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©Harrison Keely

The college planning process has many moving parts and being disorganized can lead to undue stress, at an already stressful time. Planning ahead and staying organized are key to making the college planning process manageable for your family.  Start planning early (sophomore year of high school) and use these five tips to keep you and your student organized and successful in the college planning process:

1. Keep a file or folder for each college you’re considering. Put everything in that folder including any mail that you receive, notes about phone conversations with admission officers, copies of your applications, and anything else pertaining to that college. One of the ways some colleges will evaluate a student for admission is their “demonstrated interest.” You want to make sure you show a college you’re interested in them by engaging: request information, call or email admissions, go on a campus tour. Track these activities so you know how much you’ve shown a college that you like them!
2. Keep a resume/log of activities. In fall of senior year when you have to fill out an activities list on your college applications, you’ll be glad you did! Do you remember what groups you were involved in freshman year? Or how many hours you volunteered? Moms are usually really good at remembering these details, but it’s better to be safe and have a log of what you’ve done. Make sure to include any awards, academic achievements, volunteer hours, athletic participation, summer programs, and anything else that may be relevant. It’s better to have too much information than not enough!
3. Develop your “key college criteria.” Your criteria will become your roadmap for the college search. Do you want to be within a four hour drive from home? Do you want a college that guarantees internship opportunities? How important is the cafeteria food?  It’s important to prioritize your wants, needs and desires. Once you establish six or seven “key college criteria” refer to the next tip!
4. Create a spreadsheet of colleges you’re considering. Create a row for each college and a column for each “key college criteria.” In each box, indicate how well the college meets the criteria. This will give you a great visual to see how well the colleges on your list are meeting your criteria. If you have a college on your list that only satisfies one criteria, you may want to consider taking it off the list!
5. Keep a campus tour log. Have your student write down their reactions to campus visits right away. When you go on multiple campus tours they begin to blend together in your brain! Have your student write down what they liked, what they didn’t like, how they felt about the students and the professors, and on a scale of 1-10 how excited they are about the college.

Brooke Daly is a College Planning Consultant and the founder of Advantage College Planning in Raleigh, NC. She assists parents and students through all aspects of the college planning process including college selection, admissions and financial aid. She is on the board of directors of the National College Advocacy Group, a Community Representative for the Higher Education Consultants Association, and an Associate Member of the Independent Educational Consultants Association.

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These are a few of my favorite things….

Luckily, you won’t have to hear me sing; you would run to the mountains of Austria if you did!

I am very passionate about repurposing items to help get people organized!  It saves you money, is better for the planet, works those creative gray cells, and children love it!  Talk about a win win win win situation!  And most of the items you probably already have in your home so you can save time as well.

A WINE CASE can be repurposed to store your holiday ornaments.  If they keep bottles of wine safe, your ornaments will be too.  Many wine stores will give you cases for free and you can color coordinate your boxes. They are also easy to organize because the boxes are uniform. You also get to enjoy a case of wine!

Julie Seibert copyright 2011

A TISSUE BOX can be repurposed to hold all of your plastic bags. Now, I know we all have our reusable bags that we keep in our car, but we occasionally will get that stray paper bag (make sure you reuse or take it somewhere like Harris Teeter where it will be recycled).  Here’s a low cost way to keep them all organized and not all over the house.

A TWO TIERED COOKIE STAND can be used to create a GET OUT THE DOOR QUICKLY area to hold cell phones, keys, sunglasses, etc.  What I like about using the two tiers is friends have a place to set their keys when they come to visit and can put them on a separate plate.

A DUST PAN is a Lego/small toy scooper-upper! Get your children involved. Kids love to use this to get organized and get cleaned up!  The more fun you make organizing, the more likely the kids will want to participate.

Ever purchase bedding?  Shower curtains?  Pillow cases?  Those PLASTIC CONTAINERS are great to repurpose and get organized.  Use a pillow case size to store extra cell phone, computer cords, etc.  Use a bedding size container to keep a spare set of clothes in the car for emergencies.

