Think for a moment how your family starts off the day. How would you describe the mornings in your household? Do they tend to be calm and peaceful or rushed and stressful -or, somewhere in the middle? I found that planning ahead really helps to curb the morning madness. Here are nine quick ideas to help make your mornings less of production for you and your family.

Tip #1: Get up 15-30 minutes before the kids. Give yourself time to get up and ready to go before the children need to be up. I find that when I do this I am more relaxed and able to focus on helping my children. The day is more likely to start off with conversation rather than prodding and nagging. I also feel better about myself. When I feel good about myself, it has such a positive impact on my day!

Tip #2: Make sure the kids have adequate time to get ready for school without being rushed. Note how much time it takes them to complete all their necessary morning tasks and chores. Ideally, I like to have a 15 minute cushion of downtime before they walk out the door.

Tip #3: Have the kids empty their backpacks after school, not the next morning, to avoid any last minute surprises. Designate a drop-off spot for school papers, notes or permission slips that you need to see.

The Night Before
Tip #4: Have your children layout their clothes they want to wear the next day. Make this simple step a part of their bedtime routine.

Tip #5: Make sure the backpacks and school supplies are ready to go near the door. Maybe even the shoes and jackets, too. During the winter month, I get all the snow gear out and ready to go.

Tip #6: What about the lunches? Can they be made ahead of time? Does money need to go to school to pay for hot lunch?

Tip #7: Determine the breakfast menu and set the bowls and cereal out after dinner.

Tip #8: Develop a bedtime routine that works for your family and stick to it the best you can. A rested child is able to focus and learn better than a tired one. Tip #9: Double check your calendar, including the car pool schedule. What tasks do you want to accomplish the next day?
As the Organizing Expert for Moms, Paula Constable works with busy moms and families who want to make their daily lives easier through organization. She provides her organizing services both in-home and via Teleclasses and workshops. Receive Paula’s free reports, The Clutter-Free Gift Giving Guide and 5 Must-Know Organizing Tips for Busy Moms, when you sign up for newsletter at www.stuff2borganized.com or visit her blog, Organizing Tips and Thoughts for Moms.

You’ve race around all day running errands, cooking, picking up and dropping the kids off. At the end of the day, you plop down in your bed – exhausted and feeling as if you did so much yet accomplished so little. Sound familiar?

A disorganized schedule can lead to stress, frustration, anxiety, and quarreling with loved ones. Fortunately, hope exists for those families with extremely busy schedules that usually leave a burden on Mom.

One of the easiest and fastest ways to take tasks off Mom’s hands is to assign those tasks to the children. This not only helps Mom in clearing her schedule, it is an extremely important means of teaching your children responsibility and domestic skills.

From the time that I could remember, it was almost an unspoken rule in my house that if my sister swept the floor, I’d have to mop it.
Likewise, if I did the laundry, she’d have to fold the clothes.

Nowadays the dishwasher automatically washes the dishes. But I remember growing up my sister and I traded dish washing nights. One night it was her turn to wash the dishes and the next night it was mine.

Until this day, I can not stand to see dishes in the sink for too long.
So the habits have even stayed with me through my adulthood.

Start teaching your children about chores at an early age to help them form the habit. Show them what and how you would like them to clean a certain area. You can start out by teaching them to clean their room.
Then move to bigger areas as the child gets older.

Remember that children are like sponges absorbing everything you do rather than everything you say. So be sure to leave enough housework for you to do. This way, they can see you doing something as well.

If you have teenagers, appoint them to run errands to the store or to pick up/drop off younger siblings. Teenagers will jump at any chance they get to drive. This not only teaches them to be independent, it makes them feel like you trust them.

Set up a reward system. However, use rewards carefully. You do not want to give your children the idea that cleaning and helping around the house is only done to get something in return. You know your child better than anyone and you know what works for him/her.

Make helping out fun for them. Crank up the music to their favorite CD or radio station. My sister and I would turn on the music on a Saturday morning and dance around the house while we dusted, swept, wiped, and cleaned the house. Now, some of my most relaxing and enjoyable time is spent while cleaning and singing my heart out to the world because it brings me back in time to those days.

While your kids won’t necessarily enjoy doing chores, I guarantee that they will thank you in adulthood. It will be difficult at first, but will be all worth the while.

You’ll be able to free more time for yourself while teaching your children lifelong skills and responsibility.

