"Switching Out"

In my house, we do a lot of "switching out." Meaning, because we have limited space, we don't keep all of our toys, books, stuffed animals, etc. in the bedrooms at the same time. I like to think that even if we did have more space, we would still do this, because I feel like it cuts down on clutter and that my kids play with more if they have less out.

Remember that show Clean Sweep? One thing I remember Peter Walsh would always stress is that you only have the space that you have. Period. And you have to make the things that you have in the room fit in the space you have, not the space you wish you had. Each of my kids has one bin for books (you can see them in this post - one is hot pink and one is blue). They can only keep enough books in the house to fill their bin. All the other books get stored in the garage, and they can "switch out" when they want to. If they go out to feed the dog and stumble across a book they want to bring in, they have to take one out.

Although it's tempting to go through my kids' stuff when they're at playdates (and sometimes I do), I believe that involving them in this process from the very beginning teaches them valuable skills. My daughter just turned 4, and she's been doing this herself for a while. She's surprisingly good at evaluating what she loves and uses the most, what can go out to the garage for a while, and what she can give away.

She's great at doing this with clothes, shoes, toys, books, and stuffed animals. The only thing I CANNOT figure out how to downsize is artwork/schoolwork. She claims it is ALL special to her, and can't part with anything. Any great suggestions?

Clean Up, Clean Up, Everybody Do Your Share

I've been struggling lately with how to get my kids to pick up their toys. I know, I know, it's a battle that's been fought since the beginning of time probably. I'll tell you my ideas and thoughts so far, but I'd appreciate any input from more experienced moms!

The new bins have really helped with my daughter. She's 4, and is perfectly willing to clean up one bin before getting out another. My little boy is another story though. Let me preface this by saying that me cleaning his toys up for him is not an option. I've got a new baby and enough other stuff to do in a day. Anyway, when I tell him it's time to clean up his cars, he replies with a simple, "No." In a very polite tone, it sounds as though he would follow it up with, "I'd really rather not, thank you anyway." But he just refuses. I've threatened to take his bin of cars out to the garage, and he just says, "Okay," and even helps me take them out there. Meanwhile, my daughter is practically sobbing, "No! That's so sad! Don't take all his cars!"

I tried that a few times, but it didn't work at all. I don't know why he won't clean his stuff up. Maybe he doesn't understand yet, maybe it's just overwhelming to him, maybe he just doesn't feel like it. So my new theory is to just not let him have a lot of toys in the house. After a full day of no cars at all (which was miserable for everyone since he just swiped my daughter's toys all day), he was allowed to earn them back two at a time if he cleaned up after himself each day. Right now he's got about 8 in the house, and I think that's where I'm going to draw the line. Most of the rest of his toys are out in the garage as well. If he's not to the point where he can pick up a big mess, then he shouldn't have enough toys to make a big mess. So far, he doesn't really seem to care. Maybe 8 matchbox cars is all a boy really needs to make him happy?

Any great ideas for how to get toddlers to clean up their own stuff?

An Overly Organized Birthday Party

I am right in the midst of planning and preparing for my twins AND my 1 year old sons birthday party this Saturday. The theme is Lion King/Jungle. I always overdo it on these parties and this year is no exception. The key to planning a party at this scale is lists, lists and more lists. And an "I must be crazy-I know this is worth it!-I love my kids this much, right?" attitude doesn't hurt either.

I'm extremely organized and hopefully that will help catapult me to the finish line on Saturday. For those of you interested in all the tips, techniques, ideas and how to's for a kid's birthday party, stay tuned. I will try and get it all posted, with lots of pictures, sometime next week (barring I survive of course).

Clothing Inventory

I'm always on the lookout for good deals on kids' clothes so that I can stock up in advance on the sizes they're growing into. To start, I keep a tote for each size in the garage that just says "Bigger Sizes" and when I buy something for them to grow into, I toss it in there. But I invariably pull the bin out and discover that, while my child has plenty of shirts and pants to grow into, they have zero pairs of pajamas, or church clothes, or whatever. Periodically I look through the totes, and sometimes make a list of what I have, which I either bring into the house and promptly lose, or put in the bin with the clothes, where it's completely inaccessible.

This week I had my husband drag the "Bigger Sizes" clothing bins into the house. I'm in the mood to do some shopping, and I needed to know what I had an excuse to buy! I had the idea to make an inventory in a Word document and save it to my desktop. That way when I buy something, I can easily update it, and it's always handy and close by if I know I'm heading out to a sale, like this week's Old Navy 50% off clearance. For each child in the size coming up, I listed everything like shirts, dresses, pants, etc. and then how many of each I had. At the bottom I wrote in bold the things I need to buy.

And secretly I am so excited because while I thought my older daughter was all set for 4T thanks to generous hand-me-downs (whoops, 26 short-sleeved shirts), I discovered she only has one pair of jeans and one pair of shorts! Let the shopping begin!

