Can you share your very best organizational tips?

[melissel]

What are the things you rely on to keep your days running (relatively) smoothly? I'd love to hear everything, large and small. For example, I asked this once a long time ago on another board (not HSing-oriented), and one of the best tips I received was to put shoes in a basket by the entrance door as we came in. I'd never done that before, and it was great. I started making loose lesson plans, and that helps a ton. But I'm sure there are a million things I haven't thought of. Can you share if you have a moment?

Thanks!

[DollyM]

This was very helpful when the kids were little, but we still use it now that they are 14 and 17.

Color code towels, sippy cups, anything, really.

We have a large wall calendar that hangs on the wall in the kitchen next to the phone. (We all have individual desks in the school room, too, but this kitchen wall calendar works best for us.) We write our appointments and plans in different colored ink for each person. This has been very helpful as the kids get older and busier, and esp as DD-17 started driving herself to a job.

Figure out a way to plan, shop and prepare for meals.
Figure out a way to get laundry done.
Teach these to the DH and the kids. These two mundane routine tasks, once conquered, will make you feel more organized - they just keep coming up LOL and DH truly expects to have dinner every SINGLE night ! ? So I had to figure out a way to respond appropriately - apparently cereal at 7pm would not work for him. :cool:

Also, I have an uncool, unstylish brass clip on my purse that holds my keys. Lifesaver for me.

[Cathy in IL]

I have organized the chores/routines I want my children to follow into 6 sections. We have morning, breakfast, lunch, dinner, chore, and bedtime routines. Each child has a chart posted with their responsibilities listed in order for each of the sections. Each section has a different color, so they know to do everything in blue for the morning, red for chore time, etc. I simply have to tell them, "Do your ____________ routine." It didn't take too long to train them to follow the routines, and it works well.

My children struggled with getting out of the house on time. I put an outfit they didn't particularly like into a shopping bag by the front door. I told them what time they are to be dressed and ready. I set a timer. If they were not dressed and ready, they left in their pajamas and changed into the outfit in the bag once we reached our destination. I only had to do it once for them to decide to get dressed int he morning!

Now they are dressed but not always finished with other things I expect done before we leave. They know that they will go to bed a minute early for each minute they make me late. Sometimes if they beat the timer, I give them a small reward. This helps make them take responsibility for their own schedules.

Some of the little things. . . Planning menus in advance helps me feel more organized. I organize pencils, markers, staplers, flash cards and the like in a shoe holder that hangs over the door in our schoolroom. I meant to decorate it cute and label each section, but I never got around to it. In each room I have posted what chores need to be done in order for the room to be up to standards. For instance the bathroom says - flush toilet, scrub toilet, pick up things from floor, pick up things from sink, wipe off sink with wet rag, close shower curtain, shake bath mats outside, sweep floor, wash mirror. I am amking a list of what needs to be inthe diaper bag before we leave the house. I find lists help a lot in organizing my family.

Just as a frame of reference, my children are 9, 6, 4, 3, and 1. the older two are great at following the routines. The 3 and 4 year olds are learning.

[ThelmaLou]

My best organizational tip is to declutter and attack with a vengeance every item that crosses your threshhold. I've realized that most of my time management problems arise from having too much stuff. When we go on vacation, we take very few clothes, and live in a very small space. Hardly any toys, and I even cook my own meals, but keep it simple. It's amazing how the upkeep of 7 people on vacation gets simplified. Similarly, a friend of mine had to move out of her house for several months due to black mold. They took only a few outfits, a handful of toys, and the bare bones when it came to school books. She said it was wonderful! They got so much done while staying at the hotel, even though they were in cramped quarters. Fewer things to keep up with, so next to nothing to organize or manage. It was a real eye opener for her. I keep trying to translate this to every aspect of our home life. I....have.....too....much.....stuff! The less you have, the less you must manage, clean, store, put away, organize, get rid of, move, vacuum under, etc...When I look at the things I actually use and love, it's a small fraction of what I actually have. I'm am in the process of simplifying, and it's very freeing already. Most organizational tips teach you to organize and deal with your *things*. In my opinion, the fewer things you have, the fewer organizational headaches.
One more practical tip: I use the dot system for laundry. I have 5 boys close in age, and can't keep track of which clothes belong to which child. I put one black dot inside the tag of clothes belonging to my oldest son. When that item gets passed down, it gets another dot for ds#2. And so on until my baby (#5) has 5 dots. So the # of dots on the clothing item represents dc #1-5. I never get their clothes confused now, and even my kids can sort all of the foldable clothes into piles by themselves. I put the dots inside underwear and on the toes of socks, too. I just use a black sharpie. It fades a little in the laundry, so after an item has been passed down through a couple of kids, I sometimes have to refresh the marks. There's probably a better laundry marker you could use for this, but my sharpie works for me. It's been a major organizational lifesaver.

