I know how frustrating it can be to keep your house organized, clean and safe. With two young girls at home, both with special needs, it’s an uphill battle many days for me. In fact, just today I walked into my fourteen year old’s room out of frustration to pick up and set upright something that I’ve asked her to fix for weeks!

Most people are so incredibly busy now that it’s hard to get one family member to stop long enough to put away one thing, yet getting the family on board will make all the difference in your organization efforts. This is where some basic tips can help and I have some for you today! Following are some simple, fundamental family organization tips to help you get things in order.

Keep it all in the family

We single moms know this feeling all too well, but there is often one parent in a couple who feels the pressure to get things organized, and it just seems like other family members are constantly undermining those efforts. Sometimes, you simply have to put your foot down and demand help (only after nice requests aren’t working). For example, every family member should be responsible for putting away his or her things (coats, jackets, shoes, toys, books, etc.). There are various ways you can get your family motivated to take care of their own stuff.

Try this: Give points for tasks completed, and require the kids to have a certain number of points before watching TV, spending time on the computer, etc.

Hiding items that are left out can really drive home a message about taking responsibility for one’s stuff. Make sure everyone in the family is aware of this consequence if they leave their things out. Then those items can be hidden as you like, and perhaps kids will have to earn back the hidden items. In the past, we have put things into trash bags for a month or two before getting them back out. Often, the kids didn’t even want the stuff anymore when we opened the bags up.

Space for each member to work

Try establishing work space for family members’ various activities. It could be as elaborate as a separate room, simply a piece of furniture (such as a table), or a corner of a room. This helps in several ways:

* All the stuff required for a family member’s activity – books, paper, pencils, craft supplies, sports equipment, etc. – can be sequestered in his or her work space. That prevents (hopefully) their stuff from ending up all over the house.

* Family members tend to feel validated when they have their own space to do what they want or need to do.

* Homework space should be separate from entertainment space to avoid temptations, and to make sure that supplies are handy. The need for a computer in homework space is understandable, but make sure that it’s only used for school purposes (such as research).

Bins and Containers

Finding the right bins and containers for items can really help get things off the floor and onto shelves, into closets, and just up off the floor. You may find that you can get by with a few clear bins in each work space, or a set of inexpensive plastic shelves.

You may prefer a large dresser or filing cabinet for the whole family, with each person having his or her drawer. Whatever you choose, make sure the containers can be closed and stacked, and that you can see what’s in them (and/or label them).

Shut the front door!

It seems like the front door area is a catch-all for shoes, coats, jackets, books, and anything else family members happen to be carrying when they walk in the door. Try having a basket or box for each person on shelves by the door; mail, school papers, and other items can go in each individual’s basket/box. Every week, the baskets and boxes will need to be sorted through and cleaned out, but done regularly, it should not be too hard.

What Family Organization tips do you have?

Please share in the comments!

Summer is coming – like you didn’t know – and it might be hard to find ways to save money on family fun this year. Gas prices and unemployment are crunching family budgets like crazy. It can make you feel guilty if you don’t have the money to continually rent video games, take them to costly kid-friendly places, and shell out big bucks for full fare activities.

Even during the school year, it’s important to be able to get out of the house with the kids and do something that won’t break the bank. This is where season passes come in handy. If you live in or near a big city, you can pay once for full, year-round access to a wide variety of entertainment hot spots.

Lets look at ways to save money on family fun around town

The zoo is a great place to save money with a season pass. A season pass to a zoo not only gets you in the door without paying again all year, but you usually get free parking, too.

Zoo membership allows you to access certain events that other pay-per-visit patrons don’t get to attend. And if you have to spend any money at the zoo on things like food, drinks, or gift shop items, you usually get a member’s discount price. Our local Sedgwick County Zoo has live bands, ice cream socials, trick or treating, and firefighters bring the trucks out to hose off the kids during the hot summer months.

