Chapter 7 The Right Method “The Tasks in Hand”

Most women have no real plan to keep their homes clean and orderly. They simply see a problem; then eventually, they get around to doing something about it (and sometimes they never do)! Yet, women of the past had a very organized manner of keeping their homes clean and in good order. It was something that they learned to do as a young lady.

The Method: Task/Chore Cards

When I was newly married, I had no idea how to have a routine to incorporate all the tasks of cleaning, laundry, cooking, shopping, ironing, etc. into my day, week, and month. I had never been trained nor observed it, as I mentioned early in the book.

You may or may not be in this desperate state, but very few manage a good home these days (as I have observed when I have visited homes). This method can either help you do what you have been unable to do, or bring you up to a higher level—all with just a little invested time.

Supplies: To get started, gather these items from an office supply store. You’ll need:

1. One package each of white, blue, yellow, green, pink 3x5 cards.
2. A 3x5 card file.
3. 3 sets of dividers:
   1. Numbers 1-31 (to represent the days of the month).
   2. Monthly cards (Jan.–Dec.).
   3. And extra blank dividers.
4. Large colored paper clips or clothespins.
5. Plastic vertical letter holder.

What you are going to do is gather an ongoing “to do list” that, once made, can last for years! Each morning, my children and I begin our day by taking our stack of multicolored 3x5 cards that are clipped together and waiting in a letter folder. In the stack are multicolored cards indicating the frequency they are used. For instance, in our home we use blue for something done everyday, yellow for something that is done weekly, and green for something that is done monthly.

Why is this method better than a check off list or a chore bulletin board?

These methods may work, but the method that I have used since 1982 is something that you do not have to create over and over again. Not only does it last for years, it also is flexible. Chores or tasks can be moved from something you do, to something your child does, and then passed onto a younger sibling just by changing on initial on a card. This method is flexible since it can be done today, or saved until the following week if you or your child is sick or on vacation. I believe a method should not control you, but you should be able to be in control of your system.

It can easily be revised to do a task from daily to weekly, and it also has an easy method to follow-up to make sure the task or chore is done. Check off lists can work, but the downside is that you have to make new ones each time it is filled or you need to revise it.

So if you are ready, let’s get started.

Getting Started. On the top white card you simply write each person’s name with a reminder to pray to begin the day. With small children who cannot read, I have always drawn a stick figure of a little boy or girl on their knees, head bowed, and hands folded. Just to prove my point of the cards working for years, just last week I noticed that my 13-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter still had the little praying stick figure on their top card!

After each person prays, they put that card in the back of their stack and go to their next card, which might be to make the bed or a personal hygiene task (see below). My next card could be “Start the Laundry,” while the children’s could be “Listen to Bible Memory tape while making you bed.” If your child goes to school, you may make a card “Bring your backpack to the front door,” followed by “Have breakfast,” and finally, “Get to the school bus—leave the house at 7:45.”

The 3x5 cards are not just for chores, but incorporate everything you find you need to tell your children to do (or you make a list for yourself to do) on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.

To make it easier, each card is color-coded: blue is a daily chore, yellow is a weekly task, and green is a monthly duty. White (their prayer card) goes on top and pink card is the last card that says, “Done!” The daily goal or, better yet, daily requirement each day is to go through each task, one-by-one, until all the cards are done and the pick “done card” is on top!

Years ago, we called these cards “chore card.” However, if I could make it stick, I would rather call them “task cards,” since the definition of “chore” is an unpleasant task. I would rather that the things that we do to contribute to our family or take care of ourselves should not be thought of as unpleasant.

So, how do you get this stack of cards? First, once again, create a top card with the person’s name on it to remember to begin your day with help from the Lord for “apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). “In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight” (Prov. 3:6). Either of these verses can also be on the top card as a reminder of who to lean on. Next, you begin with tasks that you do on a daily basis.

Blue Cards are Daily Tasks

As you go through your routine each day, write down each task that you do: this means anything you do or you tell your children to do on a daily basis. Write each task on a separate blue card. Everything you do on a daily basis will always be on a blue card.

Some things I do (or your children do) are out of habit; therefore, you do not need to make a card. However, I often write it down anyway so my children or I can organize our cards to learn to do them in a particular order. This is helpful when my routine is interrupted. I can easily see what I need to do next by referring to my cards. Some find checking off a task on a “to do list” is encouraging. This same invigorating feeling is accomplished when you put the cards you’ve done in behind your pink done card!

