Technology Organization After Pandemic Teaching

In the wake of over a year of pandemic teaching, everything is a mess. Before we can start getting ready for next year, we have to clean up from the last one! And one of the biggest messes I have to clean up is with technology. I relied so heavily on technology this year and much of it was made on the fly. Today I'm sharing some specific areas where I'll be doing a little summer cleaning to get my online accounts and files in order so I can clear out my online workspace and find what I need to use in the future.

Ah technology. The love-hate relationship I have always had with it has only intensified after this year! I am so very grateful for the things I was able to do that I wouldn't have been able to do otherwise, but I am also definitely overloaded on computer screens! I have also been a little overwhelmed with how much stuff I have sitting on my computer now- as much as I enjoyed closing my computer and walking away on the last day of school, I definitely can't leave it in the chaos that it is now! So here are some specific things I am working on organizing as I work on intentional recovery from this past year of covid chaos.

Devices

Before we get into the contents, we need to look at the actual devices themselves! I'm sincerely hoping I won't need nearly as many devices next year as I did last year, so I have been going through all of the various cables and adapters and extra devices and monitors I used over the course of all the different teaching modalities we went through this year and seeing which ones I can tuck away, which ones I can return/ get rid of, and which ones I need to keep. No need to keep things around "just in case" and create more clutter!

Google Classroom

It may seem like it would be less work to just delete this year's 1st graders and add next year's to my "1st grade music" Google Classroom, rather than starting a new one next year, but the reality is it's not. I don't want students to be able to see a full year's worth of assignments already posted from last year, but I want to be able to keep those assignments to copy them next year if I want. By archiving this year's Google Classrooms, I can clear out the clutter in my Google Classroom space but still have them available if I want to reuse an old assignment. But it's very important to archive Google Classrooms correctly to avoid a lot of unnecessary headaches later! Here's what I recommend:

Zoom Meetings and Recordings

This year I recorded to the cloud every single lesson I taught, both in-person hybrid and fully distance, on zoom so I could post the recording for students who missed the class. I also had different recurring meetings set up for each homeroom class I was teaching. One of the first things I did after school ended was delete all my recurring meetings. I have been saving any recordings I want to keep as I've gone through the year, so I can delete all of my recordings now as well- if you haven't been saving as you go, it's worth thinking about if there are any recordings you want to keep and saving those to your local computer first before deleting.

It may be tempting to keep them all but it will be near impossible to sift through so many recordings, and your district (or your own account) likely has a storage limit you'll hit soon enough if you try to keep them!

Flipgrid

With flipgrid I've found it easy enough to keep my "groups" (classes) from year to year and just change the "topics" (assignments) to hidden so they're no longer active or visible to students. This makes it easy to make a copy of a previous year's assignment, while still cleaning up the page so students don't end up on a previous year's page. My main tip for this, though, is to add "20-21" or something like that to the title of each topic from the past year. That way if you do make a copy to use in the future it will be much easier to see which one is the old one.

Google Drive

If there's one thing I used more than any other this year, it's Google Drive. I have been pretty diligent about keeping my drive organized by putting everything in folders as I go, but I have been working on going through and cleaning out old files I don't need to reduce clutter, and reorganizing things to make them easier to find. If you haven't been putting files into folders, that is probably the single most important thing to do to get things organized! One thing I do a lot is to create a folder called "archive" within different folders and move files/ folders that are old but I'm not ready to delete yet there. Next year if I still haven't used them, when I go to archive that year's files I'll delete the unused ones.

Another thing I find very helpful is to color-code my folders. If you right-click (or ctrl-click) on a folder you will see an option to change the color. It doesn't change the color for other users if it's a shared folder but it will make it easier to find the one you need if you're sorting through lots of folders.

YouTube Videos

I'll be looking more at lesson plans and materials in a separate post, and video links will be a part of that, but it's worth mentioning here because I used so many more videos this year than I ever have in my entire previous teaching career combined. While I certainly don't intend to use them all as we get back to being able to sing and play instruments, there are definitely some gems I don't want to lose track of. Aside from noting them in my lesson plans, I've been making an unlisted YouTube playlist for each grade and saving videos I use with those grades to that playlist. That way if I can't remember what I used it for I can still scroll through and find the video I want, and I can save the same one to multiple playlists if I used it with more than one grade. 

