Category Archives: Your Space

Ask Dr. G: How to Get Kids to Clean Their Room (and Other Miracles)

How can I get my 11 yo (ADD) daughter and 5 yo son to clean their rooms? Not squeaky, just clean floors, no trash, laundry away? Jennifer, in WA Is it worth it to make our kids keep their rooms clean? Yes, most days. But it still often feels like trying to teach your dog…

Emergency Fund: Your Financial Back Up Plan

If you’re tackling debt for the first time, unexpected expenses can appear to derail your efforts if you don’t have an emergency fund in place. You may feel like you’re constantly failing, and even give up on paying off your debt. An emergency fund buys you breathing room. An emergency fund is exactly that –…

8 Tips for Making Mornings Easier with Kids

Are you a morning person? I’m not! As my kids have hit elementary school, they too struggle with mornings. As much as I love being with them, I dread waking them. Know what I mean? Make a list. Kids and teens do better when our expectations are clearly communicated. So work with your child to…

How to Make School Mornings Run More Smoothly

School mornings can be a hectic time of scrambling for clothes and shoes, putting homework papers in the backpacks, packing lunches and making sure all the notes are filled out for the teachers. Setting up good habits and routines for handling all of these potential stress points can go a long way to making the…

The Case Against Travel Sizes: Organizing Sabotage

Riddle: What is smaller than the palm of your hand but takes up an entire closet? Answer:  Travel sizes!  Whether you call them travel sizes, trial sizes, or sample sizes, the allure of travel sizes is unmistakable.  They are cute.  They are novel.  They are pretty.  They are often free.  They are within the TSA…

Homework Supply Box

Last year when I had 3 young children in elementary school, I struggled with having supplies on hand for homework time until I came up with a homework supply box. I grabbed a plastic box with a lid from my small pile of empty storage containers in the basement and created a label for it…

10 Minute Desk Drawer Declutter

Sometimes I wonder why I put off organizing things that take so little time and effort and yet make a big difference in not only appearance, but also usability. For example, our kitchen desk drawer (used by the whole family) had become a catch-all for papers, keys, cards, paper-clips and anything else we didn’t know…

Back to School: Managing Kids at Different Schools

The snow lay on the ground, but it was not crisp and even. In fact there was hardly any snow on the parking lot. Not only was there little snow, but there were no cars. “Where was everyone?” I said out loud. My 3-year-old son sat in his car seat clutching his backpack. He was…

Organize for Back to School Time

It is hard to believe that summer time is wrapping up and it is nearing time to send the kiddos back to school.  In some ways it is sad and in some ways it seems like a relief-it’s hard to keep them entertained all summer! Here are some great ways to get organized this time…

How to Organize a Field Trip

No matter where your child attends school – home, public, or private – field trips are an incredible way to broaden his understanding of a subject and give him an opportunity to add real world knowledge to what he reads in books. Whether you’re helping in your child’s classroom or organizing a field trip for…