Family Life

In the months since Nora was born, I’ve received a crazy number of emails asking what items I would suggest for soon-to-be-moms looking to stay clutter-free and stick to a tight budget. While I definitely don’t have ALL the answers; after almost 5 months, I can at least share the items we regularly used for the newborn/infant stage.

All week long, I’ve been sharing my “must-have” items for infants.

Monday = Nursery Items

Tuesday = Baby Gear

Wednesday = Food, Medicine, Toiletries

Thursday = Clothing

Friday = Items for the New Mom

Saturday = Recap, a few more tips, and a FREE Printable! 

I’m sure there are tons of different opinions on what you do and don’t need; so I just want to stress that these are the things that worked for me. They might not work for everyone!

Three More Money-Saving Tips:

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1. Borrow before you buy.

Before I purchased almost anything (new or used) I first looked to see if I could borrow it from someone else. Then, once I knew I liked something, I started searching Craigslist or garage sales.

I have tried so many different products that did NOT work for us, and in those situations, I simply returned the items to the original owner… no money lost!

2. Buy as much as you can USED.

Your baby will not know if you bought them used clothing, toys, books, etc. and if you wash it well, there is really no difference between new and used… except the price.

As you can tell from reading the other posts in this series, we got almost every single item we needed (and a few we just wanted) from friends, relatives, garage sales, thrift stores, and Craigslist (here are some of my tips for buying on Craigslist.)

3. Remember that LESS is MORE!

I know you’ve probably heard that saying many times already, but with a new baby, less really IS more… I promise!

• If you have LESS stuff; you have MORE SPACE because you don’t need to store it.
• If you have LESS stuff; you have MORE TIME because you didn’t spend time shopping for more stuff.
• If you have LESS stuff; you have MORE ENERGY because you don’t need to clean or organize it.
• If you have LESS stuff; you have MORE MONEY because you didn’t buy it.
• If you have LESS stuff; you have MORE SANITY because you aren’t constantly forgetting and misplacing your stuff.

And believe me, I don’t know any new moms who wouldn’t love a little more space, time, energy, money, and sanity!

Of course, you’ll definitely need to do what works for you, but hopefully this week’s posts will give you a place to start as you prepare for your new babe.

And since I’m always trying to make things as simple as possible (especially for new moms), I created a handy printable list that you can download or print.

Download / print my “must-have” list of infant essentials.

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Even before Nora was born, I was very conscious about what we brought into our home — only buying things we needed and things that would have a “home” once they were in our house.

I’m still pretty strict with myself when I’m out shopping, and if it’s not a necessity, I’m probably not going to purchase it (even if it IS a really good deal and super cute!) This philosophy has saved us tons of time, space, and money… and I definitely don’t think Nora feels deprived!

What are your money-saving tips for raising infants?

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4 comments →

A couple weeks ago, I was “pressured” into entering one of Nora’s photos into a Parents Magazine baby photo contest.

I kind of forgot about it until I received an email earlier this week saying that our photo was selected as one of the “finalist photos” — which meant I needed to get lots of people to vote for her picture in order to win anything!

Over the past week, I’ve been encouraging friends and family to vote via Facebook and other social media sites. However, since voting is done on Sunday, I figured I should use my blog as one more way to get a few extra votes for Nora’s photo!

So… if you think she’s as cute as we do…

PLEASE VOTE HERE!

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Oh, and did I mention that the grand prize winner gets $10,000 and a trip to NY! Yeah, that could help with our kitchen remodel this summer

Thanks for voting!

13 comments →

UPDATE: This giveaway is now closed.

Congrats to:

Dee (jarvisdee7@…)

Denise (dtzebrak@…)

Dana (dana.dagman@…)

Jenifer (jpierpont@…)

Michelle (michellerogers626@…)

Sherry (sherry.dunn@…)

Trina (tgwalton29@…)

Lee (katrynka@…)

Sandee (crafteeladee@…)

Melyssa (lee.Melyssa@…)

I will email you shortly!

