Friday Five: Five Best Clean up songs for Kids

I get asked often at speaking engagements about how to help children learn to clean up better after themselves.  I have learned with my own children, one of the best ways to motivate them to clean up was to play  a simple game I call, "beat the music".  I would simply choose a few upbeat songs to play and I tell them to see if they can get their things picked up before the end of the last song.

I was able to do this easy activity with my children as young as two and truth be told, my eight year old still loves it and often asks to play it when I announce it is clean up time.  Why does this simple act of adding music to your clean up time make such a difference?  I have come up with my own three reasons that I believe it is effective:

1. 
   
   It is upbeat and keeps the kid's moving fast to pick up items. 
2. 
   
   There is a time limit being set by the length of the songs and it will help kids learn to meet small goals.
3. 
   
   As the parent you are relieved of the duty of repeating over and over... "Clean up your toys."  Instead you are able to act as an encourager and cheerleader saying, "You are doing great!  You are going to beat the music for sure!"  

You can choose random songs if you want or you can try to make your own unique blend of clean up songs that you play ONLY at clean up time.  It will get to the point where you won't even have to announce it is time to pick up... only start the CD and they will automatically know what to do. 

This is why for today's Friday Five I want to share with you this list of clean up songs.  After many years of searching I am proud to announce my top Five songs for The Best Clean up Songs for kids!

#5: The Clean up Crew by Don't Blink (2005 Trio Lane Records)

#4: Clean Up by Children's Groove (2006 Children's Groove)

#3: The Clean up Robot By Mark D. Pencil and Friends (2006 Mark D. Pencil)

#2: Clean my Room by The Imagination Movers (Calling All Movers, Disney)

#1 AND... the #1 song... that I love to use to help kids learn to clean their toys is.... In the Box by Eric Herman!!! I have not worked with a kid yet that did not love this song!

I hope that these five songs will help motivate the kids in your life to pick up their toys... and hopefully make pick up time a little more fun and enjoyable for kids and parents.

Organizing Birthday Party Fever

My oldest son is turning eight in about a week and a half… hard to believe. I know that every mom or parent that stumbles upon this post will be able to relate with my mother’s heart and how it is constantly torn between enjoyment over watching him grow older and sadness over watching him grow older. I watch each passing year and think, “Wow, how is time going by so quickly?” Sometimes for me birthdays are almost bittersweet because I want my children to be preserved in childhood’s innocence and carefree nature for as long as possible.

However, despite my realization that the years are flying by… my kids meet birthdays with excitement and jubilation! Isn’t it ironic how we can’t wait to get to that next birthday, next phase in our life… until we get there? Just days after my middle son turned six this past summer, I vividly remember him saying to me one night, “Man mom, being six is so much more work than being five.”

Birthdays at our house are always celebrated with a uniquely designed birthday party celebration and the celebrating child gets to help design most every aspect of the special day. In fact, birthday party fever, as I like to refer to it, often begins more than a month or more before the actual day. My children take great care in making sure that this year’s party is just as good if not better than last year’s… and I am always the one feeling the pressure to perform.

I was at a birthday party once for a family friend at a local park; the kids were all having a nice time playing on the equipment until the mother realized that the father forgot to bring the birthday cake. Needless to say, the little birthday girl went into total meltdown mode at the absence of her princess cake. All in all it was resolved easily with dad dashing home to grab the cake while mom distracted daughter and guests with a fun game of duck, duck, goose!

This experience, though it was not mine personally… still made a profound impact on me. I know how important birthday parties are to kids and I don’t want to be the one hanging out in the doghouse just because I forgot to bring a key ingredient to the party.

To save myself and other moms out there from frantic last moment dashes home, I have created the Birthday party checklist. This checklist is two pages and it will go through all of the steps before, during, and after the party that you need to make your child’s birthday both special and organized. You can either purchase it alone or as part of our birthday planning pack. There are two options for you to organize the perfect birthday party for your kids!

