My kids aren’t finished school here until the end of June but I know that many of you have kids home for the summer already.  So in honor of that, I thought I’d compile some of the excellent resources that I’ve come across lately to help you organize and fill the long days of summer with the kids.  No doubt about it, this ought to keep them busy for awhile! :)

Printables:

Here is a great collection of 50 Summer Free Printables.  Go crazy!

Summertime Activities Bucket List with Free Printables from Tater Tots & Jello

Summer Jar List and Printable from Over the Big Moon plus on the same site you can find a fun Summer To-Do List Printable for your wall.

Another great and super cute Summer Fun Chart Printable for listing out all the fun activities you want to do in the summer from The Crafting Chicks.

If your summer plans include travel then you might find my free Family Travel Checklist printable helpful.

Summer Pinterest Boards:

Thanks to Amy from Mom Advice, check out this fantastic 100 Days of Summer Pinterest Board.

Kristen from Dine and Dash has also created a fun Summer of 2012 Pinterest Board.

Ebooks:

Now for some terrific summer activity ebooks that I highly recommend.  There are three in particular that I love and think you will too.

First up is the Summer Survival Calendar from Susan, The Confident Mom.

The 2012 Summer Survival Calendar is a three-and-a-half-month calendar with over 100 activities to blast boredom and increase family time. It features at least one low-budget (and sometimes free) activity, craft project, or kid friendly recipe every day from May 15 to August 31. The calendar comes in a digital PDF download so you have it instantly, and most activities include a clickable link so you can easily view directions or supplies needed. The Summer Survival Calendar keeps kids busy, happy, and engaged during those long, hot summer days—and moms will find it to be a lifesaver when kids exhibit symptoms of the “boredom blues.”  For more information on all that is included, visit here.  Price: $9.00

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Also available is the Summer Survival Guide from Jessica at Life as Mom.

The Summer Survival Guide is a 200+ page ebook full of summertime inspiration for planning family fun. Includes 38 printable and/or customizable pages as well as ideas for home management, emergency preparedness, family fun, and more.  It also includes 100+ family-friendly book and movie suggestions.  To see the table of contents and a sample, visit here.  Price: $9.00

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Next is the 100 Days of Summertime ebook from Jennifer at ListPlanIt.com.

100 Days of Summertime 2012 is a complete guide to making the most of the summertime by getting prepared and staying organized.  It is a daily dose of inspiration & motivation for a summer filled with family, food, and fun! An off shoot of the popular blog series, 100 Days to Christmas, this eBook is a journey that begins around Memorial Day, and leads you step-by-step through the best parts of summertime.  Included are links to 31 lists from ListPlanIt.com for end-of-school planning, summer camp, family vacations, party planning/entertaining, back to school and more!  More information here.  Price: $5.00

Happy summer of fun everyone!!

* beach image source: shutterstock

Fantastic Resources for Surviving the Summer is a post from: I'm an Organizing Junkie

I’m not a technology superstar so I’ve partnered up with someone who is in order to bring you the latest and greatest in the technology world as it relates to organizing and time management.  Every couple of weeks Carley Knobloch, a technology lifestyle expert from Digitwirl, visits us to share some fun yet informative videos on various technology products and services that can help you get organized and simplify your busy life.

Today’s Digitwirl:

Today’s Digitwirl, Orchestra, is a new FREE to-do list app that helps you stay organized with reminders, recurring tasks, real-time sync and voice capture.

SYNC iPhone and web – Recurring REMINDERS
Add tasks via EMAIL – Real-time CHAT
SHARE lists with family and friends
VOICE recognition – Totally FREE!!!

Get started by setting recurring reminders to pay bills and remember birthdays. Make grocery and chore lists and share them with your spouse or roommate to divide and conquer. Plan an event – a wedding, a potluck dinner or a vacation.

I don’t have an iPhone and so couldn’t tell you from experience what I think of it but thankfully Carley’s here to tell us more in the video below.  If anyone decides to give it a go, please let me know what you think.

Notes from Carley:

Orchestra is a task management app that goes so beyond list-making— it connects me to the people in my life who can help me get things done, which helps me get things done more quickly. In other words, it’s my dream come true.

Watch this week’s Twirl to learn how to use this powerful app.

