Organize for an Emergency: 5 Tips To Get Your Home Insurance Buttoned Up!

In recognition of September’s Emergency Preparedness Month, I found a great article by Guru Sarah Welch of Buttoned Up that I wanted to share.

Homeowner’s insurance or renter’s insurance is a necessity; it covers you for unexpected occurrences ranging from robberies to fires.

However, when it comes to assessing whether or not you have adequate coverage, the devil is in the details. For example, did you know that the majority of these plans do not cover floods or earthquakes or that some cover fire damage but not wildfire damage? With more and more extreme cases of weather and natural disasters, it is more important than ever to review your coverage and be certain that you have the best level of protection you can get given your budget constraints.

Here are 5 tips for getting your home insurance organized.

1. Watch What You Claim

Did you know that if you keep making small claims over and over, you may exhaust your insurance funds more quickly than you anticipated or be dropped from the plan? It may also cause your premiums significantly increase, in which case paying for that roof repair out of your pocket may be smarter financially. Look carefully at your plan before you make a claim or talk to your agent to find out all of the nitty gritty details on small claims and their effect on your coverage.

Valuables.doc by Buttoned Up - available at www.TheSimplifiedHome.net

2. Take Inventory

Do you know exactly what is in your home? First of all, write down from memory everything of value in your living room from electronics to DVDs. Now take that list to the living room. Did you remember it all? Now imagine doing that for your entire home after a fire rips through your home. Everyone has valuables; they are so much more than just artwork or televisions. Think about your CD’s, iPods, clothing, outerwear, golf clubs, Corningware, picture frames.  They are all valuable and worth something. Go through your home and take an inventory of everything in your house room by room. Take photos, keep the proofs of purchase for anything in your home over $200, get appraisals done on all luxury items like jewelry, and keep it all in an easy to grab binder that you can take with you at a moment’s notice. The other reason this step is important is you may find that you are carrying insurance for $25,000 worth of goods in your home, but actually have close to $50,000 worth of items in the house. You can also hire an insurance appraiser to go through your home after you take inventory if you would like. At the bare minimum, however, having the inventory log of the valuables in your home will get you a lot more in reimbursement if the worst does occur.

3. Determine Exactly What IS Covered

Insurance packets and their corresponding websites are not written for the layperson. They can be highly confusing, full of legal mumbo-jumbo, and contain asterisked scenarios such as “If your home is damaged in a fire you are covered for X amount of dollars.”* The small print under the asterisk then clarifies along the lines of *Note: Unless you own a red car, a monkey, or have ever eaten at Dale’s Deli.” These papers can be overwhelming, so schedule an appointment with your agent and discuss the ins and outs of your current coverage. To make the conversation easier, bring your valuables binder to talk about your home inventory, and discuss events that aren’t covered by your current plan, like sewage, hurricane, flood, earthquake, etc.

4. Equip and Prepare

Owning Insurance is one piece of the puzzle, but you can also take insurance into your own hands with proper emergency planning and preparation. For example, if you live in an area that has frequent wildfires, you should clear the brush around your property on a regular basis.  You may also want to consider applying a coat or two of fire deterrent paint.  If you live in a hurricane prone area, do you have proper roofing reinforcements and windows installed? Even if you don’t live in an area with extreme weather, simply having an alarm system means fire departments will be quickly alerted of flames and police of burglaries. These safety defenses also have an added bonus: they can lower your insurance rates dramatically.

5. Have an Insurance Assessor on Deck:

Keep the contact information of a trusted insurance assessor who is not affiliated with your insurance provider in your valuables inventory log. If you ever need to file a claim, have that third party assess your damage immediately. Your insurance company is going to do the same and they will try to pay you back as little as possible. Cover your bases and fight back by having another professional document the claim and cost so you get what you rightfully deserve. Your home is your safe haven, your livelihood. You should do everything you can to protect those assets by planning ahead.

We love Buttoned Up products and carry a wide variety in The Simplified Home. Here are a couple that I recommend for organizing home records and paper so you have what you need at your fingertips in the event of an emergency.

