Let's Get Organized For October Part I: Organization for Kids

Hello dear friends!  I will tell you what...I don't know if it is changing of the leaves, the weather shifting, or spending more time in my house, but I am ready for a refresh!  I have noticed that come spring time I am so excited and ready to start being outside starting my garden that I kind of skip over the whole spring cleaning thing...whoops!  Then the summer comes and goes (or flies by) and suddenly I am hit with a whole list of things that I want to do before winter comes!  I have recently been trying to be more reflective of how I am feeling and why and I will tell you that practically 90% of the stress I am experiencing centers on one topic: DISORGANIZATION!

Disorganization is EVERYWHERE!  My kids are disorganized, my house is a disaster, our storage areas are cluttered, meal planning is a mess, and boy am I disorganized!

My kids just started school and they are in desperate need of some structure in their lives as well.  When they are organized, life is much easier for me too!  We have experienced many mornings of running around trying to gather everything they need.  I am brushing my daughter's hair while she eats her waffles, we are trying to find the magical purple folder that my other daughter needs to take every day, and my son can't find his airpods that he uses with his school laptop!  I feel like we are in Home Alone when they wake up late and they are trying to get ready to hurry and go to the airport!

One of the biggest issues for my daughter, Gracie, is that she can't remember everything that she needs at the time she is getting ready.  She takes the longest to get ready in the morning simply because she spends a lot of time trying to remember what she needs to do.  When we go on trips I give her a list of what she needs to pack and she is amazing at following that list.  She is very good at following lists, she just needs a little help.  Since she is so great with the lists that I give her, I think the perfect solution is to get her a morning checklist.

Gracie and I sat down and brainstormed what she needs to remember in mornings in the order that is ideal to accomplish those tasks:

• Make bed
• Get dressed
• Brush hair
• Make lunch and/or get snack
• Fill up water bottle
• Get airpods
• Homework's in folder in backpack
• Get a jacket

Using My Memories Suite V9, I created a basic checklist.  I started out by using the frame from the shape tool to create eight "checkboxes".  I then added a text box for each line item and a title up at the top.  Once I got all the basics placed, I had Gracie come over to my computer and we started the fun part of her picking how she wanted it to look.  I asked her for some of her interests and she said unicorns.  She eventually chose the bright and colorful unicorn kit, One of a Kind by Sweet Pea Designs.

Once she knew which kit she wanted the rest was easy!  She selected all the fonts and font colors that she wanted and she picked her favorite color of blue for the checkboxes.  I then scrolled through the kit contents and she picked the elements that stood out to her and we arranged them on the page.  Once we were done we decided to export to a JPG so that we could control the print margins a bit more than the software allows.  This was the final product:

Once it was printed, we trimmed off the white edges and laminated it.  The great thing about laminating it is that now she can use a dry erase marker and reuse it day after day!  She was so happy to try it once it was laminated.

She is looking forward to having a much smoother morning routine by using her personalized checklist!  So with a little bit of mother-daughter-time and My Memories Suite, we were able to help both of our lives be a bit more organized!  I also plan to create a checklist for my 6 year old for getting ready for bed!  There are so many uses!

Join me next week for Part II where I share ways I have tried to make my home just a bit more organized!