Spring Planning for the Home School

As the calendar turns to March, many homeschooling moms turn to the annual task of choosing curriculum. Some of you don't have to think much about this because you are using a standardized, boxed curriculum and you simply order the materials for the next grade. But for many moms, the early spring is full of thoughts about next fall. Last week, I was amused by the mother who posted this question on a website: "Am I the only one who is obsessed with curriculum right now?"

It took us three full years to understand the way we needed to organize our learning adventures and how we should shop. Every family must find what works for them. That's the beauty of homeschooling. We can use a custom-fit for the needs that are present. One of the keys to our process was for me to have enough time to assess and plan thoughtfully.

I found that setting aside some time in March worked wonders for the year ahead and for our current year. That's because the first thing I did was assess what we had accomplished over the last 6 months. I put the schoolwork into looseleaf binders which were divided into subject areas. I made notes. How much had we done? What had worked well? What had not worked at all? How much farther could we reasonably go into the material by June? I based my projections on the reality we had been since September.

I learned that I needed quiet and space for this task. So I made arrangements for the kids, either with their dad, a relative, a friend, or a sitter. I used Friday and Saturday afternoons for my work, and I rewarded myself with a "treat" on Saturday night and an afternoon nap on Sunday.

Rewards are important for me. I need an incentive to push myself to get work done. Appointments are essential. By arranging for the kids, I made an appointment to do the work. That kept me accountable.

Beginning this in March let me work on it before the distractions of spring sports and events began. It also gave me two full months before a curriculum fair in May. What I thought should take one month actually took two. And that was the first rule.

A job always takes at least twice as long as I think it will. Always.

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What about you? Have you started thinking about curriculum for next year? How do you like to do your planning?

Spring Cleaning: First Things

We have family arriving in the next few days, and I've started spring cleaning. In addition to this, my husband has several work projects around the house that need attention before people get here and the yard needs another clean-up from the latest devastating ice storm.

But before I started my cleaning project, I had a preparation day. I made sure I had all my cleaning supplies ready. I made sure I had appropriate clothing -- meaning, things to wear that I can spill anything on or tear holes in. I made sure I had a generous stash of my favorite coffee and tea supplies -- for breaks, you know. And I cooked ahead.

That's right. I cooked a bunch of food. This gave us a three-day supply of instant meals in the fridge. When people are hungry, they can go to the fridge, fill up a plate, and heat it in the microwave.

While the food was cooking, I cleaned out the fridge and tidied up the kitchen. By cleaning out the fridge, I made room for all of the foods I prepared. I also made sure that people don't eat spoiled food that will make them sick. Believe me, it can happen. One time, one of my children ate raw turkey bacon because it was in the same drawer as the lunch meat and then asked me why it tasted strange.

What did I cook? Easy things. Things that fill a body up, but that don't take much hands-on preparation. Staple foods that can easily be combined into meals. After the foods have cooled, I put the foods in zip-lock bags or plastic containers with lids and stack them neatly in my clean fridge.

Okay, I know you want to see the list! Here it is:

Baked potatoes

Baked sweet potatoes

Brown rice pilaf (in my rice cooker, with vegetables and spices)

Couscous

Kamut pilaf (grain with vegetables and lemon juice)

2 lbs of green beans

Butternut squash, microwaved and topped with honey and cinnamon

2 lbs of frozen corn

2 lbs of Brussels sprouts

Large pan of baked beans

Large sheet of baked red peppers

Sweet and sour lentils

Eye of round steaks, individually frozen and ready for my son to grill in a small skillet

Salad supplies: lettuce, tomatoes, various vegetables, salad dressings

Fresh fruit: apples, oranges, bananas, grapes

Whole grain breads

The spices in my pilaf dishes rounded out the vegetables and made for a nice variety. We had oatmeal or cereal for breakfasts. My husband and I are vegetarians, so the beans and lentils served as our main courses. I also stocked the freezer with a wide variety of frozen vegetables that can be quickly heated in the microwave, offering supplements and additional side dishes to my prepared fare. I knew we would want good nutrition and filling foods, not just whatever we threw together or ordered from a restaurant, while we were working hard.

I'm always tempted to just dive into the work. You know, get going! But years of extended projects on a Victorian home taught me the value of having a prep day before working.

It seems like it takes extra time, but in the long run, it saves hours and hours.

How? Because nobody has to run to the store to buy something we need. Because the set-up and clean-up time is done all at once for our meals. Because this method eliminates all the food-related interruptions that are a normal part of daily life. I could never manage the once-a-month cooking that some of my friends did, but this worked well for me, as long as I didn't try to create dishes that were time-consuming or complicated. Keeping it simple has been important for me.

What kinds of food do you typically eat when you are working on a project?

Ride the Trolley - Again!

Several years ago our family traveled to Yosemite National Park. We flew into San Francisco and spent a couple of days there. I had been to San Francisco a number of times before I married. To my young eyes, the city seemed nearly magical, with its steep hills floating into bay and the fog moving across it like a live thing. Most of all, I loved the trolley. The charm and the eclectic oddity of this place in American life was captured in one ride down from downtown to the water's edge. The brightly painted exterior, the little bell that sounded at each stop, and the sea breeze blowing through the open windows combined to transport me to a place that wasn't quite home but felt like it should be.