Life.doc - The only complete system for organizing all of your critical information in one spot.

The Life.doc binder by Buttoned Up will guide you through the process of capturing your critical information so it’s ready when you need it. Give yourself and your family peace of mind.

Learn more about Life.doc

Receipt.catcher – your receipts buttoned up.

The perfect spot for all those pesky receipts.

When it’s time to pay the taxes, balance your checkbook or return an item, you’ll know where it find the receipts when you use the convenient and compact Receipt.Catcher.

It includes nine tabbed sections that make it easy to classify receipts now and find them again later.

Learn more about Receipt.catcher

Collision.kit – The ONLY kit that ensures you have everything you need to accurately capture the details surrounding any car accident.

If you’ve ever been in a car accident, you know how critical it is to remember and document the facts after the accident. But when you’re shaken and upset it’s easy to leave the scene without complete information. Collision.kit from Buttoned Up ensures you have everything you need to record the details of the incident.

Learn more about Collision.kit

Pocket.doc – The ONLY perfectly portable record book for your essential information.

The Pocket.doc provides simple to fill out forms that easily fit into a wallet, purse or backpack. So you have critical emergency, medical, and contact information when and where you need it. 

Learn more about Pocket.doc

Originally posted 2009-09-28 15:13:52. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Children, Household Chores and Entitlement

A common mistake that parents make when delegating household chores to children is remunerating children for their efforts around the house. The reasons for offering money to children to complete chores can stem from a desire to reward children for a good job or to even bribe them to do chores without fuss. Regardless of the reason, the outcome of this practice can negatively impact children’s understanding of themselves, their place in the world and their internal belief system.

The dramatic shift in culture between the 1960s and the 1970s ushered in a new wave of parents who largely believed that letting “kids just be kids” and relieving them of many of the responsibilities that previous generations had seen was a more attractive method of parenting. But this parental attitude had some unforeseen consequences. It helped develop a sense of entitlement in children.

While conducting research for writing my book Mom, Can I Help Around the House? I conducted a survey of three hundred fifty parents. The survey yielded alarming results and proved that this attitude has not changed much since then. Merely 11% of parents I polled reported that their children’s household contributions are expected and were laid out clearly for them by parents. From this data, we can infer that allowance figures greatly into the children and household chores equation. And we also know that offering an allowance to complete chores can only increase children’s sense of entitlement.

Paying children for chores can negatively impact a child’s personal growth. If children receive money for contributing to their own household the seeds of entitlement can emerge. A sense of entitlement can send a child spiraling away from the concepts of teamwork, family dynamics and the desire to learn important life skills that will contribute to their success as adults if a reward is not attached. Moreover, if frustrated parents stop expecting them to do chores, but continue to give an allowance, while they take care of all the household chores themselves, children may perceive the continued allowance as a reward for refusing to do the chores!

As a parent, it’s important to teach children that household chores are not an extra way to make money, but rather, a way in which to condition themselves into self-sufficient people capable of caring for themselves and aiding in the care of others. By proactively reminding children that their contributions are necessary, expected and appreciated, children will develop a sense of belonging to something larger than themselves, become confident and secure in themselves, their environment, their place in the home and in society. Think of it this way: if parents let “kids just be kids” and protect them in their early years from learning how to take care of themselves and a home, their sense of entitlement can accompany them way past their eighteenth birthday.

Instead of practicing a monetary reward system with household chores, parents should instead opt for teaching children the non-monetary value of chores and emphasize the worth of the skills learned from them. If parents place value on chore completion early in a child’s life, the child is likely to find value in them as well. Because chores are often a group effort, children can celebrate being trusted with important housekeeping jobs and build self-esteem by knowing that their contributions are not only appreciated, but necessary to a functional household. With this type of instruction, children become true apprentices of their parents- little people learning big lessons about life. Their internal belief systems shift to parallel the reality of the real world- a place in which hard work can result in real-life successes, a positive self-concept, service to others, and a healthy environment.

