DNAinfo.com: 6 Tips to Get Your Apartment in Order as School Starts
Maeve shares top tips on how to get your apartment in order as school starts.
As originally posted by Amy Zimmer on DNAinfo.com as
MANHATTAN — An Upper West Side mom needed some help getting her house in order and wanted to feel more organized before her kids started at a new school, so she called Maeve Richmond for help.
Richmond, the founder of Maeve's Method — which teaches a do-it-yourself home organization method through
home sessions or video coaching — recognized that the mom needed to "ground herself," so she helped the mom find her desk. Literally.
After the summer, the woman's desk was filled with #papers and travel #bags. She needed to clear them off, and, in the process, bring summer to a close, Richmond said.
"Then she could breathe."
After Labor Day, most adults feel like it's "back-to-school" mode, whether they have kids or not, and they're trying to "get their heads screwed back on," Richmond said.
It's a busy time of year for the professional organizing business. #backtoschool
"People need help getting back into that grounded mindset," Richmond said. #mindfulness
Here are some tips from experts to help you transition from the summer holiday mindset into a productive fall.
#1. "Drain" your summer brain by making a list.
People's minds "naturally settle" during summer vacation, Richmond believes. While that's a good thing, it means we need to "find the on-switch" to get back into the swing of things.
People's minds "naturally settle" during summer vacation, Richmond believes.
But first, use a dimmer, she advises, which means make a list.
"It's the old draining the brain technique," she said, suggesting you sit down and write down all the projects you meant to do before vacation or the projects that are coming up.
"It's amazing how that takes the anxiety down as the first part of an action plan," she said. #ProjectIQ
#2. Learn to reconnect to your routine and to your house.
When Richmond returns from a vacation, she likes to walk around her house and "say hello" and "reconnect to the energy of the rooms."
"Little kids do this all the time — it's OK to personify things, like, 'Hey, how you doing? You're the chair I sit in during winter on long nights."
It's also important to reconnect with your home desk or wherever the family keeps the computer and sit with your daybook or computer calendar and remind yourself of when to pay the bills or other accounts.
For parents with school kids, she advises to reconnect with the kitchen and the morning routine of preparing kids' school lunches.
"It's sort of mundane," Richmond said, "but it's anchoring where you do the day-to-day." #systems #routines
#3. Honor your desk.
Many pros advise tackling #desk areas in order to feel productive.
"From home offices to work areas, beginning the month of September with a clear, organized desk will help put you in the mind set of clarity you will well need to achieve all your goals for the season," said Rebeca Mosher, of Space Composer, a professional organizer whose tagline is "bringing harmony to your world."
"Keep in mind that when you free your space of unnecessary clutter you are allowing for better things to come in to your life," she added.
That's what a client of Richmond's found when he wanted to reorganize his home office. The Park Slope photographer was branching out into the blogging business and instead of "adding another layer" to his office, realized it made more sense to get rid of his old photo course notebooks and "intro to photo" books he no longer needed.
"He let go of all that stuff and free up space for the new," Richmond said. "It was like adding a new room." #releaseandletgo
"He let go of all that stuff and free up space for the new," Richmond said. "It was like adding a new room." #releaseandletgo
#6. Get your kids involved.
It's a good time to edit kids' #toys, artwork, old school supplies and other objects as a way to make space for what will come during the new school year, the experts said.
But it's critical to get your kids involved — even toddlers, noted Richmond, a former preschool teacher who enjoyed helping 2-year-olds learn to take responsibility for their environment.
Rather then tell kids to do chores, Richmond advises parents to ask their kids to create a space in their rooms where they can put the stuff they need for school.
"New York City kids are amazing and creative because they live in such small spaces," Richmond said, adding that involving them in making these spaces "empowers kids to take part in their own routine." #smallspacesolutions
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