The key to a good spring cleaning is to not overwhelm yourself so much that you put the entire 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 ?

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

I recently purchased a beautiful antique linen cabinet with glass doors to keep my bathroom times organized, finding a way to utilize all the available shelf space and still enjoy looking at the cabinet (since you can see through the doors ;) has been an adventure.

I have made a few purchases and am now awaiting the arrival of them to my doorstep. Check these out -  this acrylic organizer can be easily washed, has 9 cosmetics, and the removable lipstick holder holds up to 12 tubes.

I learned long ago that keeping my desk organized at work would save me time searching for things. I am applying this theory to the craziest part of my day, mornings.

I have always wanted a towel holder like the ones you see in your hotel room – I actually found them.

Please let us know what types of tools you use for organizing your bathroom.
Click Here for more great Bathroom organizational products.

Last fall I signed up for a new cell phone and went with a Palm Treo Smart phone. Which leads me to my morning discovery ….  Splash ID. I have encountered some technical difficulties with Vista on my work computer and one of the problems is that I have to reload all my email accounts for work which in turn pointed out a glaring concern in my organization system. I have NO one place to store passwords. OK, so I do, a little page in the back of my dayplanner that I attempt to encrypt with my own secret code. OK, I am not five anymore and unlike my son who loves breaking codes, I can’t remember what codes I used when I created some of these passwords!

Of course I have also learned that we need STRONG passwords and really shouldn’t be using the same password for all of our accounts (which i have remedied) but now I really can’t recall half my passwords.

So this morning I downloaded the 30 day trial of Splash ID and will be upgrading to a paid version if this works.

If you aren’t a palm user this program also works with your blackberry and a variety of other hand helds as well.

Click here to download your 30 day trial and see if it works for you.

It’s a great goal for next week to all you busy moms …  create a system for storing all your memberships and passwords in one place.

Of course I am referring to my life before three children not my life as a busy mom trying to stay organized :-) One of the biggest obstacles I face is trying to cook meals that are affordable and healthy. My grocery budget is stretched each month beyond my budget with last minute runs to the store for meals. Its the constant finding time delima. I know other moms who buy family size meats for example and cook up three lasagnas and freeze them for future use.

I would enjoy an evening of cooking, I just have a hard time finding the time. I have a freezer, I just don’t have the time. My goal this month is to locate different menu planning options with shopping lists, and putting a shopping system in place. I currently have a monthly shopping list that covers all my basics however with out a menu plan this busy mom spends too much on her grocery bill.

Developing a menu plan use to be really easy for me when I was a mom with one child. My oldest son will eat anything! He was eating black beans with cilantro at 8 months of age. I am now a mom to a picky eater. So I am trying to balance what everyone would like in my menu planning. We don’t eat pork (by choice) and I am trying to cut out red meat so this means any tools I find online I will have to spend time adjusting to my family’s needs.

This morning i signed up for Menus 4 moms free service. I am sure this will give me a starting point, once I remove all the pork products though I am left trying to fill in the blanks. Ideally I would like my Grocery budget to get under $400 a month with a menu plan and develop a menu plan that accommodates my obvious lack of time! I also need to learn how to balance my children’s desire to eat chicken nuggets everyday to my taste for ethnic food.

My Online Meals offers great menus based on serving amounts.