Those are all of the main areas I'm focused on cleaning up with my technology as I try to sort through everything from this past crazy year! It's a lot but makes such a huge difference in feeling ready to look ahead to next year and it has actually been nice to look back on everything I've done over the past year as I go through old files. If you missed my previous posts on cleaning up the covid chaos, you can catch up on other areas I'm tackling, from self-care to lesson plans and everything in between, in this post:

Read more "Technology Organization After Pandemic Teaching"

Getting Kids Involved in Housework

Right now most school buildings around the world are closed, and many families are stuck inside their houses for most of the day (either voluntarily or by government order). This is the perfect time to get kids more involved with housework chores!

I admit we have gotten out of our cleaning rotation from time to time when life has gotten too busy, but my daughters have been involved with cooking, cleaning, and other housework since a very young age. It can actually be really fun for kids to have more responsibility around the house, and I think we can all agree these are important skills that many kids have not been learning as well as previous generations have. Now's the time to fix that. Here are some tips for making chores a positive and genuinely helpful experience for everyone at home.

And if you're wondering what chores young children can actually handle, here are some lists for different ages:

I hope this helps give you some ideas to get your kids more involved with housework this week! Cooking is a whole separate topic, so we'll cover that in a future post. If you have questions or other ideas for getting kids more involved in chores around the house, please share in the comments!

Read more "Getting Kids Involved in Housework"

In the Music Room During COVID-19

My school district, along with many others in the United States and elsewhere, closed recently as covid-19 (coronavirus) hit the country (if you've found yourself in that situation please read this post). But schools in China and other places that are nearing the tail end of their bout with the virus, as well as some parts of the US and other countries that haven't yet been affected, are still open (or will open soon) for business and looking for ways to be vigilant about germs while continuing to teach their music classes. Other teachers have closed to students but are still working in their rooms and trying to disinfect and find relevant lessons to teach online. Here are some ideas to limit the spreading of germs while music class is in session, clean up music equipment, and plan lessons that encourage good hygiene in a positive way.

1. General Considerations

• If you're trying to keep germ-spreading at bay, you'll want to plan activities that don't require students to touch each other and also don't require students to touch the same equipment. 
• Keep cleaning! Find out what the school is doing as a whole to address cleaning classrooms, and ask about special considerations for your room and equipment.
• Make sure everyone is cleaning their hands as they come and go, and always remind students of other good practices like washing their hands after using the bathroom, covering any coughs and sneezes, and going to the nurse if they feel sick.

2. Instrument Cleaning

One of the most immediate concerns for music teachers is keeping instruments clean! If you normally use shared wind instruments (like a class set of recorders that is shared by multiple classes), it's time to stop that now. For the time being, consider switching to a different instrument, or ask families to purchase their own. If that's not possible, find new lesson plans. But other instruments can also be an issue, especially knowing that the virus can live for days on hard surfaces. West Music has also put together a resource for cleaning various common classroom instruments, as well as movement props and puppets- click here to read their tips.

Lessons to Teach, in Person or Virtually

3. Hand Washing Dances

Before my district closed unexpectedly, I was planning to do this with my classes to help reinforce good hygiene while getting creative and active (without touching each other).  Show students this video and learn the dance together (this video shows the English translation of the lyrics and this video is a good slowed down tutorial):

Discuss the different hand washing techniques that are incorporated into the choreography, then have students create their own dance using the same hand washing moves! For younger students it will probably work best to have them just pick 2 of the hand washing techniques to use in their dance, or ask each student to come up with one move to contribute to a dance you put together as a class. Remember no touching!

4. Hand Washing Song

Go to WashYourLyrics.com and create a few posters using lyrics from songs that would be familiar to your students. Practice pretending to wash their hands while singing the songs. Then have students make up their own hand washing song to go with the timing of each move- print out one of the posters, blank out the lyrics, and have students come up with lines to go with each picture (remember you don't want students to use your shared pencils, so either have them bring their own and let them write their own on a hard copy, or you write in the lyrics by projecting it on the board or showing it to the class and have students work together to suggest lyrics).

Once you've come up with lyrics, you can quickly turn it into a melody with Word Synth and then practice singing the song together while washing your hands!

