TCO Menu Planning Checklists!
NEW FREE CHECKLISTS FOR MEAL PLANNING! 
We have said it in the Meal Planning Podcast and we’ll say it again.. One of the best ways to eliminate the “What’s for Dinner?” stress during the 4 o’clock hour is to plan! It takes a little time at the beginning, but once it’s done, it saves you time, stress, and money!
That’s right, even money! If you plan your meals, you will only buy what you need to make the meal… No more food going to waste in the refrigerator!
TCO is very excited to bring you Three New Forms you can get for Free from our Resources page!
Master List of Meals – What I love most about this checklist, is it does the thinking for you! You add your favorite family main dishes, side dishes, fruits & vegetables, and desserts. When you start to plan for your week, you can reference back to this sheet and decide what to make. It listed in a way where you can mix and match. It’s a great reminder without having to think about what your family likes.
Weekly Menu Planner- This is the checklist that will be hanging on our bulletin board every week! It will have what we are having for dinner for each day with what sides, etc. Remember when planning your menu to take into account your schedule. Who has practice or meetings and when? How much time do you have to cook that day etc….
Grocery Checklist- This will also be a staple in the house! The grocery list! When you find you are out of something, quickly grab your sheet and write it down in the category it belongs! Make sure to not leave any ingredients out from the menu’s you just planned!
These are all great forms and can be used together as a package or used separately! Print off several Weekly Menu Planners at one time, and you can plan for more than just one week at a time, or maybe you prefer to go week by week… Just having a plan in writing will eliminate the stress and time you may be wasting!
We always want feedback.. tell us if you love the forms or let us know if they need improvement! We want to know!
To print out these forms and others like our Daily Checklist or Vacation Checklist, please visit the Resource Page on the Website.
Happy Organizing!
Packing School Lunches!
Organized.com Lunch Box!
To continue the theme of Meal Planning from our podcast on Monday, I wanted to share with you some tips and ideas in preparing and planning school lunches. I have come across some great products and websites I wanted to share!
Goodbyn.com
Tip#1 – Have a bin ready to go for all your lunch ingredients! I have one bin that includes; bread, peanut butter, and snacks just designated for the school lunch. This bin is so handy, instead of grabbing all the ingredients and wasting time, you just have to grab the bin with everything in it, make the lunch and place back into the pantry until next time!
Tip#2 - Go green with your lunch box! There are wonderful products out there to use in the lunch box, get rid of the plastic sandwich bags and go green… Have a few containers on hand, so you are not having to do the dishes everyday. Pete Wright from Taking Control, The Home Organizing Podcast highly suggests Goodbyn.com. This product looks great! Instead of having a lot of different pieces, you have one box, one lid! Check it out!
Tip#3 - Have a drop off for the lunch box! Just like the backpack, make sure your kids know where to drop off the lunch box! It saves time in the morning looking for it and then finding old food! Yuck! It’s happened to us and it’s not fun! Make sure they drop off the box after school, so you have plenty of time to clean it and get it ready for the next morning!
Tip#4 - Explore different recipes and get out of the rut of PB & J! I have found some great websites with different recipe ideas and tips for healthy lunches. It breaks the monotony of the same old, same old stuff! Here are my favorites!
If you have any additional tips that makes your life easier, please share! The more the better!
Happy Organizing!
Closet Organizing for Your Kids!
Here we are just a couple of weeks away from the kids going back to school! I went to the mall last Saturday and saw several kids with their parents shopping for school clothes. This brought back a lot of memories of when I was kid! This is a big deal! I remember how exciting it was to pick out what to wear on the first day!
I never did understand why my mother would only buy a few items prior to school starting, then we would get the rest as we needed it. She would say it would give me a chance to see what I really wanted and needed! Now as I parent, I get it! It was really about saving money! Things go on sale as the season goes on and you will most likely always get better deals after school as started! So the tradition now has been passed on… I only buy what they really need right now, and then wait until the sales start coming!
On this weeks podcast, Organizing Closets!, we talked about several tips and ideas to get your closets organized! As with our own closets, the change of season is a great time to go through your children’s closet as well! It’s time to see what fits, what doesn’t, what can be handed down to a sibling or taken to a charity. It’s also time to take inventory on your winter gear, like coats, mittens, gloves, hats, etc. Don’t forget the shoes! Our children grow fast and so do their feet!
**Remember to have a landing spot for all of the outerwear, I have found a hanging sweater organizer works great for hallway closets. Each person as their own cubby for the gloves, hats, etc.
