Survived!

We've been in the new house for almost a YEAR!  I can hardly believe it.  When we moved in with our three little people, one a brand new baby...I was positively overwhelmed.  We moved about 700 miles in a very short time and quickly began the process of gutting-everything.  I can't wait to get my little blogging issue with photo storage resolved because I'm ready to start posting some before/after pics.  There's still so much "finishing" to do.  But I'm happy to report that we have floors in every room and two finished bathrooms and that, my friends,  is a GOOD thing.  :) 

I love to organize.  We've It has been a struggle to organize much of anything (beyond the necessities) for several reasons. 

1. Baby's first year (I like to think of the first year as "survival mode" which leaves little to no time for big organizational projects)
2. Determining designated spaces for things -  trying to find the best function and flow so that I can organize accordingly

Links for some of my favorite organizational "tools":

Weekly Chore Chart  I print one for each child to use on a weekly basis, and 5 for me-one for each week of the month.  I do this  because each week looks a little bit different.  Some chores like laundry and bathrooms remain the same, but chores like dusting the fans and cleaning the glass doors only happen once or twice a month.  I assign tasks to the weekly chore chart based on my master household management checklist.  Here's what mine looks like or you can download one just like the one below-or create your own.

Household Management/Checklist  I assign tasks to the weekly chore chart based on these "master" checklists. 

A Usual Day  This is a great starting point for time management.  Start by printing a copy for each day of the week and fill it in as you go.  This is a great way to see how you spend your day.  Maybe you'll discover that you have more idle time than you realized or maybe you need to look for ways to create margin.  Or, maybe it'll be an encouragement to you as you see all that you actually accomplish in a day!  :)

And here is my favorite most favoritest (not a word, but I'm making a point here!) set of downloads.  Simple Mom rocks.  Here, you can download a master weekly checklist, a preschoolers weekly chore chart, grocery list by category, a daily docket (to do), and many more cool organizational tools.