Helping your child learn the skill of organization

By Priscilla Dunstan, ChildSense.com

The art of being organized is a skill that can make or break us as we move through life, so teaching our children how to be organized from an early age will enhance their ability to get things done, feel confident and capable as well as making life a little more easy. However whilst organization is a basic life skill, it is easier for your child to maintain any system if it is in line with their dominant sense. Rather than making tidying up and organizing a chore, have fun learning about your child’s way of thinking through setting up an organization system that works for both you and your child.

Tactile children do best with category and utility based organization stations. For a tactile child, unless the things they need are right in front of them at the time they need it, they will tend to rush past forgetting. The toothbrush and toothpaste will need to be at the sink rather than in the cabinet, their school bag will need to be at the door, their clothes organized and placed ready to put on clean from their bath or from when they wake. Organization should consist of quick cleaning storage such as tubs, boxes and hooks, even for clothing and school items. Shoes are easily placed in a large tub at the door, school books can be organized into colored boxes based on subject and sports gear is easy to find when kept hanging on hooks in netted bags.

Visual children will do best when things have a place and home outside of view. This may seem counterintuitive for a visual child, but they take great joy in organizing their items neatly and knowing exactly where everything is. They will however like a visual list, to remind them, neatly written and placed discreetly. When organizing their wardrobes or drawers, pick a theme based in either color, size or utility, and allow them to fit their things to that classification or organization pattern. Most importantly, allow them plenty of display space on wall shelves to show off their many collections.

Auditory children can appear to be on the untidy side, but there will be a pattern to their madness. Think organized chaos, so it’s important to work with your auditory child rather than stepping in and tidying yourself. This doesn’t mean they can be untidy, but rather allow them the freedom to organize and keep tidy in their own way. They will prefer open cupboards and shelves for clothes and toys, and this is actually a direct link to deadening the sound in their room. If your child is habitually lining their floor with stuffed toys and clothes, invest in some basic sound deadening items like rugs, padded headboards, curtains and chairs to soak up the sound. You will be surprised at the difference this unusual step will make to your child’s natural organization skills.

Taste and smell children will tend to be collectors. They will want to keep every ticket from every theme park, every gift, toy or item of clothing that was given to them and every card, memento and book to remind them of the tiniest things. This is when a journal and a camera will come in handy as rather than keeping the sweater that is two sizes too small, or the very ugly doll; take a picture and have them write a detailed caption. This will preserve the memory and satisfy your taste and smell child’s need for personal connection with the added benefit of using up a lot less space. Expect them to have a lot of photos that they will want to display, so either allocating a dresser, shelf or even hanging frames on the walls will help to keep things tidy.

Use your child’s dominant sense to make the process easier and the clean up system more personalized for your child. Even when small they can learn how to put away their toys, pack their bags and help with keeping their space organized.

Priscilla Dunstan, creator of the Dunstan Baby Language, is a child and parenting behavior expert and consultant and the author of “Child Sense.” Learn more about Dunstan and her parenting discoveries at www.childsense.com.

Life in the rearview mirror

A week ago, the notion of ever again pricing things for a garage sale, consignment sale or whatever sounded about as appetizing as taking a four-year-old to the dentist to have a cavity filled.

And yes, unfortunately, we have had to do just that. Not once, but three times.

We are now super brushers and rinsers in our house. Although it turned out the culprit was not so much an issue of brushing, but rather our caving in and allowing the occasional sippy cup of milk to become part of the bedtime routine. You would think that after three kids at that point (this was with No. 4) we would have known better.

Anyways, back to the sale.

As you may recall from a previous blog, we decided to give the Big Red Wagon consignment sale at the Medina County Fairgrounds a try. We ended up making $230.60 on the sale of 153 items after our $25 fee and a 40 percent consignment fee per item. Our fee and consignment percentage was as high as it gets because we did not have time to work any shifts to reduce it. Heck, we barely had time to mark and drag our stuff to the fairgrounds.

We ended up selling 61 percent of the items we tried to sell, with the rest donated to charity, and they hauled it off for us.

So are we rich? No. But we do have a little money now we can set aside for a summer trip to an amusement park. Since my husband was behind this whole endeavor, I suppose he gets the right to dictate how it’s spent.

Best of all, I can open the door to the unfinished side of my basement and not feel like Matt Paxtson, the extreme cleanup specialist from “Hoarders,” should be looking over my shoulder.

