Purging

After spending 2 hours this afternoon coaching, threatening, and yelling at the kids to clean up their toys, I've decided I'm done.

I'm done with little random toys all over my house from one end to the other.  I'm done with trying to find space for all the toys.  I'm done with spending an hour and a half every week organizing toys.

That's right, I watermarked that mess.  Just so everyone would be clear that it belongs to me.  Because that's important.  *Sarcasm implied* 

It's time to purge.  Be afraid, little toys.  Be very afraid.

This weekend, I am going to send the kidlets off to play with cousins or relatives of some sort (I haven't decided who to beg bribe threaten nicely ask yet) so I can spend the day purging toys to give to Goodwill.  If it isn't educational, imaginative, or doesn't go with a set of toys the kids love, it's gone.  No more worrying about offending a well-meaning relative when they come to visit and that push-the-buttons-and-watch-me-light-up toy is gone.  I don't care anymore.  I cleaned off a shelf in my bedroom closet which will be used to store about half of the remaining toys.  And, FYI...that shelf isn't as big as you think it is...

But wait, why stop there?  If I'm going to purge the toys, why not keep going?  I decided to make a plan and of course, that requires that I blog about it.  Amiright?  So here is my official purge list:

Kids' coats and winter gear-No child needs 4 winter coats and 18 pairs of mittens.  It seems that the more mittens they have, the more they lose them.  The ones I do keep will have yarn sewn to each mitten to connect the pair so it threads between the sleeves of the coat.  Presto! No more lost mittens.

Hubby's farm gloves-seriously...three drawers stuffed full of ratty old gloves that he hasn't touched since we got married?  No.  Just no.

Dishes-There are dishes in my kitchen that I have never used.

Blankets-I swear they multiply when I'm not looking!

Bathtub toys and kids' towels-They play with the same 2 toys every time they get in the bathtub and I wash towels often enough that the bottom half of the stack hasn't been touched in over a year.  

My clothes-I'm hoping/planning/working on losing weight so I have a lot of clothes in limbo.  Seriously though, if I don't love it, it's gone.  IF I lose enough weight to fit back into the clothes I wore before getting pregnant with Princess, I will buy myself new ones.

Kids' clothes-They do not need 20 shirts apiece.  I do have a washing machine, and I wash their clothes weekly.  10 shirts is the maximum they need.  The same goes for pants.

Kids' shoes-Going on the same theme as the clothes, they simply don't need 12 pairs of shoes apiece.

Books and movies-I'm having a hard time fitting them all on their shelves so it's definitely time for a purge there as well.  Most of them, I can get at the local library so I don't need my own copy.

Thanks so much for visiting Supermommy!...Or Not.  I'd love for you to like me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter!

Cleaning House

If you've been around my blog for a while, then you might remember the 31 Days series I did last October called "31 Days to a Clean House".  Shortly after finishing the series, things went downhill.  First, I got a ton of Christmas orders from my Etsy shop (not complaining about that, by the way!  It was awesome!) and was so busy cutting, pinning, and sewing fabric into cute little outfits that housecleaning got sent to the bottom of my to-do list.

And then I got the best gift for Christmas ever and, between the crazy hormones, morning sickness, and fatigue, it completely threw me off my game for 9+ months.  Most days, I could barely get off the couch to take care of the older two kids let alone do any cleaning.

But yesterday, I pulled out my Control Journal and started following it again.  I also helped my older sister set up her own Control Journal and we're keeping each other accountable and on track.  Everything is easier when you've got someone to do it with!

I'm only 2 days into it, but things are already looking better around here.  And seriously, I spend 30 minutes to 2 hours cleaning every morning and that's it.  What's not to love about a system that keeps your house basically spotless with little effort on your part?
 

Thanks so much for visiting Supermommy!...Or Not.  Please take a moment to "like" me on facebook"!
     

Organizing Paper Flow

Between mail, announcements, school papers, etc, paper organization can be a pain to manage.