[jmgconner]

Have less stuff (like Thelma says above) and have a home for everything. As I've gotten to that point in different areas of my home, the dot systems, chart systems, etc. seem to fall in place naturally. Also, develop a routine for getting the everyday chores accomplished - for example, laundry started first thing in the morning, toy pick-up times throughout the day, dinner menu made once a week, etc.

[Rebecca in GA]

Enlist your children's help.

Each of my three (11, 8 and 6) has a clipboard with morning chores/routine and evening chores/routine. They are responsible for daily chores like sweeping, vacuuming, washing off the table after meals, cleaning the kitchen counter and sink and helping with the laundry.

I list personal grooming and tidying up (cleaning their rooms, making their beds, picking up after themselves) so there's no "I forgot to brush my teeth."

I use Motivated Moms, so they each get one or two less frequent chores in the evening, like cleaning toilets, sweeping the porch, dusting, etc.

Training them to do these chores is helping me immensely. They don't always get done perfectly but the children try hard, and these are skills they need to learn. I praise them and they get a small allowance each week, though it's not based on their chores.

I'm free to plan and cook meals -- which I enjoy -- as well as lesson plan, do nagging small jobs (or bigger jobs I never seemed to have time for) around the house and the million other things I need to do. There's more of a sense of teamwork and they have been known to help each other finish chores so they can hurry and play.

[Tea Party Girl]

My number one tip? Screen every call (or get caller ID), return calls and process email only once a day.

[j.griff]

My current best tip is to go paperless for your bills and bank statements if possible, scan copies of the statements you may need later and file it electronically on your puter then shred the rest. It feels SO good to get rid of paper that gets out of hand (at least it gets out of hand here, quickly). FYI, there are places that will shred your old papers relatively inexpensively (depending on how much you need shredded). Here the Goodwill will shred one office file box of papers for $5- not bad. I HATE feeding the shredder LOL.

[Sharon H in IL]

I HATE feeding the shredder LOL.

Ah, but 8yo boys LOVE it.

My tip is to cut down on the paper coming into your house by calling the catalog companies' 800 numbers and asking to be removed from their lists. Eventually the amount of junk mail goes waaaay down.

I assume you already have put your family's name and phone number on the do-not-call registry? And put on the Direct Marketing Assn's do not mail list?

Time spent organizing a system is better than spending that same amount of time cleaning, imo. The latter solves a problem for a few days at most; the former solves it for a long time.

[j.griff]

I didn't even know there was a Direct Marketing Association do not mail listl- that's great news- THANK YOU!
And I never thought of calling the catalog people and asking them to just not send me anything, durh LOL. THANK YOU again! :D

[gardenschooler]

Don't try to organize your junk - get rid of it. http://www.thesmilies.com/smilies/expressive/soapbox.gif (http://www.thesmilies.com/)

Make a conscious decision to decrease your 'stuff' by 25-50%. I do more than that, but I'm a little gung-ho on the decluttering. You wouldn't know it by looking at my house, though, because it's very small - so I HAVE to be this way, or we'd be trapped in here by mounds of stuff sooner rather than later. I like to think my house is amazingly junk-free considering the number of people we have in the square footage, but there is still too much stuff in it. 90% of which we never use.

