Tag: Organizing

Organize Your Home’s Smallest And Hardest Working Space!

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Let’s face it – we spend a lot of time in the bathroom.  So it makes sense to spend time this week improving that very hard working space!  A client recently asked for suggestions to improve her bathroom.  Her questions focused on towel storage / drying, clothes and general space allocation.  Here are my answers to her, and to you:

Towels:

Any place you can add more towel rods / racks would be a bonus.  And consider how to stack the rods on the wall:  for example, hanging them 3 and 5 feet from the floor – the bottom one for long towels and the top one for hand towels or wash clothes.  You can use one wall for more than one rod.

I have also seen over-the-shower-rod / shower-door racks for towels, if your tub / shower have either of those.  Also, if space permits, you could use a free-standing coat rack outside the bathroom door for your towels, too.  The air flow outside the bathroom may be better for drying anyway.

In addition, I did some research last summer when the towels in my hubby’s bathroom were getting decidedly musty.  The experts say we can re-use towels for a few days, instead of using them only once, but we should wash them every 3 or 4 uses, so twice a week, typically.

Clean-ish Clothes (worn, but can be worn again):

I would suggest an Ish-hook, maybe two.  An “ish”-hook, you ask?  An “ish” hook is for clean-“ish” clothes that can be worn again.  We all have those items (for me, jeans and yoga pants), often tossed on a chair, bedpost or in a heap.

Consider a hook or two, again at varying heights if that would help, for pants and tops.  You can also designate a small amount of rod space and / or shelf space for your clean-ish clothes, and both would work.  I prefer the over-the-door hooks, but if that won’t work in your space, the rod and shelf should help.

Command Products make great hooks that are reasonably priced and require no tools for installation, so you can add a few here and there to see what will work for you.  You could even mount them directly on a door, if the over-the-door items don’t work.

Personal Hygiene Supplies:

Pare down your bathroom contents to your essentials.  The bathroom is typically the smallest room, after all.  Keep only current personal hygiene items in the bathroom.  More importantly, use up items completely and keep less in inventory!

Check expiration dates and purge old stuff.  Consider the seasons:  Winter time?  Store sunscreen and bug spray somewhere else.  Also, review items and determine if they’re expired to your current life.  For example – we had a bin of bath-toys under the sink, but as soon as my youngest started taking showers, the toys went away.  Another example is the drastic hair change I made last year: almost all my styling supplies left the bathroom- either into the trashcan, or into a bin on the top shelf of our linen closet.

Cleaning:

Pare down your cleaning supplies, keep only one or two multi-purpose items at hand and store the rest elsewhere.  If your linen closet is in your bathroom, remember the universal tips of storing large single items on high shelves and using clear over-the-door shoe racks for small items.

Spend a little time this week organizing your bathroom, and reap big rewards!

Snow Day? Tackle An Organizing Project with Your Kids!

Organizing with your kids can be a great experience, employing their enthusiasm and energy to benefit them and the whole family.  ImageBut kids don’t always know what to do with their energy, or how to organize.

Recently, a client asked for suggestions on tackling a really big project: organizing her large unfinished basement to make better play space for her active children!  More importantly, her kids and their friends were on board to help with the project.  They were awesome! 

These suggestions would be the same for a family room or kid’s bedroom project.  Perfect for a snow day in the new year!!  Here is my response:

First, identify your goals.  Often, your space will still have the same purposes when the project is finished – in this basement example, play space, holiday storage, etc.  Just tidier.  Sometimes the purpose for the space is changing, but let’s assume “same only cleaner”.

Next, assemble your supplies.  Black garbage bags for trash, white kitchen bags for items to donate (you can write the destination on the white bag with a sharpie), sharpies, masking tape, Rubbermaid / Sterilite containers. 

Then, pick your starting point:  Bottom of the stairwell, near a specific door, or just some random place to start.  I always have one starting point and work from there.  However, that might not work in this case, since all your team members would be in one congested area.  You could pick one spot, and have two teams move out in both directions from there.  Or if there are different areas, you could have one team work on Christmas decorations, one team work on toys, etc.