As I mentioned earlier, I began using this system for myself (when my children were just toddlers) so I could have some sort of method (without making daily to do lists or charts that needed to be changed or redone) to help me keep up with my household duties. Then when my children got old enough (about 5-years-old), that I began using the 3x5 card method with them so I wouldn’t have to keep telling them the same things over and over and over again.

This 3x5 card method continues to free me up from having to spend my time getting my children to do what they need to do. This free time is accomplished by working not harder, but smarter and working more efficiently, rather than with more effort. This means you can do more in less time. With the extra time you can add more to your life, whether this is doing more or spending some time not doing anything—making time to relax. By following up and checking to see that their pink “done” card is up, I am also following up to make sure what I have asked my children to do is done.

Making Your Cards

I am the kind of person who loves making lists and organizing stuff. After speaking to many groups about my 3x5 card system, some brave souls told me quite frankly that they just couldn’t do this sort of thing. So I had to ask God to help me create this method for everyone to use.

Well, God is always faithful! Soon I was just too busy with ministry to just “sit down” and think of anything. That is when the Lord showed me the easiest method for making the cards!!

** LMF Recommended. I found the easiest way to make cards is to make the cards as you go. Each time you do something that you need to do, or you tell your children to do, then grab a card and write that task on it.

1. Decide how often the task needs to be done: daily, weekly, or monthly. Write the task on blue card for something you do daily, yellow if it’s weekly and green if you do it monthly.

 

2. If you have children, determine who could do the task. Start at the youngest person in the family then work your way up; then, write their initial or name in the upper right corner of the card. *I've named this ingenious principle the "Macy Principle" since she was the youngest of the 7 children so I always began with Macy to give a new task to. If she wasn't capable, then I'd consider Cooper and work my way up—rather than begin at the top and overwhelm the oldest (capable of doing just about everything) child. This method is ideal for work as well and what we ask our LMFs to follow.

 

3. Determine when or what day of the week or month it needs to be done, and write that in the upper left corner of the card.

Let’s get a bit more specific when making out a task card. On each card:

Write the person’s initial in the upper right corner. I have two names that begin with the letter “T.” So the older one gets a capital “T” and the younger one a lowercase “t.” (If all your names begin with the same letter, give each child a number according to their birth order.) My youngest daughter has a name that starts with “M,” so my “Mom” cards are written out in cursive, and my daughter’s is printed with an “M.”

Blue daily cards are always kept in the paperclip or clothespin. The other colored cards (yellow and green that we will cover later) go in and out of the group of cards, but the blue daily cards always stay in the group.

How to designate who will do the job: I decide who the youngest child is capable of doing the job. (Always begin at the bottom, the youngest child available, and work up.) Most mothers start at the top and burn their oldest child out. And if they marry, they will often choose to have few or no children. Tasks in our house begin at about four or five years old. Before that age, you spend far more energy getting them to do it and do it properly.

As you work your way up from the youngest to the oldest child, you will be left with the tasks that no one else is capable of doing. In addition, you will be the initial trainer and often the task supervisor (to make sure the job is done and done properly). Don’t expect your children to do their jobs or do them well if you don’t follow up.

This is also the beauty of this system. Each day, you need to put that day’s cards in their stack when you notice the pink done card is on top. That tells you whether or not they did the task. Then in the beginning, and periodically, you should just take a look to make sure that they did the task adequately. The child may need more training. It may be that they are too young to manage the job, and it needs to be moved up to an older child or to you.

One of the most asked questions about my system is in regard to changing the jobs. My children keep their jobs for years! The only time they get rid of a chore is when I see I can delegate something I do to one of my children. When I pass my chore down, then I pass down one of their chores and so on. When a younger child is old enough for more responsibility, I look to the next child up, take some of their easier chores, and work my way up again to me!

When a job is passed down from one sibling to the next, the older child teaches the younger one to do it properly. The incentive to teach the younger sibling well is that the job doesn’t come back to them! Often, I go over the job myself just to make sure that it is being done properly.

Now, with a great system like this that really works, you can see why I have no real jobs myself (and why I do believe that children are blessings)! If more mothers trained their children as they should be trained, you definitely would see more big families. However, most families keep their children as liabilities and not assets. They cater to them with outside activities, and wait on them like they are their servants. The children are not happy, but have an “attitude,” and they are miserable. This carries into their marriage (a marriage that lasts less than a year), and they are home again. Mothers, take the time to train your children—everyone will be happier because you did!

