Best Results Organizing

Regular readers of Paper Doll know that if there’s a quirky metaphor or silly reference to be made, this is where it will happen. But sometimes, there are organizing-related subjects into which levity really can’t be injected. This is one of those posts.

September is National Preparedness Month.  We’ve just observed the 7th anniversary of 9/11 and the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and our friends from Florida to Texas have seen their homes and communities ravaged by this year’s storms, including Gustav, Hannah and Ike.

Of course, storms and floods, earthquakes and wildfires, and all manner of natural and man-made disasters occur year round.  But September is a time of change, second only to early January, when people not only head back to school literally, but start on paths to self-improvement…to get in the habit of getting into habits, to get organized, to prepare.  National Preparedness Month is our grown-up opportunity to head back-to-school and rack up some essential credits.

The federal government’s Ready.gov is a great place to start to learn about disaster preparedness.  In addition to checklists in a variety of formats, they have videos for helping special audiences (seniors, families with pets, people with disabilities, etc.).  Their top three recommendations are:

1)  Create an Emergency Kit.

Start with Ready.gov’s officially recommended and additional kit supply suggestions, but depending on your family or work situation, you might also review additional options for emergency resources and your “grab-and-go” 72-hour kit.

Even after you’ve checked all the official lists and considered the retail options, brainstorm with friends and peruse the web to make sure you’ve covered the reasonable contingencies.  The point isn’t to carry your house on your back, but trigger important but easily-forgotten items. 

You may need items to smooth an evacuation, but you’re more likely to need supplies for staying safely in your home, such as when you ride out a blizzard.  To start, inventory your emergency tools and supplies and ask these questions:

• Do your smoke & carbon monoxide detectors have fresh batteries? 
• Do you have crank-operated flashlights or combination crank-operated flashlight/radios that will allow you to get see where you’re doing and obtain weather updates even if the electricity is out and the batteries have all run down?
• Have you checked levels and the expiration date on your kitchen fire extinguisher?  (Do you even HAVE a kitchen fire extinguisher?)
• Are your home, car and office first aid kits fully stocked?
• Do you have LOTS of bottled water?
• Do you know how to disinfect water if you are unable to boil it?

2)  Develop an Emergency Plan for Getting Out and/or Away.

Start with the government’s suggestions to help you create your own plan from scratch, or use pre-created emergency planning books.  Either way, develop your emergency plan now rather than later.  Once you make your checklists (for what you need, whom to call, where to go and how to get there), maintain multiple copies in various locales, including your glove compartment, the desk drawer at your office and within easy reach of major household exits.  Teens and older kids can keep copies in their lockers or backpacks; elementary school kids should have emergency contact cards.

Practice fire drills and escape routes in your home and office, and don’t just talk about it, but walk through the route. Identify a meeting point outside, away from the danger and be sure to designate someone to count heads.  Mention your escape routes to overnight guests in your home.

Develop an evacuation plan, with contingency options, for driving your family out of town, and know your community’s civil defense procedures to ensure your plan doesn’t contravene the official route.  Make sure your long-distance communications point-person knows the route in case your family gets separated and calls in. 

Plan communications alternatives if family or co-workers are far-flung or traveling. Funnel updates to your long-distance point-person.

(And at the risk of Paper Doll sounding like a Luddite, please make sure you have an old-fashioned, no-electricity-needed, landline phone.  More and more consumers, particularly the under-30 set, are discarding landlines for all-cell, all-computer communications, but when cell towers are down and wireless gets wiggy, landlines are an important alternative…and the phones don’t need to be charged.)

3)  Be Informed.

In general, Ready.gov urges us all to be as informed as possible regarding what disasters may be coming our way, and to know as much as we can about the emergency plans available at every level:  family, school, office, community, etc.