** During the Closet Podcast, we talked about Huggable Hangers! They have these for kids too… You can get them at a variety of different stores. Heres a few links to check out: Target, The Container Store, HSN.
Last summer I wrote a blog post about how to organize your children’s closet. Click here, to read the entire post. It gives great ideas on product and how to most efficiently use your space!
Enjoy these last days of summer! They go by fast!
Happy Organizing!
Back to School – Creating a Homework Station!
Depending on the grade of our child, there is a good possibly they will have homework from day one! The best thing you can do is to be prepared and make sure you child has everything they need, when they need it. It will save time and keep them focused on the homework and not trying to find their pencils and erasers!
You can set up a homework station in a variety of ways. The student could have their own desk in their room or in a common area in the home. If they like to do their homework in different rooms around the house, a portable desk may be a good option. The study space should be a place where the student can think, focus, brainstorm, and if set up correctly, should make doing homework a little less painful!
These are the essentials you need no matter how the work station is set up:
- Kids will not work in a station if it’s not user friendly. You must get their opinions and thoughts about how to best set up a workspace.
- You want the station to have storage space and surface space, they need to have enough space to store all of their supplies, printer, computer, paper etc. You need to have the surface area to write, cut, paste etc.
- Good lighting- It’s hard to do your best work if you can’t see what you are doing!
- Make sure the student is comfortable- if they don’t like their desk chair, they will never sit it in.
- Let me them put personal touches around their workspace – just like if you were working in a cubicle, you want around you the things that make you happy.
- Include a bulletin board and calendar to the workspace – they need to see deadlines and bulletin boards are a great way to post reminders and other information your student may need. (Teach the child to go through the bulletin board on a weekly basis, so it doesn’t fill up with paper clutter)
- Make sure the station is stocked with everything they need! Nothing is worse than finding out you used the last staple. Keep up on the inventory of supplies!
Happy Organizing!
Back to School – The Daily Drop Off!
Pottery Barn Entryway System
Back to School Organizing Tip: Create a space in your home for your children to put their stuff! The daily drop off occurs the same time, the same place, everyday!
Your children are going to need a place for their coats, hats, mittens, backpacks, lunch pails, shoes, and anything else that may come home with them! If you designate the same place every time, it will eliminate the running around in the mornings trying to find the missing shoe!
This is an easy organizing system to put into place in your home as long as you teach your children what is expected from them. You want the kids to put their jackets on hooks, make sure the hooks are at their height, make placing shoes in a bin or a rack easy and painless. Have a basket or bin accessible for the mittens and hats.
Make the drop off place as convenient and easy as possible to ensure success!
Practice! Before school actually starts, do a run through with your kids, and if there is anything that needs to change, now is the time to do it!
Happy Organizing!
Back To Campus- The Organized.com Way!
Back to School!
Ready or not, school is just around the corner! For some of you around the country, it may have already begun! If you have any lessons learned this season, please share your wealth of information! We are always looking for tips to make our lives easier!
I will be the first to admit I am not ready to let go of summer. However, I do know it’s better to be prepared and plan for this upcoming season change. If you are not organized during this time, it can easily turn into chaos with a lot of frustration and stress!
So what can we do to make this time less stressful? Organized.com is one way for sure! The Back to Campus webpage is a great resource for great products and information all of us can learn from…
Here are just a few of my favorite articles and products:
How to Prepare for the First Day of Preschool
More Back to School Posts our on the way.. Visit our Back to School Central Link… This will take you to all the blog posts related to Back to School plus more products I recommend to get your season off right!
Happy Organizing!
Ep 16: Back to School!
The long lazy days of summer are coming to an end, and if you’ve got kids around the house, you know what’s coming: Back to School season! But don’t let the rush and buzz of back to school take you by surprise this year. You can get organized and be prepared for another year of learning with a few quick tips. This week on the show, Nikki Kinzer and Pete Wright talk about back to school, and how you can make the transition smoothly!
Back To School – Eliminate Paper Clutter
Oh joy, the kids are back in school and we’re getting used to the new routines… Life is good… And then from the very first day of school you realize you have an organizing challenge ahead of you! The Paper! The paper is newsletters, permission slips, notes, homework, assignments, and artwork! I am sure I missed a few categories – but you get the point… There is so much paper and if you don’t have a system in place, where does the paper go? Probably everywhere- kitchen counters, tables, kids bedrooms, underneath beds, etc. So here we go again wasting time and energy looking for something we know we have, we just can’t find!
Here are some simple solutions in getting this paper under control!
