Where has the organization gone?

Over the last few weeks has gotten so busy that not only did I fall off the wagon I'm pretty sure it ran me over as well. I found my self back sliding into old habits. Forgetting to make time for me and just feeling completely overwhelmed. My house fell back into its disorganized mess and I felt like I totally couldn't do this but today I realized that I can do this. I have to do this for my family but most of all for me. So I can't do everything right now. So what! I can do a little here and there and a little is better than nothing at all.

So this week I want to go back to list. I want you to go around your house and write down all the daily task your home needs you to do. Now you can make your list in a few different ways. Option one is to go with the fly lady and make a daily home routine. Option two is to make a tickler file with each chore being on a 3x5 cards in a file box and each day you file what you need to do for the next day like the slob sisters. Option three is to make your list organized by each room on your computer/iPad. I found an app for my iPad that I'm testing this week for this just for this expect more on that soon. But any way you choose to do it you will wake up each morning knowing the daily chores you need to do.

For extra credit after you have made your chore list I want you to time your cleaning. Find out how long each chore takes you. You will be surprised at how little time some chores really take. Time how long doing everything takes you so you know. The next time your cleaning set a timer and see just how much you can get done. I like to set my timer for 15 mins and just see how much I can get though.

Good luck this week guys.

garage burnout

I always have the best of intentions on Sunday night. I think of all the things I'm going to tackle in the coming week. I don't know why but on Sundays I feel like I can do anything. Last week I decided Monday morning that with my new super cleaning power I could take on our garage. My goal was to make my garage more organized so I could park both cars in there instead of just one. I got off to a good start. Me and Megan were cruising along, there is nothing like the umm help of a one and half year old. Unfortunately Megan lost interested and decided to go for a walk with her stroller without me. So I took a break and we spent half an hour walking up and down our little road.

It was twice as hard to get back into the swing of things after our little break but we managed. I had emptied half the contents of our garage on the driveway when my mother in law showed up. She offered to watch Meg for a few so I could work a little longer. So I continued on with my grand plan. The only problem was now I was starting to really feel how tired I was getting. I decided to soldier on. I can't tell you the number of time that I have half cleaned something run out of steam and it ends up being exactly the same as when I started. I did manage to get all the "stuff" that was on the garage floor picked up. We had enough recycle to fill the prius which was just a little incredible. I had $15 in pop bottle, I know I really need to kick that habit. Two garbage bags of well garbage. I didn't manage to get to 3 shelfs because I just plan ran out of time and energy. So the good news is 90% of my garage is clean the bad news is it wore me out for the whole rest of the week.

It's great having a mostly clean garage but I found I just couldn't tackle anything else this week. My super cleaning powers had meet there match in a garage and I needed a week to recover. Even my paperwork assignments got put to the side. I just couldn't find the energy.

This week my assignment is to again tackle the family binder and to tweak my schedule to better fit our family, including figuring regular days for pick up from school for the kids.

Family Binders

A family binder is simply a location to store all the important information you need to run your home efficiently. Last year I needed to call my son in sick for school, a simple task I know, but I spent almost an hour trying to find the right number because I didn't have it wrote down anywhere. Every time I have to call my doctor or pediatrician it takes a trip to my computer to find the number. I can't even tell you the name of our dentist let alone his number. These are all things that should be someplace easy for me to find. So here's the general idea you make a place where all these things are so you have them just in case. All you need is a 3 ring binder some protective sleeves and some dividers.

Here is the outline (in no particular order) I have so far for our family binder to give you an idea:

Tab School

• School number to call in case of absents or tardies
• School transportation department number to call in case of bus issues aka the bus is 45 mins late where is my kid
• school policy on when your child should stay home
• School nurse number
• Each teacher and contact information
• Bus number and pick-up and drop-off times
• School start and end time
• Any paperwork from teachers about the year that I may need to refer back to
• Reminders for conferences (our school had us fill those out before the school year even started this year)

