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Top Six Strategies for Organizing Homework and Other Kid Memorabilia

By Stacey L. Crew

We’d like to keep it all, but in all honesty, where will we put it? Right now, it may seem as though you have unlimited space, but tack on another five years and a couple more children and you will quickly be using up precious real estate to store junior’s artwork/homework/memorabilia.

Here are some proven strategies for maintaining the memorabilia and your sanity at the same time!

1. Think long term –When Jack is three, you can’t keep enough of his artwork from pre-school. However, by the time Jack reaches junior high school, there could be mountains of paper to sort through and necessary to devote an entire room to his legacy.

2. Plan ahead—Boxes the same type consider buying half a dozen boxes that next until it’s time to use. Get them all the same size (like a boot box size). Label them and clear a space either in Jack’s closet on the upper shelves or another area that is perhaps accessible but out of the way.

3. Be choosy—Don’t put EVERYTHING in the boxes. Set up some guidelines for yourself so you can easily decide what stays and what goes. For example, I will keep the “first” of something, but consider tossing the rest after that. I will scan whatever I can and keep an electronic record that can be put into an online photo album, eliminating hard copy space.

4. Let them help—Okay, so maybe this isn’t realistic to ask a three-year-old what to keep and what to toss, but soon enough kids will be able to tell you what it is they really want to keep. Have a back-up box (stored somewhere else) in the event s/he decides they wanted it back but toss after a few months.

5. Display and Rotate—Set up a large display (not on the refrigerator) but in a hallway or mudroom area where all “new” homework and artwork is displayed. Leave it posted for a determined period of time, and then rotate out the old with the new on a daily/weekly basis. When items are rotated off the board, make a decision whether or not to keep, then file in the storage memorabilia boxes or toss.

6. Live in the Moment—Yes, we can hold on to stuff, but the best strategy is to live in the moment, constantly creating new memories. If focused on the “now” you will find that the memorabilia is great to have, but not the main focus of one’s life.

Stacey Crew is a mom of two, Organizing Expert, author and speaker with a book, The Organized Mom, due in 2009. For more organizing tips, visit http://staceycrew.blogspot.com

Bad Economy = More sex?

by Sandy Maple Oct 13th 2008 3:00PM

It is hard to find anything good to say about the economic crisis that has gripped not just the United States, but much of the world. People are losing their retirement savings, their jobs, their homes, their sense of security. Many of us have altered our normal spending habits and instead of going out to dinner or a movie, we stay home and find something else to do. Apparently in Britain, that 'something else' is sex. And according to some, this at-home recreation is having an impact on the sales maternity clothes, pregnancy tests, and sex toys (not necessarily in that order).

While many businesses are downsizing and wondering just how they will survive, those who specialize in sex-related merchandise are experiencing a boom. Pharmacies report a 20% increase in the sales of pregnancy tests and one chain selling maternity wear boasts of a 46% increase. As Miranda Levy, editor of Mother & Baby Magazine, points out: "What's cheaper and more fun than making babies?

Making babies with the help of sex toys, that's what! One online sex toy shop claims to have experienced a 27% increase in sales since the economy began melting down. "We are gobsmacked by the upturn in sales, while everyone else seems to be suffering. We've especially noticed the rise in sales of couples' toys, showing that people are buying for play with their partners," said Monique Carty, a spokesperson for the store.

I think it is great that couples are rekindling their romance in these times of trouble. But in about nine months, those who end up shopping in the maternity stores are going to find that staying home and having sex is a play now, pay later kind of fun. Ultimately, dinner and a movie would have been much cheaper.

Source: Parentdish.com

Is your family protected? Life Insurance

I went though a dozen calls today with several insurance companies in a matter where a single father of a minor child had died and left an tangled web of an estate plan. 

The father had purchased life insurance, but not any kind of life insurance; Accidental Life Insurance.   He had actually died of an accident.   

Here are all the problems we had to deal with in taking care of his estate:

1.   His sister couldn't find the policies.

2.   His sister couldn't verify the last date of premium payment.

3.   His sister didn't have canceled checks to show premiums were paid.

4.   He had named his minor daughter as a beneficiary.

Four insurance companies claimed that his insurance had lapsed, but could not provide the necessary information to verify the lapse.   

How could this have been avoided:

a.  A life insurance file with all the policies.

b.  Copies of method of payment and how payments were being made.

c.  Purchasing a rider which prevents a lapse in policy in the event of incapacity.

d.  Automating payments of life insurance and accidental insurance payments.

e.  If you have a minor beneficiary, create a minor's trust and name that trust as a beneficiary instead of the minor.

Mina N. Sirkin is a Family Wealth Lawyer and a TV Legal Expert in Los Angeles, California.   Ms. Sirkin is a Board Certified Specialist attorney in Estate Planning, Probate and Trust Law by the State Bar of California.  MSirkin@SirkinLaw.com.  http://www.SirkinLaw.com. 

Should kids inherit all from parents? Andrew Lloyd Webber says no.

Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber is refusing to leave any of his fortune to his five children.

The theater impresario, whose personal wealth is rumored to be around £750 million, revealed that his children will not inherit his production company Really Useful Group.

He told The Mirror: "They aren't bothered. They don't think that way. It is about having a work ethic - I don't believe in inherited money at all.

"I am not in favor of children suddenly finding a lot of money coming their way because then they have no incentive to work.

"So I will give them a start in life but they aren't going to end up owning the Really Useful Group."

Lloyd Webber has children Imogen and Nicholas with first wife Sarah Hugill, as well as Alastair, William and Isabella from his marriage to Madeleine Gurdon.

In Webber's case, we are talking about a substantial amount of money.   While most parents aren't concerned with astronomical numbers, this is a looming thought in every estate planning session. The discussion revolves around what should the kids get.   I am in favor of leaving some assets to adult children, though I qualify it by asking my top ten questions before we settle on leaving any sum to a child.   Sometimes, the children's attitudes and relationship with money can be engaging, and at other times, they can be the sole reason why the parents came to my office.   Ask yourself, how does my child deal with money now?  It's likely that he or she will deal with it the same way after you are gone.

Mina N. Sirkin is a Family Wealth Lawyer in Los Angeles, CA.  Ms. Sirkin is a Certified Specialist attorney in Estate Planning, Probate and Trust Law by the State Bar of California.  MSirkin@SirkinLaw.com.  http://www.SirkinLaw.com.