Category: Organization

Our New Playroom

Posted on by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

play room, diy play room

For the past month or so we’ve been doing a lot of work around our home.  We’ve been organizing closets, donating old clothes and household items to our local Rescue Mission, selling what we can on our local Facebook Swap Shops.

In the span of a week we sold a bedroom set that we used for storage (cue the piles of clothes everywhere).  We sold a desk that J used while in school, but was now acting like a shelf.  Then we sold clothes, books, lamps, and more.  We didn’t make enough to pay for our new furniture, but it was enough to cover at least the new recliner (so I’ll count that as a win).

Our goal was simple – declutter the house and make it organized.

The whole process started over Labor Day when we went to our local furniture store just to see if we liked anything.  Our past couch was falling apart.  Literally.  Metal bars had fallen out of the bottom of it and some pieces of wood had snapped in half.  So it was time.

We ended up purchasing a new couch, recliner and dining room table.  We had been saving for for months to be able to pay cash for our new furniture. It was such an amazing feeling to be able to pay cash for everything and then reimburse a portion of our sinking funds with what we sold.

What first started out as updating our family room, ended up creating a playroom for our little boy.

We turned our guest room into a place to play and house most of his toys.  We moved most of his toys into his new room, moved a chair from his nursery so we would have a place to hang out and even hooked up my TV from college.

playroom tour, diy playroom, jewlery holder, organized dressing room, organization tips

Now our little boy has a fun spot all his own and mom can easily clean up after he’s done thanks to some organizational cabinets we bought.

Toy Organizer

Footlocker with Wheels

Chest of Drawers

Closet Organizer

Mirrored Jewelry Cabinet

Time Management Tips For Working Moms

Posted on by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

Time Management Tips For Working Moms

What’s a question you get asked all the time?

Mine?

“How do you have time for all of it?”

Yep, I get asked that pretty much each and every week. I’m pretty sure it’s the fact that I’m a working mom and it can be hard.  It can be hard being a stay-at-home mom, a work-from-home mom or a full-time out of the home career momma.  It can be hard.

You have kids to juggle, extracurricular activities to schedule, work projects due, laundry to get finished, and so much more.  So I think it’s about time I share my time management tips.

Watch this weeks video on time management tips for working moms either online or down below:

Tweet this video.

Here’s a quick recap of my top time management tips:

  1. Make a list.
  2. Know your prime time.
  3. Ask for help.
  4. Plan everything.
  5. Follow a morning routine.
  6. Prep your week.

Need More Help?

Are you ready to take control of your never-ending to do list? Well grab my Cross Stress Off Your List Guide.  This guide will walk you step-by-step in helping you determine a few key things about your to do list – some items should be delegated, some only you can handle and others… well let’s just call those the ones we say NO to.  Grab your guide and start crossing the stress off your list, momma.

How To Plan For A Good Week (The 5 Tips You Need To Follow)

Posted on by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

how to plan for your week

Are you ready to figure out how to plan for a good week so you can crush your goals? 

Well you’ve come to the right place.

For the longest time I felt as if I was barely surviving each week.  I always felt behind.  There was way too much chaos going on in our home and I felt as if I was never going to catch up.

Well if you know me at all then you will totally nod your head yes when I tell you “I hate chaos.”  I hate feeling rushed and under pressure.  Just ask J.  When we’re trying to leave town on a Friday after work the last words he’ll utter are, “let’s hurry up.”

When I start to feel rushed then I know something will slip through the cracks.  Like that one time we left on a 2 hour car ride and I left the diapers on the kitchen counter – all of them.  So it’s better to not rush me.

That doesn’t mean I take forever to get out the door.  No way! I have a system and a routine that helps me move quickly and efficiently.

So when it comes to creating calm and peace in my weeks, I had to take the same philosophy of calmness.  I needed to prepare for my week so that I don’t feel as if I’m running a sprint without any training.

I want to share with you my steps on how to plan for a week so you can crush your goals.  Now, let’s be honest these are not rocket science.  But they are smart.  They are efficient and they will help you.

