Category: Back To School / Kids

An Organized Work Space for Student Success

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Got students going back to school?  The most important organizing rule for students is to be able to find what they need when they need it (from NAPO In the Schools), whether it’s their backpack or a box of crayons, a scientific calculator or laptop.  That’s why students need a dedicated space for doing homework.  And setting up a workspace at home reinforces to you and your student that learning is important.  We all just want the best for our students.

My friend Lisa asked “how do we make everything accessible to the kids at their workstation? We have half of my dining room available for the boys to use and we want to make it functional and of course, organized” (the question about study habits will wait for another day!  Today is for setting up your student space).

When you are determining the best place for your student to study, ask for their input, so that your solution is one you all can live with.  Think about:

  • Have one specific place for unpacking homework, leaving fewer places to lose things.  We store backpacks by the back door, but unpack them where we work.  All completed work goes back in the bag!
  • Whether the workspace is in a home office, a bedroom or at the kitchen table, remember the basics: comfortable seat and temperature; well-lit; room to spread out; well-stocked with supplies; quiet, or with quiet music on earphones, preferably instrumental.
  • Consistency:  Use the same place every day, and try to use the same times, too.
  • Family logistics:  are little hands (younger siblings) in the way?  Is it noisy or disruptive?
  • Portability:  Does your student stay at more than one home, or do homework in the car while commuting?
  • How much guidance / interaction does your student require with his homework?  If it is a lot, the homework place needs to be closer to you.
  • Learning styles:
    • Recognize there are 3 different learning styles:  visual, auditory and kinesthetic.  Some people (kids and adults alike) learn best by seeing, some by hearing and / or speaking, and some by doing.
    • Recognize we all have one strongest style, but we are a mix of the three.  Therefore, having options for different locations or postures to get through study blocks is a great idea.  So the next time I am tempted to tell my 8-year old to “sit down and do (his) homework”, maybe he would do it better standing up or walking around!  Or, when my middle son is listening to music on his IPod, it just might be helping him concentrate.  The oldest son loved the look of a standing work station online the other day.  He’s also likes to do his homework at the dining room table, but reads sitting up at the foot of his bed.  Variety works.basket
  • Stock with the right stuff:
    • Supplies:  My favorite suggestion for supplies is the homework basket.  Our basket contains pencils and pens, erasers, markers and crayons, 3×5 cards, flash cards, glue, scissors and a ruler.  The basket sits on the kitchen desk when it is not time to do homework (it’s attractive enough to sit on the counter, and not very big), and then we move it to the dining room table (or wherever your student works) after school.
    • On the kitchen desk, there is also a stash of loose leaf paper and a couple of empty folders, for just in case.
    • Computer / internet safety:  Computers in well-monitored family space and not in bedrooms.
    • If you are like us, and use your dining table for homework, have your students spread out on a poster board, and pick up all the work at once and move it to another flat surface when it comes time to eat dinner.
  • For us, homework is done at the dining room table, though you can establish your study space wherever you have space.  I have been strategizing about expanding our study spaces this year, since one son heads to high school and one to junior high.  Both will be spending more time studying, and will need more computer and internet access, too.  We have three computers, but the challenge will be keeping the computers available to the students (as I sit working on my computer at 5:20 on a Monday in my work space!).

If you have a student returning to school, or would just like better workspace for yourself, give some thought this week about establishing good work spaces in your home.  Make sure everyone can find What They Need When They Need It.  We all just want the best for our students!

Wash, Fold, Dry, Repeat. Again and Again…

I love clean laundry.  The sight, the smell, the feel.  Note, I said “I love clean laundry” and not “I love doing laundry”.  But where there are children, there is laundry.  I do a lot, and I bet you do, too.  Here are some ways to make the process go smoothly!

  1. Start with the basics nearby:  clean flat space for folding, hangers and a hanging rod, lot of clean empty baskets, bins for donations or items for repair / dry cleaning.
  2. Enlist aid:  A reader commented that she liked the break down last week by ages on the Kids and Money blog, so let’s try it again with laundry:
  • 2-4 year olds can: Place dirty clothes in the hamper; Select clothes from choices, and put on loose-fitting clothes; Pick out simple outfits (4 years) like shorts, shirt and underwear.
  • 4-5 year olds can: Sort laundry by color; Help put clean clothes away in drawers or on shelves;
  • 6-7 year olds can: Sort clean laundry and socks by person; Drag dirty hamper to laundry room
  • 8-10 year olds can: Fold Laundry; Strip and make bed; Load washer and dryer; Bring clean clothes to room and put them away
  • 11 and above can do all laundry duties, as instructed.

