The Importance of Giving Children Household Chores at Home

The importance of giving children household chores

Those of you who follow my blog know that I am a strong advocate of kids doing their age-appropriate fair share of chores around the house. From my experiences as a Professional Organizer for busy families, I feel so strongly about this that I wrote a workbook on the topic and developed a home management system ~ Mom, Can I Help Around the House ~ that incorporates teaching the children to be active members of the family team.

Well, I just happened upon this fantastic video featuring Georgette Constantinou, PhD.  Administrative Director of Pediatric Psychiatry at Akron Children’s Hospital, titled, Household chores an important part of preparing children for life challenges. Dr. Constantinou discusses the importance of children learning and being accountable for household responsibilities. She explains that doing chores is an important step in preparing kids to meet life’s challenges, because it helps them understand there is no free ride.

According to Kris Jenkins, University of Missouri human development specialist, “Families that work together and share responsibilities raise children who understand the value of work.  Giving children jobs around the home helps parents and teaches children they are important cogs in the household wheel. Chores help children learn to take pride in their work and gain self-respect.”

Now that kids are out of school for the summer, this is the best time to corral those little minds and begin teaching them vital home management skills. Here’s why:

1. No distractions like homework and school activities.
2. Keep the kids occupied and contributing to something bigger than themselves, instead of staring at the computer or TV screen for the next 3 months?
3. Contrary to what it may seem, doing household chores together as a family creates bonding and family fun. My kids actually like it when we’re all doing chores together – it gives them a sense of purpose and pride, and family togetherness.

These are just a few reasons why the start of summer is a great time to begin teaching your children these skills and for you to get a home management system in place in your home. Just think, when school activities start again in the fall, you’ll feel so much more in control of your time and your home.

To help you get started, I’m offering a 10% DISCOUNT on Mom Can I Help Around the House workbook and chore binder through July 31, 2010. I’ve never offered a sale before, so take advantage of the savings NOW! (At checkout, enter coupon code “summer“.)

Go here to learn more KIDS AND CHORES and to get your discount.

Originally posted 2010-05-27 14:30:53. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Reduce tax time stress with planning and organization

I filed my tax return today! And all 2009 documents are filed safely away with my tax return. Because of my organized filing system, it took less than an hour to gather everything together. This is a huge improvement over past years when I didn’t have any system in place. Every year I procrastinated until the last minute because it was such a chore to find everything and organize it before I could even begin working on the return.

Are you guilty of procrastinating when it comes to doing your taxes? Is it because avoiding tackling the mountain of receipts and documents that have been piling up for the past 12 months? Follow these easy steps to make this season less taxing.

Tax time is inherently stressful for people because they realize that they need to organize their important documents but they don’t know where to begin. In reality, tax time is the perfect opportunity to get organized and to develop a system that will work for you for years to come. This is what made the difference for me.

With the tax deadline looming, try these suggestions to make this season less stressful.

1. Prepare for tax time by making an electronic checklist of documents you will need based on your returns from the last few years. Create the checklist by reviewing your tax returns from previous years and attach it to the inside flap of your tax folder. Also, organize your documents by category such as income, deductions, exemptions and miscellaneous. For instance, deductions would include mortgage interest, property taxes and residential energy credits. Exemptions could include vehicle registration and taxes, medical expenses, contributions to IRAs and student loan interest paid. By checking off the items as they are received, you will know which documents have arrived and which ones you are still waiting for.

2. Purge files of monthly bills from the previous year and set up a filing system for the current year that includes receipts, credit card and bank statements, medical expenses and utility payments. It is best to shred any documents before you discard them. Only keep prior year documents that are needed to support a prior year tax return.

3. Place current tax records and other important documents in files that are clearly marked and easily accessible. After your tax returns have been filed, place your copy of the return and all supporting documents into a secure file, preferably something with a closed top like a Smead Expanding File, label it for the tax year, and store in a secure location with previous years’ returns. If you prepared your tax return electronically, place a disk with backup copies in the file for safekeeping. The picture shows what I use and it has worked great for many years.

4. Plan ahead for next year by setting up a filing system for documents and receipts for the current year. In January, get a jump start on this year’s tax return by setting up an expanding file with sections labeled for income, expenses and taxes. Place documents like payroll stubs, 1099s and statements from your financial institution in the income section; receipts for tuition expenses, real estate transactions and donations in the expense section; and receipts for tax expenses in the tax section. If you store the file close to where you sort your mail and file the documents as they are received, the papers will be ready for you when you begin working on next year’s tax return. I love the FileSolutions Home Filing System, a ready-made colorful home filing system that makes filing easy.