Next, know what kinds of disasters might happen in your area.  It might be obvious for a newcomer to California to read up on Earthquakes, but other situations might be a surprise.  If your new community is far from a river or ocean but experienced surprisingly heavy snowfalls, warm Spring rains could bring flooding.  Also, know how your community prepares.  As a native of Buffalo, NY, the first “incapacitating” snowfall I experienced in Tennessee ranked up there with a typical Tuesday in my hometown, but I quickly learned that unlike Buffalo, my new home was not prepared to deploy hundreds of snow plows and salt trucks.

Other ways to get involved include reading some in-depth expert advice, including:

Organize For Disaster, by Judith Kolberg, is an excellent sourcebook to help you plan your disaster preparedness tasks, including taking you step-by-step through what you have to know (emergency contact information, passwords and codes, shut-off and lock-down procedures, etc.), establish (safe rooms, fire drills and evacuation routes, communication plans), store and protect.

Homeland Security’s 30 Tips for Emergency Preparedness is also full of good advice and checklists.

If planning get to be overwhelming, share and delegate.  Assign individual family members read specific chapters, tips or checklists to and complete associated tasks; middle-schoolers, in particular, love to have an opportunity to show responsibility.  Then, together as a household, review everyone’s progress. In office settings, assign tasks and cross-train.

In addition to the three elements of the official approach, above, Paper Doll is always thinking about the paper side of things:

4)  Like A Good Neighbor…You’re in Good Hands:  Let’s Talk Insurance

• Do you have homeowner’s or renter’s insurance?
• Is your insurance policy up-to-date?
• Is your coverage equal to your recovery needs?  Do you have replacement-value coverage?  Do you know that replacement value is not the same as market value?  Replacement value means insurance will provide funds equal to the pre-loss value, not the original value, of an item.
• Have you included insurance rider for any recently-acquired big-ticket items (including jewelry, high-end computers and electronics, etc.)?
• Do you have a sewage backup rider?  If your sump pump fails, things can get ugly…quickly!
• Do you have flood insurance?  This can only be purchased from the National Flood Insurance Program and is not part of homeowner’s or renter’s insurance.  Gauge your risk and get a price quote.

5)  Build An Emergency Fund

Emergency funds are called that for a reason.  If your home were destroyed, structurally unsafe or even merely inaccessible for weeks or months, would you have somewhere to stay and financial resources to acquire the essentials, like food, clothing, or medicine?  What if your place of employment were destroyed or otherwise had to shut down, even temporarily?

Financial advisors suggest you maintain a liquid account with three-to-six months’ worth of living expenses.  If you don’t have these (or any) funds set aside, start now, and continue every week thereafter.  If possible, have a set amount of your paycheck directly deposited into your emergency fund, or arrange to have money automatically transferred from your primary account a few days after your paycheck normally arrives.

6)  Practice Your Five-Minute Warning

What if you had only five minutes to rescue possessions from home or work?

Your emergency plan will help you safely evacuate your family and make sure you have the absolute essentials.  But what about items of sentimental value, non-tangibles like vital information, or other things the insurance company can’t ever replace?  What could you safely gather and take with you if you had only minutes to depart?

Does the clutter in your home or office make this exercise depressing?  If you aren’t yet sufficiently organized so that you can lay your hands on these items, let some healthy fear be your cue.  Start decluttering and store essentials where they’ll be easily reachable.  Safely and sanely organize according to these three “H” categories:

Head

• Collect and maintain your VIPs (Very Important Papers).
• Isolate financial records, PIN #s and passwords, insurance policies with agent phone numbers, and computer back-up disks. (You DO back up, right?)
• Remember legal documents like birth certificates, passports, mortgage papers, and licenses to help you recoup post-emergency.  Maintain these items and your safe deposit box key in a portable fireproof safe if you have to evacuate.

Health

• Maintain a list of all prescriptions, including dosages, that each family member takes. Maintain a back-up supply of medicines you might need immediately, particularly for allergies, asthma, diabetes and heart conditions.
• Don’t forget occasionally-used items like Epi-pens.
• Keep a copy of your eyeglass prescriptions.  If you get evacuated to hundreds of miles from home, chances are your ophthalmologist’s office and Joe’s House of Glasses will be closed and they’ll be gone, too.  Post-emergency, you’ll have lots of insurance paperwork to read, so be prepared.