Another season pass that will save money on family fun is one for a local water park. Water parks can be horribly expensive, costing approximately $50 per person per visit in major cities. A season pass is about $20-30 more, and you and your kids can visit as many times as you want throughout the open season.

Again, your family will likely save on food, drinks, and gift shop items, but they also have member only days and free perks like rent-free rafts for patrons who prefer to pay for a year at a time.

save money on family fun

Aside from water parks, other entertainment parks like Six Flags offer season passes to families who are on a tight budget. A season pass is the only smart way to go to one of these parks, because you can’t possibly enjoy everything in a single day!

Just two visits to a park would likely pay for a season pass, so if you plan to go more than once, or just want a place that you, your spouse and kids can have fun on a year-round basis, then consider upgrading to a membership that helps you save money on family fun.

Sporting events are another place where you and your clan can sock away money by investing in season tickets. The more games you buy ahead of time, the more you usually save – and you’ll never have to hear the kids complaining that you never take them anywhere!

Season passes and memberships ensure your family will get the fun they deserve while helping you save money at the same time. And in many cases, like with the zoo or an art museum, you’re contributing to the maintenance of the exhibits, too!

So, how do you choose which season pass to pick if you are on a really low budget?

1. How much can you afford to pay upfront?

2. Which place or pass will give the most visits for the family per season?

3. How long is each season pass good for?

Once you weed through those criteria, you’ll find the best choice for your budget and your family to save money on family fun this summer.

Do you have passes? Tell me about it in the comments below. 

BzzAgent provided me with a coupon for one free pizza, desert, and appetizer from the Private Selection brand, so I made a trip to our local Dillon’s to find out what was offered. In the freezer isle for pizzas, I found about four flavors of frozen pizza.  Since I’d not had this product before I wasn’t sure how big it was and picked out something to share with my mom for lunch, rather than with my family for dinner.

I’m glad I did because this pizza wasn’t very big and it’s oval shape would have been difficult to split up between us all. The pizza had good flavor though, and I’llprobably buy it again to share for lunch with my mom. The flavor we picked was bbq chicken. It had good tangy flavor with a hint of sweet and the crust wasn’t too thick or thin, but it did take a little extra baking than the box said.

The appetizer I picked was Mushroom profiteroles which are like cream puffs, but have mushrooms, chopped up walnuts and cream cheese melted inside them. When I pulled them out of the box, I was sad. They were little! However, eating them just a few minutes after they came out of the oven, they were heavenly – creamy, flavorful and just a little bit crunchy.

On to desert. Molten lava cakes! My personal favorite is rarely chocolate and cake isn’t my first choice of desert = normally. However, a good lava cake is something I’ll pick when I can. These Belgian chocolate lava cakes are good. They have enough flavor, and the melted chocolate was enough, but not too much that it made the cake mushy. In fact, I’m going to go have another one now!

Now, would I have tried these without coupons? Probably not. The cost is prohibitive for the size, for a family of four on a short income. But, with coupons, and a store sale, I’ll buy these again and have even since tried the pre-made hamburgers and the cream puffs for desert.

3 years ago my mother’s sister finally lost the war against her cancer. In the end, I don’t know if it was worse that we spend three years not being able to be around her for fear of infection, or that she was gone. Either way, we didn’t get to enjoy her wit and wisdom.

It started out as ovarian cancer and quickly spread to — well, everywhere. This was on the heels of my grandmother’s death from cancer, and my own brief, but scary bout with stage 4 cervical cancer. Oh, throw in a lump removal for my own mom. That’s just on my mom’s side of the family. Yes, that was all within the span of about 6 months, and no, we did not live near a nuclear facility or even toxic waste dumps.

I’ve even lost a dog to cancer.

I’d like to acknowledge how cancer affects us, as humans. For some, it makes us incredible human beings, and for others, it is complete and utter defeat.

Please support cancer research – but more importantly, support a cancer patient because sooner or later, it will touch your life and you’ll appreciate any help you can get. 

This post is sponsored by American Cancer Society.