How to Plan Your Monthly Family Calendar For The New School Year

By Helena Alkhas
Filed Under: Organizing, Paper, Routines & Time

Use these tips to plan your monthly family calendar of routines and activities to reduce stress and keep the whole family running smoothly as you transition from Summer to back to school.

Your “month planning day” should ideally happen on the first day of the month, simply because it will be an easy reminder for you. This will give you a long-term idea of what is to come, how far you need to plan ahead, what resources and materials you need to buy or schedule and best of all when you will have free time for yourself and for your loved ones.

As we move towards the end of Summer and get ready to transition into another school year, these monthly planning days are an indispensable part of keeping your family routines and schedules on point.

1. Gather Your Supplies & Information

For this planning I suggest you have with you:
–          Your personal calendar
–          Your spouse’s calendar
–          Your family calendar, if you use one. You can download a family to-do calendar right here.

I use a calendar that has a 2-page “month view” space where I write down all the appointments, events, and deadlines I need to fulfill in the following month. It also has enough space to write my
1. Appointments,
2. A Task List and
3. Daily Notes.

Find one that fits you the best. There’s really no ideal calendar, one-size-fits-all. Electronic or paper, make sure you stick to one that fit your needs and how you like to use it.

2. Review Your Information & Schedules

Now that you are ready, go through your notes, all those pieces of paper you have scattered around the house, close to the phone, or in your purse and go through them, one by one, putting down on your calendar the appointment that was made, the phone call you’ll have to return or that deadline you have coming up.

Using the information of your spouse’s calendar, fill in – I use a different color for my husband’s schedule – any information that is relevant for your family schedule, like “dinner on 05/18”. Knowing when you can count on your spouse for dinner, kids pick up or drop off has a direct impact on your planning – and your sanity.

Next, enter all the kids’ classes, practice time, appointments, school exams, play dates, and parties. If it’s easier for you, use different colors here too.

Now that you have everybody listed on your calendar, you can already see which days are going to be tight in time – and therefore require a more flexible dinner, homework, house chores schedule and the days you will actually have time to do the laundry, enjoy your family sitting around the table or even your favorite TV show.

I also like to include my household chores in my planning. I like to know that the kids won’t be living out of laundry baskets or that there won’t be dinner because I didn’t shop for the week. So, checking on your already planned calendar, look in what day of the week you could include your laundry and your grocery shopping.

Many moms like to cook some of the week dinners on Sunday and freeze them or that prepare double batches and freeze one (my personal favorite). This is a great solution if you work out of the house or if you spend your afternoons driving the kids to their practices – or in my case, both. Nothing better than getting home knowing you are ready for dinner!

3. Plan Your Menu For The Month

Plan your meals ahead, make a list of what you need and while you are at it, check your pantry. You will have accomplished 2 great things:
–          A month’s worth of peace of mind, because you know what’s coming.
–          A list of dinners for the following weeks and
–          The grocery list of all you need to feed your kids hungry tummies!

4. “Sync” Your Calendars

Finally, if you use a family calendar (like the kitchen one), put down all the main events you marked in yours. This will give you a source of information when you are answering the phone while cooking and need to give an answer there and now.

5. Celebrate & Stay On Top Of It

Now go ahead and give yourself a round of applause. You are on your way to enjoying a smooth month and a smooth transition into the new school year!

This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it. — Ralph Waldo Emerson — This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Get organized and start saving time, for the rest of your life!

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Day 19: Declutter and Organizing Challenge- Important Documents

By Helena Alkhas
Filed Under: 30 Days Organizing Challenge, Organizing, Paper

Decluttering And Organizing Important Documents

Here we are at day 19 already. We only have one more week to go in this challenge, how are you feeling so far? I am guessing it feels great to have so many spaces in your home cleared of clutter and organized. Today we are going to be decluttering and organizing important documents.

This is a very important part of your organizing process. Having all your documents organized and ready to go, in case of an emergency, will give you tremendous peace of mind.

“Important documents” is a broad category and you should include here anything specific to your family situation, but it will certainly include documents like birth certificates, social security cards, marriage licenses, divorce decrees, living will copies and power of attorney documents.

To make your life simpler, with the Decluttering & Organizing Documents Checklist -in the Vault!- you’ll also find a checklist for categories and the documents included in each of them.

Let’s get started.

