It’s Monday again.  Time for a recap of a few fabulous ideas from around the web.  All of these sites were featured on my Facebook fan page last week so, if you haven’t had a chance yet, you should definitely check them out.  If you liked them as much as I did you should take a minute and let the content authors know!  Bloggers love comments – so share the love when you stop by their sites.

Remember, if you’d like instant access to the links I love and a few other tips and tricks, you can sign up to be a follower on Facebook by clicking the Facebook icon at the top of the page or by following this link.  Here are the links from last week…

A Little Tipsy
I’m a sucker for great time-saving, organizing tips. This super-easy idea for storing ground beef in your freezer really caught my eye.

Pleasant Home
Got a St. Patrick’s sweet tooth? Check out this deliciously-easy recipe for mint cookie chocolate cupcakes.

Blue Cricket Design
My girls hate the headbands with little spikes on back so I’m always on the lookout for cute, smooth-backed options. This site has several cute headband tutorials – and loads of other great posts too.

Simple Mom
I’m a task-oriented person; to a fault sometimes. That’s why I found this great post on balancing to-do lists with quality family time really helpful.

Go Digital

This is a tough one for a lot of us.  We associate the holidays with a certain nostalgia and instinctively bristle at the idea of using a computer in our preparations.  However, much the way buying frozen rolls at the grocery store allows more time for perfecting the turkey, using the computer to simplify trivial tasks can free time for what’s really important.

Tackle Your To Do’s: Decorate the house.  Purchase gifts.  Send cards.  Make travel plans.  To keep track of the little details without scribbling lists all over the house, take advantage of the ultimate free website for list lovers: gubb.net (I now like evernote.com because it has an accompanying iPhone app).  As user-friendly as it is functional, this site allows you to create, update and share dozens of customized, printable lists.  With Gubb.net you can check lists on the go via e-mail or text messaging.

E-mail Holiday Cards: If during the family meeting you chose “create handmade holiday cards” as your favorite tradition, then by all means whip out your cardstock and enjoy. However, if your goal is to simply keep in touch and send a greeting, try an email version.  Free programs such as Windows Movie Maker (pre-installed on most PCs or available for free download here) offer easy tools for creating a video or photo slideshow that can be emailed or burned onto a disc.  If you prefer the traditional postal method, use your computer to manage your mailing list.  Save data entry time by sending a mass email (or facebook request) to your friends and family requesting their addresses.  As the responses come in, use your copy and paste tools to add the addresses to your list.

Use Online Postage and Pickup: Few things are more frustrating than waiting in line at the post office.  At the website usps.com you can order free mailing supplies to be delivered right to your door, print postage on your home printer and schedule a free pickup.

*Don’t stop here, there are more great tips in the other two steps…

Holiday How-To: Part 1

Holiday How-To: Part 3

This post is an excerpt from an article published by Organize Magazine, Nov/Dec 2007, Volume 03, pg 68-73, written by Maria Eckersley, photos by Poul Ober, styling by Kendra Smoot.

It breaks down the normal clean up into the most common tasks (make your bed, pick up toys, pick up books, etc.) The chart has two columns, To Do and Done. When we go in to the room, I have them pull off all the jobs (they’re velcroed on to a piece of laminated cardstock). Then we look at the room and figure out which of the jobs need to go in the To Do column and which can go in the Done column. They place the To Do jobs in the order that they think will be the easiest. Then they get to work. When they finish the first job, they move it to the done column and then move on to the next To Do. When their To Do list is empty, they come and get me for a final check.

It’s also really handy to use throughout the week. If I notice a big mess in their room, I’ll shift a couple of the jobs over to the To Do column. Whenever they want to do something special like earn TV time or computer time, I ask them if they’re To Do column is clear. If it’s not, they know just what to do to take care of it…without my interaction.

The best advantage of this chart is that my kids can now do this mostly on their own. They’ve figured out that if they can break a job down into tiny pieces, they can do a lot more without help. This chart just provides the tools they need to do just that…no nagging required. Just thought I’d pass it on.  You can find the free file downloads for this chart below.  Both the boy chart and the girl chart are included in the file.

Download: Kids Room Cleaning Chart Base
Download: Kids Room Cleaning Chart Icons