April 16, 2008
The Monthly Organizer
May 2008
Are you ready to start Spring cleaning? This Spring Cleaning Guide will show you how to Spring clean your home in one weekend or less!
Monthly Motivation
Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance. This is a lesson I recently learned the hard way.In mid-February I sat down to work at my computer only to discover that the hard drive had died during the night while I was peacefully sleeping across the hall.
Of course I had thought several times prior to the unfortunate hard drive crash, “I really should back-up my computer,” but it was one of those things that I put off thinking I will get to it later. As always, hindsight is 20/20. I should have taken the extra few minutes to back up the information instead of putting it off. Instead, over the past two months, I have spent countless hours restoring and reorganizing my data. A perfect example of how taking the extra few minutes to do it right in the first place can save you hours in the long run.
Do you need more motivation? Do you want proof that you are not alone in feeling completely disorganized sometimes? Read some of the hilarious stories that have been submitted as readers' Most Embarrassing Moment in Household Organization. When you are done laughing, leave a comment to let somebody know how much their story has inspired or motivated you. Better yet, submit your own story to help provide a laugh or a little inspiration to somebody else that might need it.
Monthly Organization Tip
I want you all to benefit from my mistake so this month’s organization tip will focus on organizing your computer. Computers are wonderful for storing electronic data. In this age of technology, most people have loads of photos, music, emails, recipes, financial information and more stored on their computer. Take a minute to think about what you would do if suddenly, all of that was gone.The first and most important thing you can do to organize your computer is to schedule a regular back-up session. Whether you save your information to disk, use a flash drive or have purchased a program to store your data, the key is to be sure to have a copy of all of the data on your computer and to back it up on a regular basis. I recommend once per week at minimum. Add this task to your personal agenda or calendar and be sure to do it on schedule.
If you save photos on your computer, be sure to organize them into folders, like mini photo albums on your computer. Name the folders appropriately so you will never have any trouble recalling where and when the photos were taken. Proper documentation of photos, even when they are stored digitally, is such an important thing to do so future generations will have a clear understanding of what the photo is depicting.
If you store music on your computer categorize it appropriately so you can find what you want quickly. Most music download programs enable you to sort by several different categories including artist and genre as well as alphabetically. Take the time to organize your music in a way that makes sense to you.
If you tend to save a lot of emails on your computer, take advantage of the features your email program offers. Most email programs give you the ability to create folders. Use the folders to sort your saved emails into groups or categories that you will easily recognize. You can create a folder for each person that you regularly correspond with or create a folder for each topic that you regularly correspond about. Finding an old email will be so much easier when you have your information categorized.
Use folders as well for the documents you save on your computer. Categorize the documents in a way that makes sense and that will group like documents together. Use folders within folders if it is appropriate. The key is to keep your computer neat and tidy and make it easy for you to find what you need without scrolling through hundreds of individual documents to find it. For example, let's say you made a wonderful egg recipe for breakfast last month. You know you saved the recipe to your computer, but you can't remember what it is called. A lot of recipes, even non-breakfast recipes, use eggs so even if you did a search for the word "egg," you would get a lot of results to sort through. However, if you have organized your recipes into folders you would simply click on your Recipes folder, then click on your Breakfast Recipes sub-folder, then click on your Egg Recipes sub-sub-folder and only have 10 recipes to look sort through instead of hundreds.
Saving information digitally frees up a lot of space in your home, is a great way to cut clutter and help to keep your home clean and organized. Just remember that it is still important and a huge time saver to keep your digital information clutter-free and organized.
Monthly Money Saving Tip
Did you know that you can save as much as $80.00 in electric charges each year just by setting the power management feature on your PC or Mac? It's true! Here's how to do it.On your PC: Click on Start, My Computer, Control Panel and then Power Options (on some PC's the Power Options icon will be under the category Performance and Maintenance). Under the first category, "Power Schemes," choose Always On from the list of choices in the drop down menu. In the next two categories, "Turn Off Monitor," and "Turn Off Hard Disks," choose the time frame that works best for you. If you choose 15 minutes, your monitor and hard drive will enter into sleep mode after 15 of inactivity. That's it! That's all you have to do to save money on your energy bill.
You will notice, however, that there are some additional tabs across the top of the Power Options window. These tabs are for some more advanced power saving options. Investigate them and implement any that are appropriate for you to save even more.
On your Mac: Click the Apple Menu, System Preferences, Show All, Energy Saver and then Show All. Choose the Power Adapter option from the drop down menu for Optimize Energy Settings. Next, use the sliders to choose the amount of time you prefer to Put the Computer to Sleep, Put the Display to Sleep and Put the Hard Disks to Sleep.
Recipe of the Month
It is Spring where I live and the weather is starting to get warm and sunny. This has me thinking of barbecues. When I think of barbecues I often think of fried chicken. I love the taste of fried chicken but I don't love the grease and all the fat in the skin. If you feel the same, you will love this fake-out alternative to fried chicken. You get all of the flavor in a much healthier package.Oven "Fried" Chicken
Ingredients:
- Non-stick spray - olive oil flavor
- 3 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. black pepper
- 1/2 cup light buttermilk
- 1 Tblsp. Dijon mustard
- 1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp. paprika
- 1/2 tsp. ground sage
- 2 cups cornflakes, crushed
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Spray a baking sheet with non-stick spray. If you do not have a baking sheet large enough to hold all of the chicken pieces in a single layer, use two baking sheets or cook the chicken in batches.
Get three large bowls. In the first bowl, combine the flour, salt and pepper. In the second bowl, combine the buttermilk, Dijon mustard, cayenne, paprika and sage. Place the crushed cornflakes in the third bowl.
Rinse the chicken and pat it dry. For each chicken breast, dredge it in flour and tap off any excess. Next, dip it in the buttermilk mixture. Finally, roll it in the cornflakes to completely coat. Place the coated chicken breasts in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet. Spray the tops of the chicken breasts lightly with the olive oil spray. Bake for 20 minutes. Lower the heat to 375 degrees and bake for an additional 30 minutes or until the chicken is completely cooked and the outer coating is crispy.
Monthly Entertaining Tip
Whether you are celebrating Memorial Day or just having a good, old-fashioned barbecue with your friends and family, ditch the hot dogs and try this menu. All of these recipes are perfect for grilling and feeding a crowd because they are just as easy to make for twenty people as they are to make for two people. Serve up this meal at your next barbecue and you will be sure to satisfy.Moist Mustard Chicken
Fresh Veggie Pouches
Maple Pineapple Rings