Organized Parenting
I recently came across a book called The Complete Guide to Organized Parenting (at the bottom of that page) written by Barbara Myers. She is a professional organizer, mom and website owner who has put together this exhaustive resource.
You may think, “Is organized parenting really possible?” I’ve read many organizing books over the years and have used many different principles. My friends all think I’m organized but my family doesn’t think so. I learned quiet a few things from Barbara’s book. The thing I liked about it is that she takes your personal style and your family’s style into account. Many organizing books tell you to do things a certain way and that’s it. She gives you lots of ideas and asks some very pointed questions that help you know what you have and what you want when it comes to organizing.
This eBook is 147 pages long and addresses a myriad of issues including these chapter headings:
Keeping it all together
You as CEO
Helping kids help
Feeding the Crew
Coping with Kid’s Rooms
Mastering Paper Piles & Too Little Time
Tips, Worksheets and Checklists
I can tell you that this book has truly inspired me. I have been walking around all day implementing her principles and thinking about the questions that she asks in the book.
The book starts out with helping you understand and come up with a vision for your children and how you want to accomplish realizing that vision.
There are lots of charts available for you to use if you like. Many of them I had never found in any organizing books I have ever read. I love charts and checklists and these are a great help even if you don’t normally like charts and checklists.
She addresses laundry issues with some great questions on what you’re currently doing now and what you want to be doing. There are also plenty of tips on dealing with kids rooms and clutter, meals the easy way, grocery shopping tips, organizing your kitchen, and organizing principles for finding things.
She also helps you by giving you a list of chores by ages of children showing you what a typical child of each age should be able to accomplish. I really liked the list of chores for the whole house. Sometimes when our children see all the chores around the house and whose name is written next to each of those chores, they see that they really aren’t doing nearly as much as Mom or Dad.
Although the author is not a home school Mom, the book is still very adaptable to a home schooling lifestyle. Her principles can be used by anyone, so I don’t see this as an issue.
I loved Barbara’s writing style. She didn’t talk down to me in her writing, just gave lots of great suggestions and tools that I can use to go along with my personality and personal preferences.
If you’re naturally organized and have no problem keeping track of anything or anyone, then this book is probably not for you. If you occasionally find yourself feeling stressed out and disorganized, then I highly recommend Organized Parenting (find the book at the bottom of the page) as a calm source of information that you can use and implement today!