How to plan for a good week:

  1. Make it a habit. Make sitting down on Sunday evenings a habit.  Don’t do it occasionally or when you remember.  Actually schedule it out.  Make it a family affair so that everyone is on the same page.
  2. Review Your Calendar.  Know where you need to be and when.  Make sure you and your spouse know of any games, doctor appointments, etc. that one of you needs to be at.  Also take a look at what you have to do during the day – client appointments, projects due, and so on.  If you aren’t keeping a calendar – start.  You can use a paper calendar that you find at Walmart or you can find a digital planner like Google to get started.
  3. Prep your outfits.  Go ahead and lay out your outfits for the entire week.  That will take the guess work out of selecting clothes each morning.  Now instead of changing your mind 15 times and wasting 20 minutes you’ll know exactly what you’re wearing and it will be ironed ready to go.
  4. Write Monday’s to do list.  Take a few minutes to write out your top 3 or 5 tasks you want to accomplish on Monday.  That way when you wake up with a Case of the Mondays you’ll be able to hit the ground running.
  5. Meal prep.  This is one of the easiest and yet, most forgotten tasks.  Spend time planning out your meals for the week.  You can use my two-week meal plan to help, but just do it.  To take it a step further go ahead and gather all the meats, vegetables and canned goods you’re going to need.  Put them together or as much as possible (I understand you can’t leave your chicken with your canned beans on the counter, but you get the picture) so that it’s easy to just grab, open, and start cooking.

Once you find a habit and start following it then you’ll start feeling less stressed about your week. You’ll be able to set yourself up for success and conquer the world.

Need more help?

Grab our guide to help you Cross Stress Off Your List.  This exercise will help you tame your to do list so you can stop feeling overwhelmed about having to take care of all. the. things.

How To Organize Your To Do List

Posted on by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

how to organize your to do list

Tired of having an overwhelming to-do list day after day?  Well I got you covered.

I’m going to share the secrets on how to organize your to do list so you can finally start powering through it.

Organizing your to do list isn’t really rocket science, but do you know what it is? Trial and error.

Yes, you start keeping a to do list one way and out of nowhere it no longer works.  Which causes you more stress than tasks you have to get done.  If you’re like me then you probably have several areas of your life that you have to take care of – family, work, yourself, volunteer organizations, etc.  Usually the thought of combining all of your to do lists sounds like a good idea, until it doesn’t.

When your to do list starts looking more like a puzzle then it’s time to try something new.  I’ve found the busier I get the more detailed my to-do lists need to be.  And the more separated they need to be.

But there is an exception to what I’m about to share with you…

If any item on my to do list has a hard deadline then the due date gets added to my digital calendar.  Typically with a reminder so I can make sure to get it done on time.  However, if there is no hard deadline then I add it to my to do list.. at some point in the future.

Alright, here’s how to organize your to do list:

You’ll need a spiral notebook and a pen.

how to organize your to do list to get more done

Typically you will need to keep a separate sheet of paper or list for each area of your life.  So for me there’s a page for:

  1. family
  2. work
  3. blog
  4. Women Aware – volunteer group I’m involved in.

Not only do I write down every. single. thing. that needs to get done for each area, but I also create a deadline.  So for instance, let’s say I need to make a dentist appointment, a grooming appointment, and meal prep.  Well I will write each one done and then next to it write down when I need to have it done by.  For work I may have reports that need to be completed, letters to write to send to clients, and an appointment to prep for.  Once again, I write down the task and create a due date next to it.

Do this for all the areas in your life – separate your areas onto different pages, write down all your tasks, and create deadlines.

Once you have a general list for all areas of your life that’s when your time blocking or daily to do list comes into play.  Next, take the top three to five tasks that you want to get done.  Now these tasks could come from one list, two lists or a combination of all your lists.

On a typical day my top 5 usually has one task from family, one from blog, two from work, and one other.  However, the closer I was getting to the annual Women Aware conference then the more my daily top five were coming from my Women Aware to do list.

Now I feel that I need to include a disclosure  – the top 3-5 daily list is not all you will work on through out the day.

