Kid's Closet Organization

We have only been in this house for about 7 months, but my daughter's closet was a MESS! It actually had an organizational system, but it just wasn't working. I had a large storage unit made out of cubes that was taking up a ton of room, but wasn't being utilized. I wish I had a before picture, but I was just too focused on getting it done to worry about it! My daughter and I tackled it last night. I had to think about our two biggest problems- picking out clothes in the morning, and finding her shoes. I think we solved this problem:
I think that is the secret about organizing-it's not organized if it's not working. Here is what I changed:
*I bought her a 5-sectioned hanging organizer for her clothes. She can pick out her outfits for the week on Sunday, then just grab them in the morning. I also got her a shoe organizer that holds 10-pair of shoes. Each organizer was $10.99 at Fred Meyer, and had a 15% coupon off also! Great deal.
* Her room was feeling very cluttered with her laundry basket and stuffed animal basket out. Now they are hidden! Besides, who wants to see dirty laundry anyway!
*We already had the wire basket organizer (which is wonderful), so it pretty much stayed the same.
*There were a bunch of memorabilia-type items at the top of her closet-baby book, baby blankets, etc. I combined these all into one large container. (On the upper right shelf.)
*We sorted though everything in the closet and got rid of anything she didn't need. I just kept reminding her, "Less stuff means less to clean up!"

I think it is going to work great....we will see. If not, I will tweak it again!
*Sarah*

It's like they were reading my mind!

I am still unpacking and painting, but I had to share something great that I found. I had a spot in my new bathroom/laundry room that I knew would be great for some baskets for sorting laundry. I was looking for something tall and skinny so that I could fit 4 for of them in there-whites, darks, colors, and towels. Well, I found this!


Sterilite Sorting Hamper
I love them! They were only $6.50 at Wal-Mart. My favorite part is that they hook together or you can separate them. They come with stickers to put on the outside that say darks, whites, and colors. I was super excited to find them. Now, I have to go to laundry!

Laundry

So if you are at all like me, you try really, really hard to be a good housekeeper, but there is always areas that you struggle with. For me, it is laundry.
I used to have a ton of clothes (and so did my kids) before I stopped working about 8 months ago. That way, I didn't have to do laundry quite as often.
Since I no longer have a steady income for fun stuff, I don't buy as many clothes as before. While this makes me sad, because I LOVE CLOTHES, it has actually made my life easier. I used to have 6 large laundry baskets that I needed all the time for laundry. Now, I use 3-two large hamper types, and one small one for transporting clean laundry from the utility room to my bedroom to fold. (Don't even get me started about my dream laundry room. My husband makes fun of me because of this!)
Here a few tips for keeping up on laundry that work for me-

*Less clothing=less laundry. I weeded out all the clothes that I wanted my kids to wear, but that they wouldn't. (Like the super cute vintage-inspired Wonder Woman t-shirt of my daughter's that she wouldn't touch.)This keeps them from dragging everything out of their drawers in the morning and throwing it on the floor.

*My #1 rule-If I wash it that day, I put it away. (Yes, it rhymes on purpose.) Anything I wash and dry during the day, I make sure I complete the cycle by folding and puting it away. I don't put pressure on myself to finish all the laundry in one day, but I just do a good job with the amount I do get done.

*It doesn't have to be perfect in the drawers. No one can see it.- This is completely out of charchter for me because I worked in retail for a very long time, and was used to making things look perfect. My super-mom friend shared this tip with me. I would never have expected her drawers weren't perfect, but she said she doesn't care what they clothes look like inside the drawers, as long as the clothes are put away. So....here is my secret-I DON'T MATCH SOCKS! I refuse. I am taking a stand. No WAY! I have 3 shoeboxes inside my kid's drawers-one for socks, one for underwear, and one for other (like tights, gloves, etc.) I also don't fold PJ's. Everything else, I fold, but I don't care if it's not perfect.


So there it is, my secret to keeping up on laundry. I manage to keep up using a 20-year old dryer that takes 2 hours to dry, so I am pretty proud of myself. Hopefully this helps you!

My pick for sippy cups

If you have kids, you are going to want to get this water bottle from REI. It is called the Nalgene Everyday Grip-N-Gulp Water Bottle. It is amazing. Seriously. I bought them as stocking stuffers for my two kids because I wanted something a little more grown-up than our other standby cup, the Playtex Insulator. I am in love with this water bottle because it seriously DOES NOT leak, I can wash it on hi-temp cycle in my dishwasher and it doesn't melt (on the top rack, of course), and it looks great. I hate kid stuff that looks like, well, kid stuff. They are spendy, around $8.25 each, but SO worth it! Oh, and did I mention they come in great colors?