Recap From Saturday's Event with Mary Hunt

There was a great turn out on Saturday for the talk by Mary Hunt, thanks to all who came out and brought friends too.

For those of you who weren't able to make it, Mary explained the genesis of the HomeAdvantage series - noting that changes in society over the last two generations of homemakers have introduced new challenges to the profession. One of the big changes is that women, even "stay at home moms" are not actually at home as much as women of earlier generations. Thus, the tasks of managing our homes takes on a new face. In fact it takes on many new faces--about as many faces as there are homes to manage. Ultimately, because of everyone's unique home dynamic, it is up to us to determine what works in our home, but we can still learn a lot from other people's trials and successes.

Mary opened up the talk for discussion in the group and many of us came away with a few new tactics, here were some helpful tips that came up:

- In managing paper clutter - use "files not piles". Mary pointed out that the success rate for people managing paper clutter directly correlates to having an immediate place to file - mail, school papers, etc.

- The place we pick in our house to file the clutter should be immediately convenient, so that it doesn't get put in an "temporary" pile until we can get to the filing location. In most cases, this will be in the kitchen.

-For managing kids artwork, it was suggested to take a digital picture of the majority of the art and only save the extra special ones for keepsakes.

- For laundry efficiency, most moms in the group found it easier to put clothes away quickly if you have the laundry sorted and folded into separate containers for each person in the house. For those who have older kids, this system also makes it possible for you to "share the care", i.e. have your kids or husband put away their own clothes--each responsible for thier basket.

Thank you for your recent input on the poll regarding the dynamic of the moms group. Please stay tuned as we develop a plan to further improve the time we spend together each month. If you have any questions, comments or concerns regarding the dynamic, I would love to hear from you. Please e-mail me at elenakilner@gmail.com.