Gifted Child

Well, first thing is look at your child's homework space. I went through my son's desk and art bins a few weeks ago and found most of the supplies he'll need this coming year (4th grade). I only had to buy a new backpack and some kleenex. So, I save myself some money right away and I made sure the backpack has a lifetime gaurantee so I won't have to buy another one if a zipper breaks or something.

I organized his desk, drawers, art supplies, etc. I also cut down on a lot of his art supplies. He had tons and tons of crayons so I pulled out 75% of them and did the same with his colored pens. That cut way down on the clutter. I put all the extra in large ziplock bags and put them away in the closet to pull from when ds is out of a certain color or has friends over.

For laundry and other household cleaning and chores, I typically do a Fly-Lady sort of thing (although I don't follow the whole Fly Lady plan) and have set days for laundry, cleaning the toilets, etc.

In order to keep our calendar straight I use my PDA and a large wall calendar. Everything is color coded. Appointments in purple, ds's activities/events in green and mine in red. Activities for both of us in yellow.

Hallway or entryway clutter has been cut way down by getting a mail sorter (we live with my mom and brother) and labeling a slot for each person. We used to just dump the mail wherever. The shredder is right next to the mail sorter too. I also added us to the "do not mail" junk mail thing so that's cut down on a lot of clutter very quickly! And, I went paperless for a lot of bills and my bank statements and set up automatic payments through my bank's website...one less thing to think about! I also automated my savings with automatic transfers to savings and to my ING account.

We have specific bags for specific activities too and each bag lives on the entryway bench. Library bag, karate bag, pool/gym bag, ds's backpack, my backpack. As soon as we are done with something it goes in the appropriate bag. Oh, I also renew library books and reserve them online which saves loads of time! ;)

I could go on and on and on with this topic! LOL!