Here we are just a couple of weeks away from the kids going back to school!  I went to the mall last Saturday and saw several kids with their parents shopping for school clothes.  This brought back a lot of memories of when I was kid!  This is a big deal!  I remember how exciting it was to pick out what to wear on the first day!

I never did understand why my mother would only buy a few items prior to school starting, then we would get the rest as we needed it.  She would say it would give me a chance to see what I really wanted and needed! Now as I parent, I get it!  It was really about saving money!  Things go on sale as the season goes on and you will most likely always get better deals after school as started!  So the tradition now has been passed on… I only buy what they really need right now, and then wait until the sales start coming!

On this weeks podcast, Organizing Closets!, we talked about several tips and ideas to get your closets organized!  As with our own closets, the change of season is a great time to go through your children’s closet as well!  It’s time to see what fits, what doesn’t, what can be handed down to a sibling or taken to a charity.  It’s also time to take inventory on your winter gear, like coats, mittens, gloves, hats, etc.  Don’t forget the shoes!  Our children grow fast and so do their feet!

**Remember to have a landing spot for all of the outerwear, I have found a hanging sweater organizer works great for hallway closets.  Each person as their own cubby for the gloves, hats, etc.

** During the Closet Podcast, we talked about Huggable Hangers!  They have these for kids too… You can get them at a variety of different stores.  Heres a few links to check out:  Target, The Container Store, HSN.

Last summer I wrote a blog post about how to organize your children’s closet.  Click here, to read the entire post.  It gives great ideas on product and how to most efficiently use your space!

Enjoy these last days of summer!  They go by fast!

Happy Organizing!

Depending on the grade of our child, there is a good possibly they will have homework from day one!  The best thing you can do is to be prepared and make sure you child has everything they need, when they need it. It will save time and keep them focused on the homework and not trying to find their pencils and erasers!

You can set up a homework station in a variety of ways.  The student could have their own desk in their room or in a common area in the home.  If they like to do their homework in different rooms around the house, a portable desk may be a good option.  The study space should be a place where the student can think, focus, brainstorm, and if set up correctly, should make doing homework a little less painful!

These are the essentials you need no matter how the work station is set up:

• Kids will not work in a station if it’s not user friendly.  You must get their opinions and thoughts about how to best set up a workspace.
• You want the station to have storage space and surface space, they need to have enough space to store all of their supplies, printer, computer, paper etc.  You need to have the surface area to write, cut, paste etc.
• Good lighting- It’s hard to do your best work if you can’t see what you are doing!
• Make sure the student is comfortable- if they don’t like their desk chair, they will never sit it in.
• Let me them put personal touches around their workspace – just like if you were working in a cubicle, you want around you the things that make you happy.
• Include a bulletin board and calendar to the workspace – they need to see deadlines and bulletin boards are a great way to post reminders and other information your student may need. (Teach the child to go through the bulletin board on a weekly basis, so it doesn’t fill up with paper clutter)
• Make sure the station is stocked with everything they need!  Nothing is worse than finding out you used the last staple.  Keep up on the inventory of supplies!

Happy Organizing!

Pottery Barn Entryway System

Back to School Organizing Tip: Create a space in your home for your children to put their stuff!  The daily drop off occurs the same time, the same place, everyday!

Your children are going to need a place for their coats, hats, mittens, backpacks, lunch pails, shoes, and anything else that may come home with them!  If you designate the same place every time, it will eliminate the running around in the mornings trying to find the missing shoe!

This is an easy organizing system to put into place in your home as long as you teach your children what is expected from them.  You want the kids to put their jackets on hooks, make sure the hooks are at their height, make placing shoes in a bin or a rack easy and painless.  Have a basket or bin accessible for the mittens and hats.

Make the drop off place as convenient and easy as possible to ensure success!

Practice!  Before school actually starts, do a run through with your kids, and if there is anything that needs to change, now is the time to do it!

Happy Organizing!

Back to School!

Ready or not, school is just around the corner!  For some of you around the country, it may have already begun!  If you have any lessons learned this season, please share your wealth of information! We are always looking for tips to make our lives easier!

I will be the first to admit I am not ready to let go of summer.  However, I do know it’s better to be prepared and plan for this upcoming season change.  If you are not organized during this time, it can easily turn into chaos with a lot of frustration and stress!

So what can we do to make this time less stressful?  Organized.com is one way for sure!  The Back to Campus webpage is a great resource for great products and information all of us can learn from…

Here are just a few of my favorite articles and products:

How to Prepare for the First Day of Preschool

How to Pack the Perfect Lunch

Locker Organization

The Dorm Store

The Dorm Checklist

More Back to School Posts our on the way.. Visit our Back to School Central Link… This will take you to all the blog posts related to Back to School plus more products I recommend to get your season off right!

Happy Organizing!

Most likely if you are reading this blog, you are hoping to get some new idea or suggestions on becoming better organized.  My business is about helping people build solid organizing systems around their home and work life.  It’s about giving them direction and support on how to lead a more organized lifestyle. There are so many wonderful tips and products out there to get you where you want to be.  Organization is a skill and if it doesn’t come natural to you, you have to some how learn this skill.  With anything you learn, once you learn it, it can’t be taken away from you.. It’s the power of education!

I recently listened to an education podcast for Professional Organizers and the speaker said something that really stuck with me.  So much so I have to write about it… She mentioned how the most important piece of what we do for our clients is teaching them new skills!

It’s not just about getting organized.

Being organized comes and goes.

We all have different events and things that happen to us unexpectedly.  Even the most organized people will and can become disorganized.  It’s the skills we have learned and practiced that help us get our homes and offices back into order.  We have the skills to put it back together.  It’s just like ridding a bike, once you learn, you never forget!  The same is true for organizing.

There will be times of the month or year, where your office is going to look like a mess.  If you are moving or in some kind of transition, there will be things that will slip by.  If you are dealing with an unexpected life event, your organization will falter.

I think it’s easy for people to be too hard on themselves.  Life happens and our priorities shift.  Organization is not about perfection or how clean your home or office is.  When you see the organization around you start to break, take a step back, look at the reasons, build off of your organizing skills, and make the changes you need to make at the time you need to make them!

Happy Organizing!

Here is a quick tip to prevent the paper pile up….

Do everything you can not to place more than two pieces of paper on top of each other… I said it’s a quick tip, I never said it would be easy!

A small stack of paper can easily turn into a large mountain of paper, if you are not aware that you keep stacking and stacking… I go back to the organizing rule of “touch it once”.. it’s hard, but the more you are aware of it the better you will get at it.

Ask yourself to really identify what the paper is, can it be filed, does it need some kind of action?  What better system can you build to prevent these pile ups? (If you don’t know, call a Professional!  This is what we do!)

Think before you pile!

Happy Organizing!

An additional tip to add for those “Maybe” items, is to place them into a box for 6 months.  If you do not return to the box within the 6 months or even think about the box, give yourself the freedom to let the box go!  Put this on your calendar to remind yourself, otherwise it can easily be forgotten.  

In addition to all of the great services, Susan Heid provides with the Confident Mom, don’t forget the Summer Survival Calendar! Yes, we are closing in on summer, but these activities are good all year around!  For only $7.00, you have access to different websites with great activities, recipes and just great fun!  Enjoy these last days of summer without worrying about getting bored and what to do next!

Happy Organizing!