5. Preserve tax returns indefinitely and store supporting tax documents (which can be destroyed after seven years) in a file labeled with the year and the destruction date. Be sure to check with your tax advisor before destroying any documents.

6. Put Your Feet Up and know that you are ready for next year!

With April 15th rapidly approaching, hare a few free sites that offer free filing services:

• http://free.free1040taxreturn.com/
• http://www.fileyourtaxes.com/Alliance
• http://www.eztaxreturn.com/scriptsez/start.exe/eztax/p/alliance2009/start.html?r_link=www.irs.gov
• http://www.efiletaxreturns.net/home.aspx
• http://www.completetax.com/FFAindex.asp?welcome=GY1318083
• http://www.taxactonline.com/index.asp?sc=0850302
• http://free.123easytaxfiling.com/
• http://www.1040now.net/freefile.htm
• http://www.free-tax-return.com/2008/
• http://www.icanfreefile.org/
• http://www.taxslayer.com/americanpledge/default.aspx?source=ihtffgtsd
• https://www.taxsimple.org/index.aspx
• http://onlinetaxpros.com/index.php?linkid=ff
• http://citizentaxfree.com/
• http://www.esmarttax.com/freefederalfile.asp
• http://www.olt.com/main/oltfree/default.asp
• http://turbotax.intuit.com/taxfreedom/
• http://www.freetaxusa.com/
• http://www.hrblock.com/taxes/partner/index.jsp?otpPartnerId=180

 Here’s to a tax season with less stress!!

Originally posted 2010-02-14 14:04:04. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Moms and organizers offer tips for all things back to school

(Article appearing in the BerksMont News, PA)

For parents who have been trying to keep their youngsters occupied all summer, September often replaces Christmas as “the most wonderful time of the year!” But for those parents who don’t like rigid schedules and helping with homework, it can also translate into a time of much family stress. Either way, back to school is a time of change. Professional organizers, a growing profession nationally and locally, are often called in to help families in times of transition.

As a professional organizer and a mother of three school-aged children, Debbie Lillard knows this transition all too well. Debbie Lillard started her organizing business, Space to Spare, in 2003.

She is an active member of the National Association of Professional Organizers Greater Philadelphia Chapter (www.NAPO-GPC.org) and has appeared on several episodes of HGTV’s Mission Organization. Debbie’s organizing tips have been featured in such magazines as Woman’s Day, Memory Makers and House & Home. Lillard recommends the following tips to get families ready for the busy back-to-school season:

1. Early to bed, early to rise. During summer months, children tend to stay up and sleep in later. To get them back into the routine of school schedules, put the routine in place as a dry run during the last week of summer. If everyone needs to be out of the house by 8:30 a.m. on a school day, make sure everyone has dressed, eaten and brushed their teeth by that time during your trial week.

2. Shop for school supplies at home first. Once you have the list of school supplies that your children need, take a look around your house first. Folders, crayons and even notebooks that are not full from the previous year can be used again. If the crayon box is broken, use a plastic container or Ziploc bag instead. Have the kids help you and make it a scavenger hunt! Check off what you have, then take the list to the store to purchase what you still need.

3. Create file folders. While you’re shopping for those school supplies, get an extra 2-pocket folder for each child. This can be used for holding any school information that you will refer to throughout the year (i.e. school calendar, absentee notes, teacher website info, handbooks, etc.). Label each folder with a child’s name and keep these in your home office for reference.

4. Visual reminders. Once you have all the information about your child’s special classes and extra-curricular activities, put them on a chart so that each day your child knows what is happening. Kids love pictures, so use stickers or computer clip art to make your chart visually appealing and colorful. Post the chart on the refrigerator or on a centrally-located bulletin board.

5. Designate a dumping ground. It’s been a few months, so even if you had a school routine you may have to review it with your kids. Physically show your children where you want them to put papers for you, homework, shoes, backpacks, and lunch boxes when they come home from school.

6. Clear out the old to make room for new. If you haven’t done so already, clear out your child’s backpack and their school papers from last year. Any special papers or artwork you want to save should be put in a scrapbook, a portfolio or a memory box. Designate one place where your child can put papers and reports throughout the upcoming year. This could be a drawer in their desk, a plastic storage bin in their room or a large art portfolio in their closet.

7. Layout the clothes. If clothing is an issue with your child, make sure they know what they are allowed to wear each day to school. If mom or dad says pants and a short sleeved shirt, then let the child choose which ones. In order to do this, make sure their clothes are accessible and simply organized in drawers or a closet.

