The Hawaiian lifestyle is more relaxed than those in other places. The relaxing pace, beach atmosphere, and surfer styles are elements that you can incorporate into your own lifestyle, regardless of where you live.  Hawaiian styles can influence your wardrobe, home decor, and even the meals you prepare.

Hawaiian Fashion and Accessories

There are both obvious and subtle ways to include Hawaiian style into your wardrobe. For men, Hawaiian shirts are an obvious choice, as are light colored shorts in linen or cotton. These bright floral prints are also available in sundresses for women.

For cooler climates, men can wear khaki pants instead of shorts and add a dark blazer over a Hawaiian shirt. Women can easily add a cardigan sweater and tights with a sundress to keep warm in chilly weather. A Hawaiian print blouse also looks great with jeans and an open sweater or wrap.

For summer months and warmer climates, beachwear is a great option when adding some island influence to your wardrobe. For women, Hawaiian print bikinis and sarongs are perfect choices. Shorts can be worn with bikini tops for a look that can go from the streets to the beach. Men’s swim trunks should be slightly longer, and board shorts that feature Hawaiian florals are very popular.

Hawaiian fashion accessories can add just a touch of the look to your wardrobe. For women, beach totes in raffia or floral prints look great in the summer, as well as flip flops for a casual look. A flower clip worn in the hair and beach-inspired jewelry like shell necklaces, pearls, and a shark’s tooth pendant are perfect for any weather.

Hawaiian Home Decor

Hawaiian-inspired home decor focuses on natural elements in the home. Wood accessories play a large role in the look, especially pieces that are made from wood that is native to Hawaii, such as koa. Wood tables and chairs are excellent investments, while wood vases, picture frames, and mirrors are perfect accents to experiment with the look.

Wicker furniture is another tropical-inspired idea, as well as ceiling fans. Breezy fabrics like sheer curtains and comfortable upholstery like twill, cotton, or linen are durable for couches and chairs and look appropriate for an island home.

Wood or bamboo blinds bring the outdoors inside, while furniture and home accessories in colors that are found in nature invoke an island feeling. Beach-inspired accessories like seashells, surfboards, and pictures of palm trees also highlight the Hawaiian lifestyle.

Hawaiian-Inspired Meals

Bring a taste of Hawaii to your meals by experimenting with ingredients like pineapples, coconut, and pork. There are a number of Polynesian dishes that can be prepared at home. Some ideas include teriyaki beef grilled on a stick, sweet and sour chicken kabobs with peppers and pineapples, salmon and rice, and sushi.

While some meals are more elaborate to prepare, you can find your own inspiration from trying various dishes at Polynesian restaurants. You can also simplify the dishes by using premade sauces and meat marinades from a grocery store. Have fun trying new recipes and experimenting with different foods and combinations inspired by the Hawaiian Islands.

This guest post was written by Maria Mathers.  Maria writes about sustainable living and design. She gets inspiration from Hawaiian furniture by www.MartinandMacarthur.com and thinks koa wood furniture and koa bowls are hot this year!

For Christmas 2010 (yes, this was last year’s beauty that I’ve been hanging on to!), I decked out our brand new home in poinsettia fare, including one dedicated Christmas tablescape that even had my new poinsettia dishes by Better Homes and Gardens.

The table looked almost too pretty to eat a meal at!  The red stemware was paired with my red satin poinsettia napkins.

Metallic red chargers served as the bottom layer for our gorgeous plates and rested atop my red satin poinsettia placemats with metallic red and green leaves.

The Perfect Poinsettias in a Holiday Glow Christmas Tablescape is linked to Delightfully Inspiring, Creative bloggers party & hop, 11th Heaven, Tablescape Thursday, and Made by you Mondays.

It’s also in the blog hop world at these fine sites: Wordless Wednesday, 5 Minutes 4 Mom, A Renaissance Woman, A Work in Progress, Barefoot Mahala,  Be There 2 Day, Brookie’s Baby Bargains, Busy Working Mama, By Word of Mouth, Carrie with Children, Crazy About My Baybah, Create with Joy,  Frugal Plus, Frugality is Free,  Gaynycdad, In Him We Live,  JaMonkey, Kibitz Spot,  Letters From Momma, Making Mama Happy, Mama to 4 Blessings, Mom Caboodle, Mom’s Own Words, My Thoughts and Ramblings,  NYC Single Mom, One Smiley Monkey, Parenting by Dummies, Princesscj Haven,  Sakura haruka, Saving with SaveOne, Shasher’s Life,  Terri’s Little Haven, Thriving Despite Us, Toronto Teacher Mom, Tots and Me,

This is a guest post by Linda at  HomeInteriorsZone.com. The blog helps its readers give their home a beautiful look through some real useful articles on home interiors.

Having some extra time and thinking about doing something useful? Here’s an idea: pick some DIY projects to do around your home. Sometimes the smallest change could make all the difference and you will feel a lot better in the new surroundings.

1. Beautify the Headboard
One of the projects that you could be thinking about is adding a new headboard to your bed. All you need is a custom cut headboard (have a carpenter do this for you), glue gun and the fabric that you would like to have in the bedroom. You just have to cut out the fabric that will cover the headboard and use the glue gun.

2. Colorful Children Haven
Do you have children around the house? They feel a lot better if they have their own space, which has been especially designed for them. Consider creating table and chairs just for them. You will need some smaller chairs and a smaller table and this is a very good way to add some color to the home.

You could use stripes of Japanese masking tape on the top of the table and chairs and then just cover it with a sheet of clear contact paper. Finish the look with a coat of glossy black paint. It is also a good idea to paint the chairs in different colors.

3. Trendy Art on a Budget
It is just natural that people need some art around their home, but it isn’t a rule that it is mandatory for art to be expensive. You can use fabric and shoestring to create the perfect art for the room. The piece of art that you will create could also be linked to the rest of the room, for example if you use the fabric of which the pillowcases are made of.

4. Stylish Space Dividers
Nowadays it is a trend not to use walls as dividers in case of the different rooms of the house. This is why you might look for some other ways to divide the space. You just need some panels as raw materials, and it doesn’t hurt to have some experience with the jigsaw.

Although there can be some work with the panels, you can be sure that in the end the  result is well worth it. The room divider will prove that you have some imagination, and it will also help you save a lot of money.

5. From Old Thing to Glamour Decoration
There might be some old items lying around the house, waiting to be redone. For example, you could have a bench at your hands that could become a great element for an entry, you just have to give it a new look. This is easily done through adding new upholstery that matches the style of the rest of the room. Also this is something easy to do even for beginners.

6. School Style Notice Board
Many people have to-do lists on their fridge, but it is a lot more elegant and functional to have a dry-erase board. If you have a board of this kind, you can kiss goodbye to the ugly pile of Post-its that you used to have lying around the room.

The following is a guest post by Doug Richards.  Doug has operated a commercial and residential roof contracting business for over 20 years. The website for one of his two Florida offices is

A roof is a protective covering for a structure. A hat is a protective covering for a person. Back before they were thought to be a fashion accessory, hats were just functional. Just as roofs did, hats served a purpose. They protected the wearer from ill, stormy and inclement weather and the occasional shower.

At first roofs were made with readily available materials in a common way. Basically all structures within an area were roofed the same. In poorer or less developed areas, thatched roofs were used. Residents of rural areas used tin while more populated areas used slate, tile or shingles. More modern roofs are now constructed of metal, synthetic material or even glass.

Hats too were made basically the same and with the materials available. Through the years, roofs as well as hats have become more decorative and served more than one purpose. A person’s occupation, military rank or financial status could be expressed solely by the type of hat worn.

