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Eight Organization Hacks for Busy Parents

Posted on by Dawn Link Posted in Family, Parenting, Time Management

Eight Organization Hacks for Busy Parents

Being a parent is no easy feat. From managing your child’s schedule to balancing work and household chores, it can be overwhelming to keep everything in order. However, with a little organization and planning, it is possible to keep everything under control. Here are some organization hacks for busy parents:

  1. Create a schedule: Set a routine for your family, including mealtimes, homework, and bedtimes. This will help your children learn the importance of structure and ensure that everyone is on the same page.
  2. Use a planner: Invest in a planner or use a digital calendar to keep track of important dates, appointments, and events. You can also use color coding in your paper-and-pencil planner or on a large-scale refrigerator planner to make it easier to identify which activities belong to which family member. If everyone has a smart phone, you can also use calendar apps to coordinate schedules.
  3. Plan meals: Planning and prepping meals in advance can save you time and stress during the week. Try making a weekly meal plan and prep ingredients on the weekend to make cooking during the week a breeze.
  4. Utilize storage: Make use of storage solutions to keep your home organized. From baskets and bins to shelving units, finding a place for everything will make it easier to find what you or a family member needs quickly.
  5. Delegate tasks: Assign age-appropriate chores to your children to help them learn responsibility and lighten your load. Even young children can help with simple tasks like putting away toys or helping to set the table. Chore wheels come in handy!
  6. Keep a to-do list: Make a list of tasks that need to be done each day and prioritize them based on importance. This will help you stay focused and ensure that nothing slips through the cracks.
  7. Limit distractions: With so many distractions around, it can be challenging to stay focused. Try to limit screen time and create a dedicated workspace to help you stay focused on work or household tasks.
  8. Get help: Do not be afraid to ask for help from family or friends. Whether it is taking your children to a playdate or having someone help with household chores, having a support system can make a big difference.

Being a busy parent does not have to mean chaos and disorder. By implementing these organizational hacks, you can make your life easier and more manageable. Remember that organization takes time and practice, so be patient with yourself, and keep trying until you find what works best for you and your family.

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Add Decluttering to Your Self-care Regimen

Posted on by Dawn Link Posted in Desk, Office, Procrastination, Self Care

Add Decluttering to Your Self-care Regimen

Clutter makes us less productive, more stressed, and unfocused. Starting off the day facing a kitchen counter, dining room table, or office desk covered with stuff is discouraging. Devoting those last few minutes before bedtime to putting the dirty dishes in the dishwasher and tossing or filing the mail you dumped on the dining room table equates not only to good housekeeping but also to your well-being.

Likewise, organizing your desk before quitting for the day—filing papers, stacking the “to-do” work, and straightening out the chaos created throughout the workday—sets you up for clear thinking and a more productive morning. Bonus, you will walk away with confidence and a lilt in your step, knowing that all is in order.

Want to know more about the psychology behind this? Check out this article on EveryDayHealth.

If you need help setting up a system for organizing or for help clearing out “stuff,” I a

m happy to assist.

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Two Miracle Products for Your Hardwood Floors and Furniture 

Posted on by Dawn Link Posted in Cleaning, Home

Two Miracle Products for Your Hardwood Floors and Furniture

Do you have wood floors or furniture that need sprucing up from scratches or dull finish? Let me recommend two products I love that are just short of miraculous.

 

Last week, I moved a sofa and scratched the hardwood floor. Badly. No worries. I was able to get those scratches out in two minutes with Amazing Tibet Almond Stick. Packaged in a small tin container is a lipstick-size cotton stick saturated with almond extract oil. Unwrap the foil and rub the stick on the scratch. Wipe off the excess and voila!

My wood coffee table was looking dull. No worries. I polished it the professional way, with Trewax Paste Wax with Carnauba. After cleaning the table, I rubbed on a thin layer of the wax with the sponge included in the can and buffed with a clean microfiber towel. The table looks like new. Start to finish, the job took 10 minutes.