8. Map out your activities on a family calendar. Back to school often means “back to busy,” so map it out by writing all activities on the calendar, even before your children commit to activities. Sometimes seeing it on paper helps you realize how much running around you will be doing!

9. Set up carpools. Make your life easier and save on gas and time by setting up carpools with your neighbors for school, sports and after-school activities.

10. Go through the routine with the entire family. Every family is different, so make a morning and nighttime routine that works for you. Involve as many family members as you can to spread the work of getting everyone out the door on time with everything they need. For example, if your kids are typically waiting for lunches in the morning, then pack them the night before or make it the first thing you do in the morning.

The Greater Philadelphia Chapter is part of the national nonprofit organization, NAPO, which has been active since 1985 and consists of more than 4,000 members throughout the United States and in eight other countries. For additional information or to find a professional organizer near you, visit the NAPO Web site at www.napo.org. Just click on “Find An Organizer.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I’m a NAPO member in Central Indiana and owner of Simplified Spaces Professional Organizing Solutions. I’m available to help you implement these and many more systems and strategies to clear the clutter and calm the chaos in your home and life. We also work with kids individually to help them establish organization, habits and routines for school and life success. Visit Simplified Spaces Professional Organizing Solutions for more info.

Originally posted 2010-08-28 11:23:29. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Resolve to Get Organized in 2010 with Organizing Workshops in Indianapolis/Carmel, IN

If you live in the Indianapolis area, here are my upcoming workshops for Get Organized Month

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

RE: January – February workshops / classes conducted by Indianapolis/Carmel Organizing Consultant, Janet Nusbaum, to help clear the clutter and simplify your life.

********************************************************************************

Washington Township Parks & Recreation (Westfield)

Address: 1549 E. Greyhound Pass, Carmel (behind St. Vincent Medical Center & Barnes & Noble)

Time: 6:30pm-8:00pm

Cost: $18 per session

• Resolve to Get Organized in 2010 Tues., January 19
• Power over Paper – Put an End to the Paper Chase Tues., February 16

For more information: CLICK HERE (classes appear in the Adult Enrichment category) or call: 317-574-1074

St. Luke’s United Methodist Church

“Now It’s Time” Series

Address: 100 West 86th Street, Indianapolis, IN 46260, (317) 846-3404

Cost: $10 per session – open to the public

• Resolve to Get Organized in 2010 Sunday, January 24 – 4:0 – 5:30pm
• Power over Paper – Put an End to the Paper Chase Wednesday, January 27 – 7:30 – 9:00pm

Call the church to register – 317-846-3404.

Hope to see you at any of these upcoming workshops! Contact me if you have any questions – 317-867-1540.

jnusbaum(at)SimplifiedSpaces(dot)net

www.SimplifiedSpaces.net

www.TheSimplifiedHome.net

Originally posted 2010-01-07 17:41:35. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Say Goodbye to Greeting Card Clutter

In every home that I visit, unused greeting cards abound. Here’s what happens. You try to plan ahead and buy cards for loved ones who have a special day coming up. You take the card home and throw it in a pile until you need to send it. Then when that time comes you can’t find the card amidst the clutter and have to go buy another.  So when the first greeting card reappears, the need for that card no longer exists, so it either stays in a clutter pile or goes into the dark hole of unused greeting cards and is soon forgotten. Add to this disorganization the embarrassment of forgetting to mail the card at all. Does this sound familiar? 

What is lacking here is an organized system for remembering to buy the card, actually buying it, storing it until it needs to be sent and then sending the greeting card. There is a better way.  

Sending greeting cards is a process just like any other, like bill paying or any work process. In order to eliminate the greeting card clutter and avoid the embarrassment of missing an important occasion, and last minute trips to the store or post office, is to develop a greeting card sending system. You can be prepared for any card occasion with a just a little organization planning.

The Greeting Card Organizer is the answer to stress free card sending. This sturdy 3-ring binder provides categories for the storage of up to 240 cards. The binder gives you easy to use sections to organize your cards for every occasion and makes it easy for you to see when you are low on cards for a specific occasion.  

 

 A feature that I really like about this organizer is its undated perpetual calendar for recording important occasions by month and day.

I recommend keeping the Greeting Card Organizer in close proximity to where you enter your home with purchases, so that the card can make it into the organizer as soon as it comes in the door. The binder can easily be stored on a shelf or cabinet for easy access when it’s time to retrieve and mail the right card. Be sure to keep stamps, return labels, notecards, pen and calendar close by so you can do the action of card mailing all in one sitting (or action), rather than running all over the house to find the supplies needed.

