Kristie T’s Home Business Blog Fun, mom-geared work-at-home tips and advice on making money on the net.

This week I met a really cool professional organizer named Randy Wickstrom of Purple Durple Organizers at the Lake County Chamber Women’s Luncheon. He presented a great program on tips for getting organized and saving time.

Here are some of the tips he shared for organizing easy.

1) Use one calendar to track your business and family appointments. (I love Google Calendar for this!)

2) Manage your paper. As soon as paper gets into your hands Read, Act, File or Toss it. Touch it once.

3) Avoid email overload by scheduling specific times to check email (I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to implement that one. I live in my email. Such a bad girl I know.)

4) Containerize. Make a “home” for things. Makes it easier to keep things neat and then everything has a place it belongs.

5) Purge. At least once a year you should dig thru your files and pull out stuff that you never look at or don’t need anymore. Take files that you need to keep - but don’t look at often and they can go in a storage box away from your main office area (like in the basement or a closet or something).

Those are some great tips Randy. For New Years I totally cleaned my office. Rearranged it. Dog proofed it some more. Threw out a bunch of things I didn’t need anymore. Read and filed every piece of paper. I grouped items that I use together in one place. Like I have my “mailing area with stamps, tape, envelopes.” I have a personal items area with a bin that I toss my purse, keys, and items I use when I head out the door.

It took 2 days to clean my office, but WOW were the results worth it. It looks so clean. It functions so well for me now. And talk about efficiency - I must have done 3 days work the first day I stepped back in my new organized home office.

Clutter sure steals your energy and focus. A spiffy clean office makes you feel GREAT and get a ton of work done.

Did you clean or organize your office for the new year? What are your favorite office organizing tips?

1

Subscribe to RSS feed
Add to your favorite bookmark site

It’s hard to work when the kids are saying “Mom, I’m bored.” Found a cure for that - a list with great ideas for activities for kids. Crayola has a great list of kids activities. It’s called 52 Ideas for 52 Weeks of Fun. Lots of great ideas for keeping your kids happy without using the TV as a babysitter. (I’m not too hip about that!)

Here’s that list of children’s activities

What favorite kids activities do your children do to stay happy while you work?

2

Subscribe to RSS feed
Add to your favorite bookmark site

It’s been a busy summer. One of those where you just kind of surf at the top of your most urgent emails and the rest sinks to the bottom of the black inbox sea. And today I had it. My urgent email box was up to 476 emails. Geez Louse that’s bad. So, today for peace of mind I was determined to dig thru there and clean that sucker out. I am very proud to be down to 257 emails now.
Am I bad?

I even hire my husband to dig thru the 1500 or so emails I get a day from all my websites to send me the urgent stuff. So I only have the important stuff in my box.

Seriously, how fat is your email inbox? Is it busting at the seams? How many emails are sitting in your inbox right now?

I want to see if I am the only guilt one out there.

6

Subscribe to RSS feed
Add to your favorite bookmark site

Working from home can present dangers to your pet if you don’t take some time to pet proof your home office.

The same items that cause danger to children, can cause harm to your cat or dog as well.

After getting a new puppy, I discovered pretty quickly what she was getting into and wanted to share some pet safety tips to help you.

9 home office safety tips for pets

1) Protect your pet from power cords. Tuck electrical cords out of site when possible. You should block power strips so that your pet can’t access them. Put outlet covers on any unused outlets to prevent electrical shock.

Here are some products to protect your pet from power cords.

-
A clear cord protector that goes over power cords to prevent your pet from chewing on it and getting shocked.

- 1.2 inch flexible plastic tubing - You can pick this up at Menards or Home Depot. Just take scissors and cut the tubing open. Use the opening to insert the cord. That way when your pet bites the cord, they bite the protective tubing instead and won’t get hurt.

- Bitter Apply spray - You can get this at any pet supply store. Spray it to stop dogs from biting furniture, cords, and other items. It has a bitter flavor and will discourage them from biting again.

2) Remove small items from the floor.
If you have any paper clips, binder clips, loose change, staples, push pins or other small items your pet could choke on, remove it from the floor.

3) Secure any bookshelves to the wall.
If there is something tempting on your bookshelf that your pet my want to climb to get, make sure your bookshelf if secured to the wall so that it won’t tip over on them.

4) Set ground rules. Tell your pet what behavior is a “no no” in your home office. If they chew on something, climb, or do something you don’t want, say no. It may take some reinforcing, but they’ll get the rules if you are consistent.

See IAMS free dog training videos to teach your dog to behave in the office and the whole house

5) Keep messy items out of reach. Store ink cartridges, white out, pens, markers, highlighters, stamps up on shelves where pets can reach.

6) Keep computers and equipment up high where pets can’t reach.

7) Contain pets if you can’t supervise them. If you are working intensely on a project and can’t keep an eye on your pet, you may consider putting them in a kennel, play yard, or fenced in area where they will be safe.

