Warning, this is boring

BUT, it could be essential to a few of you so I will torture the majority to help the few who I have been told need some help! I was recently asked how to manage paperwork for a child with a medical issue. Depending on how far back you have gone on my blog, you may know that I have a son on the autistic spectrum. The amount of evaluations, tests, reports, diagnosis’, etc. is unbelievable. The challenge of how to manage this began for me when he was 3. We had gone through 1 ½ years of figuring out what was going on, what seemed like a million assessments, pages and pages of reports and then ended up entering him into a program through out school system. Their evaluations and findings and then their plan for him was a stack in itself! For those of you in the loop on this, you know I am talking about IEPs. Now, I don’t know if this has the same name in every state but in Florida, that is my son’s Individual Educational Plan and I’m sure every state has something similar. It outlines what the school will do for him, how, when, by who, and on and on. Also outlines what they expect from him so I know what our current focus is. It must be done once a year but based on your child’s progress, they could do many a year. These forms are on top of every other assessment and testing that it done! James is going into 5th grade and we will be doing his 13th IEP at the start of school!

As an informed parent, I want to be able to provide input in my son’s meetings. I want all his information at my fingertips and I want to be on top of it all! BUT, I don’t want to be crazy. I don’t want bags or bins or books of paperwork and I don’t want to be overwhelmed by it and looking for things while others are waiting on me. And it takes a while to get to the point I’m at but I don’t want his paperwork and issues to be a constant ‘thing’ in our lives. If I had to see his paperwork all the time, I would think about it all the time. I need it when I need it, otherwise I want it in order and out of my way!

So, here’s my system. I will assume that you are into this many many years and will talk about how to catch up with yourself.

First, in order to reach an end goal, think about the point. Why do you keep the paperwork? You want to know what from it? Many questions come up over and over that you just need at hand like his birth (preemie? Issues? What medications did he have?) and diagnosis (who, when, what exactly) and then of all the evals and tests and IEPs what stands out as the important information?
-Change in services, label, therapist
-Need that was pinpointed for the first time
-specific scores from a test
-quote from a report that carries some weight
Determine when you look at each piece of paper what it is you need from that piece of paper. What sets each IEP or eval apart from the others.

Here is where you want to start-

• Buy a notebook or folder that is Large and Durable
• Pull out all your paperwork and sort it-this is the hardest part. Make stacks doing the following:
  -Keep anything that has specific DATA pertaining to your child. You want to toss anything that is generic. For instance, the letter that was sent home to schedule the IEP and the legal document they give you at every meeting. Sure, keep one of those if you want it (it’s online if you need it) but it is not pertinent to your child’s history. Get rid of anything that is not specific about your child! Because we don’t want to do things twice, if you have a lot of paperwork, as you look at each document, highlight the date and the info from each that are most important and set that document apart from the others.
  -Sort Chronologically. After glancing at each paper, first set in a stack by year. If you have lots of loose papers like a 5 page IEP, make sure you sort it so they stay together. Once you have everything sorted by year, sort again so that you are now chronological.
• Recap this Data. Now that you have your crazy stack (or stacks if one will fall over!), go to your computer and open a new document.
  -Call it something that makes sense for you as you will use this file for a long time—mine is called James’ Overall Medical History. The goal is to have a chronological list of everything that is pertinent. If you fill this with things like “5-5-07 went to speech therapy” this will not work. The only entry you would want for speech is a start date with a specific therapist, test results, something huge that may have occurred and an end date with that therapist. If you are asked ‘When was he in speech therapy?” you can answer this quickly.
  -Start with your first item (oldest) as your first entry. Keep it short. This is not a story, it is a collection of data. For an example, here is what James' first entry looks like-
  March 26, 1999
  Born five weeks early. RDS. Ventilator for 5 days. Nicu for 2 weeks. Had pneumonia—treated for seven days. Jaundice—phototherapy for two days. Slight heart murmur—presumed normal. Reflux—started on Cisapride (propulsid) and Zantac. Hearing test completed and was normal
  -Put that first document in the folder. After your entry, that paperwork (my example, this would be only his final discharge paperwork, not the daily reports or receipts or charting info or extra paperwork, just the recap report) goes in the notebook, so it ends up in the BACK! When you open your book and you are done, the top item under your recap is the most recent item.
  -Make a tab for this item, if you think you will need to refer to this often. This is the only thing that I don’t have a clear ‘rule’ on. If it’s an IEP, I have a tab for it (label says, for example, 7th IEP, 9-05), if it’s a big test like IQ, I have a tab on it. If it’s a final report from an SLP that has nothing very interesting on it, I recorded the data, file it in order but didn’t put a tab on it. If I need it, I can see it on my chronological recap sheet and find it easily.
  -Keep going, recap and file, recap and file.
• Print your data recap and put it on the top, when you are done and it is ALL there. This is how my document looks. My header followed by each entry with date and then 1 or 2 sentences detailing each item.



