Name: Spreading the Feast Gathering
Start: 2025-07-11T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-07-12T23:59:59-05:00
Location: LaGrange, KY

This topic has 22 replies, 15 voices, and was last updated 14 years, 8 months ago by QuirkyMama.

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September 24, 2010 at 8:25 pm
cherylramirez
Participant
Can anyone recommend a home management type book or website? I will be forever grateful!! I have a very small family but I am not as organized as I used to be. I feel like I’m losing my grip…or maybe that’s normal!!!!!
September 24, 2010 at 8:28 pm
CindyS
Participant
Titus2.com, Confessions of an Organized Homemaker, Confessions of a Happily Organized Family, flylady.com. These have all helped me at different times/seasons.
Blessings,
Cindy
September 24, 2010 at 8:46 pm
Michaela
Participant
I feel the same as you. I used to keep things neat and organized, but after having 5 children, and in a small house, I just don’t know where to put things anymore.
Based on recommendations from this site on another post, I just got the book “It’s All Too Much” by Peter Walsh from the library. I have only read the first two chapters so far, but it’s good.
The sentence that has stuck out to me is:
“This book doesn’t waste time telling people how to stick pretty labels on color-coded boxes the way so many organizing expterts do. For me, it’s not first and foremost about ‘the stuff’ – that’s way too superficial! It’s about changing your relationship to your stuff…When you solve the stuff problem, clarity follows.”
Also keeping a list on the refrigerator for me to glance at during the day helps. The items are roughly in the order I would like to get them done. Something like this:
- Have I had a shower and burshed my teeth?
- Have I read my Bible and had prayer time?
- Have we had a nutritious breakfast?
- It the kitchen clean?
- Are the kids dressed and brushed (hair and teeth) for the day?
- Have we done family worship?
- Are the beds made?
- Have I started the laundry?
- Have we done our schoolwork?
- Is the house neat?
- Have I read to the littles?
- Have we had rest?
- Have I done my daily cleaning chores?
- Have I planned our dinner?
- Am I prepared for the coming week?
I think I got this idea from Anne Elliot in her book “The Four Foundations of Lifelong Learning.”
I’m interested to hear what others have to say also!
Blessings,
Michaela
September 24, 2010 at 9:07 pm
thehauserfamily
Member
I like motiivated moms.
September 24, 2010 at 10:36 pm
Sanveann
Member
I LOVE Motivated Moms (www.motivatedmoms.com). I am seriously a new woman since I started using it, lol! I never knew WHERE to start with housework before, so … I just didn’t do much of it! Now I know exactly what needs to be done each day, and my house is SO much cleaner and more organized.
September 25, 2010 at 1:51 am
Esby
Member
I use flylady.com. I’ve tweeked her schedule to fit my weekly schedule and my home.
September 25, 2010 at 4:37 am
Megan
Participant
I can relate….I’m starting to loose what little grip I had on the housework. I’m not sure what happened.
I know my problem is mostly because I don’t have any kind of schedule for stuff. Before homeschooling, I would just do the cleaning here and there, and sometimes spend the better part of a day on it. That’s not working so well now. I’ve tried fly lady, which I may start again…I’m also interested in this motivated mom – I’ll check that out, too.
Michaela – I like your list idea a lot. Everything you have on the list to have finished before you start school work, is exactly what I would have…those things are my goals, but it seems that on the days that I actually get all of those things checked off, we are starting school later than I’d like. I guess that basically just means that I need to get up earlier! Working on that, too….
Megan
September 25, 2010 at 12:30 pm
Malissa
Member
I am beginning to use FLYlady. It is a great program. Also, check out Homeschoolbar. It has lots of great resources and some freebies most everyday as well. Link is : http://homeschoolbar.com/Home_Page.html. Oh, and by the way, its free. 🙂 Talk to you soon. God bless!
Malissa
September 25, 2010 at 2:59 pm
csmamma
Participant
For those of you who use Motivated Moms, is the printable chore list a format which you can type in your own chores? Also, has anyone used this for kids? Its looks very simple – everything for the week all on one sheet!
We’ve used Flylady in the past and its WONDERFUL… in theory – however practically carrying it out day after day is another matter entirely (at least for me )
I also LOVE Peter Walshes book – it revolutionized how I view “stuff” – clearing away clutter and dealing with organization matters.
September 25, 2010 at 3:01 pm
missceegee
Participant
Tell me more about motivated moms. I’ve checked the samples, but I wonder how it works with different size homes. For example, it says “declutter bookcase”, but we have 14 bookcases! Do you do them all at one time?