Be sure to remove the easy stuff first:

–       big items (bikes, big play pieces, random pieces of furniture) and set them aside.

–       empty boxes – break them down and haul them outside, or set aside to use as storage containers

–       containers that are already organized, complete and full – label them and pile them up

–       donations, garbage, recycling – schlep out of the space you’re clearing, giving you more space and a feeling of accomplishment

 

If there is clothing in the area where you are working:

–       dirty – send to the laundry room and deal with later

–       storage (off-sizes or off-season), do a quick sort, put in large Rubbermaid containers to be dealt with another day

 (let the kids help deal with the toys, do the clothes yourself), and label with size / season / child, etc.

 

Keep your teams focused, motivated and moving.  Remember your purpose and stay on task:

–       Don’t let your kids get hung up on playing, or on the little tiny details of toys (no Lego assembly!).

–       Play fun music, keep everyone dancing.  No TV, trust me.

–       Allow for organized break times (if you just let them wander off, you may soon find yourself working alone.) and snacks.

–       You can pull out team members for very specific tasks – sorting legos, loading up book shelves, collecting nerf pieces, etc. 

–       You could also shake it up, and have teams switch roles every hour, to keep them engaged.

–       Wrap up the project within 3-4 hours, no one wants to work longer than that.

–       And promise some fun at the end, like a big rowdy game or a special lunch or snack.

I was privileged to work with this great family on the project.  The kids were a huge help!  They were great at sorting through specific piles, and working on mini-projects (like tidying up the book shelves to make more room for more books).  The big pay-offs for me were finding little tiny figures for the 4 year-old to play with (he was so happy!), and watching the big kids run-run-run around the space because they had “never been able to do that before!”.  What would you like to accomplish today?  Get to it! 

Little Pieces, Friends. Little Pieces.

I must have been really good this year, because my wonderful husband bought me a new laptop for Christmas.  Seems to me he is the Good One!  Especially considering he also is the one who will switch everything over to the new one and make sure everything is running just right.  He really is the best.

He started working on it first thing this morning, so I did not do my typical get up early / have coffee / plow through emails routine like I usually do.  And after a weekend of travel and yesterday’s oral surgery for my son, let me admit – my email inboxes were full to overflowing.  Now they are mostly cleared out, after 20 minutes of ruthless purging.  Whew.

But I realized the myriad of email subject lines about the New Year / lose weight / work more / donate money / get organized / etc. can be overwhelming.  And I looked at my own to-do list, which is also a bit overwhelming.  And the words that were echoing my head through all of that were “Little Pieces”.

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 Little pieces, my friends, make up the greater big picture.  Take heart.  We can make progress in leaps and bounds.  Today, tomorrow, this week, this month, this year.  Absolutely!   There Are No Limits To Our Greatness!  But it all starts with little pieces.  Changing the world can seem overwhelming, but changing one little thing, one little piece – yes, I can do that.  And so can you.

In 2014, I will post lots of articles, I’m sure, but this week’s article is the first of many focusing on little projects that have big results.  Happy New Year, friends!

Slow Down. Smile. Breathe. Merry Christmas!

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I spend a lot of time organizing others and myself, but I remind myself often “Why?”.  My personal “Why to be organized” reasons include running our home efficiently, using our resources responsibly, setting an example for my kids, and taking care of tasks so we have time for other things.  Above all, to me, being organized means I take good care of my family.

I attended a scripture reflection gathering last weekend.  60 minutes with 4 wonderful women, and my mindset for the holidays was blessedly changed.  I was reminded that everything we do for others this time of year is a blessing. Our labors and service are all a gift, to us and to others and to God.  Hope and Faith and Glory.  Ahhhh….  (that was me sighing a contented sigh).

We discussed how the ornaments on our tree reflect all the different places our lives have been.  For example, the ornaments my husband and I brought from our childhoods when we got married, and the ones we have received over the years since.  The “baby’s first Christmas” ornaments from each son, the cactus ornament from our anniversary in Arizona, the Irish ones we received at a family ornament exchange, the Mickey-shaped one we carefully brought home from Disney.  The hand-made ornaments from many school parties: angels with little hand-shaped wings; the same photo ornament of each boy holding the Velveteen rabbit in the same preschool classroom; banners and bells and beads and glitter.