Use a BUSINESS CARD HOLDER to store your stevia (or other sweetener you use) so you always have what you need to add to your drink or food when in a restaurant.

There are so many ways to be creative.  What are YOUR FAVORITE items to repurpose?

Julie Seibert is a Professional EcoOrganizer and the owner of Healing through Organization.  She is the 2011 NAPO LA Green Award Winner for Most Eco-Friendly Organizing Service and the 2011 Triangle Business Journal’s Honorable Award Winner for Green Entrepreneurial Effort/Innovative Idea of the Year.  Because she believes that de-cluttering and getting organized is a holistic endeavor, she encourages clients to examine what is happening in all areas of their lives and how it influences their current situation.  Because she so passionately believes in this, she created the weekly online/radio show Reawaken Your Brilliance which features body, mind & spirit experts to help people reach their full potential.

I’ve invited Dan to visit my blog today and to share some information with us about how he works.

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GT: Share with us how your studio is organized.

DD: My studio is terribly unorganized. I’m always looking for things.

GT: Please tell us about your work environment – are you in a basement, attic, spare room?

DD: I work out of my finished basement. My wife could never deal with my mess upstairs!

GT: I’m sure my readers would also like to learn about your work as a caricature artist. Can you describe how people want you to correct or highlight what Mother Nature gave them – is that difficult?

DD: It is definitely a learning curve through constant improvement. Some artists never change, I’m always looking to improve my work.

GT: How do you decide on background colors, objects and body positioning?

DD: First, I visualize what the layout is going to look like, then I start sketching away. I may run nto the task of gong on the internet to find an object or position that I may have no idea what it may look like.

GT: Do you always start with the same feature? In other words, do you always draw from the top down? Starting with the forehead and working down to the eyes, nose, mouth?

DD: I usually start out by drawing the head shape, then I switch around drawing the facial features.

GT: How do you know when to stop? When are you finished?

DD: When I’m drawing at a live event, I generally just draw head and shoulders in black and white. Studio work is different; sometimes it’s hard to stop.

GT: Do you advise people on how to achieve a specific look? 

DD: Not really. I generally have to ask them to smile several times due to the fact smiling affects all the features of the face. I also will either draw a straight on view or a ¾ view, depending if I want to exaggerate the nose.

GT: What is your background?

DD: I have a two-year degree in commercial art, but I was self-taught drawing caricatures and cartoons. I studied MAD Magazine a lot!

GT: What are your favorite illustrators/artists/museums?

DD: There is a long list of artists from the past and present I admire. The ones that really stick out are MAD artists Jack Davis and Mort Drucker. I’ve also admired the works of Norman Rockwell.

GT: What kind of phone do you use?

DD: My phone is just a simple cell phone, nothing fancy.

GT: Do you save or collect anything?

DD: I have a lot of old projects stuffed in file drawers. Most of my work nowadays is saved on my computer and USB sticks.

GT: How can readers learn more about you and your business?

DD: You can visit my website, connect with me on LinkedIn, or follow me on Twitter.

© SoftEdMan

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It was only a few years ago that people started using Twitter at conferences to connect with each other, share what they were learning and give feedback to conference organizers.

At the Meeting Professionals International (MPI) World Education Congress (WEC) in July 2009, we were asked for our Twitter name on the registration form for the event. I had been reluctant to join Twitter up until that point. When I saw that on the registration form, I didn’t want to miss out on any of the education at the event, so I signed up for Twitter, then signed up for WEC. They did a great job of providing one-on-one training in an area of the conference where you could go at any time. I started to get the hang of it and am very glad that I was given a good foundation on how to use Twitter to network and learn about topics important to my professional development. If your audience is multi-generational, you might want to consider providing this type of education to your attendees so your Gen Xers and Baby Boomers don’t get left behind.