• The next time you have a meeting, take your notebook and answer any question within seconds! Here is how mine looks with the tabs. You can see that it's simple, not grand but easy to follow and easy to find anything I need.





• Behind all this, I have his year end report card in a page protector sleeve. Each sleeve has a grade on a file label sticker. My son is entering 5th grade. When I get his 2nd grading period report card, the 1st one is garbage as the 2nd one covers that too! By the end of the year, you do NOT want 3 or 4 report cards as long as the data is retained in the final report card—throw the extras away! So the 4th grade sleeve has the final report card (shows all grading periods), final IEP report card (FL has a separate one), and his FCAT scores report. That's it! Here is a picture of my grade sleeves. If you look closely, you will see that I have an empty sleeve ready for 5th grade so what you see is the 4th grade sleeve behind it. Simple with not a lot of paperwork at the end of each year.

• If your book is being made for a younger child or a child who visits other therapists and doctors with this notebook, you will want other documents. Use another page protector so that you can get documents in and out of it easily and copy his birth certificate, social security number, immunization records and insurance card. Those things are always asked for so have them available! Now that James is older, I took that stuff out but I had it in there for years.

How to move forward is your next question right? This should be easy now. When I get a new IEP or document, I enter it and make a tab and reprint my recap document. When he gets a progress report, I may just stick it in the folder for now but the next meeting I file it correctly and am updated within minutes. All documents should go here and you should continue with this format and it will always be updated.

To help you determine how to write your recap, here are a few entries from mine. You can see they are short, precise, specific. In order to be respectful of his privacy, these scores are quite old and I'm sharing generic stuff from the last several years! There are entries with some pretty serious tests listing lots of scores and they are very at a glance so I and any professional can quickly grasp his results. In case you wonder, he is mainstreamed, very smart, adorable and a bit quirky but hey, I think I am too so whatever! He is the sweetest child you could meet and one of the reasons he is doing so well is because of these insane reports and all the school does for him!

October 26, 2001 Arnold Palmer. Updated Speech evaluation completed using The Rossetti Infant-Toddler Language Scale. Completed at 31 months. Findings—Pragmatics 18-21 months 100% (highest level of test), Gesture 24-27 months 100% (highest level of test), Play 33-36 months 100% (highest level of test), Language Comprehension 21-24 months 100% (same as before), Expressive Language 9-12 months 100%, 12-15 months 92%, 15-18 months 86%, 18-21 months 66%. Goals include identifying action words in pictures, understanding size, saying two and three word phrases. Email to family of progress included with evaluation for further detail. New OT evaluation also done. His play is at the appropriate age but he is behind due to lack of attention span and very low frustration level.

February 13, 2003 3rd IEP to add OT and update his speech goals. He is using sentences, though difficult to understand, and has many words. The SP added precise goals regarding specific things she sees a pattern of (velar fronting, syllable reductions, stopping). His OT goals include working on writing skills, fine motor with buttons and zippers, new foods, and less pushing as this relates to sensory input.

