Getting It Together

Thanks to my one-of-a-kind mother in law and some of the sweetest cousins ever, my girls and I have had a fun, relaxing stay in Illinois. We left today, but I managed to put some of those long, lazy afternoons on the porch to good use. I caught up on a lot of computer work, and started taking advantage of some of the amazing new apps I’ve downloaded. Here’s what I’ve done so far:

1. Organizing Plan: With the help of my trusty clutter-clearing issue of Real Simple (follow me on Pinterest – both at Beautymommy and The Stylist Online – and check out some great Closet and Organizing Boards) and Evernote, the best invention ever, I’ve managed to come up with a targeted list of to-do projects to get my house in shape by fall, including stashing the girls artwork in binders, making better use of my closet space by reorganizing them, and setting up a new organizational system in my many utensil drawers (I’m looking at swapping out my current organizers for the one, shown above, from drawerdecor.com).

2. Recipe Review: With the exception of my beloved cookbooks, I may almost be ready to go completely paperless when it comes to recipes. I’ve been using Ziplist for a while – it’s an amazingly easy, addictive way to save all the recipes you come across online and elsewhere. Most mags, like Food Network and Bon Appetit, also post their recipes online, so you can “clip” them with the ZipList Recipe Clipper (much the way you would Pin them on Pinterest). They are stored in your own Recipe Box and searchable, and you can even put keywords and tags on the recipes. Today, I used it to plan menus for the next ten days, which includes Clean Eating mag’s Blueberry Banana Oatmeal Sundaes, a make ahead recipe that is already prepared and in the refrigerator, Slow Cooker Orange and Honey Tilapia, and Chickpea Salad with Lemon, Parmesan and Fresh Herbs. Tonight, I made Real Simple’s recipe for Spiced Chicken with Cucumber and Chickpea Salad. For the recipe, follow me on Pinterest and check my Beautymommy Recipes Board.

3. Evernote for Everyone: So I have just started to use Evernote, the amazingly comprehensive note-and-list-keeping site, and I am already wondering how I ever got along without it. As I caught up on my monthly magazine reading this week, I jotted down notes, ideas, household hints, products to try, and gift ideas on Evernote. I also clipped several website pages – although, unlike the bookmarks (and ine are too jumbled and too outdated to mention) on your browser, Evernote’s Web Clipper is more tailored to clipping articles than bookmarking shopping site, which makes it ideal for someone, like me, who always has a zillion windows open because I am in the middle of several projects at once. Best of all, like Ziplist and may other similar programs, there is a free corresponding app, so you can take your notes with you.