"I feel a calm sense of relief and confidence at being able to immediately put my hands on whatever I need."
The Client Situation:
Karol, a corporate professional, had struggled throughout her life with disorganization which was both caused and aggravated by her ADD. In spite of her creative mind and desire to improve herself, Karol had hit the wall when both of her daughters entered school. She realized that her disorganization was both causing negative consequences for her daughters, 12 yrs & 7 yrs, and not enabling them to learn necessary skills for organizing themselves. That was when she contacted Living Peace.
Project Goals:
- Create a better system for managing and filing paperwork coming into the home, particularly action items related to the children’s school.
- Create a solution to display and store the children’s artwork and homework.
- Setup improved systems for managing family laundry.
- Improve the flow and storage systems for her daughters' rooms.
Final Results:
Working with her Living Peace organizer, Karol set up paperwork flow and filing systems which enabled her to rapidly process and immediately put her hands on all household paperwork. These systems helped her manage both her children’s activities better as well as other household and professional projects.
All artwork and homework that came into the house was immediately marked with the appropriate child’s name and date, then new pieces were displayed on a kitchen ribbon-board for a brief period before being replaced by the next round of items. Samples of particular note or personal significance were place into a storage box for each child. Once every year Karol and her daughters would go through each of their boxes to weed out less important items and add in the newest selection.
The new laundry system began by sorting and weeding out the collections of clothing for each member of the family and setting up appropriate storage systems for where items could be comfortably stored. Then, hamper systems for sorting clothes into appropriate laundry loads were created in the bedrooms. Karol and her husband chose to begin teaching their kids to help with laundry, and thus the hamper systems and laundry area were set up to be convenient for the two girls to help.
All clothing (the kids’ in particular) was revisited at the beginning of each season to swap out the items that had been outgrown and swap in the hand-me-down items from the older daughter to the younger as appropriate. In the meantime, any item that was currently out of season or “in-between” kids was packed up by size and season in the family's basement storage area.
Each of Karol's daughters worked independently with their Living Peace organizer to sort their various games, toys, paperwork, and art supplies and to identify and develop appropriate storage solutions for their bedrooms. With the older daughter, the focus was on setting up an effective desk area for her to study and manage her increasing paper and workload. With the younger daughter, one nook of her room was set up as a games and puzzles corner which created a defined zone for this popular activity.
Karol’s work with Living Peace expanded well beyond these initial goals to include improving storage throughout her home including her dining room, kitchen, and home office.