Thanks to my amazing colleague, D. Allison Lee and her Organize to Revitalize blog. Here are some practical ways to make a difference for your ADD family.
http://dallisonlee.com/blog/2011/10/13/add-families-and-organizing/
Its time to send your baby off to college, and there is a lot of preparation to do! Not only will they be working on academics, they will be working on real life! Your kid may be ready to fly the coop, and you are not sure they are as prepared as you might like. Having an organized approach will make for an A+ transition! Organizing for college is a collaboration with your child.
How is your organizing coming for your best college year yet?
Organizing your teen might feel a lot like herding cats. Are you really making a difference? Approaching organizing can be overwhelming, distracted and extremely frustrating! But with a few tips, you can make organizing happen.
Start by establishing a work plan that appeals to your teen. Set a time that you can both work and require mandatory attendance. To work together, you need their input to know what to keep and what to eliminate. Set a time that your teen can really be on target in making decisions. Work for 2 hour segments as well so you keep on task and get things done.
Help your teen establish a boundary for keepsakes. Having attractive boxes for keepsakes and plastic 66 quart tubs for alternative storage make for great options. There will be keepsakes for sure! Having these options gives your teen a boundary for how much to keep, helps them start making decisions, and also allows for safe storage. Attractive boxes can hold paper keepsakes, while storage bins hold models, dolls or other precious items they have outgrown but not out-loved.
Add energy to the project with food and music! Adding a professional organizer in the mix adds objectivity, focus and project management too! In just two hours, here is what a mom, a teen and I knocked out in two hours over spring break!
What is your organizing challenge with your teen?
Fall means back to school! The sunny days of summer are over and fall is a great time to tackle those home projects. Join me in learning more about organizing strategies at these upcoming events!
Fall Refresh on September 14
Fall Refresh is an engaging afternoon program about organizing and interior design. Certified Professional Organizer Ellen Delap will present Out with the Old . Interior Decorator Leslie Sarmiento will present Company’s coming! Refresh your home by decluttering and adding the latest in decorating trends. Bring at friend and join us at this free presentation at Kingwood Public Library at 1 pm.
Organizing for Academic Success on September 20
Struggling to help your child with school success? Join me in sharing techniques and tools to help your student get into the groove of school again. Class is offered by phone at 7 pm central time. Fee of $29. http://theprofessionalorganizer.com/organizingclasses/back-to-schoolwork/organizing-for-academic-success/
Organizing for Academic Success for the AD/HD Student on September 21
Join me for strategies to help your student with AD/HD achieve the success she/he deserves. Class is free at Kingwood Public Library at 1 pm.
Clutter Support Group beginning September 21
Have you had a life long struggle with being organized? Need support from a community of people who are equally overwhelmed? Join me in learning from others in the Clutter Support Group. This membership based group is the starting point for your journey in transforming your life, helping you define, establish and maintain an uncluttered lifestyle. Group meets for 6 weeks, starting September 21. Fee of $120. Contact Ellen for details.
Organizing for the Busy Mom and Dad starting October 5
Take a fresh perspective to improve your and your family’s quality of life! The Family Manager™system transfers management skills and strategies from the business arena to running your home and personal life. Family Manager skills help you reduce daily stress, create a smoothly running home, and have time for self care and recreation. Four weekly one hour teleclasses on October 5, 12, 19, and 26. Fee of $49. Contact Ellen for details.
You and your kids are counting down the days until school begins again. Start the year off right with some easy steps to prepare for the first day. A little preparation goes a long way throughout the school year.
Appointments
It is time to schedule all those back to school doctor, dental and eye glass appointments. It can take up to 2 weeks so call now for the best time. Many athletic departments require physicals and it is important to have an updated immunization record. Be proactive and get these dates on your calendar. Remember to get an extra copy for your files too! Schedule other groom essentials like haircuts and more too.
Paper
Before the new year avalanche of paper starts, take the last year’s artwork and corral it. Using a Fed Ex Box large box, save only the “precious” items to store in the top of a closet. Label the box by year (1st grade or 2009-2010). Now you are ready for this year’s art.