5. Learn About China

There is a lot of fear and misinformation going around about China because of this virus. You can help students feel more of a connection to China and combat some of the sinophobia by learning about the music of China. The good news is this is an engaging and relevant unit that doesn't require any touching- click here to read my post with ideas for teaching Chinese music.

6. Sing!

Singing requires no contact and no equipment but still helps students feel connected and joyful! If all else fails, take this as an excuse to let go of any other notions of pushing curriculum and just sing. Here are some of my favorite silly songs, here's how I teach canon singing, here's how I teach partner songs, and here are 5 different ways to introduce a song to keep things interesting.

If you are still teaching in the classroom or getting ready to start again, of if you're looking for ideas to teach virtually, I hope you find these ideas helpful! I'd love to hear your plans as well if you have other ideas. If you have ideas or questions, please leave a comment.

Read more "In the Music Room During COVID-19"

Making Chores Work: The Realities of Starting Young

I've talked several times before about how I got my daughters started doing chores at a young age. If I'm being honest, I love seeing people's reactions when I tell them my 6-year-old's cook dinner once a week (and have been for years)! I usually get some questions as well, especially from parents of young children who want to know how to get their own kids started helping out around the house.

The truth is, my kids aren't more industrious or talented than other kids. And I'm not a stricter parent. I think the only thing that holds some families back from having young children more involved with household chores is understanding the reality of what that actually looks like as they learn new skills and take on more responsibility. Today I want to highlight some of those realities and hopefully give parents more realistic expectations, and the realization of everything their kids can actually do!

(this post contains affiliate links that do not affect your purchase price or experience)

1. Let them mess up

I'll be the first to say that it is VERY hard for me to do this, but I learned very quickly that if I really want my young kids to help, I need to let them do it their way- and that means letting them mess up. It may mean some broken dishes, inedible meals, or things that are cleaned without actually getting clean, but they have to live with the consequences just as much as you do! Sure, I teach them how to vacuum, how to sweep, how to load the dishwasher, and how to make pancakes. But I also have to remind myself constantly that this is like one big science experience- the more I let them mess up when they're young, the more independence they'll gain and the faster they'll learn how to do it right without getting into a power struggle!

2. Be prepared for it to be more work/ take more time at first

The idea of having kids do chores sounds great in theory. Less work for us, right? Well, in the long run yes, but in the beginning? It is WAY more work. And that can get frustrating. It would have been a lot less work for me if I had just done everything myself when my girls were 3, but by putting in the time and effort then to explain and show and wait for them to do it ten times slower than you and clean up after their mess and then do it all over again, I now have 6 year old's who do actually make my life easier ;) Remember this is a marathon, not a sprint, and it will eventually get easier!

3. Set them up with the right tools

One thing that will make the whole experience a lot easier for you and for the kids is to set them up with the right tools to make it easier for them to do more themselves. These knives are easier for kids to use without cutting themselves, or you can get them these gloves to keep little hands even safer. Plastic dishes like these from IKEA mean you don't have to worry about broken dishes. Stick vacuums are much easier for kids to push around. Keep things they'll need in accessible cabinets so they don't have to ask you to get everything for them.

4. Give them as much input as possible

The more initiative and agency they have in the process, the less it will feel like they're doing something for you and more like they're contributing to the household. If they're cooking, let them choose the menu. If they're cleaning, let them decide when/ which room to clean, or let them pick out their own dustpan in their favorite color from the store. If they're setting the table, let them pick out the dishes. If they're making their bed, let them choose their own bedding.

I hope this encourages you to give your children a chance to contribute more around the house! If you want to read more about how I do chores, here are a few previous posts to get you started:

Want to stay in touch and get more ideas and tips sent straight to your inbox? Click here to sign up for the Organized Chaos Newsletter.

Read more "Making Chores Work: The Realities of Starting Young"

Appropriate Chores for 6-Year-Olds

I've always made sure my daughters helped out around the house. Some of it is admittedly self-serving, being a busy single mother, but mostly I think it's important to foster a sense of responsibility, work ethic, and independence, and to develop the skills to take care of themselves and their home. Now that the girls are 6 years old they've added a few new things to the list of chores they can do, so today I'm sharing the kinds of tasks my daughters do as 6 year olds! Of course every child is different, but hopefully this will be a good starting point for any parents trying to figure out how to get their young children helping out around the house.