Roofs may take on the appearance as well as the functionality of hats.  Roofs are sometimes shaped like hats and remind you of them. The shape of a round roof such as used on a Quonset hut reminds you of a stocking cap or a cloche that covers everything except the face.  The shed or slant roof is similar to the tam-o’-shanter, the type of cap worn by bagpipe players. The hip roof bears a resemblance to the skull cap and the gambrel roof resembles the deer slayer hat, the type of hat worn by Sherlock Homes in old movies.

A mansard roof, a combination of a hip roof and a gambrel roof, takes on the appearance of a pill-box hat decorated with jeweled ribbon all the way around. An old tin-roofed, shot-gun house with a tiny front porch looks a lot like a baseball cap. Butterfly roofs take on the appearance of cowboy hats and you can almost see a pagoda when you look at a trapper hat with the ears turned up.

Roofs can also take on the personality of hats. It is easy to picture the person inside the structure based simply on the shape, material or basic design of the roof. A tin roof with a chimney can conjure up images of straw hats and bonnets. A slate roof will make you think of sophistication with derbies and Bretons. A copper dome roof with a steeple will always make you think of a Russian tsar, and a terra cotta tiled roof will bring about images of a beach hat.

After a storm a malfunctioning roof covered with a tarp looks like a grandma covering her head with a scarf which isn’t a hat at all but is used to keep out the weather.

Who would ever have believed that roofs and hats have anything in common? Anyway, the next time you don your fedora, your fez or your homburg, besides the fact that it will keep the rain off you head, it also may remind you of a roof.

Regardless of the roof you choose, consult with your favorite roof contractor to begin the process.

Photo credit.

Clean This Today: Baseboard Heaters

Good morning, household managers!  Today’s cleaning chore is to clean the baseboards in your house.

Baseboard heaters are probably not an item which you have on your cleaning checklist for each room.  This is all the more reason to dedicate one day a month to cleaning the baseboards in the whole house.

The baseboards in bathrooms, laundry rooms, and near kitchens are often the most dirty and have buildup of grease, lint, hair products, and more.

Clean your baseboards at least once a month to keep them from getting buildup that takes heavy duty scrubbing to remove.  We’ve even got a trick that will help to keep the dirt from being attracted to your baseboard heaters in the first place.  Who doesn’t love to make housework easier?! 

How to Clean Baseboards: Complete Directions

We’ve created the perfect easy-to-follow step by step instructions for how to clean baseboards.  Make sure to print out the directions and put them in your household management binder for quick reference.

The short version of how to clean baseboard heaters:

1. Clean all the baseboards in the house on the same day.  Clean one room at a time.
2. Bring a vacuum with a tube attachment, a sponge, dryer sheets, and a bottle of antibacterial cleaner or vinegar with you to each room.
3. Vacuum the dirt out of the radiation fins first (these are inside the baseboard and look like a bunch of metal pieces side by side standing upright). -or-
4. If you don’t have a vacuum with a tube, use canned air (the kind used for computer cleaning) to blast out the dust from the fins.
5. Next, spray the sponge with cleaner and wipe down the outside of the baseboard.
6. Once dry, rub the outside of the baseboard with a dryer sheet to keep dirt from settling on the baseboards.

Click now to read the full directions for how to clean baseboards.

Now get started cleaning your baseboard heaters and come back next Tuesday for Clean This Today to transform your house into your Home Ever After!  If you have more energy and want to try more extra cleaning projects today, then go back to our Clean This Today list.

We originally published Clean This Today: Baseboards on February 15, 2011.  This post is linked to Works for Me Wednesday and 11th Heaven.

I found some great vintage homemaker dress reproductions, however, which provide all the retro wife style without the high ticket price.  These are not only affordable, they’re usually in wash and wear fabrics that you won’t worry about taking care of. 

Here are a few of my favorite 1950s housewife dresses right now (maybe Santa will bring me a few for Christmas!).

Hey Viv ! 50s Retro Style Lucy Dress – Polka Dot:  This red dress is very I Love Lucy.  It’s hard to find vintage reproduction dresses that have the high neck and color (many are very low-cut and not-so-authentic to the period style).

Retro vintage housewife polka dot top:  The gorgeous belted waist on this retro top nips and tucks to create that hourglass shape that we all crave!  A vintage 50s style top like this can be paired with a full circle skirt and crinoline or a pencil (wiggle) skirt to really capture the 1950s style.

50s Retro Design Black Dress with Full Skirt:  The back of this full skirt dress is divine with its belted waist and solid black panel inserts.  What would really show off the details on this swing skirt is cuban heeled hose!

Vintage look 1950s Sailor Dress:  What’s not to love in a vintage reproduction 50s sailor dress?  It’s cute, stylish, sophisticated, and still gives a hint to your retro housewife style (maybe this dress is for a date night out with hubby, not the kids’ PTA meeting!).

High Waist with Wide Black Belt red pencil skirt:  Let’s turn up the va-va-voom with this retro wiggle skirt!  Pair with a short sleeved turtleneck sweater or a baby tee with a short cardigan.

There are so many ways to capture the 1950s vintage style you love while still looking modern and sophisticated.  The 50s glamour of the retro housewife will always be in style!

The Useful Kitchen Ceiling Rack and Its Placement

The following article is a guest post by Jakob Barry.  Jakob writes for Networx.com. He covers various home improvement topics including small kitchen remodeling ideas.

In the house I grew up in we had a large kitchen full of cabinets and drawers that held everything from the food we cooked to the pans we cooked it in.

This non-system worked for a long time until one day somebody had the bright idea to screw a wall rack onto a wooden barrier that separated the back of the oven from the rest of the room.

For a period of time it revolutionized our home but the relief didn’t last long, as foot traffic regularly knocked into the hanging vessels and pots and pans frequently collected dirt from outside.

Looking back I’ve often wondered why we didn’t just take things a step further and install what I have found to be one of the best ways to keep order in the kitchen: a ceiling rack.

Kitchen ceiling racks probably originated in industrial kitchens where many types of pots and pans were needed on the fly and the chef couldn’t afford to go looking for his trusty skillet.

Today, however, ceiling racks are fairly common and with a large variety of shapes and sizes, they can fit in tight spots like small galley kitchens, relieving stress from cramped cupboards and lending special character to kitchens.

It should be noted, though, that like anything else, they have their own set of rules, placement being THE most important consideration. What do I mean?

In the technical sense racks need to be situated under and secured to joists, the beams that run wall to wall supporting the ceiling. Since pots and pans hold a lot of weight failure to hang a rack properly to a joist will result in its collapse.

Luckily, with a simple stud finder (which can be purchased at any local hardware store for just a few dollars), marking joists is easy and after they are located it shouldn’t be difficult to gauge the available space against the size, shape, and material of the preferred rack.

At the same time, be aware that with all the focus on finding joists some spots should be off limits.

For example, it may make sense that racks hang above ovens because that’s where pots and pans are used but there are three main drawbacks:

1.    Heat from the stove is a safety concern when reaching for a pot.

2.    Dust that collects on pots may fall into food.

3.    Even though a rack is high up it can still accumulate residue from all the cooking going on below.

For these reasons and more racks should ideally hang above a kitchen island or general counter surrounded by open space so when holding all that metal and steel they don’t block windows and cabinets.

The possibility exists for some compromise but this should be the general rule.

Meanwhile, there are two other issues to keep in mind:

•    Very often ceiling lights pose a challenge to placement but certain racks come with their own fixtures so the ceiling space can be used more wisely.

•    Single chain racks have a tendency to rock back and forth when accessed so bear this in mind when choosing one for your kitchen.

Finally, whatever rack you choose, it’s important to follow the instruction manual well, as finding joists may be a standard job but sometimes even the expert DIYer can get stuck in a trap assembling certain products. 

