How to Utilize Time Waiting

May 28, 2018 by Danielle Leave a Comment

As a busy mom, you have to wait – sometimes a lot. There are probably many times you’ve had to wait around just this week – at the carpool line, at the doctor’s office, while your kiddos have practice. With all of our to-dos every day, we can’t really afford to ‘waste’ that time (although I’m a full supporter of taking some of that for YOU time). If you’re wanting to get more done and make the most of those moments, here’s some tips on How to Utilize Time Waiting.

Other than taking some of these moments for yourself – which I HIGHLY recommend at least occasionally – it’s nice to cross some other productive things off to help you fit more into your day. Here are some things busy moms can do to make the most of that time just sitting or standing around:

1. Go over your to do list. You can write the list, edit the list, review the list, etc. You might carry a small notebook with you, or use a digital to-do list or smartphone app. Whatever works for you, but that time spent waiting is a good way to stay updated on the tasks you need to get done. I know my list changes constantly, so it’s good to stay on top of it before it becomes overwhelming.

2. Catch up on email. This can be a great time to wade through some of those emails you’ve been putting off opening, or to touch base with someone you’ve really been meaning to contact.

3. Review or start a grocery list. You might need to be at home to look in your kitchen and see what you’re out of, but most moms are pretty good at remembering at least some of what is and isn’t in their kitchen. You can also get a list going of potential meals for your next week’s menu, or think of a new recipe to try.

4. Catch up on social media. Need your daily social media fix? Want to see what your friends are up to, but you’ve been too busy? Here’s a good time to catch a peak – just don’t get sucked in too much like many of us do! 😉

5. Take some fun photos! My kids love it when I take time to nab some photos with them (since us moms don’t always get IN the photos), so we’ve started making it a regular thing when we’re waiting somewhere together.

With these tips in mind, you can plan ahead and best utilize time waiting. This will give you more time when you’re back at home for doing other things you need to tend to, and maybe even give you REAL time to spend for yourself!

What do YOU do while waiting around?

How to Truly Find Balance in Your Life

March 30, 2018 by Danielle Leave a Comment

Does anyone else experience those times in life when you just sit there thinking ‘how the heck can I handle everything?’ With all that we busy moms are asked to do, it’s an extremely frustrating task to find balance with it all. And not every person has the same responsibilities or desires for their time! One mom may need to provide some or all of the family’s income. Another may be the main household ‘manager’. Still another may be a full-time chauffeur due to their kids’ many activities. Most of us do more than one of those things, too! So how do we manage our responsibilities with spending quality time with our families AND making time to care for ourselves? Here’s a few tips on How to Truly Find Balance in Your Life – hopefully they’ll help us with this stressful balancing act a bit!

We hear a lot of talk about “balance” these days. Balancing your personal life with your mom duties, balancing work and home life, balancing this-and-that – but what does it really mean? The first, and most important, thing to know about balance is that it is not static. It comes and goes and weaves in and out of your life as things change throughout your day, week, and months. You need to understand that it evolves and regularly be aware of it. Learn how to self-check to see if you are feeling balanced.

Just because you “find balance” doesn’t mean you will feel the same tomorrow. You may need to find it again. In time, it will get easier and easier to form good, positive habits that help you maintain balance in your life, but it is still a daily process. It isn’t something you just find and keep forever. It’s a constant struggle, like a constant balancing act we have to do – and it can change constantly as our roles, responsibilities and life challenges adjust.

Next, you also need to know that healthy eating and getting enough sleep each night will help you. It sounds basic – that’s because it is. It’s simple enough, yet many people struggle with it. You need to have your body and mind in the right place and this begins with healthy living.

Don’t be afraid to say no. Many of us moms find our lives getting kicked out of balance because we take on too many responsibilities or try to do too much. It’s important that we learn to say no and be comfortable doing so when the time comes. You can’t do everything, nor should you try.

Okay, so that sounds a lot easier than I think it is – but I think these few things are the most important steps for working towards balance. It’s okay if we don’t always get it perfect, but what matters most is that we’re trying – for our families sakes, as well as our own!

How do YOU best find balance in your life?

Announcing the Busy Mom Bundle!

March 1, 2018 by Danielle Leave a Comment

I’ve been working like crazy behind the scenes creating something for all my fellow busy moms out there to make your lives a bit easier, and maybe even more organized. I’m thrilled to finally announce the Busy Mom Bundle! We’ve taken several of our most popular products and are offering them as a complete set for all the parents out there – whether you need help organizing your families important files, want meal plans already done for you for a YEAR, love Disney activities, need a reliable planner, or help planning the best summer camp ever – this Busy Mom Bundle has practically EVERYTHING to help out!