Heart

• In an evacuation, you can’t bring all of your family photos and scrapbooks.  But do make sure each of you has one recent photo of every family member in case your family becomes separated.
• Start identifying, copying and/or digitizing photos have so much sentimental value that you’d miss them long after the emergency is over.

Finally, if you think you know everything about getting organized to prepare for and recover from an emergency, check out your Readiness Quotient.

Let’s be careful out there.

Paper Doll Readers:

To pique your interest, I’ll be talking about (mysterious but) essential concepts like:

• The Flight Attendant Rule
• Riding the Squeaky Wheel
• The Myth of Multi-Tasking:  Why Doing It All Means Getting Nothing Done
• Career Day Tips:  Becoming A Rocket Scientist to find what you need and a Security Guard to keep your home from free from clutter
• Slap vs. Tickle:  Laugh Your Way Through Piles of Paper
• A Home for Everything:  The Golden Rule of Organizing

I’ll also go through special topics for organizing the high-clutter areas of your home, including your:

• Kitchen
• Bedrooms
• Play Rooms
• Bathrooms
• Linen Closets
• Garages
• Attics/Basements

Of course, we’ll have lots and lots of time for questions on both nights.  If you’re interested in getting some one-on-one “facetime” with Paper Doll and you live in the Chattanooga or North Georgia area (or if you’re up for a road trip) head straight for Dalton State’s fabulous Center for Continuing Education link especially for my class — for getting a head start on your organized home, your organized schedule and your organized life.

Did you celebrate National Grandparents’ Day on Sunday? Did you know that this was National Assisted Living Week?  These observations have me thinking about our elders, and how organization (and disorganization) impacts them.

As of the 2000 U.S. Census, there were more than 35 million people over age 65 in America, a 12% increase over just the previous decade.  In 2030, when all of the Baby Boomers will be 65+, nearly one in five U.S. residents is expected to be 65 or older.  This age group is projected to increase to 88.5 million in 2050, more than doubling the estimated 2008 figure (38.7 million).  Similarly, the 85+ population is expected to more than triple, from 5.4 million to 19 million between 2008 and 2050.  Whoa!  (One should note, however, that in 2050, Paper Doll will be only 83.)

As America’s population ages, more and more of our beloved seniors (and eventually, we, ourselves) will need a little extra help with the tasks of daily living.  Concerns over health, finances and life satisfaction can be greatly alleviated by applying organizing principles.  We need to help seniors simplify the complications in their lives, and make their surroundings safer and more comfortable, whether they’re moving to assisted-living, downsizing to smaller places or just trying to live comfortably in their current homes.

According to the National Family Caregiving Association, a quarter of caregivers report worrying about keeping track of medical information for their loved ones and communicating with health professionals.  Whether you (or someone you know) is a primary caregiver for a senior citizen or is just involved with the medical recordkeeping to lend a helping hand, keeping it all together is essential.

CREATE A DAILY OPERATIONS GUIDEBOOK

A key to having control is quick access to all of your resources.  Regular readers of Paper Doll already know where I’m going with this.  Yes, create a three-ringed binder with divided sections for keeping track of information regarding:

• Prescribed medicines with dosages and instructions
• Appointment history and notes from appointments with each doctor.  Keep blank pages in this section so that you can list questions that come up between appointments.  Then, refer to these questions, write down the answers you’re given and check off the questions when you’ve received a satisfactory answer.  Very often, medical answers can be contradictory or confusing, so don’t consider a question “finished” until both you and the patient feel everything is squared away.
• Notes on conversations with insurance companies (including dates, names or badge numbers of claims agents or officials and direct quotes in insurancese
• Contact information — for doctors, attorneys, health care aides, insurance agents and claim departments
• Alternative care resources like contact information and web sites for practical nurses, home-care aides, elder-care locations
• A daily and weekly schedule–It’s often comforting for both the caregiver and the person being cared for if they can review upcoming events and mentally rehearse what’s going to happen later that day or week.  Such a plan helps prevent conflicting appointment scheduling, but also assures that doctor, dentist or therapy appointments aren’t scheduled too closely together.  We all know that an appointment at 9 a.m. may mean the patient is seen at Noon, and it’s important to plan for travel time between appointments, anticipate potential delays and block time for eating, taking medications and napping/resting.

