Organize by steps.

I love to organize. It is my therapy. If you are my friend, live close by and ever need help, you know who to call. I don't look at it like a chore, it is like a real life game of Tetris. Fit the most things in a small space.  A lot of my friends look at a space and can't figure out how to start so I thought I would give a few tips that I use when organizing in my home.

Things you may need: 

A few large plastic storage bins

Trash bags

Pen and Paper

Label maker (every organize space deserves one)

Baskets/Containers

First things first, start with a clean palette. I always completely empty whatever I am working on,  as much as possible.  If you are working on an entire room, clearly removing all of the furniture isn't realistic, but remove all of the "stuff".  Once the "stuff" is laid out, you may feel overwhelmed, and wonder how it ever fit in its original space. Sometimes you have to make a mess, to get clean.

Next, is the sorting stage. As your belongings are laid out in a separate space, begin to sort through the items throwing anything away that is worn or broken. It is amazing how much you will find should actually be tossed that has been hiding away in your space, especially if you are cleaning your kids room! 

A large plastic storage bin is great for putting items that are no longer needed and can be given to friends or to a local shelter or thrift store. Mark a bin with  a simple "Give" note and as you fill the bins (I always have more than one) you can load them into your car to be taken immediately. You don't want to ever move these bins to another area, that is just moving clutter.  If the bins are in your trunk, you will be more apt to donate them immediately, especially when you need to get your groceries!

Depending on how many free bins you have available, you can start filling them with like items or make piles. I recently, worked on my boys closet. After removing every single thing and filling my trash and giving bins, I sorted by the type of toy.  Nerf guns/bullets/vests/goggles all ended in a pile. Video games, chargers, booklets, games in another. Piles of like items, gives you a visual for the quantity of items you have. My boys have a large Nerf collection, which required a large clear storage bin.  There are much more stylish decorating bins and baskets, but I have found for my young ones, a clear bin makes it so much easier for them when it comes to cleaning.  I love a label, but what good is it if they don't know how to read yet? 

After you have your sorted piles, make your way through your house or storage looking for empty containers in the sizes you need. I so rarely have to buy containers, I repurpose things I already have.  Ever been to a Sam's Club? Once, my boys finished a giant container filled with animal crackers. I ripped off the label, washed the plastic bin, made a new label and threw all of their Hot Wheel cars inside. I bet they have close to 200 and that container had room left over. My boys were so excited to have all of their cars in one place.  Izzy loves to save shoe boxes to store things like little GI Joe toys or Lego kits he likes to keep separate.  Contact paper is super cute now, slap some of that on and make a label and you can have coordinated boxes to store those small items. When I am looking for containers, I always search the kitchen aisles and think outside of the box. A silverware container could be used for paintbrushes and art supplies. I use photo boxes to store bigger art supplies, paints, markers, play doh. Buy cool folders during back to school sales, and store construction paper and finished art work. In the kitchen aisle, I found a large bin for 2.00 that was intended to store flour or sugar. I bought three and they fit perfectly in Izzy's lowest shelf for those misc. toys that have no real place. What a find! I love those websites with perfect closets and all of the bins are the same and beautiful, but most of the time, those bins/baskets are ridiculously expensive. You have things around your house that can make you more organized, you just need to look at it in a new way.  Then it is time to break out one of my most favorite inventions, the label maker. There is something about adding a label, it screams put me back in this space. My family needs that.  I have young boys, but once they know that all their dinosaurs go in the dino bin, I never have to remind them where something lives. My boys can make a mess, but I never have to clean their rooms for them. Even at 3 years old, Asher knows everything has a home and unless it is a misc bin or basket, things don't mix.  I'm telling you, a labeled bin will change your life!