From getting all your important files, documents & information together with the Family Home Binder, to having a whole year’s worth of weekly meal plans (with the recipes, of course) already done for you. Keep track of your schedule and tasks with our beautiful planner. You can even earn money hosting an awesome summer (or Spring Break) camp for kids with our FOUR different themed camp kits – or just enjoy them as bonus activities for your own kiddos!

Plus, both the Disneyland-California AND generic versions of our Unofficial Disney Activity & Autograph Books – perfect for that upcoming Disney trip, or just a great booklet for Disney lovers.

These fabulously fun and helpful books and kits sell individually for $2-$10 EACH (except the planner, it’s always free), but with the Busy Mom Bundle you can nab the whole set for just $8 – that’s less than the cost of ONE of the summer camp kits or the meal plan pack alone!

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So let me break it down a bit so you can see exactly what’s included in this incredible printable bundle pack…

Family Home Binder

4 Cover Designs
Weekly Tasks and To Do Spread
Page for listing household Utilities & Services information
School Information
Weekly Menu & Shopping List
Medical Forms
Family Emergency Plan, Map (fire escape route) & Contacts
Emergency Contact Sheet
Monthly Budget – one blank and one with some general expenses filled in
Babysitter Helper Sheet
Birthday List

2018 Printable Calendar & Weekly Planner

also includes 8 different covers (4 styles, each with the option for the stylized ribbon strip or without it)
This is normally a free printable anyway, so we’re just including in here since it’s also a helpful resource for busy moms

Summer Camp Kits – a great way to earn some extra cash!

The 4 themes include: Arts & Crafts, Wizard (aka Unofficial Harry Potter), Science and Superhero
Don’t want to do a camp? They still make great preschool themes, party plans & ideas or just awesome kid activities!
Each has:
- a cover
- tips and ideas for planning & organizing your camp
- themed food ideas
- activities, games, crafts and/or expiriments
- access to LOTS of free printables to assist in your camp, such as invitations, sign in/out sheets, name tags, coloring pages, photo booth cut-outs, banners, drink labels, food cards, etc.

Both Unofficial Disney Activity & Autograph Books (Disneyland-specific, and the generic version)

Pages for keeping memories and records from your Disney trip
Coloring sheets, games & activities
Plenty of styled & themed autograph pages (also work great for photo pages)
Disneyland version includes ride lists & height requirements

Meal Plan on a Budget

52 Weeks (a whole year) of weekly meal plans already done for you
Breakfast, lunch AND dinner
Recipes all included with page numbers for easy reference
Daily food costs average to less than $5 per person per day!
Blank shopping list for easy grocery list planning

Like I said, the Busy Mom Bundle will be only $8 – such a great savings from buying the printable sets individually! But here’s the thing – we’re celebrating this awesome kit by doing a TWO DAY SALE when it’s live – by selling it for just $7! Yup, when it becomes available in our shop next Tuesday, March 6th at 6am until Thursday, March 8th at 8am you can nab the ENTIRE kit for just $7 – that’s less than a single summer camp kit set or the meal plan book all alone.

So mark your calendars, because this amazing, parent-sanity-saving set will be available starting next week and you can save more by purchasing the first two days. WOOT WOOT!

Don’t want the whole bundle? Check out our other products HERE

Family Home Binder

Unofficial Disney Activity & Autograph Books

2018 Planner & Calendar

Summer Camp Kits or Kid Activity Packs

A YEAR of Meal Plans with Recipes – on a Budget!

Which of the printables would YOU most like to have?

How to Fit Cleaning into Your Busy Mom Routine

February 28, 2018 by Danielle Leave a Comment

As a mom, one of our big challenges in keeping a clean and organized home. The problem is that it’s just more to add to our hilariously long to-do list, and unless someone invents that wonderful ‘time in a bottle’ that I ask for every holiday, it’s just not always possible to accomplish EVERYTHING we want to get done. That being said, here’s a few tips on How to Fit Cleaning into Your Busy Mom Routine, so maybe you can get a little sweeping done every now and then!

Despite how many of my photos I share on my blog and social channels look, my house is not usually completely cleaned. Yes, we do regular cleaning and chores, but there’s always more I want to do – there’s just never time for it all. There are ways to tackle a few tasks here and there, though, that can help keep your house at least ‘clean enough’ – which is what some of us moms just need to be happy with until our kiddos are a bit older!

1. Make the most of naptime. When your son or daughter is napping, this is a great time to scrub the toilets, clean out the fridge or change the cat’s litter box. The key is to do quiet cleaning while your child naps so that you don’t wake them!

