Parent Tips: Help everyone get organized

Another way to save time and be more effective is to help your children get organized and keep their things together.  Forget perfectionism. But strive to establish a pattern of keeping everything in its place. Use schoolwork as a helpful starting point. After setting a time and a place for study time, organize all of the needed study materials so they are within reach. This might include a laptop, calculator, dictionary, pencils, pens, and so on. Such items could also be organized in a backpack that could be used at school as well. Secondly, as part of the organizational process, remove all distractions to the extent possible to create a quiet environment. And remember that study time is set in stone for most days.

You are experienced at attempting to keep up with your children’s clothes and hearing the refrain: "I don't have anything to wear." It is enormously helpful to establish the habit of organizing your dress attire 12 hours in advance. Morning routines are greatly shortened when there is not a crisis of decision-making and searching for clothes in advance. This rule also fits well with washing and ironing your clothes in advance. Consider that as part of your time management priorities.

Keeping your space relatively neat is part of the organizational strategy. Simple tactics work best. For example, establish a daily "cleanup and put-up" time in which every family member takes ten minutes to straighten up their space and stuff. This pattern generates less conflict when done as a daily routine instead of a raging conflict once a week. Part of cleaning up includes gathering clothes that need attention, as well as getting rid of trash. Trash is defined as anything that has no further use, as in an empty bottle of water.

You may be interested in a current best selling book that is focused on the positive changes that accompany "tidying up" your life. The author is a well-known consultant who focuses on the steps to simplify and organize your life. She provides various tactics and ideas to help achieve this.

You probably have battle scars from attempting to get your children to get rid of some of their possessions to help with neatness. That's a touchy, tough area for which psychological expertise has yet to master a solution. Later in life, individuals will embrace settings such as the military and jobs that dictate functioning with limited resources and your children will no doubt embrace the learning tools necessary at that time.

For further ideas, blogs, and tactics, check the information available at our website: hightouchlearning.com.