How to Function Efficiently in Your Home

In my last blog I talked about the importance of functioning in your management of the home. Functioning can help you just get by. But if you want more than that, you need to learn how to function efficiently. I love the idea of running an efficient home. It means that things go along at a smooth pace. Everyone knows what to expect, where to find things and how to make it all come together. But you can’t run an efficient home without certain components in place. First, it takes the entire family to make this happen. It can’t just … Continue reading

Organizing as the Manager of Your Home

As we continue in this blog series on being the manager of your home, we are tackling the last thing that a home manager does, which is organizes. While planning and coordinating are essential to a well-managed home, it won’t do any good if you aren’t organized. Organization can make your home run more efficiently and reduce levels of stress. Look at 2012 as the year in which you will learn at least five new organizational skills. Hopefully you will be able to get some ideas through my blogs but otherwise, you can always do a Google search. The idea … Continue reading

Coordinating as the Manager of Your Home

As I continue this blog series on being the manager of your home, we are moving from the planning phase to the coordinating. I always like to first define things before we delve in. When it comes to coordinating a business—or in our case, our home—one of the meanings is to bring order. Wouldn’t most of us love to see more order in our homes? Think about those things you have done a good job with keeping order of. For instance, I am great at keeping laundry in order. I have a firm schedule that I stick to. This eliminates … Continue reading

Planning as the Manager of Your Home

So we have been looking at how you are a manager of your home and in my last blog, I mentioned three important tasks that a manager has: planning, coordinating and organizing. I don’t know about you but I like how “official” this all sounds. It takes away from the feeling of “I’m just a housekeeper.” So now we are going to look into the importance of planning, as the manager of your home. There is a Bible verse that says, “Without a plan (or vision), the people perish.” Now obviously it is not a life or death situation, when … Continue reading

The Manager of Your Home

In my last blog I kicked off a sort of series on housekeeping that I will be doing. I laid the foundation by providing a definition of what the word housekeeping means. One of the definitions was, “the management of a house and home affairs.” A manager’s job—in any facet—is to plan, coordinate and organize. Whether you are managing a multi-million dollar business or your home, these three components are vital. So as we are looking ahead to a New Year, this is your chance to develop a plan on how you will tackle your home. This will depend on … Continue reading

A Simple Way To Put Your Best Foot Forward

Some of the things that you can do to make your home-based business more successful take time, effort, money, or a combination of the three. There are other things, however, that take little to no time, effort, or money yet still have a significant impact on the success of your home-based business. One of these “free success tools” is proper spelling. Believe it or not, something as simple as spell-checking and carefully proofreading all of your communications with the outside world can do a lot for your business image. Last week, I had a conversation with my manager about spelling. … Continue reading

Who is the Vacation Planner in Your Home?

Nine weeks and counting until school ends and summer vacation begins. I know this because my kindergartner recently commandeered my black Sharpie and is diligently drawing huge “Xs” on my calendar in anticipation of the end of the school year. My daughter has already created a long list of places she wants to visit this summer. Most of them are family favorites, including Six Flags Great America, the water park, the Children’s Museum, Summerfest, the State Fair and Chicago. I typically take her list and try to accommodate her wishes after I view our family calendar and budget. Apparently, I … Continue reading

Your Classic Rock T-shirt Could be Worth a Fortune

Come on… admit it… whether it’s in the back of your closet or on the back of your youngest son you’ve got a classic rock and roll T-shirt somewhere in your home. You know the ones blazoned with the Rolling Stones logo or a classic black Pink Floyd tee. If you have an original one, get it off the bottom of your closet because those vintage frocks are worth more than you might realize. A collection of 30 vintage rock and roll T-shirts is being sold to the highest bidder this month at Christie’s auction house in New York where … Continue reading

Bet Your Bottom Dollar – Karin Gillespie

In “Bet Your Bottom Dollar,” Elizabeth Polk has just come off a bad engagement. Thinking that her high-school sweetheart, Clip, is the love of her life, she blissfully agrees when he proposes, only to be shattered a short time later when he leaves her a note under her windshield wiper, written on a bag from a fast food restaurant, calling the whole thing off. The next thing she knows, he’s hanging around with one of the fastest women in town. Work is the constant in Elizabeth’s life, and she throws herself into it like never before. She’s the store manager … Continue reading

Where Are You Spending Your Spring Break?

I know, I know, some children are just returning to school after enjoying a few weeks off for winter recess so it may seem as though I am jumping the gun a bit on spring break vacation destinations. However, I was lucky enough to spend the holidays in Hawaii with my family (a trip that was a year in the making), so needless to say I believe it’s never too early to begin planning for your next family vacation. The following are some locations I have been researching during my hunt for the ideal spring break destination. Where will we … Continue reading