Originally posted 2008-09-07 08:59:51. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Create an Exit Strategy and a Drop Zone

You’re running late (again) and in a panic, you’re trying to get your kids and yourself out the door to school and work. Everyone is running around frantically to find what they need to leave the house with … backpack, cel phone, address book, hat, gym shoes … Does this sound familiar?

This was the scene at our house a few years ago too. What we needed in our home, and now as a Professional Organizer, I find that most of my clients need as well, is an’ exit strategy’ and a ‘drop zone.’ This is an area where items live that need to leave the house with you, as well as where appropriate items ‘drop’ when you arrive home. Items that need consistent homes in this area are:

• A checklist for leaving the house
• List of errands to run
• Keys, cel phone, PDA
• Purse
• Backpack
• Lunch box
• Coats, boots, hats, gloves, etc.
• Briefcase, laptop
• Merchandise returns, charity drop-offs, post office run items
• Umbrella
• Dog leash
• Sports equipment / musical instruments
• Towels for wiping dirty feet
• Trash can for dropping junk mail as you enter the house

To establish your own exit strategy and drop zone, identify (make a list) all the items that are regularly brought into the house and all the items that typically need to leave the house with you each day.

Next, determine the best location (home) for these items to live, in close proximity to the door that your family typically enters and leaves the home. Often this is through the garage. In many clients’ homes, I have arranged baskets to hold cel phones, PDAs, keys. In addition, hooks as the home for backpacks, umbrellas, dog leach, keys. What has become popular in many homes is a locker system where each family member has their own “cubby” or “locker” for holding their own belongings needed. Where space and budget allow, I have often brought in a closet contractor to construct a locker/cubby system for my clients.

A helpful tool for storing hats, gloves, scarves for all family members is to add a vertical over the door shoe holder (typically used to hold shoes vertically on a closet door). The younger kids have the lower pockets, older kids the middle pockets and the adults the top pockets. This way everyone has access to their own items and they can easily be seen through the clear pockets.

With all the electronics we carry daily, it is also important to have a consistent home to charge electronics, like cel phone and PDA. There are now docking stations available for purchase that allow you to charge all your equipment in one station.

After you have identified and strategized what needs to be located in your exit / drop zone and where the best home is for these items, it is critical that you communicate your new system to all family members. When everyone knows that there is a plan, and where the home is for their belongings, they will be more likely honor that system. When there are no consistent homes for belongings, clutter ensues.

Make a “Checklist for Leaving the House” unique to your household, or purchase the “Checklist for Leaving the House” pad for sale here at: http://www.onlineorganizing.com/ProductsPage.asp?name=Checklist_For_Leaving_The_House and keep it next to the door where you exit your home. This becomes your daily checklist and reminder so you don’t have to depend on memory when you’re rushed.

The key to creating and maintaining these areas is to know what you need to store, make the space, establish consistent homes for the items, and communicate the system to all family members. Soon the stress and chaos of the morning exit and afternoon drop will be a thing of the past.

Originally posted 2008-08-19 09:48:36. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

The Organized Student – back to school tips for an organized school year

A new school year is once again upon us. Ugh! Is it just me, or do you dread the back to school rush too? Our summers are getting shorter and shorter every year! My kids had the shortest summer yet – just 2 months. 

As parents, we have great hopes for a smooth transition from relaxing summer days to the hustle and bustle of homework, tests, project deadlines and school activities.

It’s easy to think that just by purchasing that new trendy school supply, your child will instantly transform into an ultra organized student. Although having the right tools are important to establishing an organized environment, even more important are the habits and routines we encourage in our children.

Throughout this month, I’ll be discussing ways to help you simplify your life during the school year.  I will be bringing you tips on how to reward your child for sticking with the schedule and also what to do if the schedule does not seem to work.  I’ll be discussing strategies for maintaining an organized desk or locker at school and setting up an efficient study space at home. Finally, I will be talking about school paper clutter.  What do you do with all those papers that come home?  How do you know what to keep and what to toss?

First up, let’s consider the importance of planning and identifying past challenges for which you’d like to find a solution. 