These are the important tasks to help you reach your goals and help keep your life running smooth.

Life happens.  Each day will not be perfect.  There will be days you’ll be hit with fires (hopefully not literal fires) that demand attention.  Client needs a report ASAP, you get sick and have to go to the doctor, and so on.  It happens.

The goal of your daily top 3-5 list is to help you keep moving forward to reach your goals.

Having this type of organized to do list will do is help you focus.

Yes, focus.

It will help you think about only the task at hand without getting too overwhelmed.  A mom notebook is also a good thing to have so when something pops into your head that needs to get done, but it’s not urgent then it can be jotted down.  Once it’s written down my philosophy is that it will get done.. at some point.. but other tasks that are more important or more urgent will come first.

Now at the end of each day, spend a few minutes creating your daily top five list from your notebook.  This will help you get ready to hit the ground running the next morning.

Setting The Right Quarterly Goals

Posted on by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

setting the right quarterly goals, goal setting for your business

Happy July, friends! July is my favorite month of the year for a few reasons, but mainly because it’s my birthday month.  Actually today is my birthday!  I typically create a new goal list for the top things I want to accomplish this year.  Last year was my 31 while 31 list.  But this year I’m taking a different route.  As I work harder and harder to build my business and develop my professional skills, I thought it was time to talk about setting the right quarterly goals for yourself and for your business.

We like to plan 3 months at a time so we can keep track of all. the. things. that need to get done.  So of course, when a new quarter comes along we not only plan our calendar, but we also create new 3 month goals.  It can be hard setting the right quarterly goals so we’ve developed a system to help us streamline the process.

One of the worst things you can do for a new quarter or new goal is to not keep in my mind your previous ones.  You need to be reflecting and tracking how far you’ve come over the last few months or so.  Are you any closer to reaching your next goal?  Did you hit your target and now need to create a new one?

You may even be in a situation where you realize your goals have shifted and you no longer desire them.  That’s okay, but you still need to spend a little bit of time reviewing previous goals and then creating new ones.

Around this time each quarter I try to plan some time in my day to make sure I can reflect.

Keep Your Goals In An Organized Place

I like to keep track of my personal goals and my business goals in Trello.  It helps me to stay on top of them.  I found that when I would write them on pieces of paper or in a journal then they somehow always get misplaced.  I fill up the journal with other tasks and then have scraps of paper floating from journal-to-journal.

But you need to find a central location for your goals – a place to track your progress, the steps it’ll take to reach them, and your deadline.

Spend Time Reviewing and Reflecting

I might be a broken record at this point, but it is important to reflect on the past month.  If you’ve been working towards a goal – financial, health, career or a personal goal then you need to see how much you’ve accomplished.  For example, let’s say your goal is to save $5,000 in your emergency fund.  You might think “oh I’ve failed at that because I don’t have $5,000,” but what could be the reality is that you did have $5,000 but your baby got sick so you had to pull for the insurance deductible.  Maybe your fridge broke and you had to replace it.  Maybe you overspent and weren’t able to put back as much as you thought.

Just because you didn’t reach your goal by the end of the quarter doesn’t mean you’ve failed.  It means life happens, so by spending time reflecting on how far you’ve come then you can start to turn around the negative talk.  Being hard on yourself is one of the worst things you can do when reaching a goal.  While your self-talk is negative then you actually start to believe that you will never succeed and that’s not okay.

Set Realistic New Goals

Did you reach a goal or two and now need a new one?  Have your goals shifted and you no longer desire your current goals?  Now is the time to spend a few minutes or hours setting new goals.  But the key is to set realistic ones.  If you make $3,000 a month and want to save $4,000 then that might be a little hard to do.  So you need to be aware of your other commitments when setting your new goals.

Schedule Your Next Review

Now is the time to calendar out your next goal review.  We tend to plan at three months at a time, so each quarter is when we like to sit down.  However, you may want to start off with monthly goals.  But go ahead and pull out your paper planner or Google calendar to set a time.  Make sure the time you pick is feasible.  Don’t pick Monday at 10:00 a.m. when you work 8-5 during the week.  Make sure you’re setting yourself up for success by being mindful of your review time.