When all of your items are in their labeled homes, and all like items are together, it is time to start re-loading your space. This step is really dependant on the space you're working on, but going back to my example of the boys closets, I started with what I didn't want them to have access to at all times. Start High to Low. Things you don't use as much should go to the highest spot and the things you use the most, should have the easiest access.  Symetery is important, stack things as they would appear pleasing to the eye.  Keeping like items together is important when reloading as well. This is my favorite part, because it is a challenge to find the best fit, just like Tetris.

When you have loaded your last item, step back and review.  Change anything that doesn't fit well or feel usable. Finish it up, with a quick clean up and you have a new space!

The next time you want to revamp an area in your home, remember:

1) Clean Palette

2) Trash/Give

3) Sort Like Items

4) Repurpose Search

5) Reload (Tetris) 

6) Clean up! 

Shhhhh!

Izzy loves school. He loves his friends, his teacher, and doesn't even mind the work. In fact, he read me his very first story today. I almost cried. (It doesn't take much...)

There is one problem, he loves it so much he can't seem to keep quiet. My once super shy and timid little guy is now talking like he is Regis and his job depends on it. Now I understand, he is probably not just sitting at a table talking to himself...there are other kids talking with him, it does bother me that he isn't using self control. I wasn't really expecting this from Izzy, so I am kind of unsure of the best way to handle it. We have a chart system that he can earn rewards from and if he has a great day at school or shows kindness and something extraordinary he gets to move it. Yesterday he wasn't able to move his chart because he got in trouble for talking too much and then not understanding the directions the teacher had given. WELCOME TO MY LIFE.

I have never had so much understanding on an issue as this. My sweet husband is so many many wonderful things, but one horrible, terrible bad habit he has is his 1/2 listening. Oh. My. Word....it is ridiculous. I know he isn't doing it intentionally, and he knows it's a problem and hates when he does it, but it is just that, a bad habit. In fact all of the guys in his family have a problem. Seems it's genetic.

Example: (Feel free to laugh at our ridiculousness)

Hubby's birthday was this weekend and we had a blast and he was spoiled by family and our wonderful friends. As we were cleaning up after this weekends festivities, I say, "Wow, you sure got spoiled this year!"
Hubby: *washing dishes* "Huh?"
Me: *repeats*
Hubby: "I'm not understanding what you are saying?"
Me: "You don't understand English?"
Hubby: "It doesn't make sense....what you said....I'm confused."
Me: "No, it makes sense, it is English. You would understand if you listened."
This convo goes back and forth for at least 10 ridiculous minutes and ends in us both laughing at his atrocious listening skills.

This is my entire married life and now my entire parenting life. "Huh?" "What?" "When did you tell me that?" "What did you need me to do?"

I'm quite certain I am not the only wife who has a half listening Hubby, and lucky for him he is so great in everything else it helps to make up for it. My issue, is that it is a bad habit that is spreading like wildfire to our children.

My solution after Izzy's rough Monday? He is to repeat any direction we give him out loud and then complete the direction. Of course he can't do this at school, because he would get in trouble for talking again. :) So I explained, that he needs to listen, repeat the direction in his head and then complete it. He tends to want to double check everything before doing it, and I am sure with a classroom of students she doesn't have the time or patience to repeat that many times. He lost some privileges at home until his teacher lets me know he is making better efforts at self control during his day. This is a tough lesson, but it will really pay off for the rest of his life if he can learn it now. His future wife will thank me. Listening is such a vital instrument in all relationships and I hope I can teach him to have good listening habits from now on.

I am taking any and all suggestions on how to combat a little talker and his no good, very bad listening skills.

Side Note:
**I can write about these things because I have a blog. My Hubby doesn't, so you can go ahead thinking I'm perfect.

Genius Friends and their Genius Tips

If you read my last post, you probably noted the frenzied Mommy coming out in me. Today was CRAZY, but thanks to a to-do list and genius friends, I am feeling a lot better.

My super friend, Karli, gave me a genius idea to make PB&J's ahead of time and freeze them. *duh, why didn't I do this last year?* After crossing every item of my list and taking Izzy to his Back to School night and a special dinner, I headed to my local Super Target to stock up on lunch items.

