I just finished my second week without social media, and I’ve decided Facebook is a lot like fast food — when I consume less, I crave less. I’m only halfway through the month, and I already don’t even think about social media. I no longer feel the urge to jump onto a social network to vent or catch up on acquaintances’ lives. Despite the fact that Facebook has been a daily part of my life for over 5 years now, after only two weeks, life feels totally normal without it.

I’ve noticed an interesting and unexpected side effect this week, though. I hoped that logging out of social networks for a month would give me more time for blogging and other more creative Internet pastimes. It has actually had the opposite effect. Without social networks, I find myself putting down my computer and phone for longer stretches of time. Without an excuse to use them throughout the day, I’m not easily reminded that I should be blogging or working. I don’t feel creatively inspired. My computer actually sat in the same spot, unopened, from Thursday night until Sunday afternoon this past weekend. I suppose that was the point of the experiment, partly — to disconnect and find more balance. But the truth is, I miss the creative outlet.

Am I more productive? Eh, not really. It’s true that we’ve been more productive around the house than normal the past couple weeks (pictures to come!), but that has more to do with my husband being home and both of us on summer vacation than my social media break. I’m still finding ways to distract myself.

The big question I wanted to answer, though: is my life better without social media? And the answer is not really. I expected this break to have much broader effects on my life, but the truth is, I really don’t think logging out of Facebook for the past two weeks has made me a better mother, wife, or friend. It hasn’t made me particularly happier, smarter, more creative or more productive. Everything feels pretty much the same only now I’m not spending part of my day connecting with people I wouldn’t otherwise see in daily life.

I do miss my Facebook friends. I sometimes wonder what some of them are up to. Unfortunately, I still don’t feel like I have the time to pick up the phone and call them. It’s something that I need to work on — with or without social media. I hoped without Facebook I would be more motivated to try, but that hasn’t been the case. Now I just feel out of the loop and even guiltier for being too busy to take the time to catch up. At least with social media, I knew what was going on with them. I could congratulate their successes, and even make a call if something they posted alerted me that they needed me. Without Facebook, I don’t have time to call, and I don’t even have a reminder that I should.

It’s been an interesting experiment, and I’m sticking with it for the rest of the month. It has been nice not spending so much time attached to a screen, and I certainly think I’ll take some of the balance I’ve found with me when the month is over. So far the biggest lesson I’ve learned is that I have no reason to feel guilty about the time I spend connecting with people on social networks. If it’s not one thing, it’s another, and at least social networks are more engaging, helpful, educational, and, well, social than television. If I had to choose one vice over the other, I think I’ll stick with Facebook.

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Related posts:

1. Life without social media: Week 1
2. Incommunicado

It’s the start of day three in my month without social media, but it was the morning of day one that I realized just how much I’ve come to depend on my connections with Internet friends for daily life.

I expected to experience withdrawal from the connection that social media provides, and I definitely did. I can’t prove that it’s related, but I was feeling on edge and extra crabby all day on the first day. Whether it was caused by social media withdrawal or just a bad day, I can definitely say I missed being able to log into Facebook, fire off a status update venting my frustrations, and wait for the commiseration to pour in. It’s not that I don’t have friends to vent to in real life, but when your network is over 200 people, you’re more likely to find someone who can relate to what you’re feeling at any given moment than you are if you just text, email, or call a friend.

It’s not just the connections that I missed, though. I sat down to plan our menu for the week on Tuesday, and I realized I don’t even remember how I came up with meal ideas without Pinterest. It’s only been a year since I started using Pinterest. It’s amazing to me how quickly we adapt to technology and begin to depend on it.

The unfortunate realization? I’m not less distracted without Facebook. I’ve just replaced Facebook with other distractions. I’ve been texting and emailing more with friends (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing — reconnecting with real world friends is one of the reasons I wanted to step away from social media). The bad news is that I’m using texting and emailing to distract me from work and household chores and going outside the same way I used social media.

I thought I would be less attached to my phone and the Internet, but I’m just finding new things to distract myself. I’m not brave enough or strong enough for a month without Internet (though after typing it, I am intrigued at the thought), but I wonder if that would be the only way to get the “break” that I set out to take.