On Twitter, I have connected to and become better acquainted with many people who live in different parts of the world. I found a few Twitter mentors whom I could emulate, and quickly found people who were tweeting interesting and educational things. In the beginning, I mostly re-tweeted things I liked sent out by people I was following. Then, I learned how to use a hashtag to see tweets from other event professionals (i.e. #eventprofs or #mpi). Most of them have their blog, Web Site or LinkedIn profile listed on their Twitter profile so you can click over to it to learn more about them. You can follow big brands and celebrities, but they won’t follow you back and you will quickly lose interest. If you follow real people who are tweeting good content and engaging with others on Twitter, you will have a much better experience. If you want more people to follow you, make sure you say something interesting in the bio section of your Twitter profile.

By the time WEC 2010 came around, I had a year of Twitter under my belt. I had been using it on my laptop and smart phone at smaller conferences and other meetings. It takes some practice, but you can get the hang of taking a learning “nugget” from a speaker and quickly turning it into 140 characters. By doing this, you are sharing what you are learning with the people who are following you. At larger conferences, someone will inevitably organize a tweet-up and everyone that has been tweeting from the conference will then meet in person. This is an excellent way to extend your professional network.

In addition to sharing content presented by the speakers, Twitter is a conference evaluation tool. The attendees will comment on the food, technical difficulties, maybe even the temperature in the room. If you as a conference organizer are monitoring the Twitter feed (i.e. #wec10), there may be issues which you can remedy immediately. Otherwise, you may not get this feedback until after the conference. The feedback you get from your evaluation forms is directly related to the questions you ask, whereas Twitter feedback is exactly what your attendees are thinking, while they are thinking it – whether good or bad! Your audience will increasingly expect you to be paying attention to what they are tweeting.

Elizabeth’s experience includes hotel catering, sales and operations as well as meeting planning and marketing for non-profit organizations. Elizabeth earned the Certified Hospitality Sales Professional (CHSP) designation in 2003 and the Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) designation in 2006. A member of the Ohio, San Diego, and Southern California chapters of Meeting Professionals International, Elizabeth has served on a variety of committees and been a member of many other industry organizations. An early adopter of social media applications, Elizabeth launched Building Blocks Social Media www.SocialMediaForPlanners.com with the goal of bridging the gap for meeting planners. She helps conference organizers with a thorough understanding of how attendees are accustomed to networking and how they can increase engagement through online social networks.

© Media Bakery / Deklofenak

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Certifications are quickly becoming popular ways to make a career change without a four-year degree in a new field. Degrees in hospitality and meetings management are more prevalent than they were in the past, however, perception remains that careers in these fields do not require bachelor or graduate degrees. Our industry is currently waging a battle against the public opinion that meetings are frivolous spending and do not result in positive return on investment (ROI) for the businesses hosting them or attending them. A professional certification showing the complexity of knowledge mastered helps in proving the business value of meetings.

Instead of being sponsored by one particular association within the meetings industry, the CMP program is sponsored by an organization that all of the associations collaborate with on projects that standardize the meetings industry. The Convention Industry Council began the CMP program in 1985 and reports there are over 14,000 individuals in 36 countries who have earned the designation. You can learn more about the program on their website.

There are many different certifications within the meetings industry; however, the CMP is the most widely recognized. The requirements to take the exam include 36 months of full-time employment in the meetings industry and 25 clock hours of industry-related continuing education. It is a formalized process and I suggest looking into it in the first year or two that you are employed in the industry, because it takes time to collect the documents required to apply to take the exam.

Once you are accepted to take the exam, you will not be able to rely on your working knowledge to pass it. The knowledge base areas on the exam include: strategic planning, project management, risk management, financial management, human resources, stakeholder management, meeting design, site management, marketing, and professionalism. Many people in the industry have not had the fortune to gain experience in all areas of the industry and studying for the exam helps explore those areas where one needs more experience. The exam is only offered twice a year in designated locations so again, advanced planning is recommended.

