Time Management for Kids

Time management is a life skill that will benefit your child throughout their life time. So often, we hear adults exclaiming how tired and burned out they are. This is most likely because they never learned how to properly manage time and set boundaries. With some simple steps, you can put your child on a path to a less stressed out childhood and adult life.

Here are some skills to teach your child so they can begin to learn the process of managing their own time in an effective way:


1. Set limits and stick to them. Get out a large calendar and start filling in the activities/obligations you already have. Be sure to include necessary activities like family dinner time, homework time, church, etc. If there is overlap, it is time to prioritize. This may include making some hard decisions about which activities to keep and which to let go. Explain to your child that life is full of hard choices, but picking a few things and doing them well is more important then trying to cram it all in. Keep this calendar up in your house all the time. This will serve as a visual account of what you have to do each day/week.

2. Prioritize. Help your child to make a list of their activities and obligations in order of importance. Are the things at the bottom of the list really necessary? If not, consider resigning or limiting activity with those groups. Your kids may find that once they have less going on, they are happier and less stressed out as well.

3. Say no. Sounds simple, but somehow that two letter word can be hard to say. A nice way to say it is, “that sounds like a neat activity, but we don’t have the time right now.” Practice saying this with your child. After they have said it a few times, it will be easier when they are confronted off guard. Explain to your child that they are not doing anyone any favors by being stretched too thin.

4. Post a daily routine in your home. This will help you and your kids to stay on track. Getting everyone on a time schedule at home will help you all to keep pace in your day. The posted schedule will serve as a visual reminder until you and your kids get into a regular habit. This also teaches your kids the importance of routines and utilizing calendars.

5. Use a timer. We all tend to get side tracked – a really good show is on, a good friend calls, a fun new game on the computer….. All this is fine in moderation, but how much time do things like this really claim? Set limits on these activities for your child. When your child sits down to do any of these activities, set a timer. When it goes off, remind your child that it is time to end the activity. Point out to your child that time easily slips away when we are preoccupied. Show your child how to get that time back by watching it more closely. They may complain or resist, but in the long run, this is a very important life skill.

6. Teach by example – If time management is not your strength, it is not too late to learn. Not only should you do it for yourself, but do it for your child. We all know that we have to practice what we preach or our kids will cry foul. Utilize these methods for yourself as well as your child and, as a family, have better time management so you can all be more stress free.

Time management is a habit like eating vegetables and brushing your teeth. It may take a few tries, but once you get into the swing of it, you will find it easy to stay on top. Remember that living a stress filled life is not only hard on you, but hard on your kids.

Meagan Farrell, professional organizer, is the owner of Clear the Clutter organizing services. She can be reached at (360) 631-7268 or at clear_theclutter@yahoo.com. Check out her blog at http://cleartheclutterprofessionalorganizing.blogspot.com/

Purge and Recycle

Our plasma t.v. just died. It was 6 years old and apparently that is well within the life span of one of the earlier models. My husband is thrilled. This is an excuse to get an even larger television. But what to do with the old one?

Clients I deal with are faced with this problem all the time - what to do with old electronics. Costco and Best Buy both have buy back programs for computers, MP3s, cell phones, etc. Those programs are fabulous because not only can you easily recycle your old stuff, but these businesses will give you store credit for them as well. Win, win! Televisions, however, are not on those lists of buyable items.

Enter www.earth911.com. Earth 911 is a simple site to use. Simply plug in what item you need to dispose of and your zip code. You will get a long list of stores who will take your item and dispose of it properly. I found at least 10 local businesses who will take my television for me. Now off with my happy husband to do some television shopping....

"One cannot collect all the beautiful shells on the beach. One can collect only a few, and they are more beautiful if they are few. One moon shell is more impressive than three. There is only one moon in the sky. One double-sunrise is an event; six are a succession, like a week of school days. Gradually one discards and keeps just the perfect specimen; not necessarily a rare shell, but a perfect one of its kind." -Anne Morrow Lindbergh from Gift From the Sea.