Tab- Medical

• All Doctors along with numbers and addresses including any specialist
• Emergency form so you don't have to think about it if something happens (Policy fire ambulance numbers etc)
• Policy on what to do in case of an emergency example: where does your family meet in case of a fire?
• Latest immunization records for each child
• Any additional Medical forms that need to be tracked...we have forms for Daniels next iron check so this is where I will put that as well as things on Megan's braces
• Medical form for each child listing allergies and medications (good for baby sitters in case of an emery)
• Insurance sheet
• Dentist and eye doctors numbers and addresses

Tab- Routines/cleaning/calendaring

• My three daily routines
• My calendar for the month
• My weekly schedules
• Any paperwork for extra circular activities like practice schedules or game dates

Tab Food

• Pre-made menus
• grocery list
• recipes to go with menus? Still unsure of this one

Tab Financial (some people make this a whole binder which may end up being what I do)

• all bank accounts and numbers
• Monthly budget
• All bills
• Record of actual money spent that month

Tab Misc

• Movies to watch or books to read
• Auto care log/check list
• Christmas check list
• Goals
• Any business cards or handyman numbers you might want or need

Phone Numbers

• Pretty self explanatory but a phone book of all the children my kids love to be with, there parents names, phone numbers, e-mail and addresses so playmates can happen.

This is just a general idea of what I would like to do based on my family needs everyone is different. Your binder should reflect your family not someone else. To help you get started here is a link to a wonderful page that has tons of free printable forms for your family binder

http://organizedhome.com/household-notebook/printable-pages

Routines are wonderful

I love my routines. They have been a lifesaver this week and my kids love them. I really couldn't ask for a better outcome. We are a happier family, and more things are getting done. No one has asked do I have to go to bed and I haven't been late getting anyone to bed as I'm hurriedly trying to get people clean and read a story. Part of the trick we have learned is making sure you are creating enough time to do everything so your not rushing through things. With kids schedule twice as much time as you think you will need because they are like cats, easily distracted by shiny things. :) The other thing I have learned this week is that my kids are like me, they like being able to check things off of there list. They get a big kick out of getting out the marker to check things off. They will eagerly look for the next thing we need to do so we can check that off to. My oldest actually helped my youngest get his clothes around last night because he wanted to get everything done in record time.

I thought I would include our routines as a sample for you all. I'll admit they might be a little involved but they are what works for us. Also you might find this weird but I will do bedtime first because the key to a great day is really preparing for it the night before.

Bedtime:

• Wash up/take a bath
• put on PJ's (yes that has to be it's own item for my boys)
• snack
• check weather forecast for next day
• set out clothes for next day including socks
• get around backpacks, shoes, and coats
• make sure all paperwork for school is in backpacks
• brush teeth and hair
• read stories
• scriptures with pop quiz at the end (we can not read unless I come up with 4 questions to ask to make sure they are paying attention)
• prayer
• lights out

If everyone is taking baths this can take up to two hours simply because we like to have at least 30 mins to read stories sometimes more.

Morning:

• Get up
• Get dressed including socks
• Eat Breakfast
• Brush teeth and hair
• Family Prayer
• Check backpack
• Put on shoes, coat, and other outdoor stuff

Right now our morning routine is taking about an hour because man are we slow in the morning I think we spend 30 mins getting people out of bed. This morning I even had to physically remove my youngest son from his bed to get him up. We might try getting up 10 min earlier tomorrow my oldest suggestion which means 6:20....ugh wish me luck.

After School:

• snack
• check back pack for homework and papers
• get 20 mins of free time to unwind
• do homework (right now that's reading for 20 mins)
• place homework in bag
• help mom do one thing to bless our home (a.k.a a chore like clean there bedroom, make a bed, pickup toys in a room, take out garbage something simple and we set a timer for 5 mins so we won't take any more time than that).

So after doing all this for 3 days last night at 8:30 all my children where in bed asleep, my house was picked up and my dishes were all done! It's amazing what a few simple things can do for you.

Getting into a routine

Being the mother of three has taught taught me the power of a good routine. However even knowing it's power I often over look this simple device that makes my life happier and less stressful. I'll be honest it's hard to have a routine with a husband who always wants to play with the kids right at bedtime, or wants to let them stay up to watch a movie with him. I always feel like I'm cheating them of daddy time if I don't allow them to stay up with him but the simple fact of the matter is we all need our routines.

In case you haven't already guessed this weeks challenge is to set up some routines with your family that will make your days just a little better.

