It’s that time of year again - the time when we resolve to turn over a new leaf and make our lives more organised and easier to run.
While we may not be able to carry through many of our plans to 2016 - or even February - you may find that certain tips you picked up are the ones you keep from now on. After all, if we don’t try we won’t know!
Here are some simple tips that can help make your family life more organised for the new year:
- Paperwork
From bills to birth certs and medical records, it’s a good idea to have all of these categorised somewhere safe where you can easily find them. This means an excuse to buy some pretty stationary which is always nice!
- Family calendar
If you have children that are running in all opposite directions most nights of the week, it can be a good idea to keep track of everything in a big calendar on the wall of the kitchen where you will see it. You can colour coordinate children’s names with their activities and you’ll never forget to drop them to ballet straight after GAA ever again! This can also be a great idea for giving your child a certain level of responsibility in their own activities.
- Clothes/Lunches/Dinner
There is little more tedious than picking out clothes and making school lunches every day. But you can do your best to minimise this with a little effort on a Sunday evening. If your children don’t wear uniforms then picking out their outfits for the week ahead can be really handy. You can also plan your own outfits to make getting out of bed a little more daunting! While you can’t pre-make sandwiches on a Sunday, you can organise all of the snacks that go with them such as yoghurts, fruit and anything else in a certain part of the fridge ready to grab and throw into a lunchbox. If you have a lazy Sunday and feel like doing some cooking, you can batch cook some meals for the week and freeze them. Meaning all you have to do is throw them in the microwave to defrost.
- Tidy space-tidy mind
There’s no doubt that when your home is clean you feel more relaxed and have more peace of mind. Get rid of clutter by buying boxes for toys/shoes/teddies and anything else you feel makes your home feel cluttered and chaotic. This can also be great to teach kids that everything has a place and how to clean up when they are done with their toys. Every two-three months ask them to make a pile of toys they don’t want anymore to donate for charity. Keep them somewhere separate for another month before giving them away, in case they ask for something and it’s gone!
