6 Organizing Tips to Start the School Year Off Right

Back to school time can feel chaotic, but it doesn’t have to be chaotic. How do you make the shift? Create Calm Before the Chaos 1. Set an intention. What do you want the start of the school year to look like? To feel like? For your kids and for you Identify the obstacles to that […]

How to Organize Your Family’s Summer with a Summer Fun Board

Summer Fun board with lists of people to see, places to go, and things to do

Summer offers many organizational challenges: inconsistent schedules, summer trips, sunset at 9 p.m., camps, playdates, and more. It also gives us a chance to spend more time with the kids, which we hope can be fun instead of a struggle. When you organize your summer, summer fun is more likely. It’s summer solstice, a few […]

What Are You Supposed to Do with School Papers?

School papers come home in bags and piles the last couple of weeks of school. Artwork, worksheets, stories, journals, and more more more. What are you supposed to do with it all? Stuff it in the back of your kids’ closet? Keep everything? Throw it all away? Options for What to Do with School Papers […]

Get Ready for the Holidays with One In, One Out

One in, one out is one of my favorite organizing principles. What does one in, one out mean?  For every one thing you bring into your house, you should move one out. It’s a great way of maintaining your space once you’ve decluttered. It’s also a great strategy for getting your home to the stage […]

Make Back to School Less Brutal with Checklists for Kids

It’s back to school time and the transition can be brutal. Remembering what to take out of the house, getting stuff done once you’re home, and getting to bed on time can feel harder at this time of year than any other. Make your family’s life easier by creating checklists. Checklists for What? Introducing checklists […]

Organize Picture Books for Kids

Wrangling books is hard for kids. Why? The books are heavy. They tip. Bookcases have long rows of things that little hands have a hard time balancing. All this to say, typical bookcases can be hard for kids. Besides the coordination involved, beginning readers have difficulty picking out titles in a long line of books. […]

7 Tips to Teach Kids to Clean Up

Why don’t kids want to clean up? For so many reasons, many of which are really good ones. Understanding their objections makes it easier to teach kids to clean up. Why Kids Don’t Like to Clean Cleaning up makes things harder to find. When toys are on the floor, kids can find and play with them. […]

20+ Ideas for What to Do with Kids’ Art

Pics of puzzle bookmark collage and jewelry made from kids art

What can you do with children’s artwork? Most of my organizing clients just aren’t sure what to do with their kids’ creations. Neither are most parents. There’s so much of it.  Some of it is beautiful. Other pieces are markers in time: a handprint, the first collage of shapes your child made after mastering scissors, the […]