As your child gets older you might even find yourself struggling to remember some of your math and history facts. In other cases, your child might not respond as well to your help.  He or she perhaps works better with a trained teacher or tutor.

If this is the case, you might have to face the fact that your child could use either a tutor in your area or you could try to find a qualified tutor online.

Consider a site like Tutorhub.com where your child can get help with homework by asking questions from trained tutors and you only have to pay for the actual time you need help. You can choose the tutor that is most appropriate for your situation and get a face-to-face type experience online using the tools your child is already comfortable using.

Getting a family organized and effectively managing your day doesn’t have to be an unnerving and stressful ordeal. With a lot of tools and checklists we have here as well as the resources available online, you can easily get your household under control.

Backpacks: Donate them to the American Birding Association.  Scientists can use them while tracking birds.

Batteries: Keep hazardous metals out of landfills.  Take your car batteries to any retailer and they’ll be recycled.  For household batteries, take them by RadioShack or Office Depot.

Books: Donate books or alternatively sell them to a used bookstore.  You won’t make much (the most I’ve made is $35 in one batch, and that included a season of Lost on DVD).

Cell phones: The Wireless Foundation gives refurbished phones to domestic-violence survivors.  Some states like California and New York require that retailers accept and recycle your phones without charging you.

Compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL): They contain mercury, so you don’t want them in landfills.  Drop them off at an Ikea or Home Depot.

Computers: Return them to manufacturers or donate to charities.  If it’s broken, try sending them to Nextsteprecycling.org, which will repair and give them to schools and families in need.

Crayons: National Crayon Recycle Program melts old ones down to make new ones.  Leave the wrappers on so they know what color each one is.

DVDs, CDs: Send it to greendisk.com for recycling without it cluttering a landfill instead of your desk.

Empty metal cans: For cleaning products like Ajax, cut off the metal ends and put them with other household metals.  Recycle the tubes with paper or cardboard, accordingly.  For food products, clean the food out of them and recycle with metals.  You can leave the paper on since it just burns up in the recycling process.  (If you want extra green points, recycle the paper, too.)

Gadgets: Recycleforbreastcancer.org will send you shipping labels so you can send them your clutter, which they will recycle.  The proceeds go to breast cancer charities.

Holiday cards.  Yes, they’re sweet and sentimental, but you can send the ones from your boss or acquaintances to St. Jude’s Ranch for Children.  Formerly abused or neglected youths will cut off the covers of these cards and glue them to new ones, which they sell to fund the nonprofit program.

Shoes: If your shoes are in good shape, they’ll be donated to athletes in need via oneworldrunning.com.  If not, drop them off or mail them to Nike Recycling Centers; they’ll be recycled into sports courts and playgrounds.

Shopping bags: Okay, you’ve started the reusable bag thing, but you still have all the plastic and paper bags from the old days.  Recycle the paper ones with paper (even if they have metal grommets; they’ll be pulled out by the machines) and drop the plastic ones at your local grocery store.

Spiral notebooks:  Toss the thing, metal and all, in the paper recycling.  The machines will pull it out.  If the cover is plastic, though, rip it off first.

Stereos and VCRs: You can find a list of recyclers, retailers, and manufacturers near you that will take them here.

Toothpaste tubes: Yep, you can recycle them with your aluminum tubes, even if your aluminum tube still has paste inside.  With plastic ones, though, you’re out of luck.

Used clothes: Donate them to your local charity organization or even the animal shelter, where they can be used as bedding (they’re always in need of bath towels, too).

Videotapes, cassettes, floppy disks: send them to greendisk.com, since they’re a menace practically anywhere else.

Read the full list of recyclable (and non-recyclable) items by Real Simple here.

Bio: Maria Rainier is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She is currently a resident blogger at First in Education where she writes about education, online degrees, and what it takes to succeed as a student getting an online masters degree from home. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.

1. Safety

Many people may think, “What? You’re talking about power cleaning and clutter busting and you’re going to start with safety? It’s just cleaning, Do I really need to worry that much about safety?” I don’t mean to scare anybody, but every year there are 20,000 deaths and 21 million hospitalizations from home-related injuries so the first and foremost item on my list is to stay safe! Here’s a few safety tips: When you’re going to be spending a lot of time bending, kneel instead and wear some knee-pads to keep yourself comfy. When clearing and re-organizing clutter, make sure you leave any doorways, hallways and stairs clear of objects to trip on (about ½ of those injuries I mentioned are from tripping and falling). When carrying arms full of household items, make sure that you can see the ground and the path you’ll be walking over or around your load. When you have to use a step ladder, don’t take any risks. Lastly, before you doing anything strenuous, stretch yourself out and warm up a bit, like you would before exercising. You’d be surprised how much that will improve your energy and attitude while cleaning, while at the same time reducing your chance of injury.


2. Use Alternate Cleaning Supplies

There are tons of alternate cleaning supplies out there that you might not expect to use as an alternate to toxic or environmentally harmful products. Try some of these: Pour a cup of white vinegar and some lemon juice in your toilet bowl and let it sit over night to remove hard water and rust stains. Use Johnson’s Baby Oil to clean any metal surface from faucets to hubcaps. Mill some rice grains in your coffee grinders and they will absorb any stale smells and oils. Discard the rice and wipe it clean. There are tons more healthy and earth- friendly alternatives as well as more cleaning and decorating tips at realsimple.com. Check them out!

