Let's Get Organized!

Along with our new family system with our chore charts and calendars there are a few other things we are doing differently that I thought I would share! I know how much these simple things have helped me and if this post helps just one other parent out there than it's worth it. :)

It took a lot of thought on my part to come up with the chore chart for the kiddo's. "What is age appropriate?", "What are they capable of?", "Will this cause frustration on their part?" are all questions I asked myself. Once I came up with a list that I thought suited them, I had another question in mind. "How can I make this fun for them?" The best answer I could come up with is keeping the chores simple and easy to understand.

One of the chores that the kiddo's are responsible for is putting away their clean clothes. They have actually been doing this for a few months now, but up until recently it left their drawers messy, disorganized, and it just wasn't working. My super awesome helper helped me come up with a system. She brought over two small laundry baskets one day and put a kiddo's name on each one. Then she took index cards and gave each drawer a label. Shirts, Bottoms, Underwear, Socks, etc. Hailey isn't reading quite yet but after showing her one time what each drawer was for she has had no problem remembering. Each time I do a load of laundry I fold the kids clothes and then place them in their basket. Then I set their baskets on their drawers and from there it's there job to put them away. It has worked perfectly the past several days!

Another really neat thing were are now doing with the kiddo's is snack baskets! It was driving me NUTSO to have the kids in the kitchen hunting for snacks whenever they pleased. I can't see the kitchen from the living room, or laundry room so I never knew when they were sneaking food! They would leave cabinets open, spill snacks all over the floor, and ruin their appetites right before meals! It was so frustrating and caused a lot of yelling and stress on my part. Now, every morning they chose two snacks and a fruit for the day. The snacks go in a little basket with their name on it. Those are there snacks for the day. If they change their mind then they can pick new snacks for the next day, but they are stuck with whatever snack they chose in the morning. They are not allowed  any more snacks than those.

To help the kids remember to stay out of the cabinets she suggested putting red x's on anything they were not allowed to touch. It really began with Leah's dresser. Previously we had Leah's dresser in the closet where it would not be bothered. The kids had destroyed previous dressers and we didn't want it out where it would be destroyed! "You need to let them know that they are NOT allowed to touch that dresser. Put red x's on it to help remind them!" Well we took that red x idea and decided to use it for all things that the kiddos are not permitted to touch. It really works great for Leah. She was horrible with opening the dishwasher while it was running, and getting into the fridge. Just last weekend she had gotten into the fridge about a dozen times and had eaten 6 pieces of cheese! Since we have put the red x's on the fridge I think she has opened it maybe 3 times. All we had to do was show her the x's and let her know that they meant "NO TOUCH!" It has worked GREAT so far! There has been a few times we've had to remind the kids what the red x's mean, but for the most part it has worked great. The cabinets stay CLOSED!