Have A Money Date

I talk about money dates a lot around here.  I think they are vitally important to financial health.  It really gives you and your spouse a chance to be on the same page with money, bills and goals.  So make sure to have a money date when you’re setting your new quarterly goals.

So you might be thinking what are my 3rd quarter goals for my business?  Well here they are:

– launch new product in the shop
– create content for new course coming up
– create weekly videos for the YT channel
– create 3 posts a week for the blog
– become a guest on a podcast
– continue to serve my readers

How To Plan Your Day Using Trello

Posted on by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

Plan Your Day Using Trello

How do you plan your day? Do you use a paper planner, Google calendar, or something else?  What if you have several different projects and tasks that need to get done before moving on to the next?

I’m a planner junkie and have tried just about every brand of paper planner, every app and every sort of to do list that you can think of.  I’m a big fan of Google Calendar to organize appointments and reminders, but it doesn’t work so great on tasks that are involved in a bigger project.

That’s where Trello comes in.

I use Trello to plan out my week in tasks, if that makes sense.  Trello helps me break down a big project or goal into smaller actionable steps.  Then in turn those steps are planned for specific days to make sure they get done.

In today’s video, I’m sharing how you can plan your day using Trello.  You can watch online or down below:

If you’re new to Trello, check out my post on how I stay organized using Trello. It’s a wealth of information on how I stay on top of every project and every part of my life – from career, business owner, mom, wife, home manager, and so much more.

Here’s a quick recap from today’s video:

Create a new board title “This Week”

In the board you will create a separate list for each day of the week and an eighth list titled “Sort For The Week”.

Once that’s done enter in a new card for any recurring events. These can include weekly meetings, daily reminders, and so on.

Then create a Butler Bot (which I explained about in the video) to connect other boards and projects to the “Sort For The Week” list.

Now in your instructions for the bot, you can have any project or task that’s due in the next 5 days to either be moved or copied into the This Week board.  Once that happens then you can easily drag and drop your specific tasks to the day you need to work on them.

It’s easy-peasy.  Now you can stay on top of all those smaller tasks to help you reach your big goals.

Do you plan your day using Trello? Let me know in the comments!

 

How To Plan Your Month To Get More Done

Posted on by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

how to plan your month to get more done, plan your month the right way

 

Happy July, friends!  The year is half over, can you believe it? I have no idea where 2018 is gone.  For that matter, I don’t know where the past two years have gone.  I look down at our little guy and can’t believe how big he is (and independent, and stubborn, and sweet).  It’s hard to imagine that this time two years ago I was a new mom who had no clue what she was doing.

Now fast forward two years and I’m a mom to a toddler who still has no clue what she’s doing!  But I think that’s just part of momhood.  Fake it until you make it.  As long as your kid is happy and healthy, then you’re doing a great job.  No time to be picture perfect and sweat all the small stuff.  You just have to roll with the punches and pick yourself back up after every mistake.

As we start a new month, it’s fun for me to spend a little bit of time planning out some fun activities to do.  Especially now that it’s finally summer around here.  We have lots of plans to visit the nearest petting zoo, swim most nights, and just be outside as much as possible.  I sat down to plan out our next month and thought, I should show you how I do it.

I’ve gotten a few questions about how to do it all as a mom – work, fun, cleaning, and all the small stuff in between.  So I figured now is a great time to show you how everything gets planned way in advance.  I’m not a fly-by-the-seat of your pants kind of Mommas.  I’m more of a plan it out, stick to a plan but make room for changes and extras.

That’s why we like to plan three months at a time when possible.  July is actually a new quarter for us, so we’ll be planning July, August, and September very soon (I might throw in a post on setting new goals, too)! But once a new month starts, it’s time to focus on that specific month.  Because let’s face it not every Mom plans their son’s second birthday party almost three months in advance (but thanks to having a son born on April 15th and I work in a tax office, I have to).