Another unexpected problem? Without Facebook and Twitter, all that inspiration that I hoped to channel into the blog has nowhere to go. All day little thoughts and quips about parenting and life pop into my head. I used to post them immediately, and I often turned those thoughts into whole blog posts eventually. Now? The thoughts pop into my head, and without a place to put them, poof. They’re gone. I decided to start carrying a notebook with me and get into the habit of writing things down instead of posting them online. Hopefully I’ll be able to do something with those thoughts instead of just forgetting them.

I guess my point is that so far the benefits of social media seem to outweigh its pitfalls. Granted, it’s only day 3, but so far I’m not getting more done or feeling less stressed or feeling much of a difference at all aside from the fact that I’m missing a lot of conveniences and feeling a little more lonely.

What do you guys think? Have you ever taken a break from social media? What did you miss most?

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1. Incommunicado
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3. Simplify your life

For the past few weeks, I’ve had an idea floating around in my head. After much deliberation, I’ve decided to act on it. For the entire month of May, I will be logging off all social media accounts.

I will continue to check my email and post on this blog (hopefully more frequently that I have been posting for the past few months). Rest assured, I am not one of those Facebook/Twitter haters. It’s quite the contrary actually. I love social media a little too much.

I fully intend to come back at the end of the month, but I hope to come back refreshed and better able to strike a balance between the real world and the Internet world. Here are just a few reasons I’ve decided to try the experiment:

• Since beginning my teaching job, I feel like my screen time has grown exponentially. Now in addition to social media, I’m staring at my computer writing lectures, researching, grading, and communicating with students. This summer I’ll be teaching an online class, which will increase my screen time even more. I feel like my eyes need a break, and my baby needs to look at my face a little more instead of the tiny Apple icon.
• Screen time encourages me to sit on my butt more than I should. The weather is warming up. It’s time to get outside and get active.
• Sometimes I feel like social media — Facebook especially — allows me to be creatively lazy. What I mean by that is that it’s too easy for me to fire up my iPhone and post a status message every time a thought I want to share or a question I want answered pops into my head. I’ve been struggling with blog inspiration for several months now, and my hope is that taking a step back from other outlets will inspire me to share more thoughts and ideas here in this space.
• I value the connections that I’ve developed and maintained through social media, but sometimes I feel like the hundreds of people I communicate with online take away a portion of the time and energy that rightfully belongs to my family and real-world friends.
• My husband and I are both on vacation for most of the month of May. This year we will celebrate four years of marriage and a whole year in a home of our own. We have lots of family activities, visitors, and travel planned as well as home improvement tasks to tackle. I need to avoid the distraction of frequent Facebook updates.
• My to-read list is a mile long, and I spend too many nights “checking one more thing” on the Internet without picking up my Kindle or cracking a book.
• I still owe my parents a quilt that I promised them for Christmas, and I also want to learn to crochet and knit.

In short, I’m hoping the month of May will be busy enough that I won’t miss social media.

I am not naive, though. I am a full-on, hands-shaking, cold-sweating, fiending for a fix addict. The first few days of this experiment aren’t going to be pretty. In fact, I’m actually going as far as asking my husband to change all of my passwords so I can’t access the websites. I’m removing the apps from my phone, too. I know this may seem extreme, but there’s no telling what an addict will do when she needs a fix.

I’ve tried similar experiments in the past (never longer than a week, though), and even if I can make it that long without posting anything myself, I still obsessively check everyone else’s posts and often can’t help but respond to a few.

I’m hoping to keep you guys updated on the experience and share the good and the bad. I get so many positive things from social media and the Internet, but it’s like anything else — it’s possible to have too much of a good thing. My hypothesis is that absence from the Internet really will make my heart grow fonder, not just of the Internet, but the people I’ve gotten to know there. I guess we’ll see, though.

Have you ever taken a break from the Internet? What did you learn?