I am almost through with my checklist for our upcoming March birthday… but I know it will only be a matter of time before the youngest of my three, whose birthday is in July will begin wanting to plan her party as well… ahhhh… it never ends.

Gain Time and Money in the Laundry Room

I have two boys and a little girl, I knew from the get go that my boys were going to be messy because they are of course boys.  Boys seem to attract every mud puddle and grass stain known to mankind.  In fact, there have been times that I swear the stains must have leapt off of the ground and onto the pants, because they can get dirty just walking to the car!

No when my daughter came along... the last thing that I could have immagined was that she could possibly ever be messier than her brothers.  Oh, how she has proven me wrong!  My darling four year old daughter will sit down to dinner clean and walk away with milk, ketchup, and macaroni smeared all over her.  She gets toothpaste stains on the cuffs of her sleeves and she's been known to get wild and wacky with the crayons and have part of her masterpiece walk away with her on her jeans.  The girl is a walking laundry stain!

I wish this was the end of my laundry drama but alas my husband is in construction... so don't even get me started on the NASTY stuff that he wears home!

I share all of this with you because I know first hand how much time you can spend in the laundry room experimenting with different meathods to remove adhesive stains from your son's favorite batman shirt!  I also know how painful it can be to throw clothes out because the stain simply would not come out of your daughter's skirt and it was no longer presentable. 

This personal struggle with my stain prone family is what motivated me to create this week's Featured Product: Our Laundry Room Stain Guide!  I have spent years researching the best way to get rid of common stains that families get into and I have put them all together in this printable sheet.  I made the sheet one sided so that you can easily post it in your laundry room and refer to it so that you can get the stain out easier.
To download our laundry room stain guide Click Here.

In addition to posting our stain guide in your laundry room,  I would also encourage you to put together a "stain kit".  Once you have downloaded the stain guide and printed it out, assemble some of the products that are used to get many of these common stains out and keep them in a bucket or caddy in your laundry room for quick access.

These two suggestions are all about keeping your stain treatment as organized as possible to save you both; time by spending less time battling the stain and money by saving the clothing.

Conquering the Five O'Clock Panic

What does dinnertime look like at your house?  In 2006 a study by Columbia University found that of the students between the ages of twelve and seventeen that they polled, fifty-eight percent of them at dinner around the table with the family an average of five nights a week.  In a recent post we talked about some of the benefits of eating together as a family (Past Post: Health Advantages of Getting Organized); however, one of the main things that I hear from moms everywhere is the common struggle with what I like to call the five o'clock panic.

I define the five o'clock panic as that moment when you look up and realize that you have to have dinner on the table in a short amount of time and you have no idea what to fix!  It is that feeling that often propels famlies through drive thru locations all over the country.  Did you know that the average family in the United States eats an average of four meals away from home?  Many of these visits are because of a lack of meal planning in many homes. 

I have two quick secrets to conquering the five o'clock panic that I want to share with you today:

Secret #1:  Make a menu. 

Many of us do not like the idea of having to follow a strict schedule that we created a week or more ago.  I mean what happens if you wake up on Tuesday and Tacos suddenly do not sound good and you have a craving for Thursday's homemade fried rice? The concept of making a weekly, bi-monthly, or monthly menu has gotten a bad rap so I set out to correct that.  I have created  downloadable menu planners that you can purchase on our website for just a few dollars.  You save them to your computer and then each time you need to make a new menu, simply print it off!  Our Menus are created more like a checklist... once you make a meal mark it off and then the next day you can pick that day's meal from what is remaining.  You do not have to assign certain foods to certain days.  To take a look at these downloadable products click here.

Secret #2:  Use a Slow Cooker.

My slow cooker is by far and away my very best friend!  I have invested time and money in creating a cookbook library that gives me hundreds of yummy meals that I can make in my little time saving device.  I love using my slow cooker because I can throw the ingredients in the pot in the morning before I run the kids to school and it is ready for us when we return home from a busy day of school, work, and actvities.  I am able to serve my family healthier meals and I am able to enjoy dinner without stress or worry of a big mess to clean up!  If you are not using a slow cooker at least once a week... I challenge you do dig it out, wash it off, and but it to work saving you time and energy in the kitchen!

