Patrick's Room

This weekend I came to a conclusion: Patrick's perpetually messy room is my penance and my test.  There is no other explanation for why my son's room is in a constant state of disarray.  The endless papers, stuffed animals, books, dirty clothes, stray socks, and random treasures are only there to test my resolve and mock me.  He is a world-class slob and sometimes I am in such awe of his slovenly ways that my head doesn't explode from anger and frustration (that's only sometimes, usually my head explodes and I get a trash bag a curse under my breath for 45 minutes). 

and for the record, there is only way place in our house that rivals Patrick's mess....

My Office.  This is a good day.

Organization: legos and playroom

If you know my boys, you know that they love Legos.  They will play with Legos for hours and hours.  And they have successfully strewn approximately 52,774 Legos throughout my house.  I often think to myself as I vacuum their rooms and the PlayRoom, "I just vacuumed up $43 in Legos."  Legos are a mess.  That was before the baby.  Now add a precocious 15 month old to the mix and the mess just got really messy. 

Last year when my friend Ang told me that she sorted all of her son's Legos by color, I thought she was nuts, as it turns out she's a genius.  I did delve into the sorting last year.  I took all of the Lego Minifigs out of the general population and put them in their own container.  This was no small task since Keith enjoys removing every removable piece of Lego guy possible (and some non-removable pieces too), tiny hands, guns, hair, etc.

All that to say, I conquered the Legos and their wicked step-brothers Coloring Chaos. 

This is only the tip of the crayon, paper, marker, etc iceberg.  And this is the tidy version.

Legos live here..... And 75 other places.

Going into this project I was pretty sure that I was going to have to purchase some kind of storage container.  I was initially considering the 5 gallon Home Depot bucket with the tool organizer for the coloring supplies.  But that's still $10 and I would probably need at least 2.  I also was thinking that I needed to buy more storage drawers.  That's when I realized that I have two additional sets of storage drawers that are currently being (ineffectively) used for coloring supplies.  So I dumped all of the coloring in one place and started sorting Legos by color.

The stacker/sorter thing to the left sorts Legos by size.  I used this to get my tiny pieces sorted and find all of the MiniFig parts.

Once I was done sorting I checked the inventory and was happy that I had enough room!  We have lots of Star Wars, so the biggest drawers are a Black/White/Gray and a Green/Brown.  I also have the teeny tiny pieces that my boys love playing with in two drawers, instructions and vehicles in seperate drawers.  The rest of the colors Red, Yellow/Orange, Blue and Pink/Purple all got small drawers.  The final drawer is a bigger drawer for Legos that "need to be sorted."

Red, Yellow/Orange, Blue, Pink/Purple, To Be Sorted

Instructions, Vehicles, Tiny Pieces (2), Green/Brown, Black/White/Gray

Next up: Coloring supplies.

After sorting Legos I realized that the Lego sorting boxes were perfect for crayons, markers, etc.  So I went through several bags and boxes of writing and coloring utensils.  I checked every pen and marker, tossed lame non-Crayola crayons, set broken crayons aside for crafting and sorted by type.  That included sorting the skinny crayons from the chunky crayons.

There it is!  I threw away the magazines in the magazine holders and put coloring books in one and workbooks in the other.

Then I found all of the wayward flashcards and put them in the former Minifig container.  Loose worksheets, math facts, hand-writing practice pages, and speech homework pages are in the white binder.  Clipboards, spiral notebooks are up there too. 

It took me all week.  Mostly because I had a little helper: Little Miss Can't Be Sleeping.  But it is so nice to be able to tidy the room quickly.  And to see the boys play with Legos that they didn't even know they had!  Total Cost $0

Organization: Crafts

My first task was to organize my crafts and the kids' crafts.  The challenge: space (we don't have much) and money (we don't have any).  I love all of the cool organization tricks on Pinterest but I no longer have the luxury of a walk-in closet for my crafts.  I have this:

My initial thought was to pull everything together.  Figure out what I had.  Try to figure out how to store it and eventually make it happen.  I figured I was in for the long haul because it would take some money to contain all of our crafting stuff.  I was wrong!  I made this happen in one day (the kids helped me finish after dinner) with no money. 

Here's the before:

Well now!  Aren't you the messy one!  Let's just close the door.  What's that?  You can't close the door? 

Remember last year I confessed that I have a lot of cleaning supplies?  Well I'm down to my last three bottles of Scrubbing Bubbles!

Here's how I usually craft.  Get an idea, purchase supplies, create craft (or not), throw leftovers on top of everything else, realize that I already owned everything I needed to craft, growl, REPEAT.

And here's the after:

This is my stuff AND the kids stuff!  I have a whole basket of assorted glue (what?).

PROBLEM #1 RIBBON
Dear Ribbons,
Stop jumping into my cart at Michael's.
Love,
Mama Lou

I bought these bins at Joann's a few years ago.  Good idea in theory but I'm too messy for this kind of thing to work.  So the bins graduated to craft storage and the ribbons went their own way....

My solution for my ribbons came from  craftystorage I kept the (surprising quantity of) unopened ribbons in one of my plastic boxes.  I wrapped the small cut pieces around clothespins. Then I unwrapped the already opened spools and rewrapped them around box tops.



