My housekeeping tip for you...

[~Heather~]

Roll your towels ladies!

None of this flat business. Roll them up.
I gained a whole shelf in my lined closet by doing this.:p

[Kathy-PSPR]

Great idea!!! I never thought about doing that with towels, I do the bedding like that though.=) Sheets and pillow cases stay together.

[Lisa]

Yeah, I had an ex-boyfriend who taught me that trick. He was an extreme neat freak and had the cleanest closets I'd ever seen. That's probably why he's an EX-boyfriend. :p

[TerrellS]

A little something else I wanted to point out. Since I lost more than half of my stuff when we moved and my box of important papers was among the loss I STRONGLY SUGGEST scanning all of your important paperwork. Not only does it cut down on tons of papers but it can help save your sanity if the originals get lost. Anything from bills, to contracts, divorce papers, kids birth certificates, EVERYTHING, scan it and put it on cd's or dvds. If you do your car insurance online and some other items like bank statements, you can save them to a pdf file and burn that as well. Break the paperwork up into months or quarters so it's easier to find if you need to refer to it later. Most of the actual papers you can then throw out except for items with a seal or whatever like bonds, birth certificates etc but at least God Forbid you loose the originals (fire, flood, moving etc) you have a copy that you can use until you get replacements.

[Shanners]

Good suggestions, girls. Thanks!

[kittenb]

Great Thanx! I will try this cause we have a ton of towels!

[CanDesigns]

I think we should have a thread with handy tips that we all have, what do you think???

[~Heather~]

Well did you roll your towels yet? You have to do it just to see how handy that tip is!

Originally Posted by CanDesigns

I think we should have a thread with handy tips that we all have, what do you think???

[~Heather~]

OK I saw this earlier and really didn't know what to say to it. However here I am eons later and I still snicker when I read this. I have no problems with neat freaks as long as THEY do all the work!:p
I am not a neat freak just someone who had no room in her linen closet! LOL

Originally Posted by Lisa

Yeah, I had an ex-boyfriend who taught me that trick. He was an extreme neat freak and had the cleanest closets I'd ever seen. That's probably why he's an EX-boyfriend. :p

[Shanners]

I'd like to see a pick of rolled towels in a closet, please. I keep picturing it, and in my mind, they keep coming unrolled! I may try it, though. I wish I had some good household tips to share, but I don't. I do appreciate advice, though! So I think a thread along those lines would be fun.

[Lisa]

I am not a neat freak just someone who had no room in her linen closet! LOL

I wish I WAS a neat freak. I admire anyone that can keep their house clean with kids running around. Who am I kidding...I couldn't even keep it clean when I didn't have kids. LOL! I remind myself of Pigpen off Charlie Brown. Clutter just seems to resonate from my pores. I've gotten much better, but I have to REALLY work at it. One thing I've had success with is the 15 minute routine. I work on whatever I want for 45 minutes (designing, being with the kids, watching T.V.) and then I clean for 15 minutes. If something is going to take more than 45 minutes, I add 15 minutes to the cleaning afterwards. It really does work for me and doesn't make things as daunting. And I found that I actually clean faster.

I'm currently in the process of getting rid of clothes. I'm a clothes packrat. I always tell myself that I will fit back into things one day. I actually did get back to my high school weight 4 years after James was born, but then got pregnant again that same week. I figure if I have to wait around another 4 years to get back to that weight again that those clothes will be WAY out of style by then. So I keep telling myself that it will feel so much better not to have so many loads of clothes that are unwashed or to have a more organized closet.

[~Heather~]

You should check out fly lady! Great tips for cleaning and organizing. I always have a shiny clean sink thanks to her.

You don't have to do the whole Fly Lady routine, just take what you need from it. I never thought about cleaning the top of my door till I read her site.:p

Do not whatever you do sign up for emails. I was getting 20 a day telling me to clean this, clean that. Lady I am trying to digi scrap, quit telling me to clean.:eek:

[Lisa]

Do not whatever you do sign up for emails. I was getting 20 a day telling me to clean this, clean that. Lady I am trying to digi scrap, quit telling me to clean.

Hahahaha! That's a great site! I have bookmarked it to look at later. I just went in and checked out the beginner's baby steps to cleaning. The first thing they want you to do is shine your sink. Well, I have two problems with that. First, my sink is a nasty dull brown color (naturally :p). It doesn't shine. Next, and probably more importantly, there is a ton of dirty dishes in it. To actually clean it would mean cleaning the dishes. Ummm...that's like my least liked chore right next to folding clothes. *sigh*

[Joba2]

Book marked the web site too.The 15 minute idea sounds good. I know I need another table or book case or something to keep my scrapbooking work etc neater! or something

[TerrellS]

Originally Posted by CanDesigns

I think we should have a thread with handy tips that we all have, what do you think???

Yes that would be cool

[JCSimon]

I'd like to see a thread like that, though I don't know if it would do me any good. When we first got married, my excuse was that I worked 50+ hours a week and who wanted to spend that little bit of free time cleaning? Then, I had a baby and, well, that was a great excuse. I was getting nervous, though, when she was 6 and I didn't have a new excuse. Luckily, my son showed up just in time! <g> Homeschooling both of them at such different ages at least gave me an excuse for lots of clutter (which covered up lack of cleaning!) but now they're both done with school. I was beginning to panic until I picked up a couple of CT positions -- especially the one here, I can stay busy all day every day!!

Bottom line....I hate cleaning almost as much as I hate winter! Almost *anything* is a good excuse to avoid it. Every once in a while, when (I must be in someone else's body) I look around and decide I can't stand it, I go on a cleaning rampage.....clean all day....that's enough to make me feel good for a month or so. DH has finally figured out to not mention it. He's sneaky, though. He'll hide something he *knows* I need -- like my rotary cutter for quilting or my memory card for my camera, or my memory stick that has all my scrap supplies on it -- under a pile of something I'm not likely to look at until I actually CLEAN THE HOUSE! That'll usually get me going -- at least until I find the "lost" object.

Maybe I'll try the fifteen minute thing, though every hour seems a little excessive. ;-) Every 3 hours or so might work....

[~Heather~]

anyone do this yet?

Results? Am I right or am I right?:p