It’s a fun new feature we’re adding this year.. monthly top ten lists.. all completely random and unrelated.. just fun!
This month we’ve got my top 10 favorite organization tips! I have always had a soft spot in my heart for office supplies, rubbermaid buckets, file cabinets, label makers… anything you can use to sort, stack, categorize and organize. Don’t get me wrong, my house is NOT by any means spotless, I have dishes in the sink and a never ending pile of dirty laundry waiting for me, but I do have a few tricks I’ve learned over the years to make things run as smoothly as possible.. and I am always happy to share! Some of these I have shared before and nearly all of them are collected from magazines, websites, and fellow moms, so feel free to pass them along and let me know if you have a trick of your own to pass on!
1. Mobile to-do list. I *puffy heart* this file folder. You can use any kind of accordion folder, but the patterns on these are just to die for! I have the dividers labeled according to the categories in my todo list.. reply (notes from school, people to call, etc), bills, food (recipes, coupons, grocery lists), shopping (receipts to return, gift cards, store ads, birthday invites I need to buy gifts for), things to file, and supplies (checkbook, pen, envelopes, stamps, thank you cards, etc). I file papers into the holder as soon as I get them, and carry the file with me all the time. Sitting in carpool, waiting at the dr office, or on the kitchen counter while the kids do homework. Everything is right there, and I can knock out my list a little at a time with whatever time I had. I finally accepted that I was never going to have a nice long chunk every day to tackle this stuff, but in bite-sized morsels it can be done!
2. Tame the inbox. Email clutter is the worst! Put your inbox on a diet for the next month to cut down on a lot of the unnecessary clutter. Next time you get a newsletter you don’t remember signing up for or never seem to read, take a second to click the unsubscribe button. Same with spam emails.. instead of just deleting, mark each offender as spam with your email’s filters, to keep them from coming in again. Slowly but surely, you’ll get less and less of the junk you don’t want!
3. Over the door shoe holders. These might be my favorite kid room tool.. they work so well for so many things! Hung on the back of the bedroom or closet doors, these are the perfect holders to store small stuffed animals (webkinz, anyone?) and little plastic toys (little pet shop, barbies, ponies, race cars, you name it!) and all of the tiny accessories that go with them. In my older daughter’s room, we use these for socks, scarves, leg warmers (did you know those are back in style?), jewelry, and all the random little accessories a tween needs. It’s important to get the clear plastic ones, so kiddos can see what’s inside, both for finding things to play with and for putting them away. And yes, the best part.. these make it so easy for kids to put away their toys BY THEMSELVES! Hooray!
4. Color coded towels. Simple, yes.. but we switched to color coded (and monogrammed!) towels about a year ago and never looked back. No more questioning who left theirs on the floor, or which bathroom to put them away in. Everyone has a designated hook and is responsible for hanging up their own towel after baths, or they won’t have one for the next time! (Yes, I’ve actually enforced that.. but I only had to do it once!) Seriously cut down on towel laundry and overall bath time chaos.
5. Homework Box. While we have a closet dedicated to art supplies, and junk drawers with pens and scissors, we have one small handled bucket (like a shower caddy) that we keep in the kitchen specifically for homework. There is nothing more frustrating than sitting down to do an assignment to find we are out of glue sticks, or the scissors have been lost to the most recent fort-building adventure in the backyard. For that reason, we have one bucket with pens, pencils, sharpeners, crayons, colored pencils, etc.. everything you might need for homework, and it is ONLY to be used for schoolwork. It also helps eliminate the wasted time searching for all the supplies when time is already so short in the afternoons!
6. Designated Plates/Cups. One of my biggest peeves was the ridiculous amount of dishes my kids will go through each day.. a new cup each time they want a drink, bowls and plates every meal so food doesn’t touch, and so on. This tip was given to me by a mom of six and -no lie- changed my life almost immediately. Each girl has their own plate/cup/bowl set (we let them pick out a cute set at Target, but you could do color coded solid plates too) and that is what they use for every meal. Again, makes it easy to see who forgot to clear their place, and they have a cute little scrubbing sponge to clean the dishes after each meal, so they can sit in the dish dryer by the sink until the next. We have honestly cut our dishes by more than half, and everyone has become so much more responsible in cleaning up! (shocker.. they think it’s fun! LOL)
7. Organize your Family Photos! Digital cameras make it soo easy to take a ton of pictures.. but so hard to keep track of them all! I’ve found it works best to nip this dragon in the bud before it becomes a bigger issue by creating designated folders the second you download images off your camera. Start with one “Family Pictures” folder, and then within that create a folder for EACH event, and be sure and label it with the subject and date, such as “Emily’s Birthday Party, Sept 09″ to make it easier to find your pictures when it comes time to print them. Speaking of, make a regular date with yourself, ideally every few months, to take the time to upload your pictures to a lab and have them printed. Most sites (such as walmart.com, costco.com, etc) will upload the entire folder, so you don’t have to sort through which images to use, and you can even keep the folder there as a backup, should something happen to your own computer and all your own files get lost, a fear I know many of you share with me!!
8. Clear your bookshelves. Any kind of decluttering can go a long way to keeping your home organized and feeling more in control. Books are a super easy item to get overwhelmed with, but also just as easy to tame! Take an afternoon to sort through all the books and clear out anything you know you won’t read again.. you can take them to Goodwill or a local library, or trade them in at Half Price Books and get something new! You can also look into an account with a book sharing service, such as Paperback Swap. It’s a fabulous concept.. you list the books you have available to trade, and someone else can request it. You pay the shipping costs to send it to them, but you also get a credit towards a book for yourself. Use that credit to choose a book from others’ listings, and they’ll ship it to you. As long as you keep sending books out, you can keep receiving them! A great, inexpensive way to recycle knowledge!
9. Help your Kids Help Themselves. Kids WANT to clean their own rooms. No, really. They do. However most rooms are organized by adults, how adults think, in containers and layouts that are convenient for adults. Send the kids away for the day and look at your kids’ rooms through their eyes, find little ways you can rearrange things to be easier for them. Lower shelves, buckets labeled with big words or pictures so they know where to find things, easy to open hamper and shoe containers, etc. A few small changes can make a big difference, and the next time you ask your kids to help pick up, it will be faster and easier for everyone… and more fun!
10. Just Say No. Nancy Reagan knew what she was talking about… no is a powerful word! Keep clutter and chaos at bay by refusing to allow it into your home! Get on every do not call and spam mail list you can find to keep unwanted junk out. Don’t overschedule yourself so much that you don’t have time to think, let alone keep up with paperwork! Don’t take on too many projects at once, no matter how fun they sound! Keep a box in your desk or room for “someday” projects.. the quilt of baby clothes, the heirloom genealogy scrapbook, the home decorating ideas you’ve pulled from magazines. Keep them handy, so when you get some alone time or feel like using your creative juices, you still have the ideas close. But don’t let them clutter your space, making you feel guilty or overwhelmed. You WILL have time eventually.. but it’s okay to not have time now! Right now every single second with your kiddos is precious, you don’t want to waste it drowning in paper clutter!
We’re not even to the halfway point of the summer, but I’m pretty sure our house isn’t the only one already getting some of the dreaded cries of “mommy, I’m bored!” I’ve been compiling little bits and pieces of fun over the years and have collected some of my favorites here to share with you!