September 14, 2005 7th IEP. Major change was for testing. Lots of accommodations—increase or decrease in time, variation in instructional methods, seating, get his attention before giving directions, outline of activities, break assignments into segments. Also special testing papers. Also flex scheduling, setting and presentation on and standardized statewide test. Goals increased to age level but the accommodations were the basis of this change. No Modifications made—full curriculum is required of him.

April 24, 2006 OT evaluation. Pediatric Potentials Rehab. Poor visual tracking. Vestibular processing difficulties. Low kinesthetic awareness. Hyporesponsive to tactile, taste, vestibular and proprioceptive input. Hypersensitive visual and auditory input.

November 26, 2007 Auditory Processing Evaluation. Disorder identified, mostly in right ear. Given a FM amplification system which he started using late December.

December 3, 2007 10th IEP. Added alphasmart which he has been using in the classroom for a few months.

You can see I'm not redundant with issues. There was a LOT more on his 10th IEP but it was nothing new. For us, All IEPs talk about how he has organizational issues but the only time I mentioned it is when a solution is being implemented as that is the one time that it really was relevant and not just everyday info about him.

I hope this makes sense and was helpful! Sorting and getting it recapped in a new document will be the hard part but maintaining it will be a breeze, I promise!!!

Surviving the Summer

I'm home with 2 kids all summer while trying to work! Thank the Lord for Grandma! My awesome Mother in Law is so wonderful and helps so much. It is still a juggling act figuring out the schedule. As much as I love the summer, it is always a bit nuts for any Mom who works! So I thought I'd share my summer motto! Here it is, displayed in my kitchen for the summer . . .

"Wine is the Answer, What was the Question?"

When I'm not working or out and about doing Mommy stuff, I will do my best to enjoy the summer with my kids and live by the intent on this dishtowel--relax and take it easy!

Attacking Two Boys' Massive Messes!!!

Oh Boy! If I were a fake person who wanted to carry on the "Martha" persona that gets randomly thrown at me, I would NOT post this. I cleaned out my boys' rooms today on my first day at home in forever! What a fun way to relax on my day off!

But I'm an organizer and you know what, people constantly admit they don't want me to see their closets or I'll 'flip' when I see their house or they have to clean before I come over and guess what, we all have to deal with things getting out of hand! My boys' rooms are my 'issue'. My bedroom is on the lower floor so I avoid their wing at times as it stresses me out! I've been promising them that we were going to ATTACK and today we did! So, here's how it went!

Phase 1--The Before!

What? Where's the picture? Oops! Okay so it was bad. You could walk through their rooms but it was bad. Their closets were mounds of toys and not one bin was holding the correct items as they were just throwing stuff wherever. It was a mound of toys.

Phase 2--Empty your room!

Seems drastic but it is the best visual for them to not only see their room clean but when you have 2 kids the same sex, sorting legos in one central area just makes more sense. So I had them bring everything out to the loft area. Start with one bin and if it's mostly legos, get the rest out and fill it with legos! See lots of kinetics, start a bin and keep going! Oh and USE the trash bags! So here is the loft after they sorted for 4-5 hours and I joined for the last 3. Full on rushing, craziness--no sitting. This was WORK.

Here is the bar where there are bags that I'm getting rid of that we never use and I think you can see 5 garbage bags. There are 2 in the loft area and some in both the bedrooms and we ended up with 9 bags total!!!

Phase 3--put it all away!

They picked their bins by priority and I inspected each bin to make sure it was sorted by like items and confirmed they were playing with those items. Once "approved" (they loved this) they put it away. Carter had 2 huge bins of matchbox cars. He is almost 8 and hardly ever touches them! So I made him sort down to one bin by picking his favorites and that was it! I worked all day and still need to organize their bookcases but the closets are done! Woo hoo! James, who is usually the messy one, got rid of a LOT! He is 10 now and doesn't need all the matchbox stuff like he used to. He is a legos freak and has TONS--the bottom two bins are just legos. I hope that this cleaner area will really help make things easier for him to manage. I am OVER small parts and I worked hard to get rid of stuff that wasn't used often!

