April 27, 2012
Does your medicine cabinet still have Children’s Tylenol, but your “baby ” is 16? Do you have old prescriptions that you aren’t quite sure what to do with? Don’t just throw it away in the trash can where kids can find them, and who wants to contaminate our water supply by tossing them down the toilet?
This Saturday, April 28, 2012, the DEA will be setting up locations all over the country where you can take your unused, expired drugs to dispose of them the correct way without harming Nemo, Mother Earth, and anyone or anything else that does not need to be taking Xanex. Take advantage of the Fourth Annual National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day this Saturday and clean out that medicine cabinet.
To find a collection site near you check out http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/drug_disposal/takeback/index.html
April 14, 2012
Get out of the house with your friends and/or family this SUNDAY!
Gather everyone and head to the Tempe Diablo Stadium this Sunday morning before all the cars begin their four day rally departure through Flagstaff, Bagdad, Globe, Roosevelt Lake, Oro Valley and other spots around Arizona! Your kids and friends will love to see these cool cars! This FREE event provides coffee, doughnuts, raffles, and free prizes!
A friend of mine has invited me to the Copperstate 1000 Departure to be googly-eyed with her over this 80 exotic and rare racing and touring car display! Of course I said I would go with her and also support the drivers in their upcoming four day rally!
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Need an outing for a large group of kids?!
Until May6, visit the Arizona Museum for Youth for the, Wing It! Things that Fly exhibit!$7 admission gets you into the museum for great activities! Kids get to build things that fly and experience stimulated flight!
A highlight to this exhibit?
The Camp out — Flying creatures of the night, such as bats, owls, fireflies, night hawks and moths, get the spotlight. Children will “camp out” using tents and experience the calls and sounds that each creature makes.
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Need to get everyone out of the house for some cleaning? Use these events, then call our Moxie Girl Team to schedule an appointment for home services while your out of the house having fun!
Don’t miss out!
Miss Moxie
March 24, 2012
So I was just visiting some of my girlfriends for our usual relaxing “Girls Night In.” These ladies can get pretty creative when it comes to planning a night of fun and relaxation! We have kept this tradition lasting through our hectic, busy lives as we all deserve to relax with our friends for a night!
This week for “Girls Night In,” Ali brought out a game that I had never played before. Apples to Apples is the name of the game! This funny word game had us laughing all night long! After an hour of playing Apples to Apples, of course I decided I need to have this game for my house!
I finally picked up the box to read more about the game, and come to find out it is approved for children ages 12 and up. Even your kids can play this game with you! Have a family that you need bonding time with? Board or card games are a great way to accomplish that!
Having trouble with too many games/toys cluttering your home? Moxie Girl offers home organizing packages to all clients. And we organize game/toy rooms!
Miss Moxie
March 19, 2012
household hard? There have been wind storms kicking up the past couple of weeks. These storms are making pollen, dust, and other allergens spread fast with the wind storms.
One tip I suggest is dusting your home. Eliminating the dust in your home will decrease the chances of allergies acting up in doors for the members of your house.
Easy Ways to Dust:
I know I love the Swiffer Duster! It works so well; and the model that extends is so handy for dusting ceiling fans, skinny spaces, and unreachable spots.
Go through eye level dust holders in your home with a micro-fiber cloth. This will clean up those dust bunnies fast!
Don’t have time to get all your dusting needs completed? Moxie Girl provides dusting services at affordable prices.
Stay Allergy Free!
Miss Moxie
March 10, 2012
Well the temperature changes thee past few weeks have been hard on my body! It seems I have come down with a bad cold. Has anyone in your family come down with a cold? Or are allergies acting up in your family? Congestion, cough, sore throat, headaches… Lucky me I know my best tool in this situation! And so do many of our clients! A HUMIDIFIER!
I must say I don’t know anyone who likes to be sick. So what should we do to heal quickly at the first sign of a cold or allergy attack? Our Moxie Team has been noticing many of our in-home services clients have been bringing out their humidifiers to protect them and their families from getting colds, irritation allergies, and asthma attacks. To protect your kids, family, and selves from getting sicker, join our clients in putting a humidifier in your bedroom while sleeping. The humidifier will decrease the amount of dry air in your room. Having dry air in your home worsens symptoms of colds, allergies, and asthma.
Here are some fun kids designs from Target that we have seen in our client’s homes!
  
You can find different designs at home and health retail stores. Target has other children’s designs to choose from also!
Not a kid anymore? Ok grown ups, there are designs for your room too!
  
These designs can be found at Target too!
Keep your air moist everyone!