Blue Cards are Daily Tasks

More than once a week and less than daily. When you have something that needs to be done twice a week, like Tuesdays and Thursdays, use a blue card and put “T & Th” in the upper left corner. If it needs to be done three times a week, like Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, then write “M, W, F” in the upper left corner of the card. When it is to be done every weekday I write “M-F” in the upper left corner. I like using a pencil when I choose the day and even the child, since it often needs to be changed.

I do switch jobs when they are not done properly. You may think that a child is capable of a task, but even after training it is not done adequately. Of course, when working with children, you need to lower your expectations a bit. But it is better to have them help (and maybe even come back in to perfect it a bit) than to neglect training your children.

Samples of Cards

Making your bed would be a blue card since it is done every day. However, if you or your child is trained to roll out of bed and make the bed, he, she, or you would not need a card for this task. However, since many homes have unmade beds day after day, more than likely this is a card that you will want to include in your cards.

Personal hygiene is another daily task that is often neglected by children. Sadly, it is often neglected by many mothers who are blessed to stay at home. Therefore, personal hygiene would be a 3x5 card you would want to add to your daily blue cards. Let me get off the subject of organization and focus on your appearance. Many unknowingly tear their own house down with the lack of care in their appearance. Husbands leave the house and are often met with women in the workplace who have showered, put on their make-up, and are wearing nice clothes, not a bathrobe.

Then, why are we shocked when our husbands come home one day to tell us that they have found someone else—9 times out of 10 it is in the workplace. For those of you whose husband does not work with good-looking women, they are everywhere when your husband leaves the house: where he eats lunch, the neighbor, or your best friend. Not only do these women look and smell better than you do when he leaves the house, but they are also very agreeable. They listen to your husband’s frustrations, which are often about you, and she sympathizes. She may listen and share his dreams, like you used to do before you were married. But at some point, since your marriage, you have exchanged your enthusiasm for criticism as you tear your husband down.

Dear wife and/or mother, get yourself into a routine of looking your best before your husband leaves the house. If your husband is not in the home right now, start getting into this routine, and I guarantee God will bring him around to get a good look at you. However, beauty is only skin deep. “Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised” (Prov. 31:30). So before you focus on cleaning up and beautifying the outside, you may want to get A Wise Woman and start on the inside. (These workbooks are available for FREE on our website).

Now back to our daily organization. Listed on this blue card for personal hygiene you might list what your child is to do, such as:

1. Get dressed.
2. Fix your hair.
3. Brush your teeth.
4. Put on deodorant for teens and preteens. (See chapter 15 for a great, non-toxic deodorant solution.)
5. And maybe conclude with: “Make your bed” rather than having a separate card.

Basically, you will make a card for each task that you normally are telling your children to do every morning, or a card for you that you need to include in your morning routine (so that you can organize your time better or to find your place when you are interrupted).

If you are a wife or mother who works outside your home, you will find that by using the cards (and training your children to use them to get ready in the morning), there will be much less chaos and stress. Your job will be first to train yourself to use them, adding to them as you see something you are doing so you don’t forget, or adding something new with the time you are saving by working more efficiently. Even a card of checking on the children, or getting them up at a particular time (though I believe in alarm clocks for the children if you are constantly in a time crunch) will save you time and help your morning to run more smoothly.

Since I have delegated most of the household responsibilities to my children (though I used to do them all myself before I had children and also when my children were too young to help), when I was trying to give you examples of what I do each day to help you get started making your cards, I found I really had none to share!

Women often tell me that if they had as many helpers as I had they would be able to get their work done. Not really. It requires you to be organized, and do the work yourself before you can expect to move up to management. It wasn’t until I had four little ones underfoot that I was able to even begin to delegate anything! And when you are teaching children, it really takes more effort and more time at first (which is why some mothers don’t want to bother). However, your time, effort, and patience will reap great benefits for the future. I say jokingly (but honestly) that I could die and my home would still run smoothly because of this system.

Though I didn’t die, I was able to travel around the world three times this past year—the longest was a five-week tour. I didn’t have to do anything, not one thing, to get my home and children ready for me to leave them. The house was not exactly the way it is when I am there, but my ex-husband came for a visit and said that it was! Each of us sees things that no one else sees, but when you can fool an ex-husband, things have to be running well!

Whenever you discover a task that doesn’t need to be done daily, then you will begin to make weekly cards, which are yellow.