The best way to organize paper flow and keep it from taking over your house is to take care of it as it comes into your home.  I pick up my mail from the post office so the junk mail goes straight into the recycling bin there instead of coming into my house.  If you have a mailbox at your home instead, I recommend tossing the junk mail as soon as it comes inside.

But then you still have the rest of the mail and random papers to deal with.

I saw these plastic letter trays sitting around at my sister's house and asked if she was going to use it.  She said no and gave it to me.  Woohoo!!  Score one for free organizing tools!  If you don't have a sister who will just give you one, you can find them at most office stores or on Amazon.

I put a shoebox on the top tray (don't you think I need to cover it with pretty paper?) to hold the random small stuff that collects on my kitchen counter.  The next shelf down is for Princess's school papers.  The second one from the bottom is for bills and mail that needs my attention which is a must since I keep losing bills and not finding them until right before the due date.  The bottom unit is for the two local papers we get free every week.  I usually keep a few back issues as I reuse newspaper for several different things, plus every time I throw a recent copy out, Hubby asks for it the next day.



Thanks so much for visiting Supermommy!...Or Not.  Please take a moment to "like" me on facebook"!  

31 Days-Organizing Hair Accessories

Considering that Princess really only grew enough hair for me to do anything with it after she was two, she has a lot of hair accessories.  Of course, now that she has a little sister (who has lots of hair!!  Hooray!) she'll have to share her hairbows and headbands.  I used to keep all of the hair accessories in a shoebox in Princess's closet, but that was overflowing and impossible to find anything in before long.  So I bought a shoebag and put it on her bedroom door.
*Note: don't be cheap like me and buy the plastic shoebags.  They rip.  Especially when a small child thinks it's fun to hang on the pockets.  Spend the extra money and get a nice canvas shoebag that will last a lot longer*    

I tied long ribbons to the hooks at the top of the bag that hold the shoebag over the door and clip all of Princess's hairbows to the ribbons so they don't get crushed.  Her hard plastic headbands can be looped over a pocket and everything else (soft headbands, barrettes, hair elastics) get organized into its own pocket.  I also have an over-the-door set of hooks next to the shoebag that I use to hang both of the kids' hats on.  

I use some of the (non-ripped) pockets at the bottom to keep all the singleton socks in.  When the pockets get full, I match them up. 

The ribbons to hang the hairbows on are tied onto the metal hooks at the top of the shoebag that hook over the door.  They can easily be moved aside to see the pockets clearly.

Pockets for the soft headbands, small hairbow barrettes, and regular barrettes.  Small clips can be clipped on the edges of the pockets.

Frankly, you can't have too many shoebags in your house.  There are so many uses for them!  For more ideas, you can visit my Pinterest board, Shoebag Organizing.

Tomorrow, I'll be hosting a link-up of your favorite organizing tips.  Be sure to come check it out and add your own tips!

Want to see a complete list of the posts in the 31 Days to Simplify Your Life series?  Click here. 



Thanks so much for visiting Supermommy!...Or Not.  Please take a moment to "like" me on facebook"! 

31 Days-Daily Chore List

How do houses get messy so quickly?  If I don't stay on top of things, my house turns into a declared disaster zone within a few days.

Since I'm a born procrastinator and dedicated list keeper, the best way for me to stay on top of the housework is to have a daily chore list.  It covers the basics, takes 15-20 minutes to accomplish, and gives me the satisfaction of crossing things off a list.  I do have other lists of chores to do to keep up with the deeper cleaning.  But, with a preschooler, toddler, and a new baby in the house, if I can get my daily chore list done everyday, I call it good enough.

I wrote my basic chores on a sheet of paper (this was before I had a working printer so everything was handwritten) and put it in a sheet protector in my Control Journal.  When I finish a task, I cross it off with a dry erase marker.  I call it my morning routine, but let's face it...if everything on the list gets done by evening, it's good.

