A few organizational things . . .

   

School has been in full swing for months and I feel like I am just now getting organized!!  Ahhh.  Anyways, I think I finally found a great system that works well for having two kids in school this year.  I saw these school organizer frames on Pinterest awhile ago and just loved the idea.  My wonderful sister Kristi designed her own version of these 16x20 charts that I LOVE!! I printed it out at Costco, framed it and hung it on the wall outside of each of the kids’ rooms.  Then I found some hooks I liked from Home Depot and put those below the frame for their backpacks to go.  PERFECT!!!  I love not having their backpacks piled up somewhere on the floor or in a closet and the kids really like hanging up their backpacks on the hooks.  It was a win win. :)    Other things I love about this system: the weekly calendar you can write on with a dry erase marker.  I love having a weekly calendar for each kid to look at.  They have so many different activities on different days that it is perfect for keeping track of everything.  It is nice for the kids too because they can see exactly what they have going on each day and at what time.  It helps with personal responsibility a lot and then they aren’t constantly asking me what time their practices are etc. The other thing I love about this system is their daily responsibilities are listed on the bottom.  It covers EVERYTHING!!  They mark these off each day with a dry erase marker and redo each week.  For every mark they complete they earn a certain amount of money each week.  Our kids are young so they earn $5.00 a week if everything is completed.  If they miss a portion of their morning or afternoon routine, or forget to clean their room one day etc.  They will be deducted .10 for each missed item(they keep track on their own).  We have chore charts that have worked well but what I love about this is one is each responsibility is entitled, “family contribution or kitchen and meal contribution” instead of “chores” each week it is their contribution to the family not just a chore that needs to be done.  I LOVE that!! 

Another feature I really like is the “Mommy Chore and Daddy Chore” on Saturday.  Each Saturday we get to pick a special chore for each child to complete along with deep cleaning of their room.  This is genius. 

  Ashby’s hook is a little more fancy than Dalton’s.  That’s what you get when you’re the princess of the family! :)    

I thought it was a brilliant idea to attach a clip to the board as well.  This way you can clip on important school papers, notes, art work, homework, reminders, etc.  And it holds the pen in place.  Double bonus. :)  It could also be used to hang up what they are supposed to do or accomplish that day for example: a list of things to complete for their morning routine.  Here is Dalton’s.  He was very excited about it.

Another little thing we did was dedicate an area upstairs for hanging up the kids’ artwork.  They produce a lot of it around here and always want to hang up their creations.  I have a small area downstairs that only holds a few papers, so this was perfect for displaying ALL of their wonderful artwork!!!  This is the Diginet rod from IKEA.  LOVE it. I also made an old picture frame I had into a chalkboard for the wall too.  I just used chalkboard and magnetic paint to transform the picture frame.  I love having the chalkboard there to write little notes on or whatever.  I really like to put scriptures, quotes or articles of faith on their too.  The kids see it everyday and it is a good way to give them something positive to think about during the day! 

This week it is serving as our Disneyland counter.  Yes, we are leaving for Disneyland in 10 days!!!!  We are SO excited. :)

These are our stair bins.  They are a lifesaver!!  Each kid has their own container.  The bucket gets filled with anything that is downstairs (and is theirs) and needs to be brought upstairs. It has helped a lot with the messiness that seems to go on downstairs and it is easier for the kids to carry up their things.  They are small bins on purpose because I am trying to train them NOT to bring an excess amount of things downstairs in the first place.  Ha ha.  Well I try anyways, it doesn’t always work because they are rarely empty like this picture just overflowing with stuff. :)    Another really simple idea that controls the clutter in our house especially with two kids in school is a filing system for the downstairs counter.  I like it because it doesn’t take up very much counter space but there is a lot of room in it for papers, reminders, folders, etc.  I cannot believe the amount of papers that come home from school on a daily basis!  I also cannot stand clutter all over the counters so this definitely helps.  Each child has a slot that is there own where I put their homework folders and papers from school. The third spot is a place where I put things from the school that apply to both the children, or soccer game schedules, snack schedules, school calendars, etc.  It works great because I can still see what is in them so I don’t forget to send things back to school or it is great to keep schedules in for a quick reference and I love that their homework folders have a permanent place so they won’t get lost.