Like many children, my daughter likes to keep all those pretty little notes that she got from her best friend or that cute little picture that she drew way back when. Unlucky for her, I can't bear to have it all over her room, so I suggested that she have a memory box that she can use to put all these keepsakes in. Lucky for me, she thought that was a cool idea!!!

So I took an old shoebox and covered it with adorable wrapping paper (but if you don't have shoe boxes on hand, y...

I received a mail from a mom wanting general tidy tips that may help lessen her child's allergies. My son is also allergic to dust so here are a few tips to help keep allergies at bay in your home.

• Keep the bedroom well ventilated to keep the humidity down.
• Air the bed daily and wash the bedding frequently at temperatures over 55 degrees. I have also heard that placing the mattress in the sun regularly helps to kill the dust mites.
• Vacuum and clean the room and b...

My bathroom has white tiles, so when my kids  (5yrs & 2 yrs) want to paint, I either put them naked in the shower or bath with some poster paint and a paintbrush. 

They have so much fun painting the walls, themselves and each other.  When they are done, I just turn on the shower, wash down the walls and the little people and all the mess is gone in a flash.  They absolutely love it!

If you have decided to spring clean your cupboard and there are some 'smallish' clothes, belts or shoes that you are considering getting rid of, then why not see if your kids would like to use SOME OF IT as dress up clothes?

Obviously this only applies to the younger child, but there are many children who dress up as jedi knights, princesses and other fantastic characters and you may make their day by giving them some 'props'.

We all have to start taking responsibility for our environment and one way to do this is to re-use paper. Here are a few suggestions:

• Print on both sides of the paper and then shred and recycle what you can. Arrange for Mondi or similar company to fetch your used paper.
• If you have children, cut up paper and staple the pages together to make small notepads. Recycle these when they've been used (but remember to take out the staple).
• Give paper to schools in t...

You would think that this stands to reason, but so many people don't follow this advice (myself included). There are some days that I am disciplined enough to prepare for the next day and it ALWAYS sets the tone for my day ahead.

There have been times when I am under pressure to finalise a job for a client the next day and every time I leave it for the morning (to quickly finish), the wheels fall off - a child needs something - the email is down etc etc and suddenly, my lack ...

Doesn't the cost of wrapping paper and birthday cards annoy you? I know I dislike spending money on this so I decided to get creative. I made up some basic square cards using clipart from Word, and printed these out in colour on thick paper. When I need one, I cut it out, punch a hole in the top and add some thin ribbon (colour depending on the gender of child). I use the ribbon to tie the card onto the birthday present.

Quick, easy and it will save you a penny or two for t...

Dealing with children’s artwork can be a challenge – which to keep, how to store it and how long to keep it for, not to mention the guilt you feel when you throw half of it away. But let’s face it - realistically you cannot keep every little drawing or collage with macaroni stuck all over it! So I was very excited when a participant at a recent Neat Freak workshop said that she takes photographs of her children’s artwork, and only keeps a few special ones (thanks Jenni...

I have often read the recommendation of professional organisers to use a timer when tidying up. Although I understood the philosophy behind the suggestion, I wanted to put it to the test so I used it with my kids this week-end.

I told them before I even began, that I wanted to set the timer to ONLY 5 minutes to tidy up their desk and throw away used paper and 'stuff' lying around collecting dust.

So we duly set the timer and off we went with the tic-tic-tic in the backgro...