Plan accordingly and be patient so the resourceful kitchen ceiling rack becomes a powerful accessory in your home! 

Photo credits Britt Reints (miss-britt) and Chad Magiera.

• Dump out the drawer
• Throw away stained, holey, and socks with no matches.
• Decide on no more than 12 pairs of socks to keep.
• Wipe out the drawer with a cleaning wipe and neatly put your socks back in.

Decluttering Help: The One in, One Out Rule

Clutter busting is a necessity in maintaining an organized home. Things can accumulate, multiply and pile up in the absence of active clutter busting. 

Our decluttering help articles give you tips, motivation, and small places to begin on what may be a little clutter stash or a huge hoarding issue.  Whatever your level of severity as a  hoarder, we can help you declutter!

Today, we’re going to focus on staying clutter free after you’ve put in the time and effort to declutter your home. This little rule is something I call the “One in, One Out” rule. How does it work?

Basically, for every new item you bring in to your home, you have to take one out. Give it as a gift, donate it to charity or put it into the garage sale/eBay box. It doesn’t matter where it goes, just as long as it goes!

More Clutter Help: Simple Decluttering Criteria for Clothes

Identify your top clutter areas and use the “One in, One Out” rule for just these areas. If the clutter level in your home is high, you can use the "One in, Two Out" rule to get things under control even faster. 

For example, if the kids’ toys and mom’s shirts are 2 things that are overabundant in your house, first pare them down. Once you get to the right number, the only way to keep it at or close to that number is to enforce the decluttering rule.

When you’re thinking of buying a new toy or shirt, think to yourself, “Am I really prepared to take an old one out and donate/sell it?”

More Clutter Help: Declutter This Today: The Bathroom Closet

Talk to your family and make sure everyone is on the same page. Only pick 2 or 3 areas to start with and make sure everyone knows what they are.

It will take a little reminding and a little getting used to, but even this small rule will get your children thinking about material things in a different light. They may think twice about asking for a new Elmo toy if it means they have to give up one of their other toys!  For help with this, read Minimalist Mom: Decluttering with a Big Family.

You may that this decluttering rule it helps eliminate the “more is better” attitude so prevalent in our society and teach them to value what they have.

The “One in, One Out” rule will help you to keep your fantastic results after decluttering by maintaining the level of your stuff. We don’t want our possessions to be in charge of us!  Just getting started on your decluttering project? We’ll keep you making forward progress.

  Next, you’ll want to read Declutter Your Closet: Why is it So Hard to Let Go of Clothes?

We originally published “Clutter Busting: The One in, One Out Rule” on March 16, 2008 on Home Ever After.  Now, it’s linked up to Works for Me Wednesday and 11th Heaven.

For us busy parents, the weekend getaways may be few and far between.  However, you don’t need to have a weekend away to enjoy a relaxing bubble bath in your own bathroom retreat if you’ve created an elegant bathroom!

Head into a luxurious retreat alone or with your spouse for a relaxing bubble bath.  Bring along some wine and strawberries or a cup of soothing tea to invoke the spa retreat feeling!

Like the master bedroom, the master bathroom is one place you just can’t hold back on when it comes to luxury and design.  Make sure your master bathroom has extra fluffy towels, a hidden mp3 player for soothing classical music, and an oversized hotel-style robe with matching slippers to complete your spa-at-home retreat!

Next, you should read how to decorate a peaceful bedroom.

Elegant Bathrooms: Time for a Relaxing Bubble Bath is linked to the Finer Things in Life.  Photo credit.

Not only do you want to protect your items from any possible damage, but you also want to make it easy to unpack once you arrive at your destination. 

You can save both money and time by using unconventional packing materials and methods, some of which you’ll find below.

13 Packing Supplies You Can’t Move Without

1.  Packing boxes.  Sturdy boxes are a must for moving, but that doesn’t mean that you have to buy them brand new!  Do your part to go green and save a little money at the same time by reusing boxes.  Prior to your move, ask friends, coworkers, and businesses to save boxes for you.

• The sturdiest free boxes will be boxes that desktop computers, monitors, or televisions, or other fragile electronics were shipped in.  The corrugated cardboard is heavyweight and meant to keep heavy contents safe.
• Another sturdy box perfect for moving is a meat box from a butcher shop or the meat department at your local grocery store.  These boxes are usually small, heavy weight, and have handles on the sides.

2.  Towels and wash cloths.  A smart way to pack your belongings is with packing material that you already own and have to move anyway, such as towels, washcloths, blankets, curtains, and other linens. 

Use small fabrics like washcloths to stuff inside dishes and knickknacks.  Use bigger fabrics, like towels and blankets, to wrap around fragile items that you don’t want to be scratched, such as lamps.  When you get to your destination, you’ll have less packing material to throw away.

3.  Plastic shopping bags.  Plastic shopping bags can be packed inside glasses, coffee cups, and knickknacks to protect them from breakage.  Shopping bags are also a great stuffing inside boxes to keep the contents from shifting while in transit.  Another use for plastic shopping bags is to layer several together and wrap them around breakables for extra cushioning.

4.  Bubble wrap.  The air pockets in bubble wrap make for great cushion to absorb impact that might damage your items.  Bubble wrap can be purchased from storage and moving companies, as well as office supply stores and mass retailers.

5.  Fishing tackle boxes.  Jewelry and small accessories can be difficult items to move, since they are very easily tangled on themselves and each other.  Plastic fishing tackle boxes or similar boxes designed for crafting are the perfect way to move jewelry.  The small compartments keep the items separated, eliminating tangling and speeding up the process of unpacking once you’re in your new home.

6.  Laundry baskets.  Large items that are not breakable, such as pillows, blankets, and even clothes, can be packed into laundry baskets to save the use of extra boxes.  Once a laundry basket is full, tape the lid shut with packing tape to keep the items from falling out.  No lid?  Use several strips of tape to go all the way across the top.

7.  Egg cartons. Egg cartons are a fantastic packing material for small knickknacks and Christmas ornaments.  It can be time consuming to wrap small breakable items with bubble wrap or packing paper, and putting them into the wells of Styrofoam egg cartons will usually keep them just as safe.

8.  Masking tape and clear packing tape in a dispenser.  Clear packing tape comes in handy for taping the lids of boxes, and masking tape is ideal for taping matching items together, taping cabinet doors shut, etc.

9.  Newspaper and shredded paper.  Many people purchase packing paper from moving supplies stores, but this can be expensive to buy and is just as effective as using plain old newspaper.  Also, if you have a shredder in your home, save the paper shreds to use as stuffing around fragile items in boxes.

10.  Ziploc bags.  One of the most irritating things about moving can be opening boxes in your new home and having tons of little pieces rolling around the bottom that don’t seem to go to anything! 

Keep plenty of Ziploc bags on hand while you’re packing up your belongings, so that you can bag up small items that belong together.  Make sure to label the outside of the bag  with a marker  so you’ll remember what the pieces go to later on.

11.  Sharpie permanent markers.  You’ll need permanent markers to write identifying information on the outside of boxes. Write the name of the person whose belongings are inside, which room the box belongs in, and a description of what is inside.  Example: “Mom – Bedroom- Jackets”. 

Also use sharpie markers to label Ziploc bags so you know what the pieces inside belong to, such as “screws and washers for putting crib together”.  Labeling items only takes a few extra minutes, but will save you a lot of time during unpacking.

12.  Apron or tool belt.  You’ll want to wear this while you’re packing, so the tools you need to use will be accessible, saving you the time of walking back and forth to get what you need. 

It can be a pretty floral or vintage-look apron if you want!  Like the photo of me in my vintage apron shown at right, I love having extra pockets for my supplies when working on home projects. 