If you just read the title of this post, you might be wondering what a “Life Locker” is… right?

My Life Locker is the ultimate organizational system.

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Think of it as your own personal filing cabinet: one tidy spot to keep your entire life’s information.

My Life Locker covers your whole life, not just one area — everything from your family,to your home, your finances, your internet user ID’s, your passwords, and more!

My Life Locker is a place for you to record your details, print the pages that apply to you, and keep your hard copy somewhere safe — or use the digitally encrypted copy on your computer for easy reference. 

My Life Locker is organized into four sections, each one a SECURE place for essential information.  

• Locker #1: Me and My Family
• Locker #2: My Important Things
• Locker #3: My Valuable Money
• Locker #4: My Everything Else

Within each locker is a series of categories and specially designed, easy-to-use forms to record specific information.

My Life Locker covers practically every possible category, but if you need a specific category, it’s very easy to customize and modify if necessary.

If you live in Canada, you can buy the digital or print version of My Life Locker. Everyone else can purchase the digital copy of My Life Locker… and then use this helpful information to set-up and organize all your information.

The Giveaway:

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Today, TEN lucky Simple Organized Living readers will win a digital copy of My Life Locker.

How to Enter:

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1. {required} Leave a comment on this post. How do you currently organize your important information?

2. {optional} Like Simple Organized Living on Facebook, and then leave a separate comment letting me know you did {or that you do already}.

If you are reading this in your email or feed reader, please visit the actual blog post to enter. Email entries, Facebook comments, and Twitter messages will NOT be counted.

Prizes:

(10) Digital copies of My Life Locker as described above.

This giveaway ends at 10:00 pm on Monday, 4/23/2012 and is open to individuals 18 years or older. I will use And the Winner Is to select the winning comments at random. Winners will be notified by email and noted at the top of this post. Winners must respond within 48 hours of notification to claim their prize or I will choose a new winner. Please see my full disclosure policy and contact me with any questions you have. Good luck!

200 comments →

In the months since Nora was born, I’ve received a crazy number of emails asking what items I would suggest for soon-to-be-moms looking to stay clutter-free and stick to a tight budget. While I definitely don’t have ALL the answers; after almost 5 months, I can at least share the items we regularly used for the newborn/infant stage.

All week long, I’ve been sharing my “must-have” items for infants.

Monday = Nursery Items

Tuesday = Baby Gear

Wednesday = Food, Medicine, Toiletries

Thursday = Clothing

Friday = Items for the New Mom

Saturday = Recap, a few more tips, and a FREE Printable! 

I’m sure there are tons of different opinions on what you do and don’t need; so I just want to stress that these are the things that worked for me. They might not work for everyone!

My Must-Have Items for the New Mom

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Don’t forget yourself! There are a few things I’m SO glad I had on hand before I brought Nora home from the hospital.

SOFT ROBE and SLIPPERS

Not only do I love my soft robe and slippers for mid-night feedings, but I swear Nora recognizes my robe and just loves feeling it with her tiny fingers. Also, as you can imagine, there are many days (especially in the beginning) when I was perfectly content to stay in my PJ’s all day long, so it was nice to have a really comfy robe and slippers to lounge around in.

NURSING TANK

I have 5 of these and I wear them every day and every night – literally. They are super comfortable and look great with almost anything I’m wearing. I’ve tried several different brands, and can definitely say that the GlamourMom tanks are by far my favorite (a bit more expensive, but worth it for me).

SPILL-PROOF WATER BOTTLE

I’m thirsty all the time (which I’m told is normal for nursing moms) so I’m always carting my water bottle with me everywhere… and I’m usually carting Nora around in the other arm, so spill-proof is essential for me! I also love that I only need one hand for the water bottle I use.

NURSING PADS

If you nurse, you’ll want these! I got great deals on the disposable kind (several boxes for free) but you can also purchase reusable ones and then put them in the wash.

