Just some quick hints

When you are cooking, run a sink full of warm soapy water first. Then you can rinse the pots and pans and either set them on the counter to dry, or pop them in the dish washer for more thorough cleaning.

This is a good idea for mail. I saw one of my BO friends doing this. When her bills or other important mail comes in, she takes a big black Sharpie and writes all the info on the back of the envelope. Something like "Electric bill -due 10/15" or "Car Registration". Then she puts them into a basket. That way she just flip through the basket to tell what bills are due without having to search through the envelopes. I thought that was a great idea!

I keep a "sock orphanage" down in my laundry room. Then when I have mismatched socks, I toss them in there. Every month or so, I dig through it and see if I've got any matches. Eventually, I'll throw them out, but I'm always hopeful I'll find that missing sock....

We watch movies - a LOT! And my guys are terrible about putting them back in the cases. So every so often I'll gather up a whole stack of them that are laying around and I put them into the closet for a "time out". I'll even put a note on them "In time out until October 20th". Nobody dares touch them and it makes them get better about putting them away - for a while anyway.

I have been known to put notes on the counters or on the kitchen table. "You may NOT leave dirty dishes here - you need to put them in the dishwasher. If it needs to be emptied - JUST DO IT". I can nag and nag and they just tune me out, but strangely enough, they'll mind the notes - again for a while. They tune them out after a week or two, but it does help.

One of my clients came up with a great idea this week. When you're feeling low on motivation for a chore, persuade your husband to bribe you. Say something like - if I clean out this closet today, will you take me out to dinner? If he wants more room in the the closet, he's likely to agree and then you have a reward to motivate you to do the chore. Hey, bribery WORKS! Let it work for you instead of against you! Plus you get a nice dinner with your husband.

When your teenagers won't clean their rooms, "offer" to clean it for them, maybe even insist on it if they don't do it themselves by a certain time. Most teenagers are so big on their precious PRIVACY, they would rather DIE than have you touching their stuff.

Oh, here's a naughty one, but it's funny! When you get really mad at your husband - go shopping. With the TV remote in your purse! He'll go crazy looking everywhere for hours. Then you slip it out and just leave it somewhere and say, Oh it was right over here all the time....