Our visit twenty years later was a homecoming. The one thing I longed to do was to take my husband on the trolley to the sea. I wanted to share with him the joyful memory and make a new one. It was nearly the first thing we did when we arrived. We went to the spot where the trolley turns around on the street and waited. We hopped on. We rode slowly down the busy streets, with the bell tinkling and the bay peeking out of the horizon in front of us. When we landed, my husband bought a small replica of the trolley for our Christmas tree. Each year, I put it on the tree and smile.

The trolley runs smoothly on a track that has been planned and laid out for it. It doesn't have to find a way through the traffic each time it goes. It follows the lines of wires overhead and moves steadily and surely toward its objective. Every day it carries different people with differing agendas. It travels through different kinds of weather. But the track is always the same.

The busiest areas of the house should be set up so that they operate like the trolley. Actions should run along the lines that have been laid out and which lead, in the most economical way, to a destination. When you do an activity, the necessary materials and tools should be located within an arm's reach and easy to put away with one movement. This way, your repeated daily efforts can run down established lines with little fuss or extra effort.

The best way to start is to think about what you do most often in a busy area of the house. Gather every thing you need for that activity. Set it in a large laundry basket or box, or put it out on a surface in front of you. Now think: how can you arrange these things in this space so that you don't have to take steps to reach each one? Where can you set them so that they are right where you are working or playing? Store them so that they can be retrieved and put away with the fewest movements possible. One, at most two, movements is your goal for each object, each tool.

You may find that you have to remove some of the objects that aren't really needed in this part of the house -- that large canning pot you never use, the pile of cookbooks you look at once a year, the magazines nobody reads. You may need to purchase open containers to organize some of the tools and supplies. Do it. This is a worthy investment of time and money which will pay large dividends over the days ahead.

When I set up my kitchen this way, I can make a cake in less that five minutes. That's because I never have to step away. I set up a baking center right by the fridge. Everything I need to bake with is either in the fridge, in the drawer right in front of me, or in the cabinets above me and below me. Does it make a difference? You bet. When I cook in a kitchen that has not been planned in this way, the same cake takes 25 minutes.

This arrangement does more than save time. It means my kitchen space stays tidier. Some of the clean-up can happen while I am working, since each thing is put away right there. The rest takes a couple of minutes. Before I walk away, the mess and the clutter have been replaced by a clean counter top.

You can apply this same principle to any area of the house: garage, bedrooms, office, family room. Everything that is used often can be organized around the space where people sit or stand. Store things at the place where they are used, and neatness follows naturally.

Lay down some tracks. Ride the trolley through your traffic. It's the best way to go.

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This is my favorite post on organization. I'm re-posting it here because I am doing a lot of cleaning right now and I'm starting to organize our living space. It's time for spring cleaning! I usually begin this in early March and put out spring decorations, too. Although I normally dislike housework, this annual freshening in late winter never fails to give me a lift.

Do you like cleaning? Is there anything you do to prepare your house for spring? Or do you keep things just the same?

Feeling Blue? Try This!

A surprising way to gain new energy when you feel strapped for creativity, inspiration, and motivation is to clean up your surroundings.

It doesn't make sense, not at first glance.

I heard of the idea when my husband talked about David Allen, author of Getting Things Done. De-cluttering, cleaning up, organizing your work space, and tidying up your living quarters frees up mental energy and lightens your psychological load. The result? More energy for hatching new ideas, solving problems, and working more efficiently. It's especially helpful if you feel stuck or burned out. Somehow, changing your surroundings lets you begin again. Creating more physical space around you makes it easier to be productive.

"Really!"

That's all I said when my husband first mentioned the concept. I was skeptical. The last thing I wanted to do was to clean up more stuff when I was already weary. I dislike housework under the best circumstances. Fresh energy from cleaning? It seemed unlikely.

Dealing With a Winter Slump

Weeks later, in the deep slump of a cold and stormy winter, I remembered. Why don't you try it? Just a thought in my head.

But I was feeling bleak, sluggish, and overwhelmed by the challenge of motivating myself and my students. So I figured I had nothing to lose.

I picked one little corner of the room that day. One side table. I cleaned it off. I put each thing away and left a coaster and a little candle there in place of the piles of papers and books.

I promise you I am not making this up: the more I cleaned, the better I felt.

Small Goals Changed Everything

After this discovery, I set small goals each day to de-clutter and clean up. Just part of the room at the time. After a week, our school room was tidy and I felt much fresher, too. I became so motivated that I worked my way through the house that month, bit by bit. Before long, I was feeling cheery and enthusiastic. My house was tidy and I was mentally ready for the new year.

It sounds trite, doesn't it? I think that's why I resisted the idea at first. I just didn't see how something so external and humdrum could affect me that much. But it did.

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One of our blogging friends at Rise Above Ordinary is recently posted about her plans to de-clutter her house this winter. She is challenging others to join her on Tuesdays, when she will post about her de-cluttering projects.

Are you de-cluttering your work area or living space this winter? How are you doing it?

Winning the Paper Chase

Our two greatest problems are gravity and paper work. We can lick gravity, but sometimes the paper work is overwhelming.

