Click Here To Get Organized and Relax.
Entries Tagged 'Kids Organizing' ↓
If your teen could use a little extra help in the organizing department, then this is THE organizing book for you and your teen! It’s a book with colorful pages and it makes for an easy, quick read. Recently, I’ve had some parents looking for extra help now that the school year is in full-swing so I quickly browsed through my recently purchased copy.
You may find that teens may rather read a book from you then get a lecture from you. Here’s a bit of what is covered in this book:
- Setting up space to work on homework
- Organizing backpacks
- Organizing lockers
- Organizing binders for school work
- Organizing bedrooms
- Organizing time/planning
The whole book is less than 100 pages long, so there’s a lot of great information packed into this great little organizing book! For more tips on organizing kids, please stay here and read some more! 
Tags: DIY organization, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, homework, organizing backpacks, organizing book, organizing kids, organizing lockers, Where's My Stuff by Samantha Moss and Lesley Schwartz
Cluttered Child's Room
How can you help your kids get organized if they are struggling to keep it together in their own room? Maybe they don’t even want to get organized. Actually, the odds are that they don’t want to get organized! I’m a mom and a professional organizer and no, my kids rooms are not always neat, actually they are frequently quite messy. And I have found that a lot of it is age-related. When they were really little I was right in there cleaning up and helping them put things away. As they get older they seem to go through a phase of being fine with a mess and then the next phase seems to be wanting a more mature room and cleaning it on their own as they see fit. Now I was a neat thing in my own room growing up so this is all new to me.
Follow these 5 organizing tips to help your own kids get organized as you see fit:
1) Teach children from a young age to put away items of the same type together. Keep a bin of blocks, a bin of dolls, a bin of dress-up clothes, a bin of Legos, etc. When it’s time to clean up, help them sort so everything doesn’t just get tossed together.
2) Give your children tools to succeed by giving them enough places to put things away so they don’t all end up on the floor. Give them shelves to display keepsakes and toys as well as labeled bins to put things away. Give them bookcases for books, hooks for coats, closet space for clothes and toys.
3) Maximize storage space: Don’t be afraid to place shelving up high just for display items that your child doesn’t need to reach. Move your child’s clothing bar down low in the closet and place extra shelves as high as you can go for more toy storage. Use the back of the door for hooks and use bins under the bed for storage. They have a lot of stuff in a small space, maximize it.
4) Cut them some slack. If you child is getting older, consider letting them have a mess but choose one day a week that order has to be restored. That’s what I did so I didn’t go crazy every time I walked into the room knowing that on Sunday it would be cleaned up so things couldn’t get too out of control.
5) Help kids go through old toys and clothing for a good purge at least twice a year. Allow them to sell items if they would like to get some money from their belongings. This will make room for the new stuff that is sure to make an appearance.
For more reading about organized kids and messy rooms, please follow me here!
Organized Child's Room
Tags: DIY organization, get organized, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, kids organizing
Household Hub Notebook
When school starts, the paper keeps on a rollin’ in! When I work with clients they often struggle with the paperwork for upcoming events for school and sports as well as party invitations . These papers usually end up on the kitchen counter in piles, on the fridge or plastered all over a bulletin board. Enter the ‘Household Hub Notebook’ that I created and use with my clients who have children. This is a notebook to store the backup information for upcoming events. You enter the event into your planner and then keep the backup info. in the notebook. When the event has passed, pull it out and recycle. And I’m going to tell you how to create your own!
The front of my notebook has a reminder sheet slid into the front of the binder for the types of papers that I recommend storing in your notebook:
1) Sports Schedules
2) Snack Schedules for classes or teams
3) Team Phone Lists
4) Part Invitations
5) Travel Itineraries
6) Event Invitations such as weddings & birthday parties
7) Gift Cards
Many people like to have a “Menu” section for take-out menus and coupons
9) School lunch menus
10) Event tickets or event flyers
Start with a sturdy 3-ring binder. In the front of the binder you may want to place business card pages for frequently used cards:
Then I place a sheet in a page protector for emergency contact information:
Next I place a sheet for emergency health information should someone have to contact 9-1-1:
Next I use page dividers labeled with each family member’s name so they have their own section:
Many families like to have a section for each family member as well as school & menu sections.
