Cookies, Crayons, Classes, & Chaos: organizing

Showing posts with label organizing. Show all posts

3 tips to organize, simplify, and light up this winter

It's so exciting to see all the wonderful organizing blog posts surfacing for the annual new year's resolution push!!

Here are some ideas I will be giving serious thought about implementing:

(1) Pack up Christmas ornaments the safe way

Unpacking Christmas is always the first task at the start of the new year. I've managed to get my seasonal stuff pretty well organized. But this would certainly help simplify the ornament packing process.

Plastic cups, hot glue, and leftover cardboard are all that are needed to make this DIY ornament storage insert with individual compartments for each ornament.

Safe ornament storage from Martha Stewart

(2) Minimize paper clutter, starting with Christmas cards

Home organizing and productivity guru Aby Garvey at Simplify 101 is offering everyone a FREE command central reference binder to help everyone find their own best way to organize the paper stream!!!

Freebie from Simplify 101

I adore her tagline: More fun, more done! Makes me want to jump right in and get to it.

Plus, she has weekly organizing tips via an email newsletter. Here is her fabulous tip for what to do with Christmas cards as part of her January newsletter checklist.

Simplify 101 January checklist

I love it that she didn't tell me to throw them away. I'm going to do this with all our cards from now on. The kids still have all their birthday cards stashed in various places in their rooms. Now I know what to do with these keepsakes.

(3) Bring in the light with white cabinets

Darkness zaps my energy. We have so little natural light in the house and not near enough artificial light to compensate.

Geek light

Needless to say, living in a cave does not help me keep up with the tasks of daily living, let alone try to tackle the big organizing projects. I'm aiming to bring in the light this year.

Bring in the light!

Color expert Maria Killam at the Color Me Happy and designer Kristie Barnett aka The Decorologist both advocate for painting dark kitchen cabinets white.

White kitchen via Color Me Happy

They both say white kitchens are a timeless look that will never go out of style and it brings so much light into the home. (And Maria has great advice on finding the right white!)

White kitchen via the decorologist

Fortunately, the hip homeowners at Young house love show you just how to make that transition with the right paint, tools, and techniques to make it simple...er. They made the complete transformation with $60!

Young House Love paints cabinets

When the painting is done I would like to add pull-out shelves to the cabinets that are so hard to reach into. Luckily, the folks at This Old House have an easy tutorial.

Norm saves the day with the pull out shelves

Decorating with Nature: 3 Design Projects

These projects are more sophisticated adult versions of nature crafts that can be used for decorating the inside and out.

(1) Graffiti Moss

Inhabitat provides all the instructions and tutorials needed to make letters, shapes, or whatever graffiti inspiration is on tap with moss! (See cool instruction graphics and different recipe here.)

DIY Moss Graffiti

(2) Tree themed shelf

One of Inhabitat's many green gift guides for 2011 showcased this awesome shelf made with real trees. Available from Hold Close The Moon on etsy.

Wall Hook / Shelf by Hold Close the Moon

(3) Tree branch wall hooks

Those wild and crazy inventor-hackers at Sugru have figured out how to use their moldable sugru silicone putty to make permanent wall hooks using tree branches.

I think it's really cool-looking and functional. But I just wonder what happens when you want to take the hooks down since the sugru appears to be really really permanent.

If I were to do this I would put the tree branches on a back board type of thing so it can be hung on the wall and removed later if needed.

Wall Hooks by Sugru

3 Inexpensive "Better than Bookshelves" Book Racks

Who says books only have to live on shelves??

Here are some great alternatives to ordinary bookshelves that are also super kid friendly.

Kids can see the fronts of the books instead of the spines.
You can put the books within reach, or out of reach depending on your needs or desires.
The books don't topple over on the shelf just because you pulled on book out.
It serves as a display for rotating book selections, keeping things "fresh."

(1) Bookshelves from vinyl gutters

This is pretty and "designer-ish." I suppose if I did this it would look like the gutters misplaced inside the house.

