As you may or may not know, having a family of 5 not only makes for a full house filled with laughter, tears, and the occasional scream-fest (mainly the little ones, although sometimes I feel compelled to join them), but it can also contribute to a full workload on any given day. Seriously, I could clothe several homeless families with the amount of laundry I do in a week. It is my normal though, and I honestly can't remember (but can dream of) a time less... busy.
With that said, I have found that the more organized we are, the better this house flows. Anything from shoe organization to organizing the bejeezus out of some closets. I admit to my own scream-fests when creating a system for something didn't manifest this brilliant eye-opening revelation to the world of organization (and keeping it organized) to the rest of my family. But alas, I try, try again until it either works (FINALLY!) or a better system took it's place.
Since it's been awhile since my last post, I thought I would use this little blogger site to not only release some of my creative juices, but to inspire myself to keep up with the job at hand (again... organizing) and possibly to inspire others who happen upon this blog (amongst the millions, right?) So, here goes nuthin'!
This post I'm going to dedicate to my daughters' room. They both share a room, the original master bedroom of our house (when we built it, we changed the plans to include negating a garage for a 400 sq ft room... and later installed a closet and bathroom in it to accommodate a 2nd master... hmm, maybe a post on that later?). So they have lots of space. Plenty of area to organize and make it their own while at the same time giving them a system that helps them not only keep their rooms clean, but also teach Independence in putting their clothing away and keeping their stuff intact. Let me preface that the object is not to create a system and poof! magically the room stays clean and all is well with the world. It does take consistency and persistence, patiently training them in how the system will work. It could take a week, it could take months! The key is consistency!
The first thing we did was eliminate the human nature of "if you can't see it, it must be clean" that all children and even some adults have. Had to tackle that "under the bed" syndrome. There was nothing more annoying than seeing a room "clean" and then go and take a look under that bedskirt (or bed) and see that you were deceived! So I asked my husband to build me something that would make under-bed-stuffing impossible, thereby eliminating any possible chance of a quick sweep under the bed & wa-laa clean, mommy! And, ever my faithful man, he created the perfect bed block. :)
A simple process, really. Since both of their beds have one side pushed against a wall, my husband created an L-shaped contraption and simply slid it underneath, using 1x6's (since their beds were 6 1/2" from the floor to the railing). No toys will be getting under those beds! (For my son's queen bed that is open on both sides, he created a boxed U-shape.) Throw on a bed skirt of your desired color choice...
...and no one is the wiser, except you, who will now never have to get on hands & knees to look under a bed again! So, now, with that dilemma out of the way, we move on to the next hurdle... clothing, drawers, baskets... I, personally have the most horrible time at getting them to keep a drawer free from wadded up clothing and bits and pieces sticking out in all directions effectively preventing the actual closing of a drawer. A chest of drawers can really get under my skin, especially when I had to reorganize and refold everything, every time I went to put laundry away! In my daughters' room, they have 2 drawers. Period. Two drawers that I don't care about, because they hold pajamas. If they get unfolded, wadded up, or rolled... it's not gonna bother this mom right here, as long as those drawers shut. My son has a set of drawers that house play shirts, undies, socks & his pjs. Again, things that won't bother me if they come out a wrinkled mess. In a house full of chaos, I have to pick and choose my battles... drawers will not be one of them. ;)
Back to the girls' room. Like I said, they have a good bit of space, so I have utilized some shelving I got from an old friend that someone had built for her. They can't be that hard or expensive to make, or if money is of no concern, you could hop on over to your local IKEA and grab a set or two of these types of shelves. I also used a mix-match of baskets. I have found that baskets have helped in them organizing their clothes better, while at the same time minimizing the items that are folded. They have a nice sized closet, so most everything is hung. The less items they have access to, the better (as they have been known to change clothes 5 times a day or more for the sheer thrill of making their mommy crazy, I think). By the way (rabbit trail), we have a key-locked entry to the closet. Only myself or my husband has access to these keys which goes a LONG way in preventing the hair-pulling situations as described above. Back to the baskets, in the beginning, when they were just baskets, they would get just as cluttered as a drawer, simply because socks would be put in with the shorts basket, or undies would be mixed in 2 or 3 different baskets... it was a huge mess. No one ever knew what clothes went where, including my husband and myself after a time.
To eliminate this issue, I created, printed, laminated, punched holes in, and attached (using random ribbon I had on hand) these labels to each basket. Of course, as I have said in the preface, I had to go over each basket with the girls, walk them through the putting away of their clothes a time or two and reminding my youngest (who is just starting to master sounding out words) what they say. Consistency and persistence! And now we have an (more times than not) uncluttered system for their socks, undies, play shirts, shorts, and skirts.
Ah, a mom can breathe again. :)
Here's a pic of their pajama drawers, but before I link that up, this is an armoire that went with their beds, and inside houses their DVD and VHS players as well as a few of their coloring & reading books (I know it looks like more than a few, but when compared to about a thousand books that are in my homeschool room, it looks like a few to me) and a plastic bin labeled "Creative Arts" that holds random crayons, colored pencils, washable markers, a glue stick or two and kid-safe scissors (now that they are out of the "cutting their hair" stage).
As you can see, I even labeled the drawers. "Pajamas", no mistaking what belongs in there.
And now we move on to the last big hurdle. Yep, you guessed it. Toys. After cleaning and cleaning and cleaning... I would ask my daughters why they would empty out an entire bin of toys. Almost always their answer was that they were trying to get to small toys that had fallen to the bottom. It was just easier to flip the tub over than to meticulously pick through larger toys to get there. So this inspired me. I needed to make this easier on them to get to the toys they desire to play with at the moment but to also create a system that will help them organize their own collections, at the same time preventing this huge toy tornado on their floor! So I found some cheap plastic lidded-bins at Lowes and utilized the other part of the shelving unit I got from that old friend I had mentioned earlier. A bit of labeling and some clear packing tape....
...and now they have their own system for their toys. There is a general rule that I'm pretty strict about and it is that they only pull out one bin at a time, as they are now all categorized and shouldn't have need for more than one at a time. Of course, I make concessions for when we have company over, as I know how impossible it is to expect children from different families to abide by these rules, and also if there is something that they just "have to have" from another bin, then they can of course get the items they need. Simple rule, one bin at a time... if it's not put back up, the bin and everything that belongs in it is taken away for a time (I deem appropriate).
So that's about it... this is what works for us! Keeps me sane and in the game. Next post I'm sure will be about another room. Feel free to comment and tell me your ideas!
Until next time,
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