Household “To Do’s” for Everyone!

Involve Everyone in "To Do's"

 

There should be “To Do’s” that everyone in the house follows.  If everyone follows them, the clutter will stay at bay!  Gives these a shot… 

1) If you take it out, put it back 

2) If you carry it in, carry it out 

3) If you borrow it, return it 

4) If you open it, closet it 

5) If you throw it down, pick it up 

6) If you take it off, hang it up 

7) If you break it, fix it 

Easy enough! 

Happy Organizing!  Bridges

T.E.A.M

T. E. A. M. is brought to you by “The Organizer Lady!”

T ogether
E veryone
A ccomplishes
M ore

People who live together in a house must work as a
team to make the household function at its best.
You are not the only player. You should not even
be the star player. Instead you should be the coach
who instructs, encourages, motivates, and moves your
team to be its best.

Your attitude should not be that you are the one
responsible and asking for help. Instead you should
not be hesitant to designate jobs to be done. They
are not your jobs they are helping with; they are
family jobs which all are sharing. Don’t think you
are burdening your children with jobs that you
should be doing when you include them as part
of the team. They need to learn skills and
responsibility. Rightly done, including other
members of the family will be the best thing
you can do for them. And yourself!

Maybe you should make a sign using this T.E.A.M.
reminder and post it in a conspicuous place.
Perhaps you can think of a better one.

Happy Organizing!  Bridges

Tips to Organized Chores and Kids

Are your kids doing chores around the house?

 

If you want to get your children to do chores well, you should understand that it will cost you a lot of time. Making your children get involved in daily household management is very good for them as it can make the kids more responsible and can help them realise the value in the home. What’s more, the child can enjoy a team atmosphere and develop good habits and organizing skills at an early age. Read on this article to learn about 5 ways to make children participating in chores. 

Work on doing one chore at a time well. Don’t overload your child with a million things to do every day. Give them one chore a day and in the beginning help them until it is done well. When this chore becomes more of a habit, give them a second chore and let them have the space and time to do this chore well without any reminders. This is the beginning of developing independence, good habits and routines. 

Children love to help out and chat with their parents. In the beginning doing chores together can create a fun atmosphere that makes time fly as well as giving you the opportunity to model how to perform the task well. Little things like cleaning the kitchen while your child unloads the dishwasher and having a nice conversation can go a long way to making helping in the house a good experience. 

Acknowledge their contribution. Let Dad know what they did and acknowledge how valuable their help is and how much you appreciate what they do. Praise is always valuable and your child will glow with pride. This supports those feelings of being included, of being important and being of value and creates a team feeling within your family. 

Set your boundaries and get play and chores in balance. Removing children from the computer, T.V. or play to help out will always be difficult so timing is everything. When you plan a chore, make sure you are clear and communicate when it needs to be done. Examples are making beds before school; watering plants before play, no T.V. until rooms are picked up. Planning chores in the morning, just after school, before Saturday play or before they leave the house are times that can all work well. 

Be consistent. Follow through and consistency are really important and getting yourself organized enough to choose what chores you need done, how you will model the task, what follow through may be needed and how you can support your child is critical and can save you a lot of frustration. Get clear on what chores are daily, weekly or monthly and follow through to make sure they are done. Try these home organization tips so you can discover how to organize some help in your home and foster the seeds of good organizing habits, independence and team spirit in your children and your family. 

Ezine article by Jane Alais 

Happy Organizing!  Bridges

Getting Organized For Homework!

Organize your homework area!

 

Here are a few simple organizing techniques to make your home a good place for homework: 

• Establish where homework will be done. Stick to it. Designate a homework center. This is the location where homework is done daily, so choose one with fewer distractions. It can be a desk but it can also be the kitchen table. The point is to establish a spot and a routine so there isn’t a struggle about this daily.
• Clear the clutter: As you know, kids will pick up and fiddle with anything. No matter where your homework center is located, make it a daily habit to clear off toys, paper and clutter distractions. Clearing the space means you are serious about the work to be done.
• Set up a homework supply box. Stock it with needed items such as pens, erasers, pencils, a sharpener, glue stick, calculator, ruler and so forth. Place it in their homework center. Kids won’t need to jump up and hunt for things.  
• Plan for homework. You know they are going to have it, so plan when they will do it. If you announce the homework time the day before, when reviewing the next day’s activities, you’ll head off a lot of bartering over when they will do the work. If your calendar is so busy you can’t figure out when they can sit down peacefully and concentrate, then it is time to change your schedule.
• Have a homework folder. Purchase a folder just for homework. Have your child label it and put all homework, for all subjects, into it. At school, they won’t need to stress and dump the book bag out trying to find a piece of paper. All homework goes in one folder. Easy!
• Organize reading with them. Elementary kids, and even middle school students, may not be capable of deciding how much to read to complete a book on time. Make a set of bookmarks and label them with the days of the week. Work with your child to divide the book up, using the markers, so they learn how to spread out the task and manage their time. Each day they read from one marker to the next one. No more arguing about if they have read enough pages.
• Get some extras. Eventually you will need more supplies or special ones. Designate a shelf in a cabinet or even a plastic tub. Stock up on the things you know you will eventually need. This is a great stress reduction tip for parents and kids. Buy a few poster boards, stick-on letters, report covers and a back-up supply of printer paper and ink.

These tips are brought to you by Professional Organizer Lea Schneider!  Great Job! 

Happy Homework!  Bridges