• Anti-aging and acne treatments: Three months to a year.
• Body lotion: Two to three years, particularly if it’s in a pump container.
• Shampoo, conditioner, and shower gel: About three years.
• Bath oil: One year.
• Sunscreen: Check the package for an expiration date.
• Mascara and liquid eyeliner: Three to four months.
• Eye and lip pencils: Three to five years. Sharpen them before each use as a way to preserve them and keep them clean.
• Lipstick and lip gloss: Two to three years.
• Foundation: About two years.
• Perfume: About two years. To get more mileage out of a perfume, resist the temptation to display a pretty bottle on your vanity. Instead, stash it away in a cool, dark place.
• Nail polish: One year.
• Hairstyling products: Three to five years. Most are alcohol-based, which helps preserve the formula.
• Bar soap: Up to three years.
• Shaving cream: About two years.
• Deodorant: Up to two years.

Go ahead and use this chart when cleaning out your bathroom shelves and drawers. Tell me about the oldest product you found! I found some foundation that I think I remember wearing 3 houses ago!!

image from GraceBrooke.com

Are you joining me in Slow and Steady Spring Cleaning? This week, I am working on the closets! Here are some links with closet decluttering/organization how-to’s and inspiration.

Closet organizing tips and inspiration from Operation Organization

20 Ways To Organize Your Bedroom Closet from Apartment Therapy

Organizing and Inventorying Children’s Clothing from Organizing Junkie

How to Organize Your Disorganized Closet from Grace Brooke

walnut & platinum elfa décor freestanding closet

Welcome to week two of Slow And Steady Spring Cleaning. This week, I am tackling the closets  - one each day. I’ll be working on our two entry closets (one by the front door and one by the door going into the garage) and our bedroom closets. And by cleaning them, I mean decluttering them – getting rid of everything that doesn’t belong!

Even though these closets all hold different things, I can use the same basic decluttering principles for each .

1) Evaluate each item - When cleaning out a space, don’t just eyeball the stuff on the shelves or hanging on the hangers. Touch each item and evaluate it (quickly). It should fall into a category.

2) Categorize each item - Each item in your closet will fall into one of three main catagories – Keep, Toss, or Give. Find a box for each catagory and quickly sort your stuff. When you are done, take the “toss” box to the garbage and take the “give” box to your trunk. Then, you can take it to Goodwill or somewhere similar to bless someone else next time you are out. Or, if you do yard sales, you can close the box and mark it “yard sale” and store it with your other yard sale items.

3) Re-categorize the “keep” items - Now that you are down to just one box. Determine these things: Does it belong in this closet? How often do I use/wear this? Will I use/wear it again? Is it useful? Do I love it? Answering these questions might cause you to recatagorize the item or determine that this is really an item worth keeping.

4) Determine the best way to put the items back in your closet- Just because you have always kept the kids shoes in a box in the closet, doesn’t mean that is still the best way to store them. The hall closet might not be the best place to store your sporting goods anymore. Look for better solutions to your storage problems.

Apply these basic steps to spring cleaning your closets, and you will be amazed at the difference!

Look for more specific closet tips throughout the week on Overcoming Busy, on facebook and on twitter. On Wednesday, I’ll be giving away a fab resource to help with your decluttering and simplifying your life. And on Friday, I’ll post some before and after photos of spring cleaning my closets. You can link up yours if you like.

Have a great week of spring cleaning!

Are you spring cleaning slow and steady along with me? This week’s area was the kitchen. I focused on what really needed attention – the appliances (inside and out), the silverware drawer and the cabinet doors. Each day, I took on a small task or two as I had time. This approach worked well with our crazy schedule.

For instance, on Wednesday, we spent most of the day outside since the weather was unseasonably gorgeous and warm. That didn’t give me a lot of time for house cleaning. So, I just took 15 minutes before cooking dinner and cleaned the inside of the microwave and the top shelf of the refrigerator. With little bits of time in between activities, I got the kitchen clean!

I did use the tips for cleaning the appliances I shared earlier in the week. They worked great!

How did  your spring cleaning go this week? Did you choose the slow and steady approach? What area did you take on?

Next week,  I’ll be cleaning out closets!! Tips and advice on Monday!

This week, I am cleaning the kitchen as part of my Slow and Steady approach to spring cleaning. Here are some tips for cleaning kitchen appliances that should make the task easier.

