I've got an end-of-summer decluttering buzz going on! There is something about the beginning of the school year that feels very New Years-ish to me! Here are a few easy tips to help get you going on those tasks around the house you've been putting off during these busy summer months:
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Well, long time, no post! Our summer started out with a bang. Mimi was sick the last week of school. Turns out she had a perforated (ruptured) appendix which was taken out June 20. We were home from the hospital Friday night the 26th after a week of IV antibiotics. Oy, what a scary, stressful few weeks! All is good now. My sanity-savers, a.k.a. my parents, came up from Texas for two weeks to help out.
Child health tip of the day: You know your child best. Don't hesitate to be "that annoying, pushy parent" who insists on further action in the doctor's office or ER. We didn't and I've finally stopped beating myself up for not "catching" that Mimi was seriously ill. Kids perforate about half the time because their appendicitis doesn't always present in the classical way.
Anyhoo, now for an organizing tip for the day:
It's not too early to start sorting out school clothes to see where your kids stand in the clothing department! We've got about a month to go in our house but I'll feel better once we have Mimi's clothes sorted out to see what we are lacking. We picked out and ordered her backpack and school shoes this morning on http://www.llbean.com/. Next, we'll go through her fall clothes from last year and see what's still wearable (at her age, not much!). Bundle up the too-small-stuff and take them to our favorite donation site, then make a list of what we need and do a little shopping.
The last weeks of summer tend to produce a frenzy of activity to get everything fun done before school starts. So make a date with your kids and their closets. Ahh, won't it be nice to cross that off your to-do list!
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We had a great time "car camping" at Bull Run Park last Friday. Yes, the Friday of the torrential thunderstorms. Luckily, the storms stopped as we were pulling into our campsite so we quickly put up our tent and picnic canopy. As the next wave of rain came, we were cozily ensconced under the canopy, snacking away, enjoying our friends, and keeping (relatively) dry.
Since camping season is upon us, I've been thinking about organizing camping gear. Especially if you're facing a rainy set-up, you want the most essential things packed close-at-hand. You also don't want to finally find the salt and pepper just as you are packing up to leave!
Here are a few tips for family-style gear organizing as well as a few other tips to make your camping trips fun and relaxing!
Always keep in mind when you will need something and how quickly you will need it. These two things will drive your packing and unpacking process.
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Oh gorgeous days! They won't last forever (or even a few weeks) so now is the time to take advantage of the relatively cool 80-something-degree days to declutter and organize your garage. Think about it -- is that where you want to be when the thermometer hits 95 degrees or so?!
It's actually pretty easy to make a big difference in a garage in a relatively short amount of time. It tends to be a catch-all for all manner of big, bulky stuff that we're not sure we really want or need anyway. Seasonal items also often end up in the garage as well as just plain, old trash!
First things first. Take a really hard look at the current contents of your garage. Using my favorite organizing method from Julie Morgenstern, S.P.A.C.E. (Sort-Purge-Assign a Home-Containerize-Equalize), begin to sort and purge items that you haven't used in a year or two. Toss, donate or recycle items as needed.
Side note: In a perfect world, you would empty your garage during this process. I hear the groans out there but, really, it's essential to clear the garage out completely before you begin putting items back in. An empty garage helps you accurately assess the usable space. And seeing the garage contents in your driveway and/or yard helps you get a very clear idea of how much stuff you are keeping. Otherwise, you might find yourself merely moving stuff around. You'll just have to trust me on this one!
Once you have sorted and purged, take a broom and sweep out the accumulated dust and dirt. Trust me on this one, it'll just make you feel better!
OK, time for assigning homes and containerizing! Take a good look at what you have left in your garage. Now look up. The ceiling and walls are valuable real estate in a garage. Anything you can get up and off the floor is going to pay dividends in "found" space. The Container Store, Home Depot and Target are all great places to find hooks, shelving and other item-specific organizing supplies. A couple of my favorite items are bike hangers and ladder hooks.
Give serious thought to creating zones in your garage, grouping like items for easy access. Sporting goods, camping supplies, yard and garden supplies, home repair and tools, and trash and recycling are probably a few of the most common zones found in garages. Again, use wall space and the ceiling to your advantage. Look around your house for containers that can be repurposed for use in the garage.
Now pat yourself on the back and drive your car into your newly organized garage! Don't forget the last letter of SPACE -- Equalize. In essence, this just means keeping your space organized through regular maintenance -- but SPACM just wasn't as memorable. When you get back from that camping trip, put your camp gear in the camp gear zone! After spending a glorious day in your garden, put all your tools in the garden zone. As Ben Franklin said, "A place for everything, everything in its place."
What's the strangest thing you've ever kept or found in your garage?
Crossposted on www.bluebonnetpo.blogspot.com
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A decade ago, when I started freelancing, I realized that I could re-use paper... umm, yeah, DUH!
