Three Ways to Involve the Kids to get Organized

As  families grow, the days seem drastically shorter. There are never enough hours for self-care, quality time with family, or that extra time that could always be used at work and home. Don't settle for the chaos that can accompany life with kids. These three tips will allow you to have a few minutes of peace,  before you become an empty nester.

State your expectations. As parents, we think it’s obvious to all family members what we expect and what the household standards are. Not so. Whether your kids are toddlers or teenagers, they need you to spell out the rules of the game. Toddlers learn the Tidy Up song in pre-school. If they are held accountable for putting things away when outside of the home, they can be held accountable at home. Try the five-minute warning, “We’re going to have dinner in a few minutes. Let’s tidy up before we eat”, then spend a few minutes helping return things to their respective containers.

Likewise, have a talk with your tween or teen to let them know what you expect, for example make your bed daily, empty the dishwasher on Saturday mornings, put your clean laundry away. And be sure to tie a reward or consequence to these tasks.

Teach your kids. Prioritizing and organizing are skills we learn.  Teach your kids about limits. If there is only an influx of things but no exit plan, your home will quickly become crowded and you’ll find yourself watching TV around a stack of magazines or a mountain of postponed decisions. When the toy baskets are overflowing, it’s time to have a talk about what is still age-appropriate, what is a favourite, and what might be passed along to make someone else happy.

Earmark some time, about 2 to 4 weeks before birthdays and Christmas, to talk with each of your children about what to let go of. Explain that they will receive a lot of presents and need to make space for all the new stuff to come.

Also, let your child decide the best way to let go of their once-loved possessions. Will it be off to a thrift store, neighbour, children’s charity, or listed on kijiji for some extra cash?

Involving your kids in these decisions eliminates their fear of letting go and reduces the likelihood of the kids feeling blindsided by the disappearance of their prized possessions.

Keep it simple. We are all more likely to follow the rules of organization if they are easy. Use open baskets for dirty laundry and toy storage. Avoid stacking bins; the extra steps of fitting on lids and stacking and unstacking bins, will be the difference between things being put away, or strewn about the room. Use hooks for hanging coats, clothes and towels. Consider introducing drawer dividers in dresser drawers; having a section for each type of clothing is the first step to maintaining some order in those drawers.

We shouldn’t expect things to change overnight, but by consistently stating expectations and leading by example, these organizing habits will take root.

Plan to Simplify

I know: you think schedules and routines are for school-aged children. You'd like to think you've achieved a more bohemian lifestyle since your school days. You're laid-back and able to roll with the punches. People who plan out all the details are boring. Here's a question for you: How many times have you arrived at work late and grumpy, because it wasn't until you went to get dressed that you realized your wet clothes were still in the washing machine?

You likely already have a few tasks which you perform at the same time every year. Things like changing your seasonal wardrobe, changing your car tires, cleaning out your eaves trough. You know what the benefits are to doing these things, so it's not such a huge sacrifice when you actually put the time aside to get them done. The same approach can be used when performing daily or weekly tasks.

Schedule time to do personal or business admin. Instead of letting your filing accumulate for six weeks or more, set aside 30 minutes on a Friday afternoon to sort and store everything piled on your desk. At the end of a long week, you can still be productive by performing tasks that aren’t as demanding as budgeting. If you still need to action something, file it in a desktop filer. (I’m not endorsing this product; I  just want to give you an example of what it can look like). You’ll see it first thing Monday morning and be reminded of the task to complete, without your desk looking like a twister hit it.

 If personal admin is where you struggle, try to determine how to make the task more enjoyable. As in a corporate environment, I do still suggest that you establish a routine, i.e. pick a night during the week, or an hour on the weekend that you will address the paper flow and bill payments. Beyond that, you do have a bit more flexibility. If you’ve gone paperless, you can curl up in front of the TV with your laptop and pay bills. Or, if you perform best in the morning, why not focus on admin on a Saturday morning, while the rest of your family snoozes a bit longer.  You’ll accomplish more without the usual interruptions, and by the time everyone is up you will already have accomplished something for the day.

