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.”

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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

Let Go and Lighten Up in the New Year!

If you’ve ever said, “I’d get rid of this, if only I knew where to take it…” If this is your situation — you’re ready to let go of some belongings, but you want them to go to appropriate and worthy new homes — then I have some ideas.

But if you begin to waffle before you let go, remember that just because you paid good money for something, it might come in handy someday, someone gave it to you, or it’s beautiful or useful, doesn’t mean that it’s beautiful or useful for you right now. Pass on what you no longer need, use, or love to someone who will appreciate and use it now.

Recycle what you can…

In addition to the usual newspaper, plastics, metal, and glass that you can recycle through your city’s residential program, find out about the other special facilities that may be available to you.

These services and facilities (there might be several separate locations for various recyclables) may surprise — and delight! — you with what they accept: anything from scrap metal, copper pipe, and aluminum siding to phone books, computers, foam packing peanuts, and printer cartridges. Old paints and varnishes, poisons, aerosols, motor oil, and all manner of other icky and toxic stuff may also find a safe home if you do a little research. To dispose of cell phones and rechargeable batteries, check out Call2Recycle.

…and throw out what you must.

Let’s face it: there are some things that are so awful that they can’t even be recycled, so pitch ‘em and don’t look back. For large amounts of stuff to dump, think about coordinating a group of neighbors to share the cost of renting what becomes a “community dumpster.” Then have fun filling it up!

How about a trade?

Hold a swap party! Get a group together to exchange clothes, toys, CDs, tools, or craft materials; or check out Swapstyle.com, an international, online, virtual swap party.

Donating feels great!

It’s also easy, and it puts items into the hands of those who will benefit greatly from them.

* Friends and relatives are good folks to start with, especially if you have exceptional stuff, sentimental items, or family heirlooms that shouldn’t be tossed or donated to just any old place. You can feel good knowing that the people you’ve selected to receive these special items will love them as much as you do. (Just make sure that they really do want your cast-offs so that you aren’t creating a clutter problem for them.)

* Groups you belong to — a faith community, school group, club, or sports team — may hold rummage sales where you can share your abundance and benefit a group you care about at the same time.

* Charities such as Goodwill, the Salvation Army, St. Vincent de Paul, and Easter Seals accept donations of many things; plus, they may even pick up your discards right from your house. And listen up, all you sewing fans: Goodwill and St. Vincent de Paul also accept fabric scraps.

* Other charities have specific “wish list” needs that you may be able to fulfill with things you’d like to get rid of anyway. Try contacting the United Way to see if any of their member organizations have such needs.

* Excess Access keeps useful stuff out of landfills and links donors with charities.

* Childcare centers, preschools, grade schools, camps, or after-school programs may enjoy your extra toys and art/craft materials, while libraries, nursing homes, or hospitals may welcome your books, CDs, magazines, videos, and DVDs. Children’s groups may also like your fancy “dress-up clothes.”

* High school, college, and community theater groups may love your old bridesmaid or prom dresses, dance-recital and Halloween costumes, and antique furniture or period housewares to use as set dcor or props.

* Speaking of bridesmaid and prom dresses, investigate the Glass Slipper Project, a Chicago-based organization that provides disadvantaged teens with prom dresses.

* And how about your wedding gown? The nuptial police really will not come after you if you donate it (or sell or consign it, for that matter), and the Making Memories Breast Cancer Foundation’s Brides against Breast Cancer program even makes it easy.

* Do you have excess building materials? Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore accepts usable cabinets, lumber, windows, hardware, fixtures, lights, flooring, and more, while Rebuilding Together, a nonprofit group that repairs the homes of low-income families, is looking for your extra tools.

* Women’s and children’s clothing and shoes, as well as toys, may find a welcome home at a women’s domestic-abuse shelter, while men’s clothing will benefit men in homeless shelters. Consider also Dress for Success, a national group that assists low-income women looking for work.

* The Lions Club or New Eyes for the Needy will take your old eyeglasses.

* There are food pantries in most communities that feed an ever-growing population of citizens without enough to eat, and they’d welcome your monetary or nonperishable-food donations.

Giving things away can also take other forms…

* Check out the Freecycle Network, a national movement with (many!) local groups that connect those who want to give away their stuff for free with those who want to take it off their hands.

* Or put together a Circulation Celebration: On a specified day, people take anything they no longer want to a central location, and anyone who wants it can take it, with no money exchanged at all. It’s truly intended to just move things around — no profit motive at all.

* If nothing else, set something out to the curb with a big “FREE! TAKE ME!” sign on it. I’ll bet it walks.

Maybe you’d like some cash for your goods?

Garage sales — especially ones with several families or a whole neighborhood participating — are a time-honored method, but there are others:

* Sell your general merchandise and collectibles — just about anything, really — through eBay, the huge, sell-it-yourself, online auction site. If you’re a little low tech or strapped for time, work with a service that sells your possessions online and then ships them for you for a commission or fee.

* There’s also Craigslist, a free, giant, online version of a local newspaper’s classified ads.

* If antiques are your bag, consult an antiques mall about selling your wares for a fee or commission.

* Take your books, CDs, videos, DVDs, and video games to resale stores that buy them outright.