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Tony and I are spending spring break painting, reorganizing, and assembling IKEA furniture (yikes!). I can’t wait to share our progress with you. In the meantime, I’m sharing a post from the archives that was originally published in July 2009. If you’re feeling the itch to move, try these tips to make your old place feel new again.

Maybe it’s a side effect from my college years when I moved into a new apartment every year, but I still get the urge to pick up and move every August. I hate moving, but I love the feeling of starting fresh — decorating, organizing, and waking up in a completely new place.

But moving tops my list for biggest hassles. On top of packing and physically lugging your belongings to a new place, moving is expensive, time consuming, and jarring.

This August is our third in the same apartment. Every year I’ve battled my urge to find a new place with these tricks:

Clean. I mean, really clean.

One of my favorite parts about moving into a new place is that all of those nooks and crannies are freshly dusted and cleaned. This month, instead of cleaning just what you can see, invest some time and elbow grease into cleaning your place as if you’re moving. Vacuum under furniture, remove everything from the shelves and closets to dust, and scrub the walls and baseboards.

Purge and reorganize.

I hate the process of getting rid of stuff before a move, but I love that when I move into my new place everything is freshly organized and I’m temporarily not overburdened with stuff. It’s hard to motivate yourself to purge and organize when a move isn’t looming, but clearing your closets and drawers and ridding yourself of the clutter will recreate that freshly organized feeling after moving into a new place.

Paint.

Painting isn’t just an easy way to breathe new life into a living space; it also goes a long way to making your place feel cleaner. Your walls may be looking dingy after years or months without fresh paint, not to mention you’re probably sick of looking at the same neutral shade. Check with your landlord if you’re renting and see if you can repaint to clean up your space and give it a new look. Consider adding color to one wall to give the room depth and an interesting focal point.

Hit the end-of-summer yard sales.

Now that you’ve gotten rid of some clutter, check out the summer yard sales near you to find some new decorative pieces or fun new furniture. Don’t overlook furniture that’s worn or hideously colored. Look at the shape and sturdiness of the piece, and remember that a bit of sanding, new paint, and knobs can turn an ugly antique into a modern, functional addition to your space.

Rearrange your furniture.

Giving your room a new layout is the quickest, easiest way to redecorate. Flip the rooms into a new configuration, move furniture you’ve been tripping over, and add that funky antique table you picked up at the yard sale. You’ll feel like you’re in a brand new place without going through the hassle and expense of moving.

Photo credit: Lynie

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I’ve been struggling with the adjustment now that I’m a “working mom.” Aren’t we all “working moms,” though? Whether you chase your kids around all day or clock in at an office, being a mom is hard work.

My classes started at the beginning of March, so now I’m balancing my responsibilities at home with responsibilities to my students. I’m still so thankful to have the opportunity to earn income and still “stay at home” with my son for most of the day, but that means I do a lot of my work at home. Trying to work with an active toddler running around presents its own challenges. The only time I can “work” is when he’s sleeping — during his short afternoon nap, and then after bedtime.

Unfortunately, the time change pushed his bedtime back to 8:30 p.m. (Grumble, grumble.) Squeezing all of my extra class work into my busy days has taken some adjustment — which is why this blog has been a little quiet lately.

It doesn’t help that just as I’ve become busier, we’re entering the season when I feel the urge to be most productive. This time of year is when I come out of my winter haze and start noticing all the places around the house that need to be scrubbed, organized, and decluttered. Add to that the three rooms we still need to paint and all of the decorating things I want to do (we’ve been in the house almost a year, and there’s still nothing on the walls), and I’ve got a pretty unreasonable to-do list on my hands.

Right now, I’m working on taking my own advice. I’m breaking my to-do list into pieces and prioritizing. If I can take it one thing at a time, I might finish everything I want to do by the end of … the decade? The century? I’d love to finish by the end of summer, but that’s probably a pipe dream.

Since my list includes tasks in pretty much every room of the house, I’m breaking it down by room. Our plan is to work on one room at a time cleaning, organizing, decluttering, and decorating. I won’t bore you with the point-by-point breakdown of what we need to do — it’s ridiculous. I will say, however, that when I think about it one room at a time, I feel significantly less overwhelmed. I think if I can focus on just the to-do list for a room at a time, it’ll be easier for me to keep track and stay motivated. I plan to share with you what we accomplish as we work on each room.