2 loaves worth of PB&J's and snack bags of grapes are all packaged and ready for the freezer. Organic snack mixes and carrots are divided up as well for easy lunch making and everything is going onto the "Izzy's lunch" shelf in the pantry. Easy Peasy. In total, it probably took about 40 minutes to prep, which really is no time at all, in comparison to how many lunches I just made. *Thanks KW!*

Here's to quick and happy mornings!
*cheers!*

Snow Day #3/ Snow Inside

Snow Day #3 and I am still coming up with ways to entertain! Today the temperatures were frigid, -20 windchill was just a little too cold for us to do much of anything. I searched all night online for activity ideas for the kids and I thought this would be perfect for today. Bring the snow to you! I took a storage tub outside and filled it twice with snow and then dumped it in the boys bathtub. It filled it to the top and the boys played for over 2 hours with it. I found some toys like Izzy's tech deck snowboard and a guy and he built mounds and ramps and played X games! Asher loved to bury his toys and then dig them up with a crocodile claw. Gloves were all that this activity required and there was no mess!

We even built a snowman!

The looks on my boys faces were priceless and Izzy even said, "Mom, this is the best idea you ever had. I don't think I will ever go outside in the snow again and get cold and runny noses! I'll just play inside!" Sounds good to me!

Downsizing Tips!

I was talking with a friend recently, who is looking to get organized and not just in the way where you line everything up perfectly and buy a few containers, but really organized and downsizing to necessary items. I am the perfect person to discuss this topic with, as I have downsized from a good sized house, to an apartment, and then another one and then add two more moves on top of that. With each move, I realized more and more what I actually needed and what I was just keeping out of guilt. Once you have moved 5 times in 2 years you become very unattached to items, you keep what you need and everything else seems like a hassle. So, I was thinking if one friend needed some tips, maybe someone else would too.

When it was time to move out of my house, I had a 6 month old baby and my house was stuffed with stuff. I was extremely overwhelmed with the idea of downsizing to less than half of the space, with a new baby who had tons of stuff. I would lie awake at night trying to picture what I was going to do, but I just couldn't get a handle on it.

Tip #1. I mapped out my new space.
I drew out my new apartment, even drawing out each closet layout (bars, shelves). I labeled each room according to their purpose and then I started by drawing in each rooms necessary items, ie: In Izzy's room, I drew a crib, changing table, and so on. It took several attempts to plot out their correct locations, but I could then visualize each space and quickly realized how much room that left for each rooms less necessary items like toys. I used the closet picture to layout how I would organize clothes and large toys/baby items I wouldn't want shown on a daily basis and that left me with all of the things that I deemed "unnecessary".

Tip #2 Get rid of the guilt!
It is amazing how much a person holds onto, based strictly on what the other people in their lives deem important. I had BOXES of decorations, hand-me-down family items (not sentimental), wedding gifts that after years had remained unopened or unused. I kept all of these things based on guilt. I didn't use any of it, but what if those gifters had ever come to my house? What if they asked to see it and I had given it away? Eeek! So for years, I lived in my house with boxes of unused items just waiting to for the rare chance that my Aunt from out of state might visit and ask where her crystal wedding figurine is. Yep, that never happened. As the days passed and the pressure mounted to move, it finally hit me. I am not keeping these things because I love the gift. I am keeping them because I love the person who gave it to me. Giving these things away does not diminish my love for anyone, and if that extremely rare visit ever did happen, they love me enough to understand my situation. Guilt gone and so were tons of boxes. :)

Tip #3. Toys! Toys! Toys!

