Does there ever become a time in our lives when we can finally say, “I have all the room I need.”?

I don’t believe that will ever be a phrase that comes out of my mouth.

Our house has no entry hall, no coat closet and no mudroom.

When you walk through the carport door, you enter right into the family room.  When you enter the front door of the house, you walk smack dab into the dining room.  There is no room for a coat hanger much else anything else.

We do have a back door but it connects to our bedroom.  The plan was we wanted to build a patio outside that door for family time and bbq’s, but here we are 12 years later and no patio.  I guess that’s just part of the game of life.

The back door has not been used more than a dozen times over the past 12 years until recently.

Earlier this year we decided to add rabbits, chickens and turkeys to our little homestead.  The best place to make the pens for the animals was in the back of the house which is closet to my backdoor.  Which means that now the backdoor is used a dozen times a day.

I really don’t have a problem with us using the back door to take care of the animals except that in a matter of days my clean little entry area to my bedroom become over crowded with chicken poop covered muck boots, jackets, and everything in between.

I decided something had to be done after I tripped over a pair of boots for the hundreth time.  It was either get that entry way organized or break my leg.

After I went over my options I thought, “Why not make a mudroom?”.  It was the perfect solution to get my entryway organized.

Of course my husband had other opinions.  He thought the area was too small, it would become more junked up and we would live with clutter in the doorway of our bedroom, but just like always, I knew better (:

So I set my plan in motion and made it happen!

I decided to buy a cube seat so not only would we have storage but we would have a place to sit down to but on our boots.

I added a couple chicken wire baskets to hold loose items such as flashlights, gloves and egg baskets.  Next I found 2 old pieces of barn wood, added metal hooks to them and hung them on the wall.  The last touch was adding a rug to wipe our boots on as we come in the door.

I think my makeshift mudroom came together very nicely.

Utilizing every square inch in your home is the perfect solution for finding extra space.

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Do you feel like your laundry is eating you alive?

I understand your pain, completely!

I get so envious of my pastor and his wife, for having an amazing lady from our church who comes once a week to keep their laundry under control.  Now don’t get me wrong, I think its amazing for them since they are so busy at the church day after day, but golly wally, sometimes I wish I had a laundry fairy myself!

I don’t mind the sorting, I don’t even mind the washing, but it’s the drying, folding and putting away I hate! Yuck!

And I was so tired of having a pile of clothes ready to be folded and put away in my living room every night.  Our living room is our relax zone.  The place we all hang out together in, watching movies or t.v. and playing games.  Not to be looking at the mountain of clothes staring me down!

That is why I come up with my laundry system and I wanted to share with you to help with Staying on Top of that Pile.

It’s super simple and I hope you can adopt at least the concept of the system to help your homestead run more smoothly with this day by day schedule of washing to keep a handle on your laundry.

I know, I know, not all families have the same clothes to wash.  But that’s what is so perfect about this system, you can adjust to meet your families needs.   Now there will be no rushing to catch up on laundry at the end of the week.  You can wash, dry, fold/hang all in the same day for “Staying on Top of that Pile”.

Doesn’t washing 1-2 loads a day seem less daunting than 7-8 on a Saturday?  It does to me for sure.  Who wants to be stuck inside all Saturday washing, drying, folding and hanging laundry!

Do you have a laundry system or schedule?  If so I would love to hear about it.

And if you missed my Homemade Laundry Soap Tutorial, you can catch it here.

*Did you enjoy this post?  If so please share on Facebook and/or Twitter!

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We all want our homesteads to be more organized, but what normally happens for me is I start thinking about the areas that I need to organize and I become overwhelmed and not very motivated to do any at all.

Since I am making a commitment to myself and my family this year, (you can read it here), I wanted a way to make sure I become more organized around the homestead, maybe not so much to have organization, but to make sure I have less stress and have everything done in a timely manner so I’m not rushing at the last minute.

And in reality, if we have a checklist of a project each week to complete, then we will feel more accomplished and willing to tackle the next one.