I can’t tell how frequently things are repeated either.
Also, do any of you use this with your kids involved? My kids do lots of chores and I tend to assign specific chores to certain kids, but I like the little by little nature of this. I’m just not sure it’ll work for us – 9dd, 6ds, 3dd, 10m ds. It seems directed at the mom.
Thoughts?
Christie
September 25, 2010 at 3:17 pm
csmamma
Participant
Yes, like Christie, my main question (to restate my original) concerning Motivated Moms is, can you personalize? I’m assuming so..but if not, it would be terribly difficult to follow anothers routine. Thanks.
September 25, 2010 at 7:01 pm
Gem
Participant
I really liked the look of the motivated mom planner – so I figured, since it is on sale for $4, as it is so close to the end of the year, I would just try it for the rest of 2010.
I think it will help with one of my main problems – getting overwhelmed by the fact that SOMETHING always needs to be done. With housekeeping, there is never any “finished.” Years ago I had a pretty good schedule – I think it was from the Confessions of an Organized Housekeeper book. She said if you make a schedule and do it, then yes the work is never done, but Today’s work can be done. This made sense to me, psychologically. The motivated mom list is the same – check off the stuff for today, then quit! Then do the stuff tomorrow, and then quit!
Since whatever plan I have now doesn’t seem to be working anymore, I am going to try “somebody else’s schedule.” What have I got to lose? I am sure I will learn something.
So I printed it out this morning – we will see how it goes! I say just jump in and try it, tweak it to make work for you, pencil in the kids chores, or assign them some of the work each week – by the end of the year you will know if it works for you or not.
Four bucks! can’t beat that price! Good grief, the regular price is only $8 LOL.
Good luck, everybody! Nice to know I am not alone in being housework-challenged LOL.
Gem
September 25, 2010 at 7:09 pm
Gem
Participant
Oh – forgot to answer a question – no, you cannot edit the list, it is just a straight-forward pdf file.
You could make your own list with a chore schedule you make up yourself and a program for todo’s that does recurrences. This is just the kind of activity I would spend like two months on getting perfect, and in the meantime not do a single bit of house work LOL. I think this is what flylady calls perfectionism LOL.
September 25, 2010 at 8:05 pm
Sanveann
Member
The MM planner does have spaces where you can add in your own chores (at least the full-page one, which I get, does). For example, I do more vacuuming than she has on there, because we have a very large, hairy dog, so I add that in more than she has it. Other things, she suggests a lot more than I do them (like changing the dish towel every other day — mine just doesn’t get that dirty!), so I just cross it off when I see it come up more than I generally do it.
September 25, 2010 at 10:06 pm
my3boys
Participant
The flylady has a similar list. I use when I feel a little “out of sorts”.
It’s called (or I called it, not sure anymore as I wrote it out several years ago):
Control Journal/Steps to Keeping it Together:
Am I dressed (for me that means shoes as well)?
Have I checked my calendar?
Have I checked my Hot Spots (counters/shelves/tables/entertainment centers), any flat surface in your home that attracts clutter, and put out any fires? Which means clear it off, put items in their rightful places.
What’s for supper/dinner?
Where is my laundry?
Have I taken a break this morning? Had any water? Have any breakfast?
Have I decluttered for 15 minutes today?
Where are my shoes?
And, most importantly…Have I prayed/read a portion of God’s word?
When my house/life feels a little out of whack then I’ve probably neglected one or more of these.
I don’t believe any of these were in any particular order of importance, but I personally feel more stressed when I haven’t prayed or am not dressed (to my shoes) or haven’t eaten, but that’s just me. Then, I feel added stress when I haven’t purposeful decluttered for 15 minutes or have not done a 27 Fling Boogie. When I first started this program the Fling Boogies made the biggest difference in my home management. The less to manage, the better. And, she does really ask you to rid yourself of items that you no longer love or enjoy to make room for nothing (clean, flat surface is beautiful) or something that you love. Things bog me down and I can really feel the weight of them and the wasted time in managing them…so for me, the flylady helped to get rid of the stuff and understand that things are not as important than people. Plus, I have never regretted getting rid of stuff, but have always felt free once it’s all gone. I’ve actually regretted NOT getting rid of stuff as it’s cluttering up my mind/life:(
Okay, I’m done rambling…
I’m kind of passionate about this because I have a family member who is a hoarder and it has controlled his life for a very long time, sad, very sad. I can see how things have become more important than people and how managing it is a full-time job…