Whether you choose a fancy prim apron or a utilitarian waist style apron, make sure it has plenty of pockets to hold the useful supplies listed in #13:

13.  Packing tools:

• Scissors.
• Power screwdriver with regular and Phillips head tips for disassembling furniture.
• Magnet for picking up any nails, screws, thumbtacks, or other metal materials that may fall onto the floor while taking furniture apart or removing things from the walls.
• Razor blade, in case boxes need to be cut down smaller.
• Tape (see #8 above).

Having the right tools for the job can make packing a much more pleasant process, even though it probably still won’t be your favorite activity!  To save yourself even more time while packing, a good decluttering in your house before you start moving will mean less items to pack and transport.  Check out our articles on how to declutter for help in this area.

We originally published 13 Packing Supplies You Can’t Move Without on January 22, 2009.  Photo credits.

Every room was an eyesore, including the kitchen, which had molded wallpaper and dark brown paneling kitchen cabinets.  (Did I mention the olive green cast iron sink and green countertop?  Oh, right – I didn’t need to!)

We wanted a cozy country kitchen that was warm and inviting, that people actually wanted to cook in.  Our first effort that would make the most change was obvious: we had to change the dark brown cabinets.  But without a remodeling budget to buy new cabinets, what could we do to improve the appearance?

We painted the cabinets!  Dutch Boy was kind enough to provide the paint for us to re-paint the kitchen cabinets.  We showed you the before and after photos previously of this painting job here:  Before and After Home DIY: Painting Kitchen Cabinets.

Check out the slideshow below to watch the ugly 70s kitchen turn into a cozy country kitchen!

For more before and after projects, visit Making a Happy Home Monday, Metamorphosis Monday and Tackle it Tuesday.

Disclaimer: This article has material connections. IS World Media (ISWM) received no fees for the writing or publication. Dutch Boy paint was provided to IS World Media (ISWM) at no cost to serve as a sample.

The Homemaker’s War Guide was provided by the Office for Emergency Management, Office of War Information and was in circulation from 1941 to 1945 during World War II.  Looking at the Homemaker’s War Guide poster below, we can see that retro housewives were encouraged to support the war effort by making specific changes at home.

The three main categories were 1) Plan, 2) Conserve, and 3) Salvage.  Doesn’t this sound like exactly what we frugal homemakers and thrifty moms do today? 

Going back to our frugal roots, we really need to examine the World War II retro homemakers who kept things running while the men were away saving the day.  Also among the topics of interest  on the Homemaker’s War Guide were:

Spare time war activities for a retro homemaker: volunteer in day nurseries, diet kitchens, and clinics.

Saving all types of fat to make explosives for the soldiers: Strain it, cool it in the refrigerator, then sell it to the butcher when you have at least 1 pound.

Thanks to NARA for providing 513833.

Plan meals to include healthy foods, but ration meat and sugar.  “The fighting forces need meat’” preaches the poster, and “sugar makes gunpowder”.  It encourages the homemaker to get her free booklets ‘99 Ways to Share the Meat’ and  ‘Recipes to Match Your Sugar Ration’.

Conserve food: Ask for “Victory Food Specials” at the market.

Conserve pots and pans: “Leave black on bottoms of pots, don’t scrub until shiny, heat takes longer through shiny surface.”

Conserve clothes: The big takeaway from this category was that retro war homemakers should be mending worn out clothes and making over or refashioning clothes. 

Of course, no Homemaker’s War Guide poster would be complete without thorough air raid protection instructions. 

Everyone, even the stay at home housewives, had buy-in and responsibility for helping us win the war.  The poster asserts, “Your block leader can tell you about civilian war services.  In other lands, war is being fought block by block.  You can fight it that way here.  Help your block leader’s campaigns which speed our victory.”

I love how everyone was encouraged to get back to basics and live responsibly, not wastefully.

“Victory Begins At Home.  Do Your Part.”

Retro Homemaker: Homemaker’s War Guide (1941) is linked to 11th Heaven, Works For Me Wednesday, Frugal Friday, Wordless Wednesday, and 5 Minutes For Mom Wordless Wednesday.

Picture This: Suburbia on a Rainy Night

The rainy evenings in autumn are cold and brisk here in Alaska, especially this late in the season.  My husband and I recently took a walk during a night when the rain was just barely a sprinkle. 

It was almost cold enough outside to see our breath and the wet chill in the air made everything very final.  We both knew this could have been our last nighttime walk before snow was coming down instead of rain. 

I grabbed the camera to capture the images that were special to this crisp dark rainy Alaska night.  I took the photo above of a small solar-powered lantern in my driveway, with the collected rain on the street  and curb reflecting the red tail lights of a passing car.

The streetlights cut through the night and reflected off of the pooled rainwater left on the hard black asphalt. 

I couldn’t help remembering the lines from one of my favorite songs in the musical Guys & Dolls, as the gambler sings of his sad but prideful life as a loner:

“My time of day is the dark time
A couple of deals before dawn
When the street belongs to the cop
And the janitor with the mop
And the grocery clerks are all gone.

When the smell of the rainwashed pavement
Comes up clean, and fresh, and cold
And the streetlamp light
Fills the gutter with gold
That’s my time of day
My time of day
And you’re the only doll I’ve ever wanted to share it with me.”

That dark night is burned into my mind forever: the dark side of the paradise that is suburbia, painted in purple and blue with a warm orange glow that burns through the seconds as everyone sleeps inside those neatly packaged homes.

And after the last shutter-click, we put on the lens cap, held hands and walked back inside our cookie-cutter home to enjoy suburbia on a rainy night from a warmer vantage point.

If you love looking at gorgeous photos, check out our other eye candy here or specifically Autumn eye candy here. Get more Wordless Wednesday at WordlessWednesday.com and 5 Minutes 4 Mom.

You can create tons of visual interest in your home decorating by taking elements out of a photo and pairing them with the framed photo.  I’ve included an example of how to use this decorating trick in the photo at left.

You can see that the portrait of my daughter, Seven, has her sitting in front of a field of flowers and holding a huge pink dinner plate dahlia flower.  What better way to take these flat elements and give them life than to pair this framed photo with flowers? 

We’ve taken a silk floral garland and strung it along the edge of the counter (using 3M Command hooks so it doesn’t damage the counter) right underneath the portrait’s photo frame. 

Although the silk flowers aren’t the exact same kind of flower used in the photo, they do mirror the same colors.  Putting these flowers right beneath the frame really causes the floral element to pop in the portrait.  

Using the tricks in our Homespun Touches is an easy way to utilize the décor elements you already have and maximize their visual potential.   Look for opportunities to use the Giving Life to Flat Images trick in your home.

You could easily adapt this trick to almost any photo you care to use.  If you have a photo of your children posing with Mickey Mouse at Disneyland you could easily hang the frame on the wall with a Mickey Mouse ears hat fastened right behind the top corner.

Love our Homespun Touches?  Subscribe to our free updates to get them delivered to your email!  Homespun Touches – Giving Life to Flat Images is linked to Wordless Wednesday at WordlessWednesday.com and 5 Minutes 4 Mom, Works for Me Wednesday, 11th Heaven.

It’s time for harvest eye candy, which means gorgeous photos of Autumn gardens and fall foliage!  This week’s dream garden is a true picture of an October Autumn day, complete with orange leaves on the trees.

Photo of the house at Forest Hills Gardens by Joe Shlabotnik.

Dream Garden of the Week

View other breathtaking Dream Gardens. Get more Wordless Wednesday at WordlessWednesday.com and 5 Minutes 4 Mom.  We originally published Autumn Harvest Dream Garden: Forest Hills on October 6, 2009.

The real solutions to the problem of this ultra focused lifestyle, as we know from history by looking at the evolution of women in society during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, were positive lifestyle changes.

