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Organizing Tips
to motivate and ​​inspire you!

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Get Organized for College: Create Your Dream Dorm!

8/5/2026

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It was a crisp fall day in 1989. Students were going in and out of the dorms like ants carrying trunks, suitcases, and tote bags. Befuddled parents were standing outside, trying to be helpful but mostly chatting with other parents and taking in the scene. This would be their beloved, newly-adult child’s home for the next year and they wanted to memorize it all.

State-of-the-art ‘80s dorm must haves were an answering machine, a boombox with a CD player, and a word processor (or, if you were lucky, a DOS-based computer or Macintosh SE). Throw in a wall tapestry and a Klimt poster and you’ve got a pretty fine room!
​
Now that my oldest daughter is heading off to college this fall, I figured I probably shouldn’t rely just on my own experience to help figure out what she needs. So I polled my mom friends with kids currently in college to find their best move-in tips. Now I get to share them with you!​
What has changed? The rooms are still small, the beds are still twin XL, and that Klimt poster is still popular, but most other things have undergone some great updates.
Here are my favorites to make sure your student has all the essentials.

  • Packing List: Search “packing list” on your college’s website for a comprehensive list of what that school recommends and what is not allowed (e.g. candles). Print this out and use it as a checklist.
  • Linens and dorm essentials: One-stop shopping to outfit your dorm? Yes, it’s real! Try Dormco’s 44-piece essentials kit that has lots of options to customize.This is the easiest and most economical way to get a complete dorm kit (sheets, mattress pad, pillows, towels, etc.) delivered directly to the room.
  • Food: Rent a microwave/fridge combo from mymicrofridge.com then stack plastic drawers on top of the fridge (I like the sturdy, stackable ones you can find at The Container Store.) to hold snacks like granola bars and chips.
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  • Planner: Stay organized with the best planner out there, the patented Order Out of Chaos Academic Planner. (Use my affiliate link and code PLANNER20 for 20% off. While you’re there, grab a copy of the awesome studying guide book, “How To Do It Now...Because It’s Not Going Away.”)
  • Clothes: Slip trash bags over hanging clothes—one from the top, one from the bottom, then tie or tape them—and transport them that way so they’re ready to go right into the closet. Of course, this only works if you’re driving to school. If you’re flying, don’t forget to pack or order hangers.​
  • ​Packing: Sturdy moving bags are easy to tote and will hold all the folded clothes, shoes, accessories, etc. that a student needs. After unpacking, fold them flat and stash them under the bed to use again when it's time to come home.
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  • Toiletries: Everyone knows about the ubiquitous mesh shower caddy, but my genius friend Lisa pairs it with an absorbent dish drying mat so it can drip dry on the top of the bureau without getting anything else wet.
  • Electronics: Be sure your charging cables are at least 6’ long so they can reach to the top of a bunk bed.​​
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  • Shoes, accessories, and much, much more: Wall pockets and over-the-door hooks can go on the backs of doors, closet doors, bunk beds, or even just the wall to create places to stash all kinds of stuff while keeping everything visible and organized.​​
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  • First Aid: My friend Paige lovingly packed her son a complete First Aid Kit and found that he became the go-to guy whenever someone had a cut, headache, or sore throat—good training for a kid who’s pre-med.
    • Bandaids, gauze, tape, liquid bandage (like New-Skin)
    • Bactine and antibiotic ointment 
    • Tweezers
    • Benadryl tablets
    • Advil/Tylenol
    • Thermometer
    • Cough syrup and sore throat/cough drops
    • Pepto-Bismol tablets and/or Imodium 
    • Heartburn tablets
    • Cortizone or Benadryl cream
    • Bug spray, sun block, and aloe lotion
    • Ace bandage
    • Ice pack (reusable or instant)
    • Chapstick and/or Aquaphor

My last but definitely not least tip is an essential dorm-room supply that every college student needs. It’s the envelope that Paige put in the First Aid Kit with the headline “For emergencies that haven’t been addressed.”

