This podcast episode will give you tactical and functional organizing tips for multigenerational living. If you are in a multigenerational home or considering this option - this is for you!

Multigenerational living is near and dear to my heart these days. I am cherishing this life phase that I’m currently in - sharing my home with Abby (my daughter) and Grayson (my grandson). I know many members of the Organize 365® team and community are also living in multi-generational homes. 

I realize that there are different circumstances that may lead you to be in a multigenerational home. The three main situations that I’ve seen for multigenerational living are:

1. Caregiving. If you are currently living the “sandwich” generation lifestyle - taking care of your parents while also trying to keep up with your adult children - I have a BIG HUG for you! Being a caregiver can be extremely isolating. I’ve been there and it can be a long road. 

2. Consciously merging households. This seems to be a more recent phenomenon (in the United States at least). Families consciously decide to live together because they enjoy each other, it makes economic sense and they can share in the work and experience running the household together.

3. Life circumstances. Sometimes it’s not a conscious decision but life circumstances create a situation where multigenerational living is necessary.

Regardless of how you ended up in a multigenerational home, here are my top organizational tips for making the most of the situation:

• Be purposeful about transitioning the home to support a multigenerational home.

• Ensure that everyone (INCLUDING YOU) have your own space. Everyone needs their own space. In my home, this means that Abby and Grayson have the basement apartment to themselves. They get to decide what they want down there, what it looks like and they are responsible for everything in this space. I also have my own spaces in the house that are just mine.

• Create rules for communal spaces, but be willing to renegotiate and evolve those rules as the situation changes. For example, the communal spaces in our home are the living room, kitchen, laundry room and garage. These areas get to be cleaned and organized to my standards. There are rules for how we all operate and take care of these areas.

• Laundry Days - This one has been great in our household. We have designated laundry days to ensure that we can get laundry done for ourselves on the days that our most convenient for all of us in the household.

• Don’t feel guilty to say what you want in terms of the communal spaces.

• Organizing the kitchen and food in a multigenerational home - start by considering the stages of life each of you are in. In my household we have the toddler phase, Greg and I are working away from home and Abby is a stay at home mom. Our kitchen is supporting three very different phases of life. We have created dedicated space for everyone’s food and Grayson’s adorable toddler eating utensils, plates and sippy cups.

How I’ve maintained my cleanliness standards in communal spaces:

• Baby Gates - Living Room, Dining Room and Laundry - Grayson doesn’t go in those areas so they stay picked up.

• Weekly Cleaning - We have a weekly cleaner come and every Thursday we know the house is being cleaned and everything needs to be picked up.

• Minimalized toys in the family room - Constantly decluttering and rotating the toys in the family room - not minimalist but definitely minimized.

When you live in a multigenerational home, there will be some frustrations. If you are feeling frustrated (and I’ve been there), try to do a mindset swap and remember the many blessings that come with this experience. 

Your home needs to be organized differently and you need to establish different rules for yourself for all the phases of life you go through and different people or peoples living in your home with you.

Top 2 takeaways for living in a multigenerational home:

1. Pick your battles.

2. Create rules.

See the episode resources below for your supply list to help keep each member of the family and the entire household running smoothly. You’ll be sharing a lot, but you don’t need to share your own brain!

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• The Sunday Basket® - one for each adult in your home

• Household Reference Binder - one per house

• Medical Binder - each family member needs their own

• Financial Binder - each family unit or couple has their own

• Household Operations Binder - you would have this for each family unit - like teachers at a school - they would each have their own lessons. 

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365­® community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU learn the skill of organization, too!

This week, I am sharing my interview with Christine M. She lives with her husband and well loved cat in Ontario, Canada! When Christine M. experienced three moves in a short period of time, she learned the skill of organization through Organize 365®.

Christine is a former teacher turned grad student so we had a lot to talk about. Christine found her way to Organize 365® through my friend and fellow podcaster, Angela Watson. She was going through teacher burn-out, something we have been hearing all about. I cannot tell you enough how much I appreciate teachers. If you are a teacher, this podcast is a hug from me to you - thank you for all that you do! 

Christine’s interest in Organize 365® started through her Teacher Friday Workbox® which is now the Education Friday Workbox®. She wanted to implement systems into her teacher role to help her be more productive and purposeful with her time.

Her organizational journey went into overdrive when she found that she and her husband would be moving across Canada to Ontario. She utilized Organize 365® Ten Steps to an Organized Move (which is available inside The Productive Home Solution™) to pull off the most organized move imaginable. Getting organized BEFORE you move is key.

