Finding Our Organizational Groove

Welcome to the May 2012 Simplicity Parenting Carnival: Organizing
This post was written as part of the monthly Simplicity Parenting Carnival hosted by The Lone Home Ranger and S.A.H.M. i AM. This month we are discussing how we organize our lives. Be sure to read to the end to see a list of the rest of the excellent carnival contributors.
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Part of what I talk about here on the blog is simple living. How we pare down what we own, care for what we have and make use of what we own and grow are things that we tackle daily. So, I was very excited to come across the Simplicity Parenting Blog Carnival, which had May’s topic be about organization.

We had a big shift in our organization and household maintenance when we went from two adults working full time with no kids to me being a SAHM in 2010. Navigating the household chores, shifting my mindset to caring for a child and finding a groove and system that clicks has been a work in progress. We have been exploring a number of different of organizational projects, which I list at the end, but I wanted to detail our top 3 tools for organizing our house.

1) Cozi Calendar – The Cozi Calendar has been an amazing organizational tool for us. We are able to coordinate the whole family’s calendar on the website and on our iPhones. Appointments can be set to one person or another or to the whole family. Reminder alerts can be sent via text message. To-do lists can be generated for any variety of reasons or projects and even menus and food shopping lists can be created. We are big fans of this tool and it has been a much more logical calendar for us than maintaining a paper calendar in the kitchen.

2) FlyLady – I am still working on making this a set part of the day, but even doing a little bit of it makes me handle the house better than I did before. I appreciate the system and philosophy of getting out of the CHAOS and understanding that the care and presentation of our home is an investment in ourselves. Letting go of perfection has not been an easy step in this, but I am working on it. By wanting things to be perfect, it is sometimes difficult to know where to begin. Having morning and evening routines and receiving the daily mission emails have been very helpful and make tackling it a little at a time much more tolerable. You can also synch up your FlyLady chores via Cozi, which is awesome!

3) Food Expiration Date Alarm – One of my new goals in living more simply has been to have less food waste. I got the pantry in line in the past few months. But, I was still trying to find a consistent system to know when items with an expiration date are due to pass. Throwing out full tubs of sour cream or a gallon of milk makes me cringe and I don’t want to be cavalier with waste. So, I have recently started to list our expiration date foods into this iPhone app.

It allows you to set a reminder one month, one week, and/or one day before the item is due to expire. The app also includes a color coding system with each item listed.

You can tell from the color key if items are using all three alarm options, two options, or one option. The little egg turns red when the item will expire that day and then go to a grayish black when the food item is past due. I’m hoping that it will help me with some more menu planning and having less food waste. I’ll do a follow up post to let you know how it goes in the next few months.

As we continue to follow these organizational tools, we are finding ways to live with less. Doing the 27 Fling Boogie with FlyLady has led to countless pickups by Pickupplease.org and a lot less clutter in the basement. Bookscouter.com helped us to unload a small army’s worth of college and graduate school textbooks and turn them into cash. Pinterest has been clearing out the paper clutter. Finally, making recipe and knitting binders has helped to thin out recipes and patterns that I have no interest in making anymore and organize the ones that I do. It’s a process, it’s a journey, but it has been a positive one that is truly helping us to live more simply.

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Thanks for reading the Simplicity Parenting Blog Carnival! We hope you’ll take time to read these other great contributors’ posts:

• Finding Our Organization Groove – Becky from Crafty Garden Mama has been working on establishing organizational routines in her house. The Fly Lady program has helped, but she understands that flexibility and reflection are important parts of finding her groove.
• Weekly Cleaning Schedule – Joy of Pardon My Poppet thinks the only way to stay sane while raising a family, and still maintain a clean home, is to follow a weekly cleaning schedule.
• My Organized Kitchen – With 3 kids (ranging in age from 3 to 20), a landscape design business and a house to run, it is essential to be organized. Sheri at donuts, dresses and dirt shares her secrets for organizing recipes, meal-planning for her family and her growing piles of cookbooks and magazines!
• Simplicity Parenting Blog Carnival: Organization – Anne at Raising Sweet Grace asks: Can you organize your whole life or does life just happen?
• Martha and Me – Justine at The Lone Home Ranger figures out she might not have to be perfect to resemble Martha Stewart. It’s a good thing.
• Keeping It Clean – Jamie at I Love Junkmail…and Other Stuff, a second-time new mom, finds a way to organize care of her home and self.
• Finding a New Rhythm (or, letting go of my lists) – Emily at S.A.H.M. i AM discusses how letting go of her long to-do lists and focusing on one day at a time leads to a simple daily rhythm and better organization in the long run.

Thanks to all the fabulous writers and readers for being a part of our simplicity parenting community! Stop by The Lone Home Ranger and S.A.H.M. i AM to see how to join us for a future carnival.