Planning for each month at a time is the perfect way to add in all of those school parties, birthday parties, and all the fun that comes up.  It all gives you a chance to build in productivity days and times to focus on what needs to get done.  For me that’s focusing on my business since I work full-time, but it also means times to deep clean our house, do outside yard work and so much more.

Here’s how to plan your month to get more done:

Pull Out Your Calendar

Whether you use a paper planner or Google calendar, get out and get it open.  If you’re like us and add things in as they come up or plan for several months at a time, now is a good time to make sure those events are still happening.  A lot of times, I’ll add in trips to visit friends or family, but something will come up and we are no longer going.  So spend a few minutes making sure what’s in your calendar is still happening.

Add New Events

Did your kiddos get invited to a birthday party or sleepover?  Make sure to add in any new events that you’ve recently been invited to or learned about. Right now school is out for the summer; however, you should be making a note to look through the school calendar for any upcoming events.  One of the biggest complaints I hear from friends with school-aged children is they never know when something is coming up.  They usually lose the school calendar from the beginning of the year and most of the notes that get sent home with their kiddos never make it to them.

Also, take this time to look through your community’s calendar and add any fun family activities or chamber events that you want to attend.  Our public library hosts so many events during the summer, so I always add those in as soon as their monthly calendar gets published.

Mark Any Due Dates

Make sure to write down any due dates that are coming up.  Even if a bill is on auto-pay, you should make a note of when it will be coming out of your account.  That way you can keep track of everything getting paid.

Write Down Pay Days

Make sure your have made a note on any pay days or checks that you should be receiving.  Perhaps you’re paid on the 15th and 30th of each month, well that makes it easy to remember.  However, if you get paid every two weeks then those dates shift and it’s important to know when they are coming up.

Schedule Money Dates, Date Nights, and Family Time

Most families’ schedules are crazy hectic.  So having time together can be hard to find.  Make sure you’re planning family nights, game nights and weekend trips with just the family.  They don’t have to be any crazy expensive outings, you can probably find some cheap or even free ones to do.

Also, you should be scheduling time with your spouse.  We like to have money dates every few weeks, but date nights are just as important.  It’s a time for J and I to just be together – no kid, no worrying about money, no housework that needs to get done.  It’s just time for us to be husband and wife.  It’s nice and much needed after a few weeks of running around like mad people.

Block Your Time

On days where you don’t have a lot of running around or kid activities, then block your time to get more done.  I use time blocking on days off work so I can focus on different projects for my business and for around the house.  Right now I work Monday through Thursday in the office.  Fridays become my business day.  It’s a day that I can work on my shop to add new templates, create new blog posts, batch record videos for the channel, and just spend time growing my business.  It’s amazing how productive you can be if you have uninterrupted time to get things done.  I block off time to clean the house and do one or two small projects around the house, too.

What goes into planning 3 months in advance

Posted on by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

how you can plan out the next three months in less than an hour

In one of the most popular posts on the blog, I shared how we plan for 3 months at a time – in one sitting.  It sounds like a lot, but in reality in a world full of chaos it’s something that calms the storm.  When life starts getting crazy and you’re not sure how you can fit in one more thing, that’s when having your biggest events all ready pre-scheduled.

Here’s the original post, but it caused a flurry of questions… how do you do this? what about planning out for this…?  Do you really schedule family dinners that far in advance?

So I wanted to go into more detail about exactly how we plan for three months out and how you can start incorporating this system in your life.  Because, trust me, this system is gold!  Here’s what you need – your calendar (either Google calendar, paper planner or one of those giant desk calendars), a pen or a pencil, a blank piece of paper, and laptop.

Look At Birthdays

This is always the first stop in planning.  Mark down any birthdays that you will need to know about – kids and spouse (duh!), parents, siblings, nephews, nieces, etc.  I like to mark down everyone, but I always make a special note of any birthday that will probably have a party and need a gift for.  Now of course, most people don’t plan out kids birthday parties and send out invitations three months in advanced (unless you work in a tax office and have a son born on April 15th, then at that point you plan their birthday party 2 months in advance).