Before we get to the list itself, I should mention that I'm not including "self-care" types of things on this list- it's assumed that they brush their teeth, get dressed, and clean up after themselves when they get out toys to play with. It's also worth noting that my girls have been doing "chores", at a much more basic level, since they were about 3 years old, so we've been building up to these tasks for several years (you can find my old posts detailing the chores they did at younger ages at the end of this post).

With that said, here are the chores my 6-year-olds currently do. They usually each do 1 chore a day, so they aren't doing all of these all of the time, but they do help out with all of these at some point in any given week.

1. sweep/ vacuum
Getting a stick vacuum has made it a lot easier for the girls to help out with vacuuming, and they love doing it! Sweeping is something they've been doing for a while, especially cleaning up under the dining room table.

2. load/ unload dishwasher
The girls are reliable enough with the dishes now that they can handle regular (non-plastic) dishes and can get them in and out of the dishwasher without dropping them!

3. set/ clear table
Having all different colors of dishes and napkins definitely makes the task of setting the table more appealing ;)

4. cook
The girls plan and cook dinner once a week, and they are more and more independent in the kitchen as their confidence grows with things like knives and ovens. You can read more about how I got my preschoolers started cooking meals in this post.

5. unload dryer/ put away laundry
This is another new addition- our washer and dryer are downstairs and our bedrooms are upstairs, but they are strong enough now to carry a load of laundry up the stairs to put it away. The girls have been putting their clean clothes away in the closet for a while now, thanks to an easy-to-use closet setup. See their closet in this post.

6. take out recycling/ small trash
The girls don't do this on their own yet, but often when I am taking out the trash they will help carry a small container of recycling or trash so I don't have to make as many trips outside.

7. get mail
Checking the mail is still one of the most exciting things they do, but now with the added anticipation of getting their own mail- their grandparents gave them subscription boxes for Christmas so they have loved getting packages addressed just to them once a month!

8. water plants
I don't keep a lot of house plants, but they especially like to help water the small garden we have in front of our house, especially in the summer.

9. make their bed
The last couple of things are more just routine things the girls do, but I thought they were worth including- they have really gotten into making their beds lately, smoothing out their covers and arranging their stuffed animals!

10. pack/ unpack backpacks
Every day when we get home from school the first thing they do is empty their backpacks. Helps me get everything cleaned up before we get into homework and dinner time!

That covers most of the main chores that my girls are doing these days! If you want to see what they did when they were younger, check out the posts below:

And if you want to read more about how I have set up chores in general over the years, here are a few posts you can read:

As we get closer to summer vacation and then the start of 1st grade, we'll probably be revisiting their chores again. It is ever-evolving as the girls continue to grow!

Want to get timely ideas and resources set to your inbox? Click here to sign up for the Organized Chaos newsletter!

Read more "Appropriate Chores for 6-Year-Olds"

Easy Home Organization Tips to Try Today

It's Spring Cleaning season, which for me means I have the itch to clean up but no time to actually do it! Today I wanted to share a few organization tips for the house that are easy and quick, so we can feel good about tackling some of those messes while being realistic about our busy schedules this time of year!

1. Outdoor Toy Storage

All you need is a hanging storage organizer! We're pulling these back out now that the weather is getting warmer and it's so nice to have a place to put everything.

2. Kid's Hair Accessories Storage

For me with two young daughters, this has been a life-saver!

3. Kid's Artwork DIY Display

One of the quickest things to pile up (literally) in my house is the artwork my daughters bring home from school! This is an easy display to set up anywhere in the house and rotate out new artwork when it comes home.

4. Re-Organized Entryway

A few hooks and some bins and we have a spot to keep our shoes, bags, and coats organized!

5. Laundry Organization

This is probably the simplest but still one of my favorite ideas: a easy way to keep those stain removers handy in the laundry room!

I hope you find some simple projects to help you spruce up your home this spring and ready to tackle your busy schedule this season!

Want more tips and tricks straight to your inbox? Click here to sign up for the Organized Chaos newsletter!

Read more "Easy Home Organization Tips to Try Today"

Fresh Start 2018 Challenge: pick a room

Welcome back to the Fresh Start 2018 Challenge!