2. Clean while your child eats or watches TV. You can mop the floors while your child is enjoying their lunch or watching an episode of Dora the Explorer.

3. Get some cleaning done before mealtime. This can be a good time to encourage your child to pick up their toys or get your vacuuming done.

4. Do some cleaning after bedtime. After your kids have been tucked in, you might clean up the kitchen, do the dishes, unload the dishwasher or do any other cleaning that needs to be done.

5. Involve your child in cleaning. Even toddlers can get involved in cleaning by picking up their own toys. Young kids may enjoy dusting.

6. Lower your expectations. You have kids, possibly even some pets. Your house is never going to be completely clean – and that’s ok. Don’t stress so much about it not being perfect that you miss out on what’s more important – your family. There will be time later for a perfectly clean, organized home.

These are just some ideas on how to fit cleaning into your busy mom routine. Although it can take some strategic planning, there are plenty of great times to squeeze in a little bit here and there – and it all adds up!

How do YOU fit cleaning into your schedule?

Family Home Binder Printables

February 22, 2018 by Danielle Leave a Comment

Isn’t it such a pain to sort through a ton of documents and files to find the information you need, especially when you’re in a rush? Now you can keep all your family’s important info in one, easy place with these Family Home Binder Printables! We’ve got everything from medical forms and emergency contacts, to shopping lists and babysitter sheets, plus budgets and more to make your life as a busy mom much easier and organized.

After lots of asking around as to what people preferred, we made our home binder printables simple and clean-looking, while still being stylish with some pops of color. It goes perfectly with our 2018 Free Printable Planner, as well as our awesome 52 Weeks of Meal Plans (with recipes) Book! We tried to include the majority of lists and documents that a busy family would need, helping you keep track of everything in one, convenient place. Once you have the PDFs, you can print off as many as you’d like (such as with the monthly budget sheet or weekly menu and shopping lists) – for personal use only, of course 🙂 We even included several cover options, so you can print off whichever you like best.

What’s included in the Family Home Binder Printable pack?

4 Cover Designs – front and back (front has choice of ribbon decor or plain in that blue label piece)
Weekly Tasks and To Do Spread
Page for listing household Utilities & Services information
School Information
Weekly Menu & Shopping List
Medical Forms
Family Emergency Plan, Map (fire escape route) & Contacts
Emergency Contact Sheet
Monthly Budget – one blank and one with some general expenses filled in
Babysitter Helper Sheet
Birthday List

Family Home Binder Printables

That’s a LOT of pages, but super important to have handy when your family needs them. You can nab the entire set now for just $1.99 – what a deal!

Let’s talk about the individual sheets now, shall we? Since many of us need help getting our tasks organized – otherwise we try to keep all our to do’s in our head – here’s the Weekly Tasks & To Do’s spread:

It has the days listed out along the top, and then to the left it’s divided into AM, PM or Eve (evening) so you can spread it out a bit by times, as desired.

One that many people forget to have on-hand is a list of their utility companies, contact information and account numbers – because we don’t really think about it until something happens and we need it RIGHT THEN. Now you can have them all neatly listed out on this sheet. We pre-filled some of the lines with the general types of utilities many people have, but it still has plenty of lines for adding in others as needed.

I never really thought to have a sheet of all my kids’ school information until we took a ‘parents only’ vacation and my uncles were watching them for almost 2 weeks.

Now you can print off a sheet for each school child, and have everything on there – from their homeroom teacher’s info, to their schedule (including bus) and more.

Along with having that easily accessible when you have a sitter, how about a BABYSITTER HELPER sheet? You can add the details for that particular time, plus things like what they should eat and what times. So useful!

For a long while I was using plain, boring paper to write out our family’s weekly menu – now it’s much more fun (and not such an eye-sore on my fridge) with this cute weekly menu that I can fill in.

This is the same design I use in our Meal Plan on a Budget Book, along with the fun shopping list page.

I’m crossing my fingers and knocking on wood right now as I type this (you know, just in case I jinx myself) – but we’ve only had to take a child to the emergency room ONE TIME. With 5 kids, that’s such a lucky blessing! When that did happen, though, I wish we had this medical form so I could have all of his information in one spot to take with us instead of trying to dig it all out and call hubby back home to find the stuff I just didn’t remember. Super stressful!

You can even use it when going to new doctors and such, since you can put all of their allergies, medications, past surgeries and the like on there. This page alone would’ve been well worth the mere $1.99 cost when we had our ER ordeal – and you can nab the whole set for that cost! Woot woot!