I’m still deciding where I want to get started, but at this point, I’m leaning toward starting in Judah’s room. Before he was born, my nesting instinct was in overdrive, and everything was neat and tidy and in its place. Now? It is overrun with toys and clothing, and the bottom drawer of his dresser is so broken it’s no longer functional. I feel a knot in my stomach every time I fold his laundry, because I know I’m going to have to wrestle with that stupid drawer. The closer he gets to climbing out of his crib, the more nervous I feel about having a heavy, full-sized dresser in his room, so I’m looking for an alternative method to store his clothes.

What’s on your to-do list this spring? I’d love to hear how you’re tackling your spring cleaning and organization lists!

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I’ve written about kicking my paper towel addiction before, but it’s one of those things that I never got around to doing. I convinced myself that I still needed paper towels for cleaning up things like raw chicken in the kitchen or wiping down toilet seats when cleaning, and so I continued buying them in bulk. Bad for the environment and bad for my wallet.

Inspired by Tsh Oxenreider’s book, “One Bite at a Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler,*” I decided this was the year I was going to kick the habit for good. Here’s how I did it:

Stock up on cloth alternatives.

In Tsh’s book, Maya Bisineer, contributor for Simple Mom Green, recommends keeping enough dish towels, washcloths, and cloth napkins on hand to avoid the need for paper towels, and making them easy to access in the kitchen. For about the price of a 2-month supply of paper towels, I bought 8 large dish towels, 12 smaller washcloths, and 12 cloth napkins. I cleared a drawer, and stocked it up with our new cloth towels and napkins.

Don’t be afraid to use cloth.

The transition will feel weird at first. It might feel too formal to wipe your mouth with a cloth napkin on taco night. Or it might feel gross to wipe up surfaces that have come into contact with raw meat with a washcloth. Remind yourself that these napkins and towels are meant for daily use, and keep in mind that cloth can be sanitized in hot water and a little bleach, if necessary. When you use cloth to clean particularly nasty messes, just be sure to rinse in very hot water, ring out the rag completely, and hang it up in the laundry room until you can throw it in the washer. Never throw wet rags directly into your laundry basket or they’ll start to stink and mildew. If you can’t bring yourself to use the cloth, keep sponges on hand for wiping up messes, and disinfect them in the microwave or dishwasher after using.

Use sponges for cleaning.

I used to use paper towels for cleaning everything in the bathroom. For the past few months, I’ve gotten used to using a sponge to clean the sink and tub, but I was still using paper towels on the toilet seats. To keep things sanitary, I now have two sponges that I use for cleaning the bathrooms — one is brown, the other is blue. I use the brown sponge for wiping down sinks and tubs. The blue sponge is used on toilets only. When I’m finished cleaning, I let the sponges sit out to dry for a few hours, and then I store them under the sinks. Because I’m only using them to clean the bathrooms once a week or so, they last forever.

Have you kicked the paper towel habit yet? How did you do it?

(*Affiliate links are denoted with an asterisk.)

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This post will speak to a limited part of my audience, I know. But when I began working from home almost two years ago (seriously? has it been that long?), I made a lot of mistakes. It would have been nice to have some tips and advice from someone who had worked through all the challenges.

I have it much easier than many work-at-home parents. I don’t earn a full-time income. I earn money through advertising on this blog, and beginning in March, I will earn money as an adjunct instructor at the local college. Only four hours a week will be spent in the classroom; all of my class prep, grading, and other duties will be performed from home. While I can’t speak to the challenges of working full-time from home, I can share what’s worked for me when it comes to keeping work and home life separate when your home is your office.

Set boundaries.

When your desk is just a room or two away from your bed, it can be difficult to set limits on your work schedule. It’s easy to feel like you should be working all the time, and feel guilty doing anything that won’t contribute to your income. However, when you work from home, it’s more important than ever to create a schedule and stick to it. Carve out times for work, family life, household chores, and downtime.