In each section I place 5 heavy duty page protectors so you can slide the information into each section easily:
The “Household Hub Notebook” is stored near where you would want to access these papers on a regular basis. Families love this notebook because everyone knows where to look for their event information, even Dad and it eliminates piles! For more organizing tips for paper that comes home from school, please read more here.
Tags: DIY organization, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, household hub notebook, organize paper
Picture walking into a room and looking at the desk in front of you, a desk meant for your child to sit at to complete their homework. The desk is sporting an empty chip bag, some library books, a few Legos, coloring paper, random toy cars, 3 puzzle pieces and pencils and markers are strewn about. Or is this your desk? Either way, it’s not a desk that is functioning properly for anyone to work at.
Let’s turn that around and easily turn a cluttered desk into a fully functioning desk-yeah! Just follow these easy organizing tips to help your child clear a space and get their homework done with fewer hassles.
Organizing Tip #1: Remove everything from the desk that shouldn’t ‘live’ there, this is the time to remove wrappers, puzzle pieces and Legos, etc.
Organizing Tip #2: Place items that are used less frequently further away from the workspace. A great solution is to place shelves above the desk to house reference books or extra supplies like computer paper. This is a great way to use often overlooked wall space.
Organizing Tip #3: Place items that are used the most, closest to the workspace and don’t keep more than you need; you don’t need 3 pencils cups when one will do. Place items like scissors, glue and pencils close at hand.
Organizing Tip #4: If your child likes to move around your home to do homework such as on the floor or in another room, then create a mobile supply caddy. For more on how to create a homework supply caddy, please read more here.
Organizing Tip #5: Help kids maintain their now neat desk by decluttering and organizing on a regular basis. Just like areas in our own home don’t just stay organized, neither will theirs. Set a schedule to deal with the wrappers and toys that may find their way back to the desk once again. When you have a system in place, restoring order should be much easier than it was starting from scratch.
Help your child learn valuable organizing skills while getting homework down with fewer headaches because who really needs another headache anyway?!
Organized Children's Desk
Tags: Decluttering, DIY organization, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, organizing kids, organizing skills, organizing tips, paper organizing
Disorganized and Messy Floor
Can your kids be organized and succeed in school when they have a messy room? Well, it all depends…Some kids can function quite well in a room with clothes on the floor, dishes on the dresser and make-up strewn about. Even though their room looks like a tornado hit it, they know how to restore order from time-to-time, when they feel like getting around to it… These kids are usually self-motivated, they know where their homework is and they get it done on their own before it’s due. They may be messy, but really they know right where everything is and they are functioning just fine. Leave them alone.
Then there’s the other type of messy. The kids who have a room that’s blown up, a backpack that’s blown up, they’re losing papers all the time, turning in homework late and feeling a lot of stress and pressure. Those are the kids that are going to need some extra guidance, some structure and they will need you to help them with some organizing skills. It’s very important that you work with them in a way that works well for them naturally, not in a way that works for you. If you set up your child’s organizing system in a way that won’t work for them, you will both be frustrated. I featured a blog post on a super, duper book recently called: “The Organized Student,” by Donna Goldberg. This is an excellent book to help you help your child succeed!
Tags: DIY organization, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, homework, kids organizing, organized, organizing system, The Organized Student by Donna Goldberg
Organized Backpacks
How do you maintain home organization with kids and maintain your sanity too? Sometimes you just have to pick your battles. Sure, I am all about teaching kids organizing skills that will take them into adulthood. But I’m also a mom who believes in trying to avoid making myself crazy. So I think it’s important to really think about what is a ‘must’ in your home and what can slide.
