Getting Organized for School: Part 3

In Part 1, I covered some lessons I've learned that will hopefully help anyone who has kids in school to some degree.

In Part 2, I shared the calendar methods that have been working out best for our family.

Today I'm sharing a few miscellaneous tricks we've implemented around the house to keep me on top of school things.

Posted Notes

I used to use Post Its on the front door for little reminders to myself.  The idea had merit, but there were just a couple of things that limited it:  they fell off the door every once in a while,  I was going through a lot of Post Its, and the kids could easily remove them.

I had this really cute Roommates Dry Erase Calendar for another project, and had yet to use it.

I still have the calendar waiting for me to get to that other project, but the little word bubbles and circles have taken the place of my Post It notes.  

I purposely put them up higher than what the kids can reach.  Since I'm tall, it's no problem for me to write on them.  (For those of you vertically challenged, arrange yours accordingly.)  

Since there are five kids in our family, one circle is used for each kid/grade with one circle devoted to school wide events.  

This is such a small thing, but it's saved my bacon more than a few times.  The quick reminder that a permission slip needs to be turned in or a lunch made in a paper bag for a field trip or that it's pajama day keeps me looking like a rockstar mom and keeps the tears off my kids' faces (and mine).  There have been lots of tears in the past, too, people!

Email

This has been a HUGE game changer for me!  Not about just getting emails from the teachers and school - we all probably have this happening.  It's the fact that I devoted a single email account to school stuff and nothing but school stuff.  

It takes only minutes to set a new account up.  I decided to use Gmail, since that's what I'm used to, it's easy to use, and I can receive the mail on my phone app.  

Now, if you decide to do this, which I highly recommend, don't use it for anything other than school.  That would completely defeat the purpose of this email account.  Keep it for school, and only school communications: teachers, school district news, and other parents.  That way the important stuff doesn't get buried under junk emails.  Also, make sure to clean out the older emails periodically to avoid clutter.

All of these organizing tips that I've shared are easy to implement at any stage in the game.  My oldest is in middle school and I just started most of these things in the past two years.  I'm hoping that my stumbling along all these years will help all of you be able to get a handle on school organization long before your oldest gets to middle school or beyond!

Share any ideas you have with the rest of us at My Life by Jess on Facebook!  

Have a great weekend!!

Getting Organized for School: Part 2

I laid the ground work for this series Monday with Part 1.  Go take a look at that if you haven't, yet.

Today is all about the calendar!

It's taken a few years to figure out a good system for me, but here are a couple of things that have consistently helped me the most.

Wall Calendar

I'm such a visual person that I have to have a wall calendar in a very obvious, in your face spot.  And, since I spend a lot of time in the kitchen, that's become the calendar's home.

It has morphed a bit over the years that we've been here, though.

 These white board calendars were purchased from Walmart a few years ago.  I'm sure I didn't spend more than $12 per board. {I'm pretty cheap when it comes to things like this.}  I have LOVED having two boards!  My original intent was to switch the boards back and forth as the months changed.  I even put them up on the wall with the Velcro Command Strips so it would be very easy to rotate them.  And it was.  But, I got tired of doing that and now every other month the months are backward.  No big deal to me.

Why two months?  Well, I was constantly not prepared for the start of the next month.  It really bugged me!  I would make overlapping plans or I would procrastinate on getting the next month written up and miss an appointment.  Having two calendars allows me to start planning for the next month and keep it visual.

Ok.  So, having two months up has worked well.  The clutter at the bottom was starting to really get on all our nerves.  I thought the Rust-Oleum Magnetic Paint would be the help I was looking for.  Sadly, it wasn't.

While technically the paint works, it's not worth the money or the time.  Yes, it will hold magnets on the wall, but even the stronger magnets won't hold an appointment post card to it.  I also had to put several more layers of paint up than what were recommended.  Now I have a ridge where the black paint is.  Lesson learned, though.

When I figure out my alternative method, I'll be sure to share.

This is what I now have on my wall.

It's not a complete Command Center, but what I have is working nicely.

