Children

Back to school and feng shui tips to help.

| steffybot

It is almost time for the back-to-school madness, getting yourself and your children back into school life routine, did you know that many parenting tips are actually from some Feng Shui principles.

Feng Shui (pronounced fung shway) is an ancient Chinese system of balancing our physical environment to promote harmony and a sense of well-being and connection with the energy of the Earth.

While learning the art of placement can help you create optimal living within your home, it can also help you and your children create a more efficient, less chaotic system for staying on top of all aspects of their education, including homework and school bag organization, that will help in a long way of reducing school life stresses.

Bringing Feng Shui into your child’s regular routine can keep things running smoothly for the whole family. Even when the children have already gone back to school this year, these habits and principles will help them, and you keep things on the right track.

Here are 8 tips on how to use feng shui the organization of your child’s back-to-school routine will help you maintain your sanity all year long.

Create a “day before” routine.

A day before routine will help remove clutter from the home/ bedrooms so the school day can start off on a better more organised vibration.

Set a timer on your phone for 30 minutes that you and your kids can use to get everything cleaned and organized, then set another for 2 minutes just to put any cleaning supplies away.

When you start the timer, give the house a quick run over, including a quick swish of the bathrooms, a sweep or vacuum, flat surfaces wiped and finishing off with cleaning your kitchen sink.

Put out the clothing for the next day, often the uniform ready, inc underwear. Make sure all homework is completed, packed lunch ready, and bags with all equipment and PE kits as needed. Place shoes and bags by the front door and pack lunches near the breakfast. This will all help the morning time as everything is ready and in place to help the day run smoothers and independence in your children. There will also be fewer “Mam where my shirt” issues, lol.

Within Feng Shui’s perspective, messiness can block the flow of chi and cause arguments and other distractions. We want to reduce these ready to start the next morning as positively as possible.

Set boundaries for yourself and your kids.

However, your lifestyle is, you’ll need to set boundaries for both your work time, children’s time and some much-needed “me” time.

Use this time to prepare for your day, organize your things and your thoughts, or have a quiet reflection.

By setting these boundaries, you will guarantee that there is a time for you to focus on what you need to get done, so that you won’t become overwhelmed when taking care of your children’s needs. This will help you stay focused in the morning and relaxed, and this will flow better. Work with what suits you best.

Simplify your family’s living space.

The living room is a space where you, members of your family, and friends all gather. Therefore, it’s important to ensure this space has good feng shui and welcoming to all who enter it.

All it takes is a little decluttering and balancing of elements in the room. Cleaning one shelf, one drawer, or even one tabletop per day, it’ll be a great idea to have your kids do the same. Teamwork is key, and we all know children learn through role modelling rather than constantly being told what to do.

Being consistent with this concept is key. This tidying method is a great habit for them to learn and keeps the feng shui energy in the living room fresh and vibrant. Add it into your day-before routine too.

Rearrange your child’s room.

The command position is an important concept in feng shui. It means that we can see the door from where we are sitting, cooking, working or sleeping, but are not in line with it.

For younger kids, it can be ideal to put the bed against a wall as it makes them feel secure at night. For older kids, move the bed away from the wall, and add bedside tables on either side, as it gives them more independence and room to move around as they grow, as well as balancing stability.

If you don’t have room and the bed is in line with a door, place something between it and the door. Have a strong wooden headboard on all beds.

Set up an area devoted to homework only.

This can be a space in their room or somewhere else suitable. Over time, they will start to associate this space with homework, and it will improve their focus. Even if you only have a combined space develop this into their daily routine and doing homework will become a habit.

Keep your child’s use of electronic devices limited and not in their bedroom.

Electromagnetic force (EMF) is the energy that emits from electronic equipment and phones. It is recommended to move electronic equipment and TVs from all bedrooms.

If your kids have their cell phones/laptops, encourage removing them from the bedroom or placing them away in storage solutions.  It’s also best to keep TV out of a young child’s room.