Set up your command center for action papers. Your command center holds all the very important action papers, including bills, kids papers from school and other papers requiring an action. Add sections for papers that will be pending and filed. Each day open your mail at this station, recycle junk mail, shred potential identity theft papers and bring catalogs and magazines to a reading spot. By creating a specific work station for these papers, you are ready to act on them with an hour of weekly administrative time.
Closets
Clean out your kids’ closets before you shop for back to school gear. Only keep what is fitting or a little larger. Keep some warm weather attire for the beginning days of school. When it comes to creating a system for storing the clothes, have your kids partner with you to create what works. Kids can maintain their closets or drawers if they are in reach and they have a good routine for this. Have a laundry basket in everyone’s room to collect dirty and redistribute clean clothes too.
Academics
The first few weeks of school are all about refreshing skills and concepts. Do your kids need a little routine for the last few weeks of summer? Skill building books and free online computer games are available for writing, math and problem solving. Make it fun with stickers and rewards for accomplishing and completing pages.
Morning and Evening Routines
The hardest part of getting back to school is getting back to the morning routine. Two weeks before school begins, start having earlier bedtimes and wake up calls. You can inch back bedtime for half an hour earlier each week until the week before school starts you are setting the routines in motion. Practice getting up with an alarm too. Hold your family meeting to review what works best each morning and evening during the school year. Set in motion an evening routine where backpacks are ready at the backdoor the night before, clothes are laid out and everyone feels ready for the next day.
Make this your best school year yet by chatting with your family about their expectations and more. Go around the table and ask each person to talk about what they want to accomplish this year. Ask how each family member can assist another, in partnering about tests, sharing responsibilities or other aspects. Create a team in making each person’s academic goals come true!
More than just getting your clothes together and buying your books, heading off to college is best done with great organization. It takes some time, but it is well spent!
Start with a great list. Think about the very small space you will be living in and sharing. What is most essential for your comfort and success? Everyone is different, but most agree that laptop, clothes, bedding, small refrigerator and a few other items are at the top of the list. Keep this list handy so that you are not easily distracted to add more and more. You will thrive in a decluttered environment and your space will be small.
Now that you know what you need, eliminate what you will not use. We are blessed with an abundance of clothes, so let’s share these blessing with others. Start with a serious sorting of what really needs to go! You will clear space for the rest of the process this way.
Next gather your goodies together that are going with you. View them all together so you can really see what you are taking. Time to start gathering what you wil take in 66 quart tubs to travel safely to the new destination. Be sure to carefully pack things that will leak or break. Be sure to keep important papers like college registration documents and medical information in a special spot to keep close by.
Before you start unpacking, think through the space. Think through all the activities you are doing in your room. Note where the outlets and computer connections for technology are. Where will you get ready in the morning? Think through the game plan of where you will put on makeup, dry hair, do homework and entertain new friends. Mark spots with post its where things will go.
NOW you are ready to shop! Here are a few great products to help in small spaces.
It really depends on your space what you will need, but having command hooks to hang various items, using the back of your door for storage of all types, a desk top sorter for papers, drawer systems for your closet, in the room or under your bed, a way to contain your makeup and toiletries and a great laundry basket make a difference in keeping your college life in order. These items are from the Container Store, but there are tons of selection at all your local retailers. Think about your personal strengths of how you stay organized and choose products you love to help you! Be sure to measure a space before you purchase items to be sure it will fit.
Having a great year at college is more than just learning academics, it is learning life skills too. Organization is one of those life skills and make a difference now and later.
This weekend I had the opportunity to visit my niece Hallie for a very special occasion, her high school graduation. One look in her room and closet, and I knew she had the organizing gene! No clothes on the floor and order inside her closet. I asked her about her successful organizing techniques and what she would share with other teen girls, especially about her folding and laundry tips.
First off why stay organized?
Clutter is annoying and it wastes time. I don’t like the way mess looks.
How does laundry get done in your home?
My step dad gets it in the washing machine and dryer and then I fold and hang my own clothes. It is either in my parent’s room or I go get it and bring it into my own room. Once it is on my bed, I separate it by shorts, tee shirts, and things to hang or things to put in drawers. I hang each type of clothing all at the same time. Its quick and I do it fast!
What about your friends?
