craigslist or eBay.

Note: If you work outside the home or have a really busy week with little time for extra projects, just do the bolded project above.

At 9 p.m. ET tonight, I’ll be posting my progress and pictures, along with a link-up for you to share your progress and pictures, too. Here’s to our productivity today!

If you missed this morning’s assignment, you can find it here.

It was a pretty typical morning here: Bible, blogging, morning routine, running, radio interview, and homeschooling. I took a quick shower and then Kaitlynn and I headed out for a fun afternoon “date” together.

And then I came home and cleaned light fixtures and ceiling fans:

The kitchen

The dining room

The girls’ room {and the are we done yet look?!}

I couldn’t reach the living room ceiling fan… so Jesse and I devised a way to pull it off without a ladder. I got on his shoulders, he stood on a chair, and then I could reach it. Of course, I was freaking out that I was going to fall the whole time and he was having a grand time laughing at me. But I was mostly just being my crazy self and playing it up so he could get a kick out of me (though I really did think I was going to fall a few times!)

{By the way, I wouldn’t recommend trying this at home, but it produced a lot of laughter and provided a fun memory! :)}

Lookie who lost her second tooth today?!

And for my “assigned” 15-minutes of relaxation, Jesse and I are having an at-home movie date tonight once the children are in bed. I’m excited to set the to-do list aside and just kick back and enjoy a relaxing evening!

I hope you had a great day today! Thanks for joining me in all these projects this week. Be sure to come back on Monday morning for your next assignment!

How did you do on Assignment #10? I’d love to have you share your progress and success with us so we can be inspired. Either post a link to your blog post below or leave a comment with your update.

Can you believe we’ve been at this 4 Weeks to a More Organized Home Challenge for two weeks now? I’m so proud of all of you for the progress you’re making and the hard work you’re putting in to make your homes more of a haven.

Your posts and comments have been a huge inspiration to me! Keep them coming!

Day 10 Assignment

::Get dressed in something that makes you feel great {there’s something about dressing in clothes that make you feel great that just gives you more energy and zest for life! Get your free copy of SarahMae’s ebook, Frumps to Pumps, if you need more motivation in this.}

::Sit down with a cup of coffee or tea, refer to your list of weekly goals, and make a list of no more than 5-7 specific things you want to accomplish today.

::Complete your morning routine {if you don’t have a morning routine, take some time to create one today! Read my How to Develop a Routine That Works–And Stick With It series for step-by-step help.}

::Dust all ceiling fans and clean all light fixtures in your house. Check for burned out light bulbs and replace.

::Set the timer for at least 15 minutes and do something you really enjoy and that relaxes and rejuvenates you. If you need ideas, here are a few: read, write, call a friend, pray, exercise, bake, play with your children, laugh with your husband, stop by the bookstore and browse the book selection, work in the garden, or take a nap! Take some time to just stop and enjoy life today!

Note: If you work outside the home or have a really busy week with little time for extra projects, just do the bolded project above.

At 9 p.m. ET tonight, I’ll be posting my progress and pictures, along with a link-up for you to share your progress and pictures, too. Here’s to our productivity today!

Missed this morning’s assignment? Find it here.

Today was a bit different than our normal schedule because I had to finish up all of the handouts for the Cincinnati Conference so that I could get them into the printers by tonight so that they’d be ready in time. And in order to finish the handouts, I had to, you know, finish my four talks — or at least have a fairly good idea of what I was going to say so that it somewhat meshed with the handouts we’ll be passing out. 🙂

So after an abbreviated morning routine, homeschooling, and a quick shower, I spent a big block of time working on the handouts while my wonderful assistant helped and played with the children.

Joy and I finished them up just in time and Christy (Jesse’s fantastic assistant who has been helping me organize all of the details for the Cincinnati conference — I’d be so sunk without her!) took them into the printers.

{See? Those of you who think I’m superwoman can now breathe a sigh of relief. I’m so not superwoman; I just have a great team of people who work for me!}

Whew! So glad to have that project done — especially because these are talks I’m giving multiple times this year so now that we have most of the legwork done for them, the rest of the conferences shouldn’t require so much prep work ahead of time!