To go right along with that form – other emergencies can, unfortunately, happen to our families. Times like this, we don’t have a moment to spare – so it’s extremely important to have a plan. These emergency pages allow you spots to input your family’s emergency plans…

…including a sheet of more emergency contacts. We also included a mostly-blank page where you can draw out a rough idea of your home escape plan, for instances such as a fire.

This is great to practice with the kids regularly, so they know what to do should the worst happen.

Okay, now that we’ve covered those very urgent, hopefully-won’t-be-needed forms, let’s move on to something a little more fun – a place to put all those birthdays we try to keep in our minds constantly! Whether you just track your immediate family’s special days, or include every aunt, uncle and second-cousin-twice-removed, there’s spots for each month!

I know not everyone likes keeping a budget (I’m actually in love with budgeting, so for me it’s fun), but in case you do there’s a sheet to track all of your monthly finances!

We’ve included a sheet that’s partially filled in with common expenses, but also have one blank in case you really want full control over the items and order 🙂

Phew, that’s quite a ton of papers – but when you’ve got an entire family and household to care for it can be SUPER helpful to have all that information in one place. You can either put it in folders, staple it together, place it in a binder, or even just spiral-bind the packet yourself. Whatever you choose, this family home binder printable set is great for any busy mom, dad or family!

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This is included in our Busy Mom Bundle, along with other fabulous printable packs!

Check out our other products HERE

Unofficial Disney Activity & Autograph Books

2018 Planner & Calendar

Summer Camp Kits or Kid Activity Packs

A YEAR of Meal Plans plus Recipes – on a budget!

How to Stop Multitasking and Get More Done

February 3, 2018 by Danielle Leave a Comment

Raise your hand if you’re a multi-tasker! I sure am – but that’s not necessarily a good thing. As busy moms, we often pride ourselves on our ability to do many things at once – and with all we have to do, it’s not avoidable all the time. But really, we’ve got to learn How to Stop Multitasking and Get More Done!

You may think that multitasking is helping you get more things accomplished in your day, but many studies have shown that it does more harm than good. When you’re doing a specific task, you need to be sure you’re focused only on that specific task and not anything else at the moment. This will help you be more efficient with what you’re doing and you’ll get through things more quickly. It’s also super easy to get started on several things, but they never really get finished because we were handling too much all at once – or we were doing one thing, saw another and remembered it needed to be done and switched our focus, then several items later never make it back to the one we started with. Crazy, frustrating and exhausting, right?! By just focusing on one thing at a time, it not only gets done BETTER, but you can check more things off your to-do list, rather than have many things half started but not completed.

So, if you’ve been overwhelmed and trying to tackle several things at once, it may be a difficult habit to quit. Here’s some tips to stop multitasking and get more done:

Make a list of things you need to do, then prioritize your list. Put time estimates beside each task of how long they will take you. That way, if you find you have about 15 minutes, you can pick something that takes about that long to get done – instead of wondering what you can fit in and simply waste that time not deciding.
Take each task one at a time and commit to doing it until finished. This also frees up your brain power from trying to keep too many tasks ‘open’ in it all at once.
Block out your time throughout the day in chunks, based on your to-do list. I do better with smaller chunks of time, since it doesn’t seem so daunting – you can divide larger tasks up into smaller ones to help this, too.
Allow yourself breaks in between completing tasks. You’ll be more focused on getting it done, and have a chance to refresh knowing you get a rest time when complete.
Practice it until it becomes your new habit. Changes don’t happen instantly, especially with long-ingrained habits like this, so be patient and just keep at it the best you can.

What are your tips to get more done in the day?

Time Management for Busy Moms

January 23, 2018 by Danielle Leave a Comment

Us moms have to juggle many tasks and wear many hats, from carpooling and checking homework, cleaning and laundry, managing the budget and shopping, and sometimes even a whole slew of job work! It might seem like you never have time to stop, or even slow down with your enormous to-do list – but it’s important that you manage your time and your busy tasks as well as you can so that you CAN still get quality time with your family, as well as some time for yourself. Here’s some Time Management for Busy Moms to give us ALL a little help!

It’s very important to your well-being, as well as the well-being of those you care for each day, and many moms just don’t make it a priority. I struggle with that all too often myself, so know what you’re up against! Maybe one or two of these time management tips will give you a little help and guidance.

Delegate – Whenever possible, try to delegate some tasks to someone else. Sometimes busy moms try too hard to do it all when there are tasks that others are perfectly capable of helping with. Despite what some husbands might think, they’re perfectly capable of helping with the house cleaning and such. No, they may not load the dishwasher perfectly how you want it – but if the dishes will still get cleaned, great! Are your kids able to help fold the clothes (who am I kidding, we don’t ‘fold’ clothes in our house – it’s wash, dry and put away in drawers or hung in closets!) or maybe wipe down the counters? Let them help!

