iMommies

No need to purchase expensive tools, or organize in your garage!  Next time, rent what you need from your local tool lending library (and borrow a how-to book while you’re there)!

Read more »

So here we are at our first “Freebie List”.  Rather than devote an entire post to one seemingly insignificant item, I’ll try to regularly post a list of related freebies.  To start off this new category of organized freebie lists, today’s list includes a variety of planners and tools for getting organized.

Free Planner and Folders

Free Mini Weekly Planner

Free Family Records Organizer CD

Free Book - 100 Ideas for Better Organization

Receive free portable USB storage from USBforFree.com.  The free products are given out to increase brand recognition from their advertisers.  If you don’t mind a small advertisement printed on the drive, sign up.   

USBs are great organizational tools, allowing users to maintain back-ups of important files for access from any computer. 

Home Depot is my favorite home improvement store - I love their selection, prices, helpful staff, and overall welcoming atmosphere.  For some reason, Home Depot is one of those stores where you just feel like the employees are glad you’re there…is that just our local Home Depot store, or are they all like that?

At any rate, I’m anxious to see what fabulous new ideas they have for closet organization, and on Monday, August 6 from 7pm to 8pm, they’re hosting a free Do-It-Herself workshop that focuses solely on that (and giving a 10% storewide discount to everyone who attends)! 

Click here to register

(Very savvy how the clothes ALL coordinate with the wall color!)

As my own little side note, you don’t have to purchase all of their showcased products to organize your closets, but you can use their ideas as a starting point.  I could probably organize that long closet under the stairs with materials that we already have in the garage, but I need a little DIRECTION!  And for the materials not on-hand…of course, I’ll visit Home Depot!   

ArkALMIGHTY offers a free website for each church to coordinate services within their congregation.  Members can post a need for assistance, and other members can view and volunteer in areas they choose.  If you don’t already have an online volunteer scheduling service in your church, you might start out with ArkALMIGHTY.  In addition to helping out members, it promotes congregational support, and allows members to develop relationships with others that they might not have known about otherwise.   

If you have a need outside of your church, within your circle of family and friends, Lotsa Helping Hands is a really helpful site for coordinating volunteer services.

Jeff Now, a division of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, has a PC program that allows you to schedule reminders, record doctor visits, and organize all of your immunization records.  For a free copy of the Personal Health Manager program, call 1-800-JEFF-NOW, or click the number below to order online.

KeepYouSafe.com is an online safe deposit system that allows members to securely store electronic data.  If you’re away from your computer, that data can be accessed from any computer with internet access, using your unique user ID and password.  You can store up to 10 items for no fee, and many more files for only $4 per month.  Suggested files are: images of your wallet contents, insurance policies and home inventory details, pictures and family records, and passwords.

With so many free online photo hosting sites, I would store images and photos elsewhere, and utilize KeepYouSafe for credit cards, passwords, and other important files.  By prioritizing, you should be able to fit most of your important documents in the smaller-sized, free “deposit box”.

Colgate has an online program that encourages kids to read and brush their teeth every night before bedtime.  Kids earn points for each item they complete from the personalized chart, and those points reward them with access to fun games and activities.

All kids are different, but this is perfect for my 6-year old, as he’s incredibly motivated by rewards of free online games (and rewards of anything, really).  Honestly, there are online charts EVERYWHERE, and your household would become overwhelmed if you attempted to use even 10% of them.  I’ll leave it to you to determine which are best for you and your family, but will highlight a few of the good ones now and then.

I mentioned we had a garage sale Saturday, but we tried something new for the leftovers.  We donate to CCA (local Christians in Community Action organization) several times a year, and write off the itemized donations when filing our tax return.  Our local donation center does not itemize our donations for us - instead they give us a small receipt with some basic categories of items checked off.  This can be a huge headache during tax season to try and remember what was donated (and frankly, it scares me to not have the exact list).

Saturday afternoon, I sat down with a notebook and wrote down each item that was being taken to the donation center.  It was all laid out in front of me from the garage sale, so was easy to do.

When we dropped off our donation, we had the center sign our list and then stapled that list to the receipt they gave us, and filed both away in our Tax Prep folder.  Next year, when we need to itemize this year’s donations (using It’s Deductible software), we’ll just refer to the already organized paperwork.

The Freecycle Network™ is made up of many individual groups across the globe. It’s a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff free in their own towns. Each local group is moderated by a local volunteer and membership is free.