OK, you get it – I hate laundry.  But I did hear a really good tip that has helped me with keeping the laundry under control.  I heard it from someone at the hair salon a few weeks ago and it really works.  She suggested that you get rid of hampers, or if you use a hamper you clean it out every day and bring the laundry for the entire family to one central location.  Get three laundry baskets and sort the clothes by lights, darks and whites.  I actually do four because I wash towels and sheets separately.  You sort the clothes out at the end of ever day and then whatever basket is full you do that load of laundry that day.  Some days you might have two loads, some days you might not have a full load and don’t do any laundry at all.

What this does is save me time and energy.  If I run downstairs after the boys go to sleep I can throw a load of clothes in quickly.  If I forget to put them in the dryer that night before I go to bed, I go and throw them in the dryer first thing in the morning.  I try to time the dryer cycle to end while we are having breakfast.  The boys are in their booster chairs and I fold clothes while they eat.  Once they finish breakfast they help me to put their clothes away.

I know this might sound silly or stupid, but it really does work.  You don’t have to struggle carrying heavy hampers down the steps to your laundry, or sort through piles of dirty clothes to get your loads together.  Plus this method puts an end to those days when it seems as if your washer and dryer are running constantly.  I don’t think it cuts down on the number of loads of laundry you do – I think it just makes it easier on the person responsible for doing the laundry.

Try to get your baby in a routine of sleep.  You may find that when they are sleeping is the best time for you to do household cleaning.  This may require adjusting your schedule – if you are using to cleaning in the morning, you may have to clean at night – but you can still find a little time. 

The good news is once your baby reaches the age of 2 or 3, he or she may be willing to help you.  That age is a great time to teach them to pick up their own toys.  Purchasing them child cleaning toys is also a great idea.  While they may not be of much help to you, it will make them feel great to help you and their “cleaning” should allow you a bit of time to do what you need.

If you find that you just don’t have enough time, don’t feel bad because you are not superwoman.  Ask your husband or significant other to help out, by either watching the baby or doing a few household chores.  With the invention of items such as the Swiffer and Magic Eraser, cleaning house is easier than ever before.

Start by taking everything out of the medicine cabinet.  Give it a good cleaning with white vinegar and baking soda or with a disinfecting cleaner.  While the cabinet is drying, take everything out of the box and examine it carefully.  Throw away any outdated or expired prescriptions.  Remove the labels from the bottles before throwing them away.  Go through your over the counter medicines and remedies.  Get rid of anything that has expired.  If you have two bottles of something, either get rid of the older bottle or mark it clearly with permanent marker that it should be used first.

Since you’re going through what you have in your medicine cabinet, take a moment to see if you are missing any kind of treatments or medicines.  Don’t forget to buy replacements for the outdated medicines you threw out.  Some of the things you might want to make sure you have in your medicine cabinet include:

• Antibiotic cream
• Several different sizes of Band-aids
• Cotton swabs and cotton balls for applying topical medicines
• Stomach medicines to treat diarrhea, heartburn and nausea
• Allergy medication like Benadryl
• Cough and cold medicine
• Vapor rub
• Topical pain treatments like Aspercreme or Absorbine Jr.

When you put everything back you might want to prioritize based on what you use on a daily basis.  Any medicines should be well out of the reach of children.

On a regular basis go through your medicine cabinet to make sure you have all the supplies you need and that nothing has expired.  This way you’ll always have the medicine you need on hand.  What could be worse than getting a cold and not having cough medicine, or needing some over the counter medicine in the middle of the night to find out you don’t have it in the house?

Here are the basic items every nursery needs:

A place for the baby to sleep.  When your baby first comes home from the hospital you’ll most likely want them to sleep in your bedroom so a cradle or bassinet is the right choice.  Once the baby is old enough for a crib you’ll need a crib and mattress.  When registering for these items don’t forget the blankets, waterproof pads and lots of sheets.  It stinks to be doing laundry at 3 in the morning because you’re out of clean sheets for the crib and your child has thrown up again and needs a clean set of linens.  Be cautious if using a hand-me-down crib.  Make sure it meets the current safety requirements.

A mobile for the crib.  The motion and music of a mobile are very soothing for your child as he drifts off to sleep.

Baby monitor.  There are many different choices on the market today.  If your finances allow, go for the video monitor.  That way you can keep an eye on your child without having to go into her room and risk waking her up.

A place to store your child’s clothes, such as a dresser or a set of rolling drawers.