Miss Moxie
July 20, 2011
I often get asked what my favorite organizing products are. There is one product I get to work with every week at a client’s house and have grown to adore: Neat Containers.
Before Moxie Girl reorganized this client’s closet, she was keeping most of her shoes in their original shoe boxes. This kept them free of dust, but it could be tough to remember which shoes were in each box. Plus, heaven forbid she wanted to wear a pair from a dreaded Middle Box. You know the box; the one that if you pull it out, ALL the other boxes around it have to be moved to prevent an avalanche.
 Neat Containers in action When we started organizing her closet, I searched for “clear shoe boxes” online and found these. After watching the demonstration video, I was hooked. They really did seem too good to be true! They are clear, so she can see which shoes are in each box. They come in 5 different sizes, so every pair of shoes (except her knee-high, stiff leather boots) fit into a box. And best of all, the boxes interlock, so when one is pulled out, the rest stay right where they are.
I have been working with this client, helping her keep her shoes (and closet) organized for 4 years now. I am there on a weekly basis making sure every shoe is back in its home, and every time I pull out one of the Neat Containers, I still smile. I really do like them THAT much!
July 8, 2011
Growing up, I was the youngest of three girls. My sisters were 9 and 11 years older than me, so I was always guaranteed my own room in our house. When I was little, I always wondered what it would be like to share a room and thought it would be so cool to have bunk beds. For a couple weeks each summer, I went to camp and got to share a bunk with another girl. Being able to lean over the mattress (I always got to camp early to ensure I got a top bunk) and talk to my bunkmate was one of my favorite things to do. I thought these bunks were the coolest things ever.
 How would YOU change the top sheet of this monster? Now that I am a few years (or decades) older, I see bunk beds in a different light. Now, whenever I am changing the sheets or making bunk beds at a client’s house, all I can think of are those redneck guys who wrestle alligators in Florida. If you have ever changed the sheets on a top bunk, you know what I am talking about. There is NO graceful way to do it.
I have found two techniques:
- The Belly Flop: This involves hooking the sheet on the first two corners, then holding the other two corners while knealing on the portion of the sheet that is already tucked in, and flopping to the other side of the bed and PRAYING that the sheet was pulled tight enough that the corners can fit over the mattress.
- The Dog Turning in Circles: This technique starts off the same as the Belly Flop, but instead of flopping to get the last two corners in place, the bedmaker begins pulling the sheet down and “turns in circles” while remaining on the top bunk in an effort to get the sheet completely spread across the mattress.
If you are over 6′ tall, or have the muscle and motivation to pull the bunk beds away from the wall each time, you may not know what I’m talking about, and I don’t want to hear about how you can simply “reach over and tuck in the sheet.” If you are a shorty like I am, I would love to hear if you have any other techniques that work. Specifically ones that don’t cause you to fear the bunks are going to collapse, or that someone is going to walk in and see the circus act of changing the top bunk sheet.
Any suggestions???
June 16, 2011
 Is your food looking like this?? Time to toss it out. Let's keep practical about organizing our fuel forces! First and foremost, let me just say that moving is a lot of work! I’m currently in the process of helping one of my friends move from her old place as I too move into a new place. And trust me, it is a process.
But before I talk about moving in general, I just want to hone in on an important part of the organizing process that can be repulsive.
Spoiled Food. That’s right. Expired milk, rotting eggs, browning bananas, molding bread- the whole nine yards.
I’m not saying I am perfect by any means, for I have the pantry and refrigerator full of some items that may never be used. But, at the same time, I don’t take it to the extreme of buying 13 Taco Bell Taco Sauce bottles merely because there is a sale, like my friend.
I was seriously shocked to look at all of the good food she let go to waste! I wanted to scream, “Next time, pick me! I’m here. I would have eaten it!”
Needless to say, my heart broke a little bit as we were tossing out the Costco chocolate covered macademia nuts with caramel and my favorite kinds of cereal she so irresponsibly left open and had gone stale. Good thing she bought at least 5 other ones that she will probably never open. With all of the hoopla of moving, now might be my chance to swoop in and take a box!
But, back to the point. When you are moving and organizing your old stuff to make your new place a home, really take the time to look through your food and see if there are items way past the expiration date, or food that is still “good”. And if it looks like it’s something you are not going to eat, please find a charity to give it to, or comment on here to let us know if you have some tips to collect/place to take extra food.
I feel like the world is living in excess. Have you ever realized how much better functioning a home is when there is less clutter and less of everything? Every item should have a place and if it doesn’t fit your’s, don’t be so quick to make the trash can its place. Let’s learn from this moving and spoiled food experience and do something about it. Together.