And that is priceless.

Five tricks to declutter your nursery

By Sarah Newell, TheBump.com

Keep your nursery looking as clean and organized as the day you came home from the hospital. Amanda Wiss, the founder of Urban Clarity, a professional organizing company, shares her top five tips for creating a tidy nursery.

1. Buy storage-friendly furniture: Get a crib with drawers underneath or buy a crib skirt and some under-bed boxes, which are great for stashing all those excess diapers and wipes. Still short on storage? Consider a cube system like the IKEA Expedit, which can grow with your child and be outfitted with drawers and doors to hold toys and books on the bottom and clothes they’re growing into or have outgrown on the top.
2. Trick out your closet: Use every inch of space already available in your nursery by maximizing your closet’s storage. Little outfits are short, so double your closet space easily using a double-hang closet rod on one side. Then use a portion of your closet to create flexible shelving by adding a sweater bag. Both can be found at The Container Store. Use Kid’s Huggable Hangers — they conserve precious closet space, and tiny outfits don’t slip off.
3. Containerize everything: Find attractive open bins for the shelves of your changing table and give each bin a specific category. Inside your closet you’ll want to use clear, stackable containers so you can see exactly what’s there. Label them with size and season. For example, seeing “12-month, summer clothes” is a lot more helpful than having to take down a huge bin of hand-me-downs from the top shelf and then having to dig through. Important: Whatever you do, skip the toy bin! It just becomes a repository for all the tiny pieces, and ends up with stuff on top of it, so your child will never be able to open it to retrieve those stuffed animals anyway.
4. Go vertical: Have a small nursery? No problem! Utilize your vertical space — backs of doors and even the walls are often overlooked areas. Have excess toiletries or tiny shoes? Put an over-the-door shoe bag with clear pockets on the inside of your closet door so that you can compartmentalize all the small stuff and keep it from cluttering up your surfaces. Stick the thermometer in the top row right next to the Infants’ Tylenol, so next time your baby has a fever in the middle of the night you know exactly how to find it (and it’ll be too high for them to reach as they grow!). Have a ton of pictures or other keepsakes to display? Don’t clutter your dresser — hang floating shelves on the wall to show off your treasures. It will look intentional instead of haphazard, and once your child is more mobile, he won’t be able to destroy them so easily.
5. Toss the junk: Having a baby often means you’re showered with gifts. But that doesn’t mean you have to keep and love everything Cousin Gertrude gave you. Take a picture of your kiddo wearing the item or playing with it, write her a thank-you note and put it in the outbound pile. As a parent, you need to constantly manage both the inflow and outflow of stuff in your space, so dedicate a bag or two for things that are no longer in active use, and once they are full, get them out. Store the items that you love that make the cut for a future child, but pass others along to a mommy friend with different taste or donate them. Swimming in excess samples from the hospital? Stash a few in your diaper bag, use up the ones you love and toss the rest! You don’t need random stuff you’ll rarely use.

For pregnancy and parenting advice, tools, photos, and more, visit TheBump.com.

Ten steps to a clutter free life

By Tanya Triber, Hybrid Mom

Ours is a culture of abundance. Even in this time of economic recession — most of us have more ’stuff’ than we really, truly, need. Clutter, whether it is too many tasks on our agenda, too many thoughts pulsing through our minds, or too many belongings in our homes, seems to be a societal epidemic.

When we slow down a bit and take notice, however, we find that more stuff actually creates more stress. Additionally, the state of having too much stuff to care for, clean, and manage means less time for connecting with family and friends, taking care of yourself, and nurturing your soul and creative spirit.

Reducing physical clutter in the home creates a sense of calm, and allows energy to flow freely throughout. New possibilities emerge and creative solutions to old problems seem to appear from nowhere. Here are some things you can start doing now to make it happen:

1. Designate one spot for all incoming mail/paperwork and go through it daily.
2. Unsubscribe from email newsletters, blogs, and retail email lists that no longer interest you. It’s YOUR inbox, after all.
3. Before purchasing anything, from new socks to a new smartphone, ask yourself: “Do I love it?” and “Will I use it?” Think twice unless the answer to both questions is a resounding “Yes!”
4. Commit to clearing clutter from one area of your home each day for a week and schedule ten minutes daily to do it. Start with something totally feasible, like your coat rack or medicine chest.
5. Meditate for five minutes each day. This will help de-clutter your mind and give you the clarity to keep what’s essential and part with the rest.
6. Eliminate clothing from your closet and dresser that hasn’t been worn in the last calendar year.
7. Find a home for clutter-prone items, you know, the things that wind up on the kitchen table, living room floor, and bedroom dresser. Designate a place for them and make a habit of putting them there, every single day.
8. Create clutter-free zones in your home. The entryway is a great place to start. If there is clutter in the entrance, 98 percent of the time there is clutter throughout the house. The kitchen table is another good choice. Keep what you love and use, recycle, donate or toss everything else. Be ruthless!
9. Use “maybe” boxes. If, in the course of de-cluttering, you’re not sure what to do with an item, put it in the maybe box. Note the date on the box and store it out of sight. If you don’t go looking for those items within six months to a year, it’s time to get rid of those things.
10. Evaluate your commitments. Most of us are over-scheduled, which is its own form of clutter. Make sure your commitments are reflective of your values and your priorities. Say no to new commitments without guilt and drop whatever commitments no longer serve you. Your life needs space for free flowing energy, just like your home.

Read more articles at http://healinglifestyles.com and www.hybridmom.com.

Ten steps to a clutter free life

By Tanya Triber, Hybrid Mom

Ours is a culture of abundance. Even in this time of economic recession — most of us have more ’stuff’ than we really, truly, need. Clutter, whether it is too many tasks on our agenda, too many thoughts pulsing through our minds, or too many belongings in our homes, seems to be a societal epidemic.

When we slow down a bit and take notice, however, we find that more stuff actually creates more stress. Additionally, the state of having too much stuff to care for, clean, and manage means less time for connecting with family and friends, taking care of yourself, and nurturing your soul and creative spirit.

Reducing physical clutter in the home creates a sense of calm, and allows energy to flow freely throughout. New possibilities emerge and creative solutions to old problems seem to appear from nowhere. Here are some things you can start doing now to make it happen:

1. Designate one spot for all incoming mail/paperwork and go through it daily.
2. Unsubscribe from email newsletters, blogs, and retail email lists that no longer interest you. It’s YOUR inbox, after all.
3. Before purchasing anything, from new socks to a new smartphone, ask yourself: “Do I love it?” and “Will I use it?” Think twice unless the answer to both questions is a resounding “Yes!”
4. Commit to clearing clutter from one area of your home each day for a week and schedule ten minutes daily to do it. Start with something totally feasible, like your coat rack or medicine chest.
5. Meditate for five minutes each day. This will help de-clutter your mind and give you the clarity to keep what’s essential and part with the rest.
6. Eliminate clothing from your closet and dresser that hasn’t been worn in the last calendar year.
7. Find a home for clutter-prone items, you know, the things that wind up on the kitchen table, living room floor, and bedroom dresser. Designate a place for them and make a habit of putting them there, every single day.
8. Create clutter-free zones in your home. The entryway is a great place to start. If there is clutter in the entrance, 98 percent of the time there is clutter throughout the house. The kitchen table is another good choice. Keep what you love and use, recycle, donate or toss everything else. Be ruthless!
9. Use “maybe” boxes. If, in the course of de-cluttering, you’re not sure what to do with an item, put it in the maybe box. Note the date on the box and store it out of sight. If you don’t go looking for those items within six months to a year, it’s time to get rid of those things.
10. Evaluate your commitments. Most of us are over-scheduled, which is its own form of clutter. Make sure your commitments are reflective of your values and your priorities. Say no to new commitments without guilt and drop whatever commitments no longer serve you. Your life needs space for free flowing energy, just like your home.

Read more articles at http://healinglifestyles.com and www.hybridmom.com.

Tips to corral that kid clutter

By Debbie Arrington, McClatchy Newspapers

Does kid clutter make moms crazy? Yes, your children can clean up their messy rooms and keep them clean or at least passable. The trick is making organization more fun and not such a chore.

