I am all about organizing and one of my favorite ways to stay on track is through apps. Here are a few apps that I have tried and fell in love with myself.
1.) My latest discovery, and current favorite is Ourhome
This app will be even better when my fiancé and I have kids, but it is still great! I was having the hardest time trying to get Charles to do anything around the house since we moved in together that it was getting to the point where the house just plain disgusting! We would both be tired from work and want to rest on our days off, so we would usually try and do the “get-by” work around the house. I would be so embarrassed to let anyone come over unless I busted my butt the day before! So I went looking for something that would work for us both, and I found Ourhome. Ourhome is a free app that you can sync up with everyone in the house that you want to use the features. You can assign chores, rewards, send messages and there’e even a grocery list!
My favorite of course is the chores list. Charles is very competitive so I knew that this would be great for us. Since it is just the two of us, I have set it up to where we are both assigned all of the chores in competition to see who gets the most points. Of course, I’m totally dominating, but we have only had this for a couple months now, so we are just getting started. It’s nice how it already has points and the amount of time it would take to complete assigned to specific tasks, which makes setting it up go a bit faster, but you can change them easily if you want. I changed some of the points to much higher amounts for chores that we both hate doing for more incentive. For example, we both hate folding the laundry and there would be times where all our clothes would just stay in the laundry basket until we couldn’t tell the difference between clean or dirty! Once a task is completed, that person gets on the app, checks it off and receives the points.
The points earned from doing the tasks leads to the rewards! Ourhome already has some set up for you to chose from, like the tasks, but it makes getting the tasks done sooner if you add in your own too. My fiancé is dying for a new and bigger TV, so I’ve added that to the list and he’s getting closer to that goal faster than before!
The other feature that I find to be pretty handy is the grocery list. What makes it so much better than using the generic note pad app or writing it down is that it too is synced to everyone else that has the app in your household. Say you’re at the store and your child or husband sees that you just ran out of peanut butter. Instead of trying to call you to make sure it’s on the list, they can have a look themselves! If it’s not on the list, they can add it in and it will appear on your list. They can also see what all you have already put in your cart as you cross the items off your list! And if they want to make absolutely sure that you don’t forget that peanut butter, they can send you a message on the app as well.
The messaging section of the app is very simple. It’s just like sending a text or a message on facebook. This is perfect for the young ones who may not be old enough to have a phone just yet, but you still want to stay in touch with them. All they need to do is be connected to the internet! This app is compatible with iPhones, iPads and the iPod Touch. They have not yet added pictures to the messaging section, but I’m sure with time it will be there.
2.) OurGroceries
Now if you don’t have an issue with chores, staying connected with messages, but love the idea of the synched up grocery list, the OurGroceries is the app for you! This app is just like the groceries feature in the Ourhome app. It is also a great app for people who love to make a lot of lists. I found this before the Ourhome app, so now I just use it for all the lists I make, but before I found Ourhome, I had told everyone, including my parents about this app. It make grocery shopping that much easier and no one would ever endure the argument of not answering the phone. My dad has always had a hard time with answering the phone. His issue was that he would have it on vibrate all the time for work and wouldn’t remember to switch it back, so he wouldn’t feel or hear it. Now that they have the app, he automatically has his phone out when he’s out shopping and can see the notifications of any changes or additions right away.
It is also nice how the grocery list, once an item has been crossed off, is saved. When it is time to go back to the store and you are making your new list, it will already have your past items there to choose from. In my case, it helps me to not miss something or remember to check if we needed to buy more of that item or not. I can just scroll through and look at what all we have gotten before, click on it, and it goes straight to your new list.
Some of the other lists I have created are Christmas and Birthday idea lists. If I see something that I would love to have, I add it to the day that is closest. Since it is synced with others in your family, they can go to that list and choose what they would like to get you for that occasion. I also have a lot of things on my todo list as well, but I don’t use it as much now that I found Ourhome.
3.) 30/30
This app helps you get stuff done!!! As a person with ADD, I would say that this app helps me out a lot on my days off when I need to get things done around the house. Ourhome helps a little bit with the reward system, but 30/30 helps you focus on each task and get them done faster. Before I found this app, I would have the hardest time getting any task completed. I would start in the the bedroom and pick up laundry but the laundry is next to the kitchen, and the dishes need to be done, but then you get hungry, and when your’e done you throw your trash away and realize the trash is full, so you take it out but to leave you have to go though the living room to see your essay on the coffee table that’s due tomorrow…..and on and on to where you forget where you even started and the day is almost over!!!!! It would get so frustrating that there would be times where I would break down feeling like I would never get anything done and that I was failing at life. The problem was my ADD and not being able to focus on task at a time.
30/30 has you set up all the tasks that you need to take care of that day with an amount of time set to get it done. I would start simple with breakfast-15 to 20 min; brush teeth - 5 min; pick up clothes - 10 min; pick up dishes - 10 min; etc, etc. Once you start your first task, the timer begins counting down. Once your time was up for that task, the alarm would go off letting you know that it is time to move on to the next task. If you didn’t finish the task, that’s ok, it will come back again when you have gone through all the other tasks as a loop. Sometimes you will finish a task early! All you do is swipe the task to the left, sending it to the back of the line, and move on to the next task.
It is amazing how fast you can get all of your tasks for the day done with this app! Once you type in how long you think the task will take, it will show you the time frame of that task. I love putting in all of my todos and seeing what time I could potentially be done with everything. The start time is the current time and the tasks take it from there. For example, if i were to set up all my tasks in the morning before even getting out of bed, let’s say it’s 9:15am, my first task, eating breakfast, would show up as starting at 9:15am-9:30am. Then brushing my teeth would be 9:30am-9:35am, etc. Depending on how many things I need to do that day, I could have it all done by Noon! Once I was able to get it all done by 11:45, WITH A BREAK!!! How awesome is that!?
What are some of your favorite home organization apps? What makes them your favorite?
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