We talk a lot about Storage, Moving, and Organizing Tips, but based on the results in one of our Facebook polls, Everyday Tips are also of interest to you. So here we go. 1. Managing family chores. Make chore-charts for each family member and have them keep it in their room. School gets really hectic really fast, and too many times kids forget what chores they’re responsible for. Or at least that’s what they say. Yes? :) If you have in clear view a color-coded calendar clearly outlining the Monday through Sunday chores, there will be no room for doubt. Now… if you got the severe case of forgetful teenager on your hands, and want to go the extra mile, you can add the chores as re-occurring calendar alerts on their phones. Way to go mom and dad!! The best time to check the kids’ chores is usually around 7:30PM. This gives the kids enough time to do finish up if they haven’t already. Make your deadline for chores very clear, but avoid raising your voice (as hard as it can be), or they’ll associate cleaning with yelling. The trick is to make them think cleaning is fun. 2. Prioritizing tasks. If you’re having a hard time figuring out where you should start with your tasks, make a list. Write down all your to-dos and assign a 1 through 5-number to all these chores, with 1 as the most important. Then, organize your tasks by order of importance. Take full control of your priorities. 3. Properly managing bills, receipts, and mail. Set up your bills to be due on, or around the same day if you can. If that’s not possible, set them up to fall on the same day by category. I.e. Car payment, insurance, other automobile bills all auto-debit on the same day. Life insurance, health insurance, etc on a different day. To properly manage your mail, the best thing you can do is sort it as it comes in and trash it right at the source. Ads and other things you don’t need, don’t haul into your home. Throw it in the trash before coming back in. Set up a scanner and a shredder next to each other too. Incoming mail will go into the scanner and then, unless you need it for future reference, put it straight into the shredder. For your receipts, make a nice box and put all new receipts in it every night when you get home. You’ll help prevent them from accumulating in random drawers, pockets or purses and it will be easier to sort them out regularly, which is best to do. Once a quarter at the latest, or they’ll overflow and become yet another source of clutter. 4. Online family-management idea. I started using this idea a while back, and I have to tell you it’s been working out great for my family. The concept is to share an online calendar with your partner. It will help stay on top of the house chores, kids’ schedules, dinner dates, anniversaries, etc. If you’d like to have a separate calendar for the kids, you can also grant access to close family or child-care providers. This way, if anyone needs to know where you are, or what events are coming up that they might need to plan for, they will be up to date. Always thinking of new tips for you, US Storage Centers