​Inside the envelope is a note that reads, “I’m here for you. Just a call away. 💗”
​
With all that plus an Amazon Prime account, your student is college-ready!
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NOTE: The only affiliate link in this blog is for the Order Out of Chaos Academic Planner and book, products I totally believe in. All other links are for your information only and I receive no commission from them.
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My Best Back to School Blogs

8/6/2024

 
Professional Organizer Back-to-School Organizing Blogs
Does your family have students heading back to school in the next few weeks? Have I got you covered with Back-to-School tips for making an organized transition from summer to school!

What's your Back-to-School challenge?

If TIME MANAGEMENT is what trips you up, don't miss my blog and interview with the fabulous Leslie Josel, inventor of the award-winning Academic Planner: A Tool for Time Management®
Back-to-School Time Management
Time Management for Back to School Professional Organizer Advice
Are you worried about how to TRANSITION FROM SUMMER mode to school? Use this blog to make a plan.
Make a Back-to-School Plan
Professional Organizer Kate Bosch helps you make a back to school plan for your family
Do you have a student HEADING TO COLLEGE? Here are my tips and tricks for an organized start.
Get Organized for College
Professional Organizer helps you get organized for college
If you're getting my newsletter, then you already have access to my top 3 Back-to-School blogs and more. If you're not yet subscribed, what are you waiting for?
Subscribe to My Newsletter

Create a Forever Keepsake with 4everBound Books

7/9/2024

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Professional Organizer keepsake book
Here’s the problem: Your kid is a prolific artist. The artist part is great, but the volume is an issue. How many crayon drawings of your family, poster-paint apple trees, and construction-paper collages are you supposed to be able to manage?

If you’ve been following my advice, you’ve Set Up a System to Deal with School Papers: A temporary display space to show off this week’s latest greatest creations and a bin or portfolio for long-term storage.

But you’ll notice a secondary problem. You’ve saved all of your child’s wonderful creations, but they’re stored away where no one looks at them.

Why keep a precious memento stored in a bin,
​never to be seen and enjoyed?

The typical options for putting children’s art into a usable keepsake each have their own problems.

School years scrapbooks work well as your storage system, but we tend to jam too many pages into the scrapbook’s pockets, making it a fight to get the papers out for viewing. The book becomes heavy and cumbersome and won’t lay flat.

Printed photo books are space-savers, but if you can’t bring yourself to throw away the original art (I couldn’t!), then you have to keep storing the artwork.

A binder with plastic sleeves is OK, but it’s a pain to put together and its utilitarian plainness doesn’t do justice to your child’s marvelous creations.

SOLUTION: 4everBound*

Owned and operated by Robyn and Peter Pomonis, 4everBound takes your precious paper mementos and hand-binds them into a beautiful keepsake book. Your child’s actual art pieces become the book’s pages. If a piece is too small, they mount it onto a larger page. If a piece is too large, they carefully fold it so it becomes a pop-out page.

Last year, I made a 4everBound book for my oldest daughter who’s now a young adult. It was fun to reminisce through her life from toddler to teenager. Although I had already pared down her work at the end of every school year, I still had too much even for the largest 90-page 4everBound book.

​How do you go about paring down all these precious memories? Make it a game.

SORTING: THE YES/NO GAME

Gather all of your child’s artwork into one place and separate it by year. Don’t get hung up on perfectionism or you’ll get stuck on putting it in chronological order — just do the best you can.

Now play the Yes/No Game. Pick a year — I like to work backward starting with the most recent — and sort the papers into two piles: Yes and No.

By forcing yourself to make a binary decision, you’ll get through it much faster than if you have to rank the pieces. Don’t overthink your answers. If it’s a maybe, put it into the Yes pile at this stage.

Now for the hard part: Immediately throw away the No pile! Don’t give yourself time to think about it or you’ll start fishing things out of the trash.

