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If January is all about personal improvements, I would guess March and April are motivation for home improvements.  There is something cleansing about the temperatures rising and the world turning green.  It is time to open the windows and let the ghost of Christmas clutter out.  It is time to step back and take a look at maintaining and improving one of your largest investments:  your home.  Here is a list of rooms that would benefit from a closer look.

• Kitchen – drawers (especially junk), cabinets, appliances, backsplash area
  
• Pantry – shelving, expired cans/boxes, floor space
• Dining Room – linen storage, dining room table update (recover chairs, buffing and restaining)
  
• Living Room – book storage, clutter control, arrangement of furniture
  
• Den – TV setup (cables),
  
• Office – organized storage of documents, clutter-free desk, updated and refreshed tools and implements
  
• Bedrooms – under the bed storage, clothing storage, arrangement of furniture
  
• Bathrooms – toiletry organization, linen storage, medicine storage
  
• Closets – seasonal clothing rotation, clothing purge, storage needs (such as a shoe organizer or bag organizer)
  
• Basement/Storage Areas – shelving, storage containers, rearrangement, moisture evaluation
  
• Garage/Shed – shelving, tool storage,
  

What are your biggest challenges for home improvements this spring?  What motivates you to attack your projects?

Have you created a Home Management Binder yet? Last week we talked about how to assemble your own binder.  Now check out an example of my binder in ListPlanIt’s very first video blog post!

What do you think? Would you like to see more videos here on ListPlanIt’s blog?

When I was contacted about the possibility of getting tickets to Disney on Ice’s Finding Nemo, I jumped at the chance!  Finding Nemo is one of the best Disney movies of all time and I couldn’t wait to see the colorful costumes gliding around on the ice.  The last time my family had been to a live performance together was when Campbell was only 2 and Clark just a few months old.  Here are some of my family’s favorite things about the evening.

• Our tickets gave us great seats!  We were on Row 3, with perfect views of the ice.
• The show started out with a surprise visit from Mickey, Minnie, Donald,  & Goofy.
• There were fireworks and flames that made us jump and clap.
• The costumes really were amazing!  They were bright, iridescent, clever, flowing, and looked beautiful gliding quickly over the ice.
• We loved that spirit and energy of the skaters!  They flew over the ice in such an animated fashion.  It was hard not to be excited throughout the show.
• Claire said as we were leaving, “That was better than watching the movie, or any movie!”

 A SPECIAL OFFER FOR YOU! 

Receive $4 off weekend tickets by logging onto www.ticketmaster.com and entering the promotional code: MOM.* 

Civic Center Show Times:

Friday, March 5-  7pm

Saturday, March 6 – 11am, 2:30pm and 6pm

Sunday, March 7 – 11:30am and 3:30pm

 

* Use promo code “MOM” at time of purchase by phone 1-800-745-3000 or visit www.ticketmaster.com.  Offer not valid on Front Row or VIP. Cannot be combined with other offers. Additional service charges, facility fee, & handling fees will apply.

 

 

 

Home Management Binder

Whether you call it a Home Management Binder, a Household Notebook, or a Home Control Journal, creating one for your home can be a great way to keep important information centrally located, control paper clutter, and inspire home managers to set goals and to accomplish much.  Here are the steps for putting yours together.

• Find a binder that works for you.  I love Mead’s Notebinder, but any binder will work.  I would choose one that has at least a 1″ spine width, but don’t use a binder that is too bulky and cumbersome.
  
• You will also want to collect tabbed dividers so that you can separate your home management binder into sections.  The easier it is to find the information you need, the more chances your home management binder will work.  Another solution is Avery NoteTabs.  These tabs are writable and repositionable so you can move them around or use the same one if you need to refresh the page.
  
• Consider the sections of you home management binder.  Some labels that I use are Planner (for my daily, weekly, monthly, yearly calendars and planning pages), Contact Info (for frequently used phone numbers/email addresses/mailing addresses), Home Management (for inventories, items needed list, cleaning schedule), Health (include exercise goals, calorie tracking pages, medical documentation), Family Matters (include information pertinent to each member of your family).
  
• Create separate binders for specific tasks that are used frequently such as:  Meal Planning (include recipes and menu planners), Financial Planning (include bank/credit card information and various budgeting worksheets), Personal Interests (include a log of books read/books to read, favorite wines, record the things that matter to you), and Memory Journal (make the special events and memorable moments in your life even more special when you put them on paper – memories fade, but notes on memories remain), and Holiday Planner (collect ideas, recipes, mementos, and plans).
• Label your binder clearly.  Help yourself to the following binder covers:  Home Management, Life Management, Finance Planner, Meal Planner, Memory Journal, Holiday Planner.
  
• Begin to fill your binder with pages that are useful and worth keeping.
  
• You can also add school lunch menus, takeout menus, library storytime calendars, brochures from local contractors, team rosters—whatever will make your life easier!!

ListPlanIt.com has all of the printable pages listed above and much, much more to create a
Home Management Binder that is organized, easy to use, and easy to customize.

Do you have a Home Management Binder?  If so, what are your favorite sections/pages?  Has it helped you get organized?  If you haven’t started your Home Management Binder, what has held you back?

Share your Home Management Binders tips and photos on ListPlanIt.com’s Flickr pool.  Join the new group, upload photos of your binders, and add to the discussion.  I can’t wait to see your binders!

With the rising costs of food and a trend toward eating more natural foods, it is no wonder that the number of home gardens have surged in the past couple of years.  A garden may take more work than just stopping by the local grocery store, but the benefits of having your own garden at home are 1) saving money, 2) enjoying the outdoors, and 3) knowing that you are helping to sustain yourself and your family.  That last concept can be pretty empowering when you realize you are capable.  Here is a list of steps to get started.

• Create a list of the types of plants (flower/food) you would like to grow in your garden.
  
• Stop by your local nursery for some good quality seeds or to get a copy of a seed catalog.  Look for heritage seeds, which means you can harvest seeds to plant in next year’s garden from the flowers/food that you harvest in this year’s garden.
  
• Choose a location, if you haven’t already started a garden.  Look for a flat, sunny spot.
• Clear the ground in your chosen spot and add a layer of compost to tilled soil to add nutrients and prepare the soil for hosting new life.
• Plant your seeds.  Follow the instructions on the packets for each particular flower/food.
  
• Ensure that your seeds receive water daily.
• Work to keep weeds from crowding out seeds by putting a layer of mulch around seeds and pulling weeds as necessary.
• Enjoy the process of being connected to what you grow.  If you are growing fruits or vegetables, be sure to involve the whole family in the process.  Children should learn that food comes from the ground, not from a shelf.
  

What are you planting and when does your planting season begin?  Here in Maine, we should not plant outdoors until mid-May.