Digitwirl is the weekly web show that offers simple solutions to modern day problems. In 3 minutes, Digitwirl brings busy women the very best time, money, and sanity-saving technology, and then teaches them how to use it, step-by-step. Digitwirl was created by technology lifestyle expert Carley Knobloch, who uses lots of technology to manage her busy life as mom of two and entrepreneur. Become a subscriber to get weekly show alerts and exclusive deals at Digitwirl.com, or follow Digitwirl on Twitter at @digitwirl.

Orchestra ~ A To-Do List App That Delegates is a post from: I'm an Organizing Junkie

Welcome to Menu Plan Monday, so glad you are here!  I have finally switched over to a new host and I can’t believe how super fast my site is now although today will be the big test.  Please, please let me know if you get any sort of error trying to connect and link up to Menu Plan Monday.  I know how frustrating it’s been to get those errors week after week (I would get them just trying to post) so I’m praying all goes well today and it’s smooth sailing ahead.

Today in honor of my new host and hopefully no error messages (!), I’m going to giveaway to one MPM participant, two Taste of Home softcover cookbooks.  You know how I love Taste of Home and these two books are fantastic.

All you have to do to enter is add the link below to your Menu Plan Monday post as usual.  Please link up by Friday morning, May 25th at 9:00 am PST and I will select a winner at random from the list of participants.  No comment required.  If you’ve never participated in MPM before, then today could be your very first time.  Don’t be shy, we’d love to have you join us! :)

Last week we celebrated Teacher Appreciation Week by putting on a luncheon for the teachers.  We kept it simple and ordered in Subway sandwiches and asked parents to bring in salads and desserts.  We purchased beautiful flower arrangements for the tables and gave them away to the teachers afterwards.  It turned out so well and I think the teachers really enjoyed themselves.

Free printables from here and here.

To teachers everywhere, thank you for all you do to help educate our children.  Your dedication doesn’t go unnoticed!!

Menu Planning Resource:

Looking for a new menu planner page?  Check out this super cute What’s For Dinner free printable I found on the internet this week.  Enjoy!

Have a great week everyone!

My Weekly Menu Plan:

Monday:  Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo with Veggies

Tuesday:  Italian Sausage and Potato Roast

Wednesday:  Grilled Steak and Pineapple

Thursday:  Leftover buffet

Friday:  Slow Cooker Sloppy Joes

Saturday:  Farmhouse Chicken Dinner

Sunday:  YOYO (you’re on your own!)

WHAT’S ON YOUR MENU THIS WEEK?  JOIN US!

Menu Plan Guidelines, banner selections and recipe helpers are here.

More family favorite recipes here.

Menu Plan Monday ~ May 21/12 + Giveaway!! is a post from: I'm an Organizing Junkie

Is it Friday again?  Gosh how did that happen?  I only found about 2 hours this week to work on the garage but was still able to make quite a few changes in that time.  Let’s recap shall we:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Tackled this week:

1.   My husband put together his workbench
2.  We concentrated on the corner you see in the above photo…purging and rearranging

Still to do:

1.  Still need to return the sound board to its original owner
2.  Make a decision about what to do with extra empty totes
3.  Would like to figure out some sort of bike rake…currently they are just leaning up against one another
4.  Label, label, label

So if you have been following along with Sharon and I as we tackle our garages, you’ll know we are making progress using the PROCESS steps I put together to take the guess work out of it all.  This week is all about containerizing.  My favorite!!  Containers are super functional in that they help you create limits and boundaries.  A very important tool to help you keep your space organized and chaos free.

For my garage, we’ve purchased a new shelving unit for the back right hand side by the door.  It was $40.00 from Canadian Tire.  This is where I store my picnic bags and coolers, misc kid stuff, my husband’s work boots and other odds and sodds.  Still working on tweaking it a bit.

The other item we purchased was a new work/hobby bench for my husband, also from Canadian Tire.

To store the kid’s hockey sticks, lacrosse sticks, bats, etc I simply use a big cardboard box.  I like it because it’s inexpensive and it’s tall so nothing falls out or gets tippy on me.  It works great.

If you have any questions about anything you see in the pictures, don’t hesitate to ask.  I’ll also post more detailed pictures next week once it’s complete.

