For a pregnant woman nesting is an uncontrollable urge to clean and organize your house, while getting things ready for your baby. It can be as little as washing your baby’s clothes and bedding, to repainting your entire house because you all of a sudden don’t like the color theme you have. Some women will clean walls, baseboards, and door frames as an effort to make sure the house is clean. In some cases women who rarely have a “clean” house will be obsessed about having a spotless house.

It is believed that the act of nesting helps a woman feel more like she is in control. It can begin as early as the second trimester and last the duration of the pregnancy. The urge to have everything in “order” can wake a pregnant woman up at night, or keep her up all night while she completes her latest “project”. When the nesting instinct pops up at the end of pregnancy it can often signify the beginning of labor or that labor is just a couple of days away. It can take over the last hours of pregnancy with an urge to make sure everything is done and just right.

Nesting is normal and natural for a pregnant woman, even if her partner thinks she has gone insane when they find her bleaching down the kitchen cupboards at 3am. However, there are some precautions the pregnant woman should take.

Try To Avoid Paint Fumes
If you HAVE to have the nursery or house repainted at the last minute, try to get someone else to do the actual painting for you. Make sure you wear a mask when you are around the paint to minimize the paint fumes you breathe in.

Climbing On Furniture
When cleaning cupboards, reorganizing the closet and washing down your walls, try to stick to the areas you can reach without standing on a chair or climbing on other furniture. While you are pregnant your balance may be off, and you may fall or get light headed. If you keep your feet planted firmly on the floor then you won’t have to worry about an accident and the possibility of hurting yourself or your baby.

In The Garden
Most pregnant women know if they have a cat not to change the litter box as cat feces could harm the baby. However, you also must remember this and watch for feces and certain other pests you might find while gardening. In most cases anything you come in contact with will be safe, it is just best to take extra precautions.

Nesting can be a fun part of pregnancy for the pregnant woman, even if her husband doesn’t agree when his wife hands him a “honey-do” list and sends him out to pick up another roll of the wallpaper she used in the living room because she all of a sudden decided it would look great in the hall as well. When your partner roles his eyes because you are sending him out for supplies tell him it is all right, you will both be laughing about it in a year.

“Mom, I’m bored!”

“Dad, play with me!!”

Sound familiar?

If you’re a parent, these plaintive cries from your children can become daily shouts. As busy moms and dads, we’re continuously torn by the demands on our time. Here are some simple ways to spend time with your kids while getting the jobs done that need to be done (including the toughest job of all, parenting). These Sneaky Fun ideas are also great ways to teach our children exactly how to successfully accomplish many routine tasks.

• Make a silly dinner together.
  Think ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ or try a picnic on the living room floor. Bring your child along for the meal planning, shopping, prep time and clean-up. Involve them each step of the way.
• Turn on the music and clean, clean, clean.
  Forget TELLING your kids to go clean; side-by-side, with some of their favorite music playing, move through the house dancing and cleaning. They’ll love it (and so will you).
• Exercise together.
  You know you need to do it. Your child is your perfect exercise partner. Make it a ‘talk and play’ time and you’ll both get fit together.
• Share a hobby.
  Love to fish, garden, sew, paint, sing? Share that love with your youngster. Try an interest that fascinates them. Learn a shared passion – together.
• Start a girls or boys night out.
  You will make an incredible impression with this one. Take your daughter out for regular manicures and lunch. Stay close to your son with a favorite concert or sporting event. Teach your children about wholesome entertainment and the joy of healthy relationships. You can even team up with another parent and child for regular fun; just make sure that honest conversation is the true priority.
• Improve their skills.
  Do you have a student struggling with homework? Quit nagging and ask them to teach YOU what they’ve learned. Be a patient listener. The fastest way to learn is often to teach.
• Wash the cars.
  Need I say more? Water, the chance to soak mom or dad, and a sense of accomplishment when it’s all done. Follow up with an ice cream cone for a job well done.
• Growing things.
  Countless gardeners have discovered deep satisfaction in sharing their love of growing things with children and grandchildren. Gardening is a useful de-stressing tool and the most frustrated child tends to loosen up and share their heart while getting their hands dirty alongside a trusted adult.
• Plan, plan, plan.
  If your household is anything like mine, it benefits greatly when I take the time to map out regular activities. Menu-planning, budgeting and vacationing come to mind, for starters. Show your child (of the appropriate age) how to use their time and money wisely by including them in the planning of everyday family activities. As they mature, they can easily be put in charge of some of these planning sessions, teaching them to younger siblings. Your trust and belief in your kids can ease the stress on them as they grow, too.
• Organize.
  Almost all families struggle with organization in some area. Truth be told, we’re simply busy people and have often outgrown the simplistic organizing methods that once worked just fine. Give your kids the opportunity to be the creative organizer in your family. Whether its making sense of the family photos or tackling the hall closet, do it with them to get the job done and make a memory that’s shared.
• Schedule the fun.
  Sometimes the best defense is a good offense. Try scheduling a set time of fun in exchange for a set time of work. For example, Monday can be family board game night while Saturday morning sees the family hard at work in the yard. Sometimes it’s easier for kids to see the point when it’s a straight trade off of time and energy.