In the years that followed her move, she transformed into an even more organized person. We discuss the key principles and learning that she did to fully transform herself into a positive, productive and proactive person. She loves the idea that items in her home are auditioning for their place. 

Listen in to hear all about her journey and how she is now using her Education Friday Workbox® to organize her grad school journey! I love to hear how the Organize 365® products and courses evolve with your life.

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Education Friday Workbox® - organizational system designed for teachers

• The Productive Home Solution™

• The Sunday Basket®

• The Portable Sunday Sunday Basket®

I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365® community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday.

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

How can we make the invisible work visible? How can we streamline or eliminate it? How much time do you have for your organizational transformation at your current life stage? Where are you on your journey? What’s the next best step for you?

Did you know Organize 365® has an amazing (AND FREE) quiz to help figure out how much time you have and where you are in the organizing cycle?

Take the Organize 365® quiz to help you determine:

• Your “why”

• How much time you have to commit

• Where you are in the organizing cycle (Decluttering, Organizing and Increasing Productivity)

I invite you to take the quiz and use the customized results to help you determine the next best step for the upcoming trimester. You can take this quiz as many times as you like throughout your journey! 

Episode Resources:

• Organize 365® Quiz

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

I gave myself the gift of a mid-semester review and reset my PhD organization. It was the BEST gift.

I’ve hit the halfway mark in my semester. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing anything and make sure I’m on target. 

Here’s how I hit the reset button:

• Re-read the syllabus for each class (HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS)

• Compiled and organized all my notes for all my classes into a notebook by class

• Planned ahead for the second half of the semester by looking ahead and doing anything I could do to organize my remaining assignments and classes

Our brain’s desire organizational planning time. Are you giving yourself time to plan and organize your work, home and life?

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Follow my journey on Instagram - Check out the PhD Highlight Button

• Organize 365® Slash pockets

• The Productive Home Solution™ Planning Day

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Have you ever thought about how much your home is a business? 

Our homes are businesses. The entire US economy runs on the economy of your house. If the American family is doing well, the American economy is doing well.

When I talk about our homes as businesses, I don’t mean that you should be just going through the motions and checking boxes or anything even similar to that. In this episode, I share how you can use tools and systems (similar to what you would do at work) to gain a bigger impact and less stress at home.

A business usually has a CEO and COO. Your home most likely does, too. Sometimes you may be acting as the CEO and COO, sometimes you may just have one of those roles.

The CEO creates the strategy of the company, manages the capacity and resources, and plans for execution. Some of the things you may do as the CEO of your home are:

• During your weekly Sunday Basket® routine, you look at what constraints you have in the upcoming week, what needs to get done

• Planning your week and trimester in advance

The COO plays a critical role in running the day-to-day actionables that will accomplish the strategy the CEO has created for the team. 

The key to success is that the CEO and COO are both operating proactively and strategically. Making choices about what to work on, how to spend time and money, and what experiences and impact they want to create within their household.

In this episode, I deep dive into how The Friday Workbox® operates for your business and apply this to how the Sunday Basket® helps you run the business of home and family. 

I’d love to hear your feedback on this one! Do you see the parallels between running your home as a business?

Come learn how to plan like the CEO of your home!

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• The Productive Home Solution™ Planning Day

• The Productive Home Solution™

• The Sunday Basket®

• The Friday Workbox®

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365­® community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU learn the skill of organization, too!

Today I’m excited to talk with fellow podcaster, Sarah Hart-Unger.  Sarah hosts the podcast Best Laid Plans, co-hosts the podcast Best of Both Worlds with Laura Vanderkam, is the mother of three children, married to a surgeon, and works as pediatric endocrinologist! So, needless to say, she stays busy! Organization and planning are a big part of her ability to do so much and we will be talking about the systems she has in place.

First things first, we talk about parenting! Sarah is experiencing a golden window because her youngest child just turned 5! For parents of children younger than 5, things are just changing so frequently every 6-8 weeks that it is hard to catch your breath in terms of getting organized.

We discuss how when you go through different stages and phases of life, you learn how to use your organization and time management skills in different ways.

Sarah is a big believer in functional organization. It doesn’t have to be pretty, but it needs to work for you! She shares how she is ruthless about getting rid of things and enjoys knowing where things are. 

Organizing her time is one of her favorite things to do. Mine, too! We dig deep into how planning your home life by quarters just does not work. It creates weird cut-offs like July. Who wants to start a new plan in the middle of summer? You need to have your entire summer planned out. The quarters of the year aren’t actually new energies. The Organize 365® approach to planning is by trimesters.

