Kids & Family Organizing Archives

In Car Organizing Tips-Happy Kids & Happy Parents

June 14, 2018 by Heather Filed Under: Kids & Family Organizing, Organize, Tips & Resources, Uncategorized Leave a Comment

Having a system for In Car Organizing means you’re more likely to keep your sanity on the road.

This is especially true when you spend a ton of time in your car, to and from work, carpool, errands or before you head out for a road trip vacation! Before you hit the road, give your car a quick clean out with these In Car Organizing Tips.

Estimated time needed, 30-45 min’s.

Zone by Zone In Car Organizing

Doors (interior pockets)-Keep a small umbrella and items you need frequently like coupon a caddy.
Center Dashboard-All cars are different, most have some small storage compartment, for glasses, chap stick, gum, hand sanitizes and your charger. Just the basic’s here folks.
Corral the cords-Use a cord organizer to keep your chargers untangled.
Center Console- Go Vertical! Group small items in small bags bins and line them up vertically so you do not have to dig to the bottom to find what you need. Keep toiletry items, a note pad, pen, wipes (hand & car), change for meters (in an old Rx bottle), pain reliever, first aid etc.
Glove Compartment-Store extra napkins in a plastic envelope or ziploc to keep tidy. Keep your car manual with insurance card and registration/inspection, a copy of drivers license, and maybe your coupon caddie? Other possibilities if you have room, a lint roller, fold up extra bags.
Tidy Toss-A plastic cereal storage bin with a flip top (with or without a bag) is a great trash “can”. Other options a trash bag (hang from hook on back of passenger side) or place on floor in back.
Back Seat– Reusable bags, hang behind driver or passenger seat (folded inside a bag).
Kid Tip-keep an empty cleaning bin (like supplies are stored in) in the back seat to hold snacks and drinks and prevent messes-just brilliant!
Constant Clean-Wipe down all surface. Do this while pumping gas or waiting in carpool (safe times when you are not moving). Keep a small duster (fuzzy microfiber or even a paint brush!) for light cleaning in a door pocket or console.
Trunk/hatch back– An elastic trunk net keeps things from sliding out and creates extra vertical storage. Use collapsible fabric bins, either cubes or a hanging sweater “shelf” that expands. These are great to hold items like grocery bags and sport gear. The can be folded up when not in use. Keep a towel or small blanket for warmth, protect seats etc.
Caddie or organizing bin-Keep this in the trunk for other essentials including a tape measure, plastic trash bags, rope/bungees, flash light, tire pressure tool and optional pet supplies.
Safety Kit – Include a multi-knife tool, matches or lighter, thermal blanket, hand/foot warmers, window scraper, flare light, first aid kit, emergency food (bars), water in glass or metal (won’t go bad as quickly). Also keep a life hammer (window break tool) in a door pocket or your center console. This can be mounted with velcro or command tape. Be sure it’s easy to access in case of an flooding-not in trunk!

If you can pull it all out and sort it on the driveway, in the garage or even in the street!

Once it’s empty, take your car for a Spa Day! Get it cleaned, detailed, feeling and smelling great before you return only what you need.

What did I miss? Everyone’s different, this list covers the basics for In Car Organizing, including safety but you might need other essentials. If you have tips or questions please share them in the comments below!

Looking for more kid-friendly organizing tips? Check out how to create a Practical Command Center.

Love or Loath Laundry? Quick Laundry tips

March 13, 2018 by Heather Filed Under: Closets, Home, Kids & Family Organizing, Organize, Organizing Projects, Systems & Techniques, Tips & Resources 1 Comment

Do you love or loath laundry? I don’t mind it but I know for so many people Laundry is not about love, at all! That’s why I work with my clients to create a laundry schedule, including what I to keep on top of weekly laundry tasks.

In creating a laundry schedule I ask a few questions to help determine what the best household action plan for doing laundry…here are some questions you can use to create your own laundry schedule.

How many household members? How many loads of laundry per person per week do you generate?
How many “able bodied” people do you have do delegate laundry to? Kids age 10+ should start learning to help with laundry, including having a laundry basket in their room, helping to bring laundry to the washer/dryer, helping to sort, fold and put laundry away.
Do you have a cleaning person that helps with laundry? If so, what day do they come and what laundry tasks do they do or could you delegate to them (sheets and towels or more)?
Do you and your kids do sports activities or work that generates extra dirty (stinky:() laundry? If so, how soon after these activities do you need to wash things (to re-use or prevent smells)?
Do you take a lot of things to the dry cleaner? If so, do you have a pick up drop off service or is this something your drycleaner offers?
Do you have a lot of ironing, do you like to iron?

With all this info in your back pocket, calculate how many loads need to be done per week and who will do them. Then, take a look at your weekly schedule and assign laundry tasks by the date to yourself or other household help (kids, spouse, cleaning helpers etc).