Plan, Plan, Plan First by Identifying the challenges

As you ponder how to best help your kids be more organized (and therefore, more successful) in school (and in life), consider what has troubled them (and you) the most in the past. Once you identify their challenges, concentrate on simple solutions, and watch them reach new academic heights. Here are some common student organizational challenges and solution paths.

CHALLENGE:  Struggling to complete homework. There is no defined study area and/or time. School supplies are hard to find and family noise and activities are distracting.

SOLUTION: Determine when and where your child will do after-school homework. Set up a homework “command central” that includes all the supplies and tools needed.

CHALLENGE: Time management issues, such as turning in assignments late, being frequently late for school or activities.

SOLUTION: Teach your child how critical it is to use a student planner and  calendar to track activities, upcoming tests, and assignment due dates.

CHALLENGE: Difficulty maintaining a clean desk or locker, resulting in disorganization at school, like lost homework and books.

SOLUTION: Pop in before or after school periodically to help your child organize his desk or locker. Give older children proper tools and advice to organize their desks and lockers.  Teachers are beginning to understand the connection of organization and grades, and often plan desk and locker clean out days throughout the year.

If you notice your child struggling because of disorganization, don’t wait until it’s too late to give or get help. Disorganization has a snowball affect – it negatively affects grades and your child’s sense of control, which can then negatively affect their self-esteem and confidence. Discuss these issues with the teacher, create a strategy for open communication and success with your child, and consider bringing in a professional organizer for added guidance, support, and creative ideas.

Here are some suggested tools to help both parents and kids to get an organized start to the new school year:

Mom, Can I Help Around the House - the beauty of this system is the routines and habits it establishes in your household.

By the Book – How to Take Care of My Kids –  Use this organizer if your kids have after school care, a tutor or caregiver. It’s great for organizing babysitter information as well. 

 

Task Clips – These action specific clips will help your student organize his work by action – To Do, Read, File, Send (could designate papers to send to school)

Next up … Tips for organizing your daily school schedule

Originally posted 2009-08-22 15:34:42. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

The Organized Student – Kids, Backpacks and Papers, Oh My!

I’m a busy mom with school-aged kids, so it goes without saying that we experience hectic school day mornings. If your mornings are chaotic like ours, follow these get-organized tips to ensure a smooth to and from school routine.

• Make mornings flow smoothly by getting everything ready the night before.
• Have school bags packed and placed by the door and tomorrow’s outfits laid out.
• Organize your kid’s departure and arrival spot (I call this the launching and landing pad). Declare a home for backpacks close to the door they leave and arrive. Install hooks at a kid-friendly height. My kids have a square wicker basket close to the door that they enter and leave for school where their backpacks go and other school related items. We place everything that needs to go to school in that basket. When they get home, everything, including shoes get placed there so they don’t get strewn all over the house.
• Keep school shoes by the door to eliminate the mad morning rush to find two matching shoes (this also cuts down on cleaning since kids leave dirty shoes at the door when they come in)
• Pre-pack the non-perishable parts of school lunches, so you can simply pop in a sandwich in the morning. Prepare for breakfast the night before by getting out cereal bowls and cups.
• Create a Kids’ Morning Routine checklist so no essential task gets overlooked, like forgetting to brush teeth or comb hair, and post it on the fridge and/or bathroom mirror.
• Likewise, create an “Out the Door” list of items they need to take to school, and post it on or near the exit door. Include items like homework, lunch, library books, gym shoes, instruments.  Include the time they need to be downstairs for breakfast and when they need to exit the house to meet the bus. This builds their time management skills rather than just waiting for your yelling “the bus is coming” to prompt them. I’ve included a  sample checklist that I created for my oldest daughter when she entered first grade. This made a huge improvement in her ability to stay focused and on task in the morning.

Place a clock in strategic locations in your children’s morning routine , like the bathroom, kitchen and their bedroom. Both my daughters have missed the bus at least once through the year by losing track of time while primping in the bathroom when there was no clock in sight.