However, instead of looking for possible life changes as a solution (such as part-time careers, work-life balance, household help, etc.), family doctors everywhere in the United States began prescribing 1950s housewives a medication called Meprobamate, more commonly know by the brand name Miltown. 

Miltown became available to the public  in 1955 and was soon America’s favorite new  tranquilizer.  Advertisements for Miltown were aimed largely at women and homemakers.  These housewives were bound to spread the word about Miltown’s effectiveness and of their miraculous improvements once on the medication through their social and neighborhood circles.

Housewives across the nation were being prescribed Miltown for “insomnia, anxiety, and emotional upsets”, according to Wallace Laboratories, the company that manufactured Miltown.  Homemakers were told that Miltown would make their pregnancy “a  happier experience”, as seen in the vintage Miltown ad pictured above, although we now know Miltown to be a class D drug during pregnancy.  Miltown causes an increased risk of birth defects and passes through into breast milk and can affect the nursing baby.

1950s homemakers believed Miltown would make them feel better, allow them to do their household chores easier, and have an everyday life that was more enjoyable.  

The Ugly Side of Miltown: Dependence and Side Effects

Of course, despite all the promises of perfection, Miltown is still a drug, and a powerful tranquilizer at that.  Miltown is a habit forming medication, and users can develop a tolerance to the drug, meaning they have to take higher and higher doses to keep the same effects.

This tranquilizer was not safe to take while driving, and caused drowsiness (not such a good thing when taking care of children).

Withdrawals from going off of Miltown were worse than any mundane life.  Some Miltown withdrawal symptoms and side effects included anxiety, confusion, convulsions, hallucinations, impaired coordination, insomnia, loss of appetite, muscle twitching, slurring speech, tremors, vertigo, and vomiting. 

A Better Solution Than Miltown

Many homemakers today are able to be stay at home moms (SAHMs) or even part-time homemakers without having to take a prescription tranquilizer like Miltown!  The secret to having a happy home life rests in having balance in life, not having a so-called miracle pill that will fix everything that is wrong. 

Some women choose to work full or part time in addition to caring for their families and homes.  Some women look to moms’ groups or small groups through church to get support from other families.  Most importantly, remembering to share household responsibilities and take mom-time to do activities without the children can work wonders for keeping a homemaker’s constant tasks from becoming overwhelming. 

What’s your opinion on the “magic pill” that fixes everything?  Would you want to take it if it had no side effects?  Let us know in the comments.

What are the Main Rooms in the Home to Make Comfortable?

1.  Living Room or Family Room:  This is where your family will end up to spend their free time together.  If you’re like many families, you may already be spending most of your family time in this room and realizing that it doesn’t function properly. 

Ready to start your living room makeover?  Read 5 Ways to Change the Look of Your Living Room.

2.  Dining Room:  The dining room is an incredibly important room of the house to make comfortable because this is where your family will have meals together. 

• The beginning of your day starts at the kitchen table for breakfast. 
• The afternoon brings homeschool moms and kids back to the table (not to mention infants and toddlers joining the meal in their high chairs and booster seats).  For non-homeschool families, parents may be lucky enough to meet each other at home for a lunch hour date away from work. 
• Dinnertime brings your family back together after going their separate ways to work, school, and daycare all day long. 

The dining table should be warm and inviting to make the whole family feel glad to be back home and in each other’s company.

3.  Kids’ Bedrooms:  Your children’s rooms should be comfortable because this is where they will get dressed, play, have story and cuddle time, and go to sleep.  A properly designed kids’ room can make all the difference for a smooth bedtime routine.

4.  Master Bedroom:  Mrs. Homemaker will want to pay special attention to making the master bedroom a warm and inviting retreat for mom and dad to connect in at the end of the day.  Ready to start making your master bedroom the most comfortable place on Earth?  Next, read How to Decorate a Peaceful Bedroom.

My family has had the chance to test out the Neato robot vacuum this summer.  We received this little robot helper from Neato Robotics to see what we thought about his capabilities and helpfulness around the house.

I fully understand that the Neato vacuum is supposed to save people time because it automatically does the vacuuming for you.

However, it is so much fun to watch a robot cruise around your house eating fuzz and dust bunnies off the floor that we often found ourselves watching Neato as entertainment!

Obviously, watching the vacuum work was not a way for us to save time. Several times, we piled the entire family onto the couch so we could stay out of Neato’s way and watch him vacuum.

I videotaped the Neato robot vacuum vacuuming my living room, which you can watch in the video below.  (Subscribers will have to click this link to watch the video.)

Neato XV-11 Robot Vacuum: The Good

Robots are neat:  If you grew up watching the Jetsons cartoon like I did (I know I’m on dangerous ground now, showing just how old I am by my references to childhood pop culture), you’ll understand what I’m about to say. There’s just something about having robots to do your bidding – especially household cleaning and chores bidding – that makes you feel so millennial! Remember the Jetsons’ robot housekeeper, Rosie? She kept everything clean, was always there to serve, and even wore a little maid apron! Better still, she was like part of their family.

Now, household robotics may not have quite evolved to the point of Rosie yet, but that doesn’t mean that cleaning robots aren’t just as helpful and endearing. I had all these thoughts running through my mind as I waited for our very own Neato robot vacuum to arrive so I could try him out as a housecleaning helper. Little did I know that Neato would end up becoming our new family pet. Let me explain.

Programmable days and times: The LED window on Neato is the main method of communication between you and your Neato robot vacuum. It allows you to program which days you want Neato to vacuum and then what times of those days he should start.

Super cleaning power:  The first time you use Neato in your house, you have to run him several times in a row through the whole house to get all the extra debris you can’t see in the carpet. We ran him three times in a row and emptied the dirt cup several times, showing us just how much dirt there was in our carpet that we didn’t know about.

The Neato Robot vacuum’s dirt cup is moderately sized considering how small the robot is, which means you don’t have to empty the dirt cup as frequently as you might think.

He knows how to go to his home:  From wherever in the house Neato stops his vacuuming job, he can drive himself back to his charger, turn around, dock himself, and power down to charge. 

Neato XV-11 Robot Vacuum: The Bad

He works alone: Unfortunately, Neato really needs to be alone in a room (without moving people) or he gets confused.  When we stayed up on the furniture or just outside the room, he didn’t have any problems.  The mapping functions for the robot need to make sure that nothing is moving around in the room, like an animal or a person, so that they can really make an accurate picture of where Neato needs to go.

If you need to get something out of the room, you’re better off to wait until Neato is done and out of the room.

He’s still a machine: Just like all machines, robots can break when things go wrong. After only 2 weeks, our poor Neato vacuum’s LED screen (which is where you program his cleaning times and set options) stopped working completely. Without the communication center, the Neato couldn’t really help me any more. He didn’t know what I wanted him to do or when, and I had no way to tell him.

Luckily for me, the customer service department was incredibly helpful.  They let me know that this is a very rare problem which does not happen to many customers.  They were quick to help me diagnose the problem over e-mail.  Next, they offered me a toll free number where I could call to get a replacement Neato robot right away.  The Neato robotics customer service is shipping out a brand new replacement robot to me and a call tag so that I can send the broken Neato back to the company.

I couldn’t have asked for a better resolution or nicer people to be dealing with to fix the problem.  Neato Robotics’ customer service is fantastic.

He gets stuck: Neato got stuck on a few items in my house which were confusing and impassable.  One in particular was the baby jumper.  Neato tried to go over the metal tube, but he got stuck on top of it after getting his front over it.  He couldn’t go forward, he couldn’t go back, and he didn’t really know what to do.  I gave him some time to see if he could figure it out, but after a while he just sat there and did nothing.  After I took the Neato robot vacuum down from the tube, he managed to figure out where he was and go back to his vacuuming job.

