Today I am going to take a pause in the seriousness of my last few posts. I really feel the need to let you all into my heart for organizing before I throw out a million random projects, thus all this intensity. I will leave this series of posts on my blog for the long haul, under Organization 101. But, there really is some fun to come! Here is a fun DIY project from my daughter’s room – cheap artwork! (click photo for details)
Decoupage Wall Art
I also want to preview some of things I plan to share in my upcoming posts. Yes, this is my attempt to coerce you into hanging with me for a few more philosophical posts!
Fall Clean Up! Please tell me I am not the only one that has chaos on many levels by the end of summer! My kids put on their fancy new outfits and head off to school looking so nice and I am stuck in a house that looks like a tornado hit. (Seriously who am I kidding – I can’t get my son to wear anything but athletic shorts but you get the point!) I find that all that summer fun has left me with a serious mess! I will post my projects as I re-organize their closets, (hint: school clothes in, summer clothes stained and shrunk!) pack up the summer toys, get my mud room ready for an Iowa winter… ugh!
My kiddos on their first day of school! I know… the proud mamma just had to throw those in!
School Has Started! I’ll share with you my tips and systems to control school papers and art and lunch boxes and homework and activity schedules and …. (a bigger ugh!)
This is a little sneak peek of our mud room wall, which is the hub of the endless papers that come and go on a daily basis, our keys, our crazy schedule… Speaking of a crazy schedule, mornings are the worst! Anyone that knows me can attest to the fact that I am NOT a morning person! If I must be awake a 5am I would rather have stayed up that late, than drag myself out of bed to the sound of an alarm. Fortunately, my kids have learned at very young ages to, “leave mommy alone when she’s sleeping”! But, my tendency to sleep late could easily complicate our mornings.
Recently my kids seem to have gotten the hang of their morning tasks. They are completing them on their own and then play or watch a show until I get up. (Really it’s only about 20-30 minutes at most and many times my husband is still home – I promise they aren’t starting the day off with a full Disney movie before my feet hit the floor!) But I can say a morning routine has really helped things go smoothly in our house. (I must digress for a moment: every time I have typed “morning” for this post I have accidentally typed “mourning” – even my subconscious hates mornings!)
So today I’d like to share another thing I plan to include in my blog posts: FREEBIES! And, who doesn’t love a freebie – even if you don’t need it, you still love it! Actually a lot of us end up with a lot of clutter due to “freebies” and “really good deals”, but more on that another day. If you’ve been wanting to reinforce a morning routine with your kids or have come to realize that a routine might mellow your morning a bit, here’s a handy checklist…
Click on Image to Download a Printable Copy
Most of these are self-explanatory, but I just want to clarify that I don’t make my kids clean their room every morning. I really am not that OCD! This is something that we are still working on, but it is about P.J’s not being on the floor and any books or toys they used that morning being put away.
Although I could probably keep my blog busy for the rest of the year on posts about paper clutter, school papers, organizing schedules, and managing the mass of stuff that comes in and out of the door with children every school day, we WILL talk about other more fun things as well!
My “TO DO” List! I’ll humble myself! and show some of the projects on my long-standing to do list – complete with before and after photos! My pantry is one of those, actually my whole kitchen. Remember that AWESOME pantry of my first post. Well it inspired me to pretty up my pantry a bit, and that snowballed into an entire kitchen re-organization project. Another area – still in progress – is my mudroom / laundry room. It has “functioned” for a while , but needed some “fine-tuning” to make it function a little better.
Your “TO DO” List! Some of you will also have the opportunity to send in an item off your to do list, so that we can brainstorm a new solution together and then inspire some others!
For my next two posts I will return to “Organization 101”. I am so thankful you are continuing to read my posts! And, if you have not subscribed to my blog, you can do that using the link in the right hand column to make sure you know when the project posts get rolling!