Planning allows you to make room for your own explosive growth! We both discuss how during busy seasons of life, our respective calendars and planners bring us a sense of peace and allow us to have more capacity. Do you have a plan that you love to look at? That gives you peace, not stress? That creates calm in chaos? Do you have a plan for the upcoming trimester and summer season? 

Sarah also shares how she has organized her children. We discuss a very hot topic - how to organize kids’ artwork! Check out the episode resources if you want to share the Kids Movie Sarah references with your kids as well!

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• The Productive Home Solution™ Planning Day

• The Productive Home Solution™

• The Sunday Basket®

• Lattice Binder for kid’s artwork

• Organize 365® Kids Movie

• Learn more about Golden Windows and Season of Organizing

• Watch the video on YouTube to see the sneak peek of Lisa’s Weekly Planning Sheet

I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365® community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday.

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

There is administration time related to getting your PhD.

The Sunday Basket® and the Business Friday Workbox® teaches you there are invisible tasks you do at home and work. Once these tasks are made visible, you can eliminate as many as possible. 

Mid-semester, I realized I need PhD administrative time. Listen in as I review what types of administrative tasks I have while working on my PhD.

• Planning my work 

• Organizing my email

• Signing up for teacher office hours 

• Cleaning up Zotero files

Next week, I will share with you how I took a pause and reoriented myself.

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Follow my journey on Instagram - Check out the PhD Highlight Button

• The Sunday Basket®

• The Friday Workbox®

• Zotero

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Are you playing Checkers or Chess? Of course, you are playing Checkers. We all are. But, some of us are playing (and winning) Chess, too!

In today’s episode, I breakdown how you can “play” the game of life better with an emphasis on strategy. 

As I breakdown the “game of life” in this episode, we discuss:

• Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

• Marie Kondo’s life with three kids

• Generational norms

• The strategy of living life with a planned approach

Which leads us to the free Organize 365® blitzes. These blitzes were designed to help you get ahead. They may seem like “small wins” but they have a huge impact on how we look at our time in a more strategic (chess-like) way. These blitzes teach us how to incorporate forward planning into our game of life.

In the next four months, you are going to experience Memorial Day, Mother’s Day, tax day and the summer season. These things are coming whether you plan ahead or not. But, if you do join our blitzes and planning day, you’ll be able to approach the next four months with a planned and strategic approach. This will allow you to enjoy summer experiences with your family, sign your kids up for their favorite camps, purchase plane tickets before they sell out and look forward to your summer. Playing Chess allows you to get out of the reactiveness of the Checkers game.

Organize 365® Planning Days allow you to do the mental work ahead of time so you can enjoy the upcoming season. I hope you’ll join me!

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Routine Reset Blitz

• Organize 365® Home Planning Day

• The Productive Home Solution™

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365­® community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU learn the skill of organization, too!

During this month we have been talking to women about how women in their 30s are getting it done. Stephanie represents women that are not working from home. She began her career as a corporate executive before she left to continue to grow the company she founded with her husband, Vince. She and Vince have 4 kids, 11, 9 (twins), and 6.

She worked from home for the last couple of years, but got physical space last Spring and she is back working in an office. She enjoyed her time working from home, but realized she needed more thinking and planning time and has since moved into a physical office space.

She moved to a condensed schedule, Monday to Thursday available for meetings and in the office with Fridays off, to give her the ability to have some parts of a stay-at-home mom. Never being able to fully work on just Austin Fowler, she has found time saving activities. Her time is very full with her own business and a family of 6 so it is important to her to plan and prepare for her weeks and weekends. She is very disciplined and uses her Sunday Basket® and Friday Workbox® to plan while using her bags to pack and prepare.

Listen in to find out what things work well for Stephanie and her family during this season of growing children and a growing business.

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• AustinFowler.com

• Instagram @austinandfowler

I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365® community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday.

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Are we really talking about clothing again? What does this really have to do with getting a PhD anyway?!

Organization unlocks our time and productivity unlocks our capacity.

I’m using my PhD as the example for these stories, but everything I’m sharing with you is how I am taking past organizational strengths, learning, or habits that I have had or am developing now and how I’m refining those in order to get more time and have more capacity.

The way in which we free up our time in order to be able to do the next thing, that’s organization. As we organize, we create a habit. A habit is just doing the thing you’ve already organized without consciously thinking about it. In order to really get more time, you have to over analyze some basic habits to figure out if there is a more efficient way to do these things and somehow create this new habit and put it on autopilot so we don’t have to even think about it.

This brings us back to clothing!

Listen in as we talk about how creating a uniform for the different hats you wear will help you to transition into the role that you're playing and mentally enter into that space. 

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Follow my journey on Instagram - Check out the PhD Highlight Button

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!