When my kids were little, I was always desperately trying to organize and calm the chaos. I set up chore charts with such grand hopes. I created binders with laminated sheets for the boys to check off daily tasks. I bought three baby books and three school scrapbooks that were exactly the same since I wanted everything to be equal. My favorite part was, and still is, setting up the systems. I failed miserably at the implementation which is why those baby books and scrapbooks are still the same- pretty much empty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The problem was I was purchasing things with certain ideals in mind, not at all being realistic that those ideals weren\u2019t at all practical or realistic. I\u2019ve since concluded that it\u2019s the perfectionist in me that\u2019s makes me put things off until I can do them just right, instead of good enough. In hindsight, I think that was part of my parenting. We\u2019d put stuff off until we could do it \u2018right\u2019. The problem is perfect isn\u2019t attainable and there\u2019s never enough time to get it done with such high standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So gone are my days of perfectionism, now I\u2019m a big believer in \u2018good enough.\u2019 Weirdly, good enough has helped me do a much better job at maintaining order. Giving up those standards has allowed me to just do stuff now even if I don\u2019t have the time to do it in a way I would have previously considered the proper way. I had no idea that letting go of those high expectations would actually be the thing that improved my organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s like night and day the difference it\u2019s made, but I must remember that I\u2019m still a work in progress. I\u2019m still tempted with new gadgets and the latest time saving gimmick and more often than not, I find out they are a huge waste of time. There have been a few good finds, but for the most part the time spent testing things out could have been better spent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One thing that worked well when the kids were little was giving them each a color. It didn\u2019t work with everything. I tried to have them just use their color cup, plate and bowl, thinking that I would know the culprit who left their stuff around. I quickly realized that unless I was standing over them all the time supervising the usage, they used whatever color they wanted. It worked better with their towels. I also put their laundry in their color coordinated baskets, which also worked well for the most part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I got wind that Trader Joe\u2019s had their cute little mini canvas bags in stock, I hustled to grab a few, thinking they were perfect lunch sacks. I struck out at the first Trader Joe\u2019s and on my way to the second started really thinking about my future purchase. I first planned to buy one in each of the kids\u2019 colors- red, green and blue and decided to pick my favorite for me when I got there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By time I pulled into the next Trader Joe\u2019s, I decided that I really only needed one for me. I don\u2019t make lunches for my kids anymore, their tastes aren\u2019t the same as mine and when I was really honest with myself, I knew they would be a big waste of money. My kids wouldn\u2019t use them. I walked in and couldn\u2019t find the bags anywhere. As I was checking out, I asked the clerk about them. She let me know that they sold out pretty much as soon as they put them out on the shelves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I guess I\u2019ll live without the cute little mini Trader Joe\u2019s bag. While it wasn\u2019t my proudest moment driving around town to get a little canvas bag, it did remind me that often how I envision things working for me often doesn\u2019t match reality. I thought my kids would like the cute little bags in their color and it would be a good way to keep their items separated. More likely it would have been the dishes all over again. I\u2019m kind of relieved they were sold out so I wasn\u2019t tempted to just give them a try. We have plenty of bags and lunch sacks that work just fine. My current lunch sack is made out of upcycled billboards and I absolutely love it. Our time is valuable and I can\u2019t get that time back, so hopefully next time I\u2019m tempted with the latest shiny thing, I\u2019ll remember this lesson. At least we\u2019re pretty stocked up with our Trader Joe\u2019s staples.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When my kids were little, I was always desperately trying to organize and calm the chaos. I set up chore charts with such grand hopes. I created binders with laminated sheets for the boys to check off daily tasks. I bought three baby books and three school scrapbooks that were exactly the same since I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,8],"tags":[25,26,12,13,19],"class_list":["post-209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-money-saver","category-quick-tip","tag-good-enough","tag-kids","tag-minimizemanage","tag-money-saving","tag-tips"],"yoast_head":"\n