I change and wash whites, or linens (towels, sheets and the oddball other white items) on Wednesdays and thus the term Wednesday Whitewash! Maybe doing a couple loads mid weeks and more on the weekends makes sense to you and with your schedule or maybe your weekends are busy with family activities and your better off tackling one load per evening through the week.

Keep Laundry Contained

In my observation, many people do not have laundry baskets, have them where they need them (in the bedroom, bathroom or closet) or seem to use them at all! I find laundry in piles on the floor, draped over furniture, hanging form hooks, light fixtures and everywhere else you can imagine. If you don’t know what’s clean and what’s dirty, you will constantly be re-washing items or at least giving your nose a workout with the sniff test. Keep dirty laundry contained in a basket or bag and use this to take laundry to your laundry area and then sort (or buy bins with sorting compartments if you have room). There are tons of great laundry basket options, like these available…so measure your space and determine what/how many you need and invest!

Minimize Maintenance

When you buy new clothes, think about their laundry requirements.

Sort laundry by color and by weight. I don’t like to wash my husbands heavy duty work pants with my delicate tops or undergarments (which should be in a bag). Sort weekly loads by dark/light/white and weight. This helps keep clothes looking newer longer.

Do you love linen but hate ironing? Maybe these things should be kept for less frequent use or sent to the dry cleaner?

Keep it Green Clean

Do you dislike using dry cleaners because of the chemicals? If so, look for a green cleaner in your area. While we are talking about green options, look for cleaning products that are phosphate free and use minimal scents and chemicals (though there seem to be more an more products on the market to mask odor-that doesn’t mean it’s really clean!). This might seem obvious but wash things only when needed. If you’ve only worn something for a couple hours, didn’t sweat or spill on it, then wear it again before laundering. This is not only going to save you time, it will keep your clothes looking new longer and will save resources (water power etc).

Consider hanging delicate, knits and lightweight items to dry (like the French do!). I use a collapsible laundry rack to dry about 1/3 to 1/2 of every laundry load, it takes a bit more time to dry but it keeps my clothes fro wearing out as quickly and saves energy. When it comes to stains, do pre-treat as soon as possible and if your really stain prone, check out these stain specific products (not all stains are alike!) by Carbona.

Any way you schedule it, whether you love or loath laundry, having this household task in perpetual motion will keep you from melting or collapsing under this task mountain!

Photo Organizing Old-School Style

August 7, 2017 by Heather Filed Under: Kids & Family Organizing, Organize, Organizing Projects, Paper management, Systems & Techniques, Tips & Resources, Uncategorized 2 Comments

I had someone ask me to cover the topic of Photo Organizing this month so here we go! I have never gone too far into this subject here on my blog because it’s quite a HEFTY topic to cover in one post. Here are the basic’s for paper photo organizing systems, I’ll return to cover digital photo organizing another time. It’s helpful to know before you begin if you will be doing this yourself or hiring help. There is an entire trade organization, APPO, dedicated to Photo Organizing!Most of us want to keep at least some photo’s to look at in frames, albums or loosely. But we don’t get to enjoy the photo’s we love because they are in a big jumble with the one’s we don’t care about, the duplicates, damaged photo’s and photos of people you have no clue about!

Chances are that at some point you will be inheriting old photo’s if you haven’t already.

To Digitize or Not? Since many of us don’t print photo’s anymore, at least we know the quantity of printed photo’s isn’t growing exponentially! If you’re someone who still prints photo’s, stop doing that until you have a great system in place. You may also want to digitize your photo’s but it’s best to sort and purge what you don’t want first, deciding what you want digitized as you go. If you’re beginning this process with the thought of digitizing, you may want to buy a package for this service. Companies like Legacy Box send you a box that you can fill, return and have scanned. The box is returned within 1-3weeks with original photo’s as well as your digital photo’s (on a CD).

Gather all your photo’s into one area to work on. This can be a fun project to work on when your Binge watching a favorite series:) Before you begin, have a method to sort photos into such as file folders, shoe boxes, large envelopes, plastic bags etc.Label with temporary labels to keep track of what you have sorted, eventually permanent labels will be attached to bins or albums.

Handling…if you have very old, fragile or valuable photo’s you may want to wear lint free cotton gloves while working on photo’s to keep oils and moisture from damaging them. You can also wipe the photo’s gently as you go. If you find photo’s stuck in albums, don’t force them. Try prying up a corner with something like a flat spatula and dental floss! The floss can be used to “saw” the under side of the photo from the adhesive backing. If you still can’t get it, set it aside and get professional help. Don’t write directly on the backs of photo’s with anything other than an archival pen, I like these.Sort photo’s chronologically and/or by event or person. Your system may be some combination of these. As you start the process of sorting and purging, think about other family members or friends who you might want to send photo’s to and set them aside (labeled) to give them when you’re done. If you’re not sure who someone is, snap photo’s of the photo’s as you go and text or email someone who might be able to help you ID them. It can be fun to share “vintage” photo’s with family and friends as you go! Keep track of what size the majority of your photo’s are and if you plan to organize into albums or boxes, this will be important to know.