It was very rare that Neato got stuck, even in areas where I thought he would.  This was very impressive, as he can lift himself up over some pretty tall things.  Also, his wheels are rather large and rugged and make it easy for the Neato robot vacuum to navigate terrain.  But remember, he’s just a machine and he may need a little help every once in a while.

Neato XV-11 Robot Vacuum: Take It or Leave It

Must Have Appliance of the Year: I can’t say enough good things about the Neato robot vacuum, and at around $350 he is well worth the money spent.  My kids are so in love with that Neato vacuum that I’ve decided to take the family pet idea a step further. 

I’ll be heading to the craft store to buy some large adhesive googly eyes to affix to Neato’s front and some kind of material to make a smiling mouth.  Yes, my Neato robot vacuum is getting a face, mostly because my children still insist on hugging and kissing him good night before they go to bed!

Where to Buy Neato XV-11 Robot Vacuum

You can purchase the Neato robot vacuum from Amazon with free super saver shipping. 

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Disclaimer:  In compliance with the FTC Guides, updated 10/5/09, this article has material connections.  IS World Media (ISWM) received no fees for the writing or publication of this article.  This article is a product review written by Danelle Ice and is her honest opinion.  A Neato XV-11 robot vacuum was provided to ISWM at no cost by Neato Robotics to facilitate the review process. 

This week’s Minimalist in a Minute is perfectly timed for our little ones trotting off to school again this fall: how to go minimalist with back to school clothes and make it quick and easy.

Minimalist in a Minute: Minimalist Back to School Clothes

Step 1:  Make a minimalist back to school clothing plan.

Write down your requirements for fall and winter clothes.  For middle school-aged girls, a minimalist back to school clothing plan for fall and winter might look something like this:

• 6 long sleeved shirts
• 3 short sleeved shirts for layering: 1 black, 1 white, 1 color which complements most of the long sleeve tops
• 1 white layering tank tops
• 1 sweater
• 1 cardigan (black or heather grey)
• 1 hoodie sweatshirt
• 4 jeans
• 1 black leggings
• 1 black pants
• 1 black skirt

A minimalist clothing plan like this would end your daughter up with 20 pieces of clothing (not counting foundations, undergarments and socks).

Step 2:  Purge the clothes in the closet until it matches your minimalist clothing plan.

Take everything out of the closet.  Put in clothing items as you check them off on the clothing plan.  Next, take all the extra clothes out of the bedroom into a larger area, like a living room or garage, for sorting.

Step 3:  Sort the decluttered items.

Using a general decluttering system, you’ll sort the rejected clothing items into groups: sell, donate, trash, or a special category: “back ups to keep in case of wear-out”. 

We mothers know that kids tend to wear out their clothes when they play hard, and this will be even more noticeable when we cut down the number of items in wardrobe rotation.  More wear, more washings, more worn out / stained / ripped clothing.  Keep your backups in a covered storage container in a garage or basement and clearly label the box with the child’s name, season, and size of clothing inside.

Step 4: Set up redundancy.

Make sure you have at least 10 pairs of socks, and make sure 5 pairs are plain white and that they are all the exact same sock.  The other 5 pairs may be colored or patterned, but also need to be the exact same socks.  When holes, stains, or lost socks happen, the remainders will still match up with no wasted loners!

There you have it: A quick and easy minimalist back to school clothes plan to keep your kids looking spiffy, your budget intact, and your closets under control.  Have a great school year!

Minimalist in a Minute: Back to School Clothes is linked to Works for Me Wednesday, Tackle it Tuesday, and 11th heaven.

You can use any small ledge in your home to create a homespun touch uniquely yours. Above, we’ve used the dividing wall that separates the front door to the entry way from the living room. As you can see in the photo, we used 3 small pieces to create visual interest on what would have otherwise been empty, unused space.

The warm browns in the room were something we really wanted to work with, so we chose a beige wicker basket (right), a tea-stained decorative block (middle), and a potted pink tulip tied with an ivory raffia bow (left).

The potted tulips arrangement is silk, not real, so it can be packed away at the end of summer and saved for the next year.   The basket is versatile, since it can be used on a ledge like this as-is for keys or as a catch-all for other items, or can be decorated with ribbons, fabric, or other items to fit it into another décor scheme in your home. 

Quick and easy home décor with little Homespun Touches is something you can become great at in no time!  Keep your eye out for unused spaces in your home and simple items that complement each other and the colors in your room. 

Love our Homespun Touches?  Subscribe to our free updates to get them delivered to your email!  Homespun Touches – Decorating the Little Ledges is linked to Wordless Wednesday at WordlessWednesday.com and 5 Minutes 4 Mom, Works for Me Wednesday, 11th Heaven.

If you’ve ever taken on a home DIY or remodeling project and wondered, “What’s the worst that could happen if something went wrong?”, this video might make you think twice!  (Subscribers click here to watch the video.)  This video was taken during a remodeling project at our old house.

Of course, we were able to get him out afterwards, along with the panel, but it would have been a strange call to make to the fire department to describe this home DIY remodeling project gone wrong!

4 Fun Historical Décor Themes for a Little Boy’s Bedroom

History is an important aspect of any child’s education. Without knowledge of the past, it is difficult to define who we are and in turn, work towards a better future. Children can be taught to love history from a young age and one way to achieve this is through their surroundings. Instilling a sense of wonder about the past is a precious gift you can give your son or daughter and this post delves into 4 fun historical themes you can create for your little boy’s bedroom interior.

Knights and Medieval Castles

The romance of knights, princesses and their beautiful medieval castles are enough to captivate children and adults alike. Little girls adore palace themed bedrooms and the delicate décor that goes with such a setting. For little boys however, the swords, amour, battles and duels with fire breathing dragons are much more interesting and these should be reflected in their bedroom design.

Perhaps the most famous knights known to children for thousands of years have been King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. The castle of Camelot is never far from the storyteller’s tongue when reciting the brave tales of knights in shining armor. There’s a wide array of related characters and settings you can use when it comes to medieval heraldry.

Some items you might consider include:

• Castle themed beds (often with tents and canopies)
• Knights and castle wall murals
• Dragon lamps
• Toy plastic swords for the wall
• Castle-themed rocking chairs
• Replica toy knights on horses to adorn a shelf

Swashbuckling Pirates

“Shiver my timbers! There’s a little pirate in our house!”

Little boys love to play-fight with plastic or wooden swords whilst shouting out catchphrases from their favourite pirate books or movies. It’s not difficult to see the attraction pirates have for children of all ages. The adventures, mysteries and battles pirates get up to are enough to fuel any young boy’s imagination. It appeals directly to their natural sense of fun and kinship.

For parents and grandparents, the most famous pirate stories would be from tales such as Robinson Crusoe, Treasure Island and Long John Silver. However, for young kids these days, their image of piracy is largely going to come from the tales of Johnny Depp in ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’. The exciting cinematic special effects and the likeable characters (together with the very scary bad guys) have rekindled the romance associated with pirates of old.

A pirate themed bedroom will be the captain’s cabin amongst your little boy’s friends from where they can hatch their devious pirate plans for acquiring chests of gold or eatable bounties.

Some items you might consider include:

• Ship’s wheel wall decoration
• Pirate bedding
• Black skull and cross bone flag for the wall
• Pirate themed wooden storage chest for toys
• Movie posters of Captain Jack Sparrow and friends
• Nautical themed clock

Cowboys and the Wild West

Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show did a lot to cement the image of cowboys we have today. One might also be forgiven for thinking cowboys and the Wild West have become less popular amongst children of the newer generation and in some ways this is true. During the 20^th Century, there were tons of movies related to cowboys and their conflicts with Indians and fellow cowboys. John Wayne personified the proud and often chivalrous ideal of the brave American rancher.