3.  Abandon perfectionism (in some areas):

  • Realize laundry is a process, not an event.  There is no start, nor finish, it just is.  So go do some.
  • Don’t fold more than necessary:  with my first child, I carefully folded every baby item and gently stacked it in its place.  By child #3, I realized that sleepers can be laid flat in a drawer and retrieved just as easily.  Same went for burp clothes, onesies, outfits and washcloths.  My kids’ underwear is still un-folded, stacked flat in their drawer.

4.  But get a little more detailed (in other areas):

  • Keep a stain stick in your hamper, and treat stains right away.
  • Set a timer.  I admit, I often forget I have a load running.  To stay on task, I set and re-set the timer for 30 minutes to remind me to check on the washing machine or dryer.
  • Hang up your hanging clothes immediately upon removing from the dryer.  This eliminates folding time and some wrinkles!
  • Color-code your laundry baskets and hangers by person or destination.  Each of us has a plastic hanger color (green, dark blue, light blue and white), and school or work clothes get hung up on those hangers as soon as clothes leave the dryer.  Then we grab the right hangers by color, and haul our clothes to our closet.
  • Consider the laundry’s end-user, and put outfits together on one hanger for those who need them (like my youngest).

5.  Keep the laundry in the laundry room, if possible.  When my babies were little, I would fold clean laundry wherever they were, and it often stayed there for a long time…. Now I fold everything in the laundry room, and avoid piles found in random places!

6.  Finishing the job means actually putting everything AWAY.

7.  Too much or not enough?

  • You probably have too many clothes.  Helping a client many years ago, I assumed the pile of unfolded teenager t-shirts was on a table.  She admitted the pile was actually THAT tall, with no table underneath.  We purged and donated dozens of t-shirts that day!  If there is not enough room to put all of your clothes away, you have too many.  But…
  • Buy extras of important and regularly worn items like (the right color!)  soccer socks or uniform shirts.  An excellent investment.  Also, buy extras of essentials that need washed after every wearing, like underwear and socks.
  • Purge Regularly.  Keep baskets in the laundry room for Dry Cleaning, or Donations or outgrown clothes. Once the bin is full of “too-smalls”, it gets labeled and put in storage to wait for the next child to grow into, or sent to our little cousin.

I hope you have found an idea or 2 that will help you in your personal pursuit  of clean laundry.  Me, I’ve got to go and fold some towels…

Never Be Late Again!

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Every organizing challenge we face requires time management to conquer it.  Improving time management skills creates good habits for using your time, either to add to current skills or replace old bad habits.   These four ideas will help create good time management habits and make life run more smoothly.


1. Did you know?  Americans waste 9 million hours total per day searching for misplaced items, according to the American Demographics Society.  That breaks down to each of us wasting an average of 55 minutes a day, roughly 12 weeks a year, looking for things we know we own but can’t find, according to a Boston Marketing firm (statistics from the NAPO.net website).


To Never Be Late Again, stop wasting time searching for stuff!  Establish a home for the important items that you CAN NOT leave home without, like cell phone or car keys, and commit to keeping them there while at home and at work. Invest in a bowl, make it pretty if you’d like, make it the same at home and on your desk, if  that helps you, and make it a habit to put your important items there every time you arrive home or to the office.  This will speed the leaving process and eliminate hours of searching.


2. Prepare to leave again as soon as you arrive home.  I re-load my briefcase with supplies at the end of every day when I am more likely to remember what I need, instead of waiting until tomorrow.  This idea works for personal lives, too – for example, we used to re-pack the diaper bag for the sitter as soon as we got home from work.   Create a check list, like “6 clean diapers, lots of wipes, 2 or 3 clean outfits, etc.”


Consider ambulance drivers and fire fighters.  They clean up and reload their rig after every call. Life is not an emergency, but it’s easier to be flexible when we know we’re prepared.


3. My next suggestion is what I call “next step-ping”.  I work through this process with clients –  today, look at tomorrow’s schedule and plan ahead now instead of reacting tomorrow.   Perhaps on tomorrow’s schedule I see a PTA meeting, a tennis lesson, then 2 clients back to back.  So tonight I leave my PTA notebook, my tennis bag and clean clothes and my briefcase by the back door to make tomorrow morning better.


