Organize Your Children & Save Your Sanity

It may be difficult to relate saving money with organization but the two terms really go hand in hand. If you are able to organize right down to the smallest detail, then not only will you save yourself countless panic headaches, but you will have more time on your hands allowing yourself to be more productive and get more accomplished.

Organizing your own personal belongings can be a daunting task in itself, however if you're also trying to take care of all your children's things, it can be an overwhelming, impossible task .

When children are old enough and capable, they have a responsibility to take care of their own belongings. This includes (but not limited to) toys, clothes, bathroom items, sports equipment, and of course school books and supplies. It should not be the parents' responsibility to clean their child's room, or pick up their wet towels off the bathroom floor. How is this teaching children to be responsible for their own belongings?

If we teach our children HOW to be organized, this will lead to a more productive and hopefully a more responsible child in school and at home. However take note, if you expect your children to be well organized, you must also do the same to provide a good example, or "model", for them. As the saying goes "practice what you preach" :-)

For the time being, we will focus on ideas to help organize your children's plethora of gadgets, toys, clothes, games, and whatever else may be piled up on the closet floor or under the bed.

Color Coordinate Everything
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The most important idea to incorporate in your family lifestyle is to color coordinate everything. Regardless of how many children you have, assign each one a specific color ie: green, red, yellow, orange, etc...

The color you assign each of your children will go on every item that belongs to them. You will need to get a permanent marker in each of your kid's colors so you can mark/dot each and every item they own.

Here's a list of the most common items you'll want to start out with. Use this list as a starting point to help harvest ideas that are relevant in your family's lifestyle.

- clothes
- toys
- towels
- bathroom utensils
- closet
- shoes
- games
- puzzles
- sports equipment

With their items, simply put a small colored dot/mark in an inconspicuous area. For example, socks-dot the toe or heel; shirts-dot the collar tag; puzzles-dot the back of each piece; toothbrushes and towels- purchase these in each of your children's assigned color.

Once everything is color coded, you can then quickly scan rooms and bathrooms and see which one of your little angels has left things out of place.

To quickly reinforce this new organization method, simply make the rule that if you find items haphazardly strewn about, you'll deduct 25 or 50 cents from their allowance. If that isn't relative, they can always earn additional work like washing a dish per item that is left out or "doggie clean-up duty". After a few times, your children will start picking up after themselves since they hate to lose money and play time, right?

** Again, these are merely suggestions. Adapt and change these practices as you see fit.

Organizing Their Closet Space and Room
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Let's face it, children are learning by trial and error unless they have someone or something to model after. So naturally, they are going to make their choices and decisions on what they think is best.

If your child(ren) haven't had much success maintaining an organized closet, maybe it would be best to start from scratch. However, before you clear out their closet completely to start reorganizing, first observe what seems to be the problem area. Are their clothes scattered on the ground? Are toys out of place, thrown here and there? What seems to be the messiest?

Each child will have different needs that have to be addressed in order to have a clean, organized closet/room. Just like you wouldn't ask a guitarist to play the guitar with only two strings, you can't expect a child to put his/her things away unless he or she has an actual "place" or container to put the stuff in.

Take the time to teach your children where their "stuff" goes. If they have trouble remembering, label the containers or areas as needed. You may need to buy some rubbermate containers from BigLots (PicNSave). Better yet, you can often find containers for a dollar at the 99cent store or the Dollar Tree (if you haven't been to one of these stores yet, you are missing out on a ton of deals!)

Weekly Review
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once you have organized, color coded, and explained the new procedures/laws that will now be enforced, have a "weekly review" time where you can sit down with your child(ren) for 5-10 minutes. This would be the time when you go over what you liked throughout the week, and areas they may still need to work a little bit on.

Keep in mind that children will need to be reminded about the procedures you expect them to follow, so don't get frustrated if they do not do a perfect job the first week or two. This is a process that may take some time to internalize, but once it's learned, your life, and your children's lives, will be much more fluid and organized.

Gregory Thomas, editor of http://www.SavingSecrets.com - has written hundreds of effective money-saving tips, strategies, and articles over the past 6 years. Visit their website and you'll find FREE money-saving articles, a monthly newsletter, and even a FREE Ebook download just for stopping by!

Obama’s Organizing Years, Guiding Others and Finding Himself
New York Times, United States - 34 minutes ago
He devoted about one-third of the 442 pages in his memoir, “Dreams From My Father,” to chronicling that Chicago organizing period. In recent days, Mr. Obama ...

Anonymous organizing global demonstration against the church of ...
Bay Area Indymedia, CA - 5 hours ago
Anonymous, the group behind the global demonstrations has been organizing monthly protests against the Scientology Church; Anonymous is charging the ...

Washington Post
Beijing overhauls Olympics-related ads, bans non-sponsoring drinks ...
Xinhua, China - 23 hours ago
Chen Feng, a marketing official with the Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games (BOCOG), was quoted by the People's Daily on Sunday as saying ...
Road to Beijing paved with potholes for news media Reuters UK
Olympians face circulation woes in Beijing's bad air-experts Reuters
Terra gets Olympic Internet rights The Associated Press
Xinhuaall 80 news articles

Socialist Party USA to hold Ann Arbor organizing conference
Independent Political Report, MI - 19 hours ago
Michigan’s Ann Arbor Press reports that the Socialist Party USA will hold an organizing conference in Ann Arbor starting Friday. ...

Socialists holding national event in Ann Arbor
The Ann Arbor News - MLive.com, MI - 15 hours ago
Held every other year, an organizing conference differs from the political party's national convention, said Matt Erard, a Socialist candidate for state ...

The Facebooker Who Friended Obama
New York Times, United States - 4 hours ago
“If we did not have online organizing tools, it would be much harder to be where we are now,” Mr. Hughes said. Mr. Obama, now the presumptive Democratic ...
From the Wire AlterNet
Freedom Rider: So Long Suckers Black Agenda Report
all 365 news articles

New York Times
Behind the scenes at swim trials
Indianapolis Star, United States - Jul 4, 2008
A: Basically, I assist with organizing the local organizing committee and volunteers. I work with the committees that are involved with meet operations and ...
Karen Crouse at US Swimming Trials New York Times
all 2 news articles

Group teams with university workers to form organizing committee
The Kingston Whig-Standard, Canada - Jul 5, 2008
James was in Kingston yesterday helping members of a unionization working group to find volunteers and to form an organizing committee. ...

Parson is fine youth league director
Delta Democrat Times (subscription), MS - 17 hours ago
He is spending countless hours organizing his league for regular-season play, organizing tournaments for kids around the Delta, and assisting other league ...
Johnson not appropriate coach Delta Democrat Times (subscription)
all 2 news articles

BBC News
Beijing Olympic Update
GamesBids.com - 8 hours ago
Also the organizing committee has widely publicized that no drinks other than those from the official Olympic soft drink sponsor Coca Cola, would be allowed ...
Host China Restricts Use Of Olympic Logos In Ads; Bans Non ... AHN
A happy hand-over for prizes of lifetime Shanghai Daily
Olympic medals handed over to BOCOG People's Daily Online
Periódico 26 - The Associated Pressall 228 news articles

Wind Chimes and more...

Windchimes for great gifts!

It?s Spring Cleaning Time? Let?s Make Room For Abundance!