Kids and Chores, Part 1

Have you ever noticed that a big stumbling block to your home organization is those little darling children of yours? They leave messes in their wake wherever they go, and they do it right from birth. But they can also be little organization helpers. Taught to participate, they can actually ENJOY (at certain ages) helping to clean and organize their space. And, once taught, most children feel more comfortable in an orderly environment than in a chaotic one.

While YOU are not your children's maid, and they are not your servants, keeping a house of order is a joint venture. Little ones love to help and have quite a capacity for doing many chores. The next few posts we'll talk about what they can do.

Even toddlers are capable of doing some jobs and between the ages of 2 and 4, kids are eager to help. Include them in the daily chores before playtime. My daughter, Gen, does a cute thing with her kids: she wrote simple jobs on craft sticks and put them in a jar. Each day her little boys pick two "stick jobs" to complete. Here are some jobs that 2-4 year olds can complete:

1. Feed pets
2. Wipe up spots or messes
3. Clean fingerprints off doors, light switches, appliances
4. Wipe baseboards
5. Dust
6. Water plants and garden
7. Put dirty clothes in hamper
8. Take hamper to laundry room
9. Put away folded clothes
10. Help make the bed (especially bunk beds!)
11. Take dirty dishes from the table to the counter
12. Pick up toys and books

Pantry Makeover

Cami's pantry was WAY overdue for an organizational makeover. She was frustrated with the lack of order and wanted better use of her space. Extra deep shelves made it easy for things to get pushed back and lost.

The floor of the pantry had become a catch-all for everything and anything. Cami really wanted to put her large containers of flour and sugar there, but there was no room! Without a place for things to go, food was often tossed on shelves in the original grocery bags, making it impossible to find and use them later.

In an effort to create some order, Cami had bought plastic "can organizers" which were supposed to allow the cans to stack and roll easily. Unfortunately, that only happened for cans of the correct size (soup cans) and bigger things (enchilada sauce) just got stuck in the wrong place and messed everything up. In addition, these "organizers" were shallow and so other things got put in front of them and they were essentially unusable.

We began by emptying the entire pantry and lining up food according to their type -- all the crackers together, all the baking mixes and goods together, etc. Cami was surprised to find out how much food she really had! Six boxes of graham crackers, 4 cans of cocoa mix in addition to boxes and boxes of cocoa packets, dozens of packages of pudding and snack crackers, etc. What Cami realized is that her disorganization was costing her a lot of money spent to buy things she already had. Sadly, some food was so old that it had to be thrown away. More money lost. The good news was that she wouldn't have to buy cake mixes for a long time!
We began by creating a Snack Box for Cami's children. Now Cami can control what things they have by what she put in their box and the kids love it because they can access it themselves. Cami even made one for her husband with the granola bars he likes and things he adds to his lunches each day.

While it's fun to use brand new plastic containers for organizing, notice that with Cami's pantry, we used lots of free paper boxes and empty plastic containers from food. Use what you have. We combined as many duplicates of food as we could, eliminating half full boxes of crackers. And, instead of several boxes of fruit snacks and drink packets (see upper right shelf), we put them all into one larger container and threw away lots of unnecessary boxes, condensing space.

We stacked older food to the front and the newer products of the same kind toward the back. We used containers for most things so packets and small bags didn't get lost behind. Notice on the bottom left, we stacked her taller canisters in back, shorter in front and labeled them clearly and brightly so she could easily find what she needed.


Does it look great?! Cami said that every time she looks in the pantry she is surprised! It's just fun to open the door and look at the beauty of an organized pantry.

The Family Binder

I have an old book ("PLANNED, PREPARED AND COMPLETED SINCE THE WORLD WAR") called The Lincoln Library of Essential Information. Something of a precursor to an encyclopedia, this book contains what was considered the essential information of the time all in one volume.

I think of a Family Binder as much the same thing. It is one place where all the family's essential information can be found, quick and easy.