Sharon has really been hard at work.  I am so so amazed at how gung ho they are to get it done.  I am also so impressed with something else they have done that is such an important part of this containerize step.

CREATING ZONES

Zones help you create designated areas for everything so all like items are together.  Look at how Sharon has divided her garage loft area into sections:

She gives detail on each in her post this week so be sure to check it out.  I was also thrilled to see how creative they were with shelving.  They had extra doors lying around so her husband added some legs and now they are awesome tables.  Love, love, love that!!  I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again, containerizing doesn’t have to be expensive. Use what you have and get creative with it!

Remember we aren’t creating show rooms here, we are creating functional spaces we can actually use not just look at.

Sharon’s question for me this week is this:

How do I maximize this wall space with regards to all of the kids toys and equipment?

Sharon has about 14 bins of kid’s stuff currently on the floor that could definitely be stored more functionally by making use of all that vertical storage available.

My recommendation for Sharon would be to either add some shelving to the existing studs or add some stand alone shelves in front of the wall.  The shelves should be large enough to accommodate her tote sizes.  Immediately I thought that a few of these inexpensive Gorm shelving units from Ikea would work well.  This is what I would have preferred for my space if I happened to live closer to an Ikea rather than the flimsy resin one I purchased.

It’s hard to tell but I think she might be able to get two totes per shelf side by side.  Of course before purchasing any containerizing system please always measure first!  I would put the totes used by the younger kids on the bottom shelves and move up from there.   These Gorm units also have baskets you can add for even more storage for just $4 each.

Sharon is doing such a great job that I just know whatever she comes up with will be awesome.  I can’t wait to find out!

I also can’t wait to see your garage updates.  If you would like to share where you are with your garage makeover please link up below.  We’d love to have you join us!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

The Great Garage Clean Out Challenge ~ Week Three is a post from: I'm an Organizing Junkie

Paper isn’t pretty. It isn’t fun. It’s practical, tedious and stressful.

Paper piles are easily hidden… at first.

I often debate with myself about how long I should save different papers, where to file papers I want to be able to retrieve, and WHY is CAN’T FIND a paper!

Organization is a hobby and a business for me, maybe you too!

When I finish a room I love to show off my work. But you don’t get that same feeling when you organize your paper. Your friends are not going to rush over and see how pretty your files look!

But slowly overtime the weight of those bloated files and not being able to find that coupon AGAIN build up until… ENOUGH!

I had enough last summer and tackled my paper monster once and for all.

10 Steps to Organized Paper will walk you step by step through organizing every paper you have. Taxes, coupons, photos, birth certificates, it’s all there.

As a former teacher I have written this book in a step by step manner to guide you and encourage you as you tackle your paper.

Part one covers archival paper like old tax records, manuals and kids artwork.

Part two is the daily paper that can be just OVERWHELMING.

You know the daily kid’s book orders, homework, field trip and camp registrations. Then there is the mail that contains coupons, bills and magazines you want to read. Add in a few medical receipts for good measure and you have the beginnings of the average mom’s kitchen paper monster.

I have been using my paper system and helping others do the same for 10 months. And it WORKS!

I have to say, when I was done tackling my paper, my friends really DID come see my files and systems. They too had paper monsters to tackle; they just didn’t know where to begin.

For more information and to purchase please visit my site here.

Lisa is a Cincinnati mom who has struggled the last 12 years to give her kids the best education, food and treatments money can buy. Raising special needs kids is taxing emotionally, relationally, financially and physically. Her dream is to break down the walls isolating special needs families and providing them with information to help them achieve their goals. Lisa blogs at Warrior Mama “Helping busy moms…Manage All Mama’s Assets”. Lisa also shares her organizational tips on her blog Organize365: Helping Busy Mama’s organize their busy lives.

*this post includes affiliate links

Why does paper organization sink to the bottom of our organizational to do list? is a post from: I'm an Organizing Junkie

source: John Beagle

I’ve written before about my love of going out to garage sales each week. Every Friday night my 12 year old son and I head out to see what “treasures” we can find. It’s a great bonding time for us as we drive around town chatting to one another without any interruptions. I really enjoy our date night.