Of course, Hollywood glossed over many of the realities of cow herding and the frontier era. Nevertheless, cowboys still have an iconic image in the United States and due to cartoon representations and their parent’s love of old black and white western movies, the theme is a widely requested one among little boys.

Some items you might consider include:

• Cowhide print cushions and sheets
• Cowboy boots decor
• Stagecoach themed bed
• Personalized wanted poster
• Cactus wall décor
• Horse themed wallpaper
• Rustic wooden furniture
• Kid’s indoor tepee

Cavemen and Dinosaurs

“Ug ug ug!” is probably the sound most people think emanated from our early ancestor’s lips as they sat in caves chewing on the carcasses of their hunted prey. This is a rather humorous stereotype of cavemen propagated by cartoons and various movies. In fact, the ‘caveman’ as we imagine him to be (rather like Fred Flintstone but not as clean shaven) is of course not that close to the reality of how early humans lived. However, for decorative purposes in a child’s bedroom, it matters very little.

It’s popular to pair cavemen with dinosaurs too and again this is thanks to Hollywood movies and comic strips. It’s not historically correct but nevertheless fun and entertaining. Many little boys who have recently enjoyed a caveman or dinosaur movie or book will love a themed bedroom based along these lines.

Some items you might consider include:

• Bone décor
• Dinosaur wall decals
• Leopard print upholstery and bedding
• T-Rex table lamp
• Dinosaur themed wall clocks
• Caveman movie posters and art prints
• Caveman figurines

A Child’s Imagination

Decorating a little boy’s bedroom with one of these 4 historical themes will be a fun and rewarding task for both you and your child. Depending on the age of your son, it’s always a good idea to get a little input from him and let him choose some of the items and decorations that make up the final décor scheme. A child’s imagination is very rich and the ideas a child gives will often surprise you in a very positive way. You might even end up redesigning the master bedroom because of something he suggests!

4 Fun Historical Décor Themes for a Little Boy’s Bedroom is linked to 11th Heaven and Works For Me Wednesday.

So many readers have asked, "Where Can I Get Lists of Housekeeping Tasks to Keep my House Clean?"

To help with setting up effective housekeeping plans, I made available my new series: Printable Housekeeping Checklists – Forms for Your Life.  The best part is, these printables are yours for FREE! 

Print this housekeeping checklist now:  How To Clean the Kitchen Checklist

As you go through the list, you’ll notice that we clean any room from top to bottom, starting with the highest point and leaving the floors for the last.  The kitchen cleaning checklist incorporates the dining room, which you can put on a separate list if it is not part of the kitchen.

Every house is different, and not all the tasks on our lists will apply to every home.  However, this will give you a great starting point to get your house into shape and customize your own housekeeping plan.  There are even blank lines at the bottom to add in tasks specific to your home.

Click on the picture at left to print the How To Clean the Kitchen Checklist.

I recommend printing the checklist then laminating it so it can be used over and over with a dry erase marker.  If you do not have a laminator, you can just print multiple copies.

Our checklists make it easy to delegate housekeeping chores to family members.  If you’ve ever assigned someone to clean the kitchen and then been asked, "How do I clean the kitchen?," you will see that this checklist is justly named!

Take your children and/or spouse through the list step by step, explaining and demonstrating each job.  Hang the checklist in an accessible place in the room.  (Clipboards work very well for this purpose.)  Insist that the name and date is filled out at the top of the list and each item is checked off by the person cleaning the room.

For the first few times you’ll be double checking that each task was completed and done properly, but practice makes perfect.  Our lists ensure that the job will be done the same way every time and no tasks will be missed or forgotten.

You’ll never again wonder when a room was last cleaned, and you won’t hear "How do I clean the bathroom?" anymore!

Need more help setting up a plan to manage your housekeeping?  Check out our great materials for homemakers: How to Set Up a Housekeeping Plan.

We originally published the Printable Housekeeping Cleaning Checklist: Kitchen on June 16, 2008.  It’s been updated since then, so we thought we’d remind everyone to get theirs printed today!

Wouldn’t you like to have more time this summer to enjoy yourself?  Would you like to have time to play with your kids, go on neighborhood walks, go fishing, go to the beach, have family bbqs,  or go to the park?  Maybe you’re dying to take the family on a summer vacation.  But who has time for all those things? 

How much free time do you really have on the weekends?  Just because it’s summer time doesn’t mean your life is any less busy than the rest of the year.  Between summer camps, the kids’ summer sports, work, dishes, laundry, and other necessary home chores that keep our families dressed, fed, and clean, who has time to schedule fun activities?

If you’re like my family, having time to play in the summer is a huge priority.  We live in Alaska and are stuck indoors all winter long, so making the most of our short summer months is really important to us.  At the same time,  your weekends may be busier than your weekdays.  Just because you have the day off work doesn’t mean you don’t have a dozen projects at home on your to-do list that you haven’t had time to start yet. 

The Connection Between Possessions and Freedom (Things and Time)

There is a concrete relationship between the things you have (or possessions) and the free time you have (freedom).  For example, buying a bigger house adds extra bedrooms and bathrooms that have to be cleaned.  The more toys your kids have, the longer it takes them to clean up and the longer it takes you to help them organize.  Finding places for all of our things is tough.  The more clothes your kids have, the longer it takes you to sort through what’s too small, wash and pack it all away, or try to sell it all on eBay, or take it to the donation drop-off.  Plus, then you still have to dig out the bigger clothes from the garage for them to grow into.  Since your garage or shed is probably packed full, it will probably take you quite a while to accomplish that task too.

You see, any way you look at it, more stuff = the more time you have to give to your stuff.  Less stuff means you have more free time to spend doing things you enjoy, whether it’s an outing to the playground with your kids or just having a Saturday morning to have coffee with your spouse. 

Do you want to spend more time with your stuff or with people and on activities you choose?  We already know the answer.  Choosing time over stuff is the easy part.  The hard part is letting go of the stuff and emptying your house so you have more time.

Start With a Good Declutter – And be Ruthless

So you want to have more time this summer?  Start with a good declutter of your house, and be absolutely ruthless!  This means using some very strict guidelines and getting rid of at least 10% of your stuff.  10% might seem like a lot to give up at the outset, so let’s break it down into simpler terms.  Have 20 lipsticks?  Get rid of 2.  See?  That wasn’t so bad!

Pick a spot in your home (the middle of the floor in your garage is a perfect spot) to start building a mountain out of all the decluttered items. 

Now, I realize decluttering is challenging because it can be difficult to let go of your stuff.  I’ve been through the decluttering process many times and it goes much better if you have a good plan in place.  Here are a few tips for different kinds of decluttering that you might find helpful:

• Decluttering the Bathroom Closet
• Declutter Your Closet: Why is it So Hard to Let Go of Clothes?
• Simple Decluttering Criteria for Clothes and Criteria part 2
• Declutter by Returning Borrowed Items
• Clutter Busting: The One in, One Out Rule
• Decluttering All The Paper – Week 1, Week 2 and Week 3
• Decluttering with a Big Family

Next Comes the Garage Sale

Take all your decluttered items and smile!  Your house is about to get emptier.  First, sort all your items that you intend to get rid of into what can be sold at a garage sale and what needs to be thrown in the trash. 

One big, heavy duty garage sale should do wonders for clearing out all the unneeded items as well as bringing in a little extra cash for your efforts!  Plan your garage sale and get it listed on Craigslist for free for extra traffic.  It helps to take pictures of some of your big items and put them in your garage sale listing with prices. 

