This is a guest blog post by Vanessa Van Petten. Vanessa is the teen author of the parenting book “You’re Grounded!” She writes a parenting blog from a teen’s perspective to help parents understand what is actually going on in the mind of kid’s today to make life a little bit easier.

Parent, teens and family advice blog

My mom and dad always seem overwhelmed with chores, dinner, morning routines and driving my siblings and I here there and everywhere. Recently, we decided to streamline many of our sticky areas to save everyone time and headaches! Here are some of our favorite tips:

1) Make a Personalized Calendar:

Planners are great, but when you are making a schedule for more than one person, you need to step it up. With a large pad of white paper, make each piece of paper for one week. Give every family member their own row and color. You will easily be able to synchronize and see everyone’s schedule in one place. Put the board up in a main room. Also leave a small space at the beginning of each day for “To Do”–this way you can write on the board what each family member has to get done (chores, call exterminator, etc) at some point during the day.

2) Use a Timer:

Use a kitchen timer when you or your kids are trying to clean-up the living room, or put away clean dishes. It is our natural instinct to ‘beat the clock,’ so make it a game for the kids to see if they can do their chores before the timer goes off! Also if you are checking email or doing an unending chore, and do not want to stay on for too long, set a timer so the time does not slip away from you.

3) Make a Me-Zone:

Whoever pays most of the bills or is in charge of running the household should have a separate area away from the family going-ons. Make sure that this area at least has a desk, a file cabinet, scissors, pens, pencils, a telephone, post-its, blank paper, highlighters and a computer or printer. If you are more organized it is so much easier and quicker to get things done! Stocking up with office supplies that the kids cannot use, is also important so when you are trying to pay bills you do not have to run around to find a calculator.

4) Mailboxes:

Right outside, or in a part of your Me-Zone have a mailbox for every family member. When they have something to give you they can put it in your box instead of just leaving it on a desk or countertop where things get lost. This is a great way to also get things for your kids, or keep papers they might need for a weekend sports match or field trip so you do not forget.

5) Meal-Plan:

Dinners are so hard to plan for busy parents! My mom found that meal planning takes away a lot of last minute stress for preparation and saves money because you do not waste ingredients! Make one time a week where you will sit-down (with or without kids) and take suggestions or decide what you want to cook this week. Use the big calendar to plan who is going to cook what and when! While planning don’t forget to take into consideration what you have in the fridge. Make sure you will have enough milk for cereal, bread for lunches and veggies for dinner and write in the times you will be able to cook or will have to order out so everyone knows the plan.

I hope these tips help! Please add your own family’s parent hacks below! And check out my website for other articles I have for busy parents.

Thanks!

Vanessa

Parent, teens and family advice blog