Clear clutter from underneath the bed

A feng shui staple to help kids to sleep and feel better is to remove anything stored under their beds so the energy can move freely. Having an open-based bed helps the energy flow better and keeps away stagnant energy, if you need to store stuff, try to keep it to essentials, like bed linens and be extra organised and tidy.

Establish an evening routine.

Get back into bedtime routines to help you and your children get a good night’s sleep ready for the following day. Also here don’t forget the day before the routine.

I hope these tips help you to build a routine that will help you daily in your family’s school life.

Want further help on your home and Feng Shui, check out this Blog.

Love, Steph.

Children’s toys and storage.

| steffybot

Children’s rooms and the amount of toys can become very overwhelming.

When children grow from babies to toddlers, young children and teens. Their likes and interests change a lot. I found going from baby to young children easier to get rid of things, you can clearly see the child outgrown their toys and equipment.

However now as my children range from 6 to 10, as well as childminding children under 5. I do find myself hauling more, with thought like “oh x child will like this…I’ll save for when y gets a bit older” then I find myself storing and hauling more things than needed, for that just incase moment, or that memory likes to particular toy.

Quite often, if you really watch your children play 80% of them toys will not be played with or played with on limited time. Removed from box touched and then just left to the side, this creating more untidiness.

Suitable storage for your space and needs is paramount here. My living room used to look like a nursery, when I redecorates it I realised I wanted my home back.

I changed the unit from open toy storage to ikea kallax sysem. This resulted in not only children less likely to get everything out on offer but make more selective choices. It also allowed my living room to look like a home more. These kallax units have great multi functions, storage and display abilities. I have toys in here for all ages, husbands play station accessories and my girls hair accessories and no one knows. They co win variety of sizes,colours and box or cupboard solutions. And not badly priced.

Helping hands.

You can get them to help, although find lot time myself when they help you end up playing with the things or become less willing to part with them due to now being in sight. I love getting the children involved but often say, “well not see you use it in a while, how about we take it to charity then children less fortunate than you can give it a new experience”, this creates the more likely to part with it knowing someone else will love the toys just as much as them.

When sorting toys there maybe broken or have missing pieces, I find emptying out everything and starting a fresh helps you may find it’s all there but in different boxes, that way saving games and toys from landfills then help you them make a decision to keep or charity them.

For younger children, audio like a tidy up song is great use. They will hear song and know time to tidy, many nurseries and ore schools use this system, so find out if yours does and which one then use at home too.

Minimise what they have.

E.g. Lego. Every child loves Lego, but do you really need several boxes of it, are they organised into sets or just all piled into boxes, then if that the case do you keep the instruction manuals to rebuild and if you do are all pieces there. We have millions of Lego and I mean millions, one year we sorted it all out and actually split up our supples to my parents for when we visit, that way they children get to Keep it, just at alternate home. Now too as children get Lego themselves or as gifts and like to keep as sets we ask people or we buy suitable storage box for that set.

Minimising what your children have as toys not only helps the amount they have but also helps encourage the children to engage fully with the toys your keeping. Then as above find appropriate storage solutions and areas.

Everything has its place and a place for everything.

Once you have sorted out what’s staying and leaving the home think where it needs to stay. Find right storage as above and areas for this storage.

We have another Kallax unit on our landing right outside my sons room, actually obstructing doors and light switches. My son has a cabin bed as he has a tiny room, so I have moved this unit under his bed when he resulted in better flow on our landing and more effective use of free space. With a double result of adding all kitchen rolls play next to each other and away from the open stairs.

Quiet often after seeing what your children really play with can be a great opportunity to declutter and minimise their toys. Sit and observe them playing over a few days or weeks, what do they really engage with.

There are many benefits to decluttering a child’s room or toys. And it’s a process that may take time. This is one of the services I can help to provide, decluttering by room. Ask me for more details if you need this support.

Love, Stephanie Jane, x