However, Brooke from "Let Kids Create" did a fantastic job using these materials in a functional AND stylish way. I'm so impressed. Her blog is full of amazing and beautiful ideas.

Let Kids Create

(2) Bookshelves from IKEA spice racks

Over at Domestic Simplicity they used inexpensive IKEA spice racks for book storage. Again, another beautiful application that makes unique materials look super stylish.

Domestic Simplicity

(3) DIY Flat Wall Bookshelves from Ana White

For style, options and super helpful instructions, you cannot do any better than the free colorful design plans from Ana White. She has plans for every kind of cool thing you could imagine, including kids furniture and playscapes.

Ana White

Easy canned goods storage for the pantry

This is such a cool website!!!

They have instructions on how to make your own storage rack to rotate cans.

It has a "first in first out" with a top loading design!

It uses nothing but cardboard you could find around the house. FREE!

Visit their site for complete instructions.

And one of their readers offered another suggestion for a large can roller system in a very slim space.

Look at this DIY from Jayce that can storage you can build in a weekend.

It still features "first in, first out" principles. Check out the website for instructions and more photos.

Here's a space saving design from Lowe's for an art station at home.

Goodness knows it is difficult to cram art supplies, math & literacy stations, science experiments, and a computer lab along with the dining room table in a small house!!!

I suggest making the background a little larger than the paper to prevent "spill-over" effects.

The ULTIMATE family closet and laundry

Yesterday I posted a suggestion from one of the wise women at "Lots of Kids" to designate a space as the family closet. In addition to having that, I've always wanted this giant closet to also be the laundry room.

Well here is a vision of that dream from Natural Interior Design.

Clever shoe storage under the stairs

According to stats, the most popular topic on my blog universally has been shoe storage.

So I could not disappoint readers and fail to pass along this clever gem from ShelvesBlog. Isn't this a super clever use of space?!! There are great instructions for so many different types of shelves at this blog in case you are at all handy.

Making small spaces look bigger....

Those brilliant designers tell us that having open floor space makes rooms look bigger. So here are some examples of things we can do:

Wall mounted cabinetry and appliances

This wall hung cabinet and sink combination from ThundaFunda to show how much open space you feel when there are NO legs on the floor.

The wall mounted toilet from Vintage Tub not only saves space but saves cleaning time since there is no base to clean and obstacles to work around when cleaning the floor.

Clear Shelving, Appliances and Accessories

Using clear glass or acrylic items eliminates visual obstructions to help make rooms look larger. (And curves are also supposed to make things look bigger.) This clear glass tub from Bathroom Accessories is one example.

This clear shower door from Natural Interior Design also expands the visual space.

And glass shelving units, like these featured at Apartment Therapy also do the trick!

White, Bright, Light

And above all else, keep it white, bright, and light in the bathroom with the use of light colors, reflective surfaces like tile and mirrors, and great lighting. This example is featured at Apartment Therapy.

Kids and Chores

In a recent newsletter from Carol at sizzlebop, she discussed strategies for helping our distracted learners stay organized.

I was delighted to hear about other moms having distracted learners (ADHD, SPD, etc.) with difficulties in keeping their rooms tidy!

REDUCING THE AMOUNT OF STUFF. Carol suggested working hard to keep "things" to a minimum. The less there is to dust, put away, and keep track of, the easier it is for our kids (and ourselves) to keep things tidy.

REFRAMING THE DEBATE. Carol also suggesting using this tip from The Organized Parent. In her post "A Chore by Any Other Name Does Smell Sweeter," Stephanie says that changing the language of chores to "how do we each contribute to the family?" has made a difference in her family's life.

This is also similar to the FlyLady's terminology of cleaning as actually "blessing the home" and shows how to involve kids in blessing the home as well.

While I realize that tidiness is going to be a learned habit, I also try to provide environmental remediations here in the house to reinforce that habit.

VISUAL CHECKLISTS. So one of the things we do is to have the visual to do lists and checklists. These help tremendously.

The nightly routine has always been a stressful time. But things have improved since we have put the visual checklist on his door.