Carter seemed neater but he has stuff stashed everywhere and had to keep more than James. He has a fun built in bed with lots of niches and places to stash stuff and I'm going to need to watch him so he doesn't let this get crazy again.

I love clear MATCHING bins for kids rooms. Look at how clean this looks. Imagine if I had the same system but some had a green lid, 3 had blue lids with a big curve, some were colored, etc. It is an initial investment but if you get good bins, they last forever! I have the clear shoe boxes from The Container Store, which I ordered by the case online, and they are used throughout my house and are the ONLY bins. Super easy long term and kids need to SEE what's on the bottom of their bins and boxes!!!

My cousin Wendy asked me about lego storage recently. We've done it all--big table, tried to sort by the kit, one big bin, sort by color but where we have ended up is a multi storage system. First, we have the 2 big bins in the closet filled. If I pick up, that's where I put things. But this fun thing is on his wall near where he plays and it's an easy place for him to toss them. If he had to walk all the way to his closet every time he found a tiny piece, it would be far worse. This unzips on the bottom so he can dump them all out and then it comes out of the holder so he can fill it and put it back on the holder and it's all picked up! There's a large lid bin in his closet with all his directions to all the kits he owns and he has a display area in his room for the things he has made that he doesn't want to put away. I think you have to make it easy to get to and easy to pick up or it won't work well. This works for us!

Someday I'll get photos of their rooms up but I am thrilled their closets are so clean now and had to share!

Design & Cleaning Tip!

I know, that's awesome right? A design tip AND cleaning tip? It's all about my dining room table and things you should know. Ha! I fell in love with my dining room table in the store. I was building my farmhouse style home and thought it would be perfect!

Well, let me tell you how wrong I was. Here's your design tip. If you buy a dining room table, don't get one with pretty little grooves! The slats are gorgeous and fit into my style and match my wood floors that are in the room next to the dining room so aesthetically, LOVE IT! But crumbs and spills? Uggh! Seriously, how did it not occur to me that the bread crumbs from a Thanksgiving Dinner would be more work to clean than all the dishes? I do think that if the manufacture would fill the grooves with a sealer or lacquer that is used on the wood or something that it would be fine but my grooves are thin and DEEP!

So this weekend, I have been scrapbooking a lot! I had some girlfriends over and one of them, Lisa, made an awesome wall hanging for my pool house, that I am still working on! Someday hopefully soon I will share that with you! One of her cool techniques is to sand the edges of paper and boards! As she worked, I knew my pretty little table was going to annoy me the next day! We all made a mess and had bits of paper everywhere! Here is an area of my table this morning! Check out the pretty stuff in the grooves. I have used a steak knife to pop crumbs out of these grooves before.

So I was cleaning up today and the perfect solution occurred to me! My boys had so much fun helping me keep our automatic vacuum thingy in the area around the table. Then I thought, why not use it on the table? So that's my cleaning tip--use your automatic vacuum on your annoying slat table if I am too late to give you a design tip and you have one too-- it works perfectly! I am not freaked at what germs may be on my floor that I just put on my table because I just wiped it down with a lysol wipe after and I set my scrapbook stuff on the floor and then put it on the table so what's the difference? We don't really eat here much anyway--it's a clever cover up for my craft area as all my tools and such are in the next open area! I also love a good tablecloth so I would cover it for the random meal anyway! It worked great and my boys had so much fun watching it (there's a sensor so it won't even fall off, goes to the edge and spins!) that I thought I would share!

I'm going to scrapbook again in 45 minutes with a great friend so I may be doing this again tonight!

Home Office Before and After

Is it mid November? Because that is when I promised this after! I'm SO sorry! It really takes a bit of time and focus to edit, upload, and write a blog entry and I bow to those that manage to do this every day!

