Summer is coming to an end. The excitement of going back to school has passed. Routine has returned to the daily lives of families, who are once again juggling schedules, travel and meals for young and old. How to organize the household well? With tips and advice from Belles Combines!
Fall is a good time to introduce new routines to your children or to try out tips to make your life easier. “The honeymoon is over,” says Dominique Bernèche, the entrepreneur behind Les Belles Combines.
Now that kids are back in school and daycare, and parents are once again overwhelmed with work, there is also the issue of meal planning, outings and extracurricular activities. “Everyday life catches up with us and we look for solutions.”
Mother of seven children aged 0 to 12, Dominique Bernèche is an organization pro. A former teacher, she has imagined and designed a host of practical tools to make life easier for families. At home, the entire household is organized, or almost! "I still like spontaneity and the unexpected. And there's no shortage of that in our family!"
Organize your time
The first step is to organize your time. That's where the monthly planner comes in. This magnetic calendar sits on the refrigerator and gives you an overview of the upcoming activities for the whole family.
"It's often our customers' first purchase. It allows them to structure time as a family or individually." Unlike a diary, it's visible to the whole family. Children can therefore anticipate an activity and prepare for it.
- Dominique's trick is to enter appointments (doctor, dentist, parent meeting, etc.) and fixed expenses in the calendar. "This way, you can better plan travel and meals according to the time allocated. Everything is connected."
Meal Planning
Meal planning is the key to success, believes the mother, who likes to do batch cooking on Sundays. “But only if it rains!” she laughs. “I’m not rigid, I also like to cook during the week, as I go along.”
By writing down the meals for the week in her weekly planner , she makes sure she has everything she needs to prepare a good dinner every evening.
- Dominique's tip: have a good inventory in the pantry and a freezer that is always full. Frozen vegetables are a must !
Teaching Independence to Toddlers
Making your bed, getting dressed, eating breakfast, washing and getting ready to go out. Five little steps that may seem simple, but can be very complicated for a child who is learning.
Indeed, each of these steps contains sub-steps and that’s a lot to remember!
- Dominique's tip: use the removable My Little Sequences stickers to help children remember all the steps of their morning or evening routine.
Delegate tasks
Knowing how to delegate is a great way to save time. It shows children, from toddlers to teenagers, that they can help out around the house.
To avoid arguments and procrastination, Belles Combines offers a simple system of magnetos that allows you to check whether tasks have been completed. As the child grows, the tasks become more complex.
- Dominique's tip: do the tasks as a team! The older ones can help the younger ones or even parents and children. "We also have to let go and lower our expectations. The cleaning won't be impeccable and that's fine!"
- Another tip is to vary the tasks each week. It's not always the same person who empties the dishwasher!
Encourage positive reinforcement
We know it: the first few weeks, the task or organization system works well. Children perform their tasks with a smile, without having to repeat them for the umpteenth time. But, some time later, motivation is no longer there. So we bring out our plan B: rewards. Or rather the positive reinforcement system like Le Magasin général . The child earns tokens that he can then exchange for an activity or a good.
- Dominique's tip: having group rewards helps strengthen family cohesion. Did the week go well? Family movie night!