SMART PHONE or E-READER

I use my phone to check emails, browse the web and even read books while I’m up with Nora in the middle of the night. While I suppose it isn’t a necessity… it is one thing I would highly recommend to new moms. And during the day, it’s convenient that I can do almost anything I need to with one-hand!

CAMERA and/or VIDEO CAMERA

I just use my phone to take pictures and videos — but if you don’t have a phone you can use, you’ll definitely want a digital camera (no, you don’t need a fancy DSLR) to capture all those moments that really DO go by so quickly.

EXTEA HELP!

As you’ve probably realized by reading many of my previous posts… motherhood is REALLY hard, so if possible, try to have some sort of support system in place for after you bring your baby home. Have a schedule for friends, relatives, neighbors, coworkers, etc. who want to help by bringing a meal, watching your baby for a couple hours, or even staying the night.

Seriously, LET THEM HELP!! {And this is coming from a totally type-A, Do-It-Yourself mom!}

I know that I always err on the side of minimalism, but honestly, with a new baby, you don’t want tons of extra stuff in your life. I found that as a new mom, I really didn’t need much… and besides a few pain relievers, I can’t think of anything else to add to this list!

What were/are your must-have items for a new mom?

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3 comments →

I’ve been thinking about writing this post for several weeks now… but wasn’t exactly sure HOW to go about writing it or WHEN would be the best time to publish it.

So since I’m just coming off a lovely (and very relaxing) Spring Break “staycation”, I figured now might be a good time to share a little bit about my past experiences with “burnout”… yes, even with all my to-do lists and organization, I still get overwhelmed!

I’ve always been the type of person who likes to be REALLY busy (I think you probably knew that already!)

I thrive when I’m busy and am actually more productive, more efficient, and more “alive” when I have a long to-do list. I can usually handle a lot of stress and don’t often get overwhelmed. However, in my adult life, I can think of two very distinct times when I felt completely overwhelmed and “burnt out”.

One was right before our wedding, the other was soon after Nora was born.

May, 2006

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I was 20… and just days away from college graduation (think lots of final exams, paper, projects, etc). I was taking an overload of classes in order to graduate in just 3 years, working 2 part-time jobs, and finishing up my college internship.

Dave was living and teaching in California and we had just purchased our first house (I got power of attorney to sign off on the house for Dave). After “we” got the keys to our new house, I was trying to quickly do as much of the home renovations as possible before we got married and moved in (thankfully my dad helped a ton me since Dave was in California until mid June).

I was also planning all the last-minute details for our wedding, reception, and honeymoon… and did I mention that Dave was living in California! Yes, he knows how lucky he is to have me!

Oh, and because college, 2 jobs, an internship, a new house, wedding preparations, and honeymoon plans weren’t enough, I decided that I wanted to train for a local 25K race!

Yup — I had a lot on my plate!

I was ALMOST to my breaking point and can remember sobbing on the phone to Dave simply because I couldn’t get the gas, electric, and water companies to properly switch the utilities into our name since we didn’t have a land line!

Thankfully, I managed to graduate, finish my internship and part-time jobs, get everything squared away for our wedding/honeymoon, complete MOST of our house projects, and get everything moved in before Dave moved back to MI… which was just one week before our wedding!

And yes, I finished the 25K race and was eventually able to get the utility companies to cooperate and use my cell phone instead of a land line!

I was also fortunate to have the opportunity to relax and “recover” from those stressful months on our 2-week honeymoon and throughout that entire summer (neither of our jobs started until September).

Fast-forward a few years… 

January, 2012

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I’m 26, I had a 5-week old newborn who cried ALL the time, refused to take any sort of extended nap, and was basically awake most of the night.

We had 2 high school international students living with us — one of which was causing enormous amounts of stress for Dave and me due to her bad attitude, refusing to obey our rules, slacking off in school, etc.

Dave just returned back to school after an extremely busy and stressful Christmas break (think tons of holiday parties with a newborn and an uncooperative teenager, lots of visits from family and friends who wanted to see Nora while they were in town, buying gifts, making food, late nights, cold weather, etc. etc.)