This client is a busy Mom to two wonderful kids and has several businesses, all run from home. She is really smart and really knew what would work for her and what wouldn't and was quick to make a decision. She just didn't have the time or the systems in place to manage it all! I am confident that, after our weeks of organizing and giving her rules that fit the way she works, she will be able to not only manage these spaces but translate what she learned to the rest of her home!

The Project:

Get the office area under control

and

Help her plan and move into the new family/playroom

(that my husband built for her family!)

The office:

Let me point out a few things that we needed to find solutions for and then I'll point them out in the afters.

-1st they itemize (this is regarding taxes) so they keep ALL receipts. They didn't know where to put them. Filing them daily doesn't make sense for their time. Their solution was to put them in a gift bag. The thought was that it was big enough to hold them all and it was within easy reach so it worked. It is the light blue one on the floor.
-they had a desk that was designed for large CPU computers and lots of software. An entire shelf above the monitor was just for disks and the space for the large computer tower was tall and skinny and it became a place to just pile stuff out of the way.

-Pictures are very important to her and there were many, everywhere!
-she was WAY ahead of me on one of my must haves and that is binders. She knew binders were the way to go with records that have to be maintained and she had lots of them, in many sizes and colors.

Here's a closer picture of the desk. Most of what is on the floor is from that tall area made for your CPU. She is well traveled and has many maps that she needs for future trips!

She has lots of photo paper and cards and different types of paper and it was an area where she truly didn't know what she had.

Here is the after!

The entire area is now a great space that functions well for her. I didn't take pictures of every area in this room but there is a huge bookcase and that was redone as well. We moved some furniture around to create a space for all her pictures which was a huge goal of hers.

All her supplies are now in bins that fit perfectly in these drawers and are labeled to ensure she can find whatever she needs! Behind these bins are 2 magazine holders that have all her maps, sorted by domestic and international.


Her binders are virtually identical to what she had before EXCEPT they are now all white and all have the same style label. It took perhaps 30 minutes to change these over and what a difference this makes! She is also using a Family Resource Binder that I made her (details in a past blog entry) and she LOVES it and said she didn't know how she didn't have this before!

So what is that pretty red container for? Her receipts! We did this in November and it was getting full but we felt it was a good size and would work for the entire year. If not, she may need to pull them out and file them once a year and NO mess or pile, or gift bag on the floor!


The area where the unused disks sat now have every day items like stamps and her business cards as well as a spot for cards that she is given that once were in 7 different places. I don't like to give ALL my secrets away but one is to certainly look at things differently. Like the red planter is now a receipt organizer. The cute white bins with the fabulous tags on that tiny shelf? They are from the Wilton section of Joannes! Yes, candy trays!

All of her photo paper and other paper are now sorted and easy to get to. Everything has a label and a 'zone'. Everyone has a 'thing' that they seem to have too much of or love and she loves having cards on hand! She had SO many! We sorted through them to ensure cards had envelopes and decided to get rid of older ones so that whatever she kept would fit in the one bin you see. Then they were categorized by event--if she needs a sympathy card, she can now easily grab one! If she needs any paper, she just pulls out that basket and grabs what she needs!

Now, the Family and Playroom:

I didn't take a picture before we got busy--it's SO easy to get into a groove and work and then go, "OOPS, I need before pictures"! This space was completely empty on day one. We discussed layout and what things were needed and they went on their own and bought the furniture which I think is great for this space! It is Ikea and is part of their Expedit line. For rooms like this, Ikea is fabulous and the Expedit series is THE greatest open storage for scrapbooking too! It holds 12x12 paper systems and scrapbooks perfectly!

Okay, back to this great room--they set all the furniture up and then I started pulling all the items that we decided need to fit into this space from 4 other rooms! Small toys, all books, all games and all craft items. Here it is at the start of the piling phase.

The biggest challenge was to not only sort through all the girl crafts and get them organized but to create a system that an adorable but busy crafting preteen could actually keep up with! I'm sure it seems hard to organize a business but let me tell you, taking on a girl's collection of beads and markers is just as challenging! Here are some pictures of these items as I moved them into the room.

