Organizing Tips for Busy Moms
Free and Useful Online Services That Help You Stay Organized
Great websites and free online tools that will help you quickly plan meals, easily organize parties, arrange a vacation and even remember birthdays.
The Internet offers busy moms a wealth of information, but it also offers many free services that can simplify all of the things you have to do in a day.
Remembering Birthdays and other Special Events
Hallmark has a reminder service that sends you an email to let you know when an important event, such as someone’s birthday, is coming up. You just enter the name of the event, the date and how long in advance you would like them to remind you i.e. a week before, a day before, etc.
Meal Planning
MyRecipes.com will email you a new recipe every day to help you plan that night’s supper with their service, Dinner Tonight. The recipes come from magazines such as Cooking Light and Southern Living. Each recipe is quick, easy and can be served in 45 minutes or less. Alternatively, you can also add MyRecipes’ Dinner Tonight to your Google, AOL, MSN or Yahoo home page.
Entertaining
Save time organizing events with friends, family and co-workers by using the online tool, doodle.ch. You set up a poll giving your guests a choice of dates, times and locations to get together and then email them the link. They select their choices and a chart is generated showing their votes. This saves endless emails going back and forth between all the parties.
Vacation Planner
Need a vacation but have no time to search for the best deal? Expedia’s Fare Alert service will inform you of their best deals daily on your Google home page. Travelocity lets you set up a travel wish list with their Fare Watcher Plus. You choose up to 10 destinations that you wish to go to and they will notify you of price changes, special offers, and more. They will even help you discover new destinations that you may like based on your interests.
Holiday Planning
There are a few web sites that will help you with holiday planning. Good Housekeeping’s website offers a Thanksgiving and Christmas countdown that sends you an email notifying you what you should be doing on each day in preparation of the upcoming holiday. The Food Network helps you with your holiday baking by sending you a new Christmas cookie recipe every day for the first 12 days of December.
Weather
The Weather Network offers many services but two are particularly useful. First of all they will email you tomorrow’s forecast which can be helpful if you have plans that could be disrupted by bad weather. They also have another service called Weather Warnings, where they will advise you if bad weather is headed for your area. Great in the winter so you can be alerted if you need to leave early.
Shopping
If you want to stay on top of the latest bargains, discounts and sales, sign up for MSN Shopping's Scoop. It is a free weekly newsletter sent directly to your inbox. It even allows you to purchase the sale item right from the email, saving you time and money.
Safety
With all the toy and product recalls in the news lately, are you worried that you may miss one? Go to the Consumer Products Safety Commission and register for their free Recall and Safety News email, so you hear about new concerns when they happen.
Any of these services will definitely put more hours back into your day. If you are interested in other articles that are sure to help a busy mom, see Favorite Kids Party Games Reinvented and Gear to Transport Your Toddler.