Even laundry has its day. Don't wait until there's one pair of socks in your drawer before you do some laundry. Many people like to designate one day of the week to do all their laundry. For me, that feels like a prison sentence. I don't want to give up a full day of the weekend to be a slave to my washer and dryer. If you have a quiet night during the week, why not designate it as a wash night? You don't have to do all your laundry. Worst case scenario, you may have to do a couple more loads of laundry on the weekend. Better to give up an hour or two over the weekend, then to miss a full day of fun.

Prepare for the next day -- whatever that may mean for you. Nobody likes waking up to surprises. Before going to bed each night, do some preliminary work. Check the weather channel so that you know whether to pull out winter boots or an umbrella. Maybe you need to set your alarm for 15 minutes earlier than usual if you anticipate bad traffic or school bus cancellations. Pack your briefcase, pack your children's knapsacks, put them beside the boots or umbrella at the door. Maybe all you need to do to get your morning off to a smooth start is to prep the coffee maker before you go to bed.

Planning our time is as necessary to being organized as planning a physical space. These suggestions are merely some new habits you can introduce. Once they – or whatever changes you decide to make – are routine, you will discover that chaos and confusion are a thing of the past. You'll find yourself living a simplified life.

Chronic Disorganization: There’s More to be Said

So . . . have you tried to “self-diagnose” since my last post on chronic disorganization (CD)?  Do you think that you, or someone you know, fits the description? Fear not, you are not alone.  And now you can learn a bit more about how to deal with it.

As previously mentioned, one of the challenges faced by the CD population is that they do not respond to conventional organizing methods. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. That just means you get to think outside the box when creating your spaces. The goal is to create a space that will make you feel in control.  But before you get started, you have to know yourself pretty well.

Are you a visual person? Do you believe in the old adage, out of sight, out of mind? How do you respond to sounds around you? Are background noises soothing, distracting or downright irritating? Is it impossible for you to work at something for more that 20 minutes? Or do you get so engrossed in what you’re doing that you lose track of time completely?

If you need visual reminders use labels or try introducing colour. You could use assorted colours of Post-it® notes. Things that need to be done immediately will be written on the hot pink Post-it® notes. Things that you need to do, but aren’t urgent, could be written on the buttery yellow notes.  Then place the note where you will see it.  That might be in one central location that you are sure to see every day, like on a memo board in the kitchen. Or, maybe you’ll put the note wherever it is that you need the reminder.  For example, if you have to bring drinks and napkins to the office pot-luck, put the Post-it® on the front door, so you won’t leave the house without seeing the reminder.

But whatever you do, please try to remember that when too many visual clues are left out to jog your memory, eventually a pile of clutter forms.  When that happens, that thing you wanted to be top-of- mind is buried and your visual clue isn’t helping you at all.

If you welcome background noises, indulge yourself. Just because you decide to get organized, doesn’t mean that you have to be miserable while doing so.  And some people just don’t like absolute silence. If you like music, put on the radio or your favourite CD. Tell yourself that you’ll work on sorting out your junk drawer for the length of time it takes to hear three songs.  Maybe you’d rather listen to a CD of nature sounds. Heck, some people like the white noise of their dishwasher!! Whatever it is that makes you feel Zen, use it to set the mood before you get down to the nitty gritty.

If you struggle to stay on task, or time just seems to slip away, set an alarm for yourself.  If you’ve ever meant to give 45 minutes to a task and looked up to see it’s dawn, you’ll appreciate being awoken from your trance-like state.  It gets a bit trickier when you’re inclined to walk away from a challenge after five minutes.  If that’s your story, you might want to try using a visual timer to help you track the timer.  The Time Timer available at Scholar’s Choice might do the trick.

I hope that these tips will answer questions for some of you. As you contemplate your personal circumstances and what it will take to get you organized, remember: there is no right or wrong way to organize. It’s okay to ask for help. Not everyone get’s it.