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8.09.2016

Staying Organized with Kids

Seriously?  That first day of school hit me like a ton of bricks.  I am not caving to the thought that summer is over, nope, not until Labor Day when I will finally trade summer in for fall and winter.  I mean, it just gets shorter and shorter every single year.



We have four kids and piles and piles of stuff and I am not a girl who does piles and stuff well.  We are only a week in for the middle child and on day 2 for the little one and I already see stuff everywhere.  And I do mean every where.  This morning I was greeted with a slew of Harry Potter books on the table, random pencils and someones unmatched sock collection.  My eyebrows were up and I was only one cup on coffee in ... #badplan.


When I reworked the laundry room in April of last year for the Spring One Room Challenge I added in a mud room wall and a bench with baskets for their shoes.  This has made a huge difference in containing book bags, swim bags and the shoes that seem to collect all over the house.  For some reason I still have a random pair of shoes that creeps under my desk (as there is at the moment) or a pair of chapel shoes by the front door but for the most part those shoes are happily snug in their baskets.  


The mess I seem to be struggling with most at the moment are the books, papers, ear buds and random sets of things that we "don't need today" at school. Basically, the bane of my existence.  It is time to rethink my organization and make a few changes for the new school year.


I always make binders for each child for the new year.  These are perfect for school papers I need at a moments notice along with their schedules and extra circular activities.  For the moment it would house Little Bit's new swim schedule, her class schedule, the paper work she needs for a overnight field trip later this week and her class syllabuses.  All those papers you need to keep but seem to suck the life and space out of my planner.  A binder and some clear sleeves and that mess is contained perfectly.


I added a Elfa drawer frame to the left side of our washing machine to hold all the random folded clothes that appear and need to be put away.  Each of us does our own laundry which cuts down on a ton of work for me but there is always that random piece or two of laundry that ends up in the laundry room (or on my table) that needs to be addressed.  I put them here and then they are responsible for hunting the item down when they discover it "lost".  I may need another one of these in the side pantry for their random things.  I love these frames because you can customize them for your needs. I can easily trade out the drawers in them for a deeper size.


I also have my eye on a few of these storage bins from Scout.  I can stack them on the back stairs and toss in all of their random stuff. Think of it as a perfect lost and found, as in you clearly "lost" it and now you can "find" it organized and out of my space.  And the pattern and darling inside yellow stripe matches my kitchen perfectly.  I call that a win, win.

How do you tackle the mess?  I would love to hear your ideas, I am always up for inspiration!!

Happy Tuesday lovies ...

4 comments:

  1. Where is that perfect little check lampshade from?

    Also, I love the idea of having bins on the back stairs for a "lost and found." We could definitely benefit from that idea in my house!

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  2. Wherever they do homework, make sure there is a stash of paper, pencils, paper clips, notecards, and anything else they might need. This could be in a drawer or cabinet but keeps them from always going throu your desk for supplies. ��

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  3. That is the cutest laundry room ever! I love your Scout bag idea. When mine were all home and in school, I couldn't have made it without a dry erase calendar and a magnet/pin board. I re-framed/painted both to be cuter and then curated the marker colors to satisfy my aesthetic (and my ocd)! Still it really helped to have things "vertically visible" rather than in piles, which I dislike soooo much!

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  4. I'll be using your tip for keeping random school papers in a binder today! I'm the assistant principal at our elementary school so I already have all school papers in my office, and rarely need to keep any at home. But my oldest started middle school this year, and I have a stack of middle school papers sitting around that are driving me crazy. I think I've moved them 5 times since school started. They will be housed in a binder by the end of the day. Thank you!

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