"Hot Spots" are any place in the house that seems to accumulate clutter.  For me, it's the coffee table and the computer desk.

Writing up your own list like this will help you keep your house clean without spending a lot of time cleaning.  Just pick the things that are essential and need to be done everyday.  Don't make it too complicated or long, the point here is to keep it simple.  If you're feeling ambitious, go ahead and make a Control Journal to keep your house sparkly clean, but if not, give yourself a pat on the back for starting with the basics.

Want to see a complete list of the posts in the 31 Days to Simplify Your Life series?  Click here.



Thanks so much for visiting Supermommy!...Or Not.  Please take a moment to "like" me on facebook"!  

31 Days-Organizing Toys

It doesn't take much for kids' toys to get out of control.  I've always wished I had a playroom so I could just shut the door and not look at the mess, but because our house is small, our "playroom" is a corner of the living room.  It has to be well organized or the toys take over our whole living area.

When Princess first started accumulating toys, I threw them all in one container.  I had my eye on a toy box thinking that would be the easiest way to keep them picked up, but I soon realized that a toy box was not the best solution as toys get jumbled together and broken easily, not to mention that you can never find the one you're looking for.

The solution is to organize toys into separate bins.  For bigger toys without a lot of pieces, I store them directly on the shelf, but sets go into a canvas bin or bucket.  This makes it much easier for the kids to clean up after themselves.  I've seen some people label their bins with a picture of the type of toy that goes into it,but nothing sticks really well to the canvas bins so I haven't done that.  If you're storing yours in plastic bins, I would definitely recommend that as kids are so visual.

This shelf works perfectly for toys!  If you look closely, you can see that Little Man's hotwheels collection is stored on the bottom shelf in a pink ice cream pail.  Poor boy.

A close-up of several of the bins.  The red one holds miscellaneous toys and the blue one holds My Little Ponies

Here are a few more tips I use to control the toy chaos:

1. If the toys don't fit in their designated bins or area, it's time to say goodbye to a few!  When we get to that point, first I throw out anything that's broken, then I make a pile of toys that I don't mind getting rid of and have the kids pick a certain number of them to give to kids who don't have any toys (aka Goodwill).  This gets the kids involved and teaches them about generosity.

2. Divide the toys in half and put half of them in storage.  Every few months or when it looks like the kids are losing interest in the toys that are out, switch them for the ones that are in storage. Every time we make the switch, it's like Christmas at my house!

3. Ask relatives to go in on one big gift for all your kids instead of giving each child little things.  Or, if your children are still young enough not to notice, ask them to just buy one small gift for each child to unwrap and put the rest of the money they would have spent on a gift into the child's savings account.  


Update: Since I wrote this post, I've gotten these canvas bins which help make the toy shelf neater and stores the toys better.  The best part?  The cheapest I've seen them in stores was $6 apiece and the ones I found on Amazon are good quality and were less than $5 apiece!  

Want to see a complete list of the posts in the 31 Days to Simplify Your Life series?  Click here. 
  


Thanks so much for visiting Supermommy!...Or Not.  Please take a moment to "like" me on facebook"!

31 Days-Organizing Clothes

Most people stack their clothes in their dresser drawers.  Which means that if you want a certain shirt, you have to dig through all the stacks to find it.  Which means that a nice neat dresser drawer can quickly turn into an unfolded, wrinkled mess.
 

Stacks in the dresser drawer-picture taken before Star was born as evidenced by the baby boy clothes!

Or...you can "file" your clothes which makes it easier to find what you're looking for.  Plus, as you can see by comparing the picture above with the picture below, it creates more space in your dresser drawers!

Fold your clothes the same way you always do, but instead of laying them flat in the drawer, stack them sideways.  This makes it easy to see at a glance what you have.

Want to see a complete list of the posts in the 31 Days to Simplify Your Life series?  Click here. 



Thanks so much for visiting Supermommy!...Or Not.  Please take a moment to "like" me on facebook"!  