How To Declutter And Organize Important Documents

The first part of this is going to be accessing or acquiring a fire-proof filing box for your very important items. This doesn’t have to be huge, it should just be big enough to hold your important documents and any very valuable or sentimental items that you could not imagine losing.
Supplies you may want to have handy when organizing your important documents:
- have a scanner, filing folders, labels and pen ready. The app Genius Scan does a great job from your phone if you don’t have a scanner.
Next, organize your documents in categories. Here are some of them: Legal, Money, Taxes, Insurance, Medical, Home, Auto, Business.
Here is how each of them could look like:
- Permanent documents:
  - Birth certificate
  - Social security card
  - Passport
  - Marriage certificate
  - Prenuptial Agreement
  - Divorce Decree
  - Citizenship / Naturalization papers / Green Card
  - Military Discharge
  - College Transcripts
  - Adoption Information
  - Will and living will
  - Power of attorney
- Money/Taxes/Property:
  - Deeds
  - Bills of sale
  - Insurances
  - Inventory of collections, art, electronics, valuables
  - Plot of survey of properties you own
  - Property taxes
  - Rental or lease agreements
  - Vehicle titles
- Medical: copy of insurance cards, policies and list of your providers.
- Credit cards – make a copy or scan all your cards (front and back) and save in a pen drive.
- Bills – make a copy of every service provider you have. You can scan and save them in a pen drive to reduce volume.
- Your contacts – download all your contacts and save them in a pen drive.
- Have a pet? Create a folder with all their documents, insurance, vaccination etc.
Scan your important documents and save on the cloud and on a pen drive.
Create the files for the categories you need.
Place your important documents in their respective files.
Label each file accordingly.
Make a list of the contents of each file, print it and store it inside your box. Keep a copy of this list in the back-up pen drive.
Now that all is organized let’s decide where to keep them safe. If you live in a flood zone or tornado-prone area, consider this when you are hiding your safe. The best place to store it is in a spot that is safe but is also easily accessible if you have to leave the house quickly in case of an emergency.
You will be surprised how much more at ease you will feel once your valuables and your very important documents are stored neatly away in a secure area.

Document Declutter & Organizing Checklist

Click on the image below to sign up for the challenge and access the “Vault” with all Declutter & Organizing Checklists and let’s get started!

After you grab the free printable each day, don’t forget to share your process and progress on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter with the hashtag #APONewYearChallenge for a chance to win a free copy of the Life-Binder Purposeful Life Planner!

InLinkz.com

To-Do Lists Success Tips

By Helena Alkhas
Filed Under: Organizing, Paper

Making Your To-Do List Work For You

The humble to-do list is a powerful organization tool. It doesn’t matter whether you create and keep a digital list using an app such as Todoist or use a pen and paper. What matters is that you create and use your lists every day to help you get and stay organized. The following tips will ensure that your to-do lists are a successful tool in your organizational toolbox.

To-do list success tips. How to make your to-do list work for you!

Keep it Short

The ideal length of a to-do list is 10 items or less. You’ve probably created lists in the past that have seemed endless. Instead of helping you feel organized and successful, you probably ended the day with most of the items still unchecked and feeling a failure.

By keeping your list purposely short you are more likely to cross off every item and end the day feeling successful.

Separate Lists for Home and Work

Don’t add your work tasks to your personal to-do list. Maintain separate lists.

Prioritize

Once you’ve listed everything you need to accomplish then number the items in order of priority. Do the most important items first and you’ll feel the biggest sense of achievement.

If there are any items on your list that aren’t important then mark them as such. That way you won’t need to feel guilty if you don’t cross them off.

Assign a Time Limit

Wherever possible set a time limit for every item on the list. Not just how long it will take but when it needs to be done. That way you can identify tasks that need to be completed before lunch or before picking up the kids from school.

Re-visit and Re-work

A to-do list should be a working document. Once written it should be revisited throughout the day. You can check off those items you’ve completed and reprioritize or schedule those that remain.

You can also cross items off that are no longer important or unnecessary. It will also give you the opportunity to add any additional tasks that crop up during the day.

Keep it with You

How often have you made a to-do list at the beginning of the day and then totally ignored it? Probably because you left the house without it at the beginning of the day!

To make sure that your list is where you need it you could use an app such as Todoist or Jamie’s To Do. Better still you could keep your daily to-do list in your daily or weekly spread in your bullet journal. That way it will be with you wherever you go and you’ll get the satisfaction of marking off the items as you complete them. You’ll also have a visual record of your achievement.

Your to-do list can be a powerful tool for helping you to live an organized life. Using these tips will help you to ensure that it is used successfully.

Don’t let Tax-Season Stress You Out!

By Helena Alkhas
Filed Under: Organizing, Paper

Tax Checklist Free Download

Tax season can be a stressful time of year so let’s keep it very simple with this post.

Whether you’ve procrastinated or want to get organized for next year, there’s a simple way to prepare to file your taxes.

Grab 7 file folders and create a labeled file for each of the following categories:

Income
Cars
Charities
Children
Health and Dental Care Expenses
Other Deductions
Retirement, College Funds, Investments

Throughout the year, file receipts and documents in the appropriate folder. Want more help organizing your tax documents? Download my free Tax-Time Checklist.

Organizing Your Personal Documents

By Helena Alkhas
Filed Under: Moves, Travels & Vacations, Organizing, Paper, Readers Love

Personal Document Container – Can you go without it?

Do you know where all your important documents are? Could you just grab everything and run out of the house in case of an emergency? Most of us aren’t prepared for an emergency and hopefully won’t need to “run out of the house”, but even for simple acts like renewing a passport you’ll want to be able to find everything without launching a “search & rescue” operation through the house, right?

