when looking through back posts of this blog I can definetly see a trend for more re purposing and less buying. A trend not just shared by LessMess, but everywhere. And rightly so!
Here is another one with bulldog clips – an item most of us have plenty of!!!
This sounds like a multi layered and hard to answer question, but it is really just one question:
“What is your priority?”
Business or family/friends?
You need to be clear on this and keep on asking yourself this question, because it will change over time and with circumstances.
For Example
You have very young kids and your partner works long hours:
Kids and family come first for most of us.
Kids move into high school:
You are able to focus more on your business.
A partner is able to step in and take more responsibilities for the family:
Business takes a step forward.
You start working together with someone, or outsource certain aspects of your business:
you are able to focus more on your home live.
For a lot of us growing older means more interest in family, a first step to retirement?
Have you ever looked at your job/family relationship through that pure view of what is important? Because, if you find something important enough, you will find time for it. There is no such thing as no time; there is something like not important.
Ask yourself, honestly, whether you take the ‘Time excuse?
Once you have that figured out, you will find there is less of a conflict between your business and your family.
A couple of key tips to help you get there:
Planning is essential:
With the risk of being boring, but there is nothing wrong with always cooking soup on soccer practise nights!
Don’t get trapped in time traps:
Don’t waste your time with things that are neither family nor business. If you use facebook to relax; do so, but don’t whinge afterwards that you don’t have time to write an important e mail or pick the kids up from school. Be honest with yourself.
Communicate:
Tell your partner and your kids that your priorities have changed; for good or just for a while.
Stick to a schedule as much as possible, but when dinner is late, don’t just serve it late, explain to your kids why you need to work and ask them to pitch in by washing veggies or even heating up soup. They will adapt better to schedule changes when you involve them!
Take short time outs:
Get away from it all. Me time is time that benefits your business AND your family
there are so many uses for this sort of pouch Organiser. We used to have our soft toys in one!
I love this, because I see it all the time, that people oversupply on cleaning products, because the cupboard they store them in is too deep or it’s in a mess under the laundry sink. This cheap gadget takes care of this, and you should actually have half the products after re jigging your laundry cupboard.
One of my Organising colleagues shared this in our AAPO Members Only Facebook group – and I am having lots of fun with this. The fastest sculler in Australia is getting a T-Shirt printed for his birthday with all the rowing lingo on it!
Unfortunately, it’s not a time saving tip – more a time waster, but one has to have fun!!!
To do your own, just tick the tick and get started!
Max, our oldest son, was rowing in the Australian Open Rowing Championship three weeks ago at the Sydney International Rowing Centre in Penrith. He participated in the Men’s under 17 single scull event. An event he never before rowed, because the younger kids normally just race for 1000m, not the 2000 he had to do there.
Hubby and I decided this is a too important event to be missed and put our hands up to volunteer for part of the week. Good fun, very hot, lots of work.
We wanted to be there for Max, but at the same time couldn’t be there for the other two children we have.
We had to get our head around how to organise that week: transport, food, clothing, other social engagements, meal planning ( which in our family always includes the main meal of afternoon tea when the kids come home from school.)
And because the two ‘little ones’ (12 and 9) basically had to fend their way in the morning, (and rowing means a very early morning, more like middle of the night!!) completely on their own, there was a serious family discussion about what they needed to do to be at school on time.
When we had this discussion, I realised, if they do reliably what they should be doing every morning anyway, they are going to be fine.
And that’s what happened: there weren’t any issues, Mr 12 wrote me a text every morning once he was on the bus, that he and Tim where safely on their way to school!!
My thoughts were not worth the worry, because we have put responsibilities onto the kids from an early age. They have basic household survival skills: get up on time, feed cat, make breakfast and lunches, everything back into the fridge and dishwasher, rubbish out, schoolbag packed and leaving the house on time with socks on (major issue for Mr9). It does work even with no parental input.
At the end of that week, Max got into the final, which makes him the quickest 14 year old Sculler in Australia (he actually came last in that final, but we are looking at the bright side). So obviously we are very proud of him.
The other two achieved their personal best in getting themselves to school with I think less yelling and stress than when us parents hang around.
Big thumbs up for the Brenner boys.
There are a lot of cable sorting solutions on the market. Some really edgy, some just cheap and practical. This is definitely a cheap solution, because most would have the supplies at home and it doesn’t even require a trip to Officeworks (which is a good thing!!!!)