A friend stopped by the other day and exclaimed over my handmade ornaments on my tree.  Since I consider myself totally not-crafty, I hadn’t really realized that we had more or less handmade ornaments than anyone else.  I did look at my tree anew though, admiring my sons’ crafty work: the ornaments they have made, and the fact that we all decorated the tree together and they chose which ornaments to put out.  My heart warmed when I realized how they have come to value the history and present life that the ornaments represent.

Our lives have gotten busier and busier as the boys have gotten older.  And I have been cranky at several points this holiday season about the apparent lack of time for our family traditions.  But I guess they still understand and appreciate and love our traditions, even if they haven’t figured out how to help, or haven’t made them their own.  And that’s ok.

So my organizing idea for you this week is to slow down and appreciate the Holidays for what they are.  An opportunity to get closer to God, to your community, your friends, your family and to your own self.   Admire and embrace anew your own traditions.  Appreciate the time and focus that being organized has afforded you, and reap the benefits now.   Slow down and smile and breathe.  I know I will.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Quiet That Critic In Your Head. It’s All Baby Bear.

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Ya’ know – Baby Bear?  From Goldilocks and the Three Bears?  Baby Bear’s chair was not too hard, not too soft. His porridge?  Not too cold, not too hot.  His bed?  Not too big, not too small.  It was all Just Right.

Baby-Polar-BearAre you feeling things a little too strongly lately, or maybe not enough?  Or perhaps some days it feels like time is just dragging, and then suddenly deadlines or holidays loom up right in front of us?

Hang out with me this week in Baby Bear – It’s all Just Right.

You see, my mind was swirling last week, spinning wildly through to-do lists and client projects and kid activities.  My nagging internal voice kept whispering “there’s not enough time, you haven’t done enough, you’ve done too much, you’re going to be late, what did you do… blah, blah, blah.”  Swirl, swirl, swirl.

The everyday demands of work, home, family and health are enough to keep us busy most days, but then toss in the extra thoughts – albeit good and wonderful thoughts –  about travels and holidays and special meals and logistics, and, well, your brain may be swirling too.  Is it?

It’s OK, friend.  Everything will be fine.  It’s all Baby Bear, Just Right.

Looking at the story, of course we want to be Baby Bear!  Papa Bear was big, gruff and cranky, from sitting on a hard chair and eating overly hot porridge.  Mama Bear was sort of mushy, from sitting in a squishy chair and eating cold porridge.  And Goldilocks was the worst house guest ever: ate all the food, broke stuff, took a nap and then ran screaming out the front door.

Yep. Baby Bear had it right.  Say it with me.  It’s all Baby Bear.  It will all be Just Right.

Now, don’t misunderstand me:  I am NOT suggesting that the next month or 6 weeks will be all sunshine and lollipops and sugar-plum fairies.  No way.  Some days we will be cranky like Papa Bear, or squishy like Mama Bear.  We may even break stuff, need a nap or run screaming from the room like Goldilocks.  If we allow it, our internal critic will whisper words to trip us up, and diminish our joy and purpose this Holiday season.

But we can remind ourselves that every day is a mix of hard and soft, cold and hot, big and small.  That’s life and there is no way around it.

And let me suggest – be grateful for the ups and downs and all-arounds this season.  A friend got a flat tire this morning on the way to church.  And when I saw her, she said she was ready to cry.  But cry tears of joy, because as she was calling friends to help, a tow truck pulled up behind her, the driver helped her with her tire, and got her on her way with a “God Bless You”.  God is so good.  See, it really can be All Baby Bear, Just Right.

So, change your internal critic’s monologue.  Or play Christmas carols so loud you can’t hear that insidious whisper.  You DO have enough time, you CAN get the important stuff done.  You might be late, but is that so bad?  You ARE smart enough, skinny enough, talented enough, wonderful enough.

Take a couple of deep cleansing breaths and tell that critic’s voice in your head that sounds remarkably like you to back off, get lost and let you get to work.

It’s all Baby Bear.  Things will turn out Just Right.

