Guest Post by Paul Benjamin

Paul Benjamin works for EZ Storage, a self storage company serving the Philadelphia area for over 40 years.

If you are one of the many who’s children have “re-nested” after going away to college, take heart. You are not alone:

• The Pew Research Center reports that more young people between the ages of 25-34 live at home with their parents at the highest rate (20 percent) since the early 1950′s.
• A recent study released by Northeastern University estimates that 53 percent of young adults under age 25 with a bachelor’s degree were underemployed or unemployed.
• In late 2012, the Economic Policy Institute pegged the unemployment rate for high school graduates somewhere around 53 percent.

While these harsh realities say one thing to the young generation, they mean an altogether different reality for their parents. Many parents understand changing economic and cultural dynamics that make it necessary for grown children to move back home. They love their child and want to provide the support necessary to help him or her regroup and regain their independence.

Nonetheless, it’s critical to strike a balance between the desire to help an offspring and your peace, happiness and style of living to which you’ve become accustomed.

Here are some considerations that will aid you in making the transition:
1. Move-in and Exit Strategy

All parties involved need to have a clear understanding of the expectations prior to the scheduled move-in date. Many experts recommend that you establish a lease agreement that defines the “rental period” (i.e. month-to-month) and house rules. You should also charge rent.

It is also important that you set expectations or house rules that go beyond the lease agreement, such as:  assisting with chores, paying for groceries or entertaining friends.

Outline the exit strategy at the start. Define whether that means finding a job, returning to school or other situations.  Schedule a meeting to determine if they will be able to move-out at the end of the period or need additional time.

2. Handling Storage Issues

A child moving home from college or from their own apartment accumulates quite a few things over the years. Take steps to minimize the impact of having the person move their belongings back into your home, cluttering your space and well-organized home.

Before the move is made, encourage your children to go through their items and donate, sell or otherwise dispose of anything they no longer want or require.  If you need to create more storage space around the house find a place where they can store their things and not mingle them with your own. This could be a garage, attic, shed or extra bedroom.

Make good use of storage boxes. You can find stack-able boxes in all sizes, shapes and materials. Plastic containers provide protection against water mold and rodents.  Arrange the items —furniture, books, dishes, appliances— according to how or where you intend to store them and always clearly label the boxes.

You should also group and prioritize things according to frequency of access to reduced disorganizing the space when looking for things. For example, put the most used items on top or in the front of other boxes. Sturdy shelves to hold storage boxes also make it easier to remove one box at a time.

3. Renting Storage Space

In some cases, creating storage space in your home is not a workable option to accommodate the personal belongings of an adult child.  In this case, discuss renting a storage unit to store their furniture and belongings until they need them again.

Make a list of the items you want to store, which will help you get the correct size and plan the organization and associated costs.

The good thing about renting storage units is the flexibility. You can use this solution for one month, six months or an entire a year based on your situation. If you choose this option, consider the rental fee and what it includes,and also the firm’s policy for access.

Remember, when an adult child moves back home your primary objective lies in minimizing the impact on your finances, your lifestyle and the organization of your home. Ultimately, you want to facilitate the child regaining their independence while maintaining a harmonious home environment and relationship.

If you’ve got “boomerang kids” let us know the good, the bad, the ugly! Leave a comment:

Well what if I told you there are some people who think it’s fun? Organizing is one of those things like exercising and paying taxes that we all have to do at some time in our life, so why not make it fun? And yes there is a small majority of the population that already enjoys organizing. Did you catch Sheldon Cooper on the Big Bang Theory recently? He begged Leonard, “Oh please, can’t I stay just five more minutes?” when he was organizing Howard’s closet. I like to believe you don’t have to be a geek to enjoy organizing.

So for those of you who don’t long to get your hands on a labeler and sorting bins, I offer the following motivation for you and your family to get motivated to organize and have some fun in the process.

