Episode 40 - Tip Tuesday - 3 Ideas to Make Sure Your Kids Have All the Right Gear for Practice & Games During Busy Sports Seasons – Responsibility for Kids & Help for Moms! - Intentional Edit

Having kids in activities and competitive sports takes up a considerable amount of time, has you constantly managing schedules that are frequently changing and requires organization. Practices, games, tournaments, and competitions means that you are driving all over town, and they are filing up the calendar for the entire family…

There are 3 things you can do to simplify the chaos, stay on track, and eliminate the forgotten items. Find out the everything you need to know on this Tip Tuesday Episode of The Intentional Edit Podcast.

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These are the zipper pouches recommended in the episode.

Full Episode Transcription:

Having kids in activities in competitive sports takes up a considerable amount of time, have to constantly managing schedules that are frequently changing and requires you to stay organized. If you wanna stay on top of things, practices, games, tournaments, and competitions means that you are driving all over town and they are filling up the calendar for the entire family. Join me for this tip Tuesday episode of the intentional edit podcast, where I will share three things that you can do to stay on top of everything that goes on during a busy, competitive sports season. Hey friends, quick tips that make a big impact in your daily life are my favorite ways to implement systems around the house. I’ve been sharing easy strategies and my go-to organizing products for tip Tuesday on the intentional edit Instagram feed for a few years. Now I’m excited to bring it to the podcast with sure episodes answering your questions every Tuesday.

(00:54):

If you want me to answer your questions, go to the podcast page on intentional, edit.com and submit your questions there. Let’s get start on this tip Tuesday episode of the intentional edit podcast. Hey friends. Thanks for joining me for another episode of the intentional edit podcast. Today is episode 40. It’s a tip Tuesday episode, and I am answering another question from a busy mom, just like you. Before I go ahead and read that question today, I’m wanna remind you. I want you to do two things for me right now. Actually. I just want you to do one pick one or the other. You can go ahead and do two if you want to, but do one of them. If you haven’t joined our Facebook group, that is just for the intentional edit podcast community. I want you to head over to Facebook and join the group.

(01:42):

It’s declutter organize and create systems to simplify your home and life request to join. It’s a private group and we can connect over there and have a little conversation back and forth. The other thing is I want you to go to intentional, edit.com and click on the button that pops up. It says record. Now you’re going to click on that button and ask me the question that you are thinking of. That could be involving anything in your home organization. What’s stressing you out. What’s causing you to feel overwhelmed. Where is your clutter? What problems are happening? Press that record now button and leave me a message. Just like you would leave a friend, a voicemail, and I will answer her on a future tip Tuesday episode. So take a minute right now, do either of those things or both, if you want to, but I wanna see you in the Facebook group.

(02:32):

And I wanna answer your questions on future tip Tuesday episodes for a lot of families, springtime means time outdoors. If you have kids that play sports, then that’s, I’m at the field. I’m on the field. A lot of your days are dedicated to those sporting events, practices, games, tournaments, competitions, all kinds of things. Today, I am answering a listener question and I’m gonna give you three things that you can do, not just for you, but that your whole family can do to make life easier during these busy seasons and keep your kids accountable and teach them responsibility. At the same time. The question that I received for this week is this one. Hi Lauren. I hope you can help me come up with that will work for my three kids that play sports. The spring is always the busiest season with games and tournaments all over town.

(03:25):

My boys are often texting because they’re missing a sock, have the wrong Jersey or forgot the snacks. I reminded them to take. I can’t run back and forth to drop off extras. When we are already on both sides of town for daily practice games and all the tournaments, the weekends, please help. There are a couple things that pop into my mind that you can do simple changes. They don’t take a lot of time, but once you implement these, it will make your life easier and help your kids learn to be responsible and bring the necessary supplies to each game, practice, turn and whatever it is. The first thing I want you to think about is making a list of every single thing that is required for this sport. Take this list and you can use it for each season that they play this sport and modify it next year.

(04:16):

If they play again by making this master list, you know, everything that has to go into the bag or backpack for the sport, type this up on the computer, laminate it, or put it in a page protector and it stays in the backpack or the bag that they take with them to practices and games. Let your kids be the ones that are responsible for checking the bags to make sure that everything is in these bags and ready to go out the door. When you make the list, also think about what are the things that you have that goes all of these events that can stay in the bag. I’ve talked about this before, but there’s these strong zipper pouches that are a pretty firm material on the outside. You can, can get them on Amazon or at the container store. I can leave a link for you in on the website page for this episode, take one or two of those.

(05:10):

They come in different sizes and keep everything in that zipper pouch that can stay in the bag for the season. If you need things like bandaids, SPO in maybe some KT tape or tape to wrap an injury, safety pins, little things that take up a lot of space that float around in the bag, put ’em in one of these zipper pouches. And they always stay in there. The child will know, and you will know if you use them that they need to be restocked. That helps keep the organized. And it’s also a quick way to look at that list and see what’s in there. You also wanna think about what uniforms do they require, what things that need to be washed on a regular basis because you wash them and put them back in a great habit to get into is as soon as the laundry is done, those things go right back into the bag.

