“Totally Together: Shortcuts to an Organized Life”

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• Getting, Staying Organized Can Be Fun

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  At the start of a New Year, many people take the opportunity to set some goals and recalibrate. A common desire is to get more organized and that can seem challenging enough, but often staying organized is even trickier.

  Stephanie O’Dea is a New York Times best-selling author, slow-cooking expert, and a mother to three. She is also the author of “Totally Together: Shortcuts to an Organized Life.”

  O’Dea has many techniques for getting and staying organized. She advocates for “The Daily 7,” which are seven tasks to do each and every day. She also suggests getting excited for PROM. That’s not the high school dance with lavish dresses and corsages. Instead, it’s developing a practice to “purge,” “remove,” “organize” and “maintain.”

  One of O’Dea’s goals as a parent is to help her children understand what it takes to run a household. She said that she thinks of herself as “not raising children, but raising future capable adults.” She added, “They should be able to do laundry and to keep a home organized, stick to a budget, understand what is coming in and out of the home financially, and stuff-wise as well.”

  One of her mantras is “clean less, play more.” And O’Dea actually combines the two. In “Totally Together: Shortcuts to an Organized Life,” she shares ideas for making games out of cleaning to get kids involved in a fun way.

  One of O’Dea’s favorites is “mop-sock skating.” She said that as long as she’s sure there’s no sand or grit on the hardwood floors that could cause damage, this is a great activity.

  “I let the kids put on an old pair of socks, or even my husband’s old work socks, which are rather thick, and I’ll spray a little bit of wood polish on the floor. And they skate around. And they’re dusting, and they’re polishing the floor.” She added “They have a ball, the job gets done, and I’m not cranky. I’m not over-monitoring or over-correcting what they’re doing.”

  Another child-friendly cleaning activity borders on a fun, home science experiment. O’Dea said that fizzing antacid tablets or denture cleaner can do wonders in a toilet bowl. The fizzing action agitates enough to help get rid of calcium deposits and rings around the water line, especially when done frequently enough. Children can take turns plopping them in and watching them fizz, and the “experiment” can also including timing it to see how long the fizzing lasts.

  Creative uses for household products don’t stop there for O’Dea. She also said that shaving cream on the walls of a shower or bath enclosure is like a blank canvas for a young artist. They can draw and write in the foam, and then when it’s over, O’Dea said, “you shower or bath is sparkling, and they had a great sensory experience also.”

  O’Dea said that wiping down baseboards, light switches, remote controls and door knobs is a good cleaning task for children. She added that even a toddler can happily wipe down their own toys with baby wipes to take off some of the grime and germs. She said that in her experience, the small amount of oil or moisturizer in a baby wipe actually leave a thin coat, especially on baseboards, that helps to repel future dust and dirt deposits.

  O’Dea said she knows that it can be hard to know how and when to start getting organized. So, on her website, she offers a 30-Day Jump Start program. And at the end of 30 days, O’Dea said the result is often to feel calmer and “a sense of accomplishment that ‘this is something I can do.’ And that my house is running a little more smoothly. And if someone after church says, ‘Hey! We should really get together for coffee.’ You say, ‘Sure! Come on over! Follow me!,’ rather than, ‘Uh, well, perhaps two Thursdays from now I’ll be ready.’”

  O’Dea said that the real benefit is “a sense of confidence, and a feeling of pride in your home and your family.”

  For more great ideas on getting organized including a daily, 10-minute chore and slow-cooker recipes, visit Stephanie O’Dea’s website. O’Dea also shares blank templates for the weekly checklists that are in her book “Totally Together: Shortcuts to an Organized Life” on the downloads page of her website.