It is not advisable to take the exam without studying the required reading materials because the focus is on industry standards, which may be different from how you might respond to a particular scenario. Many industry organizations host study groups – some in person and some online that are facilitated by other CMPs. You may find it helpful to join a group or find a study buddy. For adults that haven’t taken an exam in a long time, the process of studying and preparing takes some effort.

It would be difficult to gain this certification without any meeting industry position, however, many people find themselves in a situation where meeting planning is part of their responsibility and they would like to transition into a position where meeting planning is their full-time career. Earning the CMP designation is a good way to make that transition.

Elizabeth’s experience includes hotel catering, sales and operations as well as meeting planning and marketing for non-profit organizations. Elizabeth earned the Certified Hospitality Sales Professional (CHSP) designation in 2003 and the Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) designation in 2006. A member of the Ohio, San Diego, and Southern California chapters of Meeting Professionals International, Elizabeth has served on a variety of committees and been a member of many other industry organizations. An early adopter of social media applications, Elizabeth launched Building Blocks Social Media www.SocialMediaForPlanners.com with the goal of bridging the gap for meeting planners. She helps conference organizers with a thorough understanding of how attendees are accustomed to networking and how they can increase engagement through online social networks.

To help you get the most out of your investment, I’ve invited Certified Meeting Professional Elizabeth Glau to share a few tips.

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If you are fortunate enough to have the resources to attend professional development conferences, I hope you are spending time before the event to plan out the time you will spend there. You are already busy with day-to-day activities, you have to prepare to be out of the office and then you pile on thinking about how much you will be behind when you get back to the office. It‘s no wonder you don’t want to put any thought or effort into what you will do or who you will meet at the conference! Have you ever had to calculate the return on investment (ROI) for attending such an event? If you had, then you might be forced to put a bit more effort into making sure you get something out of it, instead of returning home wishing you had done things differently.

Look, in detail, at the sessions being offered. Can you identify a specific learning objective that will help you increase revenue or reduce cost? Motivational speakers are great for keeping us energized, but you need to be able to take home actionable items that you will put into place. Write down your objectives and take them with you. Make sure you spend a few minutes at the end of each day to review your notes and make yourself a to-do list for when you return to the office.

Ask for an attendee list. Are there suppliers you could connect with that will be able to help you in the future? Are there other businesses with whom you could collaborate on a project? Are there competitors you could form relationships with and be able to refer business if necessary? Clearly, if there are potential clients at a conference, you not only want to attend, but you should also ask about sponsorship opportunities and analyze the ROI you would get from that kind of increased exposure.

You will meet a large number of people if you are proactive in introducing yourself. Make notes on their business cards about which of the above categories they fall into and what type of follow-up is required. Regardless of what type of future relationship they might have, immediately invite them to connect with you on LinkedIn. You never know how someone might be able to help you someday.

The tech savvy conference organizer is going to offer you a variety of tools to help you accomplish these goals. Mobile conference navigation guides (mobile apps), for example, will make sure that if a room number changes or a speaker cancels that you have the up-to-the minute information on what is happening. They may also have established a public or private social networking platform. Using profiles and keywords, you can search for the attendees you would like to meet before you arrive and schedule meetings with them around the educational sessions you want to attend. Many conferences these days will have informal meetups and hospitality events in the evenings. Make sure that whichever tool you use has the capability to keep all of your appointments in one place.

Analyze the ROI, spend time preparing before the event and stay organized during the conference to make sure you are making the most of the resources you are spending to be there. If you are a conference organizer and need recommendations on the technologies I mentioned here, shoot me an e-mail at eglau@BasicSocialMediaTraining.com.