I do this with my kids, too.  We look at today, starting with Now! and move forward: Eat breakfast, get bags to back door, review assignments, make sure lunch is in backpack, consider after-school extracurriculars, take something out of the freezer for dinner, etc.  We might even think about tomorrow, to avoid last-minute emergencies.


4. Finally, to Never Be Late Again, we need to understand and embrace the difference between Load Time and Leave Time (Confessions of a Tardy Mom, Parenting 2009).  Sometimes our time management issues are our own, and sometimes they are created by others, but most often they are both.  Over the weekend, I was talking to a professor friend.  I was pondering this presentation, and we chatted about time management.  She admitted she’s late to her own classes because she can’t make it down the hallway without being stopped.  So, other people interrupt her, which is their issue, but she allows the interruption to make her late, which is her issue.

     Let’s say a meeting is set for 10 am and is 5 minutes away.  In a perfect world, we could leave at 9:55 and arrive on time, but – alas – we do not live in a perfect world.  Load Time is rarely Leave Time.

     To Never Be Late Again, we have to start factoring in that extra 5 minute cushion to respect our time and the time of everyone else around us.  Personally, I need to realize one child will always have to run back in the house for something before we head to school.  Professionally, we have to realize that if the meeting starts at 10, we really need to arrive by 9:50 to network and prepare, instead of arriving at 10 and interrupting everyone else.

     Using my friend’s story as an example, if you, too, have a difficult time getting to a meeting on time, set the alarm clock on your cell phone to chime warnings at 10 minutes, 5 minutes and 2 minutes to class time, providing a way to break out of unsolicited conversations in the hallway.

             I can’t guarantee that you will Never Be Late Again, but trying one or more of these ideas will certainly help!  Give them a try, and let me know what you tried and what worked for you!

Kid Convenience and Nutrition in My Clean Freezer!

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I am the mother of teenage (and younger) boys, which means purchasing, preparing, serving and consuming food, and cleaning up feels like a full time job.  I’ve been strategizing to streamline our schedules and routines, so my first project was to make the kitchen more user-friendly, for convenience and good nutrition, for my boys, starting with the Freezer.

My objectives for the Freezer Clean Out Project were to

  1. make kid-favorites more accessible;
  2. inventory what I have on hand for an upcoming menu planning day / grocery trip; and
  3. purge the icky stuff.

With my objectives in mind….

  1. To start, as with all kitchen organizing projects, I made sure to have a clear work space.
  2.  Image
  3. Next, I put all the contents of the top freezer shelf on the counter.
  4.  Image Image
  5. Then I:
    • tossed the unidentifiable bread products;
    • discarded the excessive packaging from our last Costco bread purchase;
    • was distracted by the frozen raspberries and ½ container of frozen cool whip – dessert?!?
    • realized we have way too many frozen green beans;
    • grouped veggie bags in their bin;
    • re-stocked the breads, and left a loaf out on the counter for a change.  We usually freeze our bread and defrost just what we need, but we use it faster in the summer when everyone is home for lunch (my oldest makes a de-lish grilled cheese!).
    • Note:  Bins and baskets are great in the freezer for lending structure to the slumpy bags, and making it easier to stack and access stuff.  High-end appliances have them built in, but I use bins from Target for the same result.
    • Note:  I really appreciate the removable ½ shelf in my freezer (see photos above), it has been great for protecting our loaves of bread from getting squished.
  6. On to the bottom shelf:
    1. I dumped all the contents on the counter, again, and wiped off the bottom shelf.
    2. Our bottom shelf is mostly meats, so I took out the two baskets and sorted the contents.  I moved the microwave-able breakfast meats within easiest reach of the door, and placed the packaged meats like hot dogs and meatballs in the bin next to that.  The boys now know which bin is which, so if they feel like making a meatball sub or hot dog for lunch, they can.
    3. The  dinner meats are all together, and I’ve noted what we have on hand for making this week’s menu.  Pork Chops anyone?
  7. Door:
    1. This is the kids’ go-to place in the freezer. Upper left bin is designated for buns and bagels, easily visible and accessible.
    2. Upper right bin is for ice packs for lunches and coolers.
    3. Bottom shelf is self-serve for frozen lunch items and snacks.
    4.  Image
  8. Other things I did just this morning, to make good nutrition more convenient:
    • Hard-boiled and peeled a dozen eggs, since since self-sufficiency and good nutrition are the objectives and the little guy is not adept at peeling. The boys love slicing them up for breakfast.
    • Cleaned and cut carrots and veggies for quick snacks, cleaned fruit for the bowl on the counter, and re-stocked the granola / breakfast bar stash.
    • Explained all the updates to my darling children so they would know what and where things are, and would need to bug me less.  I hope. The real test will be in about an hour, when they get hungry.  Again.  Ahhh, teenagers.  Maybe the big guy will make his mom a grilled cheese!

