Our Favorite Home Organization Apps

Cooking, cleaning and home organizing is not the same animal that your grandma contended with! Where Grandma spent most of her time actually in the home, you most likely do not. While in some ways, keeping house was simpler in the “good old days,” you have lots of tools and gadgets that your grandmother didn’t have access to. Things have even changed since I had my first child over a decade ago; one of the newfangled helpers that I hadn’t even considered when I first learned the ropes of wife- and motherhood is the smartphone. Cooking, cleaning and organizing? There’s an app (or actually lots of apps) for that! Here are few of my favorites:

• Clean Freak Cleaning Schedule: This one is great for me, because I tend to forget how long it’s been since I did basic housework, like cleaning out the fridge or changing the sheets on the kids’ beds. Whoops! For under a dollar, you can download this modern-day to-do list, which breaks down chores into smaller parts, enabling you to use up all of those little idle minutes that come up each day.

• Good Housekeeping @ Home: This app is free, and it is a lifesaver for those whose kids are still in the spilling-everything-on-every-surface phase. Whether you have red wine, glue or tomato sauce on your leather couch, hardwood floors or carpeting, the experts at Good Housekeeping have an answer as to how you can treat it.

• Grocery IQ: I really dislike grocery shopping, and this app gets me in and out of the store quickly, and without forgetting anything. The absolute best part of the app is that it puts the groceries that you enter in order based on where they are located in the store! One of my major pet peeves is backtracking all over the store, and Grocery IQ reduces my frustration level.

• Cozi: You know those planners that have space for your calendar, your shopping list, the chores you need to do and even your journal? Cozi is the 21st century solution to wanting one of these planners, but not wanting to lug it around. Everyone in your family can have access, so this helps eliminate the confusion that ensues when Mom forgets that Dad can’t pick Suzy up from soccer practice. Best of all, this one is free!

• BillMinder: Keep up with when all of your bills are due with this app. You can tell at a glance how you’re doing on your budget for the month, which, as any shopaholic mommy knows, is a boon when trying to determine how much money you have to spend at a newly discovered sale!

• TaskRabbit: This one isn’t available in my area, so I haven’t used it as of yet, but as soon as it is, I plan to sign right up! This is like having your own personal assistant, and you get to set your price, so you know you’ll stay within your budget. What you do is make notes about what you need done, along with the amount you’re willing to pay for someone to take over the task: do you need groceries delivered? Flowers ordered for a friend who is in the hospital? Your yard leaf blown? One of the background-checked TaskRabbit contractors will take care of it for you! This seems like something that any busy mom could use; check to see that it’s available where you are before you sign up.

What are your favorite home organization apps?