The other benefit that I have found in using my slow cooker is that I have personally cut almost $100 a month out of our food budget!  This is because I have been able to reduce the pricey trips through drive thrus on nights when our family was busy or rushed- since dinner was already waiting at home.

In fact... I am such a strong believer in how the slowcooker can save you time in the kitchen... I am giving away a copy of my favorite slow cooker recipe book:

To enter all you have to do is comment below with the name of your favorite thing to cook in your slow cooker and I will randomly draw one winner a week from today on Tuesday, March 2nd at 10:00 AM CST!

Good luck and I hope to hear that many of you are conquering the Five O'clock panic with these two easy tips this week!

Voicemail can save you time each day!

Americans come in third in the world wide cell phone usage race, with eighty-nine percent of our population now being tied to phone calls anywhere at anytime. The only countries that outrank us by number of cell phones are China and India. 

I myself am amoung the ranks of chronic cell phone users... my husband lovingly refers to my beloved smart phone as my "pacemaker".  The nickname fits too, it is always near me and I use it's many capablities to help me manage all areas of my life.  I have a calorie counter, MP3 player, stopwatch, calendar, contact manager, to do list, and many other applications that make my life easier and more organized.

However, one of the most basic features of my phone tends to be the biggest problem for me... incoming phone calls.  I can get many, many calls in a day; personal calls, business calls, cold calls, and others.  The number was becoming so overwelming that I was having a hard time getting work done... until I had an realization that changed my daily life for the better.  My phone has a voicemail feature. 

I knew I had voicemail and I used it to answer calls when I could not get to my phone fast enough.  However, it was when I realized that my voicemail could easily become my best friend in business that I really began to appreciate and utizlie the feature. 

I saw that I do not have to answer EVERY call that comes through my phone.  I have now given myself permission to ask myself, "To answer or not to answer." and have implemented new rules and guidelines for myself.  For example, if I am at work in my office in the middle of a project, I turn my ringer on silent and allow my trusted voicemail to carefully record each question or need for me to address at a specfic time later in the day. 

By implementing these new guidelines, I have given myself permission to put more value on my time and have reduced my stress.  I am now able to get more out of my time when I am working, and more out of my phone calls when I make them because I am not distracted by other tasks. 

I challenge you this week to use your voicemail feature on your phone too as a time management tool, not just a back up when you don't jump the couch fast enough to get there. Release yourself from the feeling that you need to answer EVERY single call at the time they are calling.  If you are eating dinner, reading to kids, or trying to do a project... let the phone call go to voicemail and you can return it at a time later when you have more time and attention to pay to the caller. 

This one small change in your life can help save you time, energy, and frustration every day!

Friday Five: Five Morning Sanity Savers

Mornings are hectic in many households. The scene plays over and over, day after day; parents trying to get ready for work, kids not wanting to go to school, trying to grab breakfast before making sure that each member of the family gets to where they need to be with everything they need to have.



I often liken the busy morning rush in our homes to that of a busy highway that is packed with anxious, stressed out drivers. Each of the drivers has a different destination and a different goal for the day, yet they have to get there first, which means battling rush hour traffic.



So here are five quick tips to making your home's morning rush hour battle a little more organized:

1. Be Defensive: If you know mornings are a challenge at your house, take steps to make them less challenging by doing some tasks the night before. For example you can easily take time each night and: lay out clothes for yourself and younger children, make kid's lunches, pack your briefcase for work, make sure you lay out what kids will need for lessons the next day, etc... Anything you can do tonight to take away from your morning rush will save you energy and stress.


2. Allow Extra Time: Even just an extra 10-15 minutes can make a big difference in your morning. Set the alarm back just a few minutes and give everyone in the family a little more breathing room. Keep in mind... this may mean hitting the bed a few minuets earlier too.