I’m serious about the downtime.

Several months into my work-at-home career, I started to feel seriously burned out. Part of it was that I was caring for a newborn, but a lot of it was that I felt like I had to be on-call 24/7. I was checking my email day and night. I was staying up until all hours working on projects, caring for my son whenever he was awake, taking care of things around the house when he napped, and not taking a single second to just be. That kind of breakneck work schedule just isn’t sustainable, but it’s easy to fall into that kind of schedule when you work from home. Because you don’t have set “office hours,” it’s easy to feel like you have to work all the time. Be sure to schedule time off for yourself. At least a few hours a week should be spent doing something for yourself. Watch a movie. Take a walk. Get a hobby (and no, work doesn’t count as a hobby). Don’t feel like you have to be tied to your email all the time. You’ll return to your work feeling refreshed and more productive after you take a break.

Put yourself in “work mode.”

Just as it can be difficult to remember to schedule downtime for yourself, it can also be difficult to focus with home distractions. Television, kids, spouses, chores, personal phone calls, that bottle of red wine you’re supposed to be saving for the weekend but you really want to drink right now — all of these things can create distractions that make working at home challenging. The best way to combat this is to separate work from home as much as possible.

Ideally, you have some sort of space that functions as your “office.” Even if it’s just a desk in the guest room, when you sit down in your office space, you know it’s work time. Set specific “office hours” when you plan to be productive in your office space. Turn your phone on silent just like you would at the office. Turn off the television. Plan to work during a time when your children are napping, playing, attending school, or when your spouse can manage their needs. The freedom of working from home makes it easier to plan for productivity, because you can plan around your own circadian rhythm. If you’re a night owl, work late. If you’re an early bird, get to work at dawn.

Get out of the house.

I am not ashamed to admit that between taking care of my son, working, and keeping house, sometimes (especially now that it’s cold) I easily go through an entire day without setting foot outside. This isn’t good for me or my son’s sanity. As a rule, I try to get dressed in the morning (even though it’s usually jeans and a t-shirt), and get out of the house at least once a day. When the weather is nice, we went to the park. Now we go to the gym or the library or run some errands. If home is particularly distracting one day, head to Panera or Starbucks for a few hours. Even if you’re just getting out of the house to get out of the house, it’s important to feel like you’re a member of society sometimes.

Take a day (or two) off.

Unfortunately, one of the things you give up when you’re self-employed is paid vacations. But the nice thing about working from home is that you can work from anywhere. In a perfect world, you can afford to take time off for a vacation at least once a year, even if it means you’re answering emails on the beach. Even if you have to work on your vacation, one thing you shouldn’t compromise is a weekend. Most people don’t work 7 days a week, and neither should you. Take a real day off at least once a week. You may not be able to escape your inbox entirely, but you can spend time with your family, tackle personal projects, and recharge without feeling shackled to your desk.

How do you balance work/home life as a work-at-home parent?

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3. Simplify your menu

Menu planning is one of those things I take for granted now. For as long as Tony and I have been together, I have always sat down and written out meals for each day of the week, and then shopped based on that meal plan. It wasn’t always this way for me. In college, when I lived with a roommate and planned most of my meals for myself, I didn’t really plan at all. I went to the grocery store, picked up whatever looked good, spent way too much money for one person, and felt like I had nothing to eat two days later. I don’t even remember what that’s like now, but it sounds like chaos!

Even if you’re single, menu planning is crucial if you want to eat healthy and frugally. Poor planning is one of the main reasons people end up spending money on unhealthy food at a drive-thru in the middle of the week. Either that, or you end up like me in college with a cart full of expensive food and “nothing to eat.”

There is most certainly room in the menu plan for eating out if you like, but the point is to plan for it. Know when you’re eating at home, what you’re eating, and when you want to go out for dinner.

Here’s my simple menu planning system. Feel free to share your ideas in the comments!

Start with the sale ad for your local grocery stores.