However, you do know within reason when the party will probably be – either the weekend before or after the child’s actual birthday.  This isn’t a full-proof plan, but it does work for the majority of birthday parties I’ve been to.  Once you make a mark of when everyone’s birthday is or when there party will most likely be, now it’s time to update your budget.

Make a note on a separate piece of paper any gifts you’re going to need to get or upcoming (but not confirmed) travel.

Look At Out Of Town Trips

With J’s family living a few hours away we like to visit at least once a month.  If we can plan out a few weekends to visit in the next few months then we can make sure it lines up with everyone’s schedule.  Plus, it helps on the budget and finding someone to watch our pups.

You can also mark down any vacations, girls trips, guys weekends or anything else that you know is coming up.

Plan Date Nights and Family Dinners

I’m going to be honest, date nights are few and far between (is that how that saying goes?).  But we try to do something at least a few times a month just the two of us.  It’s a lot harder to plan those nights out, so here’s what we do.  My parents typically keep our son one night a week, so we plan those nights first.  Then it makes date night a lot easier.  We don’t have a weekly date night, unless you count being childless and crashing at 8pm as a date.

One family event we do plan in advance is family dinners.  We have those just about every week.  We try to stick to every Thursday to make it easy on everyone’s schedule, too.  Family dinner can mean meeting my parents at a restaurant or heading back to one of our houses for dinner (usually my parent’s house because, let’s face it, it’s cleaner than ours).

Mark Down Any Work Events

Are you involved in any civic organizations, Chambers or other networking groups?  If so, then you probably know when your meetings are and other special events that come up.  For me, I’m in Kiwanis that meets once a week, BNI that meets once a week and a woman’s organization that meets once a month.  Those meetings are at the same time, same day of the week and usually at the same place.  So I can easily go ahead and mark those down.

Schedule Doctor Appointments

After all the birthdays, out of town trips and work events are marked down then that gives me room to make doctor appointments.  Now this isn’t for when your child gets sick, because you can’t plan for those.  However, these are for the check-ups – the dentist, pediatrician, physicals, and eye doctor.  By calling a few months in advance, you’ll more than likely get the pick of your appointment time.

Lessons For Your Kiddos

Do you do any learning activities or schedules with your kids?  For us, we searched out a program to help us.  Our son goes to an amazing sitter, but there isn’t any structured learning time.  So we know that we have to provide that at home and on the weekends.  However, I was overwhelmed.  Each Pinterest pin was telling me to start with something different and all had different milestones for the same age our son was.  As someone who thinkis in numbers, it was hard to wrap my mind around it all.  I need a clear cut guide, something that I knew would be entertaining to our son, but also teach him something.

I started searching and I came across the Busy Toddler’s website and was immediately in love.  It had some great ideas that actually seemed doable.  She even put together We started following the Busy Toddler’s lesson plan, Playing Preschool, awhile back.  Life got in the way, so it took a sideline during tax season.  But I am in ready to get back into the full swing of things.

She lays out each week perfectly, so I can go into our calendar and mark down what lesson we’re going to be working of and for what week.  She uses a lot of tools and produce items to help learn, which is great so by marking down what week we’re on then I know what I need to be making sure we have from the grocery store.

Check In On Our Financial Goals and Set New Ones

Once a quarter you should be checking your financial progress – seeing how you’re doing with your budget, your spending and your savings.  What better time to update your goals and create new ones then when you’re planning the next few months out.  We try to have a money date as our planning session, so we can also take a good look at our budget.

If we hit a new financial goal then we cross it off the list and move on to the next one.  It helps us stay accountable to what we want our financial future to look like!

Our Organized Baby Dresser

Posted on by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

Note: Some links in this post contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission if you make a purchase. Thanks for supporting my blog!

organized baby dresser

I love organization. Something about not having to think when trying to find something, just puts me at ease.  I have to be honest though, I’m not a perfectly organized person.  Just ask J anytime I’m trying to find my phone or car keys.  Don’t get me started on my debit card – I can never find that! 