- Dr Wember von Braun,

quoted from Time Management for Unmanageable People

How did we win the paper chase?

Simple. We stored it automatically. That way, it never had a chance to pile up.

One of our biggest problems with paper was that, although we had a school room, we homeschooled all over the house. No amount of planning could prevent this. I learned that if you have the space, you are going to spread out and fill it. That's just the way it is. So instead of fighting this natural trend, I decided to embrace it. I began seeing every room as a room where school took place.

I put magazine racks beside every reading chair or couch. I put open containers by every desk. Whatever was being used -- read or written in -- went into the open container as the student stood up. When someone forgot to do this, we could toss the stuff into the container next time we walked by. It all went in together -- all of it. Not because that's how I thought we should organize. But because that was the only way to make it happen. It had to be automatic.

When the containers were so full of clutter and paper that they were overflowing, I would clean them out. I would take an hour on a weekend and put the papers either in the trash, in a portfolio binder, or back into the container. Occasionally, an object really belonged in a bedroom. Books that were finished went back on the shelves.

Magazine racks and crates sat by each bed to collect books, periodicals, and papers. My kids read and wrote all over the house, even when falling asleep. As they reached to turn out the light, they could drop whatever was in their hands into an open container waiting by the bedside table. This was automatic storage, right in the path of motion.

A large crate sat by the breakfast table. As we rose from the table, the daily paper was dropped into it. No more newspaper clutter. When the box was full, we emptied it. Automatic storage again, right in the path of motion.

Twice a year, I bought stacks of paper folders with pockets for 15 cents each at Staples. I used them to hold all the papers associated with a topic. This worked really well most of the time. A study of Hamlet, grammar rules, science experiments, the second World War, a presentation for writing class -- these could be collected into a paper folder as we studied and worked. The paper folder could be dropped into an open container. The next day, we could find it all again.

We started buying spiral-bound notebooks for each subject and using them, instead of loose notebook paper. This way, the work was stored as it was being done. The pages were in chronological order, and none of them were lost. This made the record keeping* easy to do. There were no more wild, desperate hunts for missing documents.

In every room of the house, I asked:

• What is happening here?
• Where is it happening?
• Where can I put open containers on the path of motion?
• Even better, is there a way to store the supplies as the work is being done?

These questions guided me in creating order that could be maintained throughout the year. My kids were happy because they could learn spontaneously and freely. I was happy because we were not drowning in paper. While it's true that our home would never have been the subject of a magazine article on neatness, this worked in real life for us.

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*In Pennsylvania, homeschoolers create an annual portfolio of the student's work. If you don't use a binder to store school work, hanging folders in a box are a good second choice.

The Paper Chase

Where is the school room in your house? Are you happy with it? Does it work well for all of the things you and your children do? Does it tend to be messy? Can you find things when you want them?

If you are like us and most of our friends, homeschooling is messy. We had a grandmother who would stop by for visits and poke her head into our school . . .

"Oh my, what a busy room," she would say, "What a busy room!"

Busy, it was. When my sons were learning at home, I felt like I was holding back a wall of clutter that might flood the house and cover everything. Some nights, I dreamed that the paper and books grew until there was no room for us, and we escaped through a window and ran down the street. But the next morning, it was clear that escape was not possible. I would not get out of this so easily. I had to make peace with our paper habit if I was going to keep my sanity.

We picked up after ourselves, mind you. I was constantly picking up and putting away. But the mess grew a little more every time I turned my back on it. I used to say that paper was our house weed. It was an unruly thing that popped up in every crack, every bare spot, every place where there was light and moisture.

I had shelves. We used them. There was a desk for each person with drawers to keep their personal effects out of the general fray. I had labeled boxes. Our school room had three trashcans. Never mind. The paper still piled up under the windows, on the desk tops, over the couch in the living room, at the kitchen table on the family room coffee table, by the beds, and on the floor where the cats liked to claw at it and chew on it. Even our animals were paper-crazed. They thought every piece of paper was material for a paper ball to chase.

My sons would make stacks of paper balls and then toss them, one at the time, for each cat. Down the hall, bumping on the steps, through the foyer, under the furniture, into baskets and shoes, under tables, the paper wads went. Anywhere and everywhere, the cats chased their paper -- tumbling down the stairs, sliding across the wood floors when they couldn't stop in time, even crashing into walls and doors. As I watched their antics one evening, I realized that this was what I was doing, too. I was chasing paper!

In this kingdom of paper, with a paper-glaze over my eyes, stacks of paper around me, and paper-lovers in every room of the house, I slowly worked my way toward a sort of order that kept a lid on the chaos. What I am saying is -- over time, with practice, with trial and error, we did eventually put our problems with paper behind us.

How did we do it? What worked? What didn't?

Tomorrow, I will be sharing our secrets to winning the paper chase.

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Where does the paper in your house pile up?

How Your Style Can Work For You

Make sure you're living the life you want to live.

- William Zinsser, Writing About Your Life

Using open containers, storing things at the place where they are used, and working with the traffic flow -- these are ideas that benefit every home. Your organizing style can show you how to apply these ideas in ways that suit you and your space. There are a variety of applications that can be the right choice, depending on your lifestyle and your situation. Here's a look at how your style changes your approach to order.

