Organize Your Family and Home for Summer – It Can Be Done

Posted: June 18, 2015

From the Desk of Clearissa Coward’s Command Center – Via Divinely Organized

It’s finally here. School is out and your home is no longer yours alone. For the next 2 maybe 3 months (depending on where you live) all schedules are off and the kids are home with you and expecting to be entertained. It is the beginning of summer vacation and although this is a relaxed and fun time, why not continue some sort of organization for the summer? Your summer organization may look different than it does during the school year, but make it work for you and your family. You will enjoy your summer more if everyone is onboard.

So try these tips to get your summer off to a fun and organized start.

• Spend time each Sunday afternoon planning the coming week’s activities for everyone. I love Sunday afternoon planning sessions. Nothing has to be set in stone, but you will at least get a good idea of what your children would like to do during the upcoming week and knowing will help you with planning and accommodating them.
• swimming – if you have small children, organize swimwear and towels in a centralized location – this will make your life easier when everyone is excited and ready to go
• playdates – arrange transportation and times with other parents at the beginning of the week
• park/playground time – ensure snacks and drinks are packed ahead of time – a good tote or cute cooler bag is a summer necessity for these types of trips
• to avoid losing everything learned during the school year, designate a time during each day for crafts and/or reading to each other or even a math quiz – make it fun but make it happen
• chores (yes we must still do chores during the summerJ) – self-explanatory – who is responsible for which chore(s) during the upcoming week? If you make the decisions together and get everyone’s buy-in during the Sunday planning session, it will be easier to enforce/remind during the week
• Create a nerve center
• chores are posted to remind everyone what they have agreed to do
• schedules are posted
• I would color code the schedule by individual to make it easier to see who should be where and when
• meals can also be planned and posted here to make shopping for meals much easier
• you can even take it a step further and pull and post your coupons for the week’s shopping
• Prepare for wet towels and swimsuits
• place 1 colorful basket next to the back door for wet towels that do not make it to the laundry room during the day – you will transport these to the laundry room at the end of the day
• place 2 additional baskets in the laundry room, one for laundered beach or pool towels, and another for laundered swimsuits
• you will keep the swimsuits and beach/pool towels separate from the everyday laundry because you will probably need to launder them daily for use the next day
• complete at least one load of laundry day – more depending on the size of your family to avoid having to spend a beautiful day or warm balmy evening doing lots and lots of laundry – especially wet swimsuits and towels

Get the rest of the tips and read the entire article here. 

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