Cleaning Your Dishwasher from Today’s Housewife

Cleaning Stainless Appliances  from the Inspired Room

Natural Oven Cleaner from Pennies and Blessings

Cleaning and Organizing Your Refrigerator from Unclutterer.com

 What is your favorite kitchen cleaning tip??

It’s official. I’ve got spring fever! The weather is warming up. My flower beds are greening up. And I am ready to clean up!

Since, I’m not one to dedicate a day or two to spring cleaning. I like to do it slowly over a few weeks. I try to add it to my daily routine. Baby steps. My goal is to clean an area a week, a project or two a day, on top of the usual cleaning. The kitchen is first on my list.

• Clean silverware drawer
• Clean outsides of the appliances
• Clean the insides of the appliances
• Wipe down cabinet doors

Since panic was my first thought, I decided I needed to ask the experts. I asked Overcoming Busy facebook fans what they would do. I thought it was interesting that the ideas where very similar. The common thread was to just take care of the main areas and do it quickly.

“pick up toys, wipe down kitchen, wipe down bathroom (just the main one), if time left, run the sweeper”

“Big huge plastic bag to clean up all the clutter. Hide the full bag. A quick wipe down of bathroom and spot vacuum where company will be.”

“Spray air freshner in living room area, by the front door & bathroom. Then, do a quick touch-up of the bathroom. Sink & Toilet.
And if you have boys, the floor and wall ALL Around the toilet. (Ask me how I know)”

“Vacuum,sweep, mop. I have a steam.mop it takes like ten minutes. Clean the toilet. If your nosey enough to look in the shower you’ll know we actually live here. Plug in the scentsy and call it even.”

“Potties, counter tops and my personal pet peeve: clean out the sink!!! The sink makes or breaks it–IMO!”

This comment had lot of wisdom -

“I try to keep my main living areas where 15-20 min is all I need”

And, this one just cracked me up because we’ve all thought of it at least once -

“Start coughing & pretend I’m sick…..wink”

 Would you do anything different?

Jenny – an Overcoming Busy reader

Congratulations Jenny on winning the Weekly Household Planner fromThe Confident Mom!

If you didn’t win, I highly recommend you grab the download. It is only $9 for an entire year! I am really seeing the benefits of this planner already and I’m sure you will, too. If you missed it, you can read the review HERE.

(**disclaimer—I am an affiliate of the Weekly Household Planner, meaning that I earn a little from each sale that goes through OvercomingBusy.com. It helps update the site and with hosting fees.)

I just may have the answer for you!!

Susan Heid at The Confident Mom just released the 2012 Confident Mom Weekly Household Planner. This planner will make completing your daily and weekly household chores a snap! It helps keep you on task and productive by giving  chore lists for each day of the year. This keeps housework from building up and becoming large and overwhelming. Most of the items on the lists can easily be completed in 3 to 30 minutes, and you can select appropriate items to delegate to family members. (Hey, no one said YOU had to do it all!) And nothing feels better than being able to check off those items as DONE!

Here’s a sample of the types of tasks you will find in this planner:

• Plan/cook dinner
• Make beds
• Clean out expired food in pantry
• Water indoor plants
• Clean bathroom sinks/shine mirrors
• Wash car
• Pay bills due
• Pamper yourself
• Plan cards/gifts for January birthdays/occasions
• Quiet time (Gen 4-6; Matt 2) (Note: A version without the Bible study is also available.)

You can even personalize the planner by adding special weekly tasks or notes to remember. A fun or inspirational quote is featured each week to remind you about the joys, and sometimes humor, of family and motherhood.

To see a sample page for yourself click HERE. You can download an entire year copy for yourself for only $9 or….

You can win one!!! ########CONTEST CLOSED########################

Leave a comment and you are entered to win! I will draw a name at random Friday January 6th and will announce the winner Saturday. That’s it. Easy peasy!  You are going to love this planner! Good luck!

All month long, Today’s Housewife is hosting the “Countdown To A Better 2012″ series. The writers will be sharing tips and ideas to make 2012 more organized, more efficient, and more peaceful. Each tip will be simple, one day projects that can make a big impact on your family.

Join me today at Today’s Housewife as I share the idea of a housekeeping schedule.