To keep it in the same spirit, reuse and recycle, you can label them with a bread tie or a cloth peg
If you want a more permanent and transport friendly solution,LessMess sells cable labels that really stick.
Last year I was interview by a journalist for the Sydney Child who wrote about age appropriate Christmas presents. She wanted a Professional Organiser’s take on the issue of too many toys, especially around these ‘special times’ in a child’s year.
I am a Designer before I started my career as a Professional Organiser, and one of the timeless design mantras has been: less is more
When I work with clients with young kids, that doesn’t seem to be the case – in fact, most families have so much, kids can’t play for lack of space.
In my home country, which is Germany, they do toy-less weeks in early childhood centres and preschools. The background is, that having access to lots of toys discourages kids from playing in a team and interact socially; some toys leave little to imagination. It’s also a way to demonstrate to kids how other generations grew up and a lot of kids in developing country still do. It encourages discussions about consumerism and greed. It’s a lesson in life skills.
There is a believe that it helps in preventing addictions in later life!
For the carers the change is profound: from animation for action to quiet observer. They learn about the true nature of the kids left in their care.
Reading a couple of the reports from childcare workers about these projects shows, that kids engage more with their peers, fight less (because there is nothing to fight about?) and start doing a lot of role play and movement related games (sport). They bring in more ideas from home. Some kids find it hard, some easier. In general, the more siblings someone has, the easier they find engaging with the toy free concept.
The most puzzling thing for me as a Professional Organiser is the common answer kids give at the end of the project. The part they enjoyed most was that there was no necessity at the end of the day to tidy up.
That should get us thinking!
I am feeling very smug about this, it’s such a great idea (at least, it works for me!)
I have a nifty paper calendar that holds all my appointments, ideas and to do lists. In true New Year spirit I created a poster for myself of things I want to achieve in my business. Working on it, a couple of items boiled down to be a weekly task, like updating LessMess facebook page twice a week… So I created little stickers and photocopied a whole page onto fitting labels…
Now I have at least the re occurring section of my diary planned till the end of the school term. I won’t forget and I do loooove crossing things off the list!!!
Since last week, the LessMess family has three children at three different schools:
A year 9 child at the local High School in cycling distance,
a year 7 at a selective High School a bus drive away and
the ‘baby’ at the not local Primary School, a mum’s taxi distance.
Number one does train 3 days a week so isn’t around for the before breakfast routines.
Number two now has to leave the house at 8.10 (we think).(We still have to try out a couple of other options like taking the bike or a different bus.)
Number 3 is fazed by nothing so is notorious late to get his shoes on and find his hat.
Our morning routine will have to adapt to the new school year:
It used to be Ben’s chore to pack the dishwasher, but now he is the first one to leave the house and it’s sometimes impossible to wait for number 3 to finish breakfast in a reasonable time frame. There has been a lot of complaints form the younger ones, that Max is never around to do his chores, because, you know, 14 year olds have a social live and there is the training!!!
We have to find a new system to make workload fair (at least in the kid’s eyes) and make sense.
Whilst I get onto fine tuning our routine and find new chores for the kids to do as they grow older, here is a list of things kids could do around your house.
Chores for Kids
In my day to day interaction with clients, I come across a fare few of overwhelmed and overworked mums. They have high expectations of their own ability and very low ones of the people who also live in the household… and I am not going to go down the lane of unhelpful husbands here…
I am always amazed in how little is expected of our children. I think its essential live skills you should be teaching them. Will going to ballet class help you later in live? Knowing how to cook and having a routine around bringing the bins out and emptying the dishwasher does!
Whilst it is an investment in time initially – it does pay off in the end when everyone is doing a more and more perfect job every time and eventually is a real help around the house.
2 and 4 year olds
5 and 6 year olds
all of the above plus
7 and 8 years old
all of the above plus:
8 and 9 year olds
all of the above plus:
9 year olds
all of the above plus:
10 and 11year olds:
all of the above plus
12 year olds and older
all of the above plus
there are heaps of drawer dividers, but this seems to be very easily adjusted/cut to size, and very cheap
unfortunately, I found this at a One Dollar Shop, so can’t link to a source. It’s worthwhile keeping your eyes peeled at your local.
If you are in the area, it was in Birkenhead Point, right next to EB Games. (now you know where I parked the kids whilst doing the shopping.)
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