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Article
Organizing Strategies

Simplify Summer in Five Easy Rules

By Tara Aronson

Categories: Organizing, Motivation
Tagged: Childproofing, Chores, Cleaning Strategy, Cleaning Tips, Delegation, Kid's Toys, Kids Cleaning, Organizing Strategies, Shoes, Summer Vacation, Time Saving, Toys

Summer is practically here. Soon our little darlings will be at home - with us - all day!

 

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How will we (and our homes) survive the onslaught of mud, fingerpaints and toys?

Simple. We'll set our ground rules for summer now. And stick to them.

Here are the five big ones I put into play:

  1. Keep it (them) outside. When the sun is shining and it's warm and wonderful outside, kids should be there, too! We're not raising moles here. No TV or Wii games during daylight hours. That rule alone should minimize toys strewn around.
  2. Create no-shoes zones. Leave all shoes at the door. This rule will also minimize in and out traffic - especially if the kids are wearing sneakers they have to take time to lace up.
  3. Enlist the troops. Hand out chores for each kid. No weekend fun till the week's chores are done.
  4. Forget cleaning day. Instead of setting aside a whole precious morning (or worse - a whole day) for cleaning, try cleaning as you go. Trash on Monday, baths on Tuesday, kitchens on Wednesday, laundry on Thursday, floors on Friday. And we're off for the weekend!
  5. Make a month of menus. Figuring out what to cook for dinner occupies too much time and brain power. At the beginning of each month, ask each member of the family to write down his or her 10 favorite dinners and his/her five favorite lunch and breakfast foods. Get out the calendar and mark through the days when the family's eating out. Then plug the family's request into the remaining days. Now we can shop by the week and make everyone happy - at least for a couple of meals a week.

Now we can enjoy the sunny days, too!

Simplify Summer in Five Easy Rules:  Created on May 14th, 2009.  Last Modified on May 14th, 2009

 

About Tara Aronson

Tara Aronson

Tara Aronson is author of Housekeeping With Kids. Her San Francisco Chronicle column entitled "Coming Clean" — focusing on household cleaning and maintenance — reaches 1.5 million readers. Aronson is an expert in home cleaning and organizing. Her advice has appeared in numerous national and regional publications, including Ladies' Home Journal, The Washington Post and Woman's World. Visit Tara's Web site.

Aronson is fast becoming a familiar face on national television (Living It Up with Ali & Jack, Soap Talk, The Other Half, CNNfn, etc.) and is also a much sought-after lifestyle expert for local television news and radio programs nationwide.
 

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