Elizabeth’s experience includes hotel catering, sales and operations as well as meeting planning and marketing for non-profit organizations. Elizabeth earned the Certified Hospitality Sales Professional (CHSP) designation in 2003 and the Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) designation in 2006. A member of the Ohio, San Diego, and Southern California chapters of Meeting Professionals International, Elizabeth has served on a variety of committees and been a member of many other industry organizations. An early adopter of social media applications, Elizabeth launched Building Blocks Social Media www.SocialMediaForPlanners.com with the goal of bridging the gap for meeting planners. She helps conference organizers with a thorough understanding of how attendees are accustomed to networking and how they can increase engagement through online social networks.

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Everyone wants the best for their children, and as a new parent, your protective instincts will likely kick in well before you meet your new baby. That means getting your home up to snuff for when your little person starts living in what used to be an adult only environment.

There’s a lot to consider like when to baby proof and what exactly you should do. Here are a few tips to get you started.

© Media Bakery / Mysmasken

When to Baby Proof

•  Before Baby Comes Home

There’s a great advantage to baby proofing your home before your new little one comes home. First, you get to cross it off your list of many to-do’s. When a new baby comes home, you’re going to be busy and sleep-deprived, so why not get it done when you still have your wits about you?

One thing you must do before baby gets home is ensure that the crib is securely put together. A safe and secure sleeping environment is essential. And, while those bumpers are super cute, they can be a hazard (i.e., cause suffocation), so resist the temptation to use them.

• After Baby Comes Home

There’s nothing wrong with getting ready after your baby comes home. You’ll have a good sense of what your schedule is like and you can plan to attack priority areas. You might also have family members and friends who are willing to help out with these tasks.

Top Five Baby Proofing Tips

Once it’s time to baby proof, here are five things to consider:

1. Get outlet covers for each room in your home.
2. Use magnetic locks for lower cabinets and drawers.
3. Remove unsafe plants.
4. Install locks on your toilets, refrigerator, stove, and front-loading washer/dryer.  Add door knob covers, too.
5. Keep medications high out of reach. Go one step further by putting them in a locked box.

*Bonus Tip*

Secure all furniture to the wall when possible. When your toddler starts pulling himself up, you want to make sure the furniture doesn’t topple over. Add padding to sharp edges as well.

Deb Lee, a Certified Professional Organizer® and the founder of D. Allison Lee LLC, was recently named the Professional Organizer of the Year by the National Association of Professional Organizers, Washington D.C. Metro chapter. Visit her blog, Organize to Revitalize, for organizing and time management tips.

1. Don’t be afraid to hit the “delete” button. Most of us grew up in the days of actual 35mm film cameras, where a roll of film was a precious thing and not to be wasted. As a result, we’re reluctant to delete photos from our cameras or hard drives, or to toss overexposed or blurry – or just plain unflattering! – prints. It’s time to get comfortable deleting these excess photos. A good rule of thumb is to delete at least a quarter of the photos you take right from your camera.
2. Figure out your goal. Do you want photos to enjoy now, or for posterity? Do you want to capture everyday life or just special occasions?  How do you imagine using and accessing these photos in the future? All these answers will drive what you photograph, how many photos you take, and how you will want to organize them.
3. Have a process. Schedule a regular time to download your photos from your camera to your computer – once a week is great if you’re a constant photo-taker; once a month is fine if you’re less of a shutterbug.
4. Back them up! Just as it’s critical to back up all the data on your hard drive, you also want to make it a habit to back up your photos. Uploading them to a photo developing site is sufficient, if the site will store them indefinitely for you (some delete unviewed photos after a few months).
5. Create a filing process that works. Many people become paralyzed with the digital photo filing process because they aim for perfection rather than a usable system. Sure, it would be wonderful to label each image with a descriptive title, but I’ve found that’s rarely necessary. Instead, I create a file folder for each month of the year and copy my pictures directly to that folder. Then at the end of the year, I have a folder that includes each month. I typically can remember within a month or two when an event took place, so it’s easy to locate the photos I want.

