LTD Cleaning

I'm not a good housekeeper. I'd think that would be obvious from the blog title, but if not, there you go. I've tried FlyLady, which I found kind of love bomb-y, and various, 'One Month To Organized!'-type ebooks, and cleaning lists, and I typically end up overwhelmed, and playing The Sims instead of being useful after my son's gone to bed. So, at one point I just stopped, looked around, and decided what areas of housework make the place most Hoarders-like when neglected, and decided to worry about them, and nothing else. Oddly enough, it seems to be working.

My nightly routine is:

Laundry - Put dirty stuff in the machine, or a basket, if you'd rather, and run the machine when it's full. I wash everything together on cold, so no color-bleeding, and let the husband wash his own shirts and undies. Run the machine if it's full, dry it if it's done, fold and put away clothes (or leave a basket of folded clothes outside a sleeping kid's room). When we were still using cloth diapers, I'd put them on the drying rack outside at night, so they could get some sun, and bring them in the next night, since I'm not around during the day.

Trash - Pick up whatever half eaten muffins, bits of frozen vegetable bags, and junk mail might be lying around, and toss them. Take the trash out if it's the right night, take the bin back from the curb if it's just been picked up.

Dishes - Put them in the dishwasher and run when full, or wash by hand. Empty the dishwasher or rack.

If you have the energy, wipe down the counters, clean the toilet, or do whatever else needs doing. I find that when I only commit to bare-minimum cleaning I'm more likely to keep going on other tasks, so I try not to put too much on my list, or the little computer people start calling to me again.

Cheap List, Phoenix-Based

I wrote this up for a recently fired friend, and am putting it up here for anyone who might find it useful. Every time we lose someone else there it's like friggin' Watership Down.

Anyway . . .

Go get a GMail or Yahoo or similar account just for this stuff before you do anything.

http://moneysavingmom.com/ - lots of info on sales, drugstore fun, and general cheapness. This is where so much of my toothpaste comes from. Y

http://www.savingcentswithsense.net/ - similar, but Tucson based

http://www.5dollardinners.com/ - some good inspiration

http://weelicious.com/ - ditto, but with more agave nectar. That ingredient pisses me off, for some reason.

http://startsampling.com/ - sign up with a spam account, receive tampons and fibre supplements in the mail.

http://instoresnow.walmart.com/In-Stores-Now-free-samples.aspx - Same idea. Don't mine the Walmart-ness. This is being done by the manufacturers.

http://www.kraftfirsttaste.com/default.aspx - Okay, it's not health food, but if you check the offers stuff, you'll often get coupons for free products.

http://www.vocalpoint.com/ - More stuff in the mail. Kashi coupons should make anyone at least moderately happy.

http://www.mambosprouts.com/sign-up.php - coupons for natural stuff.

http://www.getpaidsurveys.com/lightspeed/ - see if the link here works. My favorite by far, since it rewards pretty well, and you can get Amazon cards with it.

Look into Swag Bucks if you get bored. Not as fast, and I installed it on IE, so Firefox stays nice and clean. Run searches a couple times a day, eventually get $5 from Amazon.

https://www.mypoints.com - get points for clicking links in emails, or shopping through certain sites. I probably have a referral link somewhere, but haven't done much with this recently.

http://www.alpinevalleybread.com/ - go to the store on Friday (before 2:30), take $10 and a giant Ikea bag, come back with a ton of cheap, good bread. A lot of the labels are covered over, so you may need to guess, but your chances of scratching off the label when you get home and finding that you paid 50 cents for organic bread are pretty high.

http://www.freshandeasy.com/ - sign up for their mailing list, get coupons for $5 off $25 or $10 off $50 from time to time (they're nice about letting you do two transactions to use two coupons), get cheap organic stuff and markdowns. And get the banana gelato!

http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/ and http://www.thesimpledollar.com/ - forgot these two.

Cheap Online Thrills

Being, in this case, things to send away for, or make a wee bit of money with. Don't get me wrong, you're not going to get rich clicking emails, and anyone who tells you otherwise has something to sell you, but there's still some fun to be had.

StartSampling

Sign up, choose some samples, and you'll be awash in odd magazine subscriptions and fiber supplements in no time. There are more useful samples, too, like little tubes of toothpaste, and shower gel. This is a great way to never have to buy travel-sized items again.

Walmart

Yes, really. Same idea as StartSampling, run by start sampling, actually, but the selection varies, and sometimes it's possible to order the same item from both sites. When a sample page says the item is only available in stores, it means that if you want to purchase it, you need to go to a physical store, not Walmart.com, but you can still order the sample.

Vocalpoint

I really like this one. Sign up, receive the occasional survey email, and get neat stuff in the mail, including coupons for free products, and high-value coupons for stuff like Kelloggs cereals, and Kashi (which Kelloggs owns, shockingly enough). The little organizer I'm planning on sticking coupons in came in a FluMist promotion from Vocalpoint.

GMail/Yahoo/Hotmail

Yes, I know that free email accounts are just so 1998, and you already have one. Get another one anyway, and use it for signing up for offers from manufacturers. You don't need this stuff cluttering up your personal inbox, and it's nice having it all in one spot. I'd recommend one that lets you filter messags into various folders.

MyPoints

Prime example of why you need a free email account for this stuff. Sign up, click advertising emails, and get 5 or so points each. You can get points for buying from various online shops, but I suck at remembering to do this. Anyway, the email points add up fast enough, and you can redeem them for Amazon gift cards and the like. And then find out your husband spent said gift card on a garage door remote control. But anyway . . . .

BzzAgent

Sign up, get sent products and coupons, tell people about the stuff, repeat -- and get MyPoints points for it. You do need to submit reports on what you said, and how people reacted, but it's not hard, and it's extremely friendly. Also, getting a box of makeup or candles in the mail in the middle of a derpressing week is a lot of fun.