Home Organization Tips - How to Organize Chores and Children

Getting organized enough to get children to do chores well can often seem more time consuming than helpful. Making the decision to do the chores yourself can appear to be the easiest road to follow but including your children in daily household management can help them develop self responsibility, give your child a sense of value in your home, create a team atmosphere and can develop good habits and organizing skills at an early age. Here are five strategies you can use to make children participating in chores a success in your home.

Work on doing one chore at a time well. Don't overload your child with a million things to do every day. Give them one chore a day and in the beginning help them until it is done well. When this chore becomes more of a habit, give them a second chore and let them have the space and time to do this chore well without any reminders. This is the beginning of developing independence, good habits and routines.

Make chores an opportunity to be social. Children love to help out and chat with their parents. In the beginning doing chores together can create a fun atmosphere that makes time fly as well as giving you the opportunity to model how to perform the task well. Little things like cleaning the kitchen while your child unloads the dishwasher and having a nice conversation can go a long way to making helping in the house a good experience.

Acknowledge their contribution. Let Dad know what they did and acknowledge how valuable their help is and how much you appreciate what they do. Praise is always valuable and your child will glow with pride. This supports those feelings of being included, of being important and being of value and creates a team feeling within your family.

Set your boundaries and get play and chores in balance. Removing children from the computer, T.V. or play to help out will always be difficult so timing is everything. When you plan a chore, make sure you are clear and communicate when it needs to be done. Examples are making beds before school; watering plants before play, no T.V. until rooms are picked up. Planning chores in the morning, just after school, before Saturday play or before they leave the house are times that can all work well.

Be consistent. Follow through and consistency are really important and getting yourself organized enough to choose what chores you need done, how you will model the task, what follow through may be needed and how you can support your child is critical and can save you a lot of frustration. Get clear on what chores are daily, weekly or monthly and follow through to make sure they are done.

Try these home organization tips so you can discover how to organize some help in your home and foster the seeds of good organizing habits, independence and team spirit in your children and your family.

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Jane Alais is a professional organizer, the creator of Declutter Befree.com and the author of Get Organized-Get Happy A Step by Step Guide to Clear Clutter and Organize Success. She writes about strategies and solutions to declutter organize and energize your home and your life.

Organizing Small Spaces - How to Organize the Entryway to Be Inviting and Functional

First impressions are important, and your entry way is the first thing to greet you and your guests. It needs to be both inviting and functional by providing a spot to drop your keys, bags, and coats when you arrive home. But if it's not organized, it's easy for this small space to become cluttered and unused, causing frustration as you're trying to get out the door. Follow these tips to create a useful, beautiful entryway.
* DECIDE WHAT SHOULD RESIDE IN THE ENTRYWAY - Ideally, the entryway should be a spot for coats and other outerwear, umbrellas, daily-used backpacks, purses, briefcases, cel-phone, laptop, and totes - anything you need access to as you leave your home.
* EVALUATE YOUR CURRENT STASH OF THESE ITEMS - Pare down your coat and tote bag collections. Toss broken umbrellas, gloves without mates, and boots that don't fit. I often see entry coat closets and mudrooms overrun by tote bags. How many tote bags can you use at any given time. A few is all that you need. It's time for the rest to go! Your goal here is to keep only those things you frequently use.
* REMOVE EVERYTHING ELSE - Don't let your entryway become a catch-all for things you don't know what to do with. (This is not the spot for the turkey roasting pan!) Sort, toss or donate things that you really don't use or need, and assign new spots elsewhere in your home for the must-keeps.
* MAKE GOOD USE OF YOUR SPACE - Most entryways have a closet. Reevaluate its set-up. If it has a single rod across the top, could you raise it a bit and add a second rod below, doubling your hanging space. Could shelves be added above the rod or run across the depth of the closet? This makes use of storage space in the top of the closet that is often wasted. Could you add a tiered shoe rack on the floor? Or an over the door coat rack or shoe holder? I use these often to store gloves, hats and scarves. Maximize every inch of the space! While you're at it, invest in sturdy wooden hangers so your coats hang neatly. I love to use the inside of the door to hang an over the door shoe holder to hold gloves, scarves, and hats.
* USE CONTAINERS TO CONTAIN CLUTTER - This not only makes for a neat look, but it will also help you quickly find what you need. Label baskets or containers on the shelves for out-the-door items, such as umbrellas, mittens, hats, and dog leaches. If, due to space constraints, you must keep other types of items in this closet as well, be sure to categorize and containerize them, labeling as you go. I use 28 quart clear containers and smaller.
* CONSIDER SPACE OUTSIDE THE CLOSET - This is especially necessary if you don't have a closet or if it's very small. For example, a coat rack or set of wall-mounted hooks in the entryway will work wonders if you're short on closet space. Likewise, a pretty urn can hold umbrellas, a bench with storage under the seat can hold outerwear, and a wicker basket on the floor can hold shoes. By simply declaring a "home" and containing these items, you'll instantly take your entryway from messy to marvelous.
* SET UP AN OUT-THE-DOOR LAUNCHING PAD - Dedicate one basket near the door for items that need to leave the house, such as library books, DVDs to be returned, dry cleaning to be dropped off, and things to be delivered to family or friends. A charging station for all the electronics is a great addition to your launching pad. That's where I keep ours, where I charge my cell phone, camera battery and Blue Tooth.