1. Set a time limit. Don’t make an organizing project an endless weekend of drudgery, but then again don’t fool yourself and think you can answer the phone, or run out and do a quick errand in the middle of a project. Typical limits are 6-8 hours for a full room overhaul and about 2-3 hours for a typical closet. Set a timer and try to beat the clock. Turn off the phones & TV’s and any other distractions. Do put on some music with a fast beat, have a drink and a snack ready when you start. When time starts to run out, make the music faster and challenge yourself to get it done. (My family cleans out the garage twice a year and we can now get it done in 1.5 hours)

2. Enlist some help. If you have kids and a spouse, get them involved! Or if you’d rather, ask a girl friend to help you and then you can help her with one of her projects. Delegate duties based on everyone’s personality. A big burly husband can do the heavy lifting. A kid who can’t keep still can be the one to drag boxes or bags of donations out to the car. A person who likes to sit in one place can sort or shred papers or make labels. When the project is finished, take everyone out for a meal or a special treat. (pizza and ice cream are always crowd pleasers)

3. Treat yourself. When you’ve completed a room that could use a little sprucing up, go shopping for new curtains, a nice picture, a plant or throw pillows. (I love Home Goods for this stuff)Finish your closet and go shopping for clothes that you need, but not too much! It’s your reward for an organizing project well done. I say make room for the good stuff. Many of my clients tell me after a room is finished, they keep going back to it just to enjoy how it looks! When you finish your closet, it’s like getting a new wardrobe.

4. Make it a game. When my kids were toddlers, I would trick them into picking up the toys. We had different colored round tubs for each category: one for stuffed animals, another for balls and so on. I’d ask my daughter to pick up the stuffed animals, my son to pick up the balls and they would shoot them like basketballs into the right container. (Nothing like a little sibling competition to finish first or get the most in)

5. Make some money. The first time I had my boys clean out the toy bin, I sold their give-aways at a children’s consignment shop and told them they could keep the money. They each made $25 and they were more motivated to do it again the next year! Check out local consignment shops to see what you could sell from your unused clothing, household items and toys. Money is always a motivator.

Here are some ideas of how to organize around your house and also recycle, reuse and reduce while you’re at it.

1.  Clean out your closets – It’s an easy 2 hour project to take everything out of a closet, keep what  you use, need and love and donate the rest.  The hard part is knowing where to take the excess and then actually doing it.

• Clothes – Goodwill, or any charity for clothing that is in good repair. Take a good look at what you give to others and make sure you are not passing on rags. Impact Thrift store actually will take rags for recycle but it’s nice to separate these out and mark them as such.
• Food – find a local pantry, usually affiliated with a church, where you can take food that you don’t want or need.
• Electronics – Some Goodwill stores and municipalities, or Best Buy & Staples will recycle old electronics, DVDs, CDs, and VHS tapes. If you want them out of the house, put them in the car and find the closest location for drop-offs.

2. Re-use fabric shopping bags – Make a bag of bags and leave it in your car. Take them out any time you go to a store. Not just for groceries but also for runs to the drug store, clothing stores, anywhere! Imagine all the plastic bags that you are preventing from going to a landfill.

3. Reduce your family’s waste and stop buying foods that are individually wrapped.  Instead of lunch size snacks, buy one big bag or barrel of snacks and pack your kids’ lunches using re-usable containers, cloth napkins, water canteens and re-usable fabric lunch bags. Make it cool to be green in school!

4. Recycle everything you can – We all know about newspapers and plastic or glass bottles, but what about paper plates, napkins, food boxes and mail? Make it easy to recycle by having a recycle bin in your house in a convenient location: right next to the regular trash can or out the back door are two suggestions.

5. Buy recycled products if you must buy more organizing products, check out the companies below:

• Lowimpactliving.com
• IKEA.com
• SeventhGeneration.com
• SpecialtyLiving.com
• Greenhome.com
• Inmodern.net

6. Unplug – Teach your family to turn off lights as soon as they leave a room. But also unplug major appliances when they are not in use. Don’t leave chargers in the outlets. All these things use up electrical power unnecessarily. Develop a routine at night to do this. Put everyone in your family in charge of a room or two.

7. Buy local produce – As the farmers’ markets and produce stands open up in your town, support them! Buying local means less gas for everybody and it usually means you get fresher fruits and vegetables. That’s what I call win/win.

8.  Program your thermostat to go down at night or when no one is home.

9. Consolidate your errands and set up carpools for your kids’ activities to use less gas.

10. Plant flowers, trees or shrubs and celebrate Earth Day!