This is the final installment of my weekly series this month to try to give my home life a bit more of a New Year's kick in the pants while dealing with the reality that school is back in session and I do NOT have the time or energy for a full-on deep clean/purge. I'm making an effort this year to find small but impactful ways to make my home a priority during the month of January. So far I've tackled closets, purses, the car, and craft supplies. What an awesome journey it has been! If you feel like your home life is always getting pushed to be bottom of the priority list, or you just feel like your house could use a little refresh, I highly recommend challenging yourself to something like this!

This week's challenge is a little bit different than the others: I've decided to focus in on one room and really try to clear away all of the clutter and give the space new life.

This week's Fresh Start task: pick 1 room that feels cluttered and disorganized and spend time clearing out the space. I think most of us have that one room or area in our house that we feel guilty about every time we go in. For me right now it's my bedroom- to be totally honest I have a couple of piles of stuff waiting to be put away that have been sitting on my bedroom floor for over a year. Not cool. The problem is I always end up putting it on the back burner because of course I'm the only one who ever spends time in that room, but I often end up feeling guilty and overwhelmed whenever I walk into the room because of the clutter!

Of course as usual, I need to make sure I don't try to turn this into some major task because if I do, it's very unlikely I'll actually get it done! What I have found the most helpful for these types of tasks is to set a timer. By giving myself a set amount of time to work on it, the entire task becomes a lot less overwhelming (and I'm always surprised at how much I get done!). To get my room cleaned up, I'm going to give myself 30 minutes to clean up as much as I can, mainly focusing on finding a place for everything that doesn't have a purposeful home (like those piles on my floor!). No major rearranging furniture or deep cleaning- just clearing out the space and putting everything where it belongs.

Want to join me in this Fresh Start 2018 challenge? I'm going to be posting a photo on Instagram on Sunday of what I accomplished for the challenge this week. If you want to join me, share your own pictures and include #FreshStart2018Challenge in the description. You don't have to stick to any schedule either- join me any time! The goal is to get a cleaner, more organized home without the guilt or stress.

This has been a great way for me to force myself to set aside some time to clear things out and clean up without feeling overwhelmed. Here's to a fresh start this new year! Click here to sign up for the Organized Chaos newsletter!

Read more "Fresh Start 2018 Challenge: pick a room"

Fresh Start 2018 Challenge: craft supplies

Welcome back to the Fresh Start 2018 Challenge!

This is week #4 of my weekly series this month to try to give my home life a bit more of a New Year's kick in the pants while dealing with the reality that school is back in session and I do NOT have the time or energy for a full-on deep clean/purge. I'm making an effort this year to find small but impactful ways to make my home a priority during the month of January. So far I've tackled closets, purses, and the car. This week's focus: craft supplies!

If you haven't already, I hope you'll look through all of the "fresh start" posts and maybe get that extra motivation you need to do a little cleaning up! It has been so helpful for me to stay motivated by picking a manageable task each week and keeping myself accountable on Instagram.

It's no secret that I love crafting. I love making things to use or decorate around the house, decorating in my planner, or just creating art for the fun of it (especially with my daughters!). Because of this hobby, I have quite a collection of stickers, washi tape, scrapbook paper, pens, and more. And that's not even counting all the art supplies my daughters have!

This week's fresh start challenge: purge and organize all of the craft supplies!

This is a 2-part process: step 1 will be to get rid of supplies we're no longer using. I know I have some old washi tape I've had for years that is all stuck together and doesn't work. My daughters have old markers that have dried up, tiny pieces of broken crayon, small scraps of paper that never get used, and random stickers from grocery stores and dentists that nobody has touched for months. The first step to giving our craft supplies a "fresh start" is to go through and get rid of all of that! Hoarding isn't helping anyone.

The 2nd step is to get everything that's left re-organized. I have to confess, I have collected enough additional sticker books and washi tape rolls that I need to revisit my organizational system- yikes! I currently have several things just floating around aimlessly in my drawer, which means it's hard to find what I need when I want it, and I often forget about things that I have.