The freezer project took all of half an hour last week, and the kitchen prep time this morning was minimal.  Think about your home and routines – there are probably lots of quick projects you could accomplish together that would make your life simpler, too.  If you need a place to start, check out your Freezer!

Great Big Organizing Secret!

I am going to share a big organizing secret here.  It may rock your world, change your life, make you gasp, so you might want to prepare yourself.  Are you ready?  The secret to an organized life…..is…… (drum roll here) maintenance!  Tah Dah!! (gasps, applause, sounds of disbelief)  Told you it was big.

Ok, so it’s neither big nor really a secret, but Maintenance is the key to making organization stick.

We spend hours on organizing projects, or at least my clients and I do.  We plan, we purge, we organize, we work hard.  But the most important part of the process happens after I leave, the next morning and every day after that.  Maintenance is vital to the success of any system.  Here is an example of maintenance and a great organizing tool, all rolled up into one.

I am a stickler for routines for my family, even during the summer.   It is so easy, too easy, to get off track during the summer months and let maintenance slip.  Without the school day structure, we forget to eat a healthy breakfast at a regular time, abandon basic personal hygiene (I have teen age sons) and generally take too long to get ready in the morning, leaving much undone.  So we turn to our Morning Line-Up.

We use The Morning Line-Up every day:

  1. Starting with a clean bathroom counter, take out all the items you need to get ready every morning and Line Them Up: we’ll call these the Usual Suspects in Your Morning Line-Up.
  2. My Usual Suspects include antiperspirants, Face Lotion with SPF 30, toothpaste and brush, hair product and brush, contacts and solution, lip stain and powder.
  3. Next to these are my kids’ deodorants, toothbrushes and pastes, a comb and fingernail clippers (someone always needs those).
  4. Now, as we use items in our Morning Line-Up, we put the item back in the cabinet (or drawer, or basket under the sink, which ever you prefer).
  5. You can make this even easier by dedicating one shelf / basket / etc. for just your Usual Suspects.
  6. And as a great example of maintenance, the counter is clean again (maintenance) when we are done with our personal hygiene (also maintenance!).

This may turn your usual process upside down, to start with all your items all over the counter, and clean as you go, but it is a great habit to get into.  Think of this in terms of cooking a meal.   Prepare to cook by taking out all the ingredients you need and lay them out in order, then put them away when you are done with them.  That way you can see at a glance what is left to add to your recipe and you have a clean kitchen when you are done, instead of taking everything out as you use it, and having a trashed kitchen at the end.

This idea reaps multiple benefits:

  1. At a glance, I know for certain when I am ready, and I don’t forget things. And I know when I need to nag my sons to finish.
  2. We can add new habits to the line-up, if there is something we want to improve upon. For example, adding floss to the line up at the recommendation of our dentist recently, or when I added contacts and solution when I decided to wear them more regularly.
  3. I have a client cultivating a “Swipe and Swish” habit to tidy up the bathroom every morning. So she adds window cleaner and paper towels as part of her Line-Up.
  4. The Morning Line-Up idea can improve other areas, for example, nutrition. If I get forgetful about my daily vitamins or supplements, I take out the basket containing all of them, and dump it out on the kitchen counter. I put the bottles back in the basket after I take each vitamin, so I know if I am current.

So, give some thought to your routines this week, and how you can improve your current systems with just a little more time and attention to maintenance.    Have a great week!  Off to brush my teeth….

Life Management Strategy: Back To Ready!

This time of year brings change.  Seasons change, school years are end, schedules and priorities shift.  These are all great things, but sometime these changes and the summertime lack of structure can leave our homes and offices disorganized.  Here’s a simple idea to keep your home and offices in (relatively) good shape:  “Back To Ready”. 