I really learned that I needed to take it down 2-3 notches when my oldest child was about 4 years old. I know this story is going to sound over the top…but it was practically giving me anxiety at the time: She had a dollhouse that had specific people and accessories meant for the dollhouse. Well, she is creative and she was mixing and matching furniture, food, toys, etc. from other toys and using them in her dollhouse. Well, at the time, I was getting so stressed out because I wanted her to use the ‘right’ toys in the house. WHAT?!! How crazy is that? I had to stop and figure out why this was important to me. Well, it was because I had it in my head that if we ever sold her toys at a garage sale I wanted to have the right sets together. Thankfully I realized how silly this was and that she should be able to be creative. And who really cares-we could just donate the whole lot and it wouldn’t matter if the sets were still together. See-that was some over the top thinking!
What will be a must vs. what can slide at your house?
Perhaps bringing the dishes to the sink after dinner is a must, after all, you did do all the work to make dinner. But maybe backpacks on the floor by the door instead of on hooks can slide.
Maybe keeping a clear path in the bedroom between the bed and the door for safety is a must. But leaving an unmade bed isn’t going to make your home come crashing down.
Possibly taking shoes off to maintain a ‘shoe free’ home is a must to protect your carpets. But maybe you can live with kids kicking shoes into a basket instead of neatly lined up on a shoe rack. Kids aren’t going to line them up so you might as well live with a basket of shoes.
So, make sure you find that balance between staying organized and staying sane and it will be all good!
Tags: balance, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, organizing kids, staying organized
File Box for Paper Organization
When kids go back to school, paper come home from school, lots and lots of paper. What can you do as a mom to bust paper piles and master paper organization? Well, let’s break this down by the different types of paper coming in with the following 5 paper organizing tips:
Paper Organizing Tip #1: Make sure the backpack is cleaned out on a regular basis to avoid important papers & invitations getting lost in the black hole. I wrote a whole blog post on backpack organizing tips if you would like to read further tips on this topic.
Paper Organizing Tip #2: Make sure kids have a place to store their homework that is separate from all other types of paper. This is a ‘homework only’ zone. I actually wrote 5 organizing tips for homework as well. I’ve been on a roll!
Stacking Tray for Homework Storage
Organizing Tip #3: Use a file box such a the one at the top of this blog post with a folder labeled “To Do’ for papers that come home that require some action on your part. This gives those papers a temporary home until you have time to take care of the ‘actions’ and prevents them from getting lost in a paper pile. No more paper piles-yeah! Examples of types of papers you may come across are forms that need to be filled out, registration forms for activities or sign ups for a volunteer position.
Organizing Tip #4: Use a file box with a folder labeled “To Read” for the newsletters, letters from the teacher and articles that come your way. When you use a folder it will be mobile so you can grab it and go to catch up on your reading when you know you’ll be sitting for a while at the doctor’s office, on a trip in the car or on a plane. Yeah, you’re going somewhere!
Organizing Tip #5: Create a “Household Hub Notebook” for upcoming event flyers and schedules. This is for all of the papers that end up in piles on the counter or all over the refrigerator: lunch menus, party invitations, sport’s schedules, snack schedules and phone lists. I think I will need to write a full blog post on how to make a household hub notebook so please watch for that one coming up.
Paper comes at us all the time and we need easy strategies to stay on top of it all and not have things slip through the cracks. For more organizing tips for back to school, please keep reading here.
Tags: blog post, DIY organization, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, kids organization, mom, organizing tips, paper control, paper organization, paper piles, school papers
Get Your Gear Cards
If you’ve got kids, then chances are you’ve got kids’ activities which requires gear that needs to be packed up and hauled around. And I know from personal experience that it really stinks to get to the field and realize something has been left at home! Organizing kids for their own activities is a great way to teach your kids organizing skills that will last a lifetime. I recently read about these awesome cards created by a professional organizer in Better Homes and Gardens from Simply Ordered that will help you do just that.