  The idea here is simple and clear. Use everyday activities to build relationships and teach responsibility. After all, everybody wins when ‘fun’ becomes a part of daily life!

About the Author
Colleen Langenfeld offers helpful resources to working moms. Make your life feel easier, healthier, smarter by reading our One Good Idea ezine. Start by visiting PaintedGold.com and clicking on the happy kids’ picture now!

The problem is that like many people, I always wait until the last minute before deciding what to give them for their birthday, so I don’t always have a lot of time to spend on creating a meaningful book. In creating these two albums, I’ve found a fantastic system for creating a gift album in less than a week that I’d love to share.

While my albums were both ABC albums about friendship, I’ve found that the system can work for any type of small album, such as a wedding album, graduation album, anniversary album, and many others.

Below are the steps I took to create my quick gift albums:

MONDAY

Collect Photos. The first thing I did for each of these albums was to collect as many photographs as I could find that represented the friendship that I have with each girl. I collected about 60-70 photos for each album, scanned them, and had re-prints made at Shutterfly.com. This of course wouldn’t be necessary if you had original photos that you wanted to use. Since I was using photos that were already in some of my other albums, I used re-prints for the gift albums. By having prints made at Shutterfly, I was also able to change some of the photos to black and white and do some pre-cropping before I had them printed, which helped in the overall look of the album once it was finished.

TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY

Journal. I decided to do ABC albums for both books, so I started writing words for each letter in the alphabet that described our relationship and then described each of the words by talking about different things we’d done, and recalling memories from our college years. I also found friendship quotes that helped describe our friendships and added them to my journaling. I did all of this in a Microsoft Word document in a couple of afternoons. I’d say this is probably the most difficult part of creating the album, but it’s also the most interesting!

THURSDAY

Choose Your Products. Now that you have all of the “memory” elements of the album, it’s time to decide what products you want to use. I’ve found that the easiest way to choose papers is to choose a line of coordinating patterned papers to use throughout the entire album. Paper lines such as Mustard Moon, Patchwork Paper, KI Memories, Kopp Designs, Making Memories and many others are perfect for albums like this, because their papers come in a variety of colors and patterns that all match each other quite well.

In addition to deciding what papers to use, you’ll want to decide what fonts or lettering templates to use. I used three fonts in each album: a typewriter type font for each letter and the words for each letter, a print handwriting font for the journaling, and a script font for the quotes. Since all of my journaling was written in a Microsoft Word document, it was easy to change the fonts and page margins. I printed all of the journaling on white cardstock, so that I would be able to cut each section out easily and adhere them to the pages.

FRIDAY

Do Some Pre-Scrapping. This is what makes creating the album easy. Now that all of your journaling and photos are ready, put them into page protectors in the order that they will appear in the album. Cut each letter and journaling block out so that they’ll be ready to adhere to the pages. Decide what photos will go with each journaling section and add the photos to the page protectors. This is a great task to do in front of the television! Now your album is ready to put together!