We used to call this strategy Back To Normal, but as my 7-year-old always asks, “What is Normal, anyway?”  “Back To Ready” is a favorite for myself and my clients (I’ve suggested it to 2 clients just this week and one suggested I share, so I am!).  It is a proactive, positive step to manage our lives and spaces, and it prepares us for whatever the week throws our way.  We may not be able to control what comes up, but we can control how we deal with it.

Working from home, I find it difficult to focus on work when my home feels cluttered and unfocused.  In my defense, to a casual observer my home would not look cluttered.  But I know when things are left undone, and because of who I am and what I do, I have a very low tolerance for disorganization.

So “Back to Ready” is very important for my success!  What does “Ready” look like?

  • Beds made; Bedrooms tidied up / surfaces cleared off;
  • Clothes and shoes dealt with— Dirty ones in the hamper, clean ones put away;
  • Breakfast dishes in the sink or dishwasher, table wiped off;
  • Bathroom cleaned up, towels hung up, surfaces clear, mirror wiped clean;
  • Papers gathered together for me to work on them, or purge or shred them.

“Back to Ready” takes 30 minutes on a Monday morning (or occasionaly Sunday night) for us, though you can pick your own day!  It involves starting laundry and a sink of soapy dishwater, going room by room and collecting clutter, emptying trash and vacuuming.  I start the process while the kids are still home, so they can tidy up their rooms and put away their clean laundry.  And we choose Mondays because we are very hard on our home on the weekends!

Choose one spot, and start there every week, so you don’t waste time and mental energy wondering “Where to Start?”  You can choose the easiest room (my youngest son’s), or the most public room (the entry way and living room), or the hardest room (kitchen) first.  It’s up to you, just choose.  Now, only spend a few minutes in each room—this is not major cleaning, this is just maintenance between cleanings, and preparing for the week ahead. 

I carry a notebook with me, too, to jot down the random ideas that occur to me during this particular exercise.  The ideas could read “Need laundry detergent, need snacks for baseball, bake cookies for friend, new sneakers for the teenager, change smoke detector batteries, etc.”

Look around your home this week, determine the 5 or 6 tasks that would help you and your family prepare for the week, and complete those tasks early to get you and your home Back To Ready.  Summer is a great time to try something new when it comes to morning routines, so give it a try!

Spend Your Screen Time Wisely

Did you Know?  September 18-24th is National  Turn Off Week , a challenge to Reduce your Screen Time on TV and technology.  

     I am blogging to the internet on my laptop, then sending a newsletter via email to suggest you spend less time this week on Screen Time and technology devices.  The irony is not lost on me!  So let me get on with this, so you can read and learn, then go and do something else!

     A Google search of “Turn Off Week” produced links from hundreds of organizations recommending less screen time for both adults and children.  Why?  As a society, we are spending lots of time, often too much time in front of Screens and technology.  Stepping away from the TV, computer and game screens enhances our fitness, health, nutrition, education and family time, just to name a few.  

     I like TV.  I have a handful of shows that I DVR every week, and watch avidly when I have the time, on my own terms.  TV is not bad.  As I start this article on a rainy Sunday afternoon, my hubby is watching football and the kids are watching a Red Box DVD downstairs.  We like TV.  But just this past week, it became evident we need to spend some more time on our school work; all three boys want to sign up for Fall sports; and the pre-teen wants to learn 2 (yes 2) more musical instruments.   Time for these activities has to come from somewhere, so Off The TV will go!

     I love technology.  I use lots of screen time for work and play.  But Technology is only a  tool.  It can educate, communicate, illuminate, entertain.  It can do lots of things, but it is a thing.  It exists to make our lives better.  So use this National Turn Off Week to make sure you are using your technology, and not the other way around. Consider Turn Off Week as a Time Management experiment, how to use our time and resources the best way possible.  

 Things to Think About and Try This Week:

  1. Remind everyone (including yourself) that Turn Off Week is a positive choice.  Replace screen time with family activities, game night, hikes and outings, etc., to reinforce that Real Life is more important than screen time.
  2. The first step to positive change is always awareness.  Need to start small?  Just pay attention to how much you and your family uses technology, and determine if you all could improve your lives by cutting back on your screen time.
  3. Use tech tools to manage your tech.  I love these ideas, for managing your Tech Time, from a Real Simple article, April, 2011:
    • “MacFreedom.com disables all roads to the internet for an allotted amount of time”;
    • “RescueTime.com  tracks your every on-line move and provides easy to read, painfully revealing charts” telling you just how much time you really spend on Facebook or shopping on-line; and
    • “LeechBlock, addons.mozilla.org, blocks certain websites either perpetually or during specific periods, to help you focus you and your family’s time better.”
    • Also, we can set our Direct TV parental controls to allow TV viewing only at certain times of the day, and on certain channels.  I will re-set our viewing hours to between 6 and 8 pm unless I lift the block with the secret code (we’ll see how that goes!!).
    • On the other hand, we can record shows on the DVR for the kids to watch later, so they are guaranteed to have something they want to watch when they do finally sit down to do so. 
  4. Set a limit for how much screen time you and your children use every day.
    • My MIL used TV tokens with her kids, and introduced the idea to my boys one week over the summer. Every day each child receives 3 tokens, for ½ hour each of TV time, Wii or Nintendo.  They can lose their tokens for minor offenses, or they can save them up if they want to watch a movie on the weekends. 
    • It was amazing to watch my 7-year-old become a savvy shopper when it came to “spending” his tokens.  He might turn on the TV, consider what his choices were, and then decide to turn it off because he didn’t really like the choices.  Before the tokens, he would have just sat there and vegged out. 
  5. Be mindful.  Decide when and what to watch, or when you will check your email or smart phone.  Then Do what you plan to do, and Move on.  Get on Facebook, check in, get off, go do something else.  Be mindful when you are using your technology tools, but also be mindful and appreciative of your family and the day around you.  

For Life:  Reduce Screen time with a few simple guidelines: 

  • Keep TVs and computers out of the bedrooms, especially children’s bedroom, for safety, better sleep, better focus, and more family time;    
  • Don’t eat in front of the TV or computer (a challenge for me on days when I work from home); and
  • Set guidelines, like “No cell phones in the bedroom or at the dinner table”.  Neither my teenager nor we parents need our phones where we sleep, since we should neither send nor receive texts at midnight!  We can choose when to answer messages and texts, and hopefully raise awareness in others as to what is appropriate or not. 

     So, our plan?  1. We’ll all work on using our Turn Off Time wisely, for the cool activities we want to do instead of mindless TV viewing, and 2. I am going to work on my own screen time, to focus on people and not technology when we are all together.  I will check then ignore my email first thing in the morning on my iPhone, but wait to turn on my computer until the boys are off to school and I am ready to really work.   And I’ll let  you know how it goes, in a week, via technology again!   And let me know if you have ideas or suggestions for how to spend your Turn Off Week!

Don’t Just Pile, Act then File!

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     This week’s article is inspired by Mary and AnneMarie, so thanks, ladies, for the inspiration.   And thanks to all of you who offered comments and insight in the Pile vs. File debate, via email or Facebook.  And the responses also inspired a future topic (perhaps next week) of Cool Tools and High-Tech Solutions for your papers.

     Most of the folks who responded feel they are both Pilers and Filers of papers, meaning they pile papers for a while and then file them, with a variety of time frames, from “once a week” to “whenever I can’t find something”.  And a little pile of work to be done is Ok, but please, not too many piles!

     This month’s Real Simple reported that 83% of HR managers “say the appearance of an employee’s workspace affects their perception of the employee’s skill level and professionalism.  Want to be a go-getter?  Then go get those dirty coffee cups and messy piles of paper.”

     I find the challenge with paper is that each piece of paper represents something else.  This post-it note is not just a piece of paper, it is a place holder that represents a phone call to make, a letter to write, an action to take, a past event, a loved one.   There are 3 types of papers:

  • Active: Papers requiring action:  Bills to pay, forms to fill out and return, coupons, receipts for returns, articles to read
  • Passive:  Papers we need to hold on to for a prescribed time, perhaps to refer to or not, then purge: receipts, paid bills, kid’s activity schedules like soccer or baseball rosters
  • Archive:  Papers we need to keep forever, like mortgage papers, tax records (for 4-10 years, depending on who you talk to), birth certificates, wills, passports, etc.

Why Do We Keep Papers?

  • We haven’t completed the actions they require.
  • We think someone will care about them in the future.
  • We haven’t gotten around to doing anything with them, or it didn’t occur to us we could toss them. 

 Why Do We Pile Papers Instead of Filing Them?

