School's Out! Six Tips for a Smooth Transition to Summer

Swing productively into summer with these tips from the National Association of Professional Organizers in Michigan:

1.  Empty (and wipe) your child's lunchbox and backpack right away.  Can they be used next year, or will they need replacement?

2.  Assess your child's homework space and habits.  What's successful about the current setup?  What could use improvement?  For an amazing wealth of ideas, we recommend the book The Organized Student, written by NAPO member Donna Goldberg.

3.  Set aside time to review accumulated school papers and projects from the year. Select the best "keepers," and recycle the rest.  Photograph anything over sized or 3D. Then discard as they don’t keep well.  How much paper to hang on to?  Aim for a one inch stack or 100 sheets per academic year; that’s 13 inches or 1300 sheets of paper over the course of a K-12 academic career!  Mindy Fairbanks, of Fairbanks Solutions and Chapter member, points out that a 13 pocket accordion file is an excellent storage solution for each child’s K-12 “keepers.”   If your child wants to keep everything, try purging papers from September through January at the beginning of summer.  Handle the rest in late August, when excitement over the upcoming school year makes it easier to let go of last year's stuff.

4.  Evaluate school supplies & make a back-to-school shopping list now.  Tackle the shopping--with your child--a little at a time over the summer!

5.  Set some goals for summer bridge learning; have your child sign up for the public library's summer reading program.

6.  Establish a schedule and routine for the summer.  “With kids home and around the house for more hours of each day, the beginning of the summer is a great time for the whole family to revisit the rules of the house, and to integrate organizing principles such as ‘take it out, put it away’ into the daily routine,” said Nia Spongberg of Spruced Up Spaces LLC and Chapter member.

Helping your child manage the end of the school year is a great chance to teach organizing skills that they'll use their whole lives!

For more organizing tips, visit   www.NAPOMichigan.com.

Article submitted by Chapter member Melanie Sobocinski, owner of Prof Organizer LLC, proforganizer.com.

Six Tips for Getting your Craft Room Craft-Worthy!

Lots of people are doing crafts these days. You never know when the urge will strike to work on a craft.


The National Association of Professional Organizers in Michigan wants to share some tips to get your craft room organized so you can get right to the fun!


1. Try to set up zones in the room for the crafts you like to do. Having a dedicated spot to work and having the craft supplies handy will make it easier to be inspired and produce beautiful items.


2. Store like items together. So if you make scrapbook pages, keep all your decorative scissors in one jar or drawer. The same for having all your scrapbooking papers together so you can see what you have and what would be best for your next page.


3. If you have lots of rolls of ribbon, threading them on a paper-towel holder is a great way to wrangle the rolls. If you want the rolls to be portable, use a vertical dispenser made for sitting on the kitchen counter. If you’ve got upper cabinets, mount one horizontally from the underside of the cabinet.


4. Pringles chip cans with lids make great dust-free storage for paint brushes or knitting needles. They can be painted or covered with contact paper to match the room’s decor. Be sure to label them. They can also be stored upright or lying down so they’re very versatile.


5. Pegboard is a great way to make great use of the vertical wall space in the craft room. It can be painted after installation to blend in or stand out. They make dozens of types of inexpensive hooks and holders to have various types of small crafting items. And if you switch crafts, you can move the hooks to fit your new crafting needs.


6. Three-level pantry shelves are lightweight and perfect for storing spray paint cans so you can see the lid colors easily at a glance.

 Organizing your craft supplies can be fun. For more organizing tips visit http://www.napomichigan.com/.  


Article submitted by Chapter member Cindy Greenleaf. 

Laundry Extras

Is laundry a dreaded chore for your family? Why not try one of these simple organizing tips from the National Association of Professional Organizers in Michigan to help make it little easier.

For laundry, we generally know how to handle the light and dark clothes. Our laundry system breaks down, however, when we are confronted with articles of clothing that falls outside of the typical load.