There are a variety of cards for different activities that show all of the items that need to be packed accompanied by the names of the items which will help little ones with their reading skills-bonus! It’s a ready-made list and it doesn’t get any easier than that!
Help your kids get organized and shoulder some responsibility for having their gear together and helping you get out the door on time-it’s a win/win!
Tags: Better Homes and Gardens, DIY organization, get organized, Get Your Gear Cards, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, organizing kids, Organizing Product Reviews, professional organizer, Simply Ordered
Homework Supply Caddy
As soon as school starts it hits: homework! Sometimes even on the first day of school, probably much to your child’s dismay. How do you stay on top of homework, get it back to school on time and reduce headaches? Follow the following five organizing tips to help make this part of your family’s day a little bit less stressful.
Organizing Tip #1: Stick to a routine. If you can, let your child have input regarding what time they would like to do their homework, I realize extracurricular activities may be the deciding factor here. Maybe your child would like to come home and have a snack and then complete homework right away. Maybe your child would rather relax, eat dinner and then complete homework. If they can have options, they will probably be more likely to not resist when you remind them what time it is.
Organizing Tip #2: Create a homework caddy such as the one above or you can even just use a handy dandy shoebox. The idea is to have supplies together in one place to make it easy for kids to move around to do homework in different locations. For ideas on what to add to the organizing caddy, please read more here.
Organizing Tip #3: Let kids work where they are comfortable as long as they are actually working. Not all kids need to go off and work alone in a quiet space. I have one child who is in advanced classes with awesome grades who can talk, listen to music or listen to the TV and work without problems. Of course this has caused many teachers to mention she ‘visits’ a bit too much. Some kids don’t like to be sent off to another area alone. I have another child who is also a good student but will get caught up watching the TV instead of doing the homework; all kids are all different.
Organizing Tip #4: Use stacking trays to store homework. This is especially helpful for younger kids who are bringing home packets that may be completed throughout the week. The stacker should only hold homework and be the go to place to retrieve homework and get it to return to school. Be sure to give each child their own tray with their name on it.
Organizing Tip #5: Teach kids how to break homework down into chunks to meet deadlines. For example, if they have a book to read for a book report, map out how many pages need to be read daily to be done with the book in time to write the report by the due date. Breaking down any task into manageable pieces is a valuable life lesson!
Help your child get organized this year while teaching them awesome skills that will last well into their work lives and beyond!
Tags: caddy, DIY organization, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, homework, kids organizing, organizing tips, stacking tray
Lockers-Barrett Robinson
Just like the backpack, the locker can become a black hole for many things large and small that need to be cleaned out. Kids are using their lockers every day, they don’t have a lot of space, they are in a hurry and often things get shoved in and never come out again. Having items stuffed in, tumbling out or getting lost in the locker can be frustrating and it can even make kids late to class, miss assignments or turn assignments in late. None of those are good things!
Follow these organizing tips to bust locker chaos:
1) Just like the backpack, the locker needs to be purged on a regular basis. You will have to decide together whether your student will let you help at the school, can do it alone at the school or if they need to bring everything home so it can be purged at home together.
2) Throw out obvious garbage and papers that can be recycled.
3) Have your student decide what is used the most and make those items the most accessible and easy to reach.
4) Be sure to use all available locker space by using magnetized mirrors, message boards and pencil holders inside the door.
5) Make sure that any items that should be stored at home are brought home or books that need to go to the library are returned.
6) Give items that belong together a home together: art supplies, gym equipment, books.
7) Have your child strive to put things back where they belong.
8) Set up an agreed upon schedule for maintenance to reorganize when things get messy or out of place. Just like our homes need to be tuned up, so do lockers.
For more reading, be sure to check out “The Organized Student” by Donna Goldberg-good stuff!
Follow these organizing tips to help your student stay organized this school year!
Tags: chaos, DIY organization, get organized, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, kids organizing, locker, organizing tips, stay organized, The Organized Student by Donna Goldberg