 

After we adopted these strategies in our home, our mornings were much less chaotic. And my kids haven’t missed the bus since and gone are the days of mid-morning phone calls from a frantic child begging me to bring their homework or packed lunch they left at home.

To learn more family management strategies like this, my Home Organization Secrets for Busy Moms ebook is now on sale for $9.99 and can be immediately downloaded.

My Daughter’s Morning Schedule (in 1st grade)

Upstairs: Wake up at 7:00am

        Get dressed …

• Put on clean underpants
• Shirt & pants
• Socks – to match outfit
• Shoes – to match outfit
• Brush teeth & tongue
• Comb hair

** 30-45 minutes to get dressed – be ready to come downstairs by 7:45am **

Downstairs: be downstairs by 7:45am

• Come downstairs to kitchen to eat breakfast
• Check backpack to be sure everything has been put in
• Put on coat, gloves, hat
• Walk out door for bus at 8:05am

Originally posted 2009-10-26 22:05:38. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

7 Easy Ways to Simplify the Holiday Season

Originally posted 2010-11-25 12:55:09. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

The Organized Student – school success starts with routines and habits

News Flash … we are not born organized. Organization is a learned skill. Just as children are taught to do long division, hit a baseball, or play a musical instrument, they learn organizational skills, like how to organize their space, time, and tasks. As the adult in their lives, it’s your important job to pass along helpful tips for organizing success. Here are a few ideas: 

• Help create a habit of doing homework in the same place, at the same time, every day.  
• Teach time management skills. Encourage younger students to look at the family calendar each day so they know what’s coming up. Middle and high schoolers can  use a planner to track assignments, large projects, upcoming tests, extracurricular activities, and appointments. Help them see that some things will take a long time to accomplish, while others will only take a few minutes.
• Help them prioritize tasks each day, focusing first on assignments with the most urgency or earliest due dates. Teach them to use high-energy times to their advantage: It’s often best to do the hardest task first, rather than saving it for the evening when they’re tired. Or have them start out on a good note by tackling one quick, simple task first to get momentum going, followed by the hardest assignment. Older students will benefit from creating to-do lists: Teach them to use two task groups: an urgent, “To Do today” list and less timely ” do it this week” list.

 

Now let’s consider how to establish school year routines and habits.

Morning wake-up time:
It is FAR better to have a little extra time in the morning to get ready rather than a blurred rush out the door.  For most children, about an hour is needed to get up, get ready, eat, etc.  If your child must be at the bus stop for 7:30am, wake them up no later than 6:30am.  If your child tends to be a bit of a slug in the morning, you will need to wake him/her up earlier and/or put them to bed earlier at night.

Morning routine:
There are certain tasks that only take a couple of minutes that can (and should) be taken care of first thing in the morning.  For example, have your child learn to make his/her bed before leaving his room in the morning. In addition, have them put their dirty clothes in the hamper and wipe the sink out when they are done brushing their teeth. For younger children you may want to set-up a timer and give them a certain amount of time to wake up, get dressed, do their morning tasks, and come for breakfast.  You can make this a game with a prize if they make it to the breakfast table all week long before the timer goes off.  A good prize would be a board game with Mom and/or Dad.  Rewards should not always be monetary…get clever and be creative!!

After School:
Homework truly should take precedence over anything else.  Sit down with your child and come up with a workable time block for homework.  This time block does not have to take place at the same time each evening, just try not to have this be the last thing that they do before going to bed.  In addition, it is not always a good idea to simply say they have to do their homework before they can go outside/watch television/etc, because that is just asking for them to rush through their homework.  A good idea is to set aside a certain amount of time and tell your child that this is schoolwork time.  Homework time should not be a race to get done.  If they get done ahead of time they can read a little extra, or you may want to come up with another educational time-filler (word finds, crossword puzzles, etc).  It is really a wonderful idea if you can sit down at the table with your child while they do their homework.  Use this time block to do any paperwork that you need to get done as well. As odd as this may sound, my kids look forward to our homework time when we sit quietly together at the table and work on our own stuff.