1.) You need a launch pattern. What ever your family needs to get everyone ready for the day they are about to face. I know of one family who posted a check list at the door and no one was allowed to leave unless everything on it was checked off.

2.) Landing pattern. After school kids need a landing pattern, time set aside for homework, chores and just to be a kid. Every child is different but you know your children put something in place so you won't be like me last year and find out we were suppose to do homework last night as I'm sending my child off to school knowing it's to late to get it done.

3.) Bedtime. This includes not only a wind down from the day but also any prep work for the coming day. Setting out clothes and items needed for the next morning should be included in this. The last thing you want to do in the morning is spend an extra half hour looking for someones shoe because they forgot to take it out of the van and walked in barefoot...or maybe that's just my kids?

So here is the kicker what ever routine you set it place it's not just for the kids, it's for you too. If you read to them at night, set aside time to read to your self, if they have a bedtime umm so should you. You get the point. Show your children by example...that will be hard for me but worth it I think.

Step two: Make a family binder

You will need a pretty binder/or one you don't hate labeled so you know what it is

Some sheet protectors the shiny ones not the matt finish ones.

A dry erase marker.

First I want you to make a copy of your weekly schedule, this is all the day to day stuff you needed to take into consideration for planning your cleaning and meal schedules. This should be located in your folder so at any one time you can quick look at it. Here is the template I used for mine http://www.vertex42.com/calendars/weekly-planner.html You might also include a printed out calendar of the month (you can use word or ical to print one out and write in any special things you need to keep in mind)

Next I want you to have a page that has your cleaning schedule and your meal plan for the week.

There should be one page for each of your routines as well.

Once you have all that you can dig out that dry erase marker. For each of your routines you will be able to mark off the things you have done so you know they have been completed. At the end of the day you wipe the whole page clean so you can start fresh in the morning.

One last note on the family binders. We will be adding more to these over the next few weeks but I also realize this is not for everyone so please do what works best for you. If you have a system that works for you and you have no issues with it, that's fine. This is just what I am doing this week.

One Mom's cleaning/meal Plan

After much debate here is my schedule for coming weeks. I'm going to give it two weeks and if at that point we need to switch some of these things I will but I figure two weeks is a good test sample before I switch anything.

Cleaning Plan:

Monday-Heavy Cleaning

Tuesday-Photography

Wednesday-Free Day

Thursday-Grocery shopping

Friday-Moderate Cleaning

Saturday-Family/ Photography

Sunday-Church and Family/Free of Cleaning

Meal Plan:

Monday-pizza/ hot dogs/ hamburgers/taco/spaghetti

Tuesday-Chicken Dish

Wednesday-Left-over paper plate night

Thursday-Crock pot/soup/casserole dish

Friday-Pork Dish

Saturday-Chefs choice

Sunday-Feast

The value of a few flowers

Next time your at the store and the kids are being crazy go ahead and buy your self some flowers. I usually get daisy's since they are my favorite and a bunch is under $10. My kids will settle down and ask "can I pick them out this time mom?" My answer is usually yes as long as I can have a say to. Sometimes I give them a price limit, Ethan tends to want to buy the $30 bunches and I'm really a daisy girl at heart. My husband isn't so good at buying me flowers so I simply tell him when I next see him that he got me flowers. He laughs and say "Oh did I pick the right ones?" It's been a great thing for our relationship because I don't get upset that he never buys me flowers and I get to enjoy the flowers.

So let me tell you why you should spend $10 a week on some flowers. It will help clean your kitchen. No they don't come with little cleaning sprites who will magically clean your counters and scrub your stove but they will motivate you. Flowers make a place more beautiful, and more cheerful. It's hard to have a messy kitchen in their presence. You will find that if you place the flowers on your kitchen table you have a reason to clean your table...you don't want your messy table to get in the way of their beauty. Soon you will notice that your kitchen is just a little bit cleaner and every time you look at your table instead of frown at the clutter you smile. So next week go ahead and try it buy your self some flowers.

If flowers are out of the question for your family do to allergies or maybe you just don't like them buy a nice center piece for your table that will make you smile when you see it...hey maybe you even have something tucked away in a cupboard. :)