If you're joining me in organizing your craft supplies, you'll want to create an organizational system that works for you and the supplies you have. If you need some ideas, here are some of the systems I've used in the past:

Want to join me in this Fresh Start 2018 challenge? I'm going to be posting a photo on Instagram on Sunday of what I accomplished for the challenge this week. If you want to join me, share your own pictures and include #FreshStart2018Challenge in the description. You don't have to stick to any schedule either- join me any time! The goal is to get a cleaner, more organized home without the guilt or stress.

This has been a great way for me to force myself to set aside some time to clear things out and clean up without feeling overwhelmed. Here's to a fresh start this new year! Click here to sign up for the Organized Chaos newsletter!

Read more "Fresh Start 2018 Challenge: craft supplies"

Fresh Start 2018 Challenge: car

Welcome back to the Fresh Start 2018 Challenge!

This is week #3 of my weekly series this month to try to give my home life a bit more of a New Year's kick in the pants while dealing with the reality that school is back in session and I do NOT have the time or energy for a full-on deep clean/purge. I'm making an effort this year to find small but impactful ways to make my home a priority during the month of January. So far I've tackled closets and purses. This week's focus: the car!

I know the car isn't *technically* a part of the house, but I know my car could use a good "fresh start" right about now with all the "living" we do there! So this week's fresh start task is to clean the outside and inside of the car! 

The outside is easy: I'll be taking my car to the carwash and I'm getting that nasty salt and snow scrubbed off. Even better, Santa gave me a gift card to the local car wash (best stocking stuffer ever), so I don't even have to pay for it!

The inside will take a little more doing, but that's the area that really needs some attention. My main goal is to go through every nook and cranny to clear out the stuff that has gotten left in the car and doesn't need to be there: the trunk, glove compartment, and all those little side pockets and other compartments still have stuff in them from months, even years ago!

Bonus: here are a few things I do to try to keep the car clear and clean:

1) I try to go through and clear out the trunk every 6 months. I like having a few things stored there, like a small snow shovel in the winter and a bucket of sand toys in the summer, but I have to make sure I don't permanently leave everything back there or it becomes impossible to find anything!

2) I empty the trash out that collects in little compartments etc every time I get gas. I always seem to end up with dirty tissues, wrappers, and other random things left in the car, but making it part of what I do while the car is filling up with gas has made it easier to keep the junk from getting out of hand.

Want to join me in this Fresh Start 2018 challenge? I'm going to be posting a photo on Instagram on Sunday of what I accomplished for the challenge this week. If you want to join me, share your own pictures and include #FreshStart2018Challenge in the description. You don't have to stick to any schedule either- join me any time! The goal is to get a cleaner, more organized home without the guilt or stress.

This has been a great way for me to force myself to set aside some time to clear things out and clean up without feeling overwhelmed. Here's to a fresh start this new year!

Click here to sign up for the Organized Chaos newsletter!

Read more "Fresh Start 2018 Challenge: car"

Fresh Start 2018 Challenge: purses and bags

Welcome back to the Fresh Start 2018 Challenge!!

This is week #2 of my weekly series to try to give my home life a bit more of a New Year's kick in the pants while dealing with the reality that school is back in session and I do NOT have the time or energy for a full-on deep clean/purge. I'm making an effort this year to find small but impactful ways to make my home a priority this month. Last week I focused on closets (click here to see my post), and after doing some serious purging in my closets I thought I would stick with an easier but equally impactful project: purses and backpacks.

Remember if you're looking for a fresh start at school or home, you can download my Fresh Start Checklists for free (and they're editable!) and work at your own pace!

This week's fresh start task: clean out your bag(s) (and family members' bags)!

I'm sure I'm not the only one whose purse has collected little bags of cheerios, stray chapsticks, meeting handouts, and everything in between. Not to mention the expired or never-used membership cards and coupons hanging out in my wallet. And then of course there's my daughters' backpacks- as much as we try to clean them out every day, there are all these random little pieces of paper, pencils, and other items that seem to find their way to the bottom of the backpack! It's time to clean everything out (so that, let's face it, we have room to accumulate more unnecessary junk until the next time we do this).

Just like with the closets, my main goal here is to purge effectively but with as little time commitment as possible. Here's my plan:

1. Empty the bag completely and clean up any messes on the bag itself
2. Sort through everything that was in the bag and separate into 3 piles: 
1. things to keep in the bag
2. things to keep but put somewhere else
3. things to throw away.
3. Put things away in their proper place

Honestly this shouldn't be too difficult of a process- it's just a matter of setting aside the time to actually sit down and DO IT!