It’s 6 pm – Do Something to Help Today & Tomorrow!

I presented to the parents in my local school district last week.  We discussed tips and ideas to help our students get organized.  What a great group!  I loved speaking to all of them, and I also loved how everyone was willing to share challenges and ideas to support each other.

A Question I ask in my presentation is “Why should we bother getting organized, especially if we have kids?” We realize we are the parents, the Adult, and we set the example.  We want our children to do well in school and in life.  We want our lives to be less complicated, less stressful and more enjoyable.  And we want to be able to say “Yes” to new things. 

So, how can we set the example?  Get organized, be less stressed, enjoy life more.  This week and the next two, we’ll look at busy family times of day, evening, morning and after school.

Let’s say it’s 6 pm.  What can you do tonight that will make tomorrow run more smoothly?  Try one of these:

  1. Pack lunches for tomorrow (for the kids, and for you!!).  We use our lunch packing time to discuss nutrition, and what goes into a healthy meal. I have also found that the kids are more likely to eat a lunch they had a say in packing!  We pack lunches after dinner, so often the boys will pack leftovers like refried beans and cheese on a tortilla, or a piece of chicken.  And since we’re in the kitchen cleaning up from dinner already, it takes just a few moments to pack lunch for tomorrow.  If I have clients the next day, I will pack a lunch for me, since my lunch will always be healthier and cheaper than the fast food that is available between clients.
  2. Look at tomorrow’s Schedule:  Typically, our after-dinner adventures lead to checking out tomorrow’s schedule.  We check to what’s on the hot lunch menu, who has to be at school early or late, and who has what activities.  Checking tomorrow’s schedule provides an opportunity to place band instruments by the back door, and pack sports uniforms, a snack and water bottle for practice.
  3. Make time once a week, like Sunday night after dinner, for a family meeting /      planning session.  Review together projects and events for the coming week.
  4. Pack up the backpack tonight, after homework is done, and set it by the back door.
  5. Check the weather forecast, and pick out tomorrow’s clothes.   If you have small children, lay out their clothes on the floor in the shape of a person, facing down.  Then they can climb right in!
  6. Solve tomorrow’s problems today.  Because there is still time to go to the grocery.  Maybe this only happens in my house, but have you ever heard at 7 am, “Hey Mom,      by the way, I need 4 2 liters of soda for the band party.”?  The obvious mom response is “When is the party?”   And the answer is… wait for it….  Today.  So start the conversations early!  Another example:  the oldest son mentioned late last Tuesday that he needed to wear his black suit coat to his concert Wednesday night.  That would be the black suit coat he wore to homecoming, the one that was at the dry cleaners.  So first thing Wednesday morning I retrieved the now clean coat.  I am very glad I found out about it the day before, instead of at 5 pm Wednesday!
  7. Get to Bed on time!  All of You!

So, take a look at just this one part of your day, and how to make it better by being more organized and less stressed!  Let me know what works!

Welcome to my House Hour. Now excuse me while I start some laundry…

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001In last week’s blog, I mentioned my House Hour.  I didn’t give it a thought, it’s just what I do.  However, two readers asked “What do you mean by your “house hour”? Is this cleaning, straightening, laundry? Is it one hour everyday or when you can fit it in? Hmmm…”

Let me explain.

Last Friday morning, moments before receiving my friend’s email, I was wiping down my bathroom sink.   

Why? 

Well, because it was Friday.  That’s what I do on Friday.

Why 7:30 am?

As mentioned, “Clean the Bathroom” is a Friday chore.  And my Friday was shaping up to be busy, so 7:30 am was a good time to complete the task.  Also, everyone was already showered and ready-ish for school, so if I cleaned the bathroom at 7:30 am, there was a pretty good chance it would stay clean for a while.  Bonus!

My House Hour is the hour I spend on routine cleaning tasks every day.  For many years, I would wait and clean my whole house one day a week.  That worked for a while, but I hit some snags:

  1. My schedule rarely allows for an entire day dedicated to staying home and cleaning. 
  2. After 6 or more days of inattention, my house dirt and clutter really bothers me.
  3. There are some tasks that require repeating multiple times during the week, like laundry and vacuuming.
  4. As a child, Saturday was our cleaning day, but that absolutely doesn’t work with our schedule.