Create a schedule – You need a schedule and you need to stick to it. It might seem difficult when everything is happening at a crazy, breakneck pace but it’s important you follow the schedule to help manage your time properly. Once you force yourself into a habit of following a schedule, it’ll become easier to do and help you get done what you need to while seeing where you can fit in other things.

Use a timer – Focus on one task at a time and use a timer to block out short blocks of time to get things done. The timer will keep you on task while also helping you see how much time you’re actually spending on things. It’s easier to tackle scrubbing toilets when I have a timer for only so many minutes – I can do REALLY good cleaning for those minutes, then I get a break!

Don’t overcommit – This is a difficult one for most moms but it’s important not to overbook and overcommit yourself. Sometimes you just need to say no because you already have too many things going on. There’s nothing wrong with this at all, regardless of why we tell ourselves we have to say yes or let ourselves feel guilty when we don’t. Us busy moms are AWESOME – but we’re not time lords or anything, so we just CANNOT do everything. Please let yourself say no sometimes.

Y’all remember when I shared how important it is for us moms to have a hobby of our own? I know that it’s easier said than done with how much we need to squeeze into each day – but with these time management tips for busy moms, hopefully we can ALL can keep ourselves on schedule a bit more and feel like we have some downtime now and then, because every mom deserves that!

What’s YOUR best time management advice for busy moms?

List of Our Favorite Free Printable Planners & Calendars for 2018

January 5, 2018 by Danielle 4 Comments

January means planning for a lot of people – looking at the year ahead as we make goals and schedule our events. Online calendars are just great, but there’s just something about the good ol’ paper ones that I absolutely love! I thought it’d be fun to put together this List of Our Favorite FREE Printable Planners & Calendars for 2018 to share with y’all!

Not only do I use my own Free Printable 2018 Planner for my weekly planning and blog scheduling, but I have a big desk one and even use an online Google Calendar – because that’s the only method hubby can keep up with, so I need to add our family things on there as well. Overload, you may think – but this is what works for me and helps me stay on top of my many to-dos and scheduling for family, self and my work. Check out the below list of FREE printable 2018 planners and calendars to find one that fits your style AND your scheduling preferences!

Free Printable 2018 Planner (with 200+ customizable files) from TheHandmadeHome.com

IRMA Monthly Calendars by ElizaEllis.com

Free Printable 2018 Planner & Calendar by BusyMomsHelper.com

Beauty & The Beast Calendar by TheCottageMarket.com

IRMA Weekly Calendars by ElizaEllis.com

10 Free Printable Daily Planners by ContentedatHome.com

Daily Planner Page by InkStruck.com

Printable 2018 Calendar by DearCrissy.com

Free Printable Happy Life Planner by HomePrintables.com

3-D 2018 Planner Printable by APieceOfRainbow.com

Hand-Lettered 2018 Wall Calendar by ClementineCreative.co.za

2018 Free Printable Monthly Calendar by OnSuttonPlace.com

Super Cute 2018 Calendar by PrintablesAndInspirations.com

Pop Culture Unicorn Calendar by TheCottageMarket.com

2018 Year at a Glance by MalenaHass.com

2018 Planners & 12 Month Calendar by TheOrganizedDream.com

2018 Kitchen Themed Calendar by MeinLilaPark.blogspot.ch

2018 Kawaii Mermaid Calendar by TheCottageMarket.com

Family Home Evening Planner for Busy Moms

January 1, 2018 by Danielle 8 Comments

Who does a weekly Family Night? We’ve sort of tried to in the past, but I could count the number of times we actually followed through on one hand. Pretty sad! This year I want to really make a better attempt at it, despite our crazy schedules with dance, karate, school and work! I know I need to be a lot more organized to pull this off, so I pulled up this awesome Printable Family Home Evening Planner for Busy Moms from few years ago to use!

The colors & style match really well with our 2018 Free Printable Planner, so you can stick it right in with the other fabulous pages! This 2-page printable for Family Home Evening has spots for practically EVERYTHING I need to successfully plan and prepare for your fun night together! There’s sections for keeping track of assignments….

At the top you can put the Theme for that month, and there’s a handy NOTES section at the bottom of one page!

I love that there’s a cute section just for Family Goals, since we’re working on some things together as a family this coming year. Teamwork all the way!

On the right page of the spread, you can fill in each week’s specific TOPIC, so preparing the lesson will be that much easier!

