I have little to-do lists plastered all over my home office. Notes like – “pick up milk”, “turn in tax form”, “child’s dentist appointment is Thursday” – these are all sticking on the wall in front of me. I have decided that I want to be a little more organized with my to-do list so I have put together a short article for you that will help you. Here are 5 steps to an organized to-do list.

Step 1: Gather all of your to-do lists that you have stuck around the house and create one master list of all the items you need to do. Don’t leave anything off. If it is something you have written down somewhere on a piece of paper, then it is something that you have wanted to get done. It’s important! Add it to the list.

Step 2: Prioritize the items by time that you want to get them done. Is this something that you want to do tomorrow, this week, next week, this month, this year, next year? Prioritize them. It will make all the world of difference.

Step 3: Now that you have gathered them all and sorted them and prioritized them, now you need to write them down in a notebook by order of importance. All the things that are on the list to do for today or tomorrow need to be placed on one list. You will scratch them off your list as you get them done.

Step 4: Every evening you need to sit down with your list and see if anything has been accomplished and can be scratched off your list. See if other things need to be moved forward so that they can initially get accomplished as well.

Step 5: Stay on top of your to-do list. If you do not check it regularly or consistently then what happens is your to-do’s become forgets and then you will soon have a whole list of things that could of gotten done but did not.

There are also plenty of apps available in the smartphone industry to help with getting your to-do list organized. I use one of these myself along with my paper method and it has helped tremendously in getting me organized. Whatever way you choose to do so, the bottom line is to get organized so that you do not have to be frazzled!

Tracy Roberts of MomsInABlog.com is the author of 30 Days to an Organized Home, and she has a plan!

Work your way through organizing and decluttering every room in your house in 30 days with easy to follow daily tasks that keep you from getting overwhelmed with the task at hand.

You’ll also find helpful printable checklists that will keep you on task and allow you to track your progress.

Get your copy today at 30 Days to An Organized Home

Organizational skills.  What?  Yeah – the word skills is in that comment for a reason.  It is a skill, and it is a skill that unless it is relating to my work I am honestly kind of lost.  Growing up my mom was an incredibly determined neat freak but not an organized one.  So that is what I do.  I am the queen of picking up my kids room and putting things away but I always end up forgetting where I put the only doll she ever wants.

So I have been researching some tactics to conquer this habitual problem I have; keeping track of the kids stuff.

Big Plastic Buckets

I know, they sound ugly and can take up some real estate in your little ones room but so can mounds of disorganized toys spread out on their floor.  Try labeling each of the buckets with a picture that represents what goes in it.  Don’t get too detailed here just a simple stick figure for dolls, picture of blocks for blocks, and so on.  This will help teach your child to organize their room themselves (its all about breaking the cycle!)

The Dreaded Drawer of Disaster

Is it just my child who has dresser drawers that looks like a bomb exploded in it?  Every Saturday when we are rushing to get out the door to make it to dance class her leotard and tights can never be found, like clockworks!  I have recently decided to take the idea behind my big plastic buckets and use it with the dresser.  Why not take some scotch tape and magazine cut outs and place them on the drawers to help teach the child to organize and remember where things go.

Now for the slightly older kids:

Homework

If this post was listed by most difficult things to keep track of this would have been the first item on the list!  But how do you keep track of your child’s homework?  It seems the older they get the more difficult and painful (for the child) it becomes.

Lets focus on children in grades K-3.  I have found that an “in box” styled dumping ground works best.  When they come home just have them dump their homework folder and any other hand outs into that inbox.

*Fight the urge to ask for their homework in the car if you pick them up – that may cause a chance for the homework to get lost in the shuffle.  Go through the inbox with your child and go over their homework with them.  Once it is complete move it to the “outbox” and leave it there until they are ready to pack it up for the next day.  No more asking “where’s your homework?” or “did you have homework?”

I know – you think I am passing off the responsibility of keeping track of items on my kids.  Busted!  Kind of!

I have looked at a lot of my friends and fellow WAHM’s and I have found a common denominator with many of them.  Teamwork.  In order for their households to run smoothly and for everything to be accounted for, including each other, there needs to be a good amount of team work and division of the household chores and responsibilities.