Clean without "cleaning"

Over the years, I've found an easy, easy way to make an area of my house look cleaner, without actually cleaning. Interested? I thought you might be! ;)

The concept is simple: Put things away. I don't mean that in the traditional pick-it-up-so-it's-not-a-mess way. I mean, if there's something you don't need sitting out at all times, put it away, as in out of sight, only bringing it out when you need it (and then putting it away again when you're done). Stuff like the toaster, blender, toothbrushes, soaps, sponges, etc. It makes such a huge difference to just store things in a cupboard instead of on a counter!

Observe.

My sink area before:

My sink area after:

I just went to the home section at Wal*Mart and bought some plastic containers. I found mine near the laundry baskets and such. It's the perfect size to hold my sponges, magic erasers, my dish scrubbing brush and mop pads. I also bought one of those wire shelves (the kind with 4 legs to give you extra storage space on a shelf), which is where I put my hand soap and dish soap. It's no hassle at all to bend down and get the soap or a sponge out of the cupboard below my sink. I though it would be, but it's really not. And even if it were mildly annoying, the simple fact that my kitchen instantly looks cleaner by just putting those few things away makes it all worth it!

Organizing Tips for Gift Wrap, Crafts and More

A couple of years ago I took the time to get all my craft supplies, gift wrapping supplies and party supplies cleaned up and organized. It was well worth the time and effort. I've had people tell me my closet is like a mini store, which is awesome because that's exactly what I was going for! I rarely ever have to buy things like gift wrap, bows, bags, paint, stickers, paper, markers, stationary... They are all right there waiting for me when I need them.

The best way to build up your own supply is to recycle, recycle, recycle. Put on your nerd hat at parties and fold up the used tissue paper for future use. Keep bows and nice ribbon and obviously hang on to those gift bags. Shop clearance and heavily discounted items post-holidays. And to get yourself some basics, shop your local Dollar stores. If you do this for a year or two, you'll have a bunch of stuff that you're not sure where to store or how to organize.

It'll then be time to branch out into some drawers or totes of some kind. I like the plastic three drawer towers personally, but any type of storage device will do. You can get creative with this if space and money is limited. I am fortunate enough to have some extra space in my son's closet, so that is where my little plastic drawer shrine is located. Labels on the outside of the drawers are the icing on the cake and make anything you need right at your fingertips.

Not only will you feel calm and organized when holiday, party or craft events come around, but you'll be saving yourself money as well. If you do decide to splurge on some nice storage drawers they will pay for themselves after just a couple of times that you DON'T have to run to the store and grab a last minute gift bag, bow, card and tissue paper (easily $10).

Here are some pictures of my mini store. I've also got my baby supply drawers right next to them. And Austin decided to make a cameo appearance in the photos too! Cute boy.

I don't know if you can see inside the second drawer from the top on this picture, but it's where all my bows and ribbon are stored. I came up with a great way to store all those fancy thick ribbons you get on packages. Take an empty wrapping paper tube and cut it to the length you want. Then wrap the ribbon around the tube and secure it with tape, a staple or a rubber band. It keeps all those ribbons looking like new and makes storing and reusing them a breeze.

I finally finished!

Next week we are bringing our third baby home to our 1200 square foot house. I've had some serious doubts that we were going to be able to fit another kid in here without looking cluttery. Well, I finally finished, and I think things look great! We kept our youngest's room as is for the nursery, and moved him in with his big sister. We took all the toys and put them in a bookcase in the hallway.

Here's how it turned out:

The kids' room...
I hate the strollers there, but the kids play with them daily, so they really need to be accessible. The bins in the bookcase have books for each of them. We have more books out in the garage, but both kids know that if they want to bring some new books in, they have to take some out. They have to keep it down to an amount that easily fits into that size bin.

No decor yet. We are holding off on that until we figure out if these two will be sharing for the long-term, or if we will move, or if we will eventually switch the baby in with whichever older kid is the same gender.


The kids' closet


The bookcase full of toys:


My original plan for this bookcase was to buy several extra bins to keep in the closet for the toys that didn't fit in here, so that I could easily rotate them and just switch out the bins. But it turned out that pretty much all the kids' toys fit in here, so I may just keep that in mind for the future.

Each kid has four bins of toys and then the bottom one for shoes. And just because I know you're all dying of curiosity, my daughter's bins are Barbies, dress-ups, Polly Pocket/Littlest Pet Shop/Other Choking Hazard type toys, and an empty one. My son has one for trains, one for animals/dinos/robots, one for cars/motorcycles/etc., and one for his Hot Wheels City. Their games are on top of the bookshelf and their art stuff is on a table in their room that's not visible in the picture.

So far I really like having their toys organized this way. It makes it so that they really only play with one thing at a time, and clean-up is easy. So far, so good!