Structured Types organize in a more detailed way. In fact, they organize detail by detail. From the details, they synthesize large amounts of information to gain a grasp of the larger perspective. Drawer dividers, cubby holes, compartments within compartments give them joy and certainty that sings of home. This lets them focus in on one detailed task at the time. They are precise about their activities and feel most comfortable when following a routine. They function best when things are tucked away to expose bare countertops, tables, desks and floors. Open spaces mean space to do things. For them, this is restful to the eye and refreshing to the spirit. They should invest in dividers that let them organize things within their drawers, cabinets, and other containers. Objects used most often should go in the front. Objects used rarely should go in the back. As long as storage takes no more than two movements, they will use it consistently.

However, they need to be more flexible about the rest of the family. Family members may not follow their system, may not even remember it. Structured types can organize a space and return to it days later only to find that they no longer see what they did. Posting small tags or signs to remind family members of where things belong can help. But flexibility is key. The main problem is that people don't remember the same details. Structured types do best when they keep in mind that others don't share their bent for order. They should set up open containers for members of the family right along the flow of traffic in their home, and relax. Compromise is the way to peace.

As a structured person, I want a lot of detail in my attic storage. I like to know exactly where everything is in the attic. My family members don't remember my system -- it's not a priority for them. I solved this through negotiation. First, I put anything that I needed to find at least once a year in a special, smaller storage area that other family members did not use. My Christmas decorations, for example, went into a closet in the basement. Not only did this let me find my Christmas supplies without any fuss, but it meant that I could just focus on one task: Christmas. I didn't have to deal with the entire attic at the same time. Next, I put signs above the stacks of boxes in the attic to identify where things belong or where they can be found. I left empty space at the front of the attic for additions to the attic by other people. I placed couple of open boxes near the front for little odds and ends. Rather than getting tense over where my family members are putting things, I know they will use the front because it's the first open space. And I am grateful they are carrying it all to the attic for me! Every few months, I can put away these newer arrivals and update my signs. I know I can, at any time, find the things I want once a year. We've reached a happy compromise.

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Unstructured types organize visually. If they put things away, they may not remember where. It's far better to leave things out in the open in containers without lids. Utensils on the counter in a jar, things hanging on hooks on the wall, a bulletin board holding papers to remember, a stand-up clip board holding the to-do list for the week -- which sits above the pile of current projects. Unstructured types are usually rotating through several activities at once. They need a system that lets them do that comfortably. The best way to organize their space is to skip the detail that is typical of organizing seminars and books. This only weighs them down. They do better with larger containers that hold an array of things associated with big ideas. Grouped according to the type of activity -- carpentry tools, gardening stuff, cooking utensils, school books, cleaning supplies, gift wrapping -- large, generous spaces that hold an eclectic mix of things which come in handy while doing a particular type of activity make more sense for these people who use a big-picture approach to life. Large labels announcing the big idea for the container can help them remember their original vision for it. In every room of the house, there should be at least one empty container of generous size that functions as a catch-all for miscellaneous things that don't have a place yet. The key for these busy, energetic multi-taskers is to organize visually in a big-picture way and leave room for the unexpected.

My husband designed his own space for carpentry. He built a work bench for himself that is long and large. The top shelf sits at the waist. The lower shelf is at the knees. The entire structure is open on all sides. On the lower shelf, he stored the things that he reaches for often. He also had a set of open, cube-shaped shelves next to it. These stored smaller objects. Finally, he hung some larger objects on the wall. This is to me the model of unstructured storage -- generous, visual, and general. His storage idea was simple. These were things he used when working with wood, when building or repairing. He could see in an instant where it all was and reach for it in one movement. There were no doors, no lids, no hidden compartments. When he had several projects in process, he could easily move from one to the other.

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Hybrids need permission to experiment. They like to organize visually, but they need to adjust the amount of detail to a level that is appropriate to each area of the house. How they do an activity determines how they need to shape the space around it. If they approach their paper work in a structured routine, then they will want a system of open files and see-through boxes for storage at their finger-tips. If they cook in a spontaneous flow to relax after work, they will be happiest in a kitchen that has less structure -- large storage bins, pots hanging from the ceiling, utensils in a catch-all caddy on the counter, fresh produce in hanging baskets by the sink -- so they don't have to remember where things are stored. If they crave a flat, unadorned surface for art or craft projects, then they will need to put away every scrap of their supplies and keep a list of where everything was stored. Labels will help them find things later. The key for these innovative achievers is to think about what they will do in a space and how they need to do it. In organizing spaces for the rest of the family, they can approach their planning in the same way -- what is going to be done here and how do people need to do it?

I have hybrid friends who have learned to think of their spaces in two big categories: personal and public. They know that their personal spaces where they study, do paper work, embark on creative projects, and spend quiet time need to be organized in every detail. Public spaces are organized like an unstructured person's space. This is because when they are with their families, they tend to function spontaneously, have several things happening at once, and work from the big picture. In their personal, individual pursuits, they need to focus on detail and follow a procedure. This gives them a happy balance in their lives that keeps them from being frustrated by too much order, or becoming exhausted from over-extending themselves in a setting with too little structure. In addition, they have learned the value of a few hard boundaries that are crucial for them personally -- regular bedtime, meals, and simple daily goals. Accountability from a friend or their spouse completes their world like the period on the end of a sentence.