SATURDAY

Put it Together! This part goes very quickly since most of the work is already completed. I’ve found that starting at the beginning and just making your way through the album is the best way to complete it. Since all of your papers coordinate, simply start pulling papers and making your pages. I kept both of my albums simple and used colorblocking and paper tearing techniques to create varying backgrounds. Add a few embellishments and stickers to your pages, and you’ll have an album to cherish in no time at all! With all of the pre-scrapping and planning done, you can easily complete the entire album at an all-day crop or in a couple of afternoons.

The key to this system is having your journaling done first! It makes creating the rest of the album quick and easy…and I’ve found that it makes a very meaningful album to read, and a wonderful gift to receive.

About the Author
Andrea Steed is the author and creator of Scrap Tutor, a web site and CD-ROM that teaches you how to create scrapbooks and how to perform many popular techniques used in scrapbooking. For more information, visit www.scraptutor.com.

Why should I save my scraps?

• Scraps make great borders, decorative squares, and mosaics.
• You can use them to make punchies with your large collection of punches.
• You only need a little bit of paper to cut out the letters for a title.
• Small pieces of paper can be used to create accents on handmade greeting cards.
• Your children will love to “scrap” with you! Give them a pile of your scraps to get started.
• It saves you money! (so you can buy OTHER scrapbooking things!)

How should I organize my scraps?

There are a few different ways you can organize your scraps, and whatever system works best for you is the one you should follow. My personal system includes separating your scrap paper into three categories: cardstock, patterned paper, and specialty papers. You can also get really ambitious and color code your scraps by storing them in separate file folders. I recommend a drawer or folder that is large enough to hold 12 x 12 paper, so that you don’t need to cut your scraps down even more before filing them. You never know when you’ll need a 12 x 12 border!

It is a good idea to clean out your scrap folders or drawers every once in a while. When my scrap supply gets out of control, I get rid of the smaller pieces of paper and hold on to the larger ones. It’s actually kind of fun to go through my old scraps. Just like a quilter knows her fabrics, I can tell you how each paper scrap was used.

I’ve been saving my scraps since I first started scrapbooking. It’s amazing how often I go to my scrap drawer and find the perfect paper to use on another layout or card. So often I find that I need just a small piece of paper in a certain color, and don’t want to cut into a brand new piece. So don’t toss those scraps; they can be used.
About the Author
Andrea Steed is the author and creator of Scrap Tutor, a web site and CD-ROM that teaches you how to create scrapbooks and how to perform many popular techniques used in scrapbooking. For more information, visit www.scraptutor.com.

• Instead of scrapbooking every photo you take, divide your photos by month and choose some of your favorites to highlight in a 2 to 4 page layout for each month. You’ll be able to show how your baby has grown and changed over an entire year, without having to create separate layouts for each roll of film.
• Keep a monthly calendar to document various milestones, firsts, and important dates. You can then include the calendar with each set of monthly photos. It’s a great way to do your journaling “as you go” and remember all of those important little everyday moments.
• Include the photos that you don’t choose to scrapbook in photo sleeve pages behind each monthly layout. This allows you to include the additional photos in your album without having to make additional scrapbook pages for each event or set of photos. Be sure to add the date and label each photo so that you’ll know when and where they were taken as well as who was in them.
• Don’t let this system prevent you from creating scrapbook pages about special moments or events that inspire you to create additional layouts. Just add them to the album in chronological order!

Remember that there is no “right” way to organize your scrapbook. Use whatever system that works best for you.

About the Author
Andrea Steed is the author and creator of Scrap Tutor, a web site and CD-ROM that teaches you how to create scrapbooks and how to perform many popular techniques used in scrapbooking. For more information, visit www.scraptutor.com.