Recently my husband was reminding our son to do his nightly activities. You can not imagine the thrill I had when my son replied, "Yeah, yeah, I know the drill." Wow!

STORAGE SYSTEMS. We've also experimented with different kinds of storage systems for his clothes and toys.

I discovered that my sensory challenged son had difficulty with a couple of things that made his organizing more taxing that it needed to be:

(1) Bending over to reach low drawers - This can be disoriented for kids with vestibular and proprioceptive difficulties

(2) Opening and closing drawers that require two hands and alot of coordination - Given his proclivity towards being "rough" on things we had swapped out a wooden chest of drawers for the plastic kind. That turned out to be unwise.

What worked best for clothes is to have them organized into different open baskets and have them set up higher. You just reach in to get what you need or toss the clothes into their basket when mom gives you your laundry to put away. Of course everything he owes is soft cotton so we don't worry about wrinkles.

Here is a similar idea from rustlabs at instructables:

We now use the plastic drawers for the toys. Each drawer is see though and labeled. He kind find what he needs and knows where to put it back. The drawers are still a bit difficult to open and close but not as difficult now that they aren't filled with heavy clothes. Plus, the reward of getting to play with toys is worth it to him to tackle the task of opening and closing the drawers.

A fabulous solution would be to have those expensive self-closing drawers like this gorgeous example from Old Creamery. But that's a big budget item. Of course, I'm thinking it would be a great investment down the road. I'm guessing his future spouse would appreciate him having this!

Another solution from the wise mamas of many at Lots of Kids is to have a family closet. We have definitely implemented this strategy off and on as it has made more sense in different phases of our family life.

Here is my dream for the ultimate family closet and laundry room from Natural Interior Designs!!!

In search of the perfect labeler

It's been a good year of getting organized here on the blog. Finding the right tools has been a challenge, but we've made progress!

Perfect (almost) phone, Check.
Perfect (almost) food storage, Check.
Perfect (almost) shelving, Check.
Perfect (almost) carpet cleaner, Check.

Now I'm on the hunt to find The Perfect Labeler. It's the staple of "real organizers" so I best have one!

I've had a blast using the decades old hand held "Dymno labeler" that used to be my grandparents.

It's a loving reminder of my childhood -- turning the alphabet dial and squeezing the handle to punch my words, hoping for no misspellings and that my hands don't go numb from all the squeezing.

It was a blast labeling all the new shelves! Until morning.

That's when I opened the closet door to find all my labels had "jumped off." I found curled up labels all over the house -- several had jumped a few feet away from their original location. Maybe it was because the tape cartridges were probably old.

So I guess I need to move into this century of labelers. Here are the desired attributes for my new electronic labeler:

(1) Sticks to stuff.

(2) Preview entire label before printing.

(3) Uses batteries (but sparingly, not an energy hog like some) and has an adapter.

(4) Accepts 3/4" to 2" widths of labels for both indoor and outdoor use.

(5) Can be hooked up to a computer (but doesn't require computer hookup to operate so I can take it anywhere)

(6) Allows downloads of images to print on the label so I can label my pre-literate daughter's stuff with icons rather than words.

(7) Uses inexpensive label cartridges. (Yeah, right. Like that'll happen!)

(8) QWERTY rather than ABC keyboard.

I think this Brother P-Touch 18R rechargeable system might be a contender!

But I'm definitely not getting rid of my old Dymo!!

Update: I just learned about the "P-touch label advisor" that you can use to select your criteria to determine which label maker is right for you.

Keeping things organized at home with kids

So far we've added shelves or organizers in the kitchen pantry, entry way, hall closet, linen closet, master bedroom, the refrigerator and on 3 walls in the garage.

It's not beautiful, but at least more of our things have "homes" now. And there are still lots of places that are disastrously messy in this 1200 sq ft home.

And of course I opened one closet to find all my nice labels had popped off. So it's a process of trial and error.

But here are 3 things that worked this week:

(1) I pulled the kitchen waste basket out from under the sink and left it sitting out so it was accessible. This resulted in the kids disposing lots more of their things properly.

