Do I look fat in this?

Today is laundry day. Now that I'm only doing laundry for two, I wonder how I kept up with it for the whole family!!

One way I've cut back on the amount of laundry I have to do is (And are you ready for this?), I've cut back on the amount of clothes I have! That's right. And it's been hard because there's a lot of cute clothes out there, and I'm always changing sizes. But I've decided that I don't want to spend my life sorting, washing, drying, folding, ironing, and putting away piles and piles of clothes, so I've come up with a plan to get it done quicker. I've started planning my wardrobe, and it works like this:

Each season I need 4 outfits for church and speaking.
Each season I need 4 outfits for errands, meetings, and ballgames.
And each season I need 2 outfits for hanging around the house.

That's it. Ten outfits per season. It not only saves money to plan this way, but it also saves time. Have you ever stood at the closet for thirty minutes or changed clothes six times before deciding what to wear? I have. But now I have just a few choices, and I can make my decision (rather) quickly.

So my question is, what do you think of this plan? And could it work for you?

It's Whatever Friday

One of the benefits of scheduling my homemaking duties is that three days a week I get a day off. Well, not a complete day off, but I just have to do the quick, basic jobs and then go on to... whatever!

So far, my whatever today includes:

* (re-) painting the front door black.

* calling my 92-yr-old grandmother in Montana

* sweeping the sidewalk and patio

* looking over my friend Ginger's articles

* sorting out of my Discover bill (or not... bleh)

* and painting my toenails pink. About every five years I buy a bottle of nail polish. I keep thinking I'll like it. It looks so good on everyone else. But after I put it on... ugh... We'll see.

So, today is my "whatever" free Friday. What are you doing today?

Pesky Piles of Paperwork

I love paper -- which is why I'm staring at piles of it: scrapbooking paper, magazines, notebooks, catalogs, books, applications, Weight Watchers stuff.... I'm definitely behind on my filing, so I'm working on it today -- on my "office" day.

My friend Dawn inspired me to buy a 2-drawer filing cabinet. Up until now I've been able to get by with one of those portable filing boxes. You know, the hard plastic kind you get at Target or Walmart that have a handle on top. As a young mom, I kept the following files:

Food/Kitchen: clipped recipes, take-out menus, coupons, and weekly ads

Clothes: the lastest copy of LL Bean and Lands End, plus an envelope to hold tags and receipts in case something needed to be returned

Gifts: clipped magazine pictures of neat gift basket ideas

Household: paint chips, appliance manuals, clipped magazine pictures of cute decorating ideas

One file for each kid: anything I needed to keep for them, plus their SS# written on the tab (you'd be surprised how often you need that)

School: handbook, yearly calendar

Now that my kids are grown (except one) and my home is pretty well established, my filing needs are just a little different. But what about you? How do you handle your paperwork? How do you decide what to keep and what to throw away?

Greetings! Blog Post #1

At the suggestion of many people, I have started a blog. The purpose of this blog is to discuss home organization and time mangement and how making a plan will help us (1) have more time to spend with Jesus, and (2) have more time and money to go out and love others: our family, church, community, and world.

Since 2003 I have been teaching on this topic and now I'm writing a book. The full title is Redesign Your Homemaking: Creating Room To Love God and Love People.

So here are my questions: (1) How does your homemaking tasks interfere with your time with Jesus? What seems to take up all your time? And (2) If you had more time and money, what would you do to serve and love others?

Can't wait to hear your answers!
xoxo