Kick Off the School Year with an Organized Plan Back-to-school – is it really almost here? What happened to the summer? If the idea of getting ready for a new school year gives you a panic attack, here are some tips to help ease the stress and plan for success. Identify a space to store school-related stuff, papers, mails, coats, etc. It could be an actual mudroom, closet, or even just a wall near the door. Key element is it needs to be right next to your primary entrance.

Do you have a sock orphanage? A collection of single socks with missing mates? I did. Where do they go? It makes me wonder if there is a sock gremlin, an evil creature lurking in the house waiting to steal just one sock from a set, just to make me crazy. So I end up with tons of matchless socks, and don’t know what to do with them. I tried to make sock matching a game for my kids, but they soon caught on to how onerous this task is. My daughter finally gave up and started we

Back to school! After a really crazy, uncomfortable, challenging and often frustrating year and a half, many of our kids are (finally!) going back to school in person. As exciting as this is, it’s often a very stressful time for parents! Getting school supplies, backpacks, prepping for after-school sports and activities, there is a lot to do. Here are some proven tips to organize the whole process and de-stress your upcoming school year. School Supplies. Get your supplies lis

Whether you have a small kitchen (like mine) or a sprawling open concept with dedicated food storage space, it’s very easy for things to get out of hand in a pantry! Have you ever reached in to your pantry to pull something out only to trigger an avalanche of boxes, cans, and snack packets on your head? Scary, isn’t it… Pantries qualify as an “essential function” as far as I’m concerned because you use them everyday, multiple times per day. They can be a constant source of fr

My husband and I mistakenly went food shopping the same night without communicating. Why is this a problem? Our kitchen is tiny, with no extra space for anything. So I’m looking at the duplicates we both brought home of nuts, dried fruit, granola, frozen fruit, and fresh produce, and thinking – “how can I organize this mess?” I’ve never been a fan of decanting stuff into containers (like cereal, pasta, flour, etc.) It just seemed like too much work. Well, I’m changing my tune

We all want our homes to look “Instagram-ready,” don’t we? TV shows like “The Home Edit” and “Tidying Up Like Marie Kondo” inspire us to live the clutter-free lifestyle. That is, perfectly organized, color coded, visually attractive and neat. The best way to do this is one room at a time. Try to do more and you’ll quickly get overwhelmed and want to stop for a cup of coffee or glass or wine, never to return to the project. Which is now a heap of stuff in a pile, even worse th

“...cause you don’t love me anymore….” Getting rid of stuff is HARD! You have emotional attachments and memories that each thing holds – either to a person, place, or special time in your life. But if you no longer love it, it's time to let go. How could you possibly get rid of your daughter’s pre-school clay creation she gave you for Mother’s Day? Or the expensive tap shoes you bought when you decided to try tap (and hated it)? Or – worst of all – the purple sequined sombre