Welcome to all of you familiar cyber-friends as well as those of you who have made your way here by way of today’s Proverbs 31 online devotional. If you missed that post, you can hop over and read it here.

And…..speaking of hopping…..beginning today I am linking up with my friend Lysa TerKeurst, president of Proverbs 31, as we participate in a “Swap and Hop” on organizational ideas. Here is the game plan:

First, hop on over to Lysa’s site, where you will be given complete instructions for participating. The Reader’s Digest condensed version is that Lysa will show us one area of her home that is an organizational challenge. I will attempt to fix it for her below. (FYI–Her payment to this Michigan gal will be in free Chic Fil-A coupons and a Starbucks decaf, skinny, mocha-mint latte that I will consume at this summer’s She Speaks Conference in Charlotte, NC. Did I mention that part to you Lysa? Oops!)

Anyhow, after seeing Lysa’s problem area, you will get the chance to click on the handy-dandy Mr. Linky button and post your own area that needs help, complete with an uploaded picture for all cyber-friends to see! This will be a sistah-bonding time ladies. We ALL (me included!!!!!) have organizational ‘hot spots’ in our home that need attention. If someone has a home that is organized 100% of the time…..well, I get suspicious! Either:

A. They have no kids, no job, no hobbies, no charity work projects and unlimited time

B. They have kids whom they are ignoring

C. They are very rich and hire everything done

D. They are foreign spies living an assumed life, seeking to wow and impress we average American women so we will sit at their feet, drinking in their wisdom and, in the process, inadvertently spill our national security secrets

But I digress.

Now, if you don’t have the means (or are computer-challenged like me and don’t know how) to post a picture, still leave a comment describing for us your area of difficulty. We then will spend the weekend hopping and swapping ideas to help offer solutions to our cyber-sisters in the areas mentioned. In addition, we will choose a few gals to win a copy of my new book The Complete Guide to Getting and Staying Organized . Golly, I’ll even sign them so they will be worth a quarter more at your garage sale someday!

 

Now for dear Lysa’s recipe disaster: I had the same dilemma at my house about 6 years ago. I was tired of the cluttery mess that held all of the family-favorite recipes as well as the ones I’d clipped from magazines to try out “someday”. So, here was my solution. I purchased a 2-inch three-ring binder and some scrapbooking pages protectors. Some were full-page ones so I could put entire pages from magazines in them. Others were designed to hold photos. I bought some in both the 4 x 6 and 3 x 5 size to house my recipe cards. Then one Friday night, a friend and I worked from after supper til past mid-night while the kids ate pizza, played games and had a sleepover. We sorted, trimmed and ruthlessly weeded out our overflowing boxes, getting rid of recipes we never tried and probably wouldn’t, as well as ones our families really didn’t like. The ones that were yet to be tested and still looked promising, we kept along with those we used regularly. Then we placed them in our brand spankin’ new handy dandy binders by categories: breakfast foods, breads and muffins, soups and salads, main dishes, side dishes, deserts, birthday cake and party treat ideas, holiday foods, misc, etc… This solved our dilemma in a few ways.

• The recipes were now in logical order and easy to locate.
• They were protected so splatters wouldn’t ruin them as the binder lay open on the counter and, best of all…
  
• No more dumped recipe box disasters!!!

Now, my only dilemma today is as I said, I am so computer challenged that I cannot get the picture I took of it to upload on my computer and my kids, who could assist me, are all still sleeping!! (I’ll try later)

By the way, this weekend, while you are getting revved up to tackle the areas of your homes that need tidying up, give attention to your heart and soul as well. Couldn’t we all use a little spiritual sprucing up too? So, please spend time with the Lord first. Hit your knees and open your Bible before you hit the computer. Pinky-swear sister promise?

Good.

Although I love to help women learn to better manage their time and organize their stuff, I know that God is much more concerned with the condition of our hearts than the condition of our homes.

Spring cleaning blessings—the home and heart kind,

Karen