  • We’re afraid if we put something away, we’ll forget where it is or that we even have it.
  • We don’t like or trust our filing systems because they are too complex, or too basic, or they were not created by us for us.
  • We don’t feel like filing, because we don’t see why it matters.  Or we are busy, lazy, got called away, the files are far away, the drawer is broken, we need to clean the old stuff out of the file cabinets before we can put the new stuff in, and that job seems too overwhelming, too, yada, yada, yada.  I do this for a living, I have heard lots of reasons why people don’t file.  The reasons against filing are legion.

 Why Does Piling Paper Cause Problems?

  • Piling papers vertically makes retrieval of information difficult or impossible.
  • Gravity.  We can only pile things so high before they topple.
  • There is only so much horizontal space in most homes
  • Visual clutter is distracting
  • Piling papers puts all papers equal, regardless of importance, type of action, value, etc.

 Why Do You File Papers?

  • Well, to counteract all the problems listed above, of course!
  • Filing things away makes finding them and everything else easier.  Papers stay where we put them.  And then we can see the beyond the clutter.   
  • File folders and holders hold paper vertically and are open at the top, maximizing space and allowing viewing and retrieval.
  • Maintenance is so much easier than catching up.  A few minutes daily is much easier than a monthly paper mess!  I am very proud of those of you who answered that you are both a Piler and a Filer. 

 First Things First:  Set yourself up to Succeed:

  • Sit down with a shredder, recycling bag and 10 minutes on the timer.  Power through your piles, re-sorting your papers into Action, To File – Passive, To File – Archival, Recycle and shred. 
  • Now that you’ve sorted your Papers, Jump In!
  • Active Papers:  Active Papers are the only papers you should have on your desk right now.
    1. Try a new way of holding your Active papers, like a standing file folder on your desk. (No Piles, remember?!?!)  
    2. Break down your Active Papers Pile into types of actions to take: title manila folders “bills to pay”, “forms to complete and send back to school”, etc.   
    3. Break down the actions into little tiny steps, if necessary.  I read an article about a woman who needs to file her expense reports more quickly. 
      • Currently:  Her expense receipts get stuffed in her wallet until it is too full, then she takes them out and piles them on the desk until the pile falls.  A couple of times a year, when the spirit moves her and / or she needs the money, she files her expenses. 
      • New Requirement:  Her employer now requires a 60-day-or-less turn around.  If she wants to get paid, she has to step up.
      • Her folders now live in a holder on her desk, and walk her papers through the reimbursement process.  They are entitled: receipts to expense; receipts to copy; copied receipts to submit for reimbursement; reimbursement requests sent; and Reimbursed Expense requests and proof of payment, 2011.
    4. Schedule time to actually act on your action items.  If you don’t dedicate time to Action items, they will never get done.  Monday morning are my Action mornings. 
    5. Once you act on a paper, ask yourself again what the next action is for that piece.  It could be Return to School, pop in the mail, give to someone else, recycle, file, etc.  Papers need to keep moving!
  • Passive Papers: Stand and deliver
    1. Once you decide a paper gets to stay in your files, spend time every day or every week filing things away.  I have spent lots of blog time on Paper Management issues, so click here for pertinent links to topics like categories, filing systems, etc. 
    2. Archival Papers:  File forever.  These are the easiest papers to deal with because you don’t see them often, and there aren’t many of them.  Unless you have 30 years of accumulated passive papers, which leads us once again back to maintenance. 

     I like filing.  I like the feeling of accomplishment, of Done-ness.   I like clutter-free, visually peaceful space that comes from filing.  I use filing as the final act of closure on my work day, before I turn off my computer and go do fun Colleen / Mom stuff.  I never have much to file, and my folders are convenient to put things away.

    I challenge you, this week, to look differently at your pile of papers.  Do a power sort and purge the easy stuff, then Act on your Active Papers and file the rest.  You can do this, I know you can.  And you will be amazed at how much better you work when the piles are gone!

Why I Organize my Family (and you should, too!)

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     My goal for writing is to motivate and educate my readers and clients about organizing. Most people who contact me need organizing motivation or education, or a mixture of both.

     My last few blogs have been heavy on the How-To, as in how to organize for Back To School, but this week I want to talk about the Why.  Why should we and our children get organized for Back To School?  And this applies to everyone, not just folks in the midst of Back To School right now!

 We want our children to do well in school and in life.