Israel has this book called "Too Many Toys." It is one of his favorites and I think that every parent can attest that that book is so true to life. It is about a boy who has so many toys that they overflow the entire house and his parents are so sick of stepping on Legos and cars that they make him pack up a box of toys to give away to kids who don't have anything. By the end of the story, he does as he is asked, but when his Mom goes to pick up the box he has turned it into a spaceship and tells her it is his favorite toy and she can't get rid of it! We have all been there, but isn't true that we feel this need to give our kids everything we can and most times it just sits unused. I know when Izzy was small I would buy a "must have" baby toy because I just knew it would make him so happy and he would play with it once and be done, but I kept it because I spent good money on the item and maybe "someday" he will like it. Well, I am here to tell you, I did not just get rid of one box, I got rid of many boxes of toys and my son is still here, happy and doesn't know any better. I made a list (I know, but get used to it, it is the only way to get through this process without crying) of all of his favorite items; toys, books, stuffed animals. The list was much, much smaller than I anticipated. First to go were stuffed animals. I kept one for my memory sake and then decided on a number and picked that many of his favorites, the rest were given away. All little collectible toys (happy meal, Chuck E. Cheese prizes) were automatically trashed. All books in good condition were kept, reading is important! All of the toys that didn't meet expectations were given to new homes. Bottom line: Getting rid of your kids stuff ranks up as one of the most difficult areas to purge especially because if your kids are small, you haven't had the items for long. My rule for my kids is now, if it doesn't fit in their bedroom in an organized way, we don't buy it.

Tip #3. The Kitchen
This is a tough area to downsize, most items are really expensive and you can always use them. Downsizing your kitchen, truly depends on your living situation. When we moved from our house to our first apartment, oddly enough the apartment had more cabinet space. I didn't get rid of much except for duplicate items or those appliances that were never used. The more I moved, the more I needed to get rid of and ultimately, after moving in with my parents, my only kitchen item I own is my Kitchen Aid mixer. Most people won't have to downsize to this degree, but I am unwilling to pay storage fees for dishes and Tupperware! All of these things are replaceable and weren't worth the hassle or cost to keep. Also, a fun thing to look forward to a brand new kitchen when Med school life is over!

Tip #4. Storage
This is a big one. My parents learned the hard way after thinking they would only need a storage unit for a short amount of time, they just boxed items up quickly and stored away. Unfortunately, their house didn't sell as quickly as planned and those items were in for an extended amount of time. When the house sold and they began to unpack their items, they realized quickly that they lived without those things for so long they didn't need them like they originally had thought. All those months, paying a hefty storage fee for items that they ended up giving away or had replaced with newer versions. If I had kept my living room furniture, it would have been in storage for 2 years at this point. It could be another 3 years before we move out, in my situation, by the time I would need that furniture again, my taste would probably change and I would want new items anyway. Lets not even speak of what that cost would have done to my monthly budget either. For me, storage should only be very temporary and only for items you can't part with.

Tip #5. Memory items

How do you downsize and get rid of things when they were given by people who are no longer with us? Difficult. I know because my first son, even though he had a very short life, had many items I bought just for him. I had a nursery ready to bring him home to and a tub full of items from his day of life. It is extremely difficult to let go of things that hold meaning or a memory to someone you loved. At some point in the grieving process, you become more ready to move things and when that happened for me, I used the same rules as I did with everything else. What are the most important items to you? What holds the most memory? I decided to keep 1 tub of my favorite items for Judah. That tub holds his first outfit, his first blanket, a memory box given by the hospital and a couple of small items from his nursery I bought just for him. There are lots of other items, but I had to determine a boundary. For me, 1 storage tub contained my most favorite items, they are all organized and I can at any point go to one place and find those precious things. It is difficult to let go of the other things, but there is freedom in not clinging to everything as well. My tip is when it is the right time, create your own limit and choose your favorite things create an organized space for those items and make it available so you can go visit with those items when you feel like it.

Tip #6. Be realistic

Save yourself some trouble and frustration. If you are moving from a 4 bedroom house (like we did) to a 2 bedroom apartment (like we did) you will have to get rid of 50% of your stuff. We now only have 3 bedrooms and no living space so we have probably downsized to a total of 80% of our original. I know you are wondering...what did we keep? Well I will tell you!