Of course, if you’re not comfortable creating your own guidebook, there are a variety of pre-created systems for keeping track of medical records or collecting all essential medical/financial/legal data in one place.

INSURANCE PAPERWORK

While many of us generally pay a simple co-pay when we see a doctor once or twice per year, insurance paperwork for senior citizens is probably a major contributor to the deforestation of the planet!  Insurance paperwork is complicated; in fact, organizing insurance paperwork has enough complexity that it would take more than one whole Paper Doll blog post, all on its own. 

Nonetheless, as we age and require more complex medical care (and therefore, more complex insurance) primary insurance, secondary insurance, Medicare, Medicaid and a variety of other medical and prescription benefit forms arrive daily.  Those complicated explanation of benefits forms can be a nightmare to comprehend, piece together and match with billing statements.  This is especially true for seniors dealing with difficulties related to eyesight, concentration, energy or comprehension, but also for younger loved ones who haven’t dealt with such paperwork before.

If you’re drowning in insurance paperwork, consider hiring a professional organizer who specializes in insurance paperwork.  If you’re not sure that the billing is fair or accurate, there’s also another professional you might wish to consider–a patient advocate.  Check out the work of the Patient Advocate Foundation to get a handle on these issues.

FINANCIAL PAPERWORK

For most of us, financial paperwork can usually be handled with good filing and bill-paying systems.  However, keeping up with financial paperwork can be a real headache, especially for seniors in assisted living and without any relatives living nearby. 

Start by talking with your elder and reviewing the National Council On Aging’s Benefits Check-Up together.   Also consider gifting a senior in your life with the services of a Daily Money Manager so you can both be sure that the financial issues are being handled with expertise.

A FEW RECOMMENDATIONS

At the 2008 conference of the National Association of Professional Organizer, I was extremely impressed with the services and information provided by two of our presenters, Rebecca Eddy and Gideon Schein.  Eddy & Schein are New York City-based providers of in-home based management and coordination of personal, legal, financial and health insurance issues.  I encourage you to peruse their website and review their extensive guide to resources available to help seniors with the complex paperwork associated with living a long life. 

At this presentation, a wide variety of other resources were mentioned, and I urge you to learn more about offerings of the National Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers.  Their members help navigate everything from finding suitable assisted living or personal care to helping a family select among caregiving alternatives.  Also, familiarize yourself with the various Federal and State agencies designed to provide support for seniors.

LOCATE VIPS–VERY IMPORTANT PAPERS

A sense of disorganized affairs can be troubling for seniors and their loved ones. Relieve anxiety by locating the following key documents and ascertain that they are up-to-date:

• Wills, Revocable Living Trusts
• Durable Powers Of Attorney for Health And Finances
• Insurance Policies for Long-term Care, Life, Health And Property
• Account Numbers For All Investments
• Social Security Cards
• House Deeds, Mortgage Records
• Tax Returns
• Preferences and arrangement information for burials and memorials

Keep these papers in a safe place, but not necessarily a safe deposit box if only one person has access. In case of a medical emergency or traumatic event, a second family member should always have pre-approved access to the safe deposit box. Otherwise, use a fire safe at home and keep photocopies with a trusted relative. It’s never too early to organize these VIPs.