Yellow Cards are Weekly Tasks

As you go through your daily routine, you will find that some things do not need to be done daily; therefore, you would do them on a weekly basis. Write each weekly chore on a separate yellow card. For example, “Dust the kitchen blinds” would be a yellow card if you do it once a week.

As you begin getting your life organized and your children are being trained to do what you used to run around telling them to do over and over again, you will then begin to see other things that need to get done, but just not as often. It may start out as a daily blue card, but you find that since it is being kept up, doing it only a few times a week is enough.

Earlier I mentioned using a blue card with M-W-F or T & Th, when the task needed to be done two to three times a week. This is the first step to modifying the chore to be done less often. The other variation is using a yellow card with just “Mon.” in the top left corner, then another one for “Thurs.” for instance. Do what works with your children and/or makes sense to you.

Since the yellow cards are not used every day, but only weekly, they are removed at the end of the day and put in the same day next week. For instance, today is Wednesday the 16th, so at the end of Wednesday, I will pull all the yellow cards from under each “done” card, and put them in my card file for next Wednesday right in front of the 23rd.

Each day when I get the family’s cards ready, I pull the yellow weekly cards and green monthly cards. I then put them back into the 3x5 card file. Only the blue daily cards remain in the group.

For those tasks that only need to be done monthly, you would use green 3x5 cards.

Green Cards are Monthly Tasks 

When you go through your daily and weekly routine and things become more organized, you will begin to see things that need to be done but daily and weekly is too often; therefore, you would write this kind of task on a green monthly card.

A good example is to clean off the top of your refrigerator. All of a sudden you notice that it is a mess, so since it has been like that for months, a green once-a-month card would be perfect. So I decide who should do it, have them do it, then make a card for that day. For instance, if this were the 20^th then that would go up in the upper left corner of the green card.

Another example may be a changing-the-sheets green card. Though some families I know wash the sheets weekly, there are many homes where it is done once a month.

If you have a lot of beds like I do, try to space washing the sheets out over the month, doing one room at a time, and do it on a non-wash day. (I will explain more on ways to organize and simplify your washing in Chapter 13: “My Best Laundry Tips.”)

To remind that room, I made a fluorescent 3x5 card with the instructions to “Change Your Sheets” and put it in my fifth child’s cards the day before I will wash the sheets.

Tara then puts that fluorescent card in that person’s room in front of their alarm clock. In the morning, that child (or I) do not make the bed, but strip the bed and put clean sheets on.

I keep a second set of sheets in a clear zipper bag (the ones that sheets, blankets and comforters come in). After the bed is made, the dirty sheets and the fluorescent card is put in the clear bag and brought to the laundry room. When the sheets are washed, they are put into the clear bag and put in that child’s closet, and I put the fluorescent card into that same day of the month (For instance, if today were the 10th, then I would put it in front of the 10th to come up in one month).

To Sum Up My 3x5 Card System

The day of the week is always written in the upper left corner. Write the day the task is to be done on the blue daily, yellow weekly, or green monthly card.

Labeling: To designate which child, which day, and any other specification on each card, I offer the following suggestions:

Blue cards: On a blue daily card you may want the task done on M-F, or only Mon., Wed., Fri., or just Tues. & Thurs. Write this in the upper left corner.

Yellow cards: On your yellow weekly card, you would have any weekly task. Write Mon., Tues., or Wed. Write this in the upper left corner and keep this in the 3x5 card file holder in the next Mon., Tues., or whatever day of the week that job will be done next week.

Green cards: On a green monthly card, you would write the day of the month such as the 1st, 15th or 24th, etc. Write this in the upper left corner and keep this in the 3x5 card file holder in the day of the month: the 1st, 15th, 24th, or whatever day of the month that job will be done next month.

Once more: Begin by thinking about what you tell your children every morning, over and over again, beginning from when they wake up. Write what you usually say over and over on a blue card. If you have a chore list you’ve been using, write each task on a separate blue daily card.

For example: Make your bed and tidy your room would surely be on a blue daily card. Scrub the toilet or scrub the sink would probably be on a yellow weekly card. Wipe down the top of the refrigerator or clean out the junk drawer would probably be on a green monthly card.

Be specific: You can write out the explanation of how the task is to be done; i.e. under “get dressed,” you would write “please check with Mom on what to wear” (if this is a problem you have with a particular child).

Can’t read yet? If your children are too young to read, you can simply draw stick figures showing the task or cut out pictures in a magazine.

Can you explain what you do in more depth?

