Vintage Housewives Do It Online.

I might be a good housekeeper, but I’m a truly terrible record keeper. I start shopping lists and promptly lose them.  Ask me for the recipe of something delicious I have  served you for lunch and I will disappear into a pile of cookbooks never to be seen again.  Receipts  evaporate and home inventory doesn’t exist which makes content insurance a problem.  If, (and it’s a big if) I’ve even got  contents insurance…

My whole life is conducted online. From banking to dating. I can’t remember the last time I consulted a dictionary. Quotes for everything from car insurance to party entertainers are emailed to me and how people managed before Google was invented I will never, ever know. So while considering the technological state of the rest of my life I have decided to make use of all the really rather wonderful web 2.0 apps designed to make life at home a tad easier and finally get to grips with online housekeeping and a lifetime of organisation…

1) First things first. A personal calendar. A proper, multi-functional useful calendar that integrates with my email, and can perform all kinds of other singing, dancing, date-keeping and list-making functions… So that would be Google Calendar then. Don’t bother with anything else, particularly if you are a Gmail user (and why in heavens name would you not be??)

2. Next a calendar that can be used by the entire family to combine events, celebrations, school holidays, meals, shopping lists, etc, etc, etc… in short do the whole caboodle at My Home Point.

2.  A To-Do List. Remember the Milk. Because it is the best online. The easiest to use and it integrates really rather fantabulously with Google Calendar and Gmail.    

3. A financial organiser. Wesabe. Although initially I found this difficult to get to grips with, I now consider it invaluable, love it that all my bank accounts are in one place, and truly appreciate the goal setting  and budgeting aspect of the site. Try it.

4. A receipt keeper. ShoeBoxed. Because it not only lets you store paper receipts easily, it also tracks all your online purchases and receipts. Excellent stuff.

5. A home inventory keeper. Stuff Safe or My Things. Having both a printed version, and a version stored safely online makes absolute sense. And though it may initially take a little work, in the event of disaster you will thank your lucky stars you made the effort.

6. A housekeeping planner. ChoreBuster. Like your very own personalised FlyLady…sending you email reminders  about what needs to be done and helping you generate a fair system of sharing chores.

7. Children’s chore charts and reward tracker. Childzilla– because although it is new it  has the most comprehensive features list, is child and parent friendly and makes what can be a headache, something kinda fun. 

8. A recipe keeper… there are quite literally hundreds of options in this area… but I like We Gotta Eat. Because it is effortless to use, has no unnecessary extras and includes an online shopping list generator  that  is oh so useful.

So there you have it. No more excuses. Especially since the Brocante Toolbar  (Click upgrade to get the new list on the toolbar) now includes direct links to  all the apps  on the list.

Our predecessors kept meticulous records with little more than a notebook and a fountain pen and life would be infinitely easier if housekeeping our way through life was a breeze…

An organised Vintage Housekeeper is a happy Vintage  Housekeeper. Am I right or am I  right?