Here is the After!

Most of this is rather self explanatory. Books in one zone, games in another, toys in another.

Here is the craft area.

What do you see? Craft bins? No? How about kitchen items? Back to my opinion on using items for a use other than what they were made for! The markers are in utensil bins straight from the Target kitchen section. Think about it--those are usually dishwasher safe or at least easy to clean and they have perfectly sized spaces for all things crafty! I have tons of these in my home. One full of just kids scissors and glue, put away for the next kids' party. You can get cute and colorful ones at stores like Joannes once summer comes out but this was in the Fall and this space is for adults too (umm, did you see the cool projector screen? Which was put in that spot because when the entire wall of sliding glass doors are open, you can watch it from the pool!). So the stainless was really a perfect choice. This type of bin also grows easily with your family and has many future use options (um lipstick and makeup brushes once the preteen is 14?) so they are a great investment. What else can be used another way in the future? How about that great wine bucket that is currently holding crayons? Oh, for the parents though please. And do you see? The beads are in the bead boxes again!

More kitchen items coming your way! The disposable 'tupperware' type containers are perfect for crafts as well as for a drawer where you are sorting electronics. Label the lid or edge and break down all the small cords for ipod, blackberry, canon camera, on and on--just the right size. These containers have all her tiny things sorted and NOT labeled. Why no label Miss Organizer who loves labels? Well, kids always change their stuff. AND the bin is clear. So, this allows her to change things as she gets new products without having old labels and then it's 'wrong'. This will always be right as long as she keeps like things together and she can identify each bin easily since they are see through.

This was a great client and a rewarding project! I hope you enjoyed it!

My System for sorting Mail and School Work

I promised that I would write a blog about how I sort my 'stuff'. Whether I am chit chatting with friends or problem solving with clients, many topics come up that appear to be an ongoing issue and one is paperwork! Whether it is mail or school work or church and organization flyers, it is hard to manage. The number one rule is 'touch it once' and that requires strict sorting discipline! It sounds like 'work' but it is very exciting to see a stack of stuff and turn it into a few things and be done with it. I promise! So, last week I promised that when I came home from helping my sister for 3 days that I would show you my stack of stuff that arrived while I was gone and show you how I knock it out! You won't find stacks of mail and paperwork at my house but if you look around you will find several different organizing tools that help me accomplish the same things we all have to accomplish. Bills, school paperwork, filing, tax items, school art work that I want to keep, things I want to hold onto but don't need to do anything with, magazines and catalogs that I want to read and on and on and on . . . They are all here but they have a place and I am very picky about what stays and what goes.

So, here is the stack that I came home to:

-A box from the scout store

-many catalogs including walmart and Tiffany, what a contrast in my mailbox!

-Bills, a check for scouting as I am treasurer, Christmas card and lots of junk mail

-School Papers and a receipt that I paid for a fieldtrip

Okay, you must sort everything now! It's a couple seconds when it comes in the door but if you stack ALL the bills and have to sort all of it at the end of the month, the 'bill paying' chore will seem large. It only takes me a few minutes to pay bills with this system. Here's what I kept and what I tossed.

-Tossed all the envelopes from bills, all I need is the bill as I bill pay online

- kept reward check, like a gift card
-kept scout shirt
-catalogs that were boring I flipped through quickly and tossed
-magazines and catalogs that I want to really look at go in my magazine bin. Once I read it, I recycle it but until I read it, it goes in my bin!
-kept Christmas Card
-kept money for scout account
-Tossed school items that were uneventful, 1 item had a lot of writing so I wanted to keep that.
-kept a magazine from school for my 4th grader

Here's my first secret. This table is rather large and is in the center of my family room. The white bin with the ribbon is my magazine bin and I read them and look at the catalogs when I watch tv. I have parties and no one has ever even noticed one of my biggest organizing secrets sitting right here, under the table.

TAKE A PEEK!

Bend down a bit and look under my coffee table.

