Mum's four word rule to keep her house and life organised
Amber Middleton
Content writerEmma Roberts is the organisational queen of TikTok – she shared tips on how she keeps on top of everything in her family
A mum has gone viral on TikTok for her tips on how to keep her life (and her kids) organised.
From immaculately tidy cupboards to a pot of £1 coins ready to go for various school uniform days, donations and more – she's the queen of being prepared.
And to stick to her organised ways, she uses four magical words to remind her why she's doing it: 'helping my future self.'
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'Helping my future self'
The mum, Emma Roberts, who goes by @organisedbyem on TikTok, shares her tips and tricks with her audience to simply make life easier in the future.
This means being organised where possible, and helping your future self out when you might be busier or feel stressed.
Her mantra is included in these tips which are posted to her social media:
1. Bulk buy birthday cards
Emma explained in one TikTok that she prints out a list of all the people she needs to buy birthday cards for at the beginning of the year, along with the dates. She can then tick each one off as she's bought their card.
She then puts the cards in a folder which has different tabs for each month.
There are an extra two tabs, one for occasions, such as Mother's Day, and one for spare cards for class parties.
This means no birthday is missed, and there's never a last minute panic on someone's special day.
In the comments, a viewer added a extra tip: 'I do this, I buy them a month at a time on funky pigeon and get them half price and then use the “prepay” balance to get 25% extra for my money.
'Works out cheaper than card factory sometimes! 🥰'
2. Prepare school uniform in advance
Emma washes, irons and prepares all of the week's school uniform on the weekend.
Her son's uniforms are stored in a wardobe organiser and labelled for each day of the week. Her daughter's school dresses are hung up with labels attached the hangers identifying which day to wear them.
In the comments, some were surprised Emma provides a new clean school jumper every day for her kids but she explained: 'Ours don’t have to wear school logo jumpers so I buy the supermarket multipacks 😊.'
Another said: 'Your daily clothes hack has been a gamechanger for my ADHD son – been using it for coming up a year 👍🏻 makes the mornings so much better.'
3. Have a 'homework station'
In another video, Emma explained that she has a homework station for her kids so nothing is forgotten each day of the week.
'I have one for each child and these are hanging organisers.'
The plastic baskets are stuck to the wall and have reminders such as 'Friday: PE'. Within the basket, her kids can then put the homework they need to take to school with them that day.
The baskets are hung up in the shoe cupboard so everything can be grabbed as they head out the door.
4. Have a charging box
Emma showed viewers that she has a basket where the kids can put any devices that need charging at the end of the day so she can charge them.
This means there's never a panic search for a charger.
@organisedbyem Here are 5 tips to help you stay organised with kids… #organisedbyem #organisedmum #organizedmom #mumhack #momhack #parenthack #organised #organise #fy #fyp ♬ Pink Friday Girls - Nicki Minaj
One touch rule
Emma's tips follow the rise of the popular 'one touch' rule, another handy tip to keep your life organised.
Essentially, the hack is that if you touch something, you have to deal with it there and then. So instead of moving something from one room and leaving it on the stairs, you would put it away straight away.
Another TikToker, who goes by @drethedeclutteringdiva on the platform lives by the rule.
She said it works because 'you're not touching items multiple times so you'll spend less time tidying your home.'
She explained the different ways this helps: 'Any time you touch something, say you try on an outfit and you end up not wearing it then instead of throwing it on the floor of your closet, you pick it up and put it away right away.
'If you eat supper and you're done with your dishes, you put them in the dishwasher.'
5 minute rule
In a similar fashion, the five minute rule means is another well loved tip.
If you have a task that will take less than five minutes, you do it immediately, rather than adding it to a list.
For example, emailing your colleague back, putting a plate in the dishwasher or hanging up a load of laundry – rather than adding the tasks to an overwhelming never-ending long list of chores, you just do it.
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