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back to school organizing tips

Jul 15
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Why the Kitchen is the Heart of the Home

By Blog, Home Organizing, Quick Organizing Tips, Simple Living No Comments

What’s one thing we can all agree on about our homes?

 

It’s that no matter where you live, whichever the size of your house, how many heads are under the roof… The kitchen is the heart of the home 💝

It’s the place where we gather for all things important; breakfast, after-school lunchbox drop off, baking, and hosting social events.

And by optimizing this space in our own unique ways, we can craft a specific aesthetic through a mix of organization and color.

Setting a schedule for decluttering and cleaning will also help your kitchen to become more efficient. It will do so because you will not have to clean irregularly or at a moment’s notice for guests, and there is less of a buildup of “stuff”. 

Download your free Kitchen Cleaning Checklist here.

But beyond just the look of a kitchen and pantry, what often stands out most is the feeling we get when we step in 😌 This is something we can curate, too.

Personalize. Add color. Textures. Are you looking for warmth and liveliness? Or cool tones and calm relaxation?

All styles are welcome here, and I invite you into my guide for optimizing your kitchen space.

Our Influence from Kitchens

Let’s talk about efficiency.

If the kitchen is not efficient, we will not be efficient in the kitchen either. It’s important to understand the flow of how a kitchen works, and then to dive into the fun decorating part!

You will soon be able to minimize cooking time and maximize family time with these optimizing tips.

🥣 Cooking

Near your stove and serving stations, the closest drawers can be used for cooking and serving utensils. These can be sectioned with either acrylic or wooden drawer dividers.

This way, you’re not running to the other side of the kitchen for a wooden spoon as your pasta boils over!

You can also keep your plates and meal dishes in a closeby cupboard or drawer for easy serving. Use plate dividers if you’re going to store them in a drawer to avoid chipping.

🥂 Beverages

A convenient location for drinking cups is your cupboard next to the fridge.

If your beverage zone (coffee, tea, drink mixes) is also in this area, at-home and to-go mugs can live here as well. Try a few ideas of arranging them in a decorative way!

💦 Kitchen Sink

Have you heard the saying “everything but the kitchen sink”?

People often forget that under the kitchen sink can be a very useful storage spot, if fitted correctly. Utilize a cleaning caddy and small shelving unit to maximize the space.

Here you can store your kitchen cleaning products, extra sponges, garbage bags, and a compost bin.

💐 Decor

Undoubtedly the best part of styling any home, decorations!

You will want to limit the number of decor pieces on counters. Be cautious to not clutter surfaces, make sure you refresh often (seasons, holidays, change of taste), and dust frequently.

A fun way to make your kitchen more of a social hub, is to incorporate interactive decor pieces. This allows guests to interact with the room itself, therefore feeling more at ease and engaged.

Share more of YOU in your kitchen

Become the home where everyone who stops by wants to be invited in. The comfortable one where kids will not feel distracted or embarrassed by clutter.

One where you wake up and smile, already looking forward to brewing your morning tea 🍵

What features are you most proud of in your kitchen? Share with us below!

 

 

 

Like this article?

You’ll love this one👉 Clutter + What You Eat

Apr 08
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Ways to Help Your Teenager Get Organized

By Blog, Home Organizing, Time Management No Comments

The teenage years can be challenging – no doubt about that.  How to help your teenager get organized for school, college or university requires asking questions and considering what works for them, what doesn’t work, when their high energy cycles are and understanding how they work best.  For some teens dealing with all the change that are being thrown at them can be difficult, and if they don’t have the skills needed to keep things organized, they can get overwhelmed pretty quickly.  If you’re a parent and looking to help your older child navigate the chaotic world, here are a few things that you can do.

It is important to remember that the teenage years is a time of discovery, self-growth and realization.  In other words, your teen will push you away and will most likely refuse any help that you offer.  It’s the nature of the beast.  Just like you did, they are trying to figure out who they are, and what their place is in the world.

Be An Example for Getting Organized

Instead of telling them how to organize their busy schedule, as a parent you need to set an example and some basic boundaries.  Make sure they know what is expected of them, and the consequences of their actions.  Then take a step back and allow them to get things done in their own way.  One example is to give your child a list of chores that need to be done by a certain day each week.  Let him or her know that if the chores are not done in a timely manner, than something they enjoy will become temporarily unavailable – such as a particular video game, or access to the internet.  Then take the difficult step of stepping back and allowing them to organize their time and efforts as they see fit.  Could it end disastrously?  Yes.  Could things go undone?  Of course they could.  The important thing is to allow your teen to face the consequences of their action or lack thereof.

Create a Schedule

Of course, your teen is still watching you and seeing what you do even while they are pushing you away.  Therefore it’s important to set a good example.  Make a schedule, make it known, and keep to your deadlines.  If you miss one – make sure there are consequences to your actions, one that your teenager can see and understand.  For example, if one of your projects was to cut the grass by Friday and Sunday rolls around and the grass is still waist high, tell your teen to take your golf clubs.  There will be no golfing for you until the grass it cut.

Every so often, your teen may ask for help, or accept an offer for help.  Once you’ve gotten over your fainting spell, make sure you approach the situation practically and without blame.  Again, give suggestions – things such as having a specific place on their desk for homework, or scheduling an hour each day for piano practice.  The important thing here is to allow them to create their own techniques, to let them find what works best for them.

Aug 11
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organizing back to school, pencils, getting kids ready for back to school,

Back to School Organizing Tips

By Blog, Free Articles, Home Office Organization, Home Organizing, Organizing Paper Files No Comments

No matter how chaotic it gets at home, having a system for keeping track of kids’ things is essential. There’s sports schedules and phone lists, papers to sign, health records, music books, report cards, and precious keepsakes that tend to pile up around the house.

Then there’s the sports equipment, jackets, shoes, backpacks, lunch containers, homework, projects, and electronics that your children drop at the door when they come home from school each day. Times this by three to five kids and you’ve got a giant heap sitting on the floor on a daily bases.

The key to keeping your sanity and peace of mind is to create a place for them to easily hang their coat and backpacks. I love the storage locker system if you can create space for this in your home. Also, create a homework area and have all the necessary supplies handy for their projects as well.

Then gather all the sports equipment and store each child’s items in separate bins, for each sport. Store bulky equipment in a one area, sports clothes in their closet. If they play soccer and baseball, then have a small clear container for each sport and make sure to label the bins “Soccer Clothes” and “Baseball Clothes.” When you’re rushing out the door to soccer, the right socks and shorts will be in one place verses all over the bedroom or house.

Next, create a Family Reference Binder with tabs for each child. Behind each child’s tab you can file their sports schedules, music schedule and any other important phone numbers that you want to have at your fingertips! Everyone in the family will thank you for gathering all the papers and putting them in one central location!

Now to deal with all the other papers. Create a hanging file for each child and keep any awards, report cards and other keepsakes in this file for the current school year. At the end of the school year, simply take out the papers and file into their keepsake box. For larger artwork, just take a picture and store the photo in their school photo album. Or store large artwork in an art porfolio.

Be realistic about what school papers and artwork you are going to keep. The more stuff you have, the more time and space it will take up to store it. A good rule of thumb is to “keep the best of the best and let the rest go”. Ask yourself, “When was the last time you looked at your keepsake box stored in your attic?”

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Want To Use This Article In Your Newsletter or Website? You have my permission as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Sherry Borsheim is the president of International Association of Business Organizing and Simply Productive. You can visit Sherry, access her free article archive and grab lots of free stuff here. Sherry lives in Vancouver, BC Canada with her husband (her high-school sweetheart).

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