    1. Last fall, I renamed my Organize Your Kids class “An Organized Family”.  Sometimes it is not the children who make a family disorganized, but we adults. It is up to me to get my kids to school on time, even as they get a little older.
    2. Lack of organization is often interpreted as lack of preparation, cooperation or knowledge.  Good grades are great, but if your child is regularly late or unprepared, it will reflect negatively on him. 
    3. Tardiness disrupts class and instruction, and it singles out your child.  And your child has to face the teacher and school staff every morning, not you.
    4. One of my myriad of responsibilities as a parent is to cultivate a strong work ethic and life skills in my children.  We are not raising children to remain children, we are raising future adults.
    5. Your child probably wants to be on time, but may be nervous about asking you or doesn’t realize things can be different.

We want life to be less complicated. 

    1. We live in a complicated world.  There are so many responsibilities vying for our time and resources. 
    2. We want more living and less drama.  More time spent with loved ones in good relationships, less time spent on stuff. 
    3. Having a better grasp of our time allows us to not worry about being on time.  Go figure!
    4. For example, we establish our morning routine every August, and we know that if we stick with it, all is well.
    5. We are well-rested, clean, dressed and well-fed, prepared for our day and on time.  If we just do what we’re supposed to do, we have fun and relax, without drama.  

We realize we are the parents, the Adult, and we set the example.

    1. We have to teach our children to do things for themselves before we can expect our kids to do things for themselves.
    2. Be clear with your expectations.  Be clear, be brief and keep them simple.
    3. In quiet reflection after Mass, I realized that if I can give an hour, uninterrupted, to God during the Mass, I should do the same for my kids, every morning from 7-8.  So that is one of my goals for this morning, to focus solely on preparing for the day during that hour with my kids, until we’re on track.

We want to be able to say “Yes” to new things. 

    1. My way is not the only way, nor is it the best way for every family.   I happen to value organization, and am convinced of the importance of organization for success in life.  That is purely my opinion, there are lots of things to value in life. 
    2. I had an artistically creative and wonderful class participant ask me “What if some days I don’t feel like being organized?”.  I understand where she is coming from, sort of, like some days it is fun to abandon routine and go with the flow.  But I don’t view Organization as an Either / Or.  I view it as a means to a better life.
    3. Because we are organized, we can be flexible and open to new things, and respond to opportunities that come our way, or make our own opportunities for new things or activities or experiences. 

      So, my challenge to you this week is to look at your own ideas about organizing, and make a list, mental or other wise, of your answers to the Why Get Organized question.

     Above is my list of Why statements, my answers to the Why Get Organized? Question.  Your list may look completely different, and that is great!  Just give it some thought, find your motivators, post them where you can see them, and use them to help you stay on track in the busy days ahead!

A Great Morning Starts The Night Before!

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(A note: I originally wrote this article for Speech Plus in Frankfort, IL for their Back-To-School newsletter issue.  They graciously agreed to let me post the information, for the benefit of all!   For more information regarding Speech Plus, P.C., go to their website at www.speechplus.org, or find them on Facebook.)

Getting ready and out the door in the morning can be a challenge, especially for families!  Here are 5 things you can do tonight to make tomorrow morning great:

  1. Look ahead.  After dinner, check tomorrow’s schedule. Assemble by the door the items needed for your work presentation, your child’s school band rehearsal or soccer practice.  Complete permission slips, make sure your teenager has lunch money, note special needs or events.  Do this early in the evening while you still have time to run to the grocery for snacks or wash the soccer uniform.
  2. After dinner is a great time to pack all the lunches for tomorrow, too.  Pop them back in the refrigerator, and grab them and go in the morning rush.  Pack one for your self, too!
  3. Lay out clothes for tomorrow, for you and your children.  If you have small children and some open floor space, lay out the clothes on the floor, face down, as though they were on a child, to help your young one get himself dressed independently.  If you have older children, take out the guess-work and roll ensembles together or leave them on a hanger all together in the closet.
  4. Put the school work away tonight, leaving out only an item or 2 if there is last-minute test review to do.  Otherwise pack up the backpack when the homework is done for the night, and leave it by the door to grab and go.
  5. Go to bed.  Good sleep hygiene is vital to success, for you and for your children.  Calming night-time routines with family time, soothing lighting and relaxing reading ensure restorative sleep and a better morning tomorrow!  Introduce the school-year bedtime a week before school begins, to ease your sleepers and your self into the new time.

A great school day begins with a great morning, and a great mornings starts the night before.  Here’s to a successful school year!