source: Sue Richards

Cheesy as it sounds, I think organizing and July 4th go well together because getting organized truly does give you freedom from clutter and independence from stuff!

If you’re feeling oppressed and bogged down by the things in your home, make a commitment to declutter and get organized (whether you spend a week or two focusing on it or just commit to doing a little bit each day!), because I promise you’ll feel better once it’s done!

Here are some great links I’ve bookmarked recently to help you get organized and make the most of your life:

Organizing

:: Five Ways to Nix Home Remodeling Headaches, Real Simple

:: Four Tips for Getting Rid of Clothes Clutter, Real Simple

:: Declutter 50 Items, Get Organized Wizard

Life Management

:: The Clutter You Can’t See, Simple Mom

:: Having Too Many Goals is Like Having None, The Wisdom Journal

:: How to Make Today Memorable, Marc & Angel Hack Life

:: Tips for Surviving (and Thriving) in the Baby/Toddler Stage, Conversion Diary

:: A Word on Procrastination, Organizing-Life

:: Fun Ways to Make Outdoor Living a Family Priority and 7 Tips for Leading a Balanced Blogger Life, Mom Advice

source: Zach Klein

Last week, I was straining to reach some books on a higher shelf in one of our kitchen garage cabinets when I realized that stretching to reach those books several times a week frustrates me. It’s not a huge frustration or anything, just a nagging feeling whenever I know I need to get to one of them.

I spent a few minutes looking at everything in the cabinet and coming up with an idea to reorganize it so that it would be less frustrating, and the next day I moved the shelves around to make the things I use more often more accessible. Since then, getting to the books has become much less of a chore.

I often reorganize things when I realize they’re not quite working for us anymore, and today’s question of the day is:

Do you reorganize often as you go about your daily life, or do you wait until a designated “spring clean” to change things around?

Is there anything you can think of right now that’s been bugging you that you could reorganize to make less frustrating?

What is the biggest thing that keeps you from reorganizing?

What area of your home do you find yourself reorganizing most often?

Can’t wait to hear your thoughts!

source: stopnlook

The following guest post is from Julia at The Frugal Find:

This envelope system isn’t new. I’m not the genius who created it – and yes, that person WAS a genius – but I believe this system will transform your financial situation.

Envelope Budget 101

My #1 tip is to use cash only and always. I speak from the experience of having gotten into thousands of dollars in debt. Cash is absolutely the only way to go. I know at first it might sound crazy. You might think, “If I have cash, I will just blow it!” However, I think you will quickly see just the opposite happen. You will begin to ask yourself, “Do we really need this?” You will find yourself using coupons more often and shopping at the discount store you always avoided. When you are on a fixed budget, you will see that you actually DO have the time to clip coupons and hit a couple of different stores in search of a deal or sale. Amazing how this happens!

Step 1

Define your categories. What can you possibly pay for cash with? One key here is to only include categories for things that you can’t pay online or through an invoice or bill. Anything that doesn’t come as a bill in the mail is probably a good candidate for cash.

Here is a list of our envelopes. Notice I do not have an envelope for gas. It’s not that we don’t have it budgeted, but it’s because I don’t want to leave the kids in the car while I go into the gas station to pay the attendant. We use our debit card for this expense. Note DEBIT, not CREDIT. You’ll need to figure out what best fits your families needs.

1. Groceries
2. Toiletries
3. Clothes
4. Gifts (Birthdays, Christmas, etc)
5. Date Night
6. Eating Out
7. Spending Money
8. Car Maintenance
9. Kid’s Date
10. Kid’s Allowance
11. Trip Money

Step 2

Determine how much you spend in each of your categories per month, ie. groceries, toiletries, clothing, etc. Not what you spend while on a budget, but what you have spent on a regular basis. This make take some time, and you may have no idea because you haven’t kept any track at all. You may have to start the tracking process now for the next 30 days. Now hold on to your seat; you’re going to be shocked!

Step 3

Figure out how much you think you will need in each category, but the key here is to be flexible because it will change. It will change more than once, twice, and possibly even three times. Life is always changing, and so will your budget. Another baby? Up goes the toiletry budget! Or maybe you just potty trained your 2-year-old. Well, that saves $30 a month!

Step 4

Get the cash! We go every week on payday to withdraw our cash. It is easiest if you can keep it to an even $20 amount so you can go to the ATM machine at your bank, which saves you a trip inside the bank. This has got to be the best part! It’s like playing a game of monopoly. Divide your cash into your envelopes. Of course, you may need to go into the bank every once in a while to get $5’s, $10’s, et cetera depending on your envelope amounts.

Step 5

Start saving money! When the envelope is empty, that’s it. Your money is gone and you CANNOT purchase anything in that category until the next envelope payday. But remember, the first couple of months you need to be flexible. Also, please remember to make your budget realistic. If you undercut yourself too much, you will give up. This is why my family has an eating out budget. The reality is that while we shouldn’t eat out, we do. We put $15 a week into our eating out budget. If we save it up, we can go out to a sit-down dinner; otherwise it gets us a pizza night once a week.

The envelope system is something that we live by, and it’s the only way we have been able to to live without credit cards for 2 years now. I’d be happy to go into even more details if you’d like. Just contact me!

Have you ever tried the envelope system of budgeting? What other methods have you found for tracking and controlling your spending?

Julia and her husband are climbing their way out of debt and hope to be debt free very soon! They have 4 children, 3 boys and 1 girl and are a homeschooling family trying to live simply yet abundantly. You can find Julia sharing all her frugal tips at The Frugal Find.

This is probably a bit off-topic, but I was fascinated by the response to my question about dressing children in coordinated outfits, and I wanted to share more about what I meant by coordinating (okay, and maybe I wanted to show off my cute girls too!).

Actually, I’m going to borrow from Angie’s comment, because she summed it up pretty well:

I usually make sure my boys coordinate rather than totally match. In fact I take my own advice on this one… for photography clients I urge them to think of the entire family (or siblings) as 1 complete outfit. So I ask them to pick one person’s clothing and work around that. For example, my oldest will wear some cute plaid shorts and a solid colored shirt that matches a color from the shorts. The younger one will wear shorts (color pulled from older brother’s shorts) and a coordinating shirt.

I hope that makes sense?! It makes for great pictures, and I take pictures… all. the. time.

I tend to think “in colors” anyway as I organize (which is funny because I’m not an especially creative person), so I just grab one outfit and then quickly grab two more that come from the same color family.  Here are three more examples of coordinating outfits I put together for the girls:

I know some people mentioned that putting their kids in coordinating outfits was way more stress or planning than they needed, and I absolutely think that is okay! Like I said, it comes naturally for me to think that way, so it doesn’t really cause me more stress or take more time than grabbing non-coordinating clothes,  but my first rule is to do what works for your family, and you know I’m all about simplicity.

There was also concern that my girls might be upset by being forced to match. I will admit that I choose their clothes for special occasions, and in those cases, what Momma says goes. But for the most part, they don’t really care what they wear (although my oldest only wears dresses). If they do request a certain outfit, I’m happy to oblige. I’m not sure at this point that they have any idea that their clothes coordinate because they are different brands, styles and materials. They simply come from the same color families.

If you haven’t yet shared your opinion about matching and/or coordinating outfits, feel free to add those here!

Do you dress your kids alike? Do you like – or hate – matching outfits? Do you try to coordinate the colors they wear?