A changing table.  You’re going to be changing a lot of diapers, so be sure to make the changing station a comfortable location for both you and the baby.  A basket or organizer for your diapers and changing supplies is also helpful.

A rocking chair.  You don’t have to spend a fortune on a rocking chair.  The one in the nursery in our home came from a used furniture store and it cost me $25.

There are so many other things you can add to your nursery like stuffed animals, hampers and a toy box, but these are the basic items you’ll need to get your nursery up and running.

First, go through everything in the room.  Are there things in the room that really don’t belong there?  For example, does your child have a bookshelf in the family room where his books should be stored, not in the toy box in their room?  Does your child have some toys that she no longer plays with or has outgrown?  Take them out and give to a friend or donate to a charity.  How about clothes?  Since you’re organizing everything else now is the time to go through the dressers and closet and pull out clothes that your child no longer wears or has outgrown.

Next, decide what you need to have to do your child’s room organized.  You might need to buy some hooks, shoe racks, storage bins or other items to keep things under control.  Don’t overlook things you currently have in your home that can make great storage containers.  Diaper wipe boxes make great holders for art supplies.  Laundry baskets can be a good place to store toys.

Take a look around the room and see where you can utilize space.  If your child has some special things she wants to keep safe, a shelf on the wall could be the answer.  Don’t forget about unused space on the wall over a window or closet as a place to put shelves.  Over the door storage hooks or shoe containers, under bed storage containers, and plastic storage boxes that fit on the top shelf of a closet are also great tools to utilize the space you have.  Once you’ve decided what you need to do and where you can store things go to the store to purchase what you need.  Hooks in the closet or on the wall are a great place for your child to hang her book bag, bathrobe, and coat.

Label everything so your child knows where to put things when she is finished with them.  If your child can’t read, consider using labels with pictures or color-coding toy bins (the red bin is for your cars, the blue one for your action figures, etc.).

Finally, begin teaching your children about the responsibility for cleaning at an early age.  For young children you can make it a “pick up” game before bath time so they learn that they need to put their toys away at the end of every day.  You can also try to set some ground rules and limits about toys with your child.  For example, if you want to play with your tea set then you need to put away your fashion dolls first.

• Go to your local home improvement store and buy some large boxes, duct tape, heavy duty garbage bags, and hooks.  (If you can afford it and have the space, maybe buy some new shelving units.)  Take everything (yes, everything) out of the garage.  Try to sort the items by type as you take them out so it will be easier to organize them later.
• Once the garage is empty, sweep it out the best you can.
• Put the things you are throwing away into garbage bags right away.  Don’t even bring them back into your garage – leave them at the curb or on the side of the garage.
• If you have some items that are in good shape, how about a garage sale?  Put these items in boxes and mark them appropriately.
• Perhaps there’s a better place to put the shelving units and new hooks?  Get everything all organized inside the garage before returning the “stuff”.
• Find appropriate places for everything you are keeping and put it away.

Finally, just finally, you might be able to use your garage again for parking your car.

No matter what, take the time to keep your garage in its new clean and organized state.  Hopefully you won’t need these cleaning and organization tips again!

• Use toilet bowl cleaner on the inside of your toilet and allow to sit while you do the next few steps.
• Empty the trash can, and replace with a clean plastic liner.
• Get all the dirty clothes into the hamper.
• Use a disinfectant cleaning spray to clean the sink, tub and counter.
• Use a bathroom cleaner to clean the inside of your shower (my favorite is Scubbing Bubbles).  Use the hose from your shower to rinse down the inside walls.
• Scrub the inside of your toilet with a brush.  Clean the outside of the toilet bowl and toilet seat with a disinfectant cleaning spray.
• Use a glass spray like Windex to clean your mirrors.
• Sweep and mop the floor.  (I like to use a Swiffer dry cloth and then a Swiffer wet cloth for quick clean up.)

Thank goodness the dirty job is over.  Taking a few steps every day will help to keep your bathroom clean and make the weekly cleaning job easier. What can you do?

• Use a shower spray cleaner after every shower.  Get your husband and older children involved and ask them to do this task themselves every day.
• Use disinfectant cleaning wipes (like Clorox wipes) to wipe down the outside of the toilet bowl and toilet seat every night.
• Wipe down the counter and sink every night.
• Empty the trash can every day.