Storage can be decided on once you have finished sorting and you know what size collection you have. If you plan to digitize, send the photo’s off at this point. Do your research before you buy storage containers. Look for Archival quality boxes and albums. If your photo’s are standard 4×6 or 5×7 you will have a lot of options to choose from. Remember that larger boxes will get very heavy. Use archival paper dividers to further separate photo’s by category or date and label the cards with detailed information about events, family members etc. Don’t use sticky notes or clips that can damage the surface of original photo’s. If you have negatives that correspond to the photo’s you are keeping, label the plastic sleeves they come in to correspond to the storage system you are creating and store negatives separately. Keep your photo’s in climate controlled, low humidity and light conditions to best preserve them.Cross reference storage-Note in your photo box what negatives and digital photo’s you have copies of and where they are stored (on CD’s, cloud, external hard drive, separate bins etc).

Maintain your system on a regular basis if you are adding to your paper photo collection or if you inherit photo’s. I’ll share tips for organizing your digital photo’s in a later post. This is a great time of year to work on photo organizing and perhaps create some beautiful books with some of the old and new photo’s you come across. Have fun traveling down memory lane!

Create a Practical Command Center

June 21, 2017 by Heather Filed Under: Kids & Family Organizing, Organize, Systems & Techniques, Tips & Resources 3 Comments

Today, I’m sharing ideas to Create A Practical Command Center. Since this month is all about kid-friendly organizing in the home I think it’s important to have a place where you can collect everything needed to “take command” of schedules, stuff and tasks for your family!

I’m going to break it down by why, where and what! Not every command center (and there are thousands on Pinterest to choose from!) will have what YOU need.

[bctt tweet=”Get inspired by others but don’t get stuck repeating someone else’s idea of success.” username=”hkpowerstudio”]

Do you need help to Create a Practical Command Center?

Let’s start with your why. Defining the reason you need to create a command center is the first step!

Perhaps you’re losing things or can’t keep track of them, feeling overwhelmed, feeling rushed and you’re juggling too much information!
Mail is tossed everywhere including the kitchen counter, the coffee table, the dining room table or some other horizontal surface which means when you go to pick up, things get misplaced.
You have a hard time getting out the door with everything you and your family need.
Maybe you can’t locate homework or school paperwork & neither you nor your kids know where these things belong.
Do multiple schedules (both parents and kids) have you scrambling, missing appointments or running late?
Always looking for last minute gifts because you missed that party invitation? information for your babysitter or other important items you need regularly.

The next important step in creating a practical command center is knowing what you need to include.

Mail sorting station-which might include trash, recycling bins and shredder-with individual slots for household members
Calendar or schedule-either a traditional paper system or a white/blackboard calendar. Decide what information will be included on this calendar. Maybe it’s just for the kids and family activities (sports, parties, Dr’s Apts, school events etc). Each family member or category can be assigned a color for easy tracking.
Charging Station
Grab & Go Kid Stuff-If you have small children, having extra supplies in a cabinet, ready to go is a great time saver. Include activity books, diapers, bug spray, change of clothes or other essentials for small children.

Bags, backpacks and other gear-if you have the space you can incorporate cubbies, baskets or hooks for storage. This area is for regularly used shoes, bags and purses and is a great place for people to drop items without cluttering up the main part of the house. Something similar can be set up in a closet, with an organizer hanging inside the door. Label each household member’s hook, cubical or shelf. Practice regular weekly to tidying (putting things away, cleaning out bags etc).

Key Hooks
Basic utility items-this can be a drawer or a hanging organizer with things like batteries, pens/pencils, chargers, scissors, notepads, a hammer/screwdriver, tape measure and anything else you use regularly. Identify what you want to keep where so it doesn’t turn into a “Junk drawer”!
Fun stuff-a bulletin board, white/black or magnetic board, or hanging system for artwork and fun messages!

Via Your Home Theater

Lists-to do, grocery or chore charts for parents and kids.
Household Binder-this is a great place for emergency contacts, vital household information (for babysitters etc), schedules, invitations and more! If space is limited you can create a command center in a binder! Just use different tabs for the different information you need to keep track of and keep it in a central location.
Via Thirty Handmade Days

We all have different needs and when you know why you need some sort of command center it will give you insight into what to include. If you look at the list above and you say to yourself that you only need a couple of the items I included as examples then you can focus on creating a system that includes only what you need. Sometimes we get sucked in by other peoples systems because they have shared how great they work (for them) or we think it looks so incredible!

