10 things I do to stay organised with kids

I have 3 kids.  A 6, 3.5 and 2 year old. It took me a number of years before I really settled in the role of “mum” Where I got into the groove of dinner, laundry, class pick up, drop off and packed lunches. I’ve slowly moved away from the nappy bag and sometimes I like to live dangerously by leaving the house with just my wallet, phone, keys, kids and water bottles.  Ok so I have the security of my Go Box in the car.  Its just a plastic tub with a lid with nappies, spare clothes, cream, wipes, rubbish bags etc.

So here are my top 10 things to stay organised with kids. Or give me a fighting chance of staying sane.

1 – Pack school lunches the night before

Mornings are for extra minutes of sleep or lying down on the couch while the kids watch ABC2.  Followed by breakfast, getting dressed and brushing teeth.  Bonus points for brushing hair. Sometimes its also for revising magic words or reading homework.

So I pack lunches the night before.  It cuts out a lot of stress of waking up in the morning with one more thing to cram in and then figuring out your bread has gone moldy or there’s no fruit in the house or having completely forgotten until you go to get the school bag and you are already running late and then have to scrounge around to throw some food together.

2 – Set up a Go Bag.

I call it a Go Bag.  Its the bag I grab to assemble stuff when we have to GO. In this bag I put in:

• Water bottles

• iPads

• Snacks in a food container – so things like chips & crackers don’t get crushed.  I also have fruit container that I use sometimes to put things like grapes or cherries or apples that I can precut.

The bag is insulated, stands up on its own with a zip and flip top lid so it can keep the snacks and water and electronics cool as it can get quite hot in Sydney.  I put this bag in the back of the car and nothing rolls around falling under seats, or spilling.

3 – I bring entertainment – iPads, colouring in, small dolls etc

We like to eat out regularly and we attend classes where due to back to back commitments, the whole family comes.  I’m realistic that I know kids will no longer just sit still with nothing to do for longer than a minute unless they are asleep.  So I bring the tools to keep them entertained.  The iPads come out when we are waiting for food to arrive and the kids are starting to get restless.  We also have a whole bunch of Tom and Jerry and Looney Tunes cartoons on them so if in a group situation at least a bunch of kids can watch together.

I also bring colouring in pads and stickers.  Kids love stickers.  I dont know why the act of taking it off a sheet and placing it on their entire body or on another sheet satisfies them so much but it does.

I also have a polly pocket doll collection in a pencil case but that’s when things get desperate because the teeny tiny little rubber accessories are really annoying to put on and collect after play.

4 – I have a schedule.

I have a schedule which I put in all the regular things that happen and the time they start and underneath this – the time I absolutely have to leave the house by in order to get there on time.

There are also the regular items like

5.00pm – Bathe Kids.

5.30pm Cook Dinner

6.30pm – Eat dinner

7.50pm – Kids brush teeth & stories

8.00pm – Bedtime

End of day is the craziest part of my day.  And I used to get really stressed by the wildly varying times that my husband would get home or getting to 8 and still not having bathed the kids or just finished dinner etc.  All the other chores would then snowball and I would be a screaming mess.

So THIS is one of the most important things I set up to make my day manageable.  I know if I try and keep to these timing points – I have half a chance of having a reasonable evening and if I’m lucky, even enjoy a hot tea by 9pm.

5 – I use Google calendar & take the time to maintain it.

I use Google calendar.  It’s awesome.  I have colour coded calendars for myself, each of my kids and my husband.  One for bills, travel (which allows different time zones for start and finish times), school holidays, school terms, birthdays, and work.  I will sometimes put up to 3 reminders on an event.  If it’s a party – I put a reminder a couple days before so if I need to get a present still, I have time.  Sometimes there is another reminder the night before for wrapping, card etc and then a popup reminder 30 minutes before which means bloomin leave now to party.

It has an address slot and can attach maps.  I can invite people and I can even input it into a website for others to view. I added on the Australian Public Holidays Calendar to my Google calendar so I don’t have to update this every year.

My husband can refer to the calendars on his machine or phone.  And I use “Calendars” by Readle on my iPhone which grabs the information from my Google calendar.  So every time I need to rebook a swim lesson, hair appointment etc – I can do it on my phone if I’m out and about and it syncs online.

I once had to put in 5 parties to attend in a weekend.  I had to figure out whether we could make them all with the timing etc.  Sometimes the invite is only for one child – so my husband and I will split the chaperone/driver responsibilities and put it on the calendar.

The real trick though is to MAINTAIN it.  start putting ALL your appointments in consistently and soon you will learn to trust it.

6 – Empty & check their school bags each day

When I arrive home, I open the door and leave it wide open to go back for the mountain of stuff that needs to be carted back inside the house, school bags, readers, communication folders, hats, jackets, groceries, shopping, handbag, books, food, drink bottles etc.

As a habit, I now lug ALL this stuff and put it on the kitchen island which is normally free of crap after breakfast.  I then open up each school bag and put drink bottle, lunch box, sip and crunch boxes on the right of the sink right next to the bin.