Here’s my cleaning schedule: http://www.peaceofmindpo.com/DailyCleaningChart.pdf

      This system works for us because I have a small and organized house, and my family is pretty good about cleaning up.  If my house was bigger, I would probably have to spend more than an hour.

       In addition, my House Hour does not always include things like laundry (a never-ending cycle), or cleaning up the kitchen after a meal.  Those are routine chores.   When the two go together, like when kitchen cleaning is on the House Hour list, too, it’s nice to get things done faster!

      Cleaning different areas of my home a little bit every day allows me to skip a day if I need to, so long as I catch up the next day.  And since the house stays relatively clean, I can be flexible and spontaneous for events or friends stopping over.

If you like this idea, make it your own.  Determine the list of things that need to be done every week, then distribute the tasks over a few days. 

  1. Be prepared to work around external motivators:
    1. Weather:  today I ditched my regular House Hour so that I could take care of yard work after a few rainy days.  In addition, when you only have an hour to spend, and you spend it shoveling snow or raking leaves, you have to be flexible!
    2. Garbage day is a great motivator for clearing clutter and recycling, and emptying all the trash!
    3. Pay day – my hubby’s pay schedule changed recently. Now Menu planning occurs every other Friday instead of twice a month on arbitrary days, which links nicely with the kitchen cleaning day.
  2. Take your schedule and your family’s rhythms into account – I like to knock out my tasks in the morning (though that doesn’t always work!!), but perhaps you prefer an hour in the evening every other day or so. Great, go for it.
  3. Leave room for large projects.  We have a few Fall projects to accomplish in the next few weeks:  put screens on the gutters, fix the fence, wash the windows, and I really need to strip and re-wax my kitchen floor.  This weekend or next, we need to clear an afternoon for these bigger projects.
  4. Determining your plan ONCE and sticking with it means you’ll never have to feel overwhelmed and searching for a starting place again!

So, pick an idea or two from this week, make your plan and make your cleaning schedule your own.

Organizing Bedrooms with Your Kids

This past week, my son and I did a clean sweep of his bedroom.  The room is usually clean, but periodically we all need to review our stuff and our space, so that is what we did!  We reviewed toys, books and clothes.  We kept a lot, purged some and re-allocated a bit, and it looks and feels great in there now!kid clean sweep

So, the first question is “How do we organize a bedroom?”  And the other part is the kid-specific part – “How do we organize with our kids?”

I like organizing with kids. Like all of us, they like to share details about what is important to them.  In addition, organizing with kids gives them an opportunity to share their opinions about stuff and space which gives them a sense of control and ownership in the organizing process.  They are receptive to new ideas, too!  Here’s what you do….

  1. Clear 2-4 hours in the schedule, dependent on your schedule and your child’s age and attention span.
  2. With your child, determine destinations for the purge items and label bags accordingly.  The paper bags lined up in my son’s room are labeled “garbage”, “recycle”, “sell”, “donate – toys”, “donate – library”, clothes for “swap.com” and binsfor cousin “Joshua”.  A garage sale could be a destination, too.
  3. Start a pile of “go elsewhere in our home” items by the door, including dirty laundry, to maintain focus and avoid running items here and there during your project time.
  4. Grab a notebook to jot down ideas and to-dos as they occur to you (“buy new sneakers for school”, “return borrowed toy to xxxxx’s house”)
  5. Start small; really small.  Everyone gets overwhelmed at times.  If you are feeling overwhelmed and snarky about the bedroom project, imagine how your child must feel.  Tackle small spaces one by one instead of all together.  My son and I started with 2 storage cubes, then book case, then toy box, then closet.  And I reviewed his clothes while he made decisions about toys and books.  We tackled our project based on Julie Morgenstern’s SPACE method of organizing.
  6. Sort what you have: We sort toys and books based on type and clothes based on size and season.
  7. Purge items to your various destinations.  We purge based on condition, developmental age, size and season and / or interest level. Give yourself or your child a chant to help review items and stay focused.  For example, I worked with a young man last week who was deciding what to do with his books.  His repeated question was” Keep, sell, give to sister?  Keep, sell, sister?”  Over and over, with each book.donate books and dvds
  8. We Assign a home to and Containerize the items we keep.  Quite often, items go right back where they came from, especially clothes to the closet and dresser, or books to the bookshelf.  But tackling these projects presents a great opportunity to re-think your storage! We took this opportunity to move a toy sorter out of the closet and into the basement for use with the Legos, and moving the sorter out of the closet opened up lots of space for other things.
  9. “Equalize” is the fifth step in Morgentstern’s SPACE, and is a fancy word for maintenance.  So we equalize every time we tidy up, throw out papers, donate outgrown or beat-up clothes, etc.