I had already been doing most of my blogging and Virtual Assistant work for a few weeks and was officially back from my short maternity leave with a local company I work for.

Add in general house work, meal planning, grocery shopping, doctor appointments, church and school activities, and once again, I had WAY too much on my plate. 

Thankfully, Dave was absolutely wonderful and helped out as much as he could. Also, both our families helped a ton by making meals, watching Nora, and even bringing our international students to and from extra curricular activities.

We were also very fortunate that after a huge blow-out, Dave’s principal helped us remove the difficult student from our house in early February… which immediately made our home environment much more enjoyable and much less stressful.

However, I still felt like I just needed a break… and I think Dave did too.

Taking a Break

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Since one international student moved out and our other student was planning a family trip to New York for Spring Break… Dave and I would have the house to ourselves for 10 days! And since Dave would be off of school that entire time, I decided it was the perfect week to take a break. 

I took a break from almost all of my VA work, I took a break from my regular blogging, I took a break from social media, I hardly checked my email, I didn’t edit any photos, and I did as little cooking and cleaning as possible! I only made one to-do list all week, and most days; I didn’t even turn my computer on until late afternoon.

It was glorious, and just the break we needed! (you can read about what we DID do here)

Dave and I had a chance to relax and sleep in a little (when Nora let us), we had fun working on a few house/yard projects, we went for walks with Nora almost every day, we used several of our gift cards to splurge on going out to eat, and we spent lots time with each of our families.

I even took a nap! 

I also had SO much fun documenting our week and sharing it here on my blog. It was a nice break from my “normal” post calendar and so far, I’ve received some very positive feedback. It also gave me a reason to take tons of pictures (I think I took over 200 pictures — which is totally abnormal for me!)

Over all, I would say that our week-long “staycation” was a complete success. Dave and I both feel refreshed, relaxed, and ready to get back to normal life again. I know we are both still looking forward to summer when he will be home all day again, but this break was just what we needed to make it through the last 2 months of school — and gear up for our kitchen renovation this summer

Have you ever experienced burnout? What helped you cope?

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37 comments →

Guess who let us sleep in until 8:00 the last TWO mornings! 

{sorry it’s dark and blurry, but I was NOT going to turn the flash on when she was just waking up!}

After yesterday’s fun giveaway, I have to catch you up on the last 2 days of our Spring Break!

On Thursday, my sister Ashely {the one home from college} hung out at our house for the entire day and entertained Nora while Dave and I both worked outside. It was so much fun for me to be back outside doing yard work again – especially since I hardly did any yard work last summer.

Apparently, they played pretty hard, because Nora was exhausted after just a couple of hours and actually took a few naps!

Meanwhile, Dave was outside cutting just about everything he could cut with my dad’s chainsaw!

{we have about 30 of these trees lining our property and ALL of them needed to be trimmed!}

I was trimming smaller bushes and working to clean up our mailbox area… don’t even get me started on how ugly those yellow press boxes are (and no, we can’t get rid of them.)

Here’s what it looked like after about an hour of digging out rocks and transplanting a few other plants from around our yard.

{the plants are still really low to the ground, but it’s a mixture of day-lilies, sedum, coral bells, and creeping purple phlox}

Of course, it will look much better once these perennials grow over the summer — and once I add in a few annuals. It’s good enough for now though.

After a very long afternoon of yard work we dropped Nora off at my parent’s house (they just got back from vacation and NEEDED their Nora fix) and headed to Akita, a new Chinese restaurant in town.

We treated my sister to dinner since she watched Nora ALL day long — and I know how stressful that can be!

We love Chinese food, and this buffet even offered a full Sushi bar! We decided that we will definitely have to bring Sarah (our international student) back here.

Oh, and I thought my fortune cookie was very fitting for this week (mine is on the bottom)

Looks like Grandma and Grandpa also played a little too hard with Nora… she was out cold in the 10 minutes it takes us to drive home from their house!