Being specific and simplifying your home management system will set you up for success!

Now that you understand why and what you need for creating a practical command center, let’s identify where this system should be.

Depending on your home and space considerations, here are a few places you might want to put a command center. If you don’t have space to put everything in one spot, that’s okay. Paperwork, mail, electronic’s, your binder or supplies could go in one area and hooks for keys, clothing and gear could go someplace else.

Near the front door
Mudroom
Kitchen
Laundry Room
Hallway or other central location
Closet or niche-including the inside of the door
A simple binder or portable bin (accordion file, file tote etc)

Here are a few tips to help you identify how to install your command center.

Go Vertical to get things up off your counters and on the wall. You can use the side or inside of a cabinet. If you have a lot of shelves, bins etc to hang, create paper templates and tape them up until you’re happy with the arrangement. This will save you patching unnecessary holes!

Hooks-anything from command to fancy decorative hooks
Shelves-floating or brackets, for small lightweight items
Baskets and bins-from shoes to paperwork, corral it in bins

I love to use these clear pockets for small stuff (bug spray, glue, gloves and more!).

Label things and assign lower spaces for small kids, upper spaces for adult stuff you don’t want the kids to get into!

Keep it simple-eliminate un-necessary clutter. Maintain your new system by assigning one day a week for a quick tidy up. Friday’s and Sunday’s are both great days for this 15 min assignment. After a few weeks or month keep it simple and eliminate the unnecessary clutter of items you are not using. Start simple and if the system works, expand upon it and get creative to make it as beautiful as it is practical!

Need additional help identifying why, what and how to create a practical command center? Give me a shout and let’s see how I can help you create a perfect command system for your household!

A cozy and tidy girls room makeover

June 12, 2017 by Heather Filed Under: Kids & Family Organizing, Organize, Organizing Projects, Systems & Techniques Leave a Comment

In this cozy and tidy girls room makeover there were actually two spaces. Our goal was to create boundaries and storage for clothes, homework and personal space for a 13 year old girl. This is something important to every kid going into teen years!

A Cozy and tidy girls room goals::What’s Important? Boundaries, age appropriate space, homework space, easy to maintain systems, room for clothes, comfort, cute, cozy and private.

Organizing can help establish rules, show your kids you trust and value their choices and create age-appropriate systems. This space wasn’t really working all that well and didn’t feel right for her needs as her interests and maturity level change.

This young lady has a really cool space, with a cozy bedroom and open “hangout” and homework area outside her room that she wasn’t really using. It always helps to evaluate how your kids use their rooms. Then you can create “zones” for them to do homework, hangout with friends (if you allow that), read, get dressed and sleep. Her desk, printer, a chair and large dresser where in the space outside her room, which also serves as a cut through to the bathroom and a guest room. Since her room has glass windows instead of walls, privacy is also an important issue! Curtains were ordered to eliminate this problem. With her help, we cleaned out her dresser and closet, the nightstand and small table at the end of her bed and decided what items (less used etc) could be kept in the dresser outside her room.

Her small built in closet cabinets also present a bit of a challenge.We re-arranged the contents to make putting clothes away easier. We moved the sports equipment and the second night stand below out of the room (clutter collectors).

She’s got her own bathroom (lucky girl!) with ample storage and we discussed keeping toiletries in the bathroom, not the bedroom (for the most part). As I organize with kids, I use it as an opportunity to learn why they do what they do and try to guide them to making choices that perhaps they did not realize were available, better or more appropriate? I hesitate to say right or wrong and I always defer to the parents house rules (which I determine before we begin) as well as teaching kids basic sanitary and hygienic systems (like no food in bedrooms?).

By attaching a few command hook inside her cabinet doors we freed shelf and drawer space. Go vertical whenever possible! These hanging pockets and hooks held small accessories she uses regularly, like sunglasses, her wallet, an umbrella etc. We moved shoes from the floor into the closet drawers and accessories like bags and hats to the dresser. We displayed her trophies and ribbons on a shelf above the dresser, rather than crammed in drawers and boxes. Since her desk was not being used in the space outside her room, we moved it to the wall opposite her bed. She now has space to do her homework in her room, on her bed or at her desk.

She’s taken to keeping things organized as much as a pre-teen takes to anything! She continues to come up with her own clever organizing solutions.

Kids love their space and value how great it feels to be organized, which creates lifelong value!

I LOVE to help kids get organized and most of the time they LOVE to be organized! Kids love structure and they love to be heard. When I work with them, I ask a lot of questions and listen so that I can help create systems that will work for them (and their parents). When we learn good organizing systems we are more likely to remain active in creating and maintaining organizing solutions!

Do you need help creating order in your kids rooms this summer? I’d love to work with your family to establish lasting organizing systems your kids will use for a lifetime! Get in touch today for a free Discovery Call.