So all my paper that had something on just 1 side, I put in this light blue box. I kept using it and using it, recycling and recycling. I put it in my printer whenever I'm printing stuff out just for myself- rough drafts, articles to read, lists, etc.
Now my ‘one sided' paper box is empty, but here's the good part-
IT TOOK 10 YEARS!... A decade? Are you kidding me? I'm so excited. Now I'm realizing how very little paper I've bought in the past decade and how much of a difference my little recycling effort has made on my life and for the planet.
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I was thinking this morning about how you know when you are organized enough. My house definitely wouldn't fall into the minimalist, pristine category that I think a lot of people envision when they think of being organized.
John is fond of saying "physician, heal thyself" when I start talking my organizing talk. That's my cue to remind him that I can pretty much put my hands on whatever it is that he's searching for that day! Yes, he is one of those husbands. And, yes, I am one of those wives.
That's one of the reasons I love Kathy Waddill's book "The Organizing Sourcebook". Her approach calls for organizing with nine strategies of "reasonably organized people". I like that! You don't have to be an organizing machine to make your life a little less stressful and a lot more enjoyable.
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About seven more weeks of kindergarten and our girl will be on her way to first grade. Hard to believe. I remember last summer feeling so ambivalent about letting her ride the school bus. She really, really wanted to ride the bus with all her neighborhood friends. I was having a hard time letting go of the prenatal through right-this-minute brainwashing we all undergo regarding the safety of our spawn in a moving vehicle. So I was just supposed to put my precious on a bus driven by a stranger with no seat belts whatsoever? One day she's in a five-point restraint and the next day she's totally free to be bounced right out the bus window in the event of a collision?!?
I did get over it. John and I walked Mimi to the bus on the first day of school and she was literally skipping the whole 50 yards to the bus stop at the corner for her 14 minute ride to school.
Mimi started out sitting on the "passenger" side of the bus. I always stand there on the sidewalk as the bus pulls away and blow kisses and wave to her. Recently, for whatever reason, she started sitting on the "driver's" side of the bus, a few rows back. After she gets on the bus, I cross in front of it and stand on the other side of the street so I can see her.
This morning I stood there in the rain and blew kisses to her as the bus made its left turn toward the next stop. It seemed she blew kisses more frantically than usual, craning her little neck toward me as far as it would go until she was out of sight. Or maybe it was just my imagination, the feeling that she was literally growing up and away in that big, yellow school bus. Whatever, the lump in my throat was real and I had to blink several times to hold back tears. Yes, I'm a sap.
We still walk her to the bus stop every morning. Kindergartener's parent prerogative. I suppose we will let her walk on her own in the fall. We can watch her from the front porch and blow kisses as the bus goes by. As long as she'll let us.
Cross posted from Life, Love and Organizing at www.BluebonnetPO.blogspot.com
Call me crazy but I love to help organize kid's spaces! It's nice to play a small part in helping a child build good habits for keeping their space organized.
The National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) has some good tips for getting started organizing the children's areas of your home:
1. Have bins and boxes on lower shelves so that a child can put away the toys. Have the child label the bins and boxes.
2. Provide low hooks to hang up sweaters, pajamas, jackets, book bags, etc.
3. Take children with you when you go to donate unused items. This helps them learn to part with things.
4. Encourage your child to choose their outfits for the next day before they go to bed at night.
Here are a couple of other tips to help your kids get into the swing of organizing:
1. Let them draw fun pictures to label drawers and bins. For younger children, you can take photographs and place them on bins.
2. As birthdays approach, give kids the chance to thin outgrown toys. They might surprise you. Hmm, or not. It's hard. See #3 above. It's a learning process!
Target has a great storage organizer perfect for corralling all of those Legos, blocks, Polly Pockets, dinosaurs and other tiny parts. Simply go to http://www.target.com/ and type in "Storage Organizer Natural" in the search field. The bins are bright green, red and two shades of blue. There is also a really cute option the girls would love with bins in shades of pink and lavender.
Have fun kids!
Cross posted from Life, Love and Organzing at www.bluebonnetpo.blogspot.com
We love our kid's artwork. We get some crazy, visceral attachment from the moment we see her first scribbles. We ooh and aah over the construction paper farmer with the button eyes. We coo at the color wheels. The golf-ball-rolled-in-white-paint-and-rolled-on-black-construction-paper creation. The pre-school version of Rorschach tests that almost invariably look like butterflies. The too-adorable-for-words feather and glitter and cotton ball thingy.
You know what I'm talking about.
Now. What to do with all of it. Before it consumes your kitchen table, the walls. The very essence of your home.
Here are a few ideas.
My friend Emily has a friend who ingeniously put corkboard into large, inexpensive frames and rotates her childrens' special pieces through. Adds instant pizazz and importance and makes the kids feel great!