Bonus: I am not a huge purse person, so I don't claim to have the best system for keeping my purse organized, but I am happy enough with it and I usually have what I need. If you want to see what I tend to keep in my purse, here are some previous blog posts you can check out:

Want to join me in this Fresh Start 2018 challenge? I'm going to be posting a photo on Instagram on Sunday of what I accomplished for the challenge this week. If you want to join me, share your own pictures and include #FreshStart2018Challenge in the description. You don't have to stick to any schedule either- join me any time! The goal is to get a cleaner, more organized home without the guilt or stress.

Here's to a fresh start for the new year!

Click here to sign up for the Organized Chaos newsletter!

Read more "Fresh Start 2018 Challenge: purses and bags"

Fresh Start 2018 Challenge: closets

Happy 2018, everyone!

In past years, I've updated and shared my Fresh Start Checklists just before New Year's each year so I can get the important things at home and school in order and get excited for the year ahead. This year, I felt like I needed a bit more of a thorough refresh at home- things are starting to pile up, projects are getting put off for months and months... But the reality is, school starts tomorrow and I don't have time to get everything spick and span before I'm knee-deep in school work again!

Over the next few weeks I'm going to be sharing the small but impactful ways I'm challenging myself to tidy up, purge, and clean up at home. These tasks are designed to be manageable with school back in full swing, but still make noticeable progress toward a refreshed home. If you want to join me in any of these challenges and/or help keep me accountable, stay tuned until the end of this post to learn how you can join in the fun over on Instagram and share our progress together!

This week's fresh start task: go through your closet (and your family members' closets) and pull out anything you don't need anymore.

It's time to get rid of any clothes you haven't worn in 2 years, things that don't fit, or things that you just don't feel good wearing anymore. If you're in a purging mood, take them all straight to the local Goodwill or Salvation Army. If you find you're hesitant to get rid of all or some of the things you pull out, try putting them in a box and keeping it in the attic or basement for 6 months or a year. If you don't miss them, you'll probably be ready to get rid of them at that point!

This is my realistic #teachermom version of the "konmari" method and capsule wardrobe idea: I'm not going to pull everything out of my closet to contemplate each item, but I am going to consciously look at each thing and err on the side of pulling out too much rather than too little- if I'm not sure if I should keep something or not, I'll put it in a bin to keep in storage for a while to see whether or not I ever choose to go pull it out.

Remember, the goal is to only keep things that:

1. have been worn in the last 2 years
2. fit well
3. I like

For my daughters' closet it should be an even faster process- because they outgrow things so quickly they don't have a lot of extra clothes laying around in their closet. I am often pretty bad about going through their socks and underwear to throw away old ones and make sure they have enough that fit, and sometimes I'll find something in their closet that's out of season or that no longer fits. So the only part that will be different when I go through their closet will be to also see if there's anything new I need to get, especially socks/underwear. Otherwise the process is the same as for my own clothes.

I'm giving myself a time limit so that this doesn't become an overwhelming, drawn-out task: 30 minutes for my closet, and 15 minutes for my daughters' closet. See, that's not so bad!

Bonus: I'm pretty happy with how my closet, and my daughters' closet, is organized. If you want to get a better idea of how I organized everything in each of our closets fairly cheaply (mostly with IKEA organizers) and made them easy to maintain, check out each of the posts below (it has totally been worth it having things organized!):

If you don't have your clothes organized in different bins or drawers, I highly recommend you find a way to do that- it will make a huge difference in your ability to keep things where they're supposed to be (and find things when you want them)!

Want to join me in this Fresh Start 2018 challenge? I'm going to be posting a photo on Instagram on Sunday of what I accomplished for the challenge this week. If you want to join me, share your own pictures and include #FreshStart2018Challenge in the description. You don't have to stick to any schedule either- join me any time! The goal is to get a cleaner, more organized home without the guilt or stress.

Here's to a fresh start for the new year!

Click here to sign up for the Organized Chaos newsletter!

Read more "Fresh Start 2018 Challenge: closets"