Early Bird Mom

Helping you declutter your home and live with less stress and more freedom


A Tour of my Low-tech Planner. Organization doesn’t have to be complicated.

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I am a high-tech kind of girl. I love my iPad. We have 5 active computers in the house and I can quickly hop on to any of them with a myriad of apps and tools that make my life easier. I like finding the most efficient way to do things. But when it comes to my planner, I am decidedly low-tech. I tried using my iPad as a personal planner but it just didn't work for me. With the iPad I found it inconvenient to open the calendar app or the notes app and then make my note on the on-screen { Read more... }

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Productivity Tip #5 – Sharpen your Ax

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Each week, I share a tip about how to increase productivity. Today's tip is about the importance of planning ahead. President Abraham Lincoln is reported to have said “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I'll spend the first four sharpening the ax.” Whether or not he actually said this is up for debate, but the wisdom behind the advice is sound. When faced with a challenging task, preparing for that task is key. I try to take this advice to heart. The way I prepare for many tasks { Read more... }

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My super simple laundry system

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You can avoid a lot of household tasks! Also, you can eat all your meals out;  groceries delivered to your home;  even someone else can cut the grass for you. But unless you have a housekeeper with a lot of time on her hands, you will probably have to deal with the laundry sooner or later.   In our family of 6, we produce a lot of laundry. Our washing machine has faithfully chugged for many thousands of hours. After trying out many options and tweaking the process, I finally have a { Read more... }

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What’s Working and What’s Not: A Simple Decision-making Strategy

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In my previous business (we sold German children's books through a website), I started off with a ton of ideas and endless energy …but not a lot of organization. I gradually evolved systems and forms, documents and procedures to the point where I felt like my own one-woman bureaucracy! For instance, I had a form for every day that I shipped books so I wouldn't forget to do a bunch of things including sending the email confirmations, logging any postage that I purchased, and scheduling a pickup { Read more... }

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