Organizing my Household

Something has been needing to be done around my house for a while with organization.  I kill myself every day trying to keep up on all the housework and cooking and cleaning more and being pregnant and chasing a 2.5 year old.  It wears me down.  A while ago I found a blog that I read often.  I love reading blogs because I find things that other people think of that helps me out a lot.  This blog is called "Sisters Stuff."  It is about all kinds of "stuff."  I find a way that this mom organizes her household and has time to do other things and not stress so much about all the housework.  Here is part one of her organizing... and Here is the link for part two. She basically has a binder that she puts different categories in.  Menus, Recipes, A different detail clean for each day of the week, and other important things.  Take a look at what she did, and you will get the idea.  I changed a few things and made my own little binder with my own fonts and did what I needed to for our specific schedules. Our schedule has to be a little more flexible because Ben's work schedule changes every other week.  So we have to plan meals around his schedule and his work days.  We now plan a menu again so that we can eat healthier, stop going out to eat, and actually have a plan for what we are going to eat.  She also has a grocery shopping list she found that helped me out immensely today. Here is the link for that. I used open office (word knockoff) and edited it for what we need usually.  I went shopping today and it helped me out a ton.  It is organized by specific categories so that you can see all the meats you need, or canned foods you need in one place. We now have a morning and evening routine that we fit to our needs.  I workout every morning now, we read scriptures, and I make breakfast at 7 am.  I do the dishes and then after all of that is done, I can shower.  It helps me to do all of that work when I know I get to shower at the end, and then my family is not starving for breakfast.  This may sound like a lot, but really this morning went awesomely.  I only detail cleaned my front room and just tidied up the rest of the "hot spots" around the house.  I hope this helps some of you have a smoother run house.  I love my dear husband, but I was getting so frustrated with him because he wasn't doing the things that I needed done...and then he would want to go fishing or something and think I was crazy for wanting to clean before we went to play.  This way...he knows what needs to be done that day before we go anywhere.  Then the rest of the day we can do whatever and I will feel good about the fact that something got done, and he will be happier with me that I am not stressing about cleaning and wanting to hurt him violently for not helping me out.  Braeden has a routine too...when he wakes up, he helps me make his bed, get dressed, and brush his teeth (all right when he wakes up). It is just easier that way because it gets done.  I really had a great morning and felt like I had accomplished a lot.

If any of you want the copy of my binder papers, please let me know.  It does take a little bit of time to get things all the way you want them organized, but this is going to help us out tons.  If I am sick or gone...Ben can turn to the specific day of the week and see all that needs to be done that day.  We have a weekly menu and then different food ideas, if anyone else ever needed to plan the menu around here.  It is really awesome. Just let me know if you want to see my binder for an example or to get you started.  I am really excited about this and I am really excited about not having to stress about EVERYTHING getting done EVERY DAY!!!