Get Organized Pittsburgh

Add a little clean up time before meals instead of before bed. It’s almost time for dinner, your children are smelling your meal and it’s the perfect time to get them to think about cleaning up before they eat. I’ve found that waiting to clean up at bedtime usually means they want to take their time because they don’t want to go to bed. But EVERYONE wants to eat right? And they usually want that right now (at least I know my kids do)!

Give it time, 15 minutes before dinner is served, direct a quick clean up of a certain area, toys, entry, laundry. Suggestions like “Let’s just take care of this and when you’re finished dinner will be ready.” Remember to let them do it. As soon as they finish, it’s time to set the table and sit down. Everyone is ready to eat and you’ve got a mostly tidy home. Can’t beat that!

We love this product the Lay-n-Go product for easy LEGO clean up. For more toy storage ideas check out our collection of Play Area ideas on Pinterest and be sure to give us a follow there too!

Everyone loves the idea of a household list or planner, but what is it? Basically, it’s an easily accessible collection of information about what’s going on in your house and family. You can separate and arrange this information into different categories. Here are some good ideas of what kind of categories you can organize in your own household binder:

• Planner – Here you can insert yearly, monthly, or weekly calendars and/or lists. In here you can map out any upcoming appointments, assignments, projects, vacations, etc. that are upcoming in your life and your family’s life.
• Home – You can begin this section with a table of contents. Following the T.O.C., you can have various sub sections, such as seasonal projects (spring cleaning, anyone?), cleaning, shopping, chore, and home improvement lists.
• Family – You can store each family member’s individual information, such as any medical or allergy information. You can also keep instructions for or the schedule of your babysitters.
• Contact Info – In addition to keeping the contacts of family members and friends, you can also keep the contact information of vendors, restaurants, and even service providers – like your favorite plumber.
• Meal Binder – Collect your favorite recipes.
• Holiday Binder – Keep track your favorite crafts, ideas, traditions, recipes, wish lists, etc.

Putting together a household binder is not only simple to do, it is also a very fun and rewarding way to stay organized.

Check out some list templates to help you start:
http://www.mckeeorganizingservices.com/resources/resources_free.html

If you are a real list lover – go to : www.listplanit.com

I must admit, I was the mess on graduation day.  I was really busy with work and had set aside the day to catch up on calls and emails and several projects that I really needed to do.  Typically when everyone else is busy and I can get busy, but on that day everyone was off and available and I was trying to work.  On another day that might have been fine, but it happened to be my son’s graduation day and I am looking at an empty nest in late August. I tried to plow through and I was stressing out because my heart was not in it.  I wasn’t able to concentrate and I kept getting less and less efficient.

It didn’t take long for my husband to notice I was upset and he had the wisdom to step in and give me permission to step away from the office and take the day off.  It sounds simple!  I make a living helping people find efficiency while aligning with their goals, values and needs but I didn’t see it.

Once I made that shift in perspective the whole weight was lifted and I moved through the rest of the day like a champ.  I had fun with my family goofing around with no agenda and enjoyed a memorable evening with family and friends.  Interestingly, when I returned to work I was refreshed and ready to go.

Lessons Learned:

1.   It is a privilege to work for myself and have flexibility and I need to step up and pay attention to that freedom and do what is important.

2.   Marry a smart man how can see what you need when you can’t!

Well, it wasn’t the biggest headline in Pittsburgh, post superbowl…but it was fun to make an appearance as the first Certified Family Manager Coach in PA. Check out the video at www.kdka.com

Cleaning up before bedtime is the WORST time to ask kids to cooperate and clean up their toys/rooms. There is no motivation not to stretch this chore out for hours so that they can stay up later. This is when kids are tired and cranky too! Have your children clean up before a meal time. There is a built in reward to get busy and get the job done. It also lets the kids be busy while you are putting the finishing touches on a meal. Keep it positive and make sure they have enough time to succeed.

Sibling Rivalry is a big problem in families that needs to be addressed very early in the process. There are three strategies I found to be very powerful.