Question:
My child’s bedroom looks like it’s been put through a blender! I can’t see the carpet, and to walk through the room I have to dodge clothes, toys, and last week’s snack wrappers. My child doesn’t care, but I do. When I yell and threaten we sometimes end up with one day of cleanliness, but in no time at all, the disaster magically reappears. What can I do?

Think about it:
Every time you walk by the bedroom, the mess annoys you. You grumble and mumble until finally you reach the boiling point, and explode in anger. When you finally put your foot down, you discover that you and your child have vastly different definitions of “clean.” While you envision an immaculate and orderly room, your child may be perfectly happy as long as she can find her way to the bed without a road map. You obviously have conflicting goals. Try to find a long-term solution that works for both of you.

Organize:
When the bedroom has reached the point of a national disaster, the mess is overwhelming for your child. At this point, you may have to grit your teeth and help with the initial cleanup. Use plenty of boxes, baskets, or tubs to sort your child’s clothes and belongings. Label each container clearly (socks, books, school work, etc.). What happens next is most important. Initiate a daily cleanup time to prevent the buildup of another mess. Inspect every day after cleanup time. At that point use “Grandma’s Rule”: “As soon as your room is clean you may go out to play.” This rule is also known as the “When/Then” approach, “When you have cleaned your bedroom, then you may turn on the computer.”

Contract:
Sit down with your child and develop a bedroom-cleaning contract. Work together to define what constitutes a “clean room” in very specific terms: clothes in dresser and closet (either hanging or folded), books in bookcase, stuffed animals on top bunk, etc. You might even consider allowing a “messy corner” where she can toss things temporarily. Just make sure the corner is clearly sectioned off, such as a section of the closet. Once you’ve agreed on the terms for a “clean room,” choose a specific day of the week for cleaning. One schedule that works well for many families is to require a clean room Saturday prior to any activities or play time. Include a specific plan for what will happen if the room is not clean by the scheduled time. Write up the contract and have everyone sign the agreement. Post it and follow though.

Get serious:
If you’ve reached the end of your rope, and you’re really brave, pick a time when your child is away from home to do a more-than-thorough cleaning. Using baskets and shelves, neatly arrange the necessities and most favorite toys. Pack 90% of the stuff that litters the floor into small boxes. Store the boxes in the garage or attic. Display your child’s beautifully clean room and let her know she can earn back one box at a time at the end of each week that the room is kept clean. You can expect an outburst of hysterics, but stick to your guns. (If a school supply or a favorite toy is boxed by mistake, it would be okay to rescue it.)

Beautify:
Invest a weekend to clean and rearrange the bedroom. If possible, hang new curtains or cover the bed with a new bedspread. Pull a dresser out of the attic, or search a second-hand store for a new piece of furniture for her room. Let your child paint it however she’d like. Allow her to customize the walls with pictures or posters. Often, a fresh, new outlook like this will encourage a child to keep her “new” room neat and clean.

Transfer responsibility:
If your child is age ten or older, and a basically responsible kid, it’s okay to turn her bedroom over to her as practice for her first apartment experience. (Take a security deposit, if you feel you must.) Outline the basic rules, such as: how often the bed linens must be changed, how often the floor must be vacuumed, and what type of food is allowed in the room. Once the basic rules are agreed to, give your child the responsibility to care for her room, her way. You can pile any of her laundry or stray belongings by her door each day. Let her know that as long as the basic rules are followed, she’ll be in charge of her own room. (And if you can’t stand looking at the clutter, shut the door.)

Copyright Elizabeth Pantley. (McGraw-Hill, 2003)

About the author:
Elizabeth Pantley is the author of several books, including Gentle Baby Care : No-cry, No-fuss, No-worry — Essential Tips for Raising Your Baby, The No-Cry Sleep Solution: Gentle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night, Kid Cooperation (with an introduction by William Sears, MD), Perfect Parenting, as well as her latest The No-Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers and Preschoolers and is also president of Better Beginnings, Inc. She is a popular speaker on family issues, and her newsletter, Parent Tips, is seen in schools nationwide. She appears as a regular radio show guest, and has been quoted in Parents, Parenting, Redbook, Good Housekeeping, American Baby, Working Mother, and Woman’s Day magazines. Visit Elizabeth’s web site http://www.pantley.com/elizabeth.

