Don’t let your couch be a catch-all.

Now that the school year has gotten underway, many families are struggling with the challenge of developing a family routine, are overwhelmingly disorganized and extended financially.  Here are a few tips from certified professional organizer Ellen Delap to help with these three issues. Ms. Delap suggests regulating these three areas: one’s house, schedules, and finances.

Command Center

To begin with, Ms. Delap suggests setting up the home with a command center, one spot as a command center (not your couch), one spot where all planning can take place. She suggests a desk, a wall planner (with dry erase) and a sorting area (wall pockets, baskets, etc.) to help with organizing families’ activities. Having this preplanned area allows for all in the family to see, add to it and organize together.

Family Meeting

Along with a specific area, Ms. Delap suggests families have weekly meetings to coordinate, discuss and receive valuable input from all family members. This weekly meeting will help with developing routines for chores, dinner, extracurricular activities, designation of specific tasks and overall sense of partnership within the family.

Finances

Lastly, in this preplanned area, family members can share extracurricular fees to go out of the family budget, schedule the writing of checks and have the knowledge of knowing all expenses that have to go out for family expenses.

Here are just a few tips to get your family on the path to redeeming the time.

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