A family binder might include:

Appliance information (model numbers so you can replace parts and the size of the vac bags);

auto maintenance log so you know when you last changed the oil, rotated the tires and when it's time to do it again;

Babysitter sheets allowing you to leave quick and complete instructions about food, bedtimes and emergency phone numbers;

Birth Certificates, Passports, Car Titles, Deeds -- or if you're worried about putting them in the binder, put a copy of them and a note in the binder, indicating where they are actually located

Computer logins and passwords

Emergency Information -- names and numbers for those most important people

Food Storage Inventory

Gardening Logs -- what did you plant, and where, and did it grow? What annuals do you like to use most, when do you like to plant your tomatoes and what variety works best in your soil?

Grocery Lists -- pre-printed forms help you never forget something and make going through the store quick.

Important Dates so you don't forget anniversaries or birthdays

Travel Packing Checklists and Itinerary forms to make trip planning a breeze

This is just a start to the many things a family binder can contain. They have valuable information and even more mundane (how to start the lawn mower and what size are your tablecloths). The binder should be kept in an accessible, yet safe place and will quickly become well-used!

(I have created forms for many of these and other sheets. They are available, including a personalized cover sheet, for $5 by emailing me at livelifeorganized23@gmail.com. Please include the name you want on your cover sheet.)

Desktop Filing System

A desktop filing system is a great way to keep control of those papers you frequently use. Your file should be small, but big enough to hold standard file folders. Go through it often to make sure papers don't build up there. Your desktop file may contain:

Bills: If you pay your bills at this desk, or if you pay them somewhere else, this is a good place to keep them until bill-paying time

Invitations: Add the dates and times to your calendar, then file the invitation (sans the pictures, envelopes and other superfluous stuff) so you have maps or other necessary information. When the event is over, toss the invitation.

Individuals: Each family member should have a file. In his or her folder, keep sports schedule, music lesson information, current school information, current medical records, etc.

Household: Things you use often such as grocery lists, cleaning lists, job charts, etc.

Coupons: Grocery store, restaurant discounts and other deals

Receipts: If you save your receipts, you can file them here until you enter them in your computer program or ledger books.

Take-Out Menus: Easy to pick up at your favorite places, easy to find when you need them, along with the phone numbers

You may also want to include things like a notebook, clipboard, post-its, pens and scissors, envelopes and stamps, depending on what your desk contains. If your desktop is too small to hold these kinds of files, you may want assemble these files on a wall-mounted system.

Cookbook Collections

I have a friend who collects aprons. I have a friend who collects African artifacts. I have a friend who collects spoons. One thing they all collect is recipes. Me, too. I'll bet you do, as well. Most of us are always looking for a new, fabulous recipe and we love those tried and true. While we may have lots of cookbooks, most of us use the same ones over and over. And most of us have some type of file or personal recipe collection. And sometimes, they just simply aren't functional for us.

I'd like to make a few suggestions for keeping your personal cookbooks in tidy order, easy to use and sturdy enough to stand up to vigorous use:

1. Use standard 8 1/2 x 11" paper. Recipe cards/boxes may be cute, but what do you do with a new recipe from a magazine? Put it in a pile until you get time to transcribe it to the card? No! They are easier to type, store on your computer, reprint when needed.
   
2. Plastic sleeves are great. They protect your recipes and they allow for you to quickly slip in a recipe you want to try.
   
3. Got lots of recipes? Use several small binders instead of one giant one. They are more convenient to handle and nice when making several recipes (such as during Thanksgiving time, etc) to have two books open at once. I like no larger than 1" binders, divided by categories such as "Main Dishes" and "Bread & Breakfasts."
4. If you have cookbooks that you keep because you use a FEW recipes out of them (and don't want to keep them based on their literary or collective value), take your favorite recipes out of the book and put in your personal recipe file, then get rid of the cookbook.
   
5. If you love to collect and try new recipes, designate a binder full of empty plastic sleeves. Add new recipes to try there, just slipping them into the sleeves. Make a goal to try one every week or so. If they pass your taste tests, then put them in your regular binder. If not, throw them away. If you don't have enough room for all the recipes you want to try, eliminate some you've lost interest in trying before adding any new ones.