Here’s my favorite ways to be organized:

My closet, for instance, is color coordinated. You open the doors and will see all the blues together, blacks together, reds together and so on. It’s pretty. Makes getting dressed easier in the morning since my most recent-worn items aren’t in the front. I can grab and go without thinking, “when was the last time I wore this top?”

My monthly bill system is organized perfectly for me.  Paid bills in one folder, need to pay in another, our check register is on Google Sheets and updated on a daily basis.  I also have a budget binder with a debt tracking sheet and monthly bill tracker.

The junk drawer in the kitchen is another story. It’s actually two small-sized drawers because I out grew one drawer. It’s on my to-tackle list, but it just hasn’t been a priority yet. You’re better off not even trying to find anything in those drawers. It would take forever and you’d probably make a mess just digging.

baby boy, motherhood, mommy blogger

Why I wanted an organized baby dresser.

With Baby here early and all of my plans for his arrival thrown around, I was really glad I had his nursery organized. I worked hard on getting the dresser perfect a few weeks before he arrived. I wanted to make sure it was functional and easy to use. Especially since it has a dual purpose of dresser and changing table.

I wanted diapers and changing products close-by without over taking the top of the dresser. I wanted burp cloths and frequently used items at arm’s reach that way I could keep a hand on him at all times while he’s on the changing pad.

Once the organizational plan was ready, then it was easy to follow-through with it. Now when laundry is done or diapers are purchased they have a home. Which means no piling or putting things off until later, which I am the queen of (hence the junk drawers).

How to Organize Your Baby's Dresser

The first thing to start with is the perfect dresser.  I received mine as a Christmas present from my parents.  Originally it was going to be my dresser and my old one was going to become the baby’s.  However, that didn’t happen.  Being super pregnant by the time we finished the nursery left me no motivation to switch dressers and move them all over the house.  So instead the baby got the new dresser.  I think it works out better.  The drawers are a bit deeper, which means they can hold more baby clothes.  Especially right now with his clothes being so tiny, they don’t hang very well.  I found this dress, a nouvelle dresser that is similar at Wal-Mart that is right on budget for a inexpensive nursery makeover.  

organized baby dresser, organized nursery

Top Drawers:

Miscellaneous hospital papers and keepsakes that will end up in Baby’s memory book is in one drawer.  The other drawer holds his diapers and wipes.  That way when we’re changing his diaper, we don’t have to stretch or bend to reach a new diaper.  Plus it keeps the clutter on top of the dresser to a minimal.

Upper Middle Drawers:

I keep the most used items in the next two drawers so I can reach them without having to bend if he’s on the changing pad.  I placed all of his bibs, burp cloths, receiving blankets in one drawer.  The other one holds his current-sized onsies and socks.  We also put his swaddles in this drawer.  He isn’t a big fan of the swaddle now that he’s a bit older.  It’s still nice to have in arms reach, but we don’t use them as much anymore.

Lower Middle Drawers:

I do get into these drawers a lot, but usually when he’s in his crib or if J is around.  I put his sheets and waterproof mattress protectors in one drawer. His towels and washcloths are in the other drawer.

Bottom Drawers:

Here is where I placed any clothes that are too big right now.  I have them organized by sizes so when he grows into them I can just move them up to the other drawer.  

How do you have your baby’s dresser organized?

I also have plenty of room in his closet for hanging clothes, but he was so little at birth that most of his onsies wouldn’t fit on the baby hangers.  He’ll eventually grow into needing clothes hung up, but we’re not there yet.

How I Plan My Day (full-time employee, blogger, wife and more)

Posted on by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

How I Plan My Day (full-time employee, blogger, wife and more)

I like to keep myself busy. Ever since I was a little girl, I always wanted to be doing something. I can still hear my Dad’s voice in my head telling me, “You better be careful. You’re burning the candle at both ends.”

It use to annoy me so much when he said that. Mainly because I knew he was right.

I used to spread myself too thin. Nowadays I do a lot better prioritizing everything I want and need to get done. I’m better with my time management. No more wasting precious time on things that don’t matter.