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These profiles can help you in a second way. Not only can you find organization that suits you -- your family members can, too. You know what they need for their space and how to support them in creating it. I'm sure that many of you are recognizing the traits of a spouse or child who is very different from you. If family members have room in their personal spaces to express their own preferences, they are happy to work together to find the sweet spot in organizing the shared areas of the house.

Ride the Trolley

Several years ago our family traveled to Yosemite National Park. We flew into San Francisco and spent a couple of days there. I had been to San Francisco a number of times before I married. To my young eyes, the city seemed nearly magical, with its steep hills floating into bay and the fog moving across it like a live thing. Most of all, I loved the trolley. The charm and the eclectic oddity of this place in American life was captured in one ride down from downtown to the water's edge. The brightly painted exterior, the little bell that sounded at each stop, and the sea breeze blowing through the open windows combined to transport me to a place that wasn't quite home but felt like it should be.

Our visit twenty years later was a homecoming. The one thing I longed to do was to take my husband on the trolley to the sea. I wanted to share with him the joyful memory and make a new one. It was nearly the first thing we did when we arrived. We went to the spot where the trolley turns around on the street and waited. We hopped on. We rode slowly down the busy streets, with the bell tinkling and the bay peeking out of the horizon in front of us. When we landed, my husband bought a small replica of the trolley for our Christmas tree. Each year, I put it on the tree and smile.

The trolley runs smoothly on a track that has been planned and laid out for it. It doesn't have to find a way through the traffic each time it goes. It follows the lines of wires overhead and moves steadily and surely toward its objective. Every day it carries different people with differing agendas. It travels through different kinds of weather. But the track is always the same.

The busiest areas of the house should be set up so that they operate like the trolley. Actions should run along the lines that have been laid out and which lead, in the most economical way, to a destination. When you do an activity, the necessary materials and tools should be located within an arm's reach and easy to put away with one movement. This way, your repeated daily efforts can run down established lines with little fuss or extra effort.

The best way to start is to think about what you do most often in a busy area of the house. Gather every thing you need for that activity. Set it in a large laundry basket or box, or put it out on a surface in front of you. Now think: how can you arrange these things in this space so that you don't have to take steps to reach each one? Where can you set them so that they are right where you are working or playing? Store them so that they can be retrieved and put away with the fewest movements possible. One, at most two, movements is your goal for each object, each tool.

You may find that you have to remove some of the objects that aren't really needed in this part of the house -- that large canning pot you never use, the pile of cookbooks you look at once a year, the magazines nobody reads. You may need to purchase open containers to organize some of the tools and supplies. Do it. This is a worthy investment of time and money which will pay large dividends over the days ahead.

When I set up my kitchen this way, I can make a cake in less that five minutes. That's because I never have to step away. I set up a baking center right by the fridge. Everything I need to bake with is either in the fridge, in the drawer right in front of me, or in the cabinets above me and below me. Does it make a difference? You bet. When I cook in a kitchen that has not been planned in this way, the same cake takes 25 minutes.

This arrangement does more than save time. It means my kitchen space stays tidier. Some of the clean-up can happen while I am working, since each thing is put away right there. The rest takes a couple of minutes. Before I walk away, the mess and the clutter have been replaced by a clean counter top.

You can apply this same principle to any area of the house: garage, bedrooms, office, family room. Everything that is used often can be organized around the space where people sit or stand. Store things at the place where they are used, and neatness follows naturally.

Lay down some tracks. Ride the trolley through your traffic. It's the best way to go.

Organize Your Space -- Follow the Traffic

When you have got a thing where you want it, it is a good thing to leave it where it is.

-Winston Churchill, Their Finest Hour, 1949

How can we stay organized? That's the question for most of us. Is there a way to organize so that we can keep our space neat?

To answer the question, yes, I believe there is. I have used 3 basic concepts again and again. They really do work.

1. Store things at the place where they are used or dropped. Notice where the piles are. See the messy areas. The container for storage should go right in that spot. Why? Because it's the natural dumping ground. Shoes at the back door? Put the shoe rack there. Papers on the coffee table? Put the baskets or bins beside it. Keys and mail on the kitchen counter? A few containers right there will absorb that clutter. Lego's on the floor? A special Lego box right at the spot makes clean-up a cinch.

2. The best place for storage containers is right along the traffic flow through your house -- right on the trail people make from the door to the couch to the kitchen. Not so that they trip over the containers, but so that as they pass by they can put things into containers. This is the best way to get consistent results.

In one of our houses, people always came through the back door. There was a sea of shoes on the back porch and kitchen floor. The window sill at the kitchen table filled up with keys, wallets, papers, magazines, books, even jackets. I set shoe racks at the back door. I put a set of various sized baskets on the kitchen island (which I created with a piece of furniture) and baskets on the lower shelves of the island for magazines and newspapers. I put a coat tree near the door. When people came in, I asked them to set their things into these open containers. I only had to ask a few times, and after that it was an easy habit. I never had to deal with that clutter again. On the rare occasions when someone forgot, we scooped up the things and set them in the proper containers. The reason it worked was that the containers were right at the point of use. People wanted to empty their pockets, kick off their shoes, take off their coats, and unload the mail from their arms when they walked in the door. Keeping it neat required no extra steps. The containers caught everything as they peeled it off.