THINK HEALTH AND SAFETY FIRST

Paper Doll is always thinking about organizing paper and information, but it’s important to note that we cannot be organized if we are not sure everyone is secure.  As a start:

• Keep a master list of medicines, including the frequency & dosage and the contact information of the prescribing doctor on the refrigerator door in case of a health emergency.  (Each time you update the list in your Daily Operations Guidebook, photocopy or a print an extra to put on the fridge.  Alternatively, there are checklists you can purchase to help seniors keep track of which meds they’ve already taken.)  First responders are trained to look for these lists when responding to a home emergency.
• Organize a list of emergency phone numbers, including doctors, family members and even 911 in LARGE PRINT, and post the list by each telephone in the house. This way, if you are ever unavailable in case of an emergency, your loved one or others in the home can take action quickly.
• Eliminate obstacles when helping an older person arrange items in a new environment or in new, safer layouts. Move clutter off the floor and don’t block hallways and stairs. Paths and passages should be wide enough for someone with a walker to get through.  There’s no book equivalent of What To Expect When You’re Expecting for senior-proofing a home, so if you’re puzzled about where to start, talk with a certified Aging-In-Place specialist from the National Association of Home Builders or review their checklists.
• Accommodate range of motion, which decreases as we age. Store kitchen items, luggage, and clothing within easy reach, with heavier items at waist-level or only slightly lower. Don’t make Grandpa bend too much or force Grandma to climb a chair.
• Consider technology to check in on your seniors.  Things have come a long way from the days of “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.”  From web-cam check-ins to home health security programs like Quiet Care and ADT’s Home Companion service, there are a variety of technological advances to keep you connected with your loved one. And, for a sense of what’s on the way, check out this piece on “Nana Technology”. (Don’t miss the robotic nurse!)

Finally, acknowledging that special organizing issues arise as we age doesn’t have to be a negative.  It allows for the opportunity to organize, downsize and plan for the future with dignity and grace.

It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.

There’s a piece of paper out there that allows you to actively participate in our democracy, but first you have to be organized and obtain it.

Paper Doll doesn’t mind stirring up a little controversy when it comes to organizing issues (binders vs. hanging folders, the relative merits of “junk” drawers vs. the uselessness of “miscellaneous” labels).  However, this is one post where I hope to deliver an unbiased and balanced perspective.

As such, it would be disingenuous (read: a big fat lie) for me to say I don’t care for whom you vote, but whichever candidates you support or side(s) of the issues you take, I’d hate for disorganization to get in your way.

So first, let’s step back in the Paper Doll Time Machine.

Do you remember Beverly Hills, 90210?  No, not the new spinoff premiering this week; the old one with Kelly and Brenda and…wait, that sounds suspiciously like the new series.  I mean the one with Dylan’s disaffected Rebel-Without-A-Cause sideburns and Brandon’s earnestly pinched brow.

Way back in 1992, that 90210 had a storyline about upcoming elections.  Dylan, having just turned 18, becomes involved with a clean water initiative and wants to vote.  He arrives at the Peach Pit and dejectedly informs the gang that it’s too late to register to vote and tries to commiserate with the only other of-age member of the group.  Oft-ditzy Donna Martin surprises them all with her organized preparation–she’d already registered to vote months prior!  Ha!

Why this callback to the heydey of Fox, boy bands, babydoll dresses and heavily-teased hair?  Because we’re closing in on the deadlines for registering to vote on November 4th.  In this one instance of life, I urge you all to be Donna Martin and get a voter registration card of your very own.

If you’re an American citizen over the age of 18 who cares at all about any of the following national issues (couched in the most balanced terminology I could create):

• The Economy
• Healthcare–costs and availability, medical research funding, ethics issues
• Energy– costs and availability of domestic and imported fuel
• Foreign Policy–Iraq, Afghanistan, the Middle East, nuclear proliferation, Sudan, Darfur…
• Veterans’ benefits
• The Environment
• Immigration
• Reproductive and Family Issues

and you are not yet registered to vote, please take heed.  There’s not a lot of time left for you to get that voter registration card! So:

1)Know your state’s voter registration deadline!

In most states, you have to register to vote at least 30 days prior to the election–and Monday, October 6, 2008 is coming up quickly.  In others, you can register by mail until a week prior to Election Day, and in Idaho, New Hampshire and Wyoming, you may register to vote on Election Day at your polling place (though Paper Doll discourages you from waiting that long).  Only North Dakota does not require registration to vote. (But if you’re new to town, I advise quickly making friends with people at the local diner in your precinct so you won’t be challenged.)