Repeat this for every year’s worth of papers. Set a goal to sort one year’s worth every day or five years’ worth each week.

​After you’ve gone through it once, count how many pages you have to see how much you still need to reduce. Play the Yes/No game again until you have the number of pages needed. 4everBound books are available in 30, 60, or 90 pages. Just go for the 90-page kit!
Professional Organizer pro tip for paring down artwork

THE 4EVERBOUND EXPERIENCE

Once you’ve begun the sorting process, you’re ready to order your 4everBound kit. You’ll receive a sturdy shipping box with a prepaid label, a thick plastic envelope, and instructions. All you have to do is put your pages in the envelope — in the order you want them to be in the book — seal it, put it into the box, and mail it back to 4everBound. At their shop, Robyn will hand trim, mount, and fold your pages then give them to Peter who binds them. Soon, you’ll receive a beautiful, one-of-a-kind keepsake that your family will treasure forever.

Just think what fun you’ll have snuggling on the sofa and leafing through the memories with your family!

Not just kids' art — 4everBound preserves all kinds of memories

Do you have paper or paper-like mementos that you want to bind that’s not children’s artwork? 4everBound can handle that too! Preserve family history by having them make a book of letters or documents. Memorialize your achievements by binding a book of awards or racing bibs. If it’s paper or paper-like, 4everBound can make it into a book!

Watch my interview with Robyn and Peter Pomonis, founders of 4everBound, and learn about some of the most interesting books they've made.

* I receive a small commission when you buy through my affiliate link.
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Back to School: Time Management Is Your Student's Must-Have Tool

8/9/2023

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Back to school: Time management is your student's must-have tool according to this professional organizer
✔️ Backpack
✔️ Notebooks
✔️ #2 pencils

If you're just checking off the school supply list, you're missing the most important back-to-school prep that you can do for your student.

I interviewed expert Student Coach Leslie Josel of Order Out of Chaos who says the MOST IMPORTANT thing you can do to get ready for school is to help your student learn the organizational skill of Time Management. Students need to SEE their time so they can manage their time.

If you struggle with time management and distractibility, you'll find lots of ideas in our discussion that will help you get a handle on your time.

Watch the video for all the great tips and information. Send your students back to school with the supplies they really need!
Use my affiliate link, https://bit.ly/KateOrderOOChaos, to access all of the great FREE resources and products (20% off through 9/30 with code PLANNER20) at Order Out of Chaos.

While you're there, be sure to sign up for Leslie's free Back-to-School Webinar on August 22. If you can't watch it live, register and get the recording to watch later that week.
Order Out of Chaos Planners
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Summer Blog Bonanza

6/6/2023

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Summer blogs by a professional organizer
As we wrap up the school year and head into summer, have I got some blogs for you! Because organizing kids’ artwork and papers is a ubiquitous dilemma, I’ve written about it a few times. These three blogs tackle different aspects of the problem and will help you sort through what you have and set up a system to deal with it all so you can start with a clean slate in the fall.
  • School Paperwork Year End Round Up
  • 3 Mistakes Parents Make When Saving Kids' Papers & Art
  • Set Up a System to Deal with School Papers

Congratulations to those of you with graduates heading off to college in the fall! Get Organized for College is a not-to-be missed blog that’ll clue you in to everything you need to know about organizing the dorm room.

And for those of you who just can’t wait to set out for summer fun, my 
Say YES to Summer Adventures! blog will make it easy for you to enjoy the season, whether you’re by the pool. the lake, or the beach.

QUICK TIP:

There are plenty of companies that preserve your kids' art in printed digital albums, but most parents (me included!) can't bear to throw out the original artwork. 4everbound has a unique solution: they bind your ACTUAL PAPERS into a book. Amazing!
Order your 4everbound kit with my affiliate link and they'll know I sent you.