Because we’re going to spend vacation in Rio (amazing photos await) I’m going through the process of checking all our documents to make sure when time comes, all is in place. After so many trips with the kids – and moves! this is now an easy process because all is organized and I keep track of each of our passports with a master list for each of us. So I thought I could share some ideas on how to handle and safely keep your important documents.

personal document container

What documents do we keep in our personal document container? Important documents such as:

Birth certificates
Passports
Property deeds and surveys
Wills

These are documents I consider “permanent” and that need a safe home. Some personal document containers are fire-proof, have password protected locks or keys to ensure extra protection. If you have a family you know that you’ll need to keep track of all the personal documents for each member of the family and often it’s necessary to purchase more than one document container guarantee that all your important papers are in safe “hands” (storage).

This downloadable PDF is from JOYS – www.justorganizeyourstuff.com. With this list you’ll be able to have all your important documents organized and keep track of what’s up-to-date.

When planning the purchase of a personal document container also consider that it should protect your personal documents from floods and water damage and where in your home you’ll place your container to store your personal documents in the event of a flood or water damage.

But what documents should we keep in this safe? I find it makes it easier to decide which documents require protection when I consider the effect of the loss, should it occur. Certain documents may be easily replaced, though not without considerable inconvenience, while others may require just a phone call to the insurance company.

Where can you find them?

Most office supply stores and online office suppliers offer a complete selection of fireproof, waterproof and damage-proof document containers at fairly reasonable prices. These are available in a wide range of sizes and widths and most offer dust and mold-free containers and secure covers with grip locks and tote handles for easier transport. Whew!

Now, how to organize your documents inside the containers? You will want to use a simple filing system. In our family, I have a folder for each of us and in them, I have from a copy of our Driver’s License to our Birth Certificates. I use tabbed dividers that make it easy to locate the name and I use Cathy Anderson’s filing system from JOYS.

Diverting a little on the original use of personal documents containers… but I also recommend and make use of our document container to save original pictures of my family as well as backups of our photos and of course, our tax records.

Tips to Quickly Organize Your Home Office: Increase your efficiency with these quick organization tips

By Helena Alkhas
Filed Under: Home Office, Organizing, Paper

Follow these quick tips to quickly organize your home office and increase your efficiency.

Working at home gives people the flexibility to be at home, while still being able
to collect a paycheck. But, does working at home automatically make you get
more done? As more and more people begin to work from home, it’s increasingly important to organize your home office and stay productive. Here’s how to tidy and declutter your space in 15 minutes or less.

Before you start organizing your home office, consider your needs. When you work from howe you need your home office to be a place where you can be efficient and productive. The best way to maximize your work at home efficiency will be to set your self up for success by creating a system of organization that is in line with the way that you work. Everyone’s workflow is a little different and you will do yourself a huge favor by keeping your style of workflow in mind while you organize.

For this quick how office organization you will want to begin by prioritizing and designating a place for important paperwork, items to be shredded and office supplies. If your kids do their home in your office, set aside space for them to work and store their homework, books, and school supplies.

For now, ignore the computer. Electronic file and inbox organization are projects for another day. If it’s dusty, go ahead and give it a quick wipe down and move on.

Photo by MARIANNE SIX – Discover transitional home office design inspiration

A lot of stuff accumulates in home offices: knick-knacks, awards, mugs and more. Then you have office equipment: a printer, scanner, shredder and perhaps an external hard drive. Then there’s the paperwork. That is where things can get really messy. Do yourself a favor and prioritize these quick home office organizing sessions so that you can maintain an organized home office.

Start organizing by collecting and sorting any clutter on the horizontal spaces of your office, such as your desk, file folder cabinet, chairs, and tables. When you pick up an item, quickly decide where it needs to be put away.

For large stacks of paperwork, tidy the pile and leave it for another day when you can organize documents and do all the filing. If you have time, sort similar paperwork into categories: bills to be paid, items to be shredded, paper to be filed, etc.

Photo by Blackbox design studios – Discover contemporary home office design ideas

To keep this organizing session quick, grab a box or basket to toss items that belong in another part of the house like clothes, dishes, and toys. Simply collect those items and leave them for another time. By clearing away items that don’t belong you will be able to see what kind of space you have to organize and keep the things you do want in your office.

Straighten up as you move around the room. Put books back on the bookshelf and return collectibles to the appropriate shelf. Gather office supplies like cables, notepads, and pencils. Place them in your desk drawers or supply cabinet. Don’t be distracted by disorganized drawers or cubbies. Remember, this is a quick cleanup and it’s important to stay focused on the areas most visible. Make a note of other spaces that need to be organized and put it off for another day.

Grand Mission Estates // Richmond, TX // Plan 539 // Highland Homes

Photo by Highland Homes – Search transitional home office pictures

If you come across trash, toss it immediately. When you fill the trash can, be sure to empty it as soon as you’re finished. Finally, do one last pass of the entire room to ensure everything is straightened up. Don’t worry about dusting or vacuuming. Instead, focus on tidying your home office. You can always dust during your routine cleaning.

When you are finished, take a few minutes to appreciate what you have accomplished. You will feel rewarded and much more productive when working in your organized office. Making these quick home office organizing sessions a regular habit will greatly increase your efficiency while you are working from home.