What I love about my “Homestead Organizing: 52 Weeks of Organization in 2015” checklist, is that I listed items that my whole family can tackle.

I might take weeks 1-7 and my hubby might tackle 13-15 but I know even my kiddos can tackle 24-25 and 30-36 without any problems.

That really takes pressure off of just me and gives everyone a responsibility around the homestead.

I hope you will take the time to download and print.

Happy Homesteading!

Homestead Organizing 52 Weeks of Organization in 2015 Printable

The post Homestead Organizing: 52 Weeks of Organization in 2015 appeared first on GraceandGravy with a side of life!.

This post is sponsored by Godly Glimpses.  All opinions are 100% my own.  You can read more of my Disclosure Policy here.

One more holiday season has come and gone.  I’m not for sure if that makes me happy or sad!  I think it’s more of a bittersweet feeling.  I love the reason of the season, but I dislike the commercial aspect and the busyness that comes along with it.  Somewhere along the way I find myself asking, “How many Ugly Christmas Sweater Parties am I going to be invited to?”, and “How many Dirty Santa Gift Exchange am I going to play?”.   But just like every other human being, I too find myself caught up in buying and non-stop going from one holiday event to the next.

I always make a goal for the New Year to slow down, stress less and budget our finances better than the previous year.  I do really well on the slowing down part, well at least for the first part of the year, but no matter how hard I try, I can’t seem to get our family budget managed.  I really would like my hubby to be involved and help, but he can’t seem to follow all my nonsense I have scribbled everywhere, or when I say, wait to pay _______, because I forgot about so and so’s birthday that I need to purchase a gift for and then it throws our budget all off, I start stressing, he starts stressing and we are back to following no budget at all.

So when I was contacted by Jennifer from Godly Glimpses to try out her new “Family Budget Planner“, that she created, I was so excited! I was impressed how well it was laid out and broken down, that I knew even my hubby could follow it.

What is “Our Family Budget Planner” from Godly Glimpses, you ask?

Well I am so glad you did.

“Our Family Budget Planner”, is a downloadable yearly planner to organize not just your budget but your life.

Jennifer states that the “Our Family Budget Planner”, is a colorful, easy to use, planner with 40 pages to help you get organized!  It is undated, which means you will never have to purchase another planner. You can use it from year to year!”

Some of the pages you will find in this planner include:
Full color cover sheet and divider pages for each section (with an optional cover page)
Spine labels for a 3 ring binder
Bill Payment Checklist and Schedule
Printable monthly calendar pages (you can use this however you wish, but I like to use them to write in when each bill is due each month or for birthday reminders, etc)
Monthly Pages that will hold your bills for each month (just slide in a page protector and insert your bills in the month they are due)
Gifts to buy
Giving Plan
Important Documents (tax information and important receipts)
……and more!

There will be no more forgetting about the birthday gift to budget for, or that bill coming up in a few months, or even usernames and passwords. Yes, there is a section for those as well!

Geez, sometimes I think if my hubby ask for the password to one of our online accounts, just one more time, I will need to pray for a lot of extra patience!

I also love all the categories so you can truly divide your budget accordingly.

Such as Bill Schedule and Calendars.  I think this is one of our biggest issues.  I know when bills are due and should be paid, but my hubby don’t have the foggest (That’s Arkansas slang by the way) clue.  And if if I have to constantly remind him every month, I might as well just pay them myself, which is what usually happens!

And I love the calenders that are included so we can schedule bills for several months in advance and write in paydays.

But  I would have to say that the Budget at a Glance is my favorite.  Just this month I accidently scheduled to large bills for the same week because I didn’t have a planner system.  I believe that this Budget Planner will help that mistake not to happen again.

And come on ladies and busy moms, we all know where those receipts end up, either at the bottom of our purse or diaper bag!  Know you have a place just for them.

You can click here to purchase your own Family Budget Planner for $3.99.

Order by January 31st and use coupon code: $2OFFG&G for $2.00 which makes your total of $1.99!!!!!

What a great way to start the New Year Right!

And you can visit Jennifer here to learn more about her other great planners!

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