For weekly chores, I break them down into easy jobs. Instead of Tuesday—clean the bathrooms; write “Mon.—John clean the sinks,” “Tues.—Bob clean the toilets (since he’s the guy who always misses),” “Wed.—Tom scrub the bathtub (and do it after your shower while you’re in it and still wet),” and “Thurs.—Cindy and Sue do the bathroom floors (the older one washes, the younger one dries), and Julie cleans the mirrors (she usually is looking in them anyway).”

Divide these jobs up among your children depending on their age and ability. Divide them up to spread out the work over the weekdays if you are a stay-at-home mom. For those who work outside the home, determine if this is a job that they can do when they get home from school. This makes just doing the sink, versus the entire bathroom, possible without having to do all the housework on Saturdays.

If you are doing the jobs yourself because your children have grown or because you are still waiting for God to bless you with children, then it is still wise to break down jobs. If you have more than one bathroom, do both of your toilets or all your sinks (include the kitchen) and all the floors on the same day. It is easier and quicker to do the same task in different locations rather than doing the toilets, the sink, the floor, and then the mirror. How do I know?

Years before the ministry, we owned a maid service in California. It was my job to train the women my husband hired. I trained them to do the same job (all the sinks or all the toilets) to help expedite their time at each home and when working with another maid.

Once-a-month or every-other-week jobs: Use a green monthly card. When I see something that needs to be done not once a week, but every other week, then I make a green monthly card such as “wipe finger prints off the doors throughout the house (toddler high).”

For years I had a green card for the boys’ haircuts. Before making the card, I would wait until everyone started to really look shabby. But once I created this method of putting haircuts on a green monthly card, I was able to maintain that nice clean look by cutting my family’s hair each month. My child training has paid off as now my third son cuts everyone’s hair in the family except mine. I still cut and color my own hair, which has been very convenient now that I travel so often and for so long. I just carry scissors and hair color with me!

Each time I notice something unorganized or unclean (such as a particular closet or the refrigerator), I put it on a green monthly 3x5 card. When you make something that only needs to be done once a month, use a green card, put today’s date (number only, i.e. the 16th) in the upper left corner. If it is a twice-a-month task add 14 days to the date (i.e., 16th plus two weeks, or 14 days, would be the 30^th).

If a card falls on an inconvenient day (a weekend, birthday, or whatever), simply put it into the next convenient day. When you are filing it back in the card file, place it in front of the correct day listed at the top left corner of the card, not the day you finally did the task.

Another note. It is better to “maintain” cleanliness than to attack a disaster. If you wipe off the refrigerator shelves on Tuesday, and wipe the door (inside and out) on Friday, you will not have to completely clean your refrigerator each month. We eat all of our leftovers the day before I grocery shop. (Create your own food bar.) With all the food gone, I can easily wipe off these empty shelves to maintain cleanliness, rather than having to do a deep refrigerator cleaning as often. This is also when I sort chips, breads, and desserts. Anything that is not eaten is thrown away, or was given to our animals when we lived on our farm, and now to my oldest son who loves to be able to keep working since he has something he can heat up in the microwave.

How to use your Card File and the System

As I mentioned when we began, each family member who is participating in this system has a pile of blue daily cards that is held together with a clothespin or large colored paper clip. Each child (and you) has a different colored paperclip to help identify their pile easily. Or, you can use colored clothespins, or write their name on the wooden clip. (Since I use my same cards for years, the paperclips began to wear out the top of the cards. That’s when I began using the clothespins.)

Every morning. First thing each morning (or the night before) look at the initials and lay the piles of blue daily cards (that are held together with a clip) across your kitchen counter or desk, from left to right—oldest to youngest member of your family.

Then, get the yellow weekly and green monthly cards that will be in the front of your card file with today’s date (for instance, the 14th). In your card file, today’s date would be in front with all the yellow weekly cards and green monthly cards that you pass out to each family member. In other words, if today is the 24th, that group of yellow and green cards will be in front of number 24. You will take them out and put them into each pile of blue daily cards (that are held together with a clip).

In front of the pile of each person’s blue daily cards, you should have a white or fluorescent card with their name on it. This, we use as a prayer card that lists requests, which might include their friends’ and family’s salvation. Or, you can write out a card with a short prayer for that child to begin their day. With my daughters, I write out the verse about having a “gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God” that has helped their contentious ways!

The last card is pink and has the word “done” written on it. Once they begin with prayer, they begin the task on the card, and then when complete, they move it to the back behind the “pink done” card. The cards are NOT held together with a ring or made from spiral held 3x5 cards, so that they can easily be moved around based either on priority or by time restraints. (For instance, if there is a card to bring the trash cans in, and it needs to be done later in the afternoon.)