Sheila Zayas is president of Harmony Perfect Organizers, a professional organizing company based out of West Palm Beach, FL that specializes in helping families organize their schedules so they can live happier and fuller lives. She succeeded in helping a family in which the parents were on the verge of a divorce as a result of a disorganized schedule and lack of goals. Sheila is a speaker that addresses the topics of time management and document control. She can be reached at info@harmonyperfect.com or (561) 512-8771 .

Start to Declutter and organize your home today with Clutter Diet

We all have big projects we must accomplish at different points in our lives. It may be a normal part of your job or a fund-raiser for your child’s sports team or doing a home improvement project. Whatever the case, if you plan ahead, you can eliminate much of the stress that could accompany a big project. Here are a few tips:

1. Break down your project into categories and then to specific tasks in each category.

2. Estimate the time it will take do each task. Err on the side of over-estimating rather than under-estimating.

3. Add up the time it will take to complete your project so you will know how much time will need to be devoted to the project.

4. Set a deadline for the completion of your project.

5. If your project allows, delegate. Assign tasks with clear instructions and deadlines. Plan to follow-up periodically.

6. Working backwards, schedule the specific tasks/deadlines and follow-ups, allowing some extra wiggle room for unexpected delays. Plan to finish your project a couple of days ahead of schedule to reduce your stress level.

7. Know your peak energy times and schedule your tough jobs then, if possible.

8. Do big projects during big chunks of time and small ones during small scraps of time.

9. Do projects that require concentration at times when you won’t be interrupted at a place where there are few distractions. If you work in an office, consider going in during an evening or weekend when no one else is there. Make sure to take some time off during the week to compensate yourself.

10. Inform others of times when you do not want to be interrupted and when you will be available. Record this information on your voice mail. Give polite, but firm reminders when you are interrupted during your no-interruption times.

11. If necessary, go to a location away from your office or home where you are unlikely to be disturbed.

12. CELEBRATE the completion of your project!! If others are involved in your project, make sure to involve them in the celebration.

Beverly Coggins is an organizing expert, speaker and author of the 1-2-3…Get Organized series – books, workbooks, and ebooks written for the organizationally overwhelmed. Her blog provides tips on organizing time, the office, and home.

She is also a Myers-Briggs facilitator and conducts retreats, seminars, training, and coaching for businesses and individuals on the topics of team building, conflict resolution, vision/mission, career satisfaction, time management and organization.

MomAudience.com, her latest venture, is a weekly email showcasing free listings of businesses, blogs, products, and more that appeal to moms.

No I don’t have an automatic unloading dishwasher (but I would pay extra for that feature!). I believe it is my son (9) since he is the only family member not in the room. Unless of course our cat has some extraordinary powers I am unaware of.

I want to celebrate! It’s moments like this that make me think I am doing OK as a mother.  In case you are wondering how he knows to actually sort the cutlery. That was his first chore, mind you I never told him it was a chore. When he was three, I would take the knives out and hand him the cutlery case from the dishwasher and show him to put the spoons together the forks together while I unloaded the dishwasher. Taking full advantage of those years when they WANT to do what ever mommy does.

I also wanted to mention this wonderful idea I saw on “And thats…the truth” a  parenting blog this evening. In celebration of her children’s school achievements this year she is having plaques made for her children. After watching my son’s grade four floor hockey team almost suffocating one another in the pile to reach their trophy last week .. I believe this is just the perfect way to celebrate and remember our children’s school accomplishments.  Thank you Kim.

I was surfing some great mom blogs this morning ans tumbled across a post on Daily Mom titled ” Does sharing chores with your Hubby mean a better love life.” The study quoted implied that men of today so more housework.

I won’t argue that – well sort of . Since the 60′s men may do a bit more housework but women ALSO work full time jobs outside of their household duties (no studies, just my observations here in my community – if you know a community where men really do an equal amount of house/family items then let me know because I would like to move there ;) so I don’t feel it’s any where near equal yet.

The Daily Mom shares that this study suggests that chore sharing equals more frequent ahem “adult alone time” (I have to maintain my G rating. )

This makes complete sense. As a mom to three children running a house and working by the end of the day i would be too exhausted to brush my teeth some nights let alone hank panky ;)
Add the resentment that I worked as many hours as my husband but did over 90% of household chores and some things that 50 years ago would have been  “the mans job”  … I actually have a chart about this topic that I often share :-)

So if this study can be used to encourage your Honey to step up and help you do more chores then I celebrate this evening !