2)Know your state’s voting eligibility requirements. 

You have to be a citizen of sound mind and over the age of 18.  Most states have a residency requirement for the county or community, and many states have regulations regarding the voting eligibility of convicted felons.  Assumptions are not organized–do your due diligence.

3)Fill out the paperwork.

Registering to vote is pretty easy.  Call or drop by your Board of Elections to request an application, or get started online at Rock the Vote (or see the resources listed below for citizens abroad).

4)Take note of the information provided with your card.

In most cases, your voter registration card will inform you of your voting precinct (which determines WHERE you vote) and districts (i.e., Congressional, State Senate, State House, school district, county/city district, etc.) for individual campaigns and referenda.

5)Keep your voter registration card in a safe place.

You don’t need to carry your voter registration card around in your wallet; just file it with your VIP papers in your family files, and make a notation on your calendar to bring your card to the polls on Election Day (or on early voting days, if your state allows voting in the days prior to an election).

Have other concerns?  Perhaps you’re thinking:

• “I don’t care about national issues.”

Maybe you don’t, although I think such a reason might be akin to whining that we don’t need to eat vegetables because we have good genes, when the truth is we just hate cauliflower.

We professional organizers try to persuade our clients that acquiring and keeping things “just in case” merely contributes to clutter.  That’s true in most cases, but there are certain things we need to keep “just in case” to preserve our safety and security.  This includes (but is not limited to):

• driver’s license or identification cards
• Social Security cards
• credit reports from all three credit reporting agencies
• health care records
• passports
• emergency funds

A voter registration card is like all of the above, allowing you to preserve your hard-fought, hard-won right to have your voice count.  You may truly not care (enough) about any of the national political issues I mentioned, but you never know when you’ll care about a school board vote that impacts your kids, a pothole on your street or a neighbor‘s teenage beau boosting Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes” at maximum decibels every night.  Preserve your right to have a say in how your community (school district, town, city, state and nation) will be governed.  Get a voter registration card…just in case!

• “I don’t identify with just one party.”

Not 100% in the red or blue column?  Good for you.  While many states require you to register with a particular party to vote in various primaries (i.e., to narrow the field to whomever will eventually be on the ticket on the Big Day), you do not have to be a member of a political party to vote in general and many other elections.

Also, there are other parties besides the Democrats and Republicans.  For example, the Green Party, the Constitution Party and the Libertarian Party are all fielding candidates in the 2008 presidential election, and there are many, many other parties at the local and state levels.

And, of course, you can be like Paper Doll, and register as an Independent!

• “I’m a U.S. citizen, but currently live outside of the U.S. or am deployed in the military”.

If you are an American citizen reading Paper Doll from somewhere outside of the U.S., avail yourself of following nonpartisan sites to help you register and vote from abroad:

Federal Voting Assistance Program
Overseas Vote Foundation
Youth Vote Overseas
Election Assistance Commission (Military Voters)

• “I’m not going to be in my political district/precinct on Election Day.”

If you’re away at college, traveling, disabled or recovering from a medical procedure on Election Day, you can submit an absentee ballot by mail, but you must still be registered to vote by your state’s deadline.  Register to vote, then contact your county’s Board of Elections or your state’s Secretary of State for an absentee ballot.

Your voter registration card is your E-ticket to the thrill-ride of participating in our democracy.  Organize your corner of society — register to vote!

The larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder.

Last week, we talked about back-to-school forms and all the paperwork that the school sends for eventual return. However, there’s a whole huge category of paper that comes home every day, especially in the first weeks of school that you’ll need to read, perhaps review with your kids, mark on your calendars and save for reference.

As we’ve discussed before, keeping it all on the fridge doesn’t work.

This paper tends to come in three categories: papers for long-term reference, papers for ongoing reference, and papers requiring short-term reference or some action on your part.