Janet Nusbaum (AKA The Organizing Genie), owner of Simplified Spaces, is an Organizing Consultant, Author of Mom, Can I Help Around the House and Speaker. Janet loves creating order out of chaos and teaching others to do the same. For more helpful clutter-clearing tips, visit Janet's blog: http://www.TheOrganizingGenie.com

Tips to Keep and Display All Your Children's Files

Many parents often feel confused to organize their children's files, especially if their children like to collect things and get some projects from their teacher everyday. Of course, children are sometimes careless, so they often let anything unorganized. That is why the organization task often becomes parents' responsibility.
Having kids gives a great feeling but it sometimes causes you a headache when looking at things spread to all over the parts of the rooms. Besides having toys, they also have other things like papers, photos, school projects, and more. Since you cannot predict when guests will come to your home, it is just not nice letting the guests see your messy home.

To organize large projects, you will need an area where you can permanently display them. Some projects are so big, such as a relief map of an area or a scale model of Vesuvius, making you find no space large enough to store them. In a response to this, you can consider making the photograph of them then scrap-booking a page in an album. Then, add some details about the project, pictures, and also the grade received.

To trick on limited space, using a filing cabinet will be a good idea. It is perfect to set up a filing cabinet for older children as they usually have more responsibility. Add some categories to divide the files, such as ones dedicated to the subjects of the school projects. Then, you can keep a section for notes or materials your kids are going to use for final exams.

For younger children, making your own creation of a Weekly Wall of Fame will be a good idea to keep their artwork and papers. To make it, you can use a bulletin board and put it in areas like room or study areas. In weekend, you can tack up some of the work that they bring home from school. In this case, you can sort the works to what needs to be filed. However, you should ensure that the photographs are displayed safely by laminating them before tacking them up on the bulletin board. Then, make sure that you have properly stored the photographs that are not going to be displayed.

Your children may often receive invitations or birthday cards and it is just so important to keep the cards until the happening day. To store the cards, you can keep them in storage you have prepared before and remember to keep only the important cards. The important cards here could be the ones that that really mean something special to you or your kids. Finally, you can give them something as a reward of their file organization. It makes you kids learn to organize their own files without your help as they will have more responsibility from doing a small thing.

By Roger Elliott

Organizing a Child's Closet and Room

Storage Racks: Adding shelving to your child's closet can create places for all of those little things that you do not necessarily need to hang.

Stacking Bins: Bins are easily accessible by children and color coordinating or labeling each bin makes cleaning up a snap.