3. Use open containers. Lids are the death of any organizing system for a busy family. Open baskets, bins, boxes, crates, or any other shape you like will work fine. The key is for your family members to be able to put their things away with one movement. I read somewhere years ago that one-motion storage results in people putting things away 90% of the time. I have watched to see if this was true, and I believe it is.

Laundry hampers should be open and at the place where people undress. Attractive, open boxes or baskets should be sitting at the spots where the kids study. Magazine racks should sit beside the chairs and couches where people read them. Shoe racks should sit at the spot where people walk in the door. If you have a pile of objects on a desk or counter which stay in disarray, group them on a tray or in a shallow container, so that they are visible and accessible but in a distinct spot where they are used. This can work well for that pile of stuff that always seems to sit by the kitchen phone. Open boxes should be in the kids rooms beside the places where they like to play to make gathering up toys nearly automatic.

Many times, when I explain these principles, the person I am helping begins to protest. This seems a bit extreme, goes the argument. Why can't family members just walk five steps over to the corner and put things away in that lovely cabinet or closet? To which I answer, because they have to make a point of going there. They have to stop what they are doing and remember. It won't happen. Not consistently.

Look, I know open containers are not thrilling visually. They won't win any design awards. But, if they are the right size and in the right spot and open, your family can be trained in a few days to use them all the time. That's a whole lot better than systems which don't work.

Once you have carefully analyzed the traffic pattern and the messy areas in your home, you are ready to purchase and place open containers in the places where they are needed. In addition to this, every room should have a good-sized trash can and every bedroom should have an open laundry hamper or basket. Wal-mart, Staples, and Dollar stores carry many inexpensive plastic containers of varying sizes and shapes to suit your needs.

For those of you with paper clutter, open baskets and stand-up bins work well for gathering up loose ends. Staples and Wal-mart sell wire-mesh, rectangular boxes of various sizes in their office supply and home decor sections. If you have a lot of paper clutter, that means you want to organize things visually in order to remember where they are. Open containers on your shelves or along the wall or beside the desk will mean you can just drop the paper right there and still see where it is. You might try open boxes with colored files in them, so that papers can be dropped right in as you finish with them. I will give more tips about office order soon, but these are a few ideas you can try.

To me, the best thing about this is the simplicity. You don't need a fancy organization plan. Just notice the mess and put the container right there. Don't fight the traffic. Go with the flow.

The Best Organizing Style and More

Your organizing style is a good. And it's the very best one for you.

How do I know this? Because I know that God made you. He made your unique personality. He knit you together in the womb.

I also know that you will do your best work when you are aware of your style, both the strengths and the weaknesses of it, and adapt your space to it.

You may have noticed that the weaknesses of each style are simply personality strengths, carried a step too far. They aren't weaknesses at all! My point is, we all have to make sure that our natural tendencies don't run away from us like a toddler taking off his coat and tumbling out into the snow.

We have to learn to let our style work for us, not against us.

With that, let's get started.

The next thing to do is to watch the traffic pattern in your home. Where do people walk? Where do they sit? Where do they hang out? Which doors are constantly banging open and shut? If you are not completely sure where the traffic is going, just follow the stuff. Where are the piles of stuff?

Write it all down. Every bit of it. Books and papers. Toys galore. Piles of laundry. Keys and clutter. Snacks left out. Where does it tend to collect?

Use your notebook. Write it down. Write down the kind of clutter and the spot for it. Write down the traffic flow -- from which door to which room and so forth. That's your weekend assignment.

On Monday, I will tell you how to create storage which will coral most of the clutter and which your family members will use 90 % of the time.

How Your Style Shapes Your Space

Organization should come in custom-fit sizes. Any system works only as well as it works for the people using it. No matter how attractive, how inviting, those organizer systems look in the store, in ads, or on magazine pages, they won't make you happy if they don't fit who you are. Just as we have learned with home education, fitting the work to the temperament works wonders for us. Here's a quick overview of how organizing styles affect the way a space should be arranged.

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Unstructured Types need flexibility. The point is not the structure. It's the people. It's what the people are doing. For the unstructured person, organization should be like the punctuation in a sentence: quietly there in the right places, but not the focus.

Unstructured Spaces should be organized with open containers along the path of motion, so that organizing takes almost no added effort. If a container takes more than two motions to use, it will sit empty. The organizing system should leave ample room for expansion. Unstructured people need extra containers for the unexpected which spontaneously hold whatever appears on a particular day. They like to come up with ideas, and so there should be a space for thoughts, pictures, clippings, and articles in nearly every room. Unstructured types organize visually, so their happiest environment follows is a three-dimensional model of a whatyouseeiswhatyouget design. It works for them, and that's the key.