(2) I pulled the paper shredder out where we can reach it. When my artist daughter has finished drawing on her daily ream of paper I offer to let her shred her non-masterpieces under my watchful eye. She loves the shredder more than she loves holding on to all of her artwork.

(3) My sensory-seeking kids love to smell (and use gargantuan amounts of) their many scented shampoos and will empty a bottle in one showering. So I re-used one of our empty foaming soap dispensers.

I put a little of the scented soap in the bottom and filled it 3/4 full with distilled water. So now the shampoo is even better because it's more like their beloved shaving cream texture. Here's a recipe for making your own.

Now I can monitor their usage and make sure only "one serving" of shampoo gets used per shower. Of course I'm going to have to get lots more distilled water!!

By the way, Northern Essence is a fun place to get TONS of great smelling Tearless Foaming Wash/Shampoo refills. Check out the INSANELY HUGE list of fragrances. There must be 200 or more fragrances!!!

Chair as closet storage?

Notice the similarity between the stadium/camping chair and the stack 'n stax closet organizer?

This might be a really good use for our stadium chairs since (a) they are no longer allowed in our stadium and (b) we don't go anywhere anymore since having kids!

Organization in high gear!!!

We're on a roll now!!!!!!!! Here are some of the main projects we're working on. No wonder my poor garden is suffering. But I'm committed to getting our inside organized before we're stuck in the house again next winter.

(1) MUDROOM SHELVES -- ORDERED

We finally settled on the shelves for the mudroom!!!

I ordered 2 of these rubbermaid configuration closet kits to use as a full mudroom on our 8 foot wall near our entry way door.

It's was nice that it took a while to decide to go with this because when I finally went to order it, it was on sale!!!!

And even better I got free 1 day shipping!! So it will be here in time to have it set up for my birthday. It feels so good to know we're getting organized!!
And on top of that, there will be enough spare pieces left over to start organizing the shelving above our "new" (free from MSU surplus and newly painted) desks.

(2) CARPET CLEANER -- DONE

We also got a carpet cleaner. It feels so good to have cleaned our carpets and even some furniture.

We got the top rated residential model according to reviews of purchasers, the Hoover Steam Vac with Clean Surge model F5914-900.

(Consumer reports unfortunately does not have any ratings on carpet cleaners at this time. Their old reports indicated that residential models were definitely inferior to professional models, but something is better than nothing!)

And this too was on super sale!!

Even though these are "steam" vacs, no residential carpet cleaners actually use steam. And unfortunately, none of the "real" steam cleaners have extractors so you have to mop up the wetness if you use them on carpet.

I hope that when I get the top rated home steam cleaner, I can use it on the carpet, and then suck up the steam and dirt with the carpet cleaner.

PANTRY -- IN PROCESS

DRY GOODS DONE. We've got almost all of our dry goods into the Anchor Hocking Montana glass jars now! We've reorganized and added some shelves in the kitchen. It's not perfect, but I it's so much better.

REFRIGERATOR PARTIALLY DONE. I've got a couple of these Rubbermaid "slide 'n stack" baskets in the fridge now and I need a few more. I *love* them!! It's created so much more space!!

One basket holds the snack sized yogurts. Another basket holds the sandwich condiments and sandwich cheeses. I want another one for jellys, jams, cream cheese; another for dairy; and another for snacks.

CANNED GOOD HOLDERS -- Finalizing research and then need to order.

I'm still comparing Neuhome's 3 tier back-loading drop-down can rack and FIFO's front loading rotating can rack.

PRODUCE KEEPERS -- Assessing needs and conducting research.

I'm still comparing Rubbermaid's produce savers, Tupperware's Fridgesmart containers, and Progressive's produce keeper.

PULL OUT DRAWERS -- Assessing needs and conducting research.

I still need to measure kitchen cabinet items and determine a good configuration. Then I can compare storage volume and prices for the wood pull out drawers, wire sliding racks, and slide 'n stack baskets. All are available at the local big box hardware stores.