I shudder at the thought of what it would be like if I didn't do this. I shudder at the thought of the *stuff* stored in attics across America. Go on Antique Roadshow, or get rid of it. It's just stuff.

First thing in the morning - start laundry, take out garbage, unload dishes, make beds, spruce up house

Last thing at night (kids help with this)- run dishwasher, clean counters, bathroom mirrors/sink, surfaces, dining room table, all toys/shoes/books put away, put that morning's laundry away, clean bathroom & floors as needed. But the house to bed nice and tidy and ready for a new day!

If I just do these things every day, my house is always 'clean enough', which is what I need to operate during the school week. Heavier jobs are done less frequently, but this is most of the daily stuff.

[Lisawa]

Don't try to organize your junk - get rid of it. http://www.thesmilies.com/smilies/expressive/soapbox.gif (http://www.thesmilies.com/)

Last thing at night (kids help with this)- run dishwasher, clean counters, bathroom mirrors/sink, surfaces, dining room table, all toys/shoes/books put away, put that morning's laundry away, clean bathroom & floors as needed. But the house to bed nice and tidy and ready for a new day!

If I just do these things every day, my house is always 'clean enough', which is what I need to operate during the school week. Heavier jobs are done less frequently, but this is most of the daily stuff.

Excellent advice! I agreee... now I admit I do not always do these things... but by golly...when I do... life just runs smoother!

I love the soap box dude... *Ü*

[GLOWAcademy]

Our schedule is
I have a spiral of what the school work will be
as Jacobs doing his schooling On Mondays I do Laundry and clean real good,
then rest of week i just tidy up
Jacob does his chores after schooling
He cleans his room, Vaccum, Gather clothes up On Monday
Rinses dishes after DH washes them.:)

[Mrs. Readsalot]

I am a bit of a nuts about keeping papers, books, cupboards etc organzed. It ia amazing how much time this saves in our day to day lives. Just think about how much time you have to spend looking for something.

[mcconnellboys]

We try to get up about the same time every day, eat lunch about the same time, stop school about the same time, eat dinner about the same time, go to bed about the same time. Having a framework to the day helps everyone to flow better, I think.

We don't answer the phone during school time. We let the answering machine get it.

I don't do errands or shopping, etc., during school time.

If we have a busy afternoon/evening, I try to plan a dinner that I can do in the crockpot or otherwise do ahead without much attention from me. Otherwise, I mostly do meals that I can put together in 30 minutes and start that amount ahead of when I know my husband and older son will walk in the door.

My husband and older son have a routine for cleaning up the kitchen and taking out the garbage. My younger son empties all the small household trashcans every weekend.

Both sons and I have a routine for doing our laundry and putting it away. My older son does his own clothes and puts them away. He folds and puts away the bath and beach towels. My younger son folds and puts away the hand towels, kitchen towels, and washclothes. He also helps me put away his clothes.

Setting up some sort of order or assembly line or other routine for any regular chore you do will help it to run more effortlessly, I think.

Everyone does try to leave their own shoes, eyeglasses, and sweatshirts in the same place, every time they take them off, wherever that is for them (generally in their own bedroom or bathroom), so that we can pick them back up again quickly when it's time to go back out. My husband has a tray on our sofa table where he deposits his pocket contents when he comes in at night so that he can find his wallet, keys, and such the next morning.

I can't think of any more. I think routines get so ingrained that you turn them over to the autonomic nervous system and don't even think about them anymore, which is maybe why they seem to make things run more smoothly and effortlessly for us.

Regena

[KristineIN]

My current best tip is to go paperless for your bills and bank statements if possible, scan copies of the statements you may need later and file it electronically on your puter then shred the rest. It feels SO good to get rid of paper that gets out of hand (at least it gets out of hand here, quickly). FYI, there are places that will shred your old papers relatively inexpensively (depending on how much you need shredded). Here the Goodwill will shred one office file box of papers for $5- not bad. I HATE feeding the shredder LOL.


I have to agree with this, go paperless, pay electronically through the banks website. It saves me so much time.
Kristine