(06:03):

So make this list, put it in a page, protector laminate. If you want to and talk to your kids, depending on the age of your kids, they might need a little bit more assistance, but older kids and definitely teenagers can do this on their own. Okay? You can have a practice section. You can have a game section, a tournament section, divide the list up for what makes sense for the sport that your kids play and what will make it the easiest for them. You can have different categories on there, make it simple, and your kids will get in the habit of when they pack up this bag to refer to the list and where everything is in there. And then they don’t have to think about it. It makes it really easy to tell if a sock is missing, a shoe is missing part of the uniform, a piece of equipment that they’re required to take things like that.

(06:49):

The night before, this is the second thing I want you to do. I want the bags packed the night before, or even earlier, if practices Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and the game is on Saturday, Thursday after practice, the bag can be repack. Sit by the door, waiting to leave for the game that is on the weekend. Make it simple. Don’t have these things all over the garage in the car, spread all over the house. If their items that you need, the bag or backpack can be the place that they are stored. That’s where they’re kept, put everything in there and pack the bag as early as you can, that it’s zipped up closed and waiting by the door to go out the door. If there are things like fresh snacks that have to be refrigerated or a water bottle that needs to be filled up, those things can sit on top.

(07:40):

You can have a sticky note or some kind of reminder to grab the water or the food or whatever it is. Something that triggers you to remember to bring those things right before you walk out the door. Because those obviously can’t go in a day or a week ahead of time. The third thing that came to my mind is let your kid have natural consequences when they are the ones responsible for bringing these things. Unless they’re very, very little, it’s not your responsibility to make sure that they have the right shoes and the right Jersey as they get older part of being on a sport. And especially if it’s a competitive sport where they are participating this, it costs you a lot of money. It’s a lot of time and it’s a commitment for the whole family, but there’s more to be learned by participating in these sports than just what comes from being an athlete.

(08:32):

Responsibility is huge. When they can manage their own belongings, you are teaching them a lifelong skill. That is something that is very, very important. If you have implemented the list and the first few times that they go through the list, you can go and check the backpack afterwards and make sure everything is in there. And they didn’t forget show them that you trust them. And you’re teaching a process that will work long term. And after a few times that they have done this, then you don’t need to check it anymore because it’s their responsibility. And that it’s part of being on the team. If something is forgotten and it’s not your fault that they forgot it, then natural consequences are okay. If they get to a practice and they have the wrong color socks on, or they’re missing the right pair of shoes and they have to run extra laps or do pushups, it’s okay.

(09:23):

They will be frustrated. They will be mad. They will not like that. This is happening, but this is how we learn when it’s truly a natural consequence. We’ll remember next time, if they forgot the sock, and that was the issue, you better believe that the next time they are checking on that list to make sure what is in the bag is actually in there. The socks are going to be on their mind. Once one of these things happens, then they become more diligent about checking and not forgetting in the future. That is a long term skill that will carry with them forever and can implement in the future with traveling, going to work, taking supplies with them to whatever it is that they’re doing. Let’s recap. The first thing I want you to do is create a list with everything that they need for every event involving this sport for the season, keep that list saved on your computer, and then you can edit it for future seasons.

(10:20):

The second thing is to pack the bags and zip them up so that they’re closed and have them waiting by the door at least the night before. If you can do it a few nights before that’s even better, but at least the night before. And the third thing you can do is let them have natural consequences. If they have forgotten something or weren’t responsible, if they have to miss a game, it’s can seem severe, or if they have to sit out for something and you won’t like it and they won’t like it, but it is a great way to learn whatever sports your kids are playing this year. I hope they have a great season and you get to enjoy it as parent as well. It’s a lot of time. It’s a big financial commitment and it involves the whole family. So I hope your family is enjoying this season.

(11:05):

And it’s a great season for your little athletes. Thanks for listening to another episode. This was episode 40, a tip Tuesday episode of the intentional edit podcast. I will meet you back here later in the a week for Friday’s episode. That wraps up another quick episode of a tip Tuesday. If you want to be featured on intentional edits, tip Tuesday, go to intentional, edit.com, click on the podcast page in the menu bar, and then scroll all the way down to the bottom. You’ll find a button that says record, tap and record your question or share what is currently overwhelming to you. What is going on that you need help with? I want to know, I need to know your struggle so I can share actionable solutions to help you create simplicity in your home. If you are having this issue. I know other people are having it too, and we wanna help as many people as possible. Head over to the podcast page of intentional, edit.com and record your question for me there.

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Lauren is the founder of Intentional Edit, a home organization and lifestyle company focused on consciously editing to create efficient and organized spaces. Lauren believes that a functional home that looks and feels good has a positive influence on all aspects of life. Creating systems that allow for the home to function more efficiently, therefore, eliminating most of the clutter and chaos is her priority. While trends come and go organization is always in style!

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