Back to School – Back to You: September is the Month to Reset and Create Resolutions
September is here again. Kids are back at school, the hype from summer is ending, and Autumn is around the corner. Whether you have children or not, you can use this time of year to reset and create resolutions for the year to help keep your organizing goals achievable.
I don’t know what it is, but I always find this time of year the most motivating for me to get my home and my life back on track. I use September to sit down and really think about how I can set up my home for a successful year.
Here are a few resolutions I set up in September to help me start off the new “school” year in the right direction.
1. Setting up a Home Command Station.
A home command station is, at its core, just a title given to your home’s calendar and schedule. Everyone’s command station can look different, the point is finding what works best for you and your home.
For me, I use a little calendar planner and two white board calendars on the wall. I always like to get the planners that follow the school year (August – July for example). When my daughter goes back to school, the first thing I do is pull out my calendar and record all the no school days, half days, or any other events that are already planned.
This calendar is where I also start keeping track of all our other activities. From doctors, to karate practice, to just hanging out with family and friends. I then use two white board calendars on my wall in the kitchen/dining room area. One is for the current month and the other so we can stay ahead on the next month. Displaying it where we see it every day keeps everyone in the home on track on how to plan out the week.
Now you can do any system that works for you. Some like to use only one dry erase calendar. Others like a 12-month paper calendar. There are also electronic calendars out there that can pair with your phones. The point is, think about what would work best for you and your home.
2. Paper Management
Another section of a command center is how you handle incoming paper in your home. Even though more and more paper is turning into paperless online, we still somehow keep bringing paper into our homes. Whether it’s school papers, junk mail, or the paper bills we still might have, it slowly builds up. Having a system in place to handle the incoming paper will help the overflow of paper work from building.
For me, I force myself to handle mail when I bring it inside. The junk immediately goes in the recycling. I take paper bills to the computer so I can handle them there. It’s the school papers that I really needed a system for. The easiest system I created was a basket. My daughter comes home from school and puts her papers on the table. I take the time during dinner to look at the papers with the family together. Her art gets hung up, the invites to events goes on the calendar, and everything else goes into the basket. Once the basket starts to get full, I transfer her work to a storage bin I keep under my bed. Once a year during the summer, I will go through the bin and keep what I want and the recycle the rest.
By having simple systems in place to handle incoming paper, it really takes the pain of paper work away.
3. Meal Planning
Once I have reset my command center areas of my home, I turn to my kitchen and look at resetting my meal planning. After a long work day the last thing I want to do is think about what to make for dinner. Which is why I spend one day a week setting up a meal plan for the week.
Again, I do this very simply. I have a white board on my fridge with days of the week. On the weekend, we discuss as a family what we would like to eat this week. We take into consideration what groceries are on sale, and what events are happening that week. Some nights we need something quick, other days we can spend more time cooking. But by looking at your week and writing down what the meals will be it helps keep away the stress of deciding day of, and can sometimes even help with grocery costs.
4. Creating Goals for the Year
The last thing I look at trying to reset in September is my family’s goals for home maintenance. Unfortunately, homes need constant work. Cleaning, painting, fixing whatever we have been putting off, the list can grow. So I use September as my yearly check in to see what needs to be done to keep the home functioning. Is this the year I finally look at getting my basement painted, or do I redo my outdoor space so we can enjoy the outdoors on nice days? Do we need to call anyone to help repair or maintain any of the appliances? Do I need to organize and declutter the storage rooms, or is this the year I tackle my daughters room?
I ask myself all these questions. I ask my husband these questions. We look at what needs to be prioritized and make a list (that I keep in my yearly planner so I don’t lose it). Now sometimes I write my list and add so much to it that I know we can’t do all of it. So we star the important tasks and assign a due date on when we want to get it done. Having a due date really helps keep my family focused on completely our goals.
By taking time during September to really reset the home and create attainable goals for the year, keeps the home organized and moving forward. Even as an organizer myself, I struggle sometimes to reset and it’s nice to be able to count on my team to help me. If you are finding that it’s a struggle to reset your home, we can be your team too.