6. If you have more time, use tags. Want a more extensive      organizational system? Then use a photo management software program like iPhoto (comes installed on Macs), Picasa (a free web-based program), or Photoshop Elements (a purchased program, but very robust). You can add tags for people, events, or anything else you’d like.
7. Don’t forget to print! Online photo processors like Shutterfly.com, Kodak.com, and Ofoto.com make it easy to print photos, create photo books and gift items, and more. Printing photos allows you to truly interact with them and enjoy them. And at only a few pennies a print, you can make copies for friends and family.
8. Store them safely. When your prints come, sort through and toss the yucky ones. Hand off the duplicates to friends, and then take the best and put them away in a photo album (NOT the magnetic kind – they’ll damage your photos!). The easiest way is to dedicate a single photo album to a single year.
9. Use creative ways to display your favorites. Photo canvases, digital frames, photo collages, screensavers, scrapbooks, photo books and gift items are all fun ways to put your favorite photos on display. Think beyond the photo album!

The thing to remember is that photos are a tool. They are not your memories, they are not your master, and they are not real life. Don’t become so obsessed with organizing, labeling, and sorting your photos that you forget to live!

12 Photo-Sharing Sites and Apps:

• Facebook.com. A free way to share photos with friends and family.
• Flickr.com. Another free photo- and video-sharing website.
• Shutterfly.com. The leader in online photo processing. You can create a blog-like “share” site and allow others to upload their own photos.
• Photoshop Elements. The program of choice for scrapbookers to edit photos – take out red eyes, eliminate old boyfriends, correct over- or under-exposure, etc.
• Picasa.com. A free online photo editing and storage tool.
• Instagram. A great free iPhone app to take photos and add filters for different looks.
• Hipstamatic. A paid iPhone app that also allows different “lenses” for different effects.
• Photoshop Express. A Free iPhone app for simple image editing.
• Diptic. A paid iPhone app that allows you to splice together two or three images in a single collage.
• BigHugeLabs.com. A fun online site that enables the creation of photo mosaics and other photographic creations.
• Twitpic.com. Post videos and photos to your Twitter stream with this free share site.
• GIMP.org. A free image manipulation (in English, that’s photo editing) software.

About the author: Lain Ehmann is the author of several books on family memory-keeping and scrapbooking. Through her online videos, classes, and blog, she inspires others to create – and keep – their memories.

Learn more at http://www.layoutaday.com.

Action/Adventure

The African Queen

Agnes of God

James Bond Films (with Daniel Craig)

Kill Bill (all volumes)

The Last of the Mohicans (Daniel Day-Lewis)

Spy Game

Action Comedy

Bad Santa

Big Trouble in Little China

Little Miss Sunshine

Camp

Female Trouble

Jeffrey

Repo! The Genetic Opera

Comedy

Adventures of Priscilla

Airplane!

Auntie Mame

Blazing Saddles

Dazed & Confused

Death at a Funeral (British version)

Dinner for One

Friday

Ghostbusters

I Heart Huckabees

L.A. Story

Major Payne

Monty Python & the Holy Grail

My Cousin Vinny

Queen of the Desert

What About Bob?

Young Frankenstein

Crime Drama

Bandits

The Bourne trilogy

Goodfellas

The Italian Job

Jackie Brown

M

On the Waterfront

Pulp Fiction

Scarface

The Sting

Thelma and Louise

Drama

12 Angry Men

Amadeus

The Apostle

The Breakfast Club

Fearless

Getting Married in Buffalo Jump

Good Will Hunting

Grapes of Wrath

High Fidelity

If These Walls Could Talk 2

Lost in Translation

Mildred Pierce (with Joan Crawford)

Phenomenon

Pride & Prejudice (the 2005 version with Keira Knightley)