After a quick bath, Nora was sound asleep by 8:00pm… and I was sleeping by 9:30. I think I’m FINALLY starting to catch up on my enormous lack of sleep from the first 4 months of her life!

Friday was another super relaxing day… especially since we got to sleep in again (thanks Nora).

Unfortunately, our toaster somehow broke over night (yes, that makes 3 malfunctioning appliances over break!)… and that meant Dave couldn’t have his regular breakfast of toast, waffles, or poptarts.

I made French toast and scrambled eggs instead — he was thrilled!

Complete with real maple syrup… my favorite!

It’s been such a great week for being outside (sunny and mid 60′s all week) and we are so thankful for that! Dave took Nora for a walk in the afternoon so I could finish up some yard work — she just loves her stroller!

Oh, and thanks to come cute hand-me-downs from Dave’s cousin, Nora is all set for Easter!

Isn’t it adorable! 

My mom recently found a little sweater and some cute sandals (at a garage sale) to complete the outfit.

Since I haven’t been cooking all week, I surprised Dave with Culver’s for dinner — it’s his favorite restaurant and I figured it just wouldn’t be Spring Break without a trip to Culver’s!

And just because I’m the nicest wife ever (and because I had a gift card and a bunch of BOGO coupons) I even splurged on dessert

It’s been really nice not cooking all week, but since we rarely ever go out to eat, I think I’m ready to get back to our normal (and much more healthy) weekly meal plans next week!

After dinner, we gave Nora a bath and then enjoyed a bit more fresh air via the back porch swing (one of my favorite places to hang out).

She was in bed by 8:30, which gave me just enough time to do two quick loads of laundry, clean up the kitchen, sweep the floors, and quickly pick up the main areas of the house before heading to bed myself.

I’m a little sad that our week-long “staycation” is coming to an end… but I think I’ll be ready to get back into more of a routine next week. Plus, I’m really ready to start making my to-do lists again!

8 comments →

Our Monday started VERY early when Nora decided she really didn’t need to sleep in… I guess she doesn’t realize that Spring Break is not the time to wake up so early! Someday, probably when she’s in high school, I’ll remind her how she loved to wake up early as an infant!

{Nora playing with her new musical toy from Aunt Stacey — she looks upset, but she really does like the toy!}

I tried Greek Yogurt for the first time {I got a free coupon} — LOVE it! Normally it would be a bit too expensive for my frugal budget, good thing I know how to make my own!

We all did a little reading in the morning… guess who’s reading each book

And yes, Nora always has to hold the book while we read!

We’ve been eating from the freezer for the past couple of weeks {which means I’ve hardly purchased any groceries}. It was getting pretty empty, so we completely emptied out our deep freezer and let it defrost.

Then I went shopping and got some crazy good deals on groceries to restock our freezer. I saved almost $80.00 and only spent $21.00! 

I still need to do quite a bit of baking/cooking to refill our freezer, but it will be so nice to have more food on hand again — and I’m thrilled to have the freezer defrosted before our kitchen renovation this summer.

Dave did a ton more yard work in the afternoon… he’s making a pretty good dent in our 10-yard dumpster and I don’t think we’ll have any problem filling it by the end of the week!

Nora and I enjoyed the lovely weather and periodically came out to check Dave’s progress.

Did you notice my new hair cut? Dave and I both got hair cuts today!

Nora also helped me clean out our master bedroom closet… she doesn’t look too excited, but I know that deep down, she was thrilled to help me get more organized!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I know it might not look like a huge difference, but remember — Dave and I share this closet and we don’t keep clothes anywhere else but in this closet and our dresser… so we can’t get rid of everything! 

Dinner (purchased with coupons of course)… remember I’m not cooking this week

We love bath time! (someday I’ll do a tutorial on how to make these hooded towels)

And a yummy snack after nora went to bed… yes there are chocolate peanut butter brownies under all that ice-cream!

Of course, Dave HAD to stay up late for the basketball game… I was sleeping soundly by 10:00. Lots more planned for tomorrow

22 comments →