Home Organizer recommends a 4everBound book
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Academic Planner Deep Dive with Leslie Josel of Order Out of Chaos

8/9/2022

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In this interview, you'll learn all the tips, tricks, and hacks for using Leslie Josel's patented Order Out of Chaos Academic Planner. Learn why:
  • Kids to SEE time so they can get a handle on their schedules.
  • Physically writing things down (not just typing) is SO important for memory!
  • You should use the Academic Planner even if you're not a student.​
Order Out of Chaos Planners
For more school-related tips and encouragement, check out these blog posts: 
  • My Back to School Plan blog has parents of elementary and middle schoolers covered.
  • Sending a kid off to college? Read my Get Organized for College blog.
  • If your student struggles with study skills and procrastination (and you want more of Leslie Josel's amazing advice—yes, please!), read my review of her book, "How to Do It Now Because It's Not Going Away: An Expert Guide to Getting Stuff Done."
NOTE: L:inks provided to Order Out of Chaos are affiliate links, so I receive a small commission when you make a purchase.
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3 Mistakes Parents Make When Saving Kids’ Papers & Art

6/14/2022

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Mistakes parents make when saving kids' art, according to a professional home organizer
How much of a child’s artwork, school papers, and mementos does a “good” parent save?

I once read about a mom who saved each year of her children’s school memories, pre-K through 12, in a separate (clean, new) pizza box. Her plan was to deliver the 15 “pizzas” to her kids once they moved into their first apartments. Gee, thanks, mom.

Another mom I know had bookcases overflowing with album after album containing every page her child ever scribbled on. Luckily, she couldn’t keep up with this for long, so the albums only went up to about first grade for her first child. I shudder to think how many albums she’d have filled if she’d kept going!

Let’s get real. Your kids don’t remember much about kindergarten and they don’t care about their brilliant 4th grade report on butterflies. They might like to reminisce with you over an album or a few mementos, but don't make the mistake of overwhelming them by saving everything.

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Back to School: Make a Plan

8/17/2021

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Back to School Plan from a Professional Organizer
Masks or no masks? Bus or no bus? Digital or paper? What’s the plan for school this year?!?
When faced with back-to-school confusion, what does a professional organizer do? Make a plan!
Taking control of the things that are within your control will help you and your family feel calmer and more confident about the start of school. Here are my top tips for a smooth transition.

Your Back to School Plan

1. Start going to bed and getting up earlier—not just the kids, but you too! It’s time to admit that vacation is coming to an end. Use the extra AM time to work your way into a good routine. You’ll all be less stressed after banking some good sleep.

2. Establish your school-year screen time and device rules now. Get the kids’ buy-in by explaining to them the need for rules, then asking for their input and having a conversation. Just remember that the parents have the final say! ...

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Help Your Student Avoid Procrastination Pitfalls

10/13/2020

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Gain the study skills to get the work done without procrastinating
​Did you know that 80-95% of college students procrastinate? Maybe you’re rolling your eyes and saying, “Duh, who doesn’t know that college students procrastinate?” And maybe you were one of those students.

But when you’re trapped in a procrastination cycle, it can feel as if everyone around you has it all together and you’re the only one who has, once again, gotten yourself into trouble with the doom of an approaching deadline.

In her new book, How to Do It Now Because It's Not Going Away: An Expert Guide to Getting Stuff Done, Leslie Josel tackles the sticky problem of procrastination.

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Back to School: You’ve Got This!

8/18/2020

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Back to School: Make a plan so you can handle whatever this year throws at you!
It’s August, so that means time to get ready to go back to school. Sorry, I mean remote learning. No, wait, hybrid. Or maybe a pod?

Wow! And I thought annual school-supply shopping was hard (Why are the supply lists so long?!). Now, we have to contend with shifting school start dates and 11th-hour plan changes.

This year, every decision we have to make around getting our children back to school seems fraught with frightening complications.

What’s a parent to do? Get organized!

Read More
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