Here are some experts’ tips on getting youngsters hooked on clean:

• A place for everything and everything in its place. That’s an old credo, but it works from a child’s perspective. Give Barbie and her friends a “home” in the closet or the toy drawer. Put the toys “to bed” each evening in their toy box. Park the toy trucks and garage in their closet “garage.” Take a few minutes each night before sleep to help your children tuck in their little toy friends. (Make sure the kids help.)
• See-through boxes. These organizational wonders make it much easier for parents and children to know what’s where. Not only do they work for toys, but they’re great for clothing storage between seasons and sizes. Stack and number them, then keep a record of what’s where. Remember: Similar-size boxes stack best and look neater.
• Hang it up. Baskets and hammocks can be creative places to store stuffed animals and dolls. It keeps them off the floor and the bed. Also, hooks and baskets are a great way to store sports gear off the floor.
• Use space creatively. The area under the crib? It’s large enough for luggage. Stash baby’s travel gear inside those suitcases.
• Closet vs. drawers. Clothes for small children fit better in drawers than on hangers. Put a set of see-through drawers inside the closet and spare the rod (until their teenage years). Also, give each child his or her own clothes hamper.
• Pickup rewards. Offer incentives (such as 30 minutes more TV or computer time) for picking up the toys and clothes on a nightly basis. Little things can promote good habits that last a lifetime.
• Labels and color coding. Put labels on drawers and containers (remember, everything has its place) and with color dots code what goes in those boxes. For example, puzzles with green dots go in the “Green” box. This can also be useful with siblings who may argue over possessions; give each his or her own color.
• Den toy stash. Young children like to be with the grown-ups. Keep a few toys accessible but out of sight in a chest, basket or ottoman in the den.
• Household notebook. Put together a three-ring binder with envelope pockets. Stash school and sports schedules in the pockets as well as such important papers as birth certificates and inoculation records. In the binder, keep contact information (phone numbers for baby-sitters, school, coaches, etc.) and a calendar to keep track of upcoming events. Then keep the notebook in a handy spot where you and your family can always find it.
• Folders and envelopes. Create a cache for the constant stream of student art and schoolwork. At the end of each semester or quarter, go through the folders with your child and let him or her pick out what to keep “forever” but limit those picks to only two or three. Then transfer the keepers to a large manila envelope. Save that envelope from year to year. When your child nears graduation, use the contents of the envelope to create a school scrapbook with other mementoes.

Three simple storage solutions for kids’ rooms

By Catherine Newman, Disney FamilyFun magazine

Make the most of your child’s room with these easy ideas for organizing her favorite things.

Rotating art gallery

Wooden skirt hangers make pretty and practical “frames” for showing — and storing — your little artist’s portfolio. As it grows, just clip the latest work to the front of the collection. (We bought six hangers for $7 at Bed Bath & Beyond and painted them.)

Storage for stuffies

Here’s a cozy, convenient solution to the problem of stuffed animals piling up: tuck them in an empty beanbag chair. Just dump out the beans (we turned our chair inside out over an empty trash can) and stash your little one’s collection inside. For information on recycling polystyrene beanbag filler, go to earth911.com.

Art supplies on hand

Stow crayons, paper, and other essentials in a new or repurposed cleaning caddy to help your child keep track of her supplies — and easily move them from place to place whenever the creative impulse strikes.

A little organization goes a long way on school mornings

By Nicole Paitsel, (Newport News, Va.) Daily Press

Jonah Davidson got a little practice going to school last year.

The now 5-year-old attended a half-day pre-kindergarten class three times a week. This year, though, he’s heading to school with the big boys. And mom, Joanna, has made sure he’s ready.

The Newport News family organized Jonah’s room so that his school necessities are easily accessible for both use and cleanup. His school uniforms for Summit Christian Academy in Newport News are kept in a special drawer under his bed, and his craft supplies for homework are stacked neatly in a filing cabinet.

With baby sister Jewel taking up most of mom’s time in the morning, Jonah’s new skills have helped him gain independence during his morning routine.

“Before, he would go to clean up his room, and he wouldn’t even know where to start,” Joanna says. “Now, he knows where most things are, and he’s even using the skills I’ve taught him with his room to help me in other parts of the house.”

Joanna organized her son’s room so well, that when organization guru Mary Frances Ballard came over to arrange the family’s other living areas, Ballard didn’t touch Jonah’s room.

Ballard is the owner of the Williamsburg-based company Orderly Places, and she also has written a book about organizing your home. Here’s what she has to say about getting your kids ready for the school year:

Start with categories

Starting an organization project can be overwhelming, especially in a child’s room.

To get started, bring in several baskets and a trash bag. Begin sorting the items that are in the living space of the bedroom. Categorize items by the ones you want to keep, trash, or donate. You also can have a “not sure” category.