Here they are in full view for you. They are actually 'containers' that I think were intended as planters from Southern Living At Home, aren't they pretty?

Well at my house, the big one is my trash can and the little one is my urgent TO DO bin. Whatever comes in that needs 'action' within the next couple days goes here. I look in it daily and do what is needed and it's small and never full. My office is not far but to make life simple, there is a pen, pencil, checkbook and pad of paper inside for me!

Nothing on my table was urgent that day. Now, I should define what I think is allowed to be put in "to do". If it takes longer than 2 minutes and you need time to do it, then it should go there but the check for cub scouts that came in the mail, I just filled out a deposit slip and that is done so it didn't need to go in there. If it had been 15 checks and cash from popcorn sales, it would have gone in there! Touching it once requires that you really use your time. If I had put that check down to handle later, I would have used up more time than to just do it now!

So Where Did The Rest Go?

Here are a few spots in my office. They seem pretty and are decorative items but they have high function! The green bin has all my bills. When it's bill time, I grab the bin, pay my bills and that's it! NOTHING goes in the bin except the bill--envelopes, flyers, promo junk has all been tossed while sorting the day the bill came into the house. I literally take out 8 or so pieces of paper.

The black basket is my Pending To Do. Meaning, it isn't urgent but I need to do something with it soon or I am waiting for someone else to do something. For an example, right now, here is what is in this bin--notebook with measurements because tomorrow I need to finalize a kitchen design, stack of documents I need to hold onto until I confirm that our old insurance is completely cancelled, a school project for my son that is due Friday and I am holding onto the rules, a scouting assignment that we need to work on and info I need for a reunion I am the treasurer for. Notice that anything Pending requires action at some point. If you just want something (article, catalog, school work) those items are a reference or memory item and need a different place.

Here is where I display the kids' work that I or they love. In the black cabinet is a drawer where this year's school work is that I want to hold on to. It is not a large drawer but I do not need to keep a lot either! Their report cards and 'official' items go in a school file folder in a file cabinet but their work and art are considered memories. I have a system for memories that I wrote a while ago and you can read in detail about my school work suggestions here.

The writing assignment that I wanted to keep went on this wall and the school magazine that my son needs to read went to his desk in his room. In a week, I will find it and toss it! He is still a kid!

Sometimes newsletters come home from school and some keep them or post them. I suggest you read it and immediately put dates in your calendar and anything you need to take action on (send and item in, talk to a teacher about something) should go on your To Do list. Then toss the newsletter.

This catalog bin is by my back door and it hold catalogs that I want to hold onto. Most catalogs you can view online but unique ones like Southern Living at Home, Tastefully Simple and many many other home show sales items aren't available online so I hold onto those.

Attached to this are 2 clips. The one on the left holds things that I need to take somewhere with me. Bank deposits are almost always on there and sometimes a document I need to drop off somewhere. The one on the right holds gift cards and coupons.

The reward check that I recieved went onto the right clip and the scout deposit went on the left clip.

I have a display area for Christmas Cards so that is where that went!

The bins in my mudroom have all our scouting stuff. I am NOT a fan of letting these uniforms along with sport uniforms end up in my kids rooms as inevitably, they can't find them when you need them! Makes me CRAZY! So I control these items and they go in 2 of these bins! I toss them in the dryer to get the wrinkles out in case you wonder how I store shirts in there--it's a sacrifice I make to not have to search for them every week!

So the new shirt went straight into the bin!

The garbage went out the door! Stack is done! Writing this, it seems like a lot of info and may seem like I did a lot but the work is in setting up the system! The sorting of this stack took me 4 minutes and I was done! I told you Rule #1--Touch it Once. But Rule #2 really made this work in 4 minutes. Rule #2--A Place or everything and everything in its place! It is not a cliche, it really makes life easy!

I mentioned that I am made fun of for being organized and I am a dork in that I love systems and finding solutions and really have a passion for making life easier on myself and others! So I'm teased a bit, whatever. I was shopping in a cute boutique this weekend and saw a cute saying that I thought those of you that like to make fun of me would like. It seems that you can find a way to make fun of anyone so here you go:

Organized People

Are Just To Lazy

To Look For

Their Stuff!