Unstructured pitfalls center mainly around an overuse of flexibility. Mature unstructured types know that everything isn't relative. They know that there are are some hard fast rules in organizing that apply to everyone. They do their best work when they set a few firm boundaries, pay attention to context, and apply some gentle accountability.

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Structured Types feel a distinct need for certainty. They want all of their possessions to have definite places, so that they can find them at any minute. "A place for everything, and everything in its place" is their decorating theme. That's what they think of first when planning their space, and they would prefer that it does mean everything. This is important to them for feeling truly at home.

Structured Spaces take time. Everything does need a place for the structured soul, and that will take some doing, especially if there are children. Patient, careful work on one isolated area of the house at the time is the best way for a structured people to order their spaces. They do best when they set small, realistic goals and time limits on their work every day. As they work, they can see the transformation taking place and that will encourage them. They can benefit from sales on plastic bins, drawer dividers, stacking crates, and shelves. They will find a use for every one they buy.

Structured pitfalls arise out of passion. Their great strength, carried too far, can be a weakness. It's easy for structured types with high expectations about order to burn out. They can end up making the order a higher priority than caring for the people. It's easy for them to lose perspective while trying to create perfectly organized spaces. The structured person works best when remembering the need for flexibility and paying attention to context. The order they crave, as they envision it, is not always appropriate in every setting. But that doesn't mean they should give up. They just need to develop the fine art of negotiation and adjustment, and they need to stop to smell the roses every day.

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Hybrid Organizers need the freedom to choose. These innovative individuals want to be able to shift the dial to more order or less order for each situation and each room in the house. The office area may be surgically clean and the kitchen neat as a pen, but the family room can look like whatever. Their most common phrase about organizing is, "It depends."

Hybrid Spaces should be highly practical. Hybrids are happiest when they can develop a system for each area of the house that is suited to the way they use it. They need mental tags for rooms that key them into they way they should think about order: "here is where I do ______ so it needs to be ____ and I should organize it by _____. The most important thing here is ______ ." Instead of organizing the entire house on the same system, they work best when they decide what they will be doing in each area of the house and make the organization system fit the activity. Organizing by doing is the surest way to satisfaction.

Hybrid pitfalls center around their strength: doing. They can get a lot done, and do it well. But they often don't feel this way about themselves, because they can always see more that could be done. They live better, not when they run harder and faster, but when they ask: what are the other people doing? Does everyone have space for what they long to do, too? Their focus on doing can become a sort of tunnel vision. Have they left places that are peaceful? Is there space in which to just chat, to day dream, to visit -- for every member of the family? What about the projects their children long to do? Is there room for those? What about joy? Does the house encourage joy and fellowship? In the focus on functionality, they can leave behind the abstract values of atmosphere, and then with a kind of anguish realize that they missed what they care about most.

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As you read these, what do you think will help you most as you begin organizing your space? What are the important things for you to remember or to do?

Identify Your Organizing Style

Do you have dishes in the sink? Mounds of clothes around the washer? Piles of paper and books in the living room? This doesn't tell you everything you need to know about organizing your space. Most people start with the visual picture of the state of things in their home. They run out to buy some shelves or bins or baskets to clean it up. This is a good thing to do, but not the first thing they should do. It's best to start with a quick analysis of personal style.

The best question to ask is: how does organizing make you feel? When you think of cleaning it all up, do your thoughts run out the door to something more compelling -- like visiting a neighbor, doing an errand, picking up a movie for tonight? Do you have trouble just getting up your motivation to tackle the mundane job of cleaning it all up? And is your cleaning the type that lasts ten minutes and tosses everything willy nilly into a closet or a basket?

If so, then you are an unstructured person! By this, I mean that structure is not compelling for you. I am not saying that you don't need some structure, but that you don't automatically reach for it first in every situation. It's not what excites you. It doesn't motivate you. Putting structure into a situation is a chore, and one that you can easily do without for extended periods of time. Most unstructured types are great at multi-tasking and coming up with interesting things to do. They have many things happening in their lives at once and prefer to use just the amount of structure, planning, and organization necessary to keep their busy lives on track.

Unstructured types tend to focus on the big picture, networking with other people, and the bottom line. They are adventurous and creative. They come up with ideas that are new, because they are thinking outside of the box. They have an astute awareness of the larger community and they often know an incredible number of people from all walks of life. The world needs them. I married one, and I am so glad I did! He contributes a perspective that I need in almost every situation.

One of my dearest friends is an unstructured person. You can't tell that by the appearance of her life. Her house looks neat and attractive, because she is savvy and creative about managing her little world. When she had small children, and unexpected company arrived, she put the dirty dishes in the oven and scooped up all the mess in the house into a plastic bag and tossed it into a closet. She could clean up the house in five minutes this way! My friend is a very intelligent, capable woman who has deeply blessed many lives, including mine. She wrote a book and traveled to speak about it while raising four children. But organization, she freely admits, is her nemesis. Recently she asked me to come to her home to help her with her filing system. Her files are in her laundry room -- a place I would never dream of putting them. But it works for her. The only problem is that the laundry room has become so messy, she says, that she doesn't want to go in there and work on it, and she can't find anything in her files. She needs to figure out a way to organize all those pieces of paper. But it's not a job she is looking forward to. She would much rather be doing things with people. She's an unstructured person!