My life’s pretty hectic most days, especially during tax season. I wanted to share with you how I plan my day as a full-time career woman, blogger, soon-to-be-mom, student, friend and wife so I can get it all done.

The first thing on my list every morning is to see what I actually having going on. I don’t want to waste my time on things that aren’t important, so I schedule out everything. I mean everything. Thank goodness for Google Calendar and my Purposeful Planner. It helps keep me in check. I’ve shared my tricks with how I stay organized with Google Calendar before, so check it out.

How I use Google Calendar

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become very aware of what’s on my plate. In college I would say yes to everything. So I found myself spending a lot of long nights in the library studying because it was the only time I had left. I never wanted to miss out, so I always said yes to everything.

The fear of missing out still gets to me some days, but I have to be careful. I have finally realized that it’s okay to miss out on what’s not really important. And I have realized that I can’t push myself into exhaustion if something is just not possible.

Alright, here’s how I plan my day:

6:30 am – wake up and get started. J sets the alarm for 6:30 so he can get ready for work. I am not a morning person, but I have started getting up with him. I like to make his lunch and get his breakfast ready – that way I know he’s eating something decent.

I also let the dogs out and feed them. Then I take care of myself. I like to give myself time to wake up in the mornings. So I make myself breakfast and turn on the local news for about 30 minutes.

7:00 am – get ready for work. Living in a small town is so great. I don’t have to leave my house until about 10 til to get to work in plenty of time. I give myself almost an hour to shower, put on makeup and get dressed.

8:00 am – 12:00 pm – work at the local accounting and financial planning firm. I work on client paperwork, calls, etc.

12:00 – 1:00 pm – lunch. I typically grab lunch with my Mom and Dad most days. It’s another perk of living in my hometown. I really love getting to see them as much as I do. I work with my Dad so I get to see him everyday, but something about grabbing lunch with both parents is really nice.

1:00 – 5:00 pm – I do a variety of tasks in the afternoon. Most days I like to study for the CFP® exam. But if I’m not working on the Certified Financial Planner® designation then I can be found working on marketing pieces, the office’s blog and social media platforms or finishing client paperwork.

5:00 – 6:00 pm – dinner with J. We joke that we’re old folks because we like to have dinner so early. But J starts his day an hour before me so by the time he gets home, he’s usually starving. So we just plan to eat by 5:30 and have some time together.

habits to better your life

6:00 – 8:00 pm – downtime with J and working on the blog. I like to spend my evenings at home. We usually catch up on our favorite shows while I’m working on the laptop. I schedule out social media posts, write out blog posts and work on fixing up the blog. I usually take this time to plan out a few more posts to keep me going too.

8:00 pm – I turn everything off and just relax the rest of the night. Again, we’re like old folks here too. We like to be in bed well before 9:00 each night. I know once the baby is here that will change. But for now I will get my sleep while I can.

I do this Monday through Friday without fail. During Tax Season I also follow this schedule on Saturdays.

Sundays are our days to be at home. We like to work on projects around the house. We’ve been busy updating a back bedroom and transforming it into the nursery. I also like to meal prep on Sundays and do my grocery shopping for the next two weeks. I’ve found grocery shopping every 2 weeks really helps us save serious money.

Maybe I should do an updated posts on how we meal plan??? I’ll work on that!

On Sundays I like to take photos for the blog. That’s when I see what posts I have coming up and what images are needed. Then I work on staging those and editing them for the site. It’s hard to take good photos during the week. By the time dinner is done it’s usually dark or getting dark out. Sundays are the best days for me to fit it in.

Most weekends that aren’t in Tax Season are filled with visiting family and friends. Also, we like to travel to the lake to go boating so that takes up quite a bit of time each summer. I try not to fill my weekends with too many work or blog commitments so I can keep my free-time to spend with people I’m crazy about.

That’s it. That’s my day-to-day life. I know at some point I will need to commit more time to the blog since I want to see it grow. During the summer months it’s easier because I work four 10-hour days and have three day weekends. So I can devote Fridays to the blog, but for now this is the time I allow myself. I don’t want to spread myself too thin. Those days of pulling all-nighters are in the past!