I used to be organized ...

As we near the end of the year, I start thinking about goals that I'd like to set for myself for next year. Lately, our need for a little more organization in our household has been on my mind a lot, but I'm not quite sure how to achieve it.

There was a time when I was pretty organized. I ran my home with a nifty-swifty homemaking binder. I deep-cleaned regularly, did freezer cooking, planned detailed menus after browsing through cookbooks, made my own cleaners, and enjoyed every minute of it. I even had time to exercise!

These days ... not so much.

What happened? Well, we moved to a considerably smaller house. We had Alex. We started our first year of homeschooling - and who knew there would be so much paraphernalia along with that? By the time the baby was six months old or so - about a year after we moved - I was kinda sorta starting to get things under control again. Then I got pregnant again - after years of infertility before Alex - who says God doesn't have a sense of humor? We started our second year of homeschooling, and the papers and books continued to multiply. We had Ben. We were just treading water for a while after that. See, Luke and I are both planners. Our idea of spontaneous is to plan something three days before doing it instead of three months before doing it. An unexpected (although dearly loved!) baby after all these other changes definitely knocked us off kilter.

We're to the place now where most nights the house is picked up and the kitchen is cleaned before bedtime, but that's only happened ... well, more recently than I care to admit. I still make my own cleaners, but I'm down to a couple of basic all-purpose recipes. I plan menus, but I do it at the library while the two little boys are doing story time, which kind of precludes browsing through cookbooks as I plan. If I do any freezer cooking, it's during the summer when I have a bit more time. And deep-cleaning ... well, let's just say if you come to my house, please don't look too closely at the baseboards! I have a list of what should be cleaned and how often, but it doesn't get done as regularly as it should.

And this is where you come in! As I said, I'm not quite sure how to get where I'd like to be with this. Will you share your best organizing techniques and time management tips with me? I've used a binder, 3x5 cards, a weekly calendar and a daily to-do list, all with varying degrees of success depending on the season of life I've been in, but I'd love to hear about what works for you (and why) even if it is one of those methods.

So, please - hit me with your best suggestions!