Tack one of those metal-trimmed strips of corkboard (they are about an inch tall) across a free expanse of wall in your kitchen, the child's room or playroom. Buy some fun thumbtacks and create your own gallery. I found some really cute flower and dot thumbtacks at http://www.officefun.com/ -- a package of 30 is only $2.99. They also have ladybugs.
Take photos of your child holding their artwork and place the pics into a photo album. Don't forget to include the date in the caption. Make it fun for the kids by having them decorate the album. If you are a scrapbooker, or just more ambitious than me, check out my friend Lisa Emerson's Creative Memory website to see many digital scrapbooking options. (www.mycmsite.com/lisaemerson)
Create virtual albums using one of the many photo websites available. I really like Picasa. I've also used Snapfish. And Shutterfly is popular. I'm not a Mac user but Apple iPhoto is supposed to be a great tool. You can upload photos of each piece of art into an album and send to all the equally adoring grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.
There are portfolios made expressly to store art projects by grade. These are usually oversized to accommodate even the largest poster-sized versions of the ubiquitous "My Family" projects! I've tried without success to find one of these online. Post a comment with a link if you find one!
For a simple, retro solution, create a "clothes line" out of string or ribbon strung across a window or empty wall space. Use fun clothes pins to showcase prized art. I got some really cute miniature clothes pins embellished with little painted ladybugs at Michael's.
There was an article in the Washington Post yesterday about Ali Wentworth's home. She is an actor who lives in Georgetown with her husband, George Stephanopolous, and their two young daughters. She has a bulletin board that runs the length of their kitchen wall that displays the girls' artwork. She bought it online from a school supply company. The largest I found was a 4' x 8' bulletin board at http://www.officedepot.com/. You could hang two or more of these side-by-side to create the same effect. I also stumbled upon the world o' borders at http://www.teachersparadise.com/. There are literally hundreds of different border designs -- one is sure to please your Picasso.
I'd especially suggest the digitizing of artwork if you have a hard time actually getting rid of items after they've been properly showcased for a period of time. I'm pretty sentimental but I have an easy enough time disposing of (most of) Mimi's voluminous amounts of art. I just make sure I do it while she's at school. And I've learned the hard way to stuff things under the piles of newspaper in the recycling bins so she can't see them.
I'd love to hear some of your ideas for showing off children's artwork -- and how you get rid of it!
Cross posted on http://bluebonnetpo.blogspot.com/.
My sister, Amy, did her every year or two bathroom closet declutter/clean up this weekend.
(Oh, how I would love to have a closet in my bathroom to declutter and keep clean. But that's another posting.)
She took out three kitchen-size garbage bags full of old make-up, toiletries and medicines. When you have lean, mean bathroom storage areas such as myself, you are forced to do this task much more frequently lest you be unable to actually get into the bathroom! Our house was built in 1964 and has the "master" bathroom to prove it.
My friend Emily, children's photographer extraordinaire, (http://www.veralana.com/) suggested a post on what to do with expired medications. She has one husband, two adorable girls and the same 1964 house we do, so she's interested in keeping that master bathroom as uncluttered as possible.
The Washington Times had a good article last year (excerpted here) about the whys and hows to properly dispose of expired medications, over-the-counter and prescription alike.
Expired medicine around the house can lead to multiple problems including the potential for drug abuse (experimenting teens in the house anyone?), health issues (old meds don't work as well, if at all, as fresh meds) and environmental concerns (water supply and landfill contamination issues).
The FDA recommends cleaning out medicine cabinets at least once a year, checking for expiration dates and throwing away all expired medications. They recommend first taking the medicine out of its original container which can then be thrown away with regular household trash or recycled.
Recently established government guidelines for getting rid of the medicines themselves include mixing the medicine with undesirable substances like coffee grinds or clean cat box litter. Liquid medications can also be mixed with these items, rendering them unusable.
After concocting this lovely mixture, simply seal it in an impermeable, non-descript container like a Ziploc bag or empty can before throwing it away with the household trash. This will keep the medicine from seeping into the environment.
Whatever you do, don't flush medications down the toilet, as I once did! Some medications can actually release chemicals into the sewage system, which then could eventually get back to humans via our drinking water. It's not known how these minute traces of pharmaceuticals might affect us, however, rest assured the EPA is "aggressively pursing research on occurrence and fate and transport of pharmaceuticals in various water sources, possible health effects in humans and aquatic life, and the effectiveness of water treatment technologies."
So, there now. Go clean out your medicine cabinet. While you're at it, toss that hip-in-2002 green eye-shadow and three-year old mascara! Not to mention rusty bobby pins (you just never get around to doing that chic chignon you always imagine will complete your LBD ensemble), that stinky body cleanser you got in the dollar bin at Target and any other items you haven't touched or used in a year.
Ahhh, doesn't that feel better?
