Which is better? A. Brushing your teeth twice a day, or…B. Brushing your teeth every Saturday 14 times? A. Mowing your lawn each week, or…B. Doing one colossal annual lawn-mowing? If you said "A" for both questions, you've got the right idea. REGULAR MAINTENANCE is the better way to manage things that require constant attention. Take… Read more »
Household Management
8 Ways to Get Your Financial Act Together
Now more than ever, we need to get our financial houses in order… here are eight ways to organize yourself to climb out of the hole! 1. If you have ever moved, changed banks, or just been a little disorganized with your bills, you may have unclaimed money waiting for you in old accounts. Why not start… Read more »
“Overdoers Anonymous”
I am often amazed at the list of activities we hear about our clients and members doing. People are doing all of the normal things in life along with things like homeschooling, cooking everything from scratch, growing and canning food, making their own clothing, caring for aging parents, volunteering, and the list goes on. Add… Read more »
Found Money: Did You Forget About That Account?
Disorganized financial accounts, today’s mobile society, and other factors have combined to create huge lists of unclaimed property. Something as simple as a forgotten utility company deposit may have ended up in state coffers just waiting to be claimed by the rightful owner. Could this be you? You can go to www.unclaimed.org to find a… Read more »
Make More Money Donating Your Stuff
I have always been a fan of It’s Deductible, when it was first a book, then software, then when it got acquired by Intuit and bundled with TurboTax. It’s like the "Blue Book" for giving you the fair market value for your donated household items like clothing, toys, and decorating accessories. When people drop off… Read more »
What Are Your Emergency Plans?
Being organized means being prepared. This weekend in Austin we had some very severe weather, and last night I happened to catch a show on New Orleans and the upcoming hurricane season. Both things brought to mind the need for a family emergency plan… here are some questions to answer: How would you and your… Read more »
Label the Light Switches
Someone was visiting my home recently and commented on the light switch labels we have…I have always done this in every home we've lived in, because I get confused! So it's just a natural thing to label the things that confuse me so I won't make the same mistakes over and over. Here is a… Read more »
Spring Cleaning Time
It’s a blustery day here in Austin, and spring is here! Our trees are budding and we had the annual Zilker Park Kite Festival yesterday. People ask me a lot about "spring cleaning" this time of year, and I recently contributed an article to Connections for Women about just that. Click here to read the… Read more »
Get Organized Modularly
Wow! Pottery Barn has come up with a very cool modular system for what we at Clutter Diet refer to as the "Communication Station" for your family. It’s called the "Daily System," and it consists of a display rod that is mounted to your wall, with components that slide onto the rod as you see… Read more »
What’s For Dinner??
If you don’t know about Dream Dinners, you should! It’s one of the best ways to save time and solve the classic "what’s for dinner" problem. You register for a session and go there about once a month to prepare your meals… they have salad-bar-like stations where you assemble the meals, such as Steak Gorgonzola… Read more »
