Helpful Organizing Tips

Got piles of laundry like me? Here's one that I've been using for a while: I have given each of my children their own laundry baskets~2 each, one for dirty clothes they keep in their bedrooms and one left down in the laundry room for clean clothes as they come out of the dryer.
On laundry days they all bring their dirty clothes into the main hamper and my oldest brings it down to me in the laundry room. When the clothes come out of the dryer I place them in each of their "clean" baskets and their job is to bring them upstairs and put them away.
Another life saver for me is an item that I bought called a "sock-sak" for placing dirty socks in. You can put these right into the washer and dryer. Saves me a ton of time trying to match up everyone's socks. Found here: http://sock-sacks.net


Have trouble getting your kids ready for school in the morning, use a kitchen timer (I use the one on my oven) Set a specific time and notify your kids that when the timer goes off it is time to go. I give mine a warning about five minutes before it goes off. You'd be amazed at how quickly them move when they know you are going to leave without them :O)
Another helpful tip in the same vein, set out all clothing the night before; this avoids the "I have nothing to wear" fight.

Eliminate piles of stuff that seem to grow by the front door: you can find inexpensive plastic bins at virtually every large department store, assign each person in your house their own bin~I let my kids decorate their own bin. Now tell everyone to "drop" their items into their bin when entering the house. This eliminates the "I can't find my back pack, shoes.....or what ever" Also hang some decorative hooks above the bins for hanging up coats, back packs etc