The key to a good spring cleaning is to not overwhelm yourself so much that you put the entire cleaning project off for another day.  Instead, try to organize the cleaning so that you tackle different sections of the house at once or different types of cleaning at the same time.  When you have the duster out to clean the ceiling fans and knick-knacks it’s a good time to hit the plants and bookshelves.

Here’s a list of just a few of the basic tasks to get you started.  You can find some printable checklists below.

In the Kitchen

• Empty out the refrigerator and the freezer.
• Vacuum under the fridge around the coils behind the grill.
• Wipe the top of the fridge off.
• Wipe down all of the seals around the doors.
• Clean the inside of the microwave.  Hint ~  Heat up a cup of water for a couple of minutes to build up some steam first…it makes cleaning much easier.

In the Bedroom

• Clean out those closets.  Don’t hold back…if you haven’t worn it in a few years, you probably aren’t going to start now. Get everything out of the closet and thoroughly vacuum the far corners.
• Flip over and turn your mattress.  While you’re at it, move the bed frame out of the way and vacuum or dust under it.  You might even find that old, missing sock you lost last year.
• Take the comforter or bedspread to the cleaners.
• Throw out all those old toys your kids haven’t played with in years.
• Get blocks of cedar to help keep the moths away and things smelling fresh.

Elsewhere

• Dust and wipe down all of the ceiling fans in house.
• Take your screens down, hose them off outside and wipe them down with warm soap and water.
• Dust your lampshades.
• Remove all of the cushions and pillows from your couch and chairs and vacuum this out.  You might even find some money here!
• Clean your windows inside and out.
• Wipe down the tops of all door frames.
• Test all of your fire alarms and change the batteries if needed.
• Change the filters on your air conditioner.
• Get new entry mats at every entrance.
• Use a magic eraser to get those pesky scuff marks off of walls.

For the Hardcore

• Remove and clean all the faucet aerators.
• Change the pollen filter in your car.
• Change the shelf liners in your drawers

Remember

• Donate anything you don’t want or can’t use.
• If you find something you haven’t seen in years or forgot you had…chances are you don’t need it.
• Start from the top and work your way down.  Vacuum the dust that has settled from your marathon dusting session.
• Remember that a clean home makes for a healthy one.  You can literally breath easier once your house is clean.

More

Check out some earlier articles on spring cleaning:


Printable Spring Cleaning Checklists

Another Spring Cleaning Checklist

Spring Gardening To Do List

Today’s mom planner is more then a time management tool. The Mom Agenda Desktop  runs through to December 2010 and offers monthly views at the front of the book, followed by a weekly view.

I personally am a fan of a weekly view mom day planner. The 7″x9″x1″ size is not to big, but big enough to handle a busy family’s schedule.
The planner can accommodate Mom calender needs and the busy schedule of up to four children.

For those of you needing a mom planner or mom organizer that is a bit smaller. The Mom Agenda’s Daily planner is a great option.

The planner only runs through to August (academic year) but it is already 40% off. The planner is 5″x7″x1″.

Be sure to stop by The Mom Agenda Website and grab their free printable pages as well.

Click here for free mom mom planner pages, organizational tools, and printable holiday planner.

So for this almost always organized mom (or never organized at the moment), it’s time to go back to the beginning and set some goals for 2010 and the next three years. I wanted to share some free and affordable tools I located online to help you set goals for yourself and as a family.

Free setting goals workbook

Mom Goals offers tips and steps for setting goals for moms.

101 goals in 1001 days. Offers a list of goal setting and goal tracking worksheets and printables.

Tony Robbins has a great article explaining how to set your Personal mission statement. A first step in goal setting. Click here

Of course there are a lot of great goal setting resources for moms over at ListPlanIt.com as well.

I can’t help but wonder why we all feel a need to spring clean, so I spent a few minutes looking up spring cleaning online to discover that spring cleaning is defined as “Spring cleaning is the period in spring time set aside for cleaning a house, normally applied in climates with a cold winter.”

This makes sense since those of us up North are limited by cold wet weather during the winter months. I can’t easily run outside with a rug to beat it with a broom. OK I wouldn’t actually ever do that. I have included some free printable spring cleaning checklists below for everyone though!

For me spring cleaning is about purging. It’s when I go through the kids clothing for summer, pack up winter items and while I am at it give the closets and rooms a good vacuum and wipe down.

ListPlan It offers a great Spring Cleaning Checklist for those of you looking for a checklist to help you get through the spring cleaning on a task by task basis.

Most of my check lists come from ListPlan it, it’s a affordable solution and definitely saves me more then enough time to justify the small membership fee.

I have three major Spring Cleaning items that have to get done in my home each spring. 1) the kitchen top to bottom. 2) My mini van – this year I am taking it in to be shampooed 3) The ceilings , light fixtures, and fans.

Here’s a list of Free Printable Spring Cleaning Checklists:


List Planit: Get Organized for Spring
Our Busy Family Life: print spring cleaning checklist
Clean and Shiny: print spring cleaning checklist
Martha Stewart: spring cleaning list

Tara’s View is giving away some summer soles for your sandles, which hopefully we will be taking out soon :) Canada and USA. –Contest over

It seems all areas of my life are running behind again. The worst flu I have ever encountered hit our small town and it ran through both homes and all six children. As a result, I haven’t made it to posting at organized families.

To make it up to you … here are a few free online resources to get you through the week!

Menus for moms offers a free printable menu plan

Childzilla is offering their chores charts for kids website for free while they beta test.

Other Printable Kid Chore Chart Lists.


We’re working on getting together Chore Lists for Kids soon.

Have a great week.

The Almost Always Organized Mom

A few things you will find in the Free Holiday Planning Guide:

- Christmas decorating ideas

- Christmas games for children and families

- Holiday meal planning

- Gift ideas

- Creating Holiday Traditions for your family

- and some wonderful recipes.

This Almost Always Organized Mom gives the Holiday Planning guide by the Indie Biz Chicks (who have some great free business guides as well for women running their own business) two thumbs up.

Get yours today for free at their website. Click for a Free Holiday Planning Guide.

I found an article on the Scholastic website that talks about introducing check lists to children. I think this is a great idea and it reminded me of a to do list that I made for my middle son to help remind him to perform some simple tasks.

I try to not have more then 10 things on my daily to do list (of course this is different from my never ending oh man when will I find time to do that To Do list) I find I can usually get through 7-10 items on top of my regular day. My son’s list (he was aged 4) only had three items.

So I have made a My first To Do List printable for your children aged 4-6. Please use this tool with your child. You may want to consider a reward if it is completed.

My First To Do List for children age 4-6 – Pink

My First To Do List for children age 4-6 – Green

Enjoy!

Screen Shot:

I feel as though I live in the last city in all of Canada to get curbside recycling, and as a result I have let my recycling go down the tubes since moving here five years ago (you heard right – FIVE years). So my Earth Day to do list item was to get a system in place to start recycling ALL of may paper, metal, and glass products.

I purchased three large white round laundry bins that fit a clear recycle bag wonderfully and place them on the patio with a label printed from my computer. Refundable Paper/Cardboard and Metal/Glass recyclables.

Click here to print your own our family recycles sign and container labels.

Now I can simply throw it in the van when it is starting to look full and drop off the recycling with the kids on our way home in the evening. Of course I have been advocating for curbside recycling for some time and I am happy to say it looks like we will have a program here next fall!

Happy Earth day everyone!