I go through the bags and take out anything that doesn’t belong.  I check Kayla has money for canteen and clear out her notes from the communications folder from school.  I take homework and readers and put in the “homework” section of the kitchen – which also doubles as the “charging” station.  I drag out dirty clothes sometimes from water play or accidents and dump straight into the washing machine. If there is a lot of sand etc – I will empty out the whole bag and shake it outside.

I take the “art” and place it in an art folder. (which I then reuse to wrap presents)

After emptying and repacking things like school jackets and hats, I hang it back up in the linen closet on their dedicated bag hooks ready to go the next day.

I try to do this within the first 15 minutes of arriving home.  Else they are just in the way and its onwards with putting away groceries, after school snacks, homework, showers and on and on.

7 – I have a present cupboard

I have a cupboard in the house which I stock once a year at the massive toy sales in June from Target, Toys r Us, Big W, Kmart, etc.

I calculated we attended about 35 kids parties last year.  I simply don’t have the time nor the desire to go into a shop and buy a present 35 times or more on separate occasions.  I will lose the will to live. My husband has palpitations at the thought of having to do it once so he no longer complains when I do a big shop once a year because he is much happier with me stocking up on popular toys for half the price with zero effort on his behalf.

I take into account the rough age group I am buying for.  It used to be a lot of fisher and price baby toys and clothes.  Now we are moving onto more complex stuff like lego and craft sets etc.

Now when I receive an invitation, I open up the cupboard and select an appropriate toy and put it on the dining table ready for wrapping.  If there isn’t something suitable or I know the recipient had their heart set on something I will then make a trip or shop online for that present.

I also get my kids christmas and birthday presents at these sales and put a post it on them.

8 – I shop online

The amount of times I have lugged the kids in the car, battled traffic, have 1 or 2 asleep once I get there, then loading up the stroller with stuff and then negotiate other pedestrians while pushing 30 kilos of loaded stroller, wait ages for lifts that might be packed, work around lunch/food/nap/school pick up hours to then get into a shop and not be able to find what you were looking for, or its out of stock does not bear thinking about. So I do a lot of shopping online.  Especially when there are heavy or bulky things involved.

I used to do my groceries online too.  Its also good for the occasional buys which are heavy such as 24 pack cans of coke, laundry powder, canned goods.  You will find with the fresh fruit and veg – its actually really fresh.  it hasn’t been on display and if they are smallish – they will always give you more.  The retailer simply wants to avoid the hassle of having things returned or having complaints. You do pay a little more for the privilege but if you have ever had a fully loaded trolley and one kid screaming because they can’t fall asleep and the other about to poop their pants – you’ll think it was a bargain!  The kids are more mobile now and less prone to sleeping in the day so I don’t do so much online shopping for groceries.  But it is a invaluable service! especially for the parties and Christmas shop!

9 – Don’t coddle your children too much

This means teaching your kids to do simple things for themselves from young.  I am not talking about when they are babies and cannot even sit up on their own and still think their feet is a food group. But once they have the co-ordination to walk steadily, I let them try and do things on their own if it doesn’t endanger them.

My 2 year old started feeding himself from about 8 months.  It wasn’t pretty.  It sometimes involved a complete head to toe clothing change or a bath with hair wash. It means less running around for you if your bubba can bring you a spare nappy or can put their own shoes on, or pull on their night clothes, put rubbish in a central location if they cannot reach the bin.

My children know to hang onto a piece of my clothing when we cross the road if I cannot hold their hand.  I have taught them to sing a song when I need to go to a public toilet and I cannot have them all in the cubicle with me.

I expect them to put their shoes away in their shoe bin.  I expect that they will look for their wrappy (blanky) if they have misplaced it.  I expect a please and thank you.  They can now brush their teeth, some can wash and brush their hair, put on their own socks, locate their shoes and drink bottles, hang up their own school bags and my eldest out of necessity walks to the back gate at school so I can pick her up from a pick up zone without decanting two other kids who frequently choose to falls asleep by pick up time.

In all these little ways, your children look after themselves, then this makes your life easier.  You will have no one to blame except yourself if you end up with adult children who do not even know how to turn a washing machine on.

10 – Have an awesome person in your life.

My most awesome person in my life is my husband.  To this day, it is still the best decision I have ever made to share my life with this person. And as such, he is now the most awesome father to our children.  Whoever you have in your life, you need a person or multiple persons in your life to help you with the kids.  My kids will learn very different things in different ways from the people in their world.

Your person should be someone you can talk to, can bounce ideas off, someone who can tell you when you’ve gone offtrack or focusing on the wrong thing.  It should be a person who are happy to take the children on their own and let you have some time to yourself or pick up some milk or take out or gin.

It’s not easy to stay organised with kids and still stay sane, but a lot of it is in the attitude and the forethought you bring to your day and of course researching helpful tips.

 

Soundtrack as I wrote this: Amadeus Movie Soundtrack