 PROBLEM #2 ODDS AND ENDS
When I pulled everything out of the closet and added the kids' stuff I realized that I owned more do-dads than I knew (pompoms, googly eyes, grommets, glass beads, and on and on).  The clear jars of the inventory will help me see everything (although I will always be tempted to purchase googly eyes at Michael's).

I will finish the game room closet as I tackle Legos and crayons.  These two items (crayons and Legos) are attempting a whole house take-over.  I WILL NOT BE DEFEATED!

In conclusion, the total cost of this project was $0.  I searched high and low for clear glass containers in my cabinets, cupboards and closets.  I mostly used old jam jars that were hanging out in 25 different places.  And  Kevin may or may not decide that he needs to start drinking his beer out of XXL beer steins (after 8 years).  At that point we will have to relocate the foamies and misc dollar store items. 

One of those weeks

Have you ever had one of those weeks?  It isn't a bad week, just an organizationally challenged week.  The kind of week when your boys run out of clean socks.
The kind of week when you forget an appointment and spend an extra $40 to feed your family.
The kind of week when you realize on Wednesday that the milk isn't going to last until shopping day on Friday.
The kind of week when your baby pukes on an outfit before you have even put it on her. 
The kind of week when you focus on your to-do list and continue to forget to do things.

So in honor of this organizationally challenged week, I'm going to show you my new organization system.  All of you parents of school-aged children know how much paper comes home every day from school.  I am pretty diligent about sorting, signing and sending it off to where it belongs.  But I hate clutter on my counters and some things need a second look or to be saved for a later date or reviewed by Dad (what do you do other than stack this crap on the counter?).  I also have been trying to save money, use coupons and get better about menu planning.  There's a lot of paper that goes along with this process!  So......

Our new back of the pantry door organization system.

 I implemented this system before school started and it has worked brilliantly.  All you need is:
1) A pack of file pocket folders
2) 3M picture hangers
3) Letter stickers
4) Clips

 The boys got red and yellow (obviously).  I put the folders low enough so that Patrick can reach his.  Patrick's folder is mostly homework. Having one place to put things makes the whole process so much easier.   I also clip any items for the week (money for snack shack, reminders about school events) to the outside of the folder.  Smaller items also get put on the front clip.

 Keith's folder has information for the month about Kindergarten, speech homework and coloring pages. 

 The food folder contains: coupons, menus, Costco coupons, recipes and weekly ads.  Thing of beauty.

 I wasn't sure what I would use the fourth, unlabeled folder for but it has quickly become the MISC. folder.  Field trip information, school menus, any information that comes home and cannot be sent back or trashed gets stuck in this folder. 

Here are my Mod Podge clippies.  Easy.
EDITED TO SAY: The clips serve a dual purpose.  Since the expanding folders like to expand, the clips keep everything nice and tight.  Otherwise the folders gape open.

Do you want to know how I know this system was a good idea?  Patrick said to me, "Mom, why didn't you think of this before?"

Trying to wrestle the beast.

The junk/paper/chaos beast that slowly takes over the corners and crevices of our house. The beast fills up drawers with junk, covers counter space with odds and ends and drapes itself across any open area. FlyLady says these are Hot Spots. With the amount of paper we receive for Kindergarten and our general life of chaos, our laundry room is a HUGE Hot Spot for the beast.

It is not strange for this room to look like this.
BOYS LOCKER

I think the problem is about TOO much storage. Too much counter space, too many drawers (two junk drawers in this room, another one right outside and 4 more in the kitchen), and too much counter space.

I wish this was all laundry on the floor. It is some combination of dirty clothes and random things that need to be taken care of. And you can see the top of our locker....
We needed help. With all of this storage we were still struggling to keep track of everything coming in and out of the house during the week.
So after a lot of thought and shopping, I bought this.....
The point of this is to sort, organize and plan. Papers, uniforms, borrowed/forgotten toys to return to friends, out-going mail, coupons, etc. is organized into the day that it needs to be handled. It is also a good way to keep track of homework, not to mention a quick way to know what to grab in the morning. If I am traveling early in the morning, everything Kevin needs for the day is right there. On Sundays I write checks, sign forms, prepare mail, and coordinate the weeks activities with this thing. No question, a good use of $20.

The other problem is the lingering mail situation. So I bought this.....

This came from Lillian Vernon and is a tool to keep the other Hot Spot (that drives me crazy because there is not a door to shut out the chaos), the kitchen counter. Mail and school papers and toys and phones and keys love chilling on the counter. When Kevin is working I pile stuff up there for him until it makes me so crazy I move it to the laundry room (productive, I know). Kevin leaves behind bits and pieces for me when I am working. This is a place to not only leave incoming mail but also put magazines and kindergarten newsletters and other propaganda that needs to be considered. So I added this...



This is not a storage facility. Everything in this thing has to be dealt with on a regular (if not daily) basis. Read it, deal with it and move it along. Things with a longer shelf life (BILLS) go right into the bill organizer to be handled at the end of the month. Receipts go into the receipt organizer to be dealt with or tossed.

More than these new fixtures, I am trying really hard to get us to just deal with things right away. Otherwise the beast is going to move back in and I am going to leave for the loony bin.