If my friends are unorganized, I help them organizing their rooms. They get very overwhelmed. But big thing is that they leave it all to do at one time. I like to organize as I go along and as a process. I do it in small steps so it is easier to do. Just a little at a time and then you get it done. Then you can do others things with your time. One of the problems is too many clothes too. I understand wanting to have enough clothes but only buy something if you are going to use it. There is not so much to do at one time if you have fewer clothes.
What about organizing and other parts of your life?
I am organized about school stuff too and that is the key to success and good grades. You have everything you need and you can turn it in on time. If you are organized in class, you know what materials to study and you’re on top of your homework.
What about stress and organizing?
Being organized is a lot less stressful and much easier on everyone.
Do you consider yourself a perfectionist?
Not so much, just more organized than other people. And everything does not need to be perfect but material stuff helps to be organized.
Are you born organized or did you develop this?
Of course my mom and you influenced me a lot.
Anything else you would like to share?
Watch Hoarders and you won’t want to be them. Hoarders is enough to make you want to be organized.
Thanks Hallie! You rock!
Did you know the end is just as important as the beginning? Closings, completions and round ups make for great celebration. Here are a few baby steps to get this school year “done.”
Spend an hour culling through all the papers that have come home this year. Decide what is precious and sneak the rest out the door. With those final touches, you will finalize this year’s school memories. Be brutal and know what “precious” means to you.
Clean out your own paperwork from school activities. Finalize what you will be passing along to the next boy scout leader, PTA volunteer or church Sunday School teacher. Pass the papers along before the end of June so you are ready to begin fresh for your new volunteer opportunities.
Print all the photo memories from this year using automated services. Only 6% of photos are being printed, so choose the most precious. Archive the photos on cd, dropshots, or other medium to clear off your camera for summer memories to come.
Evaluate and donate kids clothes that are too small. Shorts, tees, and other summer attire from last year may not fit. Decide how many you need of each for this summer, take a little shopping trip, and be ready.
Host a family celebration for the end of the year. Too often we miss these opportunities to give our kids a hug and praise for their successes each year. Bake or buy cupcakes, purchase ice cream and have an end of the year grand slam celebration. Making the most of every day makes a big difference!
How will you celebrate the end of the school year?
could this be more adorable?
We all want our kids’ lunches to be more nutritious. What better way to add salad, veggies or yogie than with a new Rubbermaid Take Along and Blue Ice shape! This is an adorable way to pack a nutritious lunch for your kiddles. It brings a smile to everyone’s face.
In adorable shapes, like this monkey, who wouldn’t want to bring lunch. My grand daughter squealed with delight when she saw it! She took it in her lunch the first day of school. Her mom always packs her a healthy low fat lunch including yogurt and string cheese, so this is a convenient addition to her sack lunch. We keep it in the freezer, pop it in early in the morning and things stay cold all day. Pop it back in after school and it freezes overnight!
Other ideas for fun lunches?
· ham and cheese roll up skewered with a pretzel
· veggies and small dip
· celery sticks with peanut butter and raisins
· apple wedges with peanut butter and a marshmellow
Want to win this new product? I am hosting a contest for a Rubbermaid TakeALongAFunLunch ice.
Email me with your most creative and delicious lunch for your child’s lunch sack. edelap@professional-organizer.com
Deadline for submissions is September 21.
Check out more about Rubbermaid at www.rubbermaid.com
Read the Rubbermaid blog at: blog.rubbermaid.com
Fall means getting back to business for families: the business of school, work and life. Join me for a free teleclass and get your family off to a great start for the school year.
· Establish a family mission statement
· Begin building a cohesive family team
· Generate House Rules and Standard Operating Procedures
· Focus on scheduling for yourself and your family
· A starting point for balance in your home, work and life
Wednesday September 2 from 8 – 9 pm
A teleclass is taken in your home, no traffic, no looking for parking! Come as you are. Everyone calls in to the same phone number and is on the same line (long distance rates apply but you can call from your cell phone).
Free Conference Call
Conference Dial-in Number: (218) 339-4300
Participant Access Code: 354656#
Please email me to send you a handout too! Happy organizing
We specialize in working with ADD/ADHD clients. Whether in your home or your office, we motivate, empower and affirm our clients in their quest for organizing and productivity! 