If you get a Sunday paper, chances are the ads are included. If not, check the grocery store’s website. Our local stores are Kroger and Meijer, and both stores offer easy online access to their weekly sales ads. I pull them up and look for deals that pop out at me and inspire menu ideas. Meats, cheeses, and produce items can all inspire menu ideas. If beef is on sale, I’ll make spaghetti with meat sauce. If chicken is on sale, I plan for chicken dishes and stock up my freezer. If cheese is on sale, it’s homemade mac and cheese or broccoli cheddar soup. Not only does buying what’s on sale save money, but it can make coming up with meal ideas easier if you’re inspired by the sale items.

Plan around your weekly schedule.

I always keep my weekly schedule handy when I’m planning meals for the week. If it’s going to be a busy day, I plan an easy meal. For laid back days, I may plan to try something new and a little more complex. This also prevents me from planning a meal for a night that we have dinner plans. If your menu works with your schedule, you’re more likely to stick to it instead of abandoning the plan for pizza.

Keep a list of tried and true favorites.

Even though there are some dishes we’ve been cooking forever, I always seem to get a form of writer’s block when it’s time to plan the menu. To combat this, I keep a list of our favorite dishes saved on my computer with links to the recipes. Some simple meals get repeated a lot (homemade pizza, burritos, roasted chicken, and grilled cheese sandwiches, for example). Some are reserved only for special occasions (like my mom’s delicious but labor-intensive lasagna). Keeping the list handy makes it easy for me to write a quick and dirty menu if need be.

The Internet is your best friend.

I am not exaggerating when I say that every time I plan a menu, I marvel at how people did this before the Internet. I guess that’s what all those cookbooks collecting dust on my bookshelf were for? Sites like AllRecipes, Food Network, and Pinterest make it incredibly easy for me to search for meal ideas and try new things.

I must confess that Pinterest (follow me here) has replaced all other recipe sites for me in the past few months, though. I have separate boards for Main Dishes, Crock Pot Meals, Side Dishes, Snacks, and Desserts. Every time I see something that looks good, I pin it on the appropriate board. I also pin recipes I see around the web on my own boards. When I’m looking for ideas, I just have to scroll through the Main Dishes board.

A word of advice: I see lots of people splitting their food boards into incredibly specific categories — soups, sandwiches, entrees, etc. I don’t recommend doing it that way. One board with all of your dinner ideas makes it easier to scroll through without clicking around to several different boards and looking for what you need.

Share the menu with the whole family.

Since my husband and I are currently the only family members who get a vote, I always email the menu to my husband right after I finish planning it. I also write it on a dry erase board that hangs in our kitchen for easy reference. This may seem redundant, but you would be amazed how often we completely forget the menu we just planned within minutes of returning from the grocery store. Displaying the menu lets everyone know what you’re eating and when, and serves as a reminder when you need to thaw the meat or begin preparing dinner earlier for more complex meals.

When all else fails, eat leftovers.

If money is tight or you’re struggling to come up with a meal, leftovers night is a great way to clean out the fridge without emptying your wallet (heh, see what I did there?). Let’s be real, though: leftovers night is also a great excuse to order a pizza.

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At the start of the year, my friend Kacie inspired me to explore new options for simplifying our finances and bill pay process. I’m still working out some of the details for these new systems, but I’m going to share them with you here, in addition to the systems we already have in place for simplifying. Be sure to share your ideas in the comments!

Go paperless.

If you haven’t done it already, chances are you think about it every time you open a paper statement and see the words, “Go paperless now!” My advice is to just get it done. To keep a record of statements, open the electronic version when it becomes available and save it as a PDF on your computer. You’ll feel better without all that paper mail bogging you down, and it will simplify your filing system, too.

Automate your budget.

Rather than manually tracking expenses in a spreadsheet or on paper, sign up for a service like Mint.com. Mint will automatically track and categorize your spending. With very little management, you can see a complete picture of your spending and budget categories as well as charts showing you whether you’re on track for meeting your monthly budget limits.

Automate your bills.

