In this article, our guest writer Eddie Harmon provides some great advice on how to keep your home and family organized.
We can all benefit from these ideas, but some of us need more help. Up to six percent of us suffer from Hoarding Disorder. If you think you or someone you love might be affected by this, there are resources that can help, like The Comprehensive Cleanup Guide for People with Hoarding Disorder.
Update: You might also want to read this guide to downsizing for aging in place, which is helpful to anyone considering a more minimalist approach for their long-term goals. It goes over:
Choosing the right layout and floor plan for a downsized home
Tips for navigating the process of sifting through belongings and choosing what to keep
Resources to help people clear out their homes
Now here's Eddie's article:
As a parent, keeping your family organised isn't always easy. On top of your own obligations, like work, you have to juggle all kinds of activities for the kids, from school assignments to extracurricular activities. Doing it all while keeping your home organised (and staying sane) isn't always easy. Luckily, there are some tricks that can help. Today, TaskAngel shares some information and provides plenty of affordable hacks to help busy parents stay on top of it all.
Establish one central scheduling tool
Pick one tool to track all of your family's important events and appointments, from dentist check-ups to school plays. Making this a shared document that everybody can add to is usually the easiest and fastest way to keep everyone up to date. There are many collaborative calendar tools you can use that don't cost you a thing, like Google Calendar. Other options include Microsoft Outlook, Apple Calendar, and UpTo.
Get your documents organised
Organising your family's diverse documents, from health records to report cards, is another challenge. Save space and make it easier to organise your documents by digitising them. Instead of keeping track of lots of individual files, combine your documents into single files using a PDF online tool. You can reorder, delete, and rotate pages. Also, if the file is too large, this tool may help by allowing you to compress the file in seconds for free.
Declutter your home
Once you've gotten rid of the paper clutter, take the next step and get rid of other clutter in the home. Becoming Minimalist provides a guide to paring down your possessions. For example, you can try using the 12-12-12 challenge. Locate 12 items you can throw away, 12 you can donate, and 12 that need to be organised better. It also helps to view your home as if you were a first-time visitor. Get the whole family involved in the process.
Decluttering a home is the perfect time for people to evaluate what furniture is really bringing value to their space, and what is no longer needed. While most people prefer to donate or sell their unwanted furniture rather than throwing it away, the logistics of transporting heavy furniture can be a huge hassle.
This Old House Reviews team gathered a list of charities that offer free furniture pickup services to help ensure homeowner’s furniture find new homes, benefiting families in need and preventing landfill waste.
Create a chore sheet
Help keep your home organised by creating a chore sheet. Research suggests that adding chores to a child's routine is beneficial in many ways, from teaching them responsibility to helping them balance work and play. Add the entire family to the chore sheet, assigning parents and kids alike their respective duties. For example, maybe mom cooks dinner while dad cleans up. You can find free printable chore sheets from A Cultivated Nest online.
Plan your family meals in advance
Planning your family meals in advance is another trick you can use to keep kids and adults organised. This also makes it easier to get the whole family to sit down together at the table, which is a great way to get some quality time. To simplify meal planning, look for easy recipes that don't take long to make. Dishes that are easy to reheat are also a great idea. This can save you time and stress when cooking. Plus, dinner can double as lunch later. Of course, this is also an excellent way to get your kids involved in cooking. And by teaching them to cook for themselves, you’re laying the foundation for a healthy future.
Create a family chat
Keeping up with the family when you're all on the go isn't easy. With kids at school and parents at work, you might not get as much contact as you want. Establishing a family group chat using a tool like Whatsapp or Signal is a great way to stay in regular communication. This also makes it easier to stay organised. For example, if one of the kids is going to be late coming home from school, they can let you all know in the family group chat at once.
As a parent, staying organised and keeping track of your family's many activities and obligations isn't always easy. However, there are plenty of cost-efficient tips and tools that can help you, from PDF converters to chore charts. Implement the tips above and prepare for a more organised and relaxed family life.
TaskAngel is here to help people face the challenges that life throws at them by providing advanced software technologies that are easy to use.
Author
Eddie Harmon is our guest writer for this article.
Eddie is a serial entrepreneur. He started his first business in college and has been starting, growing, and then selling his businesses ever since. He created Better Biz Tips to share some of his expertise along with what he considers the best business growth resources on the internet.