Happy Sorting! And remember, TOUCH IT ONCE!

"School Stuff"

I hear this phrase over and over when I ask clients what problems they are having with paperwork and things they need a solution for. I have some pretty strong opinions about what to do with that A+ reading comprehension test or 1st hand print or creative drawing or funny story or ladybug mobile or or or or, should I go on? I cherish and love all the things my kids make at school. But I cherish a fresh, clean space just as much! Here are the steps I recommend as things come in the door. Before you can follow these steps, you need 2 things--a display center and a school in box.
1. Sort. Work that you LOVE, display it. What is worthy of keeping (really neat writing on a test you are proud of, interesting grade you want to hold onto, hard math homework that they did well, etc), put it in the school in box.
2. The rest (same old math sheet that's been graded, indifferent art work, repetitive spelling tests, etc.) TOSS! Yes, TOSS. You do not need it. If you have a child with learning issues and do need to hold onto everything for reference, I will address this in a future post--please look for that as I have my own child like this too!
3. Important, if you have more than one child, especially young children, make sure their name is on it and perhaps put a date on it if it is a 'first' or a writing assignment at the start of 1st grade for instance to compare to at the end.
4. As you display, let your child decide what should come down as you put up something new. They must learn limits when it comes to spending or eating or getting enough sleep and they must also learn limits when it comes to 'stuff'. If the wall is full, we can't make the wall bigger, we must make choices!
5. If something needs to come off the display, either toss it or put it in the school in box.
6. Summer requirement--at the end of the year, sort each child's work into their own stacks. Then sort each stack into categories that are important to you or your child--art, tests where you want to acknowledge grades, writing if you are documenting their progress, etc. Now, get out your scanner or head to kinkos where you can use a color copier. Scanning--print them 4x6 or upload them to a site like walgreens.com and order prints. Copying--copy them smaller so they end up the size of a photo--4x6 or 5x7. Now toss that important work. The paper, pen ink, pencil marks, cheap glue and even cheaper paint are NOT archival so if you feel you are doing the most loving thing by holding onto the originals, realize that what you have in 20 years will be a mess (paper will yellow, paints will chip off, pencil marks will smear, etc.) and those photo prints will still look fresh and clean and perfectly capture the real work they created.
7. Scrapbook or archive. I have one album for each child that is just for school. Each year gets around 10 pages and is done in the summer. I have an order to how I set up each year and the last 4 pages have the art work with a pocket page on the last page for extra work I couldn't fit in.
Rules--never let a year overlap with the other. Summer's requirement is essential to make this work.

Okay, this was a long post and a LOT to do but once you get it sorted and set up, I promise it is an easy system!!!!

Kids School Work

How many of you are SO proud of the hand print flower or first short story that your child brought home but don't want to put it on your fridge? This is a universal Mommy Issue! There are many solutions, depending on the space and layout in your home that will allow you to clean up the clutter on your fridge while letting your child display their work that you are so very proud of!

Here is a picture of what I have done in my own home. I really wanted to take it all down and 'clean it up' before I took a picture. But really, the beauty of it is that the kids put up whatever they want, it looks a bit messy but it is all in one place, they are proud, it's not in boxes or on a counter and it is in a part of my home that you don't see unless I have truly invited you in. Win/Win! At the end of the school year, I will take it down to preserve what I would like in their school albums.

During a consultation, I can help you determine the best place and items needed for you to create this yourself or I can provide all the items and install one for you if you like the way this looks! My kids love to switch out their work and this is a GREAT place to post all things school related. Where do you put the lists of things you need to send in for a party in two weeks or the list that comes home in the spring with back to school info? Or the monthly kids lunch menu if they must check to make sure that it's not refried beans day! These things will never get lost in a 'to do' bin again! There are many options that will work in your home to pull all your family's school stuff together!