Both products are sold at my local hardware store as well as on Amazon.

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The Latest Scoop on Tipping

Posted on by Dawn Link Posted in Budget

The Latest Scoop on Tipping

What is going on with tipping guidelines these days? There seems to have been a shift since the pandemic started of whom we tip, how we tip, and how much we tip.

During the pandemic, we started tipping for takeout to support the local restaurant staff who were cooking and packing up our orders to make up for the lack of tips from sit-down dining. Now that sit-down dining has returned, patrons are still expected to tip for takeout.

Tip jars are prominently displayed in places we have never or rarely seen them before: at counters of convenient stores, takeout counters, and retail stores.

I have even heard of online shopping sites having a place to enter a tip when placing an order.

What’s more, those tip screens that suggest gratuity amounts that often start high and go higher. Do these intimidate you? There’s even a name for this, “guilt tipping”. Isn’t that all too often what you are experiencing? I know that I am.

How much to tip? Not so long ago, 15-20% was considered the “appropriate” amount to tip, but the new norm is 18-25%. Curiously, some people’s (ir)rationale is that prices have gone up, but 15% of a higher price is still mathematically higher.

If you are looking for some guidelines on how much to tip, consult the following:

AmericaJosh

Grubstreet

If you find some of these changes annoying and one more thing “eating away” at your budget, you a

re not alone. ABCNews

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How to Clean Your Electronic Devices

Posted on by Dawn Link Posted in Cleaning, Computer, Electronics

How to Clean Your Electronic Devices

With spring just around the corner – though Punxsutawney Phil tells us it will be another six weeks of winter all tolled – let’s get a head start on cleaning some electronic devices we use daily. These might include mobile phones, Air pods, headphones, computer screens, and keyboards.

How to clean your phone

How to clean Air pods and ear buds

How to clean your computer’s screen

How to clean your keyboard

Another way to ‘clean’ your computers and smart phone is to turn them completely off at least once a week. This is especially important if weird things are happening, and you can’t figure out why. Reboot them like we used to in the ‘old’ days!

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Simplify Bill Paying

Posted on by Dawn Link Posted in Bill Paying, Finances, Mail

Simplify Bill Paying

I was talking with a friend who had just spent the afternoon writing out checks to pay her bills, putting stamps on the envelopes, and driving to the post office to mail these inside (to avoid having them stolen from a collection box). We talked about how she can simplify her bill paying.

It took some doing, but I convinced her to start using online banking to pay her bills. The bank guarantees delivery by the due date, she can set up regular payments such as rent to be made automatically, and she saves postage, not to mention time.

Another option is to go directly to the company’s website and initiate payment from their site. No check needs to be written and you control how much and when the bill is paid. You can set up autopayment if you desire.

I do suggest to people that they continue to get paper bills. Once they switch to electronic billing and start receiving email notifications, chances are once the email comes into your inbox, it gets buried. It requires another step to find the email, click on the link in the body of the email, look up your password, and finally get to go look at your bill. Will you really take the time to remember to go back to that email, and will you click through to view your bill online? Besides, having that piece of mail in your hands is a tangible reminder that you must pay and when.

My next “project” will be convincing her that it is easy to use the bank’s app to deposit checks. The only time she should need to go to the bank then would be for cash withdrawals, or to visit the friendly tellers.

Have you switched to online banking? What’s holding YOU back?

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Where Are Your Important Papers?

Posted on by Dawn Link Posted in Death, Estate Planning, Family, Filing, Paper Management

Where Are Your Important Papers?

No one ever plans to be sick or disabled yet planning for such an emergency can make all the difference. Do you have such a plan? Do you know where your important papers are located?

