Organize Your New Year

The new year is a wonderful time of the year....It's a time of resolutions and reorganizations!! Hooray! I love a chance to start fresh and reorganize and re-evaluate my planning, cleaning, arranging.....

crisp new calendars

brand new planners

clean cupboards and closets

rearranged rooms

a new cleaning schedule 

all the wonderfulness of planning out a new year

any other weirdos out there who feel the same way?

or maybe you are a non organizing freak but would like to make your new year a little more streamlined and organized? 

We can help!

From now through January 31, 2013 we are offering our monthly calendars for half price!

$1.50 for all 12 calendars!

   I heart them :)

They are coordinated to match the new theme of our home management binder documents, but they are still a wonderful pop of color even if you don't have our new home management binder documents.

What new home management binder documents?
Well these babies were specially made to force my sister to make her own home management binder. Yep, force. She has no choice. If I have to drive to her house and tape her to the chair until she finishes it.

  They are a totally new bright colored theme and absolutely adoarble!!
Check them out...

cover page

section divider

daily agenda

monthly calendars

household information

important dates

kids' schedule

meal ideas

monthly meal planner

automobile log

bill payment log

contacts

monthly budget

password log

petsitter notes

shopping list

to do list

week at a glance

weekly cleaning checklist

 They make me smile.

We also added a few other new items to our etsy shop...

 I made these routines for my sister's kids....so I figured if they worked for her, there might be others out there who would benefit from a bedtime routine.
It doesn't have to be a bedtime routine...I could be a morning or after school routine too.
  
 We are also in the process of updating the rest of our packages and sets....
The layout and designs of my documents have definitely changed over the past year and I feel like all of my original documents are boring and out of date, so they must be corrected!

 

 

  

   

The first things to be updated are the budget packages....
Check back with our etsy store for more updates. 

We have also seen a few challenges and link parties planned for the new year, so we hope to participate in those as well. Yay!

click the image to visit our etsy shop

  

We hope that you will join us in organizing our new year!!

 

my first "classroom"

A few weeks ago I posted about a possible new position within my school...well, I got that job. And now I am trying my best to run the alternative high school. Keep in mind that I am an elementary teacher people! Any other teachers will agree, that you are elementary or secondary (middle school or high school) So kids that are in alternative high school is a huge leap from first graders and even being a one-on-one aide with an eighth grader. But since I'm not actually teaching the high school content, its not so bad. I just have to "manage the classroom," which some days can be a challenge. But the moral of the story is I got this room...a lifeless uninspiring boring place. There was a teacher in here, who quit, and then a sub for a couple weeks while they tried to figure out what to do with the position. So the sub did a little bit to make it more warm and inviting and a little less prison like...

So here's what I have done so far to make it better...but I am open to suggestions on other ways to improve it. Any other alt. ed. people out there?? I'd love some suggestions.

 The sub had made the original board...with the colored background stars and the students' names. The first thing I did was add the courses completed header so that you actually knew what the board was for. I also updated the name to a much cuter font. They were just in boring old Times New Roman--lame! But the addition of the board at all was much better than the room was before!

The sub also had a system in place for tracking how many "modules" they complete in a week. I forgot to take a before picture, so this in an in between picture. The previous system was just using white board markers- each student's name was written and they got a tally for each "module" that they completed. It was also labeled, I just updated it to be cute and bright. I also updated the names to match the other board.

Then, I took it a step further and made these adorable stars! I just love them. They are super simple, just printed on the bright colored paper, cut, laminated, cut out and add a magnet to the back. I also added the current leader space. These kids need all the extra motivation they can get!!

 Another thing that was lacking when I arrived was rules. The problem was, there weren't any! Swearing, phones out constantly, messing around and making no progress!! It was absolute chaos! So I posted rules and the At-Risk Coordinator and I made a contract for each of the students and their parents to sign.

  Next to the modules tracking board I also posted a few alternative education guidelines.  It tells them how many courses they need to complete per semester and how the modules are broken down so they know exactly how to earn stars and how many they will earn.

I also posted due dates for each of the courses. Common sense tells you that kids need directions, and rules and timelines. So deadlines were set for each of their courses. I set their first set of deadlines with way more than enough time to complete the course, just so I wasn't coming in as some crazy lady with insane expectations. They had little to no structure before, so I didn't any of them to stop showing up because of all the new rules.

I still feel like its very bare and unwelcoming...but maybe that's just because I'm used to elementary. I feel like it needs a comfy chair and a rug in the corner. But maybe that's just what I think it needs, and not actually what the kids need?

Any high school or alternative education teachers out there with suggestions??? I would appreciate any input!

fifteen minutes of organizing

Clean out a closet....

My bathroom closet was, well sort of a disaster. Not horrible, but still not so pretty to look at. It started out organized, and then after a month or two....the organization was no more. So I thought a new system might help. Here's what it looked like before- see there are baskets, there was a system in place, but it clearly it wasn't working. An ineffective system is not really a system.

So here's what I did....

Everything had to come off these shelves....I started over with a clean slate.

 I wiped off the shelves so I literally had a "clean" slate :)

 I also grabbed these three bins from the dollar tree. I can swing a $3 reorganization budget.  Even though they will be in the closet, they are still coordinated to match my shower curtain.

Next was the sorting process. I tossed out a few things and took some things out of packages to save space. I grouped things into like items and ended up with three categories for my bins. {vitamins, first aid, and beauty}

Here's what my bins look like:

{FIRST AID}

This bin has tylenol, aleive, ibuprofen, (and melatonin-I didn't know where to put it?). Also, bandaids and tape for injury care. In the back corner there's antibiotic ointment and bengay and a tylenol version of the same thing.

{VITAMINS}

This bin contains every vitamin I could possibly desire to take- or just take, without the desire to take vitamins.

{BEAUTY}

This bin is a bit more random, it catches some of the things that don't fit in the medicine cabinet and some things that don't go in the vanity. Some spare deodorant, cologne type stuff, nail files, gel...nothing too exciting in here.

 The basket that was in there before also got to stay. This bin previously held some of the beauty items that were transferred to the blue bin. In the basket is of course the glorious kenra hairspray, my extra deodorant, air fresheners, a new razor, lotion, and I think a pare suction cup thingy for the shower caddy?

The basket found a new home on the top shelf, next to the color matching bathroom towels (because when you're on a extremely limited budget, you only get to have a few matchy matchy towels). Next to the basket is my everyday make up bag, which is not actually as full as it looks, the bag just holds its shape well. {vera bradley- love it} Next to that is a VS pouch that holds a few other random make up and hair accessories. Behind, that the iron found a new home. I really should use it more than I do. But the "fluff" option on the dryer works well too- especially for limited space.



So here's the before and after:

I can just imagine people screaming at their computer screens....WHY DIDN'T THAT STUPID GIRL LABEL HER BINS!!??

You're right. I'm on it.

The finished product.

Much better.

and the winners are...

check out our home management binders documents on our etsy shop to see what the winners have won!

holiday planning

Today, we wanted to take some time to remind you of our super free printables to help you with your holiday planning. We know that the holidays can be a stressful time, and we want to do our best to help  where we can. And we created a few new printables for this year. These graphics came from a wonderful blog that I found awhile ago, and I cannot for the life of me remember what the blog was. So if you recognize her work, please let me know so I can link back to her site and give proper credit. And these are just absolutely adorable!!!!

update: links should be fixed, please try again!

Snag these on our free printables page 

And here are the new ones for this year. I hear them!!

{click here to download Christmas menu planner}

Click on each picture to download your FREE copy!

We hope you all have a great holiday season with family and friends!