When you live with three 6-year-olds, you can preach the real meaning of the season all you want, but the reality is: gift-giving is a major part of the holiday excitement for little kids. This is pretty natural, I suppose, if you live in mainstream American...
We all have spaces in our homes intended as gathering spots for our families. Unfortunately, due to the nature of family gathering spots, these are also often the rooms that get most cluttered. Book bags, craft projects, sports equipment and the like can quickly take...
Do your kids have legions of Legos? Masses of Matchbox cars? Battalions of Barbies? If so, I recommend you spend a few hours setting up a toy rotation. It's pretty painless (especially considering the high pain-threshold you've developed from stepping on all those Legos...
If you want an organized home office, just follow the advice above and you can probably achieve it. But it's not that easy, is it? We often don't know what to shred and what to file and what to act upon and so the paper piles build up...
We all know the typical kids birthday party drill: balloons, cake, unbridled enthusiasm (aka "the crazy") and, of course, presents. Lots of them. I'm not sure why present-opening is such an entrenched American tradition. You'd think the forefathers wrote in the Declaration of Independence: "And on each birthday,...
I recently read the book Zero Waste Home by Bea Johnson. As the title would lead one to believe, this is an environmentalist book, recommended by my eco-savvy friend Melissa (who, even though she is super eco-conscious, cautioned that Zero Waste is "a bit extreme"...
My daughter is a craftoholic. Give the girl some glitter, glue, a candy bar wrapper and VOILA! she will have a magic carpet or a cape for a unicorn or a bumblebee's tent...
The word "minimalism" can be scary because it often makes people think of being deprived. While it is true that minimalists live with less than most folks, they don't usually feel deprived because they choose to live only with the things they love. I think it's both good organizing...
I'm not a relationship expert. I got lucky in love, married for nearly 11 years to my high school sweetheart. But I do know something about certain kinds of relationships...
To-do lists are a pain. I'm pretty organized, but when I look at my to-do lists, I often feel overwhelmed and inadequate. Literally, my heartbeat ratchets up and I can feel my least favorite emotion - stress - sneaking down my spine. Why is this? Well, probably...