3. Control your Road Rage: Fights in the morning between family members, set the tone for the entire day. If Mom and daughter have a fight in the morning- they both stay upset all day about it. So try to pick your battles wisely in the morning... is it really worth getting upset if your son wants to wear the red shirt with the green pants?


4. Organize the Traffic Grid: Having an organized system for where children know to place items like backpacks, school books, library books, sports bags, etc... will save you from frantic last minute searches for the other soccer cleat as the bus is honking.


5. Organize Fuel Stops: Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and often the most chaotic! Menu planning can help ease the stress of the morning meal. Decide what you are having for breakfast the night before and prepare ahead. For example if you are having cold cereal- set the boxes on the table with bowls and spoons. If you are serving muffins or pancakes- make them the night before and warm them up to serve to your family in the morning.

I know first hand that mornings can be difficult... but I also know that implementing these five steps has helped transform my family's morning chaos into more simple, organized sanity. Good luck!

Health Advantages of Getting Organized

I hear many reasons from clients telling me what motivates them to get organized. I hear how it will improve their life, their family, their homes... but not often do I hear them say because it will improve their health. However, there are numerous health advantages that you and your family can reap through organization!

Here are 10 Ways that Getting Organized can Help you Live a Healthier Lifestyle:

1. The act of decluttering and purging can be great exercise! You are working muscles and getting your heart rate going by moving boxes, sorting belongings and cleaning.

2. Once you clear out a room, you may unearth the treadmill and use it for it's intended purpose and not a clothes rack anymore. You could come across old workout videos in boxes and pop them into give them a try.

3. You may discover a pair of skinny jeans that suddenly make you see how "unhealthy" life has become. Realizations like this can be very motivating and eye opening for anyone.


4. As you learn to manage your time better you are able to make exercise a priority and give it a place in your schedule.


5. Organizing your menu planning and your kitchen can lead to healthier eating habits for you and the entire family!


6. If you can clear the clutter on your kitchen table and use it for eating instead of setting things on then your kids will benefit the most. Studies have shown that kids who eat at the table with their family tend to eat more fruits and vegetables, are more open to new foods, learn to respect portions better!

7. Getting more organized is going decrease your stress level. With more than 75% of all doctor visits in the United States being attributed to stress related injury or illness... it is safe to say that decreasing our stress would be good for us all.

8. The National Safety Council says the top reason for injury related health problems and death are due to falls. When you organize your home/office you are giving everything a place thus reducing the number of potential falling hazards in your home.

9. Clutter can make it hard to clean your home properly, which can allow allergens like dust, mold, dander, and other unwelcome guest to not only clutter your home... but your sinus cavities as well.

10. Once you have cleared the clutter you can establish a system to manage your personal health information and medications. Staying on top of our health is our responsibility and being organized about your health history as well as past and current medications can save you time, energy, money, and possibly your life.


So if you have been looking for yet another reason to conquer your clutter I just provided you another motivation that is hard to overlook... it can make you a healthier, better version of you!

Our Fitness/Food Tracker Sheets

This week we are spotlighting our New Fitness/Food Tracking Sheets.

A study published in 2008 by the Permanete Center for Health Research found that keeping a food diary can double your amount of weight loss. Our new Fitness/Food Tracker will allow you track both of these important elements to achieve your weight loss goals.

As always with our downloadable products- you buy what you want with no memberships or monthly fees. Simply purchase the tracker ONCE-download it, save it to your computer, and print it off when you need it!

Your Fitness tracking has never been easier or more organized!

Click here to purchase this product

http://www.simpleorganizedsanity.com/products/Fitness%7B47%7DFood-Diary-Sheets.html

and enter this code to get our Fitness/Food Tracker for only 49 cents!

Coupon Code: R7455155639D0

My Key to Snow Day Survival

With snow being reported in 49 out of the 50 states in the last month... Moms everywhere are waking up morning after morning to ANOTHER Snow Day! In fact districts from coast to coast are reporting record number of snow days and are looking at calendar extensions inching closer and closer to June to make up for missed hours in the classroom due to record snowfalls this year.