I really enjoy quotes, so I even included a specific area where you can fill in a theme-appropriate (or just one you really like!) to give some thought and inspiration during the month.

Along the line of loving quotes….I put two WONDERFUL family quotes from Uchtdorf (one of my favorite speakers) and one from Thomas S. Monson along the bottom of each page!

I know this planner will be uber helpful this coming year, and can do wonders helping us keep up with our goal! It’ll take a little time getting use to it, especially when the younger kids have the lesson and need ‘some’ help. I’ll try to look at it as a great learning time and quality teaching moment, hopefully that’ll make me a little less short-tempered! I know it’ll be great, though, and can’t wait to start learning even more about the gospel with my sweet family!

Print Pages Here

Family Home Evening Planner – Left Side

Family Home Evening Planner – Right Side

Don’t forget to check out our full 2018 Free Printable Planner for busy moms!

20+ Free Cleaning Printables

December 28, 2017 by Danielle 14 Comments

Originally shared January 2015 – resharing because these cleaning and organization printables are super helpful, especially as we’re starting a new year! A new year means a fresh start! Here are 20+ Free Cleaning Printables to make life easier and your home happier.

I’m so glad to be here sharing with you a little cleaning inspiration. I’m a busy wife, mom, craft and DIYer, wanna be homesteader, blogger and small business owner, to name a few. Trust me, I have plenty of distractions from cleaning and on most days those distractions win. Yes, I’m the mom who does her best cleaning 20 minutes before someone gets there.

The problem is my family suffers (can’t find their favorite shirt) because of it, and not to mention the added stress it causes me when things aren’t where they should be. Don’t get me wrong, we don’t live in filth, but I wouldn’t go running a white glove over my baseboards. In all of the busyness, I have figured out the things I have to get done in a day to get by, but this year I really want to strive for more.

I’m hoping by being more organized with my cleaning schedule this year, I will be able to get the most done with the time I have. I know that things work better when you make a plan, so here are some cleaning printables that will help us (I hope I’m not the only mom in this situation) do just that.

Free Cleaning Printables

Weekly Task and a 2015 Planner via Busy Mom’s Helper

Fillable Cleaning Checklist for Daily, Weekly and Monthly task via Pinch a Little Save-A-Lot

Weekly Cleaning Schedule via First Home Love Life

Cleaning Cards for Kids via Clean Mama

Deep Cleaning Checklist via Cronerstone Confessions

The Ultimate Spring Cleaning Guide and Checklist via Little Ms. Robinson

Daily Cleaning Schedule via Love and Marriage

31 Day House Cleaning Routine via Money Saving Mom

Winter Cleaning Checklist via Simply Designing

Monthly Deep Cleaning Schedule via 32 Turns

Fall Cleaning Checklist via Ask Anna

55 Simple Cleaning Recipes via Clean Mama

Homemade Cleaner Labels via World Label Blog

52 Weeks to an Organized Home via Home Storage Solutions

How to Create a Cleaning Binder with All the Printables via Clean & Scentsible

The Fastest Way to Clean a House via Fab ‘n’ Free

Age Appropriate Chores for Kids via The Happy Housewife

40 Day Summer Cleaning & Organizing Challenge via The Nest Effect

A Manageable Cleaning Schedule via A Time To Freeze

Free Cleaning Checklist you can Customize- 1 Year on 1 Page via Simply RebekahIf you are looking for more printables, be sure to check out these 25 Printables for Organizing your home and life.

You can find out more about me at Life After Laundry, where I share my love for homemaking, homesteading and all things crafty.

Free Printable 2018 Planner for Busy Moms

December 16, 2017 by Danielle 8 Comments

Okay guys, I know I usually have our yearly planners out at the start of the school year, but I’m SUPER behind this year. Better late than never, right? After hearing plenty of feedback from last year’s version, we stuck with the clean design with colorful accents, but tweaked our weekly tasks pages a bit to better go with what many of you were looking for. You can nab our Free Printable 2018 Planner for Busy Moms, and get your scheduling and to-do lists more under control for the new year!

Printable 2018 Planner

Yes, the planner download is FREE – but if you don’t want to deal with downloading, printing & binding all by yourself, you’re welcome to purchase it from where we get our own copy printed…

While I always worked with planners that started on Sunday, I heard a vast majority of you asking for it to begin on MONDAY instead – wish granted! Also, we have the days organized along the top of the page, and then several lines down, with AM, PM or EVE (evening) along the edge. This will give more freedom and room for writing down the many tasks we tackle each week!

Many of you said you didn’t care much for the dates for each day all year long, either – asking instead for it more general in case you need/want to make copies during the month. Again, we made that change! I’m really happy with the cleaner look and more lines and space for writing in.

