Organization is a constant process.  As our family grows, as our needs and space changes..we constantly change our ways to stay organized. It is not about the perfection but it is about being efficient. It saves you time when you know where your things are, saves you money by knowing what you have and you don't end up buying things you did not know you already have. I do not know about you but me personally..it stresses me more when I feel disorganized.  We have a new role in our lives now as our Lucy started school last week. It was a roller coaster week for us.. So happy and excited for her experiences , for all the new things she will learn and for the new friendship that God will bless her. At the same time, I end up thinking..man oh man..where did the time went? I can still recall the days she was born. Now , here she is!

Here are simple ways that we did at our home to stay organized. Yes , it will need your little time but trust me ..it is worth it.


1. Prepping their school outfits.


You might think..okay ..that's a lazy woman's work. How hard it is to go get an outfit every morning. No, not hard at all ! However , I prefer to have a relaxing school day mornings, I don't function well on rushed mornings ( ask my hubby) . Choosing an outfit for me , Lucy and her little sister every morning is one of the things that I choose not to do every morning to save time.  Every Saturday or Sunday after laundry , I do choose 5 outfits for Lucy's School. I just grab a complete outfit in the morning and encourage her to get dress by herself. Right beside the outfits are her shoes.



2. School supplies


 Do you stock up on school supplies? If you don't , I do suggest on stocking up on great deals on school supplies. A sale combined with a coupon  will save you money. Specially this back to school season, you will see a whole lot of great deals, offers and coupons. If your school provides most of the supplies, it is still a good idea to buy a few extras. We can always offer and ask their teacher how we can help with the supplies at the classroom. After all, educating our children is a partnership between the teacher and parents. If school supplies is one way of supporting educators, I am all in.

We use this pantry cabinet ( closet maid in alder) . These cute crates are from Walmart..only a dollar each.



3.School documents, forms, artworks or homework


We got this bin / container from Office depot. It will hold all school stuff such as enrollment forms or documents . school packet info, homework, artworks. The bin uses the legal, regular hanging folder type so separating each category is easy. Since, Lucy is just on Pre K , we only started with 3 category. We plan on using one bin per kid, so we could keep all of the paperwork under control. Someday , we will categorize it by grade ( pre k, kindergarten, first grade ..etc) and someday Lily will have one too.


4. Information Center



 We are a traditional family, while COZI is awesome, however a good calendar method works for us.  The left side calendar is just an old frame that we converted into a dry erase calendar. It is where we write all of our appointments , events we plan on attending, birthdays and some schedules like Rob's overtime dates. The right side is a push board , where I put some info from school that I'd like to remember , a guide schedule for us , a chore schedule for me and maybe some info or message we like to be reminded.

What is a guide schedule?  we call it a guide schedule because while having a daily routine is beneficial, however..we believe that  a schedule is not written on stone. It is there to guide us to stay organize with our time or planning but we should be flexible enough if there are sudden changes.

What is a chore schedule? Well, while we keep our house "somewhat" clean and organize. Our home is not squeaky clean, I do schedule my chores so my chores don't rob my time from myself and my family. For example  on Mondays..I clip coupons, laundry..Tuesdays..I clean the bedroom and bathroom. That doesn't mean that we just keep the rest of the house messy in between days. We do a quick clean up before we go to bed. If we just simply can not do quick clean up..Oh well..mess will be there tomorrow. Family time and kids don't keep :)

5. Snack list