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I have about 30 emails.. those rules make me giggle.

My favorite tip for organizing is to quit buying stuff. When everything has a place, something must go if you buy something. I haven't mastered this, so I don't buy it unless we can eat it, use it, or just have to have it.. which breaks the rule every time. :P

My favorite organization tip is to use containers to keep stuff straight-sort of like the way the silverware organizer in your kitchen drawer works. I call it the "divide and conquer" method :) For example, in my makeup drawer I use all sorts of regular boxes cut down to size to keep the different stuff "in it's place"

best cleaning tip: vinegar and baking soda. pretty much everything (carpet cleaning, kid messes, bathrooms/kitchens) can be cleaned with it. a-mazing!

My family uses vinegar to clean everything. We clean windows, mirrors, and even bathtubs, sinks, and floors. The only thing we've found doesn't accept vinegar is... Marble. We pitted our whole floor and had to have it replaced.

All vinegars can work, but white vinegar is the best because of a lack of color, and less of an odor.

This is my mom's tip but I think it is totally brilliant.

To prolong the life of your kitchen sponge, run it through the dishwasher and then microwave it for 1-1.5 minutes on high. Not only will your sponge be clean (both visually and microbially) it will also no longer have that "used sponge" smell and thus can be used for a longer period of time.

Peel veggies like potatoes onto a Scott Towel. Then just toss the towel when you are done. There is no cleanup at all.

We try to put things away right when we're done with them. Even little things make it a pain to do real cleaning when you first have to just clean up the clutter.

We have a spot in our kitchen that has 3 separate bins. It's right above the mail drawer and when we bring the mail inside we sort it right away. The three bins are labeled menus/coupons, stamps/envelopes, and bills. We sort the mail and if it's flyers for restaurants or coupons for pizza/whatever we put it in the first bin. If it's one of those charity organizations that sends you free address labels we toss it in the 3rd bin and if it's a bill obviously it goes right in the last bin. Anything that's left can either be tossed out or put away in the mail drawer until we get to it. This helps us stay organized and saves us lots of time looking for things when we need them since we put it away right as we come in the door with the mail.

My biggest organizational tip is for storing toddler and baby clothes. We keep one of those plastic shoe organizers hanging on the back of the kid's door. Then we store one outfit (rolled, to prevent wrinkles!) in each spot. It works great, and we love having the big clunky dresser out of the play room!

My best cleaning tip is for working moms. Commit to tidying in the house for 10 minutes every morning before you go to work, and for 10 minutes as soon as you get home. This will keep your house from looking embarrassing until you have time on the weekend to do a more thorough cleaning!

The absolute best window andglass cleaner is vinegar, hands down!

My favorite tip:
Enlist little hands(and big hands) to help and don't expect perfection. It is going to be messy again!
It will all stay clean and non-messy when they all leave eventually.

My biggest organization challenge lately has been the pile of papers each kid brings home from school everyday. I work 12 hour shifts and don 't always have time to go through each one with a fine tooth comb.
I've devoted a corner of the dining room to all their school things. I have a small dresser with 2 baskets in the top drawer for each. I look through the papers quickly each day to see what needs immediate attention and put the rest in their basket. I come back to it when I have more time, within a couple of days.
I also have a small bulletin board for each kid that I can pin up reminders for special days.

As mom of 3 boys 5 and under, my cleaning goals are simply maintenance, not deep cleaning. My top priorities to keep this going: 1. Beds fixed and bedrooms tidied as soon as breakfast is over.
2. Clean the dishes after each meal.
3. Major toy pickup happens after kids are in bed (some of this is done by them before bed). That way I don't spend my entire day trying to pick up toys that keep getting pulled out, but we start fresh with each new day.
4. Disinfect countertops every evening.
5. Bathrooms get wiped down everday other day.
To sum up, I guess my biggest tip for those with many young children is make a priority list, do it and leave the rest for later in life. ;)

I'm in love with Borax 40 Mule Team. On stains I make a paste with the powder and water and apply to stain, it work wonders! Wet the fabric first, apply the paste and gently scrub with an old soft toothbrush., then wash as usual. Works fab on ring around the collar.

Make a point of going through your mail every day - at the very least, throw out/shred the junk each day. That way, you won't have a huge pile to sort through all at once.

We have a Family Notebook. It's a 3-ring binder that holds all school, medical, and household information. I refer to it several times a week. Now I don't have to wonder where I put the reading list or the medicine dosage chart. It's all in the notebook!

