Tips from You on "The Best Organizing Tip of All"

Weeks ago, (back in another life time, was it?) I talked about the Best Organizing Tip of All - To Train Our Children - and I asked you for input on creative ideas. Sadly, it appears that we all want our children to be trained but no one wants to offer advice! I had several of you express your interest in the subject, several of you say you'd love some advice/answers on how it's done, but I only had one, lonely email offering any advice.

I don't believe that none of you have any good ideas, I'm just not buying that! I can imagine that most of us feel like we're doing a poor job or, at best, feel like we could be doing so much better, I'm right with you there. I wish I would be more consistent at expecting certain things done and having a more organized program in place (Wait. An organized program for organizing?? Well, anyway!). But, I think I do have a few ideas I could share with you and I'm pretty confident you could do the same!

I would still love to hear some practical ideas from your house, but for now I'll share the email that one brave soul sent my way because it has some very good advice:

"My children are mostly grown now, but I well remember the days of things not always being where they belonged. The biggest thing, and I learned this from my Mother, enjoy working with your children. When children are 2 -3 years old they want to help. Give them age appropriate jobs. If they see you enjoying being a homemaker it will rub off. So my advice is work with them. Don't just tell them to do something. My sons are now 20 and 25. If they're home on cleaning day they are still always ready to grab the mop and pitch in. Thanks for letting me share something close to my heart. Too many young moms don't enjoy homemaking. It needs to be taught."

Excellent advice, and so very true! I have thought a lot about that next to the last sentence..... Ouch. I think she's right! Something I need to work on.

Next week I'll share a few practical things we've done around here to teach our children to help around the house...