Linen Storage: Children often have a lot of extra sheet sets and comforters. Making a space for extra linen storage can keep it from spilling over into a clothing area. You may want to use crates up on shelves to keep them separate. Another option is to put them in large shallow containers underneath the bed.

Laundry Hamper: Make sure that your child has easy access to a laundry hamper. Ones that match their room decorations will encourage them to actually use it. Teach them to put their clothes in as part of their morning and night time routine. Then, when it is full, they can help do the laundry.

Cabinet: Adding cabinets to a child's room can be relatively inexpensive. Cabinets make great spots for keeping games, puzzles, art supplies and books. If you have a young child or a baby, you can keep diaper changing materials, out of reach medicines, humidifiers and thermometers in a cabinet, safely out of sight and reach.

Nets: Nets are great for getting all of those stuffed animals off the floor and out of the toybox. They can really take up a lot of space. Putting them in a net also keeps them out where your child can easily pick which one they want to sleep with at night. Plus, the net makes a fun place to play stuffed animal basketball.

Pocket Organizer: Pocket organizers are great for shoes, but they can also be used for a plethora of other children's needs. Mittens and gloves, socks, small cars or building blocks, art supplies, you name it. As kids get older, it seems like the pieces of their toys get smaller and smaller. See-through pockets make organizing tiny pieces a snap.

Hooks and Clips: Hooks and clips can help keep backpacks, coats and scarves off the floor. Ball caps, book bags and anything that can hang can be placed on a hook. Then, not only is it put away, but it's easily accessible for quick bolts out the door. Wet winter coats are able to dry without getting other clothing wet.

Children's Hangers: Using children's hangers will help you get the longest life out of your child's clothes. Adult hangers can stretch out the shoulders of your kid's clothing. Getting exciting colors of children's hangers that match your child's room can make the closet more a part of their decorations. Using childrens hangers will encourage your child to hang their own clothes.

About the Author: Ron Maier is the owner of Only Kids Hangers, a leading provider of childrens hangers. The right children's clothes hangers really make the difference in kid's retail or home organization.

How to Organize Coupons

You have finally jumped into the exciting world of coupons but now you do not know what to do with all of them. After clipping coupons from Sunday papers and printing coupons from the internet, a big pile of coupons will soon form. Putting all of them in a large envelope for safe keeping is a good way to put them away so they are not scattered everywhere, but you will find that it is too hard to find exactly what you are looking for. You will need a way to organize all your coupons so you can easily find them. You will also want to use something that will allow you to carry your coupons with you to the store. There are lots of different ways to do this but there is not a best way. One method of organizing may work for one person but not for another. Here are a few options to get you started.

1. Use a small expanding file folder that is sized for photos. You can organize your coupons by using broad categories such as baby, dairy, or pet. You can arrange these categories in alphabetical order or in the same order that you would pass each category in your grocery store. Many people find that they outgrow this method very quickly, especially if they get multiple Sunday coupon inserts each week.

2. Use an empty craft or fishing box. You can create your own dividers for categories out of index cards to organize your coupons. Using a box allows you to fit and carry more coupons.

3. Use a large binder with baseball card holders. For this method, you can buy binder dividers to separate your categories. This method is especially useful for people who get multiple inserts. Each coupon can have its own slot and all the multiple coupons can fit too.

Like I said before, each person will find that one method works better for them than others. A large binder is probably the easiest way to organize your coupons. You can put the binder in the seat of the cart and flip through the pages without having to fumble through a stack of coupons. However, this may not always be the best option. For example, people with babies probably will not be able to carry both their baby and a large binder/box into the store. In addition, the baby has to sit in the seat and there would not be room for a binder or box. For these people, a large expanding file folder that can fit into a purse would probably be more beneficial. Each person's situation and coupon experience will determine which method is best. Also remember, these are only a few options. There are many other ways you could organize your coupons, so get creative and find the best method for you.

By Brandi Yates

I am a stay at home mom of three children and I am always looking for ways to save money. Here you can find discount coupons and Coupon Organizers