As a kid, I remember the excitement of a snow day. Playing outside with neighborhood friends, hot chocolate, and a day away from math and reading! However, as a mom I find that I do not feel that same rush of excitement when our school's name appears on the bottom of the screen during the ten o'clock news... AGAIN. Sure the first couple of snow days each year I get excited with them and we have traditional snow day fun... but this year the snow's allure has even started to disappear for my kids.

My middle son even asked, "Can we please go back to school today so I can see my friends?"

Despite the obvious case of cabin fever that my family is suffering from (along with most other American families)... We have a special struggle. I am a Work at Home mom and while I appreciate the extra time to spend with my kids each day it is providing an added challenge into my workload!

I know I am not alone... with more than 10 million female business owners in the United States, I know many of us are bringing work home and trying to juggle it all with the kids out of school.

I want to share with you a great solution that I am using in my home to help me do the best I can do make the most of snow day after snow day. I use a timer in the kitchen and set it for an hour... I explain to my kids that "Mom has to work in her office for one hour. When this timer goes off I will reset it for another hour and that hour will be all yours, deal?" This pattern is repeated over and over all day and it works!

My kids do not feel that I am neglecting them and I am able to still enjoy snow day fun with them when they are out of school. My work is not getting neglected and I am able to stay pretty caught up on everything throughout the day. The other important note to make here is I am also very aware that this is a real life example of modeling good time management for my kids! They know they have to entertain themselves for an hour and do so without asking me every ten minuets, "How much longer?" Instead, I have caught them looking at the clock and returning to their chosen activity without a complaint.

Plus, I love the reward that I get when I finish my hour of dedicated work time and am greeted at my office door with three adorable smiling faces and outstretched arms! Talk about job satisfaction!

So yes, the long string of snow days has played with many families routines and schedules... but keep in mind that there are creative solutions that can help even unexpected snow days still be organized and productive.

Moms Don't get a sick day

There are no schedules, time cards, uniforms, or paychecks... but it is not understatement when I say that when moms wake up every morning, they are immediately "on duty".

Rare are the days when I am awaken by an aptly set alarm clock versus a child's bad dream, a husband's request to know where his belt is, or a son's early morning request to watch his favorite video.

On the mornings when you open your eyes to a spinning bedroom, pounding head, or aching stomach... do you pick up the phone and call in sick that day? Nope, not moms. We stand up, take the medication that we always dispense as the official nursemaid of the household- and we do our "best" to have a "normal" day.

Today is one such morning at my house. My family was invaded by an unwanted cold germ several weeks ago and to my chagrin- I had been the only one to avoid it's dreaded stuffiness, sneezes, and restlessness. That is until I tried to get going this morning.

Even as I sit here and type this, my head pounds.... and what all of this fever induced rambling is trying to get to is this very important point: Sick Mom Days Demand Organization!

I have been able to tell my children to get clothing, backpacks, folders, lunchboxes, etc... to help my fuzzy head and slow moving body and not surprisingly to me they have been able to retrieve each item without a single cry for help. Why is this possible? Because at our house we have a place for everything... instead of just allowing the kids to strew belongings all over the house haphazardly- WE put them where the go.

On this "sick day" it meant that I was still able to get my kids out the door and to school on time... even though I was moving at a much slower speed... now I just want to know... "Why can't they do this without prompting on a regular day?"

Valentine's Day Post: A love note for an organized life.

Dear My Crazy Life,

You try hard to shake me up and throw me off my game each day by sending things I can't always plan for. In fact in the last year you have thrown me such curve balls as: unexpected website issues, sick children, car problems, broken heater in the house during cold winter days, and even a minor flood in the house. Yes, I will give you credit, you have tried hard to make 2010 a disorganized mess... but you have not succeed.

You see, you may not be able to plan for everything-- but being organized means that I am able to respond to changes quickly because I am skilled at juggling and shuffling things within my systems. I have learned in years of experience that being organized does not just mean that I am organized on the "good" days in my life. No, being organized allows be to not only handle your curve balls that you throw at me... but feel confident in my ability to handle them.