1. Have a plan for paper- decide up front where the paper is going. For every piece of paper needs to have a home. You can use a banker box, clear or colored storage containers for each child. As paper and artwork come in, this is where it lands. Of course for the special projects and assignments those are posted for everyone to see. But even these items need to be rotated as new ones come in. When they have had their turn on the refrigerator, place in your box.
2. Set guidelines on what is going to be saved and what is not. In order to eliminate paper clutter you can not save everything. Save the items that mean the most to you and your children. You can purge the paper as it comes in, in 2 weeks, 6 months, or at the end of the year. Whatever works best for you, just make sure you do it! For items you don’t necessarily want to keep but do not want to forget, take a picture of the item with your child.
3. Make sure to have a spot designated in your home for important school papers- for example permission slips, upcoming events, calendar, etc. This paper can be tacked on a bulletin board, ( Just make sure to not clutter the bulletin board! Recycle paper as it as expired) I keep a manilla folder on my desk labeled – School Info. Another idea is to have a binder in your kitchen or main area that is just for school papers, you could use tabs to separate the papers by month. It doesn’t matter exactly what it looks like – just make sure to have spot!
4. Have a Memorabilia Box for each child. These are the things you want to keep forever, or at least for awhile! Separate the papers & artwork by grade level and school year. If you scrapbook- use some of the pieces as part of your pages- showcasing your child’s best work.
5. Establish a daily routine to clean out the backpack! Make sure any excess papers are filed and put away.
Happy Organizing!
Back To School – Routines
Organizing with Routines
It’s the morning chaotic rush, school bus is waiting, kids are trying to find their coats, put their backpacks on and run as fast as they can, screaming-”Wait for Me”!
Morning chaos brings us to stressed out kids and stressed out parents! With a little planning and some organization with routines, your mornings and evenings can go much smoother!
Here are some suggestions in achieving the happy child getting on the school bus rather than the stressed out running with paper and clothes flying all around!
1. Write down all the tasks that need to be done in the evening and in the morning. Have the list lamented so as your child finishes the task, they can actually check it off with a dry eraser marker! Great way to instill that to do lists are very helpful in organizing our day! You’re teaching them the value of organization! An example of an evening list may include: Finish homework, pack backpack, choose clothes for next day, shower, brush teeth, read book. An example of a morning list may include: Make bed, Get dressed, eat breakfast, take vitamin, brush teeth, put shoes on.
2. Speak to child’s teacher and get an estimate of how much homework he/she will have, this will give you a better idea of how to manage your evening routine and taking into account homework time, play time, sports and/or other activities they may be involved in. I am a big believer in not scheduling our children to do everything. They need down time too, and it’s important to realize this when planning activities.
3. To eliminate power struggles in the morning, get your children involved in picking their clothes and what they want to eat for lunch the next day. Hold them responsible with your supervision of course!
4. Use your family calendar (Review Recent Blog Post Here) to track your activities and go over it with your children periodically. This is also a good time for a family meeting (Review Recent Blog Post Here). Review the rules in the house, the chores each child is responsible for, changes the family needs to prepare for. The more communication, the more prepared your children will feel and be!
5. Practice your routines before school starts! A week before, start your bedtime and wake up calls and practice! Get used to checking off their duties and getting things done in the time allotted. This also gives you time to tweak the schedule if you need!
Next Blog Post – What to do with all the paper that comes home from school!!
Back to School – School Supplies
Save on School Supplies
I came across an article from the Wall Street Journal on Sunday that I wanted to share on my blog. This is a brief summary of 5 ways to stretch your Back To School Dollars….
1. Go online- Many stores stock less inventory and there’s a good chance you may not find what you are looking for. Go online to places like OfficeDepot.com and Walmart.com. This can save you time and hassle, and when buying several items-many will qualify for free shipping.
2. Shop on Weekdays- According to FrugalDad.com, many sales run from Thursday – Sunday. If you go on a Thursday evening, you will find the best selection, if you wait until Sunday, many times you going through left -overs.
3. Buy more- Another tip from FrugalDad.com, buy school supplies in three’s, so you won’t have to buy replacements midyear, when they aren’t on sale.
4. Get creative- Try making some supplies on your own, for ideas see MarthaStewart.com and ReadyMade.com.
5. Wait a week or two- As for clothes shopping, if you can hold off until after school begins, advises BargainBabe.com, you will have a better idea of what other kids are wearing, so there’s no chance that you’ll clothes your child is refusing to wear.
(This article is a summary from an article I read in the Wall Street Journal Sunday – edited by Nikki Waller.)
-
Premiere Partners
