Five Things Friday: where I assemble assorted favorites, oddities, announcements, discoveries, random thoughts, life tidbits and whatever else wasn’t quite long enough for a real post. This week: the sky split apart! Plus, organizing the larder to eat it down, reading with kids and more. Have a great weekend, friends! Do One Little Thing This…
Organization
Preparedness 101: Determine Your Evacuation, Meetup and Emergency Procedures
Your mission: think through and make a plan for your evacuation, meetup, and home emergency procedures – where you would go and who you would contact in an emergency.
Preparedness 101: Information Preparedness with a Family Reference Binder
Information Preparedness: Put all your important emergency and home information in one spot – you’ll make your life easier day-to-day and massively boost your resilience in an emergency.
Build A Super Simple Tool Rack From A Pallet
Step-by-step photos show how I turned a pair of pallets into an easy storage solution for garden tools. This is a fun and simple garden DIY!
Minimalism Vs. Productivity
Minimalism vs. productivity – I want less stuff, but I want all the stuff I need to do the things I want to do! Ack! Where’s the balance? Some thoughts on this common struggle.
The Flexible To Do List: Getting It All Done Without Going Crazy
Getting it all done as a productive homekeeper is a balancing act between adhering to strict routines and complete, total, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants improvisation. Let me clarify. On the one hand, certain things absolutely require regular, seasonal attention. If the seeds are not planted in Spring, there will be no harvest in Summer. If the dinner dishes…
Ten Simple Steps To Prepare For Canning Season
I don’t know about you, but I am feeling a little behind in my canning planning. If you are too, worry not! If we follow these ten simple steps, we’ll both step into preservation season calm and prepared to tackle those bushels of tomatoes and pickles and corn. I was just chatting with my friend and mentor Margaret…
The Life Changing Magic of Folding Socks
On of the great joys of my recent Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up experience was learning how to fold socks. Yes, I know what you are thinking: “What a sad life that chick must have if folding socks bring her joy.” But just wait! When you see how I fold my socks now, you might become a happy-sock-folding…
Updates From The Homestead
I feel like the last several weeks have just been a wild ride of revelation and ducklings and craziness. I want to invite you over to have a big piping mug of coffee or an herbal cocktail, and I want to just talk, because everything is happening faster than I can reasonably chronicle it on…
Updated! Seeds For Beginners: Saving, Storing and Organizing Your Vegetable Seeds
This post was originally published January 23, 2012. I’ve slightly updated my own seed storage method (below), and we’ve welcomed a ton of new gardeners to the fold in the last three years, so I thought it was time to revisit seed storage basics. I am getting a lot of questions about seeds right now….
Seed Selection Made Very, Very Simple
Heather, a friend of mine and a fellow blogger over at Queen Bee Coupons, emailed me last week and said, I’m completely overwhelmed by the options in the seed catalogs. I just want you to tell me what to order. I want simple and I want a little bit of everything – a selection of…
Organizing Kids Toys: The Toy Closet Solution
If you have kids then you know how toys can multiply, especially over the holidays. Here’s how we solved the Kid Toy Madness issue our house. We took the vast majority of our kids toys and moved them into The Toy Closet. The Toy Closet didn’t start out as a toy closet. It started as the…