5 Ways to Get Your Family Organized
Before you begin the physical process of organizing, it’s important to analyze your situation as you roadmap a game plan. Your work schedule, family situation, and any caregiving responsibilities are all going to play a role in how you’re able to commit time to the process of organizing your home. In fact, a major factor in getting organized is rallying the home team to help. You may be able to do some of the work independently, but having support, both emotional and physical, can make all the difference. Need advice for getting the whole family or household involved? Here are 5 ways you can operate as a unit to get your home organized:
Make a family command center
Whether you're a busy parent juggling school lunches, field trips, managing the house and multiple schedules, or you work from home and need a place to organize your schedule, you may benefit from creating a family command center. Having a visual of your daily responsibilities helps everyone to remember deadlines and activities. Not to mention, seeing everything in one place can help immensely with streamlining daily routines so you can accomplish everything on your to-do list. As you begin creating your command center, remember that customization is key! Use specific colors and symbols to keep track of activities related to certain family members to help compartmentalize everyone's schedules. Having one spot for everyone to refer to is the best way to stay on top of things and maintain your progress!
Create an incentive
It’s simple: people want to feel like they’re doing good. An easy and clear indicator of this is an incentive (so long as they’re healthy!) Treating yourself and others for a job well done helps to boost motivation, and putting the emphasis less on the reward over time and more on the task at hand can help to reframe mindsets over time. Whether it’s an extra 30 minutes of playtime, ordering takeout from your favorite spot, a little online shopping, or picking the flick for family movie night, presenting this reward as incentive for helping to organize and clean-up can make it fun for the whole family!
Work on a rotating schedule
Once you have the house organized—whether you did it solo or got the entire home team involved—make sure that the entire household is willing and able to contribute to upkeep. Communicate with your household not only on what you’ll be doing but also on the big-picture purpose behind it. At the end of the day, everyone wants an easy, stress-free routine! Ensuring that everyone understands that the goals behind organizing and maintaining and their role in achieving those can set the foundation for a happier quality of life around the house. If you need some guidance when it comes to creating a rotating schedule, you can get a free sample schedule and a template to create your own in our LIJ Book Club workbook here!
Set aside time for family clean-up
Create a designated time once a week or once a month for the family to come together and do a household reset. This can be added into your schedule, so if you have individual family members doing chores on a rotation throughout the week, let this be the group activity on the weekend. I recommend carving out time on a Sunday evening for the family clean-up. As you wind down from the weekend, going into the week ahead with your home in order can really help to ignite your energy levels in the coming days.
Purge with the family once monthly
Making a habit of small, monthly group purges also means less purging. It, obviously, sounds like more, but when it’s something you do regularly, you may only have a few things you need to get rid of each month, instead of a ton accumulating over time. Also, though it may sound daunting, I encourage you to include your children in the purging process. Donating/selling means giving away items that no longer fully serve you to someone who needs them more. Explain to them that as kids grow, they become interested in new things and these items can be handed down to younger kids so that they can fully enjoy them, just as your kids did at their age! Here are some questions to help guide the conversation with kiddos:
Which toys do you no longer play with?
What do you think about giving these to someone else?
Since you have 2 of these toys, what do you think about giving one to someone who may not have as many toys as you?
As you formulate your goals and think up how you’ll achieve them, it’s up to you to work your household’s rhythm and routine into the mix. In reality, the most workable schedule for you may be to block out two weekends a month and gradually work your way through your home, space by space, over the next six months. Whatever your plan, make it realistic for your entire family’s lifestyle and needs. And remember, you don’t have to do it alone! Involving your household can take the pressure off and will ultimately make it easier to maintain once the work is done.
For more information on getting the family involved in your home organization, make sure you grab your copy of Life in Jeneral if you haven’t yet and sign up for the LIJ Book Club! There’s a 70 page workbook with exercises to help you work through your emotional barriers and goals in relation to organizing, and of course, step-by-step guidance to do the work. For even more support and encouragement, follow along with the book club on our Instagram, too!