Become Better Organized in the New Year

Stick to your plan to become a better organized mom by purchasing a day planner from momAgenda.com. As long as you remember to fill it out, you’re bound to have a successful new year! Thanks to the folks over at Lifehacker.com for finding this tidbit.

momAgenda is an original day planner created for mothers, by a mother. This stylish and functional planner helps eliminate chaos and restore order to the scheduling challenges that go with parenting. Its unique, week at a view layout features separate spaces for mom and each child, allowing moms to manage multiple schedules with ease!

Junk Drawer Wars

Admit it… you have a junk drawer. Is it in the kitchen? Or hidden in your bedroom? Junk drawers are notorious for growing and taking over other drawers. You can combat junk drawer migration by following these suggestions:

Sort: First, you have to know what’s in it. Find a space to dump it out and sort it. There’s stuff that should go in there (in ours: extra batteries, spare keys, friend’s keys, parking permits, a small accordion file for museum membership cards and takeout menus) and stuff that shouldn’t (screws, tools).

Return: stuff that should go elsewhere should go elsewhere. Put the screws and tools back in the toolbox, the working pens in their place, the broken pencils in the garbage, donate the old eyeglasses.

Rethink: for items that should go elsewhere, make sure there’s a place for them so similar items don’t end up here a few months hence. For example, have a place to put items you need to keep for your taxes so old movie ticket stubs don’t end up here again.

Head over to the Unclutterers blog to learn some more great tips to tame those wily drawers!

Become an Organized Parent

We know that being organized will help us get through the day, but sometimes it’s forgotten on a hectic day. In order to regain control of our home lives (and for some of us our work lives!) we need to discover how organized we actually are and where we need to improve. Jen over at Handytipsandhints.com has put together a list of 14 questions every mom should ask herself to determine how organized they really are. Check it out and see how you rate! For example:

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5. Do you have books and magazines piled up that you have meant to read?
6. Do you usually put off work assignments until the last minute and rationalize as you are better at rising to the occasion during crunch time.
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Ultimate (Cheap!) Birthday Party

When my son turned three this October I was suddenly faced with the dilemma of how to throw him the best birthday party ever without spending every dime I had in the bank. Thanks to Julie Rains at Wisebread.com I was able to plan a party using her advice:

I have finally realized that there are many components to party planning and each has a dimension of time and cost to consider:

Venue

Activities

Food

Decorations

Treat bags

Learn her tips for each of these areas to throw a party that makes everyone happy. I’ll add in my own tip: if your child attends daycare arrange with the teacher to hold a party there!