Our children are probably the biggest clutter creators we have in our homes — even more so than the dreaded paper flow. It starts out innocently, when we find out we are expecting; then the purchasing frenzy swings into high gear and does not let up until, well, let’s just say many years down the road.

The clutter begins on the highly anticipated homecoming day when our counter tops fill quickly with samples and instructions from the hospital. The bottles of formula, diapers, blankets and wipes all begin to take root on the counters and any and all other flat surfaces. You can kiss that nesting mode goodbye and say hello to survival mode!

Stage 1: Infant Organization

Obviously, organizing for an infant is the sole responsibility of the parent. The main areas for infant organization are:

• the changing table
• the diaper bag

The nursery’s changing table is a great place to start with simple organizing techniques. Divide the shelves below the changing surface with baskets; fill one with diapers and wipes, one with crib bedding and blankets, one with onesies and socks, etc. Baskets are a great accessory for the nursery because they are portable, lightweight and decorative. They are also readily available everywhere from discount stores to high-end decorating stores.

Next, the diaper bag can be your best friend when stocked and organized properly. Take some time before your next outing and take inventory of your contents. Diaper bags today have all these great little dividers and compartments for storing all your stuff. Upon returning from your outing re-stock and refresh your bag, so you will be ready for the next time you go visiting.

Stage 2: Toddler-Preschool Organization

Organizing this active group can be a challenge, but there are several organizing exercises in which you can involve your child, including putting away:

• books
• videos
• toys

The clear plastic containers that you can find all over these days are great kid-friendly storage solutions. Try labeling each one with a picture of its contents to make for easy cleanup for those little non-readers (store advertisements and catalogs are a great picture source, as well as printing pictures from internet sites).

Baskets are also great for storing their favorite books and videotapes, though you might want to store them out of reach to prevent them from constantly being dumped out on the floor! Little hands can manipulate a basket with much more confidence than a tightly stuffed bookshelf. Lastly, designate an area in your home for the toys. It is important for your child to understand that their toys have a place and need to make their way back there before bedtime.

Stage 3: School Age Organization

By this time, your kids are busy with many of their own activities and all the required “stuff” that goes with it. As frustrating as it may be the tenth time you have to remind your child to put away their belongings or straighten up their shelves, do not give in to the temptation to just do it yourself. This is a critical time period for developing life-long habit and you will both gain from a little patience and consistency.

Encourage your children to keep a calendar of their activities and after school commitments. Display a master family calendar, so everyone is informed and no one is left ride-less or out of the loop.

Laundry at this stage of parenting can become quite an overwhelming task. Invest in basket-sorter hampers for the kids’ laundry; your kids are quite capable at this age of sorting their dirty clothes by color. The pre-sort saves you time on laundry day.

Stage 4: High School and Beyond

Keep up the encouragement — these young adults have a lot on their minds and schedules. This can be an extremely stressful time with the college applications, spring break plans, graduations, not to mention a full course load and endless extra-curricular activities. Good time management skills are critical to maintaining these over-extended calendars. Paired with time management skills, organizational skills will help create a smooth transition to whatever path your children choose (restocking the diaper bag now seems like a cinch, doesn’t it?).

Rest assured that all your hard work building a good organizing foundation will remain with your children throughout their adult life. Who knows — maybe they will win the lottery one day and know exactly where they filed their winning ticket because they were raised in a home that stressed organization, and to show their gratitude share the prize with mom and dad.

Copyright 2004
Bridget Messino

About the author:
Bridget Messino is a Professional Organizer and co-owner of Clutter Free Living, Inc. Her work frequently appears on many Internet sites and on her own organizing site Clutter Free Living as well as in her monthly Home Organizing Newsletter How to Be Clutter Free. Subscribe to the FREE monthly e-newsletter by sending a blank e-mail to cflnews-subscribe@topica.email-publisher.com