I want to tell you why I love organization this Valentine's Day:

I love that if I plan my meals ahead and use my crock pot on busy days that even when I get busy or distracted... I can still serve my family dinner on time.

I love that if I use my planner on a daily basis... you lose much of your power of sneaking up on me, because I plan ahead, allowing time for your curve balls.

I love that I have learned to build in time for my family, my business, and my goals each day so that I can easily stick an unexpected task into the right time slots.

I love my tickler file!!! It allows me to manage all of the paperwork that comes into my household and office through business and backpacks!

Life, You have tried hard in the last couple of months to throw me off my game and frustrate me. But I am have come out of these chaotic months more dedicated to the passion I have for establishing an organized household! I have seen first hand in these months, that having an working organizing system can make me love and enjoy my life and my family more... even when you throw your best at me.

I love my life (chaos and all) and I love that I love my job because it allows me to share tips, secrets, and systems with other families so they can find the same Simple Organized Sanity that I have!

Happy Valentines Day Everyone!

Our Two Week Menu planner

Each Thursday we will be spotlighting a download that we are now offering on our website to show you how you can use this product to get you and your family more organized!

This week we are focusing on Our 14 Day Menu Planner

www.simpleorganizedsanity.com/products/14-Day-Menu-Sheet.html

What I love about our 14 Day Menu Planner is it changes the way you think about using a menu to organize you meal planning! Traditionally we have been taught to plan ahead by assigning each day a set meal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You would simply wake up each day and make what your schedule told you to...

The problem with this old system is, what if you wake up on Monday and Meatloaf just does not sound good that day? I created this menu planner so moms could meal plan in a more convenient way!

You can list 14 Breakfasts, 14 lunches, and 14 Dinners and as you make them you will mark them off. This way your menu sheet acts as both a guideline for meal planning and an inventory so to speak for what is in your kitchen's pantry.

I suggest that you consider purchasing our grocery list at the same time too. We teach that you should always make your grocery list at the same time that you plan your meals to ensure you are not wasting time and money to make a quick run back to the store for a forgotten ingredient.

We are excited about our downloadable products because there are no membership fees! You simply purchase the downloads you want when you want them. Save each to your computer and then print off a copy as you need them! It could not be easier or more economical! No bulky notepads or loose papers to keep track off--thus reducing clutter around your home!

We are Up and Running!!!

I am very excited to announce that after a two month break to refocus and reformat our company we are relaunching today! I believe we are a stronger company for our efforts and have products and services that allow us to extend our reach to not only SW Missouri-- but beyond!

I want to share with you some of the personal reasons that brought Simple Organized Sanity to this transformation, so please indulge me for a moment. My oldest son has some learning issues and as he gets older and school work naturally gets harder, so does my job as a mom to keep him where he needs to be in school. He has had some additional challenges in the last few months that have led me to prayerfully seek God's plan for this company. I love being a business owner and a professional organizer, I love helping clients conquer their clutter and improve their lives... but the fact remains I am and always will be a mom first.

Reformatting our company in this manner is now allowing me to have the best of both worlds! (Not to sound like my daughter's beloved Hannah Montana). I am able to be here for my son and my other children as needed and still help clients learn to conquer the disorganized chaos in their lives. I am still able to work with our beloved SW Missouri clients, speak to groups, and do classes... but we are also able to now do so much more!

If you have not visited our website in a while... you will notice MANY changes! You will see on the left hand side of our site is a list of the product categories that we now can help you with. Check them each out! We have down loadable documents that can help you organized and manage your information, We have have organizational coaching sessions, time management coaching sessions, virtual organizing services, assessments for direct sales consultants, and more things added weekly! So head over now to www.simpleorganizedsanity.com to see the changes for yourself.

We have completed the first step in our business makeover, the next two will be unveiled in upcoming weeks and months so stay tuned to our blog for up to date details!