By ERIN TURNER
This last week I spent packing up the Christmas decorations, cleaning the house after all the holiday parties and of course, hitting all the after Christmas clearance sales (can you say 90% at Target?)!
So, this week I’m shifting gears and ramping up the organizing of my house. My mantra as I sort through closets, drawers, bins and shelves is, “Do I love this item?” I say it over and over until my head and heart make a decision. If I honestly say, “No, I don’t love it,” then it gets moved into the box for garage sale.
I don’t spend any extra time second guessing myself on my item because A) it will take extra time and B) if I’ve already decided I don’t need or love it then why try to justify keeping it? Plus, since our garage sale isn’t until late spring, if I decided later it’s an item I really want to keep I can still resurrect it. But usually once it’s boxed up and out of sight, I forget about it.
One method with clothing I just learned about and will be employing this next week will help with those clothes you just don’t know if you want to part with yet. I’m going to take a piece of masking or blue painters’ tape and write, “Garage Sale” on it and then attach it to the top of the hanger. If during the next 3 months (or season) I wear it, then I’ll remove the tag and it will stay in my closet. But if come the end of the 3 months and there are still hangers with the tape on then those items will boxed up to find for the garage sale. I love this idea because it is a very tangible way of knowing if you wear those clothing pieces or not. As the person who primarily does laundry in our family, I am hoping to simplify all our closets this year so the kids have an easier time managing their clothing and I have less laundry to do!
The other organizing tool which I am working hard on this week is menu planning. I love menu planning and find so much satisfaction in having a plan in place. I can’t begin to tell you how much stress it takes off me each day to know what we are having for dinner that night and I have all the ingredients which I need. It frees up not only my brain of stress but also a lot of time during the day. Plus, as I’ve always, always emphasized menu planning saves you outrageous amounts of money.
This last weekend I moved into the 21 st century with my meal planning. I downloaded the app to my ipad called “MealPlan”. I think I found heaven! Wow, I can’t begin to tell you how fun it is to create my weekly meal plan. I can link my Pinterest recipes right to my plan or any recipe I find online. Plus, it lets me create a shopping list. I can also save each meal idea so I can just plug it in for future weeks. It’s so easy to plan a whole month of meals. Imagine how stress free it would be to have 30 days of meals planned!
Twelve days into the New Year and I’m on a roll with my household organization and simplifying resolutions. Hopefully I’ve inspired you to tackle some of your resolutions and given you a couple of tools to implement in your quest for an efficient running home!
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Erin Eisenman-Turner is proud to be a native Missoulian. Along with her husband and three sons, they raise chickens, pigs, rabbits, and vegetables at Turner Family Farms in the Orchard Homes area. When the farm chores are done, the coupons clipped, and the blog written, you can find Erin exploring Montana, collecting antiques, and trying to maintain a well-run, happy, and organized home for her family.
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