Is it time to chill the chore wars? Clean house fast and furious!

Check these articles to learn the secrets of professional cleaners, make your own cleaning products, and bring the family onboard to create a clean and organized home.

Conquer Chaos in the Laundry Room

Posted by Cynthia Ewer on July 15, 2014

Nothing can streamline an organized home like a well-crafted set of household systems, and today, we focus on laundry and clothing systems.

What do they do? How do you develop them? What benefits will establishing laundry and clothing systems give to you and your family?

Chances are, you already have these systems in place. After all, a system is just a set of organized items, decisions or actions, designed to work together to achieve a common end.

Summer Cleaning Chore Checklist

Posted by Cynthia Ewer on July 2, 2014

Summer's here, hot, high and sweaty. Vacations beckon. The garden takes on a life of its own.

Busy families don't have much time for home chores these months.

School's out, travel's in and it's easy to let life slide on the home front.

Still, summer will run more smoothly if you keep tabs on these important areas in the Summer Cleaning Chore Checklist.

Our summer cleaning chore checklist list tackles hot-weather issues, summer health and safety.

Magic Minimum: Cleaning Secret of Organized Families

Posted by Cynthia Ewer on April 9, 2014

Is it time to clean? Not for today's busy families!

Between work, children's activities, and vacation plans, even the most leisurely days don't seem long enough to get everything done at home.

There's a solution for busy times! Just as your body needs a "minimum daily allowance" of vitamins and minerals, an organized home needs a minimum of maintenance and attention to keep running smoothly.

Think of this as a Magic Minimum: a short list of essential household tasks. It's a bottom-line list of chores and activities necessary to keep things running at a basic level.

Clean Sweep? The Case Against Spring Cleaning

Posted by Cynthia Ewer on March 31, 2014

Spring blows in with warm wind and the promise of ... spring cleaning?

With the coming of spring, even the most casual home managers feel an inexplicable urge to move furniture, clean windows and vacuum baseboards to welcome the return of sunshine and warmer weather.

But is spring cleaning really necessary?

Five Tips For Spring Cleaning With Kids

Posted by Cynthia Ewer on March 23, 2014

Spring cleaning is on the horizon, and you could use some help. It's time to try a team approach to seasonal cleaning.

Many hands make light work ... so how do you get the kids to pitch in when it's time to spring-clean the house?

Try these five tips to involve children with housecleaning chores.

Kids and Chores: Chilling The Chore Wars

Posted by Cynthia Ewer on March 14, 2014

When it comes to kids and housework, the blasted terrain is familiar: a dirty house, balky children, and frazzled, frustrated parents.

Tired parents try it all, from chore charts to screaming fits.Canny children engage in housework sabotage, selective hearing or childish irresponsibility to duck assignments.

The noise levels--and stress levels--rise along with the stacks of dishes.

How to negotiate a peace on the issue of children and chores?

Try these family-tested strategies to calm the conflict and gain the goal.

Swing into Spring: Five Easy Ways to Welcome Warm Weather

Posted by Cynthia Ewer on March 4, 2014

Blooming bulbs and Spring breezes signal that warmer weather is on the way.

Sure, many of us will do an all-out session of Spring cleaning, but even small, simple jobs can bring the season's freshness inside.

Shake the winter doldrums out of your organized home with these five easy ideas to swing into Spring.

Sew A Clean Sweep Apron!

Posted by Cynthia Ewer on February 26, 2014

A cleaning apron? What, me?

Yes, you! Forget those '50's images of housewifely frou-frou and ruffles: a cleaning apron has a place in the modern home manager's toolkit.

A cleaning apron speeds cleaning chores. Spray bottles of cleaning solution hang ready for use. Apron pockets lined with plastic bags corral bits of trash. Cleaning tools live at the tips of the cleaner's fingers.

Stockpile a stack of cleaning cloths in one pocket, a cleaning sponge in another. With a cleaning apron, supplies, tools and materials are literally close to hand.