Maybe none of this seems to fit your life at all . . .

Does the idea of organizing carry positive feelings for you? Do you think of how much better it will make you feel to be organized? Do you prefer to clean up first so that you are able to concentrate better? Does your mind automatically sort things into categories and make a plan before you launch into action? Do you tend to draw up plans before you start a project? Do you read the instructions and look at the diagrams before you build something? Does checking things off on a list give you a sense of satisfaction? Do you like paper and notebooks and organizing tools? Is it hard for you to feel comfortable when things around your home are in disarray?

If so, then you are a structured person! By this, I mean that structure makes you happy. It gives you a quiet sense of satisfaction, of all things in your world being right. Structure is the way you prefer to do most things -- it just feels calm and purposeful and good. Closure is very powerful for you -- getting the job done, and done well, brings its own sweet reward. Most structured types prefer to rely heavily on order in any situation. It's not that they can't live without it. They can. But they are willing to put substantial blocks of time into organizing, cleaning, and making life neat. This satisfies a need. You can generally tell a structured type by looking into their storage spaces -- which will be organized by function and logic, rather than color or other visible characteristics. They think in terms of order and procedure, without any extra effort. It's the way they are designed.

Structured types are good administrators. They can usually see a better way to do things and implement it with little fanfare. You can follow the trail of their lives by the improvements they have made. When they are in a space for very long, it is swept clean and put in order. They aren't trying to be oppressive by insisting on neatness: they need it in order to live well. They are the ideal choice for making a new idea take off, because they will find ways to make it work and prosper. Their creativity focuses on details and refining an idea. They are rarely satisfied with their work, and so they keep on working. For this reason, they are always looking for ways to improve their organizing systems.

One of my structured friends, who is a model of wisdom and integrity, turned down the opportunity to have my used curriculum supplies for free, because she didn't have a place to put them. She talks about how her life is "just wild" and it's "a struggle" to put her world in order. The first time I walked into her home, I was amazed. Better Homes and Gardens could have stopped by and taken pictures. Her house could have gone on the market for sale on any ordinary day. I have never seen a neater, more attractive school room. It was hard to believe that this could be the home of a homeschooling family. Her true struggle is to make order accomplish the life she envisions and to be flexible enough to accomodate the learning needs of her unstructured kids. Her focus on detail -- a great strength -- can be the thing she stumbles over as she misses the bigger picture. She admits, I am a structured person and I love order.

So, this is the spectrum: at one end of the scale is the unstructured style and at the other end is the structured style. But what if neither one seems to fit you?

What if you have qualities of both these types? Are you squirming a bit in your seat and feeling like you don't fit either category? Do you like paper and organizing tools, but you always want to run outside and play, too? Or is home your favorite place in the world and yet it needs more order, because anytime you start doing things, the mess grows faster than you expected?

This probably means you are a hybrid organizer. You have qualities of both types and have blended them into a lifestyle that is uniquely your own. For hybrids, identifying their needs and their strengths can take more time. They must carve their own path to order. At the same time, they tend to be the most innovative people on the planet and they will, with encouragement, find the way that is right for them. To do this, they must borrow ideas from both lifestyles and craft a flexible organization that adjusts to the situation.

Why bother to identify your style? Because that makes all the difference. The first place we must start in organizing a space is with the organizer. What works for Jack will not always work for Jill. If we universally apply the same ideas to everyone, Jack and Jill will both lose the pail of water they have been carrying. Effective organization is always a custom fit.

Tomorrow, we'll discuss how your organizing style affects the way you need to work on your space.

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Which type are you? How do you know?

Organize Your Space -- With Prayer

See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

- Matthew 18:10-14 ESV

And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

- Luke 11: 9-13 ESV

The first thing is the hardest.

Set aside some time to be still.

• Ask God for his perspective on your space. What would he like for you to do with it?

• If he were directing the whole process, where would he ask you to start?

• Are there books or resources that would help? Ask him to show them to you.

• Are there people who can help? Ask him to bring them to you.

• Should you get some help? Ask him to set that on your path or show you how.

• How much time can you spend on this each day? Five minutes? Fifteen? Thirty?

• Are there things that you should realize or remember before you start?

• What is his vision for your home?

Ask. Then be still. Does anything come to mind? Write it down. Continue to pray about it for a couple of days. Watch for God to bring to you a gradual dawn of what you need, how you should care for your people, and how you should proceed. He may use anything -- a radio show, a book, a magazine article, a friend, a conversation, or just a gentle prompting in your thoughts. Write it all down in your notebook or organizer. Just brief jottings will do. Capture it so you can keep it close.

I believe that God will help you with this if you seek him. He cared about the welfare of children long before you breathed air. He still does. He cares about everything that touches them. He cares about the quality of life in your home and the way you live together. He will address exactly the things you should change and how you should change them. If you give him the chance.

Ask at least one other person to pray for you about this. Ask them to pray for insight, wisdom, discipline, and help. Ask them to pray for you during the process, as you go and make changes. God is interested in seeing us work together to make things happen, in all the aspects of our lives.

I will pray for you, too.

If you leave a comment below and explain how you would like someone to pray for you, I will pray for you this week.