7) Store office cleaning supplies up and away. If you have special cleaning solutions for your laptop screen, your desk, and other areas of your office, keep it out of pets reach. These items can be toxic and possibly deadly to your pet.

Shredders. Keep shredders unplugged and put away so pets can accidentally access them.

9) Sharp Stuff. Take extra care to put scissors, letter openers, and other sharp items where pets can’t reach them.

Have you found any other pet safety items or tips that you use to keep your pet safe in your home office? Any tips on how to keep pets happy (and not jealous) when you are spending time working on the computer? Share your tips for keeping pets happy when working from home here.

12

Subscribe to RSS feed
Add to your favorite bookmark site

I get letters all the time from moms who are looking for a legitimate work at home job.

For example here’s a letter I got last week:

The reason I am emailing you is because I would like to do data entry. I just don’t know who to trust so can you please send me some info on that kind of thing. I a now doing surveys but I have to pay alot to do them some are free but no money. I need to work I am on SSI but that don’t pay the bills I have 2 girls who are ages 1 and 4 we are going to lose our house and I am trying to keep it! My boyfriend/husband of 12 years is working as hard to keep what we have but there is so much a man can do. He comes home from a job he hates and he’s tired all the time but yet he stills have time for the kids He gives them baths and takes them to the park. Hes a good Dad but he needs to rest so please can you find me something and my boyfriend/husband likes to put things together He is not good at computers!

Here’s the advice I gave her on finding a telecommuting job.

I am so sorry to hear about your situation. Have you looked into telecommuting? Here are some places to help you find a legitimate work from home job.

-Workaholics4hire
-Alpineaccess
-CustomLoyal
-Liveops
-WorkingSolutions

Some of the types of jobs you can do as a telecommuter include: administrative, freelance, computer-related, accounting, marketing, and writing.

Do any of you telecommute? If so, what do you do? How did you find the job you have?

Here are some articles on telecommuting from our Webmomz site.

1

Subscribe to RSS feed
Add to your favorite bookmark site

When you start a home based business, no one tells you that it’s much like having a baby. It takes about 9 months for that business to “gestate”. When it’s first born, that new business sometimes needs “fed” in the wee hours of the morning and night. And it can take it’s toll on your health and your marriage.

Even when your business grows older, gets more established and more profitable, it still takes steady effort and focus to keep it running. And it’s really easy to let that needy business take time from the relationships you have with your husband and kids if you let it.

In fact, there’s somewhat of a “sexy” appeal to feeling needed by your business. The intellectual stimulation of thinking of that next promotion, where to find customers, and how to grow profits feels good compared to the conversation you might have with your 2 year old.

I guess what I am saying is that I let the thrill of my business feed me in a way that I stopped investing in my marriage. And this spring it really took it’s toll on us. We are back on the right track now. But I really want to remind you to keep things in this order God first, family second, business third.

Now I am making date time with my husband. I am trying to do thoughtful little things to show I love him (cards, making his favorite cookies etc). And we are trying to take time together to connect everyday - even if it’s just sitting with a cup of coffee or a glass of wine and talking.

Having a successful business is worth nothing if you don’t have a happy family to share it with.

That’s part also of why I got really quiet on my blog. I knew it was time to unplug from business and replug in to family. Now that things are out of crisis mode, I look forward to reconnecting to you - my friends.

Here’s wishing you the very best for you, your family, and your business.

God Bless.

Kristie T

8

Subscribe to RSS feed
Add to your favorite bookmark site

Oh my gosh. Webmomz made ABC News. Guess they Googled working at home and found our site. Take a look at this story on the technology you need to work at home.

There’s also a comment and contribute section. So feel free to post your thoughts there too!

Working From Home, Technically
With No IT Guy Down the Hall, Here’s What You Need to Know
by Lee Ferran of ABC News

3

Subscribe to RSS feed
Add to your favorite bookmark site

Just to let you all know I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth, or gotten bored with my blog. I just needed to take a little personal time out. I LOVE my work and helping all of you. And it was high time to take a break and focus on family and give back a bit to them. I feel so thankful to have a career that let’s me take some “chill time” when I need to.

Anyway, I missed you all very much. And I wanted to let you know “I’m back”.

Hope everything is good with you.

Let’s stir up some fun and make money together… *grin*

Love you all bunches!

Your work at home mom friend,
Kristie T

Kristie T

3

Subscribe to RSS feed
Add to your favorite bookmark site

My friend, Nicole Dean, has just launched a fun new site with home business ideas for moms, and it looks promising.
In her usual light-hearted way, she’s managed to come up with a cool name and even a mascot “Babs VonScambuster”.

You’ve got to check this one out.
www.JustAddSweat.com
And, if you’re not interested in the home business ideas she offers… get on her list because they’re adding four new books and audios very soon.

2

Subscribe to RSS feed
Add to your favorite bookmark site

Are you guilty of not charging what you are worth? Freelance Switch has a fun blog post about
Top 10 Signs you may be charging too little

You’ll get a good chuckle out of this!

(Leave a Comment)

Subscribe to RSS feed
Add to your favorite bookmark site