Once you get a clear space, start categorizing the items in your closets and drawers. The idea here, Ballard says, is to purge as much as possible.

“If the kids are old enough, have them take part in the process, so they have some ownership over their room,” she says.

Her book, “Orderly Places,” calls for specific limits on everything except love and affection. For example, a child should pick her Top 10 stuffed animals and donate the rest.

If you’re going to store items for future siblings, be sure to mark boxes with the type of items enclosed, appropriate sex, age and season (if you’re storing clothes).

Arrange zones

The easiest way to teach your children organization skills is to set up “zones” within their bedroom. Most bedrooms will have a sleeping zone, a dressing zone, a play zone and a study/project zone. All of the items that correspond to those activities should be housed in the correct zone.

In Jonah’s room, his desk sits next to the filing cabinet that holds all of his supplies. A plastic organizer sits on top of the cabinet with blank paper. His play chalkboard is also in this study zone, along with the supplies for the chalkboard.

For small children, clothing and toys should always be placed within reach. Add a lower rod to the closet, if necessary.

Make it easy

The basic rule for organizing a child’s room is to make items easier to put away than they are to get out, Ballard says.

The best way to do this is to use color coordinated baskets and bins. Books, for example, can be collected in a basket instead of placed on a bookshelf. This way, the child has to dig to find his favorite book, but he can toss the book back into the basket for cleanup.

Toys are the same way. In Jonah’s room, pirates, trains and Legos have their own colorful bins. This way, his mom can specifically ask him to cleanup his pirate toys, and he knows how to do that.

His school uniforms have their own drawer, and they are also organized by color. After some practice, Jonah can pick out which uniform his mother chooses (red shirt, blue pants, for example) on his own.

“It’s so nice now because I can send him to go do things on his own, instead of having to dig everything out myself,” Joanna says.

Lists help keep the moving chaos at bay

By Debra Legg, debralegg.com

Just as Big Guy brings Bear out retirement when he’s feeling out of sorts or overwhelmed, I, too, default to an age-old comforting technique in times of crisis.

I make lists.

In preparation for The Big Move, I have four going, and that might be a record for even me. There’s also a neon green Post-It on the corner of my monitor to remind me of things that will cause the world to end if I forget to do them on a given day. I haven’t listed breathing yet, but check back with me in a week.

I kid myself that it’s because I’ll forget something important if I don’t make lists. I seriously doubt that would happen — the silence in the back seat would tip me off if I left one of the guys behind.

The real reason for list is as simple as the reason Big Guy still cuddles bear on occasion. Just the process of making a list makes me feel like life is a little less chaotic.

It’s not that I completely dismiss their value as an organizing principle. They do work well at times when there’s more going on than I can possibly remember — gee, maybe that’s why I started every day of my newspaper career by making a list.

The technique does not, of course, always work. Sometimes no matter how carefully I make my anal little lists, what sounded good when I put it on paper turns out to not be do-able in the real world. Or when the boss comes in and adds 30 things to the list.

This time, it all has to be done. I might be able to skip making Christmas cookies after convincing the guys that Santa prefers cupcakes, but I can’t afford to forget to turn in the cable box. That’s why we edited heavily as we took pen to paper tonight.

It has to be an old-fashioned paper and pen list too, though the utility companies did trick me into putting one on the computer today. I’m going to call that one “record keeping,” though, and declare that it doesn’t count.

There’s something therapeutic about sprawling across the bed with the guys and slowly writing down items to pack in the car, things to replace when we get there, essentials we need to buy before we leave because they probably won’t be readily available there. Torani sugar-free chocolate syrup is an essential, right?

There’s nothing therapeutic or leisurely for me at all about computers. I’ve spent too many years sitting at them going as fast as I can to be able to slow the pace now.

It’s also the one situation for me where paper is more efficient. I could put the lists on my laptop or Blackberry, but I simply can’t get to electronic versions quickly enough. Flipping through pages always will be faster than clicking through documents.

And that’s why my omnibus collection of lists resides on my desk in a reporter’s notepad — I’m sure that’s a comfort mechanism, too, that hearkens back to routines that were part of my life for years.

It’s odd how words on paper can be so reassuring. My garage might still be a hazmat scene and the car might be loaded down with more Goodwill donations, but as long as I have my lists, though, all is right with the world.

Debra Legg is a writer and mother of two boys, Big Guy and Little Guy. Read more of their adventures in chaos at debralegg.com.