Master bedroom set and lamps.
Baby furniture and bookshelf.
Israels bed
kids table and chairs (fit in izzy's room)
Kitchen Aid Mixer
Baby clothes and items (kept in attic for future babies)
Bikes and ride-on toys
Musical instruments
Washer/Dryer
Clothes and winter coats.

That is right, we got rid of all of our furniture, appliances, tools, mowers, grill etc. If it doesn't fit into our bedrooms, we didn't keep it. Luckily, our house has a large basement, and the previous owners left ride on toys and some larger things like a kid tool station for our boys. My parents have given the under stair area for toy storage/play area for the boys and all of their bikes and ride on toys hang up.

Tip #7 Stay Downsized

Everyone knows as time goes on, you obtain more and more stuff. Holidays and birthdays and before you know it the small stuff you decided to keep is now overwhelming the small area you are living in. Before each holiday and birthday, I purge broken, old and unused items. Make room for the new then reorganize each space based on the new things.

If you try to keep more in an area than that space really allows, you are just going to find yourself overwhelmed and stressed. This major rule applies to any area, keep what you love. Not what you used to love, or what you might love in the future!

Even after moving into our own home again, I still plan on keeping these rules intact. I used to dread going into my storage space at my house, with those boxes sitting there in judgement. Now, everything I have, I love. I can purge almost anything without feeling bad about it, because I know how wonderful it is to live with less. I can stay organized and that makes me very happy.

Purge those judgemental "guilty" items, pick out your favorite things in each area, and bless others with the rest. You will be so glad you did!

Here is to a very happy, healthy and organized 2011! Cheers!

It works for me!

Being a Mommy is hard work. I have a great group of Mommy friends and we all share our stories, advice, tips and misses. A good friend of mine recently shared her morning routine horror stories and it made me cringe. The poor Mommy has to be up for work early and drop her daughter off for care before school. Daughter however hates mornings. She refuses to get out of bed delaying by 5 minutes at a time which leads to stressful mornings and leaving in a rush. I am not a morning person, but I refuse to be late and start my day off in a huff.

Here is our morning schedule:

Up at 7-Mommy showers and gets ready first.
7:20-Izzy showers and gets dressed.
7:35-Breakfast.
8:05-Wash hands, brush teeth, shoes and then play time until 8:25 (School is a few blocks away)
8:25-Load up the car
8:30-Lined up in school and happy to start his day!

Now, my friend did not believe that I could have a morning without nagging, complaining, yelling and rushing. Then I told her my secret. Kitchen Timer. I use the kitchen timer for everything. When I serve Izzy breakfast, I put the timer on for 30 minutes. He knows when it beeps, he has to clear the dishes, potty, wash hands, brush teeth, and put shoes on. After the first beep, I put it on again for our second warning of when to leave. When he hears that beep, he grabs his stuff and we head for the door. No rushing, no stress!

Could we sleep in a little bit? Probably. But, if we did, we would be rushing around and I would much rather lose 15 minutes of sleep than start everyday in a mad rush to catch up.

The kitchen timer, comes in very handy. I use it for time outs, to keep us on schedule and for timed play. For instance, if Izzy wants to play online at pbskids.org, I put the timer on. He knows when it beeps, he needs to find something different to play with. No arguments! Or if he has 20 minutes to play before bed, set the timer. It really eliminates so much stress and lessens arguments.

Izzy doesn't have a complete concept of time, but there is something about the timer that lets him know you have a specific amount of time to do this one task, when you hear the beep, move on to the next thing. I have to say, my biggest pet peeve is repeating myself. This one concept has almost eliminated my need to repeat our daily steps.

Before school started, I feared the mornings and it was all for not. Mornings have been a breeze and I have to thank my kitchen timer, it's simple beeps have brought us peace each day.