Organization

With a family of six, soon to be seven, and most of those being boys... My life is bound to be a bit chaotic. Summer vacation is coming up and that's when things get really crazy! I have found a few tricks to help me keep things in order.

Family Command Center.
I have a push pin board, family calendar, a white board, chore list, star chart, clock, and a few miscellaneous items here.

Board.
On the board are a few pictures, any papers or invites coming up, my family calendar and my box tops that I collect for the kids.


Family Calendar.
This calendar is a life saver. I get a separate column for each family member, well, almost. This allows me to keep track of who does what, where and when.

Star Chart/White Board.
The kids have chores. I grew up in a strict household and truly believe that chores are important for teaching the kids responsibility, along with good actions come with good rewards. The kids each have three chores to do daily, if they do their chore they receive one star. If they do their chores without me reminding them, they receive two stars. They also receive stars for good behavior, school progress, not playing video games, etc. The kids are allowed to cash out their stars at the star store. They can "buy" a soda with dinner, extra dessert, later bedtime, etc.

Coupon Binder.
I recently started couponing, and man is it addictive! Anyways. I found that keeping a binder seperate for coupons helped keep things organized. I got dividers and seperate my coupons into food, household, health and baby. This makes finding the coupons I need a lot easier. I also have a folder for restaurant coupons, photo sessions, etc.

Shopping Notebook.
I have recently become a bit of an "organize freak" and so I picked up a notebook to go along with my coupon binder. In this is a pocket where I store the coupons I will be using that week. There are three sections. The first is where I make my grocery list. I write the store I am going to, the date to reference coupons, my items needed and then the highlighted items have coupons. I highlight them so I can double check the coupon for any requirements.

Baskets.
I have a few of these around the house. With Bentley coming so soon, I started trying to think ahead on what will make the transition from four to five boys a little easier. I put these baskets in the living room so that I have the necessities handy at all times. In one basket is a blanket, a swaddler, two receiving blankets, and a burp rag. In the other, are diapers, wipes, powder, lotion, rash cream and a binkie.