* Clothes, shoes, and accessories may fetch a fine price at resale shops that either buy them outright or pay you a commission after they sell. Most accept women’s clothing, but some also sell — or even specialize in — children’s, teens’, men’s, or vintage clothing; household and decorative items; and furniture. These may also be the right places to take dance-recital costumes and Halloween costumes prior to Halloween.

* Likewise, there are consignment and resale shops that deal solely in musical instruments, toys and other children’s goods, and sports equipment — great for selling and buying, since the kiddos keep growing!

But what if you have painful or sentimental things — love letters from a failed relationship, or your child’s first dinosaur diorama — that aren’t exactly the kinds of things you’d donate or sell?

* First be very certain that you’re ready to say goodbye. Visualize yourself letting go of the item and see how it feels. If you feel liberated and wonderful, go ahead. If you feel regretful and sad, wait awhile and try visualizing the release later.

* If you’re not ready to let go, perhaps put these items in one big box so that they’re not scattered all over, ready to emotionally ambush you every time you see them. You can even inject a little humor to help you detach by labeling the box something like My Big, Bad Box of Horrible, Awful, Icky, Very Sad Things.

* If/when you are ready to let go, take some pictures if they’ll help you to release your mental hold on the objects. The photos will spark your memories, so you may not need to keep the physical objects themselves.

* Create a little ceremony, or share a story about the item with someone close to you, to send it off with the dignity and respect that it deserves as an important, although perhaps bittersweet, part of your past.

* And lastly, this suggestion may strike you as a little “out there” — or perhaps as just right: have a “ritual burn.” Take your painful souvenirs, alone, to a quiet place where you can safely burn them. As you prepare and light a fire, think about what they mean to you. Place them into the fire, watch the flames and smoke curling up, and feel your emotional burden lifting, liberating you from these painful connections.

Sending your belongings to worthy recipients — with dignity and respect — can help you to feel good about letting go of them. Here’s to lightening up and moving on in 2011!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Paula_Apfelbach

Originally posted 2011-02-05 18:02:21. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

How will you observe “Buy Nothing Day?”

Here are some eye-opening facts as we approach the busiest buying season of the year.

• The average American wastes 55-minutes per day (roughly 12 weeks per year) looking for misplaced belongings.
• 75% of Americans visit malls each week. On average, Americans shop six hours a week.
• Today, many new homes are built with three-car garages the size of an entire house in the 1950s.
• We receive as much mail in a week as our parents received in a month and as much mail in a month as our grandparents received in a lifetime.” (source: USPS)

 

The Day After Thanksgiving is BUY NOTHING DAY! How will you observe it?

 

This internationally-recognized holiday is an opportunity to challenge yourself, your family, and your friends to take a day off from shopping. Recent statistics reveal that Americans spend 6 hours per week shopping. Instead of hitting the malls, spend some time – rather than money – doing things that bring you joy and fulfillment. Here are a few tips to get you started:

 

FOCUS ENERGY ELSEWHERE
Does your “To Do” list have you constantly running, buying, doing, and getting? Try simplifying your life by slowing down to appreciate the good around you. When do you find yourself smiling or happy? Pursue those activities that energize and revitalize you. Starting today, make a few conscious choices to spend your time and energy differently.

 

AVOID TEMPTATION
Do you find yourself running to multiple stores each week to get all those great sale items? Make a decision to try a few weeks without reading the Sunday sale ads. Make a running list of the items that you absolutely cannot live without, pledge to purchase only items that are on that list. You’ll be amazed at the time and money you save!

BE AWARE OF CLUTTER’S CURSE
When you spend money, you’re bound to accumulate clutter. Clutter takes up time, space, energy, and/or money without providing any tangible benefit. Consider the time and effort it takes to care for your belongings. Could you think of better ways to spend your time?

LOOK DEEPER
Before you buy, think about what’s truly important to you. What brings you joy, satisfaction, and fulfillment? Try to look beyond the initial “thrill of the purchase” and see what provides deeper moments of meaning. 

 

Anything less than a conscious commitment to the important is an unconscious commitment to the unimportant.

~ Stephen R. Covey, Ph.D.

Originally posted 2008-11-25 05:14:35. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Tackling the Dreaded To Do List

Trying to get things done around the house, but feeling overwhelmed by your never-ending list of things-to-do?

Here’s a simple system that works.

Make a Master Task List of everything you have to, or want, to do. Don’t worry about the order right now.  You’re basically brain-dumping on paper all your To-Do‘s to get the thoughts out of your head and onto paper. This exercise  creates a master laundry list of tasks.

Now, beside each task on your master list, assign a letter of priority:

A = Important / Urgent

B = Important, but Not Urgent

C = Would be nice to do

Each day, transfer no more than 4 items (3 is ideal) from the master list to your To Do List (two A Priorities, one B Priority, and one A, B or C Priority). Focus on completing only those items and forget the rest for now.  When you’ve completed the 4 items on your list, feel free to transfer 4 more items from your Master List to your To Do List.

The key to this system is that you’ve gotten all those pesky tasks that swim around in your head, onto paper. Then by moving to your To-Do list and focusing only 3-4 tasks per day, you’ve kept your list manageable and attainable, rather than setting yourself up for failure by a To Do list that not even Super-woman could accomplish.

By using this system every day, you’ll be amazed at all you can accomplish in less time and less stress!

Find this To Do list notepad at The Simplified Home.

Originally posted 2009-11-07 16:48:10. Republished by Blog Post Promoter