Keeping your bathroom organized will make it easier to keep it clean.  Put hooks on the wall for your hair dryer and curling irons.  Get some cheap plastic boxes to store your bobby pins, scrunchies, and such.  Keep the cabinet under the sink stocked with paper towels and cleaning supplies to make the daily cleaning easier.

Taking a little time every day will help to make the chore of cleaning the bathroom so much easier.  It’s worth the ten or fifteen minutes every day to prevent a disgusting job every weekend.

• Use soft bristle brooms when sweeping. You can also try a Swiffer dry mop for cleaning. It’s soft and won’t scratch your floor.
• If you vacuum your floor, use the brush attachment so you don’t scratch the wood.
• Use a soft towel to immediately clean any spills, then dry with a clean towel. Water will damage hardwood floors.
• If your hardwood floor is located in a high-traffic area, consider using a carpet runner or area rug to protect the floor. Keep the carpets clean so the dirt doesn’t seep into the floor.
• If you wax your floor make sure it is safe for the floor. Check with the manufacturer of the flooring to see you are using the correct product.

With a little extra care your hardwood floors can last for many years.

Go to your nearest discount department store or home improvement store.  Buy several Rubbermaid type storage containers, a shoe rack, an under-the-bed storage box, wall hooks, and at least a dozen hangars to replace the broken ones and wire ones in your closet.

When you get home with your new purchases, set aside a few hours to do nothing but work on your closet.  Get your partner or husband to take the children out to the movies or lunch so you’ll have uninterrupted time to work on this project.

Now that you’re ready with the time and the supplies:

• Take everything (yes, EVERYTHING) out of your closet.
• Be merciless as you go through all the clothes, shoes, purses, and belts in your closet.  What ones do you actually wear?  What ones actually fit?  Determine the ones you want to keep and put them aside.  Put the rest in a pile.
• Sort your clothes by in season and out of season.
• Put all your out of season purses in one box, shirts/blouses in another box, and pants/skirts in a third box.  (If you don’t have the room you can put all the clothing in one box.)  Label the boxes so you can find them easily and put on the top shelf of your closet.
• Assemble your shoe rack and put in the back of your closet.  Line up your shoes on the shoe rack.
• Put your in-season clothes back in the closet on your new hangars.  Organize all your tops in one group, skirts in another, slacks in another.
• While you’re cleaning the closet take care of the rest of your bedroom.  Get rid of any old magazines or papers.  Organize all your jewelry in one location.  Take a few minutes to go through your dresser drawers and sort your clothes the same way.  Use your under-the-bed storage container for blankets, heavy sweaters, etc.
• Place the unwanted items in garbage bags and take to your local Goodwill or Salvation Army right away.  Don’t consider this job finished until you do this last step or you’ll have garbage bags in your nicely organized closet.

Consider what you do in your home office space to determine what supplies are actually necessary. Of course you’re going to need the basics like pens, paper, envelopes, and Post-It notes, but do you need to have a large, clumsy filing cabinet or can you work with a small plastic container? What computer accessories do you actually need? If you share this space with your children your answer will be different than if your children have their own computer and all you do online is pay some bills, work with your personal financial software and read emails.

The biggest problem most face in their home office space is clutter . There are a few things you can do to cut down on the amount clutter in this work area:

• Get rid of junk mail right away. If you can, locate your shredder and trash can near the door to dispose of it immediately. Don’t put it in a pile to take care of later – later never comes!
• Purchase the smallest filing system that works for your needs. Most people don’t need to have a large filing cabinet, but can work with a smaller filing container. Clean out the container after you’ve completed your taxes for the previous year and put the documents you must keep in a banker’s box in your garage or attic.
• Even better, scan and save to CD older documents you need to keep. A scanned copy of an original document is usually as good as the original. CDs take up a lot less space than paper files. Store your CDs in a fireproof box or in your safe deposit box since this is your only original document.
• You can find some great storage containers for office supplies at your discount store or your local office supply store. A covered child’s art box or supply box is a great place to keep everything and can be stored under the desk when you don’t need them.
• If space is really a problem and you can afford to do so, purchase computer equipment that uses less space. Flat panel monitors are coming down in price and take up a lot less space on your desktop. If you’re technologically savvy you can get a wireless print server in your home. Your printer doesn’t need to be connected directly to your computer so you can place it on a counter nearby or even on a different floor of your home! A laptop computer is the best of all worlds if you don’t have the space for an office. You can put your filing system and office supply box in a storage closet and pull them out when it’s time to do some work.