My vacuum would always emit this weird "warm dust" smell whenever I vacuumed the house; not only did it linger long after I was through vacuuming, but it even managed to overpower my candles at times! What's the point of cleaning if the end result doesn't even smell nice, right?
My solution? I took half of a paper towel, doused it in scented oil (mine is vanilla from The Body Shop... yum) and tucked it inside the vacuum cleaner right next to the filter. Now when I vacuum, the lovely scent of vanilla comes happily drifting out and diffuses itself as I go—and as a bonus, sticks around for awhile after I'm done, too!

My best organizational tip is to leave no drawer without an organizer tray in it. People often use them for their silverware drawer but for other drawers, they throw random thing in haphazardly creating the dreaded "junk drawer." Every drawer in my kitchen/office has an organizer to hold various things from decks of cards to thumbtacks to batteries. I find them a very inexpensive way to keep the clutter under control!

Don't throw away socks with small holes in them. Use them to dust. Just slip on your hand and dust away.
Add a cup of vinegar to your load of laundry to take away odors.

I love Scott products. Just had to say that right off.

My cleaning tip -- I use a small chamois type cloth in the shower (like the towels that the Olympic swimmers use to dry off) to dry off my shower walls. No scrubbing, no cleaners, very few, if any, spots. I use a nylon poof with a little shampoo on it to actually clean the shower, while I'm in it showering, when it does need cleaning. I use a magic eraser for the tub.

Keep a small spray bottle of vinegar and water in each bathroom, and spray the sink after brushing your teeth at night--that way the sink is always clean.

Also, keep cleaning supplies in a plastic tub under the sink--that way, you can pull out the tub when you need to get something, and it's easy to see (I was going to leave a comment, too, about how you don't actually need a lot of cleaning products, but people have already covered the joys of vinegar above).

I clean my lamp shades with a lint roller. Works great!

To clean pots/pans, put some water in them and boil the water. Makes it a lot easier to remove baked on food.

My favorite tip is: Hire a professional! ;-)

BTW...You do know that rule three could easily be exploited, right? A person can create an unlimited number of email accounts with their own domain.

I keep a container of inexpensive wet baby wipes at the back door to give a quick wipe to the dogs paws when they come inside. It's convenient and quick enough to do every time. The baby wipes don't dry out the skin on their paws and it prevents needing to clean muddy paw prints of floors and furniture. Why clean when you can avoid making the mess?

I always put away any drying dishes on the counter before turning in for the night. there's nothing like waking up to a perfect kitchen.

I try to clean as I cook then there is not a huge mess when i am done eating and too tired to clean!

Put together everyone's clothes together the night before - including shoes! :)

My organization tip is to plan what you're going to eat before you go to the grocery store. Create a calendar, and figure out which nights you're out, which nights you're in, which nights you may want to go out to eat, and then search websites like www.tastespotting.com, or www.foodgawker.com for recipes.. bookmark them in your browser, and assign each meal to a night. When you go to the grocery store, only buy what you need and you'll never have to throw away perfectly good food that just didn't have its due. It keeps your fridge cleaner too!

I make all of my house cleaners, better for the enviroment and they work so great without harsh smells. My biggest thing tho is cleaning my drains out once a month. I use 1/2 cup of baking soda with 1 cup of vinegar. Pour in drain and let it sit 15 mins. Follow it with really hot water and your done. Cleans out the drains and helps control that nasty stale water smell.

I keep a box of baby wipes on the back of the toilet for quick daily cleanup in the bathroom.

I clean up everything before I sit down to relax in the evening - then I can go to bed without having a dirty kitchen, etc, hanging over my head - and I don't have to stay up until midnight to get it done!

Do what I did... hire a friend to help. She needed some cash as she just left her husband and I needed to clean before the mother-in-law came home. Fortunately, I received some unexpected cash and was able to pay her. Win win all around!

My baby just "graduated" to stage 2 foods. The plastic containers are handy, but take up a lot of space in my pantry. And, I needed a quick way to get them ready to go to day care. My solution:

When I stock up on baby food, I bring it home and immediately remove all the cardboard wraps. The packages are still labeled on the side. I printed sheets of labels with my daughters first name, last initial. I label ALL of the containers and then swipe the label on the fruit-based foods with a highlighter. I stack them in my pantry in two rows: one for breakfast (fruit-based) and one for dinner (veggie-based). Then, when it's time to restock at daycare, it's easy to grab and go because they are already labelled! It's also easier for my DH to know which food is which without trying to read the tiny print on them. And if something gets returned to the pantry or moved around, it's easy to tell which foods are fruit-based and which are veggie-based. Works for me!