The list of things that need to be kept track of when it comes to our sons and daughters is almost limitless.  Homework, School Trips, Grades, Sports, dances, hobbies, etc.  It is highly recommended to have a shared family calendar in a community spot in the house.  Color code each family member’s activities so they can easily be seen.  Starting with these simple little items can really help alleviate the stress and blame with one another when things are not going according to plan!

Do you have any expert suggestions on ways to help keep track of things in the home when it comes to the kids?  Please share!

For more great ideas for family and home be sure to visit Mom’s Resource Blog.

I just want to say thank you, thank you, thank you. My daughters blankie went missing at daycare and after two days of them not finding it in her classroom (or the one above and below hers) I was starting to get frustrated. On day three a teacher in a class several groups younger than hers recognized the label from when my daughter had been in her class. We have been using them since she started at 3 months old. And I think having a consisted label made the difference of finally finding her blanket! Now I just have to figure out how it got in that classroom, but that is next week mission. I now have a happy daughter who won’t let the ‘my pink blanket’ out of her sight.

Thank you again!

I love hearing testimonies like these! It makes me very proud to be apart of such a wonderful company like Lovable Labels.

If you have a story you would like to share – please comment below. I would love to hear them!

Enjoy!
Karin

Teachers get an assortment of gifts from their students every year.  Make your gift unique with Lovable Labels.

Here are some gift ideas for your child’s teacher:

• Sampler/Starter Pack - great if you know the teacher has children and know their names.
• Regular or Slimline Sticker Labels - Put your teachers name on it, so they can label all their personal items they use in the classroom (ie. rulers, staplers, books, videos, etc…) They will never loose a classroom supply again!
• Ultimate Classroom Bundle - The perfect solution to help teachers label and keep everything organized, from files, bins, supplies, and books.
• Personalized Note Cards - Great for all the correspondence teachers send home – especially the notes of praise about your child!

Any gift from Lovable Labels is sure to be a gift your child’s teacher has never gotten!

Enjoy!

Karin

 Well I had a “Tags” sighting the other day, to my surprise!  My 3 year old, scraped her knee and needed her “Boo Boo Bear” to ease the pain.  So I went to the freezer and got “Boo Boo Bear” which is just a small ice pack and gave it to my daughter.  As I was handing it to her, I thought “hmm, that looks like Tags”.  After my daughter was done with “Boo Boo Bear” I compared him to our very own “Tags”. 

Tags the Bear

Boo Boo Bear

 

The Household Helper

I recently had the privilege to talk with Cara Mirabella of The Household Helper.  She is such a fun person to talk with and she really knows some great household tips that every mom could use! 

This weeks podcast at The Household Helper features yours truly.  I had such a fun time talking with Cara.  In this conversation I offered a special discount to her listeners.  To hear the interview and to take advantage of the special discount – Click Here!

Enjoy!

Karin

I just want to wish you a very Happy Fourth Of July!

I hope you and your family have a wonderful, and safe, holiday weekend. 

Let’s never forget or take for granted the freedom we have in our country.  It is precious!

Enjoy!

Just the other day, I went to the gym and checked my 3 year old into the gym kids center for 2 hours. The weather was nice out side, but my daughter just had to bring her jacket with her. She didn’t need it, but she insisted on bringing it. Sigh….

After a great work out, I picked up my daughter from the gym’s kids center. By this point both my daughter and I had forgotten about the jacket and since it was so nice outside – I never gave it a second thought. So we left the gym and drove away.

About 10 minutes later my cell phone rang…it was the gym’s kid center calling me to let me know that we left the jacket behind! Oh wow! I would have never remembered even leaving it there! Had I not had a press n’ stick clothing dot on the tag the jacket would have been lost forever.

No ironing needed!

Now your asking, how did they know to call my cell phone? Well, here is my secret…in every jacket or sweatshirt my children own I have a personalized press n’ stick clothing label with our last name and my cell phone number on the tag. This way anyone who finds one of my daughters items, can call us to let us know where we left it.

It is one thing to label your child’s belongings – that is great! But by adding a phone number to the label increases the chances of the item being returned to you. Having my children’s jackets labeled helps me and my kids from losing items for good!

Have you labeled lately?

Karin