After the garage sale is over, its really up to you what to do with the leftovers.  Do you have the stamina to have another garage sale with the leftovers?  If not, find a place to donate your unsold items, such as Goodwill or a local homeless shelter.

Evaluate Your Progress

Did you really declutter enough?  Is there a remarkable difference in your house that you and your family can both feel?  If you still feel congested in your home or find yourself spending time looking for things or moving and organizing stored items, it’s time to go through the house for yet another purge.  Remember that each item you give up now gives you extra time to spend with your family doing things you actually want to do!

Remember the all important 1 in 1 out rule so you make your progress and your clean house permanent.  Good luck on your decluttering process, and enjoy all the extra time you just freed up this summer!

With every round of decluttering, I longed to be rid of all the items surrounding me and have a clear, mostly-empty house.  Every time I decluttered, I sent tons of bags to the recycle, the thrift store, and the trash.  How, then, did my house always still feel like it was swallowing me up and tapping all my energy?

There is a word that I was trying to work towards, I just didn’t know what it was called.  It’s called minimalism.  When I told my husband each time, “I just want everything gone,” I didn’t know that I was really telling him I was crying out for a minimalist lifestyle.

I’m a minimalist mom trying to strike a balance between big family functionality and a peaceful and productive house.  Is that even possible?

Is It Possible to Be a Minimalist With a Big Family?

Is it possible to be a minimalist when you have a large family?  With myself, my husband and four kids in the house, it seems someone is always bringing more items home.  As fast as we declutter, more junk shows up to be dealt with.

Then, add to the mix 2 babies and a toddler and all the large specialty gear that comes along with those ages.  Add loads and loads of laundry due to 3 kids without full potty training.  Toys, bottles, board games, trash, strollers, books, clothes to hand down, clothes to grow into, decorations for every holiday, craft supplies, homeschool supplies, still-packed boxes from a move 6 months ago, items which didn’t sell at the last garage sale…

Does this list sound familiar?  Are these things choking your house too?

While having young children does add a lot of stuff you must keep around until it’s outgrown (car seats, bouncy chairs, play gyms), you can still set reasonable limits and make sure you don’t duplicate gear or keep too much of one thing. 

As the household manager, it’s your responsibility to set limits for what can be in your house.  Just because there is room for more stuff, it doesn’t mean that empty area should be filled up.  This is often the hardest with kids, who seem to accumulate clutter like magnets.

How Do I Get My Kids to Declutter?

First of all, you’ll need to set limits for each person and space in your home.  It can be a simple limit for your teen, like all  makeup has to fit in one cosmetic organizer.  Or that your kids’ dress up clothes all have to fit in one dress up bin. 

Once you set these space requirements for possessions, it becomes your kids’ responsibility to declutter (with your teaching and guidance in the beginning).  They must make sure everything fits it its own space. 

If they want to get something new, they’ll have to get rid of something old to make room for it.  The kids will be deciding what stays and goes to stay inside their limits, so they can’t blame mom or dad for getting rid of all their “favorite stuff”! 

Start teaching kids to declutter at a young age and they’ll develop an attitude of appreciation for what they have, not a craving to accumulate more and more.  When they have to be responsible for making choices about items, they’ll be less likely to ask for new things every time you go to the store.

How Do I Streamline the Necessary Items for a Big Family?

While you can’t cut down to the absolute bare bones when you have a lot of kids, it is possible to streamline your house and its processes to free up your time and space. 

Laundry: Laundry is a huge space and time sink if you don’t set limits.  The old “1 outfit per day” rule is a great starter for those with tweens and teens. This means they need less clothing in their closet as well.

Assign each child a beach towel for their bath towel.  Have them hang their beach towel up to dry after their bath instead of going into the laundry every time.  This trick cuts down significantly on the loads of towels you’ll have to wash each week.  Plus, you just eliminated the need to own more than a handful of bath towels for your kids.  My family has 4 kids and we have only four bath towels in their bathroom.

Dishes:  Assign each child a special cup, sippy cup, or water bottle each day that they can have their drinks in.  It’s up to them to make sure their cup is rinsed after drinking from it so the same cup can be used for a whole day.  If each person in the house only has 1 drinking cup per day, your dishwasher’s loads won’t fill up as quickly. 

Plus, you won’t need to own stacks and stacks of kids’ cups if each person has only 2 (1 to use for a day, 1 to use for the next day when the first one is in the wash).

It is possible to have a minimalist outlook towards your possessions, even if you’re a mom with a big family.  Remember that just having more things doesn’t make people happier.  If you have 50 board games but the tall stacks make them so hard to get out that you always tell the kids no to game time, it’s time to trade in some things in favor of people.  Happy decluttering!

We love our children, of course, and treasure their creativity and development, but how much art can we keep?  Many parents post the pictures enthusiastically on the refrigerator, then the walls, then put them into stacks, and finally start filling boxes with their children’s old art projects.

Believe it or not, artwork can count as clutter if you let it take over your house!  You can’t keep everything – it’s simply impossible, especially if you have more than one child.  How can you keep a record of all that great art without letting it take over your house?

Solution: Scan it! If you own a scanner, your solution is just a click of the mouse away.  Here’s how:

1. Scan the masterpiece.
2. Backup the masterpiece, in one other location, like a jump drive.
3. Throw away!
4. If you have a state fair which your children enter their artwork in (we do), make sure they select the art pieces they want to enter so those ones aren’t discarded after scanning.

You now have all of their artwork in digital form, which takes up no physical space in your home, produces no clutter, and can be easily shared with grandmas and grandpas everywhere with a simple email!  And if you want to print it out again later, you can.  It works for me!

The art really is preserved well for all different mediums: oil pastel, crayon, colored pencil, marker, watercolor paint, and even Floam!  Here are a few of my Hannah’s scanned masterpieces:

This was a guy made from Floam on regular paper – a little tricky to scan, but much less messy than the real thing.

Storage Solution: Scanning Kids’ Art Projects was originally published on HomeEverAfter.com on June 4, 2008.

Clean This Today: The Microwave

Good morning, rulers of the roost!  Today’s cleaning chore is to clean your microwave.  I know it probably looks pretty scary in there, and yes, there are probably splatters of pasta sauce and butter on the microwave ceiling. 

I’ve always wondered- do most of us really cook that much pasta and buttery food in the microwave?  How does that stuff always end up on the microwave walls and ceiling?

Clean your microwave once a month if you dread it or once a week if you’re ambitious.  The once per week microwave cleaning schedule ensures that you’ll never have too daunting of a cleaning task before you.  Don’t put off cleaning your microwave anymore. 

It’s easy to clean a microwave when you know the simple steps to follow.  Do it today; you’ll be so glad you did!

How to Clean a Microwave: Complete Directions

We’ve created the perfect easy-to-follow step by step instructions for how to clean a microwave.  For you green cleaners, we’ve got plenty of non-chemical cleaning alternatives for you.  These include how to clean a microwave with baking soda, vinegar, lemon, and lemon juice.

Click now to read the directions for:

• How to Clean a Microwave 
• How to Clean a Microwave with Baking Soda
• How to Clean a Microwave with Vinegar
• How to Clean a Microwave with a Lemon
• How to Clean a Microwave with Lemon Juice

Cleaning your microwave with safe, non-chemical cleaners is really the best, since you can’t submerge any of the microwave’s surfaces in water to get a thorough rinse.  Remember to  print out the directions from each article and put them in the cleaning section of your household management binder for the next microwave cleaning day. 

Now you’ve got your cleaning instruction for the day.  Remember to come back next Tuesday for Clean This Today to transform your house into your Home Ever After!  If you have more energy and want to try more extra cleaning projects today, then go back to our Clean This Today list. 

Clean This Today: The Microwave is linked to Works for Me Wednesday and 11th Heaven.