However as we cruise from garage sale to garage sale there is something that drives me a little bit batty. I instantly know when I walk up someone’s driveway whether or not they are garage salers themselves and those particular garage sales are never particularly rewarding for us. I seem to always leave disappointed and empty handed for a variety of reasons. So today I thought I’d share some tips for how to think like a garage saler (even if you’ve never been to one yourself) and how to ensure your customers leave with empty pockets and full arms.

Have Stuff

Of course you need stuff at a garage sale but what I mean is you need more than one table worth of stuff. Garage salers don’t like to waste time hitting up a garage sale without a lot of stock. We are competitive folk for sure and want to get on to the next garage where there is perhaps more selection. Multi-family garage sales always get me excited because you know the selection will be good and the variety even better. If you don’t have enough stuff to hold a garage sale definitely think about teaming up with friends for greater success.

Timing is Important

This is one that really gets me crazy. If the majority of the garage sales in your town start at 8 in the morning, don’t start yours two or three hours later. If at all possible please try and start your garage sale with what is most popular for your area. Us garage salers get out there to do the circuit and then end up killing time waiting for yours to open or worse we just don’t bother going at all. The week or two before your garage sale check the ads to get an idea of what time everyone else starts their garage sales. There is almost always a common time. Go with the flow and you’ll have some happy customers on your hands.

Eliminate the Piles

Oh boy. Why do people holding garage sales think we want to dig through mountains of stuff. We don’t. I see clothes displayed this way all the time but I certainly can’t be bothered because in the back of my mind I’m thinking about the next sale and what I might be missing there. It’s a go go mentality, everyone looking for great stuff at bargain prices. We want to get in and get out quickly. Clothing should be hung up (or at least organized by size on a table or in a box) and anything not easily identified should be labeled so we don’t have to guess. Because we won’t. We’ve got to go.

source: Chiot's Run

Price It Right

The #1 problem with attending the garage sale of a non-garage saler is their prices are often way to high. Prices should be lower at garage sales than if you were to sell your wares any place else. Garage sales are exciting for one reason only….garage sale prices. No one cares if you just bought the item a week ago and barely used it. We want a deal. You want to make some cash. When that combination works, it works beautifully. So price your stuff lower earlier in the day rather than waiting until the end to reduce your prices. The last thing you want to do is have to haul it all off afterwards to the dump or thrift store. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, it’s just more work and you’ll be exhausted after all the work you’ve put in hosting the sale in the first place. I also prefer when everything IS priced at garage sales. It’s just faster for me to assess the situation and be on my way.  If you use stickers like in the picture above (check your local dollar store) it will be quick and easy for you to get the pricing job done.

Do Away With The Junk

Okay this one is tricky because junk to one person means something entirely different to someone else. However it’s probably safe to say that no one wants your stained and ripped shirts, cracked dishware or puzzles missing pieces. It will only turn your customers off and make them want to run for the hills. Ask yourself if this is something you would buy at a garage sale. If it’s not something you would consider buying then it’s probably a good indication that you shouldn’t try selling it either.

source: eastlaketimes

Advertise, Advertise, Advertise

Advertising is crucial for a successful sale. It’s hard to make money without attracting any customers. Pay attention to where all the other garage sales are advertised. Often that’s bulletin boards or street poles. If that’s where you’ll be advertising make sure it’s legible. Neon paper and big Sharpie letters are ideal. As well if you predict a hint of rain put your sign in a Ziploc bag to protect it. If the majority of garage sales in your town are advertised in the paper or on Craigslist/Kijiji then that’s what you’ll need to do as well. Also check Facebook because there may be a specific garage sale page for your location. It doesn’t hurt either, on garage sale day, to put a big sign at the end of your street with balloons directing people right to your door.

Overall I think the important thing to remember is you want to make it as easy as possible for your customers to get in and get out. You don’t have to be a garage saler yourself to host a successful garage sale and hopefully the tips I listed above will help you do just that.

Personally I don’t like holding garage sales myself (so much work!) but I don’t think I’ll ever stop being a fan of attending them especially as long as I get to hang out with my son while I do it.

Are you a garage saler? Do you have a garage sale pet peeve?

Garage Sale Tips for the Non-Garage Saler is a post from: I'm an Organizing Junkie

Updated:  I’m so sorry if you are still having problems getting onto my site.  This has been a very painful experience for me as I try to correct the problem.  If anyone has any suggestions for me or a hosting company to recommend (I’m currently with Bluehost) please let me know.  Thanks!