With a system in place, you will be able to shop when you can find the best selection of cards for your loved ones. The Greeting Card Organizer is the home for incoming greeting cards that you are waiting to be sent. So when the next special occasion rolls around and you need to send a card, all that you’ll need to do is to reach for the Greeting Card Organizer. You will never be a last minute card shopper again.

To learn more visit The Simplified Home.

Originally posted 2009-08-06 22:33:33. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

BE READY … Life Can Change in an Instant!

Wednesday February 27th started like any other. As a baby boomer with both parents in their early seventies and fortunately in excellent health, it would not have occurred to me that the day would unfold as it did. On that late February day, I received the call that every adult child fears receiving and cannot fathom receiving.

My mother was due to fly to Florida for a vacation with friends on Friday and I was planning to take her to the airport. So when I received a call from my mother’s home phone number, I assumed it was her calling to finalize details of her trip. The voice on the other end of the phone however, calling from my mother’s home, was not my mother. It was an unknown person who informed me that it appears that my mother had had a stroke and the ambulance was on its way. From ten miles away, I listened breathlessly to the conversation happening on the other end of the phone as the ambulance arrived, asked the unknown person where to take my mother (fortunately she asked me) and they drove off with my mother.

As I arrived in the emergency room in shock and disbelief, I was acutely aware that this was the beginning of the nightmare that was my mother’s first stay in a hospital in her life, other than giving birth to my brother and me. After an extensive battery of tests, we learned that my seemingly healthy mother suffered not only a stroke, but also a heart attack … absent of any symptoms for either injury.

Life as I knew it, changed that Wednesday. For the next several days we sat in suspense by my mother’s side while neurologists and cardiologists worked tirelessly to bring her heart back to normal rhythm and the damage from the stroke to a minimum.

Since then, my mother has made remarkable improvements, and has now successfully transferred from an inpatient medical hospital to an inpatient stroke rehab hospital. In less than two weeks, she has gone from eating meals with her hands to nearly returning to the mom that I know.

My mother’s health crisis appears to be over for now as she will likely successfully and safely return to her life, for now. But my eyes have forever been opened and the cloak of naivete’ and innocence of “it will never happen to us” that I known for my almost fifty years, is gone.

As a Boomer and parent of two ‘tween daughters, I reluctantly accept my membership in the ‘sandwich generation’. As a card-carrying member of one of the largest demographics in history, I must accept that time marches on. The reality of this crisis is like a huge wake-up call, that I must be prepared for the uncertain days, months and years ahead. So, be ready … life can change in an instant.

Now wiser and albeit a bit raw this very personal experience, I now look forward to continuing my The Simplified Life blog.

Originally posted 2008-08-21 05:53:48. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Organize Home Maintenance Records

When it comes to taking care of your biggest investment ~ your home, there are a lot of things that you need to manage and keep organized. In most households, these tidbits of information are spread out throughout the home ~ instruction manuals and receipts stuffed in a drawer, paint numbers on the top of a paint can in the garage. Does that sound familiar? With home maintenance and repair, it is important to be organized and current on everything that you have done to your house. It is easy to lose track of all of the home repair projects that need to be done and when.

 

Another item that is easy to lose track of are all of the home improvements and repairs you have made to your home over the years. Home improvements need to be considered when you sell your home for calculating the sales price and then for calculating capital gains after the sale. So where do you go to store and then easily find these important records about your home?

 

To keep your house in tip-top shape, you need an organized system and home where this information lives for easy reference and retrival. I found a product titled the Home Maintenance Organizer that I now offer in The Simplified Home e-store (www.TheSimplifiedHome.net) and to my local clients. This home record organizing system provides a solution to, and a home for, all the home repair/maintenance clutter. The Home Maintenance Organizer is a binder where you can record and store all of the important information about your house, like window sizes, room dimensions, when you last had the furnace or refrigerator serviced, paint colors, and much more. This system also comes with an essential set of guidelines that will tell you what home repairs should be done and when.

 

The binder also has storage for ongoing projects that are happening around the house as well as places for important documents. The binder is an easy to carry with you system when shopping for window treatments, appliances, etc.

 

Another system to use for vital and archived home records, like home deed, mortgage, home title, etc. is our HomeFile Financial Planning Organizer Kit that is used in a file cabinet or filing box. This is a ready-made home filing system to hold all your vital personal and home records, most of which that you need to keep, but don’t need to access often.

 

 

Both these ready-made organizational systems solve the clutter problem of how and where to keep home maintenance records and will and make sure your biggest investment is always taken care of.

Originally posted 2009-02-07 13:23:47. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Important Tips for Closing Out 2008

Originally posted 2009-01-04 20:06:49. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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