Papers for Long-term Reference–Rarely used
You will want to review these papers at least once, discuss as necessary with your child(ren) and then file away.

• School/Class Rules
• Dress Code
• Ethics Code

Papers for Long-term Reference–Used infrequently
These are items you don’t need every day, but you’ll want to be able to find them when specific issues arise, as indicated:

• Teacher/Administrative Phone Directories–Use when your child will be out of class for an extended time, when you need clarification on a policy or if there’s a problem that needs attention.
• Extra-curricular Phone Directories–Keep track of which other children are participating in the same sports or clubs as your kids. Use to find emergency car-pool buddies and help your child catch up on missed information.
• Class schedules–When you make doctor, dentist or orthodontist appointments, check your child’s class schedule first. While the entire school day is theoretically important, you’d probably rather your child missed lunch, phys. ed., music or art than math, history or science. Elementary kids may not have a carefully-delineated schedule, but middle- and high-schoolers often have complex “third period on even days in B-wing” schedules that require guidelines for parsing. Confer with your kids to be sure you get it.

Papers for Ongoing Reference
These papers contain the kind of information you may want to transfer to the family calendar, but you’ll still want to keep handy to double-check accuracy.

• Extra-curricular Activity Schedules: rehearsals for school plays, practice schedules for sports and class/activity schedules leading up to band concerts. Set aside time to start marking them on the calendar to get a sense of the weekly schedule right away and make sure there are no carpool conflicts or scheduling snafus. Be sure to consider non-school extra-curriculars like scouting, music lessons, martial arts, and dance classes, as well as religious instruction like Hebrew School or confirmation studies.
• School Lunch Menus (monthly or weekly)–If your kids usually take lunch from home but have a few preferred buy-lunch days, let them pick those out and then mark those days on the family calendar. If they usually buy lunch except on “chipped beef on toast” day, mark the calendar to note those are “bring lunch” days. If your kids have no set schedule, post the lunch calendar on the bulletin board (below), and make reviewing the weekly lunch schedule a Sunday task.
• School year calendar (holidays, teacher conference days, half-days)–Again, mark the whole year NOW. Arrange childcare for days when school’s out or early pickups conflict with your (and your spouse’s) work schedule. Copy this information not only to the family calendar, but also your PDA or work calendar so you can mitigate work/vacation conflicts.
• Field trip/class trip information–You won’t know this information at the start of the school year; in general, you’ll only have a few weeks’ notice. As soon as you become aware, mark events on the calendar to avoid conflicts.

Papers In Transit

• Permission Slips–Don’t just sign them; make sure you mark down where your children will be on the calendar in case you need to reach them in a family emergency. Also use notifications of field trips to make sure you’re comfortable with the school’s safety protocols and precautions.
• Forms and applications
• Class fees–Avoid tears and don’t send small children to school with bills larger than you’re comfortable losing. Pay fees by check or mail/deliver them to school yourself.
• Test/papers requiring parental signatures

Different items work best in different places, depending on frequency of use. For papers you’ll want to reference on an almost-daily basis, you’ll want to use your areas of Prime Real Estate. For papers you’re keeping just in case a question pops up, they can be relegated to lesser-trafficked areas.

1. Start with an IN-Tray…

Horizontal trays are more common, but vertical options can work.

Condition your children to empty their bags daily, upon returning home. Make it a ritual to walk in the door, open backpacks, “turn in” non-homework take-home paper (notes from teachers, class schedules, permission slips, etc.) to the IN-tray, then change into play clothes, and finally have after-school snack-time.

Speaking of snack time, lest Paper Doll be accused of contributing to the childhood obesity epidemic, whether snack-time is a healthy piece of fruit or a yummy cookie doesn’t matter from an organizing perspective, but setting aside time to decompress from the workday–and note: school is the career of the 5-18 set–does. Starting this ritual in early childhood gives your kids a chance to wind down from the stresses of the day, have a little nosh and share their day with you; it’s an excellent way to not only keep in touch with the big calendar items, but to create and maintain a bond so your kids perceive sharing their day with you as a normal part of life. (You’ll thank me when they’re teens!)