For our monthly spread, we didn’t hear any big requested changes by the larger portion of you, so kept it the same. Large squares allows for writing in important dates or events, with a section along the right side for taking any notes.

At the bottom right corner you’ll find the previous month as well as the following month, so you’re not having to flip back and forth much while handling your planner.

We stuck with offering you the FOUR cover designs, since there was such a variety of preferences…

Each design can have a BLANK blue box, or have a little line/ribbon down it (I prefer this, so I write the year beneath and either my name or Busy Mom’s Helper above it)…

Here’s the breakdown of the printable 2018 planner covers

Top Left – Cover 4
Top Right – Cover 3
Bottom Left – Cover 2
Bottom Right – Cover 1

Since we’re so late getting this out this year, we didn’t worry about starting in August – after all, most of you won’t be going BACK to write things in for the previous few months, I assume. As such, this 2018 planner will go from January through December 2018.

In each pdf, it has the front cover with a blank back, then a 2-page NOTES spread. After that is the monthly spread of January, followed by the weekly tasks for January, then the February monthly calendar spread, then February’s weekly tasks spreads……and so forth through December. After the last week of December’s tasks is a 2-page NOTES spread, then 1 page of NOTES – then a blank page to be the inside of the back cover.

I designed these to be 8.5×11 in size – sorry, we don’t have smaller/different sizes this year as we had far too many people getting confused how to print them and getting upset with us because we couldn’t tell them how to work it on their own printer. We apologize for that, but we can’t possibly help so many people with all their different printers or programs. 🙂

To get your PDF download of our free printable 2018 planner, just sign up for our newsletter below – it’s one of our FREE subscriber exclusives!

I hope you love our free printable 2018 planner as much as we do! I know we can’t meet EVERYONE’S tastes, but we certainly try to appeal to the majority of our readers.

This is included in our Busy Mom Bundle, along with other fabulous printable packs!

Again, the download is FREE to all our subscribers, so you can sign up for our newsletter, download it free and print/bind it yourself – BUT if you don’t want to deal with all that yourself and want a professionally printed and spiral bound copy, you’re welcome to order it from the same place we purchased our printed copy:

Let us know your feedback in the comments so we can make the 2019 planner even better!

Check out our other products HERE

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A YEAR of Meal Plans plus Recipes – on a budget!

Tips for Sharing a Workspace at Home

December 4, 2017 by Danielle Leave a Comment

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #LoveYourPC #Intel8thGen #CollectiveBias

While hubby doesn’t work from home daily like I do, he does have a couple days a month – plus some evenings or weekends when he ‘brings work home’ with him – where he needs to use the office, too. I’m sure I’m not the only one who deals with the potential frustrations that come with having a co-office, sharing their work area with their spouse or significant other. Or maybe sharing with a child who homeschools or has more online work! Whatever the reason, it doesn’t have to be a huge headache – here’s some Tips for Sharing a Workspace at Home to help you out!

Tip #1: Have a Reliable & Flexible PC

Even before I became a full-time blogger (so I practically LIVE on my PC some days), I relied heavily on it for photo editing, online shopping, paying the bills, managing our spreadsheets and family calendars, and so much more. Since I can’t do without it for so many things – and often am multi-tasking on there anyway, I can’t handle if it’s slow or unresponsive, and don’t get me started on the frustrated of a PC that freezes on you! When hubby and I learned about the 8th Gen Intel® Core™ processor, we couldn’t wait to get our hands on one because there’s a 40% performance jump between it and the 7th gen, plus 2x better performance compared to a 5-year-old PC. If you’re still dealing with that, it’s time to make the switch like us!

Maybe I’m just impatient for wanting things instantly in this modern life, or just want to utilize my time the best I can since us moms have SO MUCH TO DO, and effort can’t be wasted on old computers. Since Intel’s new 8th Gen Intel® Core™ processor is designed to help you and your computer keep pace in this crazy digital world, it allows you to get things done fast and easy – plus you can shop with built-in security and even immerse yourself in leading-edge entertainment. We can’t ALWAYS be working when on our PCs, right? 😉

Our new ASUS ZenBook Flip UX370 we got from our local Microsoft Store, containing the 8th Gen Intel® Core™ processor, was the perfect purchase for us in our dual-person home workspace because:

