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On Your Mark, Get Set, Get Organized
by Susan Franklin - frankrh@koyote.com

Description: Organize your home with these easy tips.

With summer starting to wind down, it's a good time to clean, declutter and reorganize. We are revamping our weekly schedule and making final decisions on curriculum and outside activities for our homeschooling year, so there's a lot of "out with the old and in with the new" around our house. The new zeal with which we're accomplishing much of this was found in some great tools and tips at OrganizedHome.com.

This website has advice for getting your home reorganized with tips and tools for keeping the house clean and decluttered, and even includes ideas to get your sewing stuff and books (two weak areas at our house) in order, a summer chore check list, message board and free newsletter.

You'll also find fresh inspiration for a more orderly life with this site's complete back-to-school decluttering and reorganizing guide.

And if you've never heard of once-a-month cooking this site has two strategies to stock up your freezer with meals for your busy evenings.

I am definitely behind the times. I thought that I was going to be a hi-tech housewife by putting my recipes and doing my menu planning on a software package I've been looking at but hi-tech housewives now do more than menu and budget planning on a computer. OrganizedHome.com has a totally up to date section on how to use PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) to totally computerize and customize your home management tasks using special software and a PDA. You'll find recommendations for which software works best for your needs along other basic facts for those who are ready to become totally hi-tech home managers.

While it's still hot out you can pick up some tips for creating easy warm weather meals or enjoy that last summer picnic using the free picnic planner form and then come home to work on your summer chores checklist available free from OrganizedHome.com.

But my favorite home management tool so far is the Household Notebook. This site explains in detail each notebook section and provides free printable forms, including a cover, with which to create your own. The attractive color forms include to do lists, calendars, a first-aid check list, family yellow pages, important phone numbers and much more. The forms available now are just the beginning since new forms are in the works to be added every two weeks. My new Household Notebook sits by the phone. It's great to have one central location to store schedules for family activities, booklists, and other important family papers that might usually get lost in my junk drawer.

Now that I have the papers and homeschool books and supplies reorganized, it's time for me to dig into my closet and take charge of that. Do you think OrganizedHome.com might come up with a wardrobe management chart and a garage sale checklist?

Reprinted with permission.