Clean out your email inbox

Do you ever feel that your inbox is out of control? How many times have you opened, reviewed, and closed the same e-mail message over and over? Some of those messages are getting lots of attention, but very little action. Depending on how full your inbox is, you may need to set aside a couple hours to tackle this project.

Here are a few tips:
1. Any forwards that you're saving, get rid of 'em. Chances are, they'll come around again anyway.
2. Waiting for the perfect moment to reply to a friend or family member's email, now's the time.
3. Create folders and organize them with subfolders if necessary. For example, online order confirmations, e-statements, e-bills, etc. At least once a year, go into the folders and purge the expired items.

Good luck!

Cleaning cards

I've been wanting to create a set of cleaning cards for a while now. I was first inspired by a starter list that I found on Real Simple's website. I created several cards for each room, based on either weekly, biweekly, monthly, seasonal or annual tasks. They're all filed neatly in a small recipe box stored in the laundry room. The bullets on the cards range from cleaning the toilets weekly to cleaning out the refrigerator every season. Call me anal or tell me I have too much time on my hands, but I love my new system! I'm still working on convincing my husband of how great it is though. :)