If your younger kids tend to forget to bring important papers home to you, keep a gallon-sized zip-lock bag in their knapsacks and tell them that ALL papers go in the bag until you sit together to sort them. (For older kids, just threaten to show up in the middle of the school day. Even if you’re a “cool” parent, this should ensure regular take-home-paper service.)

2) Create a Family Calendar…And Use Other Vertical Space Wisely

Be sure your family calendar is large enough to allow ample room for writing on any given day (including weekends) so you can accommodate information regarding field trips, recitals, carpool, parental travel, babysitting arrangements, etc.

Make reviewing the incoming paper in the family “in tray” part of the daily ritual, perhaps right after dinner, before everyone departs to their own private corners of the house. Also make it part of the weekly ritual–on Sunday afternoons, review all the week’s upcoming events so that school/team/performance uniforms are washed, permission slips are signed and ready to be returned and that the lunch-making schedule is covered.

The family calendar requires vertical space–make sure it’s given a position of importance in the house, like on an oversized bulletin board on the kitchen wall or door. School lunch menus also belong vertical and visible.

Emergency numbers (for the school nurse, the family doctor, mom and dad at work, grandparents and contact data a babysitter might need) also fit well in the vertical space of a family bulletin board.

However, avoid clutter and remember that vertical To-Dos tend not to get “to done”. For parents and older kids, consider a tickler file; for little ones, start them off with a To-Do tray for their desks or a personal bulletin board on their bedroom doors, specifically for their own waiting tasks.

3) Create a long-term reference section.

Remember all those papers for long-term and ongoing reference? You can’t just stick them in a drawer or on the fridge, or it will quickly turn to paper clutter and floozies. Instead, consider one of these two options:

School file–If you have horizontal space either on a kitchen counter or family desk, a small open-top desk-top file box with hanging folders is fantastic.

One hanging folder in the front can hold all the calling lists and phone directories for various schools and activities. Then, keep similar categories of manila folders to group information for each child. If you have kids in multiple schools (elementary, middle, high school), you may want to divide the sections by school so as not to confuse the different dress codes or lunch menus.

School binder–Use subject dividers to keep schools or children categorized properly. As the school year goes on, you won’t have the time or the inclination to use a three-hold punch; instead, opt for plastic sheet protectors and just switch out content each year as material changes.

Both options work well for keeping track of reference material. However, the open-top file box is less labor-intensive, especially if you’re used to keeping your family files in order. Conversely, a binder (or even two, if you have multiple kids in multiple schools) is more portable, allowing you to make calls while you are sitting in the carpool lane.

4) End with an OUT-tray…(and Be A Rocket Scientist)!

IN and OUT baskets, either stacked or side-by-side, ensure a home for everything in transit. Here’s where you put papers set to leave the house to make sure they get into the right hands.

First, be a rocket scientist and build a launch pad for the next day. After dinner but before bedtime, set up a launch pad near the door you’ll be exiting, and put your briefcase or gym bag or diaper bag with all the essentials. Follow the same procedure with your kids: gather the book bags, gym clothes, musical instruments, art projects and get them placed by the outgoing door early in the evening. Put a small table or stacked baskets near the door just for that purpose.

Next, go through the OUT-tray and make sure that permission slips, signed application forms and anything else going back to the teachers, coaches or administrators leaves the OUT Tray and goes into the right kid’s backpack. (Again, gallon zip-lock plastic bags work wonders!)

Finally, do a countdown (5…4…3…2…1!) to liftoff—take five minutes to chat with the little voice inside your head and the little (louder) voices of your kids, and ask about unusual events for the next day. Going hour by hour, you should trigger any “Oh, yeah, I need (lunch money, a signed permission slip, a salt map of the French Revolution).”

Parents, send in your school paper questions and I promise to do my homework and get back to you! Until then, have a safe and happy new school year!