Specifically, organizing with kids

  1. Let the papers go.  No, really, let them go.  The grades are complete, homework is      done.  Let the papers go.  Keep a few items from each year, but I guarantee you, your child will not care about every paper ever produced much past junior high.  Handing him or her bins full of old paper when he or she starts their own home will not be appreciated.
  2. Cultivate giving and purging from birth. My boys are used to purging old clothes, and donating used toys and clothes.  It’s a good habit to form.
  3. Provide a plastic container (sweater size, 6-12 qt size) for treasures.  But no larger than that.
  4. Grab your camera, to take pictures of large art projects so you can purge the project without losing the memory.  A picture of the catapult they made in class takes up a lot less space than the actual catapult!

So, take courage and spend some time organizing with your kids this week!  The bedroom will look better, you will learn some new things about your child, and you will both cultivate your organizing habits!

Boost Summer Productivity with Tech and Routines

my portable office

my portable office

My sons are home with me this week since school has ended for the summer and activities are just starting up.  And while I really like my family, they are quite fabulous, the schedule changes and having them home with me in my office threaten my professional and personal productivity.

The lure is strong, to ditch my computer and take everyone out to lunch, or go on an adventure, or curl up on the couch and watch movies with them.  Also, the interruptions increase, which is a small price to pay for being with my family, but again, those interruptions damage my focus and make simple tasks take way too long, or not get done at all.

So….. what is a working parent to do? A dear client last week suggested that I get a desk that folds out of my van, so I can work anywhere.  I like the image of folding out a desk, but I already can work from anywhere, thanks to cool technological tools.  Here are some of my ideas, maybe they will work for you, too!

  1. Know what is in your in-box.  I have been making a conscious decision to check my work email on my smart phone while I am leaving a client appointment or meeting, instead of waiting to get home.  This may seem like another distraction, but I actually find it beneficial to my focus, deleting unneeded messages right away and spending some of my commute time mentally preparing for the work waiting for me when I get home.
  2. Make your office portable.  I take my IPad everywhere.  I can write up client notes and send them right away, instead of having to wait to get home to compose, edit and send the notes. I also added duplicate apps to my IPhone and IPad, like WordPress for managing my blog, Paypal for invoicing clients, and Evernote for sharing documents among all my devices.  We traveled this past weekend and I took just the IPad instead of my laptop.  I had everything I needed for work and for fun (downloaded movies and my Kindle App) right at my fingertips.
  3. Make it easy to manage and receive your money.  I have been using Paypal a lot lately for my client billing, which shortens the wait between completing client hours and payment – awesome!
  4. Go Paperless.  I cancelled my PO box in May, which may seem trivial to you, but for me it is huge!  I’ve had that PO box since I started my business!  However, steadily over the last 12 months, I have moved my correspondence to strictly on-line so that I could let go of the PO box, with its added expense and maintenance.  In addition, I receive some monthly publications on my IPad now, instead of in print.  My office is not yet Paperless, a goal for 2013, but I am one step closer.
  5. Share the calendar.  I am slowly warming up to the idea of sharing our family calendar online, through google calendars or a similar platform.  I figure summer is the time to decide, before the school schedules start up again in August.