Easy-Off Fume Free Max Oven Cleaner. Yes, it's a dangerous chemical - but it's the best thing I know of to get that stubborn, baked on mess off of your glass bakeware. (You know, like when your lasagna bubbles onto the handles of the dish?)

My best tip is to clean one room at a time. Don't walk away until it's done and you'll never skip something you don't like to do. By the time you finish all the rooms in your house, it's time to start all over again! Thanks for the great contest!

We have one room where we are allowed to throw all the junk that we don't want to deal with right away. Every couple of months, we dig into it. That way the rest of the house is tidy and organized, and The ROOM absorbs the mess.

A great way to get rid of some junk mail that has a newspapery feel is to use it to line animal cages. I use it in the bottom of both the bird cage and under the shavings in the guinea pig cage. It makes cleaning both of those a breeze.

Also, making sure that the dishes are done before going to bed each night reduces the chance of insect invaders and lets to wake up to an empty sink.

Ase for organization...my house eats socks. So when I fold laundry and I have odd socks, they all go into a small plastic storage bin that sits under the guinea pig table. When I come down to those clean odd socks after all the others have been matched up, I whip out the container, see if I have mates and then add and take away. At least this way all my odds are in one place!

Fill an empty tissue box with plastic bags (ones from the grocery work fine) put the box full of bags under your car seat....then when you have to wait to pick up a child from school, or practice, or a train you can quickly clean out the inside of your car....God Bless, Pam, South Bend

It's sometimes hard to stay organized about getting laundry done when it's needed. Something that makes it easier is having separate bins/baskets for whites and colors. That way I know, just by looking at the laundry hamper, that my husband must be almost out of t-shirts because there are a lot of whites.

Keep a stain stick in the kid's room and treat clothes before they go in the hamper. Makes stain removal a little easier.

When my kids were babies, I seemed to lose their socks at a faster-than-normal rate. Being so small, they'd always end up inside other things! So, I left a lingerie cleaning bag by the changing table and would put all of the small (and easily lost) things in there.

I never lost another little sock again!

I have a shredder by the door where I bring in the mail. Anything that isn't a bill goes right in there. Recently, I got a side by side refrigerator/freezer. Amazing how little room there is in the freezer compartment. Couldn't find a thing. Measured the width and depth, bought three plastic bins. One for meat, one for veggies, one for misc. So much easier. Also, dryer sheets: one in each dresser drawer, makes clothes smell good, use to take the dust off TVs and computer screens,I keep a couple in my car, so when stopped at a light, I can clean off the dashboard, and the car smells good, also helps with cat hair pickup on furniture (anybody want a cat? Want two cats?) I am a lousy housekeeper, so thanks to everybody for the great tips.

I keep an Excel spreadsheet listing everything in my stand-up freezer. I keep the freezer packed full, and if I don't keep an inventory, I may waste money buying something I already have!

I've been a lurker for a while, but for a contest...I've gotta come out of lurkdom for a post!

I love using items for a use other than which it was intended. Especially for organizing things. If you creatively think outside of the box, you'll be amazed what you will find in your own home!

This is so great you are running this now. I just started a series on keeping our homes clean and organized!

My all time favorite tip is to reduce clutter and junk. It is much easier to keep things clean when you have less things.

Here is a link to the first article in my series in case anyone's interested.

http://farmhomelife.blogspot.com/2008/09/serious-h...

Take Care,

Trixie
farmhomelife@sbcglobal.net

I'm really into yummy smelling candles, but I'm also a borderline pyro, always playing with the wax, so the wax ends up on clothes and stuff. I put whatever it is in the freezer (big storage freezer fits big stuff) and in like 2 days tops it hardens and comes right off.

Because I can't help but share another: I rotate my 2 year olds endless supply of toys from 3-4 cycles. He thinks he has new toys every month and I don't have to wade through the sea of toys on the floor when I run in there from his loud nightmares, thus falling and banging my head. Good stuff for everyone involved.

My best advice is to do the dishes every night. A full sink in the morning is not fun to wake up to.

When I use the dryer (wintertime) I use the dryer sheets. When the laundry is done, I end up either re-using the sheet in a small load or using it as a duster for electronics (tv screens, cable box, sound system). So - recycling and cleaning in one swoop!