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Organizing And Cleaning For Back To School

8/14/2017

Organizing and Cleaning for Back to School

It’s that time of the year again. It’s time to put away the swimsuits and pool passes and to start buying school supplies and back to school outfits. Not only is it important to have everything your kids need for that first day back at school, but you will want to make sure your home is ready for backpacks and school supplies to take over. Here are some ideas for organizing and cleaning for back to school.

When the school year starts, your kids’ lives will be overtaken by classes, afternoon activities, homework and many other things that come with the new year. In order to keep all of these activities straight, you may want to create some sort of to-do list to keep all of the family’s activities in line, as well as making sure chores and cleaning still gets done in the chaos. A great way to keep track of everything is to have a calendar in a popular place in your home. (For example, the kitchen.) Make it a rule that you and your kids cannot leave the house without checking the agenda for the day. If getting their chores done seems to be a feat, have a chore wheel or task chart that alternates who does what. This will help to switch up the monotony of cleaning. This will also help motivate the kids to check what their chores are more frequently.
A helpful hack for keeping homework stations clean is to use a shoe organizer. If there is one room in your house that the kids most often do their homework in, designate a door and hang a shoe organizer over it. This organizer can be used to hold pencils, pens, glue, rulers and any another school supplies that your kids may need to get their work done. If you find that they work all over the house, create a homework station bin. Fill the bin with all of those same homework necessities and make sure to set the standard that when they are done, your kids will put the items all back where they found them. This will help stray pencils or paper from being left behind, and also creates a place where they know they can find everything they need to get their work done, rather than wasting precious play time searching.
Going back to school also means going back to making school lunches. Planning meals for a week or a month can seem like a lot of work, and sometimes it seems easier to just pull something together the night before or the morning of. You actually may find that taking the time to plan out your kids’ meals for the week will save you both time and money, and will even keep your house significantly cleaner. There are many ways to plan lunches and snacks ahead but here are a few helpful tips.
If you have a pantry, you can organize it by placing bins inside and labeling them for common lunch essentials. For instance, one bin may be designated for chips while another may have juice boxes. This allows easy access to anything your kids regularly need, and keeps the pantry organized as well. You can also use a chart or checklist that will log what the lunches will be for the week to make sure you are not serving the same thing every day, and to also remind you if you need anything new from the grocery store. With such crazy schedules for the modern family, having techniques like these that you use to prepare lunch will help you feel less frazzled and will help keep your house tidy.

The beginning of a new school year is an exciting time for your kids, and for you as well. The last thing you want to do is be stressed over messes in your home. These tips are just a few ways to help keep things calm when you are busy, and will allow you to come home to a clean house at the end of the day. Welcome back to school!

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Seven Organizational Cleaning Hacks

8/2/2017

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Seven Organizational Cleaning Hacks

We all know that the key to a clean and tidy home is regular cleaning, but life gets busy, and many of us find ourselves in time crunches where we need tips and tricks to clean up quickly. These easy organizational hacks will help decrease the amount of time it takes you to tidy up, and you will easily be able to maintain a state of tidiness in your home.

Use Drawer Dividers

Drawer dividers can be used for any room in the house that needs extra organizational help. Whether you use them in the kitchen, bedroom, or even in the bathroom, drawer dividers help to keep items separate so they are much easier to find when you need them. No more jumbled drawers or time lost digging for missing items. Many stores have options for dividing your drawers, but if you are looking to save some money, you can use cardboard to create your own dividers.

Chalkboard Paint Is Fun and Effective

If you want an easy way to label things now while allowing yourself to re-label later, chalkboard paint is an easy and fun way to stay organized. It can be used for many rooms in your home, but the most common use is in the kitchen. If you have a pantry or a wall in the kitchen that is free, you can use chalkboard spray or paint to make a chalkboard wall for your use. If you decide on your pantry, the backside of the door is a great place for your chalkboard wall, as it is easy to access and can be hidden as well if needed. One great way to use the chalkboard wall is to make your weekly grocery list. This allows you to have one location where all of your grocery needs can be found, and you are able to easily erase them when you are ready to make a new list. Using a grocery list helps to minimize random shopping and also makes sure you are getting everything that you need at the store.

Label Your Things

If you do not want to use chalkboard paint in your home, you can use stickers or paper to label. The important thing is just that you are indeed making sure that items are labeled around your home. You can buy large or small labels to put on clear containers in your pantry, laundry room, bathroom, or anywhere else you want to be more organized. Not only will this look neater, but it can save you space.

Command Hooks Can Be Used to Hang Small Items

While command hooks are most commonly known to hang pictures, they can also be used to help you stay organized. For example, you can place them inside cabinet doors in your kitchen to hang potholders, trash bags or even to hang pots and their lids. If you use them in your bedroom or bathroom, you can hang jewelry or headbands on them to prevent tangles and save space in your drawers.

Lazy Susans Are a Necessity

Another great kitchen organizational hack is to use a Lazy Susan in your cabinets. If you do not know, a Lazy Susan is a turntable that is found in many kitchens or dining rooms. Their easy rotation is their most useful feature. Cabinets are commonly too tall, too deep or just not easy to access. This causes us to lose great cabinet space, or to overcrowd the fronts of our easy to reach pantries. When you put a Lazy Susan inside your cabinets, you are able to maximize the space by filling them up, while still being able to rotate and access everything you need in the back.

Shoe Organizers Are Not Just Great for Shoes

While using a shoe organizer for its intended purpose will already help you stay organized and keep your house clean, you can also use them for more than just that. You can place one over your pantry door and keep snacks and spices in them for easy reach. Likewise, you can put one in your bathroom to hold hair products, shampoo, conditioner and any other bathroom essentials you may have. The possibilities are endless. Look around the different rooms in your home and brainstorm where extra organization would be most helpful for you.

Magazine Racks Can Be Used for Anything

Last, but certainly not least, are magazine racks. Although they are wildly underused, magazine racks can be very helpful for many things other than simply holding your magazines. One use is found in the kitchen. If you turn them on their side, you can use magazine racks to hold soup cans, vegetables or kitchen utensils. Place one in your laundry room to hold all of your cleaning supplies. You can even use them in the foyer to hold your flip flops or other shoes all in one place.

The key to organization is to be innovative. There are all sorts of creative ways to stay organized and keep your home clean. If you try some of these hacks listed above, they may just inspire you to come up with some other hacks on your own. By staying organized, you are one step closer to a consistently clean home.

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