Moxie Girl Household Assistants organize homes in Gilbert, Chandler, Mesa, Tempe, Scottsdale, Ahwatukee, Peoria, Glendale an Surprise.
May 30, 2011
Sunday afternoons are my time to get planned for the coming week. A big part of our goal of organized living is getting our food in order. We’ve discovered the hard way that, if we aren’t planned, we end up spending WAY too much time and money on food during the week.
In the spirit of Menu Planning Monday (which you can find ALL over the web!), I planned out 7 meals to cook for dinner, but I also wanted to get a few things ready to make sure we can have healthy breakfasts, lunches, and snacks through the week.
Here’s what our dinners look like this week:
 The title doesn't lie, these recipes are all quick and easy! Monday: Indian Tofu and Spinach with Almond Rice
Tuesday: Chian Mai Curry Noodles from Quick and Easy Thai
Wednesday: GRILL NIGHT!! Preseasoned beef filet tips from Fresh and Easy, Grilled zucchini and yellow squash (tossed with olive oil and Kosher salt)
Thursday: Healthy Bowtie Chicken
Friday: Stuffed Sole from Omaha Steaks, Steamed broccoli
Saturday: Chicken and Broccoli Thai Curry
Sunday: Vegetarian Pasta e Fagioli
Once I have decided what we are going to make during the week, I organize the recipes on my Moxie Girl Meal Planning Worksheet. This allows me to note which recipe book the meals can be found. If they are recipes from online, I simply print them off and hang them behind the worksheet. The benefit of being this organized? If I am running late, my husband can start cooking because he knows what the plan is, and where to find directions. It’s practically fool proof!
I realize that some of the names of these can look very intimidating, but trust me: I am a LAZY cook! If a recipe takes more than simple chopping, sauteeing, and boiling, I don’t do it. These are all pretty darn easy!
For those of you with kiddos, don’t be afraid to give these a shot. I can’t guarantee kids will like the Indian tofu dish, but the Thai dishes are pretty mild, due to the coconut milk. For those of you adults who are afraid of curry, Jon will attest that I HATED curry for the first 5 years we were together, but he took me to some of Phoenix’s best Thai and Indian restaurants and let me keep trying his curry dishes. After a while, the curry flavor started to become more familiar, and now it has become one of my favorites. Just like kids have to keep tasting new things to develop their palatte, so do we as grown-ups. 
One final note, if you haven’t use fish sauce before, don’t let the smell scare you off! It is the key ingredient that gives Thai food it’s unique taste. It is super important to use it in the dish, even if it smells like dead, rotting, fish. Just do whatever you can to NOT get it on your hands!!!
I’m creating a separate blog for the breakfast and snack food that I made today. Keep an eye out for that one soon!
May 19, 2011
One of my friends posted the question, “Do I bring a gift to a birthday party if the invitation says ‘No Gifts Please’?”on Facebook this past week and I was surprised to see the variety of answers that followed. First, I should clarify that the party my friend was attending was for a 5 year old, and the child’s parents, not the birthday boy himself, requested no gifts.
Responses that were left on this wall were everything from shock, “What kind of a parent wouldn’t want their kid to get presents?!?” to rule-abiding, “If the parent says no, then don’t bring anything.”
I felt like I needed to chime in because I had a slightly different perspective than most people had. Working closely with our clients and perspective clients, one of their biggest stresses is clutter around their house. What drives them even battier is when they finally make a dent in their clutter, only to have a well-intentioned grandparent/aunt/friend bring over a bunch of toys/clothes/stuff as a gift or hand-me-down. The biggest culprit? Birthday parties.
 In today’s “play fair” environment, many parents feel obligated to invite every child from their kid’s class, soccer team, dance team, and Sunday School class to the birthday party. While it can be exciting for the kid to be able to open 30 gifts of things they never knew they didn’t want, the parents are the ones stuck figuring out what to do with all the new stuff. And, let’s be honest, parents today are providing their kids with all their needs and most of their wants. This means that the gift from little Sally and her mommy is either already in the kid’s toybox, or something the kid isn’t at all interested in.
If the parent (or any party-thrower) takes the time to write, “No Gifts,” on the invitations, please believe them. While they will certainly feel loved that you brought them something, your gift will later later make them feel stress as they debate how long they have to keep it until they won’t feel guilty donating it, regifting it, or simply throwing it away.
If you really feel like you must bring something for to a child’s party, remember that cash is king. Give them a small amount (around $1/year of age is appropriate) and let the parents help teach them about saving vs. spending. For adults, a card with a heartfelt, hand-written message inside can’t be beat. And remember, sometimes the best gift you can give is your presence.
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