After all of that was finished, I spent some time with the children and tackled the bathrooms. Oh did they need help — especially the children’s bathtub.

I decided that all of the miscellaneous toys in the bathrub could go in the 7-things-to-get-rid-of pile for today. {By the way, in case you are wondering why we have so many of these stacking toys, they came free with some online deal awhile back. Silas has had fun playing with them at bathtime, but I think we probably don’t need to hang onto 20 different stacking cups for bathtime!}

Much better!

Jesse and I went out on a date tonight (woot!) and then I came home and the children and I worked on the light switches.

Silas really got into the cleaning the light switches business. He loved it!

And then he took his cleaning cloth and started cleaning the mirrors and the walls. We could hardly pull him away from his cleaning when it was bedtime!

While today was definitely different from a “normal” day (though I’m not exactly sure what “normal” looks like since every day is somewhat different around here!), it was a good day and I’m thankful for the many things that were accomplished.

And I’m very ready for bed!

How did you do on Assignment #9? I’d love to have you share your progress and success with us so we can be inspired. Either post a link to your blog post below or leave a comment with your update.

Missed the first few days’ assignments? You can see all the posts in the 4 Weeks to a More Organized Home series here.

Day 9 Assignment

::Get dressed in something that makes you feel great {there’s something about dressing in clothes that make you feel great that just gives you more energy and zest for life! Get your free copy of SarahMae’s ebook, Frumps to Pumps, if you need more motivation in this.}

::Sit down with a cup of coffee or tea, refer to your list of weekly goals, and make a list of no more than 5-7 specific things you want to accomplish today.

::Complete your morning routine {if you don’t have a morning routine, take some time to create one today! Read my How to Develop a Routine That Works–And Stick With It series for step-by-step help.}

::Set the timer for 15 minutes and do a quick-clean of your bathroom. Need specific directions? Read this article on How to Clean Your Bathroom in 15 Minutes.

::Clean your light switch plates. You can use a damp rag with a little disinfectant on it or a cleaning wipe. If you have younger children, they’d probably enjoy joining you in tackling this project!

::Find 7 items to get rid of today. Throw them out, stick them in a donate or garage sale box, give them to a friend who can use them, or list them on Craigslist or eBay.

Note: If you work outside the home or have a really busy week with little time for extra projects, just do the bolded project above.

At 9 p.m. ET tonight, I’ll be posting my progress and pictures, along with a link-up for you to share your progress and pictures, too. Here’s to our productivity today!

So today’s assignment was much easier than yesterday’s — and judging from the comments, it sounds like you all felt the same way!

I got a great night’s sleep (so thankful that we’ve not been up with a coughing child the last few nights — Vick’s with socks works wonders!), had an early morning radio interview, and then got going with my usual morning routine.

We had a great homeschooling day today and we finished Kathrynne’s history book for this year — yay! It’s always fun when the girls are excited about learning and beg if we can go ahead and do extra pages of some of their subjects.

The doorknobs took me all of five minutes to do. The girls have been doing them almost weekly, so they weren’t really dirty. But I did them anyway since I knew so many of you would be counting on me to actually follow through with the assignment and all. 🙂

My dresser didn’t take me too much time at all since I had just cleaned it out about four weeks ago. I did decide to get rid of an extra pair of glasses and a few other things I had kept the first time around.

(Zenni Optical lost my order the first time around so they sent a second pair. Then they found my order and sent it, too. So I ended up with a free pair of glasses that I’ve just hung onto for two years. I only wear them occasionally since I usually wear contacts. The frugal person in me has hung onto them thinking that my other pair might break, but the minimalist in me won over today!)

I also went through the girls’ shoes today and we weeded out a few extra pairs that they can no longer fit into. And when I was doing the laundry, I found that one of Silas’ shirts was hopelessly stained with something pink down the front (I have no idea what!) so I stuck that in today’s get-rid-of pile. And finally, I went ahead and got rid of a pair of adorable sunglasses that are now too small for Silas. So we ended up with nine things for our get-rid-of pile today.

How did you do on Assignment #8? I’d love to have you share your progress and success with us so we can be inspired. Either post a link to your blog post below or leave a comment with your update.