When the Health Department gets involved with the school system, you know there will be a zillion forms coming your way. And, they will come your way in a timely fashion. Usually way too early for you to act on them, but early enough for you to “file them away” in a place you will DEFINITELY remember.

Not anymore.

There was a time when I could retrace my steps and visualize where I placed things. Whatever synapses I used for that exercise are all used up.  Now I call on my super- uber organized friend to put down her uncluttered diary and color coded post-it notes and come to my aid. “Hey Sue. Can you remind me what forms I need to send in with Peter so he can start football (with everyone else!)?”

My kids wear clean uniforms, are fed well and have special padding on their beds to provide all night comfort to their growing bodies. But, I stink when it comes to taking care of paperwork. What’s a Varsity Parent to do? After checking with experts who specialize in organizing adults I learned these great little tips.

House It: Dedicate an area in the house where all the paperwork will live. This means buying folders and a house for the folders. Seriously, this works. Even if you don’t put all the papers in separate files, at least they are all in one place. And, train your athlete to use the “house” system instead of the usual car floor, kitchen counter, or bottom of backpack. Here’s what one Varsity Parent created for her 4 teen athletes. She bought a giant, giant bulletin board and attached 4  accordian style folders to the board (2 on top and 2 on the bottom). Every time paperwork came in, she housed it in the appropriate teen’s folder. “Where’s my permission slip?!?!?!” Oh what a smug look she had on her face as she walked to the teen’s folder and calmly pulled out the paper.  Big VP Star to you Jeannie!!!! The center part of the bulletin board was used as a calendar and then ended up being a place for receipts, doctor appointment cards, pictures, the dog grooming appointment card, etc. A bulletin board does draw in the crowd. OH! How about color coded push pins. Maybe a bit too crazy.

Don’t forget to organize the “go green” e-mails. Make electronic folders in your email program for each sport or kid, and drag and file relevant emails in their respective folders.

Mark It: Get one of the ginormous calendars and mark it up with all the required dates. This includes: car pools, equipment pick-ups, pasta dinner sign-ups, end of season banquet and the obvious practice and game schedule. And, to make it pretty, use those Sharpies and assign a color for each athlete. Over the top? Just guard it with your life. My husband likes to move our calendar to create less clutter. He doesn’t do that anymore…..

Just Do It:  Make sure you mark it and house it as soon as it comes in the door or your email inbox.  Once email gets even a few days old, that juicy email with all the head coaches key dates will be out of sight and out of mind as hundreds of new emails  It may take a little discipline, but it saves a lot of panic and time later.

Buy It: Make sure to take your most organized friend for a bi-weekly coffee, just in case you forgot something you didn’t know you were forgetting.

If you have nailed the above strategy and want to move to the next level, check out http://listplanit.com. For a yearly fee you will learn how the pros pull it together and keep it together. You guessed it, Sue told me about this link…