31 Days-Keeping a Day Planner

I can't live without my day planner.  I've kept one for over 8 years now and it's always in my purse.  If events don't get written down in it, they are forgotten.  Period.

I use my day planner as a sort of daily journal as well.  It's nice to be able to look back and find out exactly when we did something or when something happened.  It's also used as a menu planner, note taker, etc.

Here's my day planner.  It's not too big that it doesn't fit in my purse, but not so small that it can't hold a lot of information.  I like to find a day planner that is spiral bound so I can easily slip a pen inside the spirals and find it when I need it.

The first thing I do when I get a new day planner every year is tape a piece of cardstock (or an old library checkout card, apparently) securely inside the front cover.  This works for a pocket for shopping lists, recipes, and any miscellaneous small papers I need to hang on to. 

My day planner has a page for each month so I can see at a glance what's coming up on my schedule.  As you can see, this page for next month is still pretty empty, but by the end of the month, it'll be covered in writing and x's as I cross off each day.

I also like my day planner to have a section for each day.  This is where I write down my menu every week and (when I'm feeling ambitious) jot down a little journal entry of what we did that day.

Here are a few cute day planners I found on Amazon:







How about you?  Do you keep a day planner?  Why or why not?

Want to see a complete list of the posts in the 31 Days to Simplify Your Life series?  Click here. 



Thanks so much for visiting Supermommy!...Or Not.  Please take a moment to "like" me on facebook"! 

31 Days-Shoe Organization

Back when Princess was an only child, it was easy to have a little box near the front door to throw her shoes in.  After Little Man came along, the box started overflowing onto the floor, but I didn't have room for two boxes near the door so we just kept piling them in.  Then, I got pregnant with Baby #3 and realized that I had to find a new solution to the shoe problem. 

I found these stackable bins at Walmart and picked up three.  They're not very deep, but shoes stay in them well and I like that the fronts are open enough to easily reach in and find a matching pair of shoes.  Each child has their own bin and it's an easy enough system that even 2 year old Little Man has no problems putting his shoes away by himself.  The bins sit right next to the front door so the shoes can come off as soon as we come in the house and get put away correctly.  

I took this picture before Star was born as evidenced by the baby boy shoes in the top bin.

These bins would also work great for organizing toys, craft supplies, etc.  So many uses!

Want to see a complete list of the posts in the 31 Days to Simplify Your Life series?  Click here.   



Thanks so much for visiting Supermommy!...Or Not.  Please take a moment to "like" me on facebook"! 

31 Days-Organizing Sewing Patterns

It took me a while (over a year) to figure out the best way to store and organize my sewing patterns.  For the longest time, I just put all the different patterns and sizes in a pile, but then I'd lose a part of a pattern or it'd take me all day to dig through the pile to find the right ones for the orders I needed to start working on.

I finally came up with an effective, neat, organized way to store my printed patterns.  I start by taping the sides of a basic file folder together to form an envelope.

Letter sized file folders

Then I write the pattern and the size on the tab on the top of the "envelope" and fold the pattern pieces to fit inside.  I have the new file folder from 31 Gifts on my wish list to store the folders in, but for now, I'm using an empty baby wipes cardboard box since the folders fit so perfectly.   

Because it helps me find what I'm looking for faster (and because I'm a little OCD about organization), I file the patterns alphabetically, and then each pattern is filed by size.  It takes me just a few seconds to pull out the pattern I need.  

In the back of the box, behind all the patterns, I keep a green folder I saved from college.  In it are all the basic instructions and sizing guides for each pattern type, with each pattern stapled together. 

I also keep a folder on my computer with all the pattern pdfs and copy them to a USB stick drive as well.  I'd hate to lose them if my computer goes down!  

How do you store your sewing patterns?

Want to see a complete list of the posts in the 31 Days to Simplify Your Life series?  Click here. 



Thanks so much for visiting Supermommy!...Or Not.  Please take a moment to "like" me on facebook"!