A River Runs Through It

Sling Blade

The Station Agent

Steel Magnolias

Tree of Life

Wit

Family

A Christmas Story

The Chronicles of Narnia series

Dennis the Menace

The King and I

The Lion King

Mr. Bean’s Holiday

Pee Wee’s Big Adventure

The Princess Bride

The Wizard of Oz

Feel Good

The Bells of St. Mary’s

Brother Sun, Sister Moon

The Cowboys

Dirty Dancing

Footloose

Gremlins

Groundhog Day

It’s a Wonderful Life

Little Women (the June Allyson version)

The Man from Snowy River

Moonstruck

An Officer and a Gentleman

True Grit (the John Wayne version)

Twister

When Harry Met Sally

White Christmas

Foreign Language (various genres)

Diva

Le Boucher (with Stephanie Audran)

C’est arrivé près de chez vous (Man Bites Dog)

Cinema Paradiso

Farewell My Concubine

Goodbye Lenin

I’ve Loved You So Long

Jule et Jim (French film about a ménage a trois)

The Lives of Others

Il Postino

Tampopo (Japanese w subtitles)

Fantasy

City Of Angels

Harry Potter series

Harvey

Lord of the Rings Trilogy

What Dreams May Come

Scrooged

History/ Biography

13 Days

All the President’s Men

Apollo 13

Grey Gardens (watch the Maysles 1975 documentary, then the remake with Drew Barrymore)

Lawrence of Arabia

Queen Christina

Sophie Scholl: The Final Days

Horror

John Carpenter’s The Thing

Night of the Creeps

Offscreen

Any and all Hitchcock

Musical

Chicago

Singin’ in the Rain

Romantic Comedy

Adam’s Rib

All of Me (Lily Tomlin)

As Good As It Gets

The American President

Bridget Jones’s Diary

Cocoon

The Devil Wears Prada

Home for the Holidays

It’s Complicated

Love, Actually

Modern Times

Murphy’s Romance

On the Town

The Philadelphia Story

When Harry Met Sally

Science Fiction

The Matrix

Serenity

V for Vendetta

Sport

Chariots of Fire

Saint Ralph

Seabiscuit

Tear Jerkers

Bridges of Madison County

Casablanca

The Color Purple

Dark Victory

Dead Poet’s Society

The Notebook

Now

Penny Serenade

Serendipity

Terms of Endearment

Voyager

A Walk to Remember

When a Man Loves a Woman

Western

Last of the Dogmen

Support Your Local Sheriff

Tombstone

The Unforgiven

Other…

All on Jane Austen’s books

Any adaptation of a Shakespeare play

Any Buster Keaton classics

Any Tennessee Williams play on film

Anything by Akira Kurosawa

If you’ve come up with other suggestions, please leave a comment in the section below.

Daily Chore List: Part 1
Daily Chore List: Part 2
Weekly Chore List: Part 1
Weekly Chore List: Part 2
Seasonal Chore List: Part 1

The following Tiny Tasks could be done once a year (for the less ambitious) or twice a year if time and energy-levels permit.

Living Room

Launder sofa slip covers

Kitchen

Edit cookbooks and organize recipes

Wash cabinet doors & handles

Clean

• oven (many are self-cleaning)
• inside of cabinets

Donate

• unexpired food
• unused utensils and appliances

Bedroom

Flip-n-Fall – turn and vacuum mattresses

Launder comforter

Closets (Hall, Linen and Bedroom)

Donate

• Unused clothing and shoes
• Old towels and linens

Bathrooms

Wash shower curtain

Organize

• Under sink
• Bathroom drawers

Clean out medicine cabinet

• Dispose of expired medications
• Check first aid supplies

Replace shower liner if necessary

Dining Room

Dust

• Chandelier
• Window treatments, candlesticks, picture frames, artwork
• China cabinet
• Clean window treatments

Office

Inventory office supplies

Purge

• Old computer software, including manuals
• Outdated electronic equipment
• Old paper files

Which chores are most challenging for you?