Hi everyone and Happy Belated Mother’s Day! I hope you all had a wonderfully relaxing day yesterday. We started the day off at church and then went for a long family walk in the woods. It was a beautiful sunny day and so nice to be out enjoying it. I then was treated to a yummy Chinese dinner that I didn’t have to cook. So sweet!

flower from church

Earlier in the week I was also treated to these simple Cinnamon Roll biscuits made by my daughter (15).  She simply uses a basic baking powder biscuit dough to make them.  So good!

Also last week’s recipe highlight goes to the Creamy Caesar Chicken Pasta Bake.  Delicious!!!  Did anyone else try it?

My Weekly Menu:

Monday: Oven Tacos (missed from last week)

Tuesday:  Tangy Grilled Pork Chops served with baked potatoes and broccoli

Wednesday:  Easy Garlic Chicken served with perogies and corn

Thursday:  Leftover buffet

Friday:  Pizza Spaghetti Bake

Saturday:  Smiley Face Pancakes

Sunday: YOYO (you’re on your own!)

WHAT’S ON YOUR MENU THIS WEEK?  JOIN US!

Menu Plan Guidelines, banner selections and recipe helpers are here.

More family favorite recipes here.

One of my favorite menu planning resources:

Menu Plan Monday ~ May 14/12 is a post from: I'm an Organizing Junkie

We are back!  How are you all making out?  This weekend I was dragging my feet I tell you.  Of course it could have something to do with the HOURS I spent trying to teach my youngest how to ride a two wheeler, talk about painful!  When we got back to the house I was already exhausted and not really wanting to tackle the garage.  It just felt like it would take hours to make headway.  Oh the stories we tell ourselves.  I decided to spend an hour working on the garage and whatever I got done would be better than if I did nothing at all.  My husband had already done a pretty big purge so I spent some time moving things around to make more efficient use of the space.  It didn’t feel like I’d done too much until I started looking back at the before pictures.

I went from this two weeks ago:

To this:

So much stuff went to the dump or second hand store.  You’ll also notice my husband cut one of the shelves down to make room for a new workbench he’ll be putting in.  Also the keyboard will hopefully be going back to it’s owner soon.

And from this on the other side:

To this:

I’m most excited about being able to access my freezer now without having to climb over anything.  Woohoo!  So it’s coming along, yay.  And now I’m feeling a little more energized about it.  This is why I highly recommend taking those before pictures.  We forget sometimes how far we’ve come but rather focus on how far we still have to go.  I’ve still got a way to go but seeing the progress like that is such an encouraging boost that motivates me to want to continue.

So this week sees us working on step O and C of the PROCESS.  My two favorite steps at that.  First up ORGANIZE.  This very important step includes:

Organize into piles – donate/toss/sell/keep/relocate – sort like with like – purge excess – the more you purge the less you have to find a home. Ask yourself some declutter questions.  Your goal is to bring back into your space only what you love and use and can fit into the space you have available. Purge until it fits!

Then and only then can we move onto CONTAINING all that remains.

Containerize – find storage solutions – containers establish limits and boundaries – designate a space for items being kept – consolidate where possible.

Sharon from Momof 6 has been busy working on her garage as well.  I love how she walks through each of the above steps as she works to organize and contain her stuff.  She is doing such a fantastic job, I am so very impressed.  You’ve got to go check out her post from this week to see what she’s been up to and how far she’s come.  It’s very inspiring!!

Check out some of her purge piles:

Love it!  So Sharon’s question for me this week is:

Many people (ourselves included) keep items in the garage that relate to home maintenance- the mostly-empty paint cans from our house exterior and trim (in case we need to do a touch-up or as a color reference for when we want to re-paint), or left-over scraps of hardwood from when we installed the floors, etc. But do we need to save all of these things? What is really worthwhile to keep? (And how we do convince our husbands of this?)

So I guess there are two pieces to this question….whether or not to keep all the bits and pieces of home repair and whether or not we can decide for our husbands just to turf it all?  Ha!  Certainly turfing it all would be the easiest option because less stuff means less to organize and less to contain.  Quick, faster, easier.  BUT you know I can’t tell you to do that.  Husbands can be very particular about their stuff and until their ready to turf it themselves, we’ve got to respect that.  We can however offer some suggestions on how to organize and contain it all so that it takes up minimal space.  Hopefully you’ll be able to compromise on the amount to keep but you might also have to get creative with your storage solutions as well to make room.  For example here is a great post on how to store leftover paint in mason jars.  I love how much less space it takes up.  Smart!