3. Read the Label

If alternate methods aren’t cutting it and you have to use some harsh cleaning materials, make sure you read the label first and follow all the instructions exactly. Never mix chemicals and make sure you wear gloves and a mask to minimize exposure to body. Make sure your pets and children steer clear while you’re using harmful chemicals.

4. Don’t Be a Pack Rat!

I can’t stress this one enough. The worst downfall for spring cleaners (I know it is for me) is the thought “I’ve never used this before and I’ve had it for 3 years but what if i need it some day?” Dump it! If you happen across something that you haven’t seen in a long time, here’s a few things to think about: How long has it been buried (or lost)? Have you looked for it and been unable to find it? Have you thought about it even once since it the last time you saw it? If the answer to either of these is ‘no’ – get rid of it! Give it away, throw it in a yard sale, sell it, trash it, just get rid of it! Don’t hold on to things you don’t need and your house will be much more clutter free and if your house is anything like mine, clutter-busting is 75% of the battle.

5. Get the Family In On It

Make it a game and have the family race to see who can get done first. When they’re done, perform an inspection and have a reward ready for the winner! If they’re not down for that, bribe them with toys or food. “We can have pizza twice this week if you get your rooms clean by the end of the week” or “For every five toys you donate to the yard sale, I’ll get you one brand new one. No, you can’t donate your sister’s toys.” Increasing your work force can drastically decrease the time it takes to get your home spic and span for spring time.

Rebecca Chelsey loves to spend time her family and she has more time to do so when her life is organized! Outside her life as mother and wife, she also works for Homeseasons, which has simplified the holidays with 4th of July decorations, Halloween Holiday arrangements and ideas for every holiday in between.

Photo Credit: Chiot’s Run on Flickr under Creative Commons

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

First I encourage you to de clutter your email. If you have a hotmail account, aol, or just a local ISP. Merge them all into ONE. My only recommendation is GMAIL. Gmail is one of Googles MANY tools to get you organized. Besides, if you have multiple email accounts you can check them all via Gmail as well as send and receive emails from a POP account.

In addition, it’s easy to organize your family life with the use of different Google applications such as Google Calender, Google Black Berry Sync, Google Contacts, Google Documents, Google Mail, and Google Voice.

Google is quick to point out to business; the value of time saved using Google to manage their business. Busy Moms rejoice because these same tools can save you time and sanity for both your busy family and yourself as well!

So how do I manage my family’s schedule with Google ?

The first step is to register for a Gmail account for each of your family members old enough to have an email account (old enough to learn how to use one.

I do not suggest creating a ‘family account’. Each user needs to have their own individual Google Account. Google will allow you to share what you want with each user.

Once you’re signed up with Gmail you can begin to coordinate the different accounts and start organizing you family life from wherever you might be whether it’s at home or on the road.

You can head over to the Google Calendar section and begin filling out your own calendar that you can then share with everyone, other individuals or specific groups of people.  You can limit some events to private settings while sharing other information with a different level of access.  You can even sync your calendar with other popular applications like Outlook or you Iphone or Blackberry.

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

My excitement was evident and my son was quickly caught up in it as we opened the parcel.  Upon opening the parcel, he was a bit disappointed to learn that the book was “about cleaning his room”. He perked up when I asked him to be my model though.

So just how do you win a copy of Lorie Marrero’s  book The Clutter Diet: The Skinny on Organizing Your Home and Taking Control of Your Life?

The contest starts Saturday February 28th and runs through to March 14th 2009. (Hopefully this will be enough time for me to get through the book and share my favourite sections with you.)

During this time you can earn one entry for each of the following (be sure to comment and tell me which you have done and provide your email address in your comment):

1)  Tweet this contest out to your followers for one entry (you can do this each week for two entries).

2) Simply leave a comment telling me why you need this book

3) Mention the contest on your blog for two entries.

UPDATE: Contest is now over.

On March 14th one winner will be selected using Random.org and notified by email. The winner has four days to reply at which time a second winner will be selected. This contest is open to residents of the USA, Canada, UK, and Austrailia.

Good Luck !

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.

Well I received the best Mothers Day gift this week and now I have to share it with all the other busy moms out there! Someone twittered a link to me last week for Jott. It’s free – really a 100% free task organizer for your cell phone! Access your Google Calendar, create To Do Lists, send text messages to a group, need to remind your kids about their family appointment. The great thing is, it works for a lot of different phones, whether you have a Nokia Windows phone or iPhone, and it’s easy to sign up for.

Create a reminder and assign it to your “family group”. Never miss an item while you are at the grocery store, an appointment, an errand by creating your shopping lists, to do lists, and appointments, and family calender to your cell phone by text.

You can also jott your items to twitter, your blog, and calender. Canadian or American mom’s welcomed by this great time management texting tool. So lets get Almost Organized mom Check it Out

If you use a blog or social network site this is a great little gadget … a To Do list. It says something about not having more then 7 To Do list items on their page:

“ToDo gadget lets you add up to 7 tasks, the average amount of concurrent tasks the human brain can handle effectively”

I believe that this gadget may have been designed by persons who have yet to discover parenthood :-)

If the sample is not working – head over to Hawaii Wahms to see how it looks.

Please be aware that I have not tested Lab Pixie, so you should be careful downloading anything from their site onto your computer. This Gadget allows you to insert the to do list on your blog or social networking site ….

Get your To Do List HERE