Pink cards. I use one pink card to indicate the stack “done” and pink cards are also used for birthdays (we cover this in more depth in Chapter 8 “Planning Ahead”). And finally, I use just one pink card that says “move next month’s cards forward” that is set for the 25th of the month (written in the upper left corner of the card). Put this card in front of the 25th card divider. Again, we will cover this in more depth in the next chapter.

One more time. Each person has a stack of cards held together with a clip. The top card is the white prayer card, followed by the blue daily cards. Next are the yellow weekly cards and green monthly cards; lastly the pink “done” card.

Rules for keeping them together: Keep a special container to hold the clipped-together cards. All cards must stay there; no one is allowed to carry their cards around. My children’s cards are in an old plastic mail holder.

Teaching them the method. Tell the children that as they finish a task, the card is put behind the pink card. After they pray, they work through each card. You may tell them they must complete each task in the order in which you put the cards (to learn obedience), or you may allow them to do the tasks in any order (to teach organization). It is important, however, that you do have a time that they are expected to have the tasks completed. It could be by noon, by 3 p.m., before they go outside to play, before dinner, or by morning. However, do not say to do the tasks before they go to bed, or you will have the latest bedtime ever!

My children got in the habit of taking all afternoon, instead of the hour it should have taken. So I began using a kitchen timer and set it for 60 minutes to teach them diligence. It worked! So this is now the way I set it up every day. Our children do their cards immediately after they finish their schoolwork. If a particular day clearly has more chores that have been “proven” to take longer than 60 minutes, you can easily add another 10 or 15 minutes for that one child to complete their cards.

Making it work. The method only works if you put out the cards every (weekday) morning, and you enforce punishment if the tasks are not done. Periodic inspections are important to see if they are doing their tasks correctly and thoroughly! Also, if you make them do it over for being too lazy to do it right the first time, it will speak volumes to that child and all the other children who witness that you mean what you say! In addition, if they ever put a card that is incomplete or just not done behind the pink “done” card, it is a lie! Punish lying severely. A liar is an abomination to God!

Special circumstances. Because you have all your household tasks on 3x5 cards, you can easily move any card to any particular day. If you’re having company and you want the floors washed the day before your guests arrive, you could move that card to that day. If you find that during the summer you need to vacuum more often, you can make more vacuum cards; then at the end of the summer, throw them away. The most important thing to remember is that you want to maintain cleanliness, rather than always waiting until there is a giant mess. Use bibs for children and aprons for you and your little helpers. You have a very important job to do—so let the Lord be your boss!

Keeping “unseen areas” clean. To keep your closets or drawers clean and not become sidetracked during your clean sweep, you will want to make a “monthly” or green 3x5 card for these closets and drawers. The best method is to start doing it on a monthly basis, and later change it to bimonthly (two green cards spaced two weeks apart; i.e., 1st & 15th or 14th & 28th).

You will know how often you need to clean and sort depending on the severity when your card comes up! And if you are faithful to include your children in cleaning, you will find that they are much more interested in keeping it that way so they don’t have to deep clean as often! In addition, if you are doing it yourself, it is much easier to keep a closet or drawer clean, rather than to let it get so messy that you need to clear out the entire closet or drawer as you did back when you de-cluttered your home initially!

Miscellaneous Tips:

• Use birthday (or any occasion) paper tablecloths for wrapping huge presents. I find tablecloths marked down at grocery stores and at dollar stores.
• Colds can be avoided or attacked with Vitamin C crystals. The bottle I have is 16 oz. for $28. When we hear of colds going around our circle of friends or our church, I add two heaping teaspoons to our juice pitcher. The older children drink the most, down to the youngest. At the first sign of a cold in any of my children, or myself, I make up a sport’s cup with a lid (put their initials on it so no one else drinks from it), and I add one teaspoon to juice. They nurse on that throughout the day; and if we’ve caught it in time, they won’t get the cold or flu. If we haven’t, I repeat it for the next few days and it is over faster. Too much Vitamin C can cause diarrhea, but to avoid a cold spreading through eight of us, that’s a small price to pay. In addition, we read on the Internet that if you do get a cold, take about 3000 mg every few hours to lessen your symptoms by almost 80%, and found that they are absolutely correct! Again, you may experience diarrhea when you take too much, but then simply cut back a bit.