1. When one child is mean to another, don’t lavish all your attention on the child that hurt their sibling by yelling at that child. Go directly to the child that is hurt and give them the major share of you attention. Make sure that there is no “reward” for that behavior. It is amazing to watch how that child seem a little deflated because they did not get what they may have ultimately wanted, your undivided attention.
2. A fun exercise to get siblings to show their respect is to simply have them plan an imaginary extravagant birthday party for each other. Help them be outrageously generous to their sibling. What would the cake be made of? How enormous would it be? What movie stars would attend? How many presents would be there? What would be the best one? What would it be wrapped in? Where would it happen? It is a fun way to flatter and respect a sibling.
3. Decide on a family goal and set up a reward that they all the siblings want to achieve. Make it something they can really do and set them up to cheer each other on and celebrate each other’s successes so they all work towards the same goal! It is a delight to see them help each other!

Sometimes being right does not add up to great results. Sometimes we get stuck doing things a certain way because at some point it seemed like the “right” way. As life changes our systems need to as well. Sometimes we get stuck in our old habits and don’t recognize that they are too complicated for our current life demands. If clipping news articles and sending them to friends seemed like a good idea years ago and now you are overwhelmed with papers and clipping it may be time to look at a new way to achieve that goal of sending info to other people. If someone has been fighting with you to make you try a new system-often that makes you hold onto the old system tighter. Especially if you at some point felt it was the “right” thing to do! When we start fighting for our “right stems” we become entrenched in that thinking and really “dig in”. Even when we see that the system is overloaded and not working well, it has now become a matter of principle above all else. Any rational alternative suggestion (like using the Internet) is shot down while you drown in being “right”.

If you notice that happening in your life. Be brave and take a baby step towards making changes. Those changes don’t mean that you are wrong, they simply mean that you have decided to try a new way. It is scary sometimes so surround yourself with people that are going to support your journey and not make you hold onto that old way of thinking.

In these economic times, REDUCING should be easy! It is the first step towards making lasting change. When I speak to clients who reference this step as one of their goals, on know that they are going to make great progress. There are many ways to-REDUCE.

First you need to work on your mind set. It is very easy to stop bringing more into your life if you already feel like you have ENOUGH. You need to try to visualize your life as a “cup that is full”. Some of our “cups” are actually spilling over, or bursting and it is time to recognize the burden that places on our lives, spaces and time. So when you are in the store and see that beuatiful vase that is on sale, STOP and think about the abundance in your life. Realize that you can enjoy that vase’s beauty and even it’s bargain price with out owning it. Think of all the vases you have at home and the stories and memories they hold. Are you willing to get rid of one or maybe two of those vases to bring this one into your life.

Reduce by not bringing more into your life, and then take a close look at what you already have. Keep only what is useful and makes you happy. This makes everyday easier to maintain and navigate. Simple systems work because they are not overloaded. Drawers have a single purpose and are duplicated throughout the house. Closets function for the rooms that they were designed to serve. It is amazing how your home will start to become easy to manage because the tools in place to storage now work!

There hasn’t been a better time to really revisit these principle. You will help yourself, your pocketbook and our earth.

Rules and boundries can actually be comforting for children. They are looking to parents for love, care, support and limits. They need guidelines you living and these are not innate. The trick is you have them be part of the process so that they “own it”. I often encounter families without rules and there are several negative outcomes. A lack of protection is one that you don’t often think of. Rule protect siblings from eachother. It helps insure that one child doesn’t simply over run the others by helping themselves to whatever the household resources are. The second negative effect is that there is not a sense of community with out some rules. Kids need to feel like they are part of a group that works together toward common goals.

Imagine you were sitting on a stool in a completely dark room. In utter blinding darkness. When you were told to find your way out you were to just get up and search around for the way out of the room. Wouldn’t you find comfort in touching a wall that you could follow? You would probably have a much easier time in a small managable space instead of a vast expanse to wander through.

Ease your child’s journey with guidelines to show them the way in life.