Organizing Life Tips - Tip #1 - Make a Weekly Menu

Sure, this has nothing to do with cleaning. But, the Happy Slob mentality is all about simplifying your life, right? And one thing I find not only incredibly helpful with reducing stress - and reducing my bill at the supermarket! - is to sit down on Sunday nights and come up with a weekly menu or meal plan.

To simplify even further, you can have themes for each night, such as:

• Monday: Breakfast for Supper Night
• Tuesday: Soup & Sandwich Night
• Wednesday: Try a New Recipe Night
• Thursday: Dad's Night to Cook (Hurray!)
• Friday: Homemade Pizza Night
• Saturday: Eat out Night (Which is particularly easy to prepare...hehe)
• Sunday: Proper Sit Down Dinner Night

With a theme in mind, you can create meal ideas for each day, and then make a grocery list that contains all the necessary ingredients.

Okay slobbos...what do YOU do to simplify meal planning?

Reader Poll - What is the ONE Area of Your Home You want to De-Clutter?

In an attempt to get more organized and declutter more often, I'd like to hear from all of you on this question:

What area(s) of your home do you want to declutter? What are your biggest organizing challenges? Would regular email organizing tips help you stay focused on your organizing/decluttering goals?

Please post a comment on the blog OR email me at christina@happyslob.com and let me know your answers! Thanks for participating everyone. :)

Totally Decluttering Problem Areas - Uncluttering Tips

I know, I know...decluttering can somedays feel like a bad word. Why? Because we are so NOT in the mood to cope with the disaster areas in our homes, such as messy closets. Today, we're going to tackle one of those areas, and as is always the case, we'll do it quickly and without a lot of muss and fuss.

1. Choose the 1 problem area that is ANNOYING and AGGRAVATING you the most
2. Set the timer - hopefully for 10 minutes or more.
3. Go CRAZY on the clutter. Be a bit relentless - set aside things that you 1) Need 2)Don't Need or 3)Will Give Away
4. For the allotted time, work like a madwoman on the clutter. Once the timer rings, you can stop, but you might find that you want to quickly finish the job.
5. Throw away or recycle the things in the Don't Need pile
6. Get rid of the 'Give Away' things as soon as humanly possible
7. The things you 'need' (make sure you really do need them and will use them) will get put back in a tidier way.

After this decluttering session, you might notice why your place gets so cluttered in the first place - a lack of space, or maybe a lack of organization. So, once you've decluttered an area, you might need to go out and purchase something to help you keep that space less cluttered from here on out. Examples: Storage units, shelving, or storage boxes.

:) How did you guys do? If you successfully did this decluttering session, then DON'T be shy! Post a comment below and let all happy slobs everywhere know how you did...Bravo, everyone!