Before bedtime:
Before bedtime is a great time to get prepared for the morning rush. Have your child lay out clothes the night before.  Personally, I like to have all the clothes for the week picked out on the weekend, but I know that is not for everyone.  Mornings are not the time to find out that Suzy can’t find the shirt that goes with the pants that she just NEEDS to wear today!  Have your child not only lay out the clothes, but also their underwear, socks, accessories and shoes. If you have a younger child who wants to be able to pick out his/her own clothes I have a fun idea for you.  Assemble an outfit including clothes, socks, shoes, etc. and take a picture.  Do this with several other outfits.  Using the pictures, allow your child to choose her ensemble and then she can get her clothes together fairly easily using the picture as a guide.  Keep adding to the photo collection and soon you will have a full wardrobe of pictures.

In addition, prior to bedtime set the timer for 15 minutes and have a big “15-minute clean-up.”  Have everyone run through the house with grocery-sized bags and collect items that don’t belong in certain rooms and put them away.  Finally before sending your child to bed, make sure backpacks are filled and ready by the door.  Once again, you can come up with a fun reward if these tasks are completed throughout the week!

Here are some great tools to help both you and your  older students get organized for school:

Sticky Sets - sticky notes that help prioritize whatever they’re stuck to

PaperConnect Home Command Center – for holding all those school lists and such

 

 

 

 

Find more unique organizing products at The Simplified Home.

Originally posted 2009-08-24 23:34:09. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

7 Strategies to Make Laundry Day Less of a Chore

With families so busy these days, the laundry room can be one of the most cluttered areas of a home. Kids are notorious for changing clothes frequently and adults often drop items as they come in the door. Often by the end of the week, the laundry room and hampers are overflowing and the weekend is spent performing the arduous task of doing laundry. So how does a busy family spend less time doing laundry and more time enjoying the weekend? By organizing the laundry process and laundry room to make the task a less time consuming chore.

Here are some tips to make laundry day much more efficient:

1. Assign one to two days a week as laundry day. If you run your washer and dryer less often it saves time and money on your electric bill. In our home we do laundry over the weekend and one load mid-week on Wednesday.

2. Make laundry day a family affair. There is no good reason for the home manager to be responsible for the family’s laundry without help. This is a chore that children need to learn and it makes the job much more manageable when everyone pitches in.

3. In a common area between bedrooms, replace the traditional one basket hamper with a three to four section laundry sorter. Clothes are then sorted by color as they go into the hamper, saving the entire step of sorting laundry by loads (color, whites, etc.) In our home, we use a laundry sorter that looks like the chrome example below, but there are several styles to choose from. Take it from my experience however, don’t pinch pennies and buy a cheap model ~ this system will get lots of use, and from my experience, the less expensive (less sturdy) models don’t hold up over time. This one tip will save you about 20 minutes per weekend.

4. Train your children to wear a piece of clothing at least twice. This was a habit I had to break in my youngest daughter, who found it easier to throw every piece of clothing she took off into the laundry basket instead of hanging it up. I developed a sign that hung over my kid’s laundry sorter that said “STOP, is that item really dirty? If not, hang it up and wear again.” Setting that expectation reduced our weekly laundry volume by about 30%.

5. Set up an organizer that contains your most used laundry supplies near the washer and dryer. That means detergents, softener, stain removers, hangers and baskets all in one place.

6. Assign each family member a basket or designated area for their clean clothes. As clothing comes out of the dryer, each family member is responsible to fold and put away their own items, then return the basket. Use these handy sorting labels for hanging clothes Simple Division Garment Organizers to separate clothes in a laundry room by each family member. Each family member can easily find their clothes to return to their room.

7. When purchasing new clothes, get into the habit of reading clothing labels and select fabrics that hold their color well, resist stains and wrinkles, such as polyester or rayon mixes. This will reduce the arduous job of ironing. I don’t even own an ironing board anymore.

I am in the process of developing a laundry sorting tool into a product that has helped many, many of my clients. You’ll be amazed how this one tool will reduce the time you spend doing family laundry. I can’t wait to introduce it to you in the next few months.

Originally posted 2008-09-20 08:16:24. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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