Kacie has been working on this herself, and it inspired me to figure out a system that works for us. Right now, I navigate to each bill’s website and pay each bill online individually. I like the immediacy of paying online through the site, because I receive a confirmation immediately, and then it’s done.

I don’t like automatic electronic funds transfer, because it basically gives the payee unlimited access to your account forever. (I learned this the hard way when our previous health insurance company continued debiting our account for 4 months after we canceled the policy despite the fact that I elected to stop automatic debit months before we canceled. I eventually had to file a fraud claim with my bank and have them blocked from my account, at which point they sent us a letter notifying us that they were canceling the policy due to nonpayment. PFFT. FINALLY.)

Check with your bank to see how their automatic bill pay system works. Setting up each individual payee will be a pain the first time, but then it’s done and you can pay each bill through your bank’s website with a single click.

Split your paycheck to even out pay periods.

My husband is paid twice a month — on the 15th and on the last business day of the month. I try to balance our bills so that we’re paying about the same amount in fixed bills from each check, but our mortgage payment really throws that off. If we were extremely disciplined, this wouldn’t be an issue. We could just leave the surplus from the other check alone, and use it in the next pay period. Unfortunately, that’s not usually what happens. What happens is we see that surplus in the first check, and we overspend for the first two weeks of the month. Then at the end of the month after the bills clear, things are really tight until the next pay day. It’s annoying.

Kacie came up with an idea that will remedy this problem, and I’m going to give it a try myself. She decided to add up all of her fixed bills (mortgage, utilities, etc.), and have half that amount deposited from each paycheck into a separate “bill pay” checking account. The remainder of each check will be deposited into a different account for daily expenses like gas, groceries, and other purchases.

For example, to make things simple, let’s say you earn $2000 a month. Your fixed expenses total $1500. Everything else is $500 a month. After paying your fixed bills, you have $400 left out of the first check and only $100 left out of the second check. Under Kacie’s system, you would deposit $750 from each check into the bill pay account and $250 into the daily expenses account. Now you have an equal amount for daily expenses each month, and your fixed bills are covered no matter when you pay them.

It might sound complicated, but I like the simplicity of having the same amount for expenses in each pay period. The symmetry will make budgeting much easier.

Pay the bills on pay day.

To combat the confusion of tracking a million different due dates, pay bills just twice (or once) a month. Every pay day, I go through and pay all the bills that are going to be due in the next two weeks. I have a list that I work from, so I know around what time the bills will be due even if the actual date fluctuates by a day or two. Once I pay all the fixed bills, I know that whatever is left in the account is available for day-to-day expenses.

How do you keep your finances simple?

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I always planned to be a stay-at-home mom for the early years of my childrens’ lives. Back when I worked 9 to 5, I remember looking forward to all the downtime I thought I’d have once we had kids. After all, if I was able to manage all of our household tasks in the evenings and weekends when I worked 40 hours a week, how much time would managing a household take when I wasn’t working full-time?

I’m sure all of you find this very funny. I know I do. Because I was so wrong.

I don’t know how such a tiny person complicates things so much, but it seems like my itty bitty 1-year-old son has tripled my housework. Or at least tripled the amount of time it takes to get things done. We have more laundry, more dishes, more things to do during the day, and less time to get them done. I have to squeeze housework in between his naps and after he’s in bed, but it can be so hard to stay on top of things when I all I want to do when he falls asleep is crash myself, or finish work I need to do, or read that book that’s been staring at me from my bedside table, or sew something.

After Judah was born, there were a few glorious weeks when I parked my butt on the couch with my baby in my arms and didn’t worry about the housework. I realize that is probably the last time my butt will be parked anywhere for a long long time. Now I’m all about getting the housework done as quickly and efficiently as possible so there’s more time to chase him and possibly a little downtime for myself when he finally goes to sleep.

Here are some of the ways I’ve simplified my long list of household chores.