Organizing, like dieting....

We all know how diets go. You pick a diet plan, follow it closely and lose the weight. Then after a few months, you get out of your new routine and fall back to the old. What happens then? You gain the weight back. Getting organized and losing weight are the same in that manner. Both are things that require permanent changes in your lifestyle.

If you truly want to get organized in life, it all boils down to changing your ways. Just like there is no magic diet pill, no amount of cute gear from the organizing store can magically make you organized forever. You must permanently alter the way you operate.

To get organized, reduce what you have. Once you have truly weeded out what you no longer (or never did to begin with) need, organize your stuff. If you need help, hire a professional. Come up with organizational systems and solutions that are realistic for you, but remember, you will still need to permanently change your habits.

Habit changing is difficult, but if you set realistic goals, like doing 15 minutes a day of organizing, you should have no problem doing it.



Meagan Farrell, professional organizer, is the owner of Clear the Clutter organizing services. She can be reached at (360) 631-7268 or at clear_theclutter@yahoo.com. Check out her blog at http://cleartheclutterprofessionalorganizing.blogspot.com/

Managing photos

With 15 years of marriage under our belts and a recent victory in the battle of breast cancer, my husband and I decided to renew our wedding vows. It was a lovely ceremony full of love and emotion. With the professional photographer snapping away, we re-committed ourselves to a life together.

A few days after the ceremony, we sat down to look at all the photos taken. There were so many amazing shots and we wanted them all. But after the initial glee of reliving the ceremony through photos wore off, we realized something……we pretty much never look at the photos taken 15 years ago – the first time we said “I do.”

15 years ago we spent a large chunk of our wedding budget on photography. I love pictures and that was one of my priorities. But all these years later, the photos have hardly been looked at and only a few are actually in frames on my wall.

Pictures are hard to walk away from. They are a moment captured and a memory to hold onto. But they only offer you this gift if they are looked at and remembered. A photo means little to someone who doesn’t know the story behind it or the people in it. So read on for a few tips to keep photographs under control:

When organizing pictures, first and foremost, think minimally. You attend your children’s soccer game and take 50 photos. When you download them, immediately go through them with a logical mind. Immediately delete the ones that just aren’t any good. Then delete the ones that look a lot alike. Your goal is to get down to only the ones that are absolutely the best. Your child will not want 50 photos times every soccer game they were ever in to have to manage one day.

Once you narrowed them down, make sure you put them in their own folder and label it. These photos will mean so much more to your child someday if they can remember the who, what, where, and when of it all.

While scrapbooks are a lovely way to preserve memories, keep them to a minimum. Our children’s generation knows only one thing – digital. Scrapbook only the most special occasions and leave the rest on CD’s. Also consider digital scrapbooks.

Photos are like everything else. Too many of them or not having them neatly organized can make it overwhelming instead of enjoyable.



Meagan Farrell, professional organizer, is the owner of Clear the Clutter organizing services. She can be reached at (360) 631-7268 or at clear_theclutter@yahoo.com. Check out her blog at http://cleartheclutterprofessionalorganizing.blogspot.com/

Organizing Basics Class

Interested in spending 2 hours learning all the tricks to getting really organized? Come join me on Monday, May 23 from 6:30 - 8:30 while I give away hoards of organizing tips and answer your specific questions. Class will be held at Park Place Middle School in Monroe, WA. Registration fee is $15. To register, call 360-804-2570. Come join us!

Behind the Door Shoe Holders Are Good for More than Just Shoes.

We have all seen those shoe holders that hang behind your door, but did you know that there are so many more uses for them?

Put one in your kids' room to hold Polly Pockets or Matchbox cars.

Put one in the bathroom to organize hair accessories or personal care products.

Hang one in your office to hold USB cables and office supplies (see photo).

Hang one in your pantry to organize spices or kids snacks.

These shoe holders are inexpensive and come in a few different colors. Just label the pockets and you are ready to go, utilizing a completely unused space.