For more ideas and inspiration check out my Garage Pinterest Board.  I spent quite a bit of time updating it today and there are many great ideas over there for helping you get your garage organized.

So now it’s YOUR turn to show us your garage progress in The Great Garage Clean Out Challenge.  Link up below!!

The Great Garage Clean Out Challenge ~ Week Two is a post from: I'm an Organizing Junkie

Containers bring me inner peace.

If I had not been a toddler in the 80s, I would probably have sold Tupperware.  Things have a way of growing legs and spreading all over your house. From the shoes you kick off at the door, to the bag of groceries you bring in from the car, to (my personal unfavorite) the junk mail that multiplies no matter what you do.

Here are a few of the containers that I have bought or re-purposed that make my Type A self say, “Ahhh…” when I see them in action.

Since I have long, skinny drawers in my bathroom, these white baskets keep things corralled. I can’t fit a third organizer in the back so a few items are roaming free back there. Although it may not be a perfect fit for everything I need, I saved money by using containers I already had.

My new favorite way to organize bobby pins. This is an old first aid travel kit that is a little bigger than an altoids tin (which also makes good container for bobby pins).

I threw away several old spices during my 7 Days of 7 Throw Aways week and I re-purposed this one to hold toothpicks.

This basket was just sitting in a closet and I now use it to house bathroom essentials we keep on the counter.  I really don’t like clearing off the sink to clean it every week. So this basket is amazing because it holds a lot, is nice and sturdy, and I can just pick up the basket and move it when it’s time to clean.

An old container for sprinkles holds our headphones.

This red table in our entryway serves as a place to keep shoes, keys, papers, and mail until it is sorted and filed.

What containers in your house can be re-purposed to make your life easier?

Rebecca is a former educator turned stay-at-home mom (for now). She loves exercising, reading, and blogging about her adventures as a wife and new mom at D and R Tabb.

Container Organization is a post from: I'm an Organizing Junkie

So I bought a new friend, a lovely new shoe tree friend.  She was only $20 in a discount store (Fields for those of you in Canada) so I just couldn’t pass her up.  These go for a lot more in specialty organizing shops for sure.  Besides she called my name when I walked by and I could tell she was lonely.

I originally thought I’d put her in my bedroom closet for my dress shoes because there wasn’t any room in my entryway closet.  However I’d really rather have all my most frequently worn shoes in the entryway closet as that’s where I need them as I’m walking out the door.  It just makes sense.

I forgot to take a before picture of the entry closet before I got started but here is an old picture.  However see those empty shelves on the tall white shelf?  Well just imagine them stuffed full of shoes instead because that’s what ended up happening.  With 5 people in the house and a daughter that now wears the same size shoe as I do, shoes were everywhere.

The shoes were piled up on top of one another and it wasn’t ideal because shoes would get pretty dirty that way.  So I removed the white storage unit (I haven’t quite figured out what to do with it next) and added my brand new shoe tree instead.

Better right?  We also did some shoe purging as well which definitely helped :)  I’m using the shoe tree to hold mostly mine and my daughter’s dressier shoes for now.  I love that it spins around for easy access!!

Unfortunately there’s a kicker though.  This shoe tree is supposed to hold six pairs of shoes per ring for a total of 18 shoes all together.  However I found I couldn’t fit all the shoes side by side without them bunching up and overlapping one another.  So I had to leave a space between each pair which meant I could only get four pairs of shoes per ring for a total of 12 pairs of shoes.  Still a decent amount in a small space though so I am happy with it so far.  If you were storing all small kid’s shoes on it you could definitely use all the spaces I’m sure and store more.

You’ll notice that we also store shoes in different ways on either side of the shoe tree.  We have the shelves on the left which hold quite a few and then my shoe organizer that hangs from the bar on the right.  Whew, 5 people generate a lot of shoes!

Do you use a shoe tree in your house?  What do you think of it?

Shoe Tree Organization is a post from: I'm an Organizing Junkie