Yep folks, its that time of year again. It’s March, and it is time to start thinking about your spring cleaning marathon and getting your home organized and in order. This summer, I don’t plan on being home any more than I absolutely need to. I plan on being out and about with the kids, soaking up the sun, the atmosphere, and the history of this great city that we live in.

If you are anything like me; however, you also know that just even the thought of having to dive in and do all of that spring cleaning crap is a virtual nightmare! March 24th to March 30th is National Cleaning Week. Being a procrastinator extraordinaire myself – I know that just the thought of this week looming would normally give me nightmares weeks in advance. Since I’ve been on my “Get Organized” mission this year though – it doesn’t seem like such a big deal when you apply the one principle that applies for any large project.

Break it up into manageable portions.

I know the excuses, I’ve worn them all completely out. “I don’t have time.” “I have too many other things to do today.” “I’ll get to it this weekend.” “Next week when the kids are on ________ break I’ll have them help me clean.”

So knowing that there are a lot more of you out there just like me that (a) hate the thought of cleaning period (b) think that they just don’t have the time to do a thorough cleaning without devoting an entire day to the task and (c) could care less about doing a spring (and fall) housecleaning – I’ve come up with a plan to help us out through these difficult times.

Over the next three weeks leading up to National Cleaning Week I’m going to be posting helpful hints and scheduled portions for you to add to your calendaring system, so when March 24th arrives, you will be ready to go and will breeze through your cleaning week without a hitch!

If you do not currently use a calendaring system – GET ONE. I cannot live without mine. Outlook works good, but I prefer (and highly recommend) using Cozi (www.cozi.com).

What is Cozi?

Cozi is a free app and website that helps you manage your busy family calendar. Plus it keeps track of everything from school schedules to sports activities, meals, grocery lists, and chores, all in one place.

Accessible Anywhere

Stay on top of family life from anywhere. Access your Cozi account from any computer. The mobile app is available on the iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and on Android devices.

Over 8 Million Users Agree

Cozi has received stellar reviews from over 8 million family members. Cozi wins awards and top app selections year after year, too!

Want to know what I love about Cozi? Not only does it integrate with FlyLady (more on FlyLady later), but EVERYTHING in my ENTIRE LIFE can be organized in ONE APPLICATION. Need to plan the grocery list? DONE. Need to plan the meals for the next week? DONE. Need to coordinate school events, doctor appointments, business meetings and family night? DONE.

Another feature I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE is that I can be at the grocery store, and one of the kids decides that they want me to pick up some Hot Pockets for dinner. All they need to do is log into Cozi (one login and one password for the entire family) and add Hot Pockets to my grocery list and it will automatically update my list on my tablet or phone at the grocery store.

Jackie needs her social calendar printed out? Not a problem. Click on her name, and print just her calendar. Bobby needs his practices and games schedule printed out? Just click on his name and print out his schedule. Mom needs a calendar of what everyone is doing for the next month to plan time to work on a project? Click on All and it prints everyone’s calendar for you.

So with that said,

Your Assignment for this week is:

Go and download Cozi. Set up your family’s calendar, add your family members, and don’t forget to link to your children’s school calendars as well – which you can find here. If you already have a calendar set up via your e-mail program (like Google Calendar or Hotmail/MSN) you can import those calendars as well.

Play around with the features – check out the Live Simply link that contains hundreds of different prepared lists for you that you can modify and make your own.

I’ll be back on Sunday, March 10th, with our next installment on this “Spring Cleaning – Procrastination Ends Here” series!