Routines:

  1. Get up early.  I am still getting up before 6 am.  I heard a quote recently, something about how you never hear about the hero of the story sleeping in and taking it easy!  So, I get up and enjoy a very productive 60-90 minutes before my boys get up.
  2. Shave your head (or not!!).  I shaved my head back in March for a fundraiser, and it has taught me a lot (a blog for another day).  It seems extreme, I know, and I am NOT recommending that anyone should shave their head just to save time in the morning, but it is remarkable how much time this change has opened up!  Are there parts of your daily routines that you can streamline for summer?
  3. Maintain your focus.  I am so grateful for my accountability partner, especially right now.  Most summers, I struggle to get even the basics done some day.  With the focus that comes from accountability, I feel I am still moving forward on professional goals despite the summer urge to slack!.

So, what will you try this week to streamline your work and increase your productivity this summer?  Give one of these ideas a try, or share one of your own, I would love to hear it!

Seven Family Summer Survival Strategies

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Driving home from a client appointment last week, I had some time to think big ideas.  I felt that I should be dreaming up this week’s blog article topic, but I really wanted to map out my plan for making this summer fun and relaxing, and productive, too, for all the members of my household.

I had a light-bulb moment on the Tri-State tollway – I put the two together!  So let me share ideas that work for us always, and also a few new ones that I’m trying this summer!

Seven Family Summer Survival Strategies:

  1. Have everyone stick with Morning Routines (personal maintenance).  Regardless of when I, the little guy or my teenagers get out of bed, our routines remain the same: Get up, shower, have breakfast, make your bed, put your dirty clothes away, brush your teeth.  No matter when we wake up or what is on the schedule, these tasks need to be completed before we head out for the day.
  2. Stay on top of home maintenance.  Laundry, groceries, cooking, cleaning. You can pare down some work for summer, but these household tasks are essential.  And since my kids are capable and available, they are going to help.  Which leads me to……
  3. Chore Assignments:  Make and post a schedule of activities and chores.  We have never used chore charts and my boys are too old to earn stars or treats, but the assignments are essential.  I just created a dry erase board (made a template in MS Word, slipped it in a plastic page protector), with blocks for each child’s activities and chores for the day (including food prep like grate cheese or peel carrots, mow grass, clean basement, vacuum, take out trash / recycling, pack, put laundry away, unload dishwasher, dust bedroom).  I’ll write this up and post it daily, so even if I am off to work when the teenagers get out of bed, they will know their expectations for the day.
  4. Lay some ground rules, or remind everyone what they are.  For example:
    • No company when mom and dad aren’t home, but we are open to company       otherwise.
    • No TV before noon.
    • Basic hygiene still applies, no matter when you wake up.
    • Be home by 5:30.  HOME by, not leaving your friends house by, 5:30.
    • Cell phones and tech gadgets still get turned in at 10 pm.  Non-negotiable.
  5. Lay your own ground rules.  Mine include:
    • Maintain 5:30-7 am productivity hour.
    • Abandon TV viewing altogether, until I conquer my reading pile.
    • Walk every evening with my husband.  Relaxing and fun, and good for us both!
  6. Re-work your menu planning for summer.
    • We will stock our breakfast menu planning items (go to http://colleencpo.wordpress.com/category/meal-planning-kitchen-organzing/ for more ideas), since we do have early activities to get to this summer in the morning.
    • We eat lunch at home during the summer.  No school hot lunches for the next few months.  So I asked my sons for input, into what they want on-hand for their lunches.  I stocked up on sandwich ingredients, cut fruit and veggies, chips and leftovers.  Thankfully, these are all things the boys can make for themselves or each other.
    • We eat more fresh fruits and vegetables, thanks to my local farmers market.
    • In an effort to keep the house cool, I rely heavily on my crock pot and grill during the summer.  If I have to turn on the oven, I will make 2 or 3 items all at once (like bake cookies, bread and potatoes), to make the most of the hot oven!
    • May was ridiculously busy with after-school and evening activities.  I am just looking forward to cooking, and eating together as a family more consistently!
  7. Slow down and Have Fun!  We had a number of activities and tasks to complete this past weekend, but we also had some unstructured personal time, and it was lovely.  In addition, we’re all making our list of things we want to go and do this summer, like road trips, movies, adventures and hikes, and favorite ice cream haunts!

So, spend some time this week working on your plan to make your family’s summer great, too!