Cleaning

I quickly tidy the house three times a day — once during Judah’s morning nap, once during his afternoon nap, and once after he’s in bed. This tidying takes roughly 5 minutes. I whirl through the house picking up things that are out of place, and putting them where they belong. Dishes into the sink, random dirty laundry into the hampers, paper thrown into the recycling bin or neatly stacked, shoes lined up next to the door or put away in the closet. I also sweep around Judah’s high chair as soon as I get a chance after he eats, because those crumbs drive me bonkers. This keeps me sane throughout the day, because I don’t feel constantly surrounded by clutter. Also, keeping everything relatively tidy throughout the week makes deep cleaning much less time consuming.

At least once a week, I clean the house. Usually when Tony is home either in the afternoon or on the weekend, I let him take Judah into his room for some playtime so I can get the house clean as quickly as possible. I start on one end of the house, and work my way through each room. This is when I scrub the bathrooms, clean the floors, dust, and disinfect.

Thanks to this tidy every day, clean once a week system, our house never looks like a tornado hit it. Clutter doesn’t build up, and the house looks pretty presentable throughout the week.

Laundry

I am continually amazed at how much laundry there is now that we have a toddler in the house. When Judah was a baby, I didn’t think keeping up with the laundry was so bad. But now that he’s feeding himself and getting so messy, it seems like I’m changing his clothes two or three times a day and constantly washing everything.

Because I like to check things off my to-do list instead of keeping a revolving list, I don’t do laundry every day. I prefer to wash everything once a week or so. I do all of it in one day in the winter when I’m using the dryer. In the summer, I line dry the laundry, so I usually split it up into two days so there’s enough room on the lines.

I have three hampers in the house — one in the closet in the master bedroom, one in Judah’s room, and one in the laundry room where I throw miscellaneous laundry that I pick up around the house during my daily tidying sessions. Because I tidy every day, all of the laundry is condensed to these three spots, so I don’t have to run around hunting for dirty laundry. I dump all of it out on the floor and separate it into whites, colors, towels/linens, and jeans. I put each load into one of the laundry baskets and carry them all into the laundry room. Depending on how much laundry we have, the colors and whites are sometimes double loads.

When a load is dry, I fold it as soon as I can. I hate folding and putting away laundry, so I’d rather get it done in small chunks throughout the day than sit and fold everything for an hour. I separate and stack the folded clothes by person and by drawer. Tony’s sweaters in one pile, Tony’s t-shirts in another pile, my t-shirts, Judah’s pajamas, etc. I stack them in the laundry basket in order so I’m not running back and forth putting things away. I stop in each room once, put the laundry in the proper place, and move on.

I love the feeling of folding and putting away that last load of laundry knowing that I won’t need to worry about laundry again for another week.

Dishes

I used to be a firm believer in putting a dish into the dishwasher as soon as you were finished with it. Now I’m lucky if I have time to feed myself during the day, and half the time when I put a dish into the sink, I’m holding Judah with my other arm. I still don’t like to let dishes pile too high, though. It makes the whole kitchen seem cluttered when there’s a huge pile of dishes in the sink, not to mention those stuck on messes can be a real pain to scrub out.

To stay on top of things, I wash dishes 2-3 times a day — when Judah is strapped into his high chair for his afternoon snack and after dinner — and sometimes while Tony is cooking if it’s a particularly messy meal. I wipe down the counters and the stove top every time I load the dishwasher. I am amazed at how clean the kitchen feels when I just keep the counters clean and the dishes in the sink to a minimum.

I run the dishwasher every night so the dishes are clean and ready to be put away in the morning. Sometimes if it’s a really light load, I wait and run it the next night to conserve energy and water.

Toys

Judah’s toys are the beast that I’m still struggling to find a good system to organize. His toys are scattered between two rooms — his bedroom and the guest room where we sometimes play with him when he’s bored with his bedroom. I try to keep the guest room pretty tidy. There’s a bin where we toss all of his toys when he’s not playing with them, and bigger toys just get lined up next to it. His bedroom is trickier, though. Since my tidying is almost always done when he’s sleeping, his bedroom often gets neglected. One of my big plans for early this year is to invest in some bins and organizers to keep things tidy in there, and move some of the furniture out to make the room more practical for a toddler.

Now share your ideas for keeping things simple and organized in your home. I wanna hear about your systems!

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