Exceptional performance – unprecedented power and responsiveness, which is crucial in a mom’s (or dad’s) fast-paced digital world
- Editing photos, creating videos, or multi-tasking on all the To-Dos on our list, it makes it faster, easier and more enjoyable to check things off!
- Instant wake experience means no more sitting around waiting for it to start up so you can begin your tasks
- Instantly sync to other devices, which is great for hubby to sinc from home to work!
Security is made simple – the built-in security adds a layer of protection to make password logins, browsing and online payments safe and simple
- The finger pad makes payments simple and secure
- Don’t gamble on old computers with your data – the built-in password and payment security features of the 8th Generation Intel® Core™ processor make logging-in and online purchases safer and simpler
Exciting entertainment – we both love the amazing entertainment hub, which can stream 4K UHD vidoes, power virtual reality and allows us to play our favorite games.
- Theater-like entertainment at home or on-the-go (airports will no longer be a bore – yay!) with a thin & light computer with a long batter life
- No more ‘buffering makes me sad’ or aweful lags
- binge watch Netflix or Hulu for up to TEN HOURS without plugging in (yes, go get one NOW and start that new TV show marathon!)

Tip #2: Have Separate File/Storage Areas

I have planners, bills and notebooks with random notes and thoughts galore – while hubby has software books and office letterhead documents. It’s a nightmare trying to find your stuff amidst the jumbled piles, so get some file folders, shelves, racks, paper towers, etc. so you can each have a spot for YOUR stuff. This way you know exactly where the thing you need is, saving you time (and sanity!). This also comes in handy for cords – like my camera cable – or USB drives. Random objects can easily to in ‘yours’ or ‘theirs’ baskets, keeping things separated. Marriage is often about joining, but some things are best kept separate – like your work and office accessories!

Tip #3: Keep it Mobile & Flexible

Remember when desktops were pretty much the norm, and if you weren’t at your desk then too dang bad? Since we use our PC for so many aspects of our work and home life, we rely on 2-in-1s and laptops because they’re so easy to take on-the-go when needed. When sharing a workspace at home, sometimes you just CAN’T make it worth with both of you at the desk at the same time. Or when I wanted to browse online to purchase hubby something for Christmas, I didn’t want him looking over my shoulder at the desk. My new laptop is perfect for just taking on the go – and I’m absolutely LOVING the flip feature, taking it into mobile-mode for some extra ease and fun!

Oh, and the pen/inking allows you to write, draw or erase as naturally as your creativity – maybe the next school science project will be done easily during a break at karate class, or editing family photos for Christmas cards done while waiting at the doctors office! When at home, if you need an extra monitor or larger screen, just get an additional monitor and plug it into your PC – best of all worlds!

Tip #5: Keep it Neutral While Still Adding Personality

Hubby doesn’t care tons for pops of color or decor, while it really helps my mood and productivity to have some attractiveness to my workspace. Try to find a good balance – a little pop of color on the big desk calendar, plus a cute mug for holding the pens, pencils and highlighters was a good compromise when we started sharing a workspace. You could also have different backgrounds on your PC, so depending on who logs in shows a different picture or image – mine’s a bunch of family photos, while he prefers a slideshow of artistic fantasy or sci-fi scenes. That helps keep your space YOURS, while still being just as good for the other person.

Tip #6: Clean Often & Keep it Simple

If I’m not careful, I tend to let papers, notes and printables take over my entire desk space, making it really distracting and difficult to be productive. Just like an old computer clogged with stuff from who-knows-when, a new PC with the 8th Gen Intel® Core™ processor can be simple and clean (making it that much faster and easier to work and find things on your computer!). Be sure to clean off your desk and work area often, and utilize filing systems or scanner – I love scanning things into my computer, then filing them accordingly. It saves so much space! And while you do need all your work accessories (pens, pencils, paper, markers and notes), try not to over-clutter with unnecessary stuff. If you let that happen with ONE person’s desk it’s frustrating – with TWO sharing a workspace, it’s just a total nightmare.

Tip #7: Don’t Be Afraid to Have YOUR Chair

For awhile hubby and I shared the same desk chair – which was an awful idea! He liked it to be free to lean all the way back, so when I got into it I’d about fall over when it startled me leaning back. He finds a different level of cushioning and back support comfortable than I do. It’s crucial that you feel comfortable when sitting at your work area, so don’t hesitate to get two different chairs that you can just switch out for whoever’s going to use the desk next. This could save a lot of arguments – and sore backs!

Having an organized, attractive and USABLE desk area can make a huge difference when you’re sharing a workspace at home – for both you AND your other half. Even though it may be frustrating at times, compromising and communicating well with each other will go a long ways to make it as hassle-free as possible. I love when my hubby gets to work from home, even if it does mean sharing my beautiful office!

What’s YOUR best tip for sharing a workspace at home?

Check out Intel on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter to learn more about the new 8th Gen Intel® Core™ processor!