The National Institute on Aging has a fabulous checklist for preparing and organizing legal documents and important papers. You do not have to be “aging” to need this level of organization. Think of it this way: if something happens to you, would your spouse, children, other family members, designated health proxy, and power of attorney be able to readily access critical information to take care of you and your affairs. Utilize this website to ensure that they do:

National Institute on Aging

This past summer, a friend of mine was in a near fatal car accident. She had multiple broken bones and a concussion. Her children were, thankfully, located near her and were able to jump in to take over; however, no one knew IF she even had a will, power or attorney, or health proxy. It turns out that she did not have any. All those important documents were still being edited. My friend never imagined that they would be needed for a while, so she just put them aside to be done later.

My advice, please do not put off doing this important paperwork. One never knows what the future will bring. As a result, start working on this project today!

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Design your Own Exercise Program

Posted on by Dawn Link Posted in Exercise, Goals

Design your Own Exercise Program

Do you have a lot of fitness experience (taking classes, playing sports, or working out under guidance of coaches and trainers) and want to design your own exercise program? If so, you could then essentially design a fitness program yourself, likely saving time and money.

To accomplish creating your own exercise program. you want a program that covers aerobic, strength, flexibility (stretching), and balance. If you’re an athlete, add agility work.

There are many resources online, some trustworthy and some sketchy. Just because a guy has big muscles, and a YouTube channel does not make him qualified to advise others on fitness. The exercise routine that works for him might be totally unsuited to your goals. Research this thoroughly.

For an exercise library, a good resource is the ACE (American Council on Exercise)

For strength exercises, read up on the different muscle groups and the order of exercising them (for example, large muscles before small muscles).

Also be aware that many personal trainers will design a program for you and let you go off and work out on your own. They will also review and fine-tune a program you’ve designed yourself.

Good luck with designing your own program!

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How to Hire a Personal Trainer

Posted on by Dawn Link Posted in Exercise, Goals, New Year's Resolutions

How to Hire a Personal Trainer

So many plan to lose weight at the beginning of a new year. One way to help you do so is to consider hiring an expert to guide you. In fact, a personal trainer can design an exercise program that helps you reach your fitness goals, suits your personality, and accommodates any physical limitations you might have.

When hiring a trainer, look for the following:

  • Qualifications
  • Experience
  • Compatibility

Qualifications

How do you determine if a trainer is qualified? Do so by asking what certifications they have. (If they are not certified, then pass on them.) Personal trainers are not licensed; anyone can hang up a “personal training” shingle. However, there are many, many organizations that certify personal trainers. The best require the candidate to pass a comprehensive written exam, to maintain CPR/AED certification, and to stay current in the field by completing Continuing Education Units (CEU) on a regular schedule. There are some fraudulent businesses that sell personal trainer certificates (among other types of credentials, such as diplomas). Some businesses also have a low bar on what knowledge a candidate must demonstrate to be “qualified” to train others.

The best certifications are:

  • ACSM (American College of Sports Medicine). The gold standard!
  • NSCA (National Strength and Conditioning Association)
  • ACE (American Council on Exercise)
  • NASM (National Academy of Sports Medicine)

You can get a sense of how rigorous the training is by going to the website and looking at the requirements.

Experience

Don’t measure experience only in years, but in relevance to your needs. If you are training for a specific sport, has the trainer worked with others in that sport? Basically, you want a trainer who has worked with others with goals like yours.

Compatibility

You and the trainer must click. It is a subjective evaluation, but an important one. You must feel comfortable with this person to, basically, avoid throwing your money away.

Good luck with your search if you decide to go this route!

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Best Wishes for a Fabulous 2023!

Posted on by Dawn Link Posted in Exercise, New Year's Resolutions

Best Wishes for a Fabulous 2023

Goodbye 2022. Now is a good time to reflect on the past year. How was it for you? Did you achieve any goals, learn new skills, or take the vacation you planned pre-pandemic?

While it can be fun to reflect, this is also a good time to look ahead: What kind of year do you want 2023 to be? Is this the year you change careers, downsize, buy your first house, get married or divorced, or make other major changes? Alternatively, is this merely the year to go with the flow, keep things steady, and not rock the boat?

We wish you a 2023 that is everything you want it to be. Happy New Year!

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