I also added this little dry erase board in between the larger boards.

It has really helped to have a place to quickly glance at and see the highlights for the current week.

Now that we have the wall calendar covered, let's move on to electronic.

Electronic Calendar

Having an IPhone, I was using the calendar app that came with it.  It was fine.  Had all the features I needed - calendar, location, multiple alarms, and so forth.

What it lacked was being able to connect with my husband and others.  Maybe I didn't know how to use it to it's fullest potential, though.

Now we use Google Calendar.

The set up definitely works for me.  Our local church group is able to post different activities on the calendar and it automatically goes to my phone.  Whenever Kevin adds an event or appointment to his phone it automatically goes on mine and vise a versa.  I get to color code the events so I can glance and quickly know if an event pertains to family, church, school or work.  (Visual, remember)  It has made things so much easier for me to keep and stay on top of my life and my family's.  It also keeps Kevin and I from double scheduling our life.  

These are all very simple, inexpensive fixes to such a big part of life!  While the family Command Center is still a bit of a work in progress, what I have is working.  Working so well I rarely miss an appointment or special event.  The older kids are able to add school activities as they come up and help keep our life a little less stressful with fewer last minute surprises, too.

Now that you see what I do, I'm curious what everyone else has come up with to keep your events organized.  Do you keep a calendar or two (or three!) on your wall?  Which app do you use on your phone?  Or are you one of those people who can keep it all tucked away in your mind and never miss a beat?  Share and let us all know what you do!  Hop on over to My Life on Facebook and comment or post a picture.

Look for the next on Friday!

Creating Extra Drying Space for Laundry Day

I'm pretty inconsistent around here when it comes to laundry.  I'm either doing load after load in one day (because I've put it all off waaaayyyy too long) or I'm doing a couple loads a day (because I've vowed to never again let it get out of control again..... um..... again).   One thing that is always consistent is I never have enough space to hang the clothes to let them dry.

I got this little contraption from Costco last year and it has helped - especially for all those pants I need to dry but don't want to put on hangers.

All the overflow inevitably goes in doorways.  While that works nicely, all the doorways that have trim around them are to rooms that require privacy multiple times during the day.

 And I have to fix this multiple times a day.....

I stumbled upon such an easy and low cost solution it's crazy!

Tension rods!

You know the ones you used for a shower curtain?  We actually had two in our house not being used. (I'm beginning to think I'm on the edge of hoarding.)  When I stumbled upon them one laundry day, the light bulb went off.  I found a couple of areas that were mostly out of the way, put the rods up, and proceeded to hang clothes.

No more having to pick clothes up off the floor {as much} for me.  Plus, these are very easily relocated if needed.

Laundry day just got a little easier! (And that's always a good thing!)

What do you do to help you on laundry day?

New Use for Wreath Hook

Pretty sure most all of us have one of these. And it's usually, if not always, on the outside of our door holding a very pretty, (hopefully) current holiday appropriate wreath.  

I'm one of those people who is always looking at things a little differently. I'm looking for other ways to use things rather than just the way it's supposed to be used.  (Post about shower curtain rod coming soon!)

See.  One day I got tired of the empty hook just hanging on our front door inviting birds to sit on it and make a mess down the door and on the front step.  So, rather than get a summer themed wreath, I moved the hook to our laundry room/garage door.  

Then one day this happened.

Just hung the beach bag with some of our summer pool gear in it to keep it up out of our way.  

Pretty soon this happened.

And then this.

And..... it's worked out perfectly for the past couple of years to store our summer/pool stuff right there.  I don't have a lot of storage space for these things, and it gets really old going back and forth to the basement each time we want to head to the pool - which is often.  

Now we have the soft sided cooler, towels, toys, bag of googles and our sunscreen ready for when we walk out the door.  Everything is up and out of the reach of the younger kids who have a tendency to pull things out and scatter them around the house, too.  And, it's just made life sooooo much easier!   

Now all I need to do is find something to hang up all the wet stuff for me when we get home.  Anyone have any ideas for that?