Entries Tagged 'Kids Organizing & Products' ↓

A crucial part of home organization is maintaining your systems by staying on top of things.  When we have kids at home it is easy for toys, clothes and keepsakes to spread out quickly.  But even our own stuff can spiral out of control quickly.  I had someone tell me once that his family took 3 minutes at the end of every day to get things back in order.  At first 3 minutes doesn’t sound very long.  What can you get done in 3 minutes?  But that’s the beauty of it-everyone only has to pitch in for 3 minutes!

Before you start, make sure everyone knows what they are supposed to take care of.  Then set a timer and go!  Now remember, this is maintenance, it’s not for decluttering and organizing.   When you already have systems in place, then it is easy to restore order. 

Kids don’t like being sent off to go clean up in another room.  This makes it easier by involving parents too as a group effort and not just sending kids off on their own.  It also puts a time limit on the process so it doesn’t feel overwhelming.  You can do anything for 3 minutes!  Use this home organization tip before bed tonight and see just how much your family can accomplish in 3 minutes!

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You can easily organize your house if you have more than one level with something as simple as a basket!  It seems there is always something that needs to go upstairs in our house where the bedrooms and office are located.  Placing a decorative basket on the steps gives those items a temporary home and helps hide them a bit so you notice the basket more than the items inside.  Using a basket with a handle makes it very easy to grab it on your way up and take items to the various rooms they belong in. 

Another benefit of using a basket is that you can just grab it and go around the house quickly looking for items that need to go back to another room.  When my kids were little, often toys would come from their rooms to the downstairs family room.  Sending them in with a basket to clean up and transport toys back upstairs to their rooms came in very handy!

So, pull out one of those baskets you have been saving because you thought you would use it as a gift basket and start using it to keep your house organized!

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If you have kids that are able to pass clothing down to each other, it’s a double edged sword.  Great that you can get further use from them, but it also creates some organizing issues.  First, how to store the hand-me-downs and then how to remember who the clothing belongs to when you do the laundry.   Follow these easy closet organizing tips and keep your kid’s closets in tip top shape!

• Make sure the clothing that you plan to save truly is in good condition and you will feel good about your younger child wearing the items in the future. 
• Part with torn and stained clothing that doesn’t make the mark right away.

Clothing Storage:  Store future clothing in bins that have tight fitting lids.  Be sure to clearly label the outside with the child’s name, size and season on the outside. 

Store the bins out of the way in the child’s closet or some other part of the home where they are accessible.  We store ours out in the garage on a shelf.

Keeping tracking of clothing:  When it comes time for laundry day, sometimes it gets confusing when you see clothes you remember, especially if your kids aren’t too far apart in age and size.  How did you make sure the right child gets the right clothing? 

Invest in a Sharpie Laundry marker!  The first child gets one dot with the marker on their clothing tag.  When it gets passed down to the next child you add a second dot.  It makes it easy to know who owns what!

Follow these tips for easy closet organizing and get the most out of your children’s clothes and enjoy organized closets!

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Here are a few easy tips on how to declutter your kid’s closets so everyone can find what they need and get out the door on time in the morning!  Sounds great doesn’t it?

Declutter tip # 1  Only keep the current size your child is wearing within easy reach.  Use storage bins with lids to store the future sizes.  Be sure to label the outside with child’s name and clothing sizes for easy retrieval.

Declutter tip # 2   Keep clothing at child’s level so they can reach in and pick out their own clothing.

Declutter tip # 3  Keep a box at the bottom of the closet to toss in outgrown clothing for donation or for other siblings.   

Declutter tip # 4  Make sure toy sets are stored together in labeled baskets or bins.  If there are too many toys to fit in the closet, box some up and store elsewhere.  Every few months rotate toys by bringing them out and boxing up the others.  Kids will be thrilled to see them again!

How to declutter kid’s closets is easy with these simple steps!

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Every house with kids has all those little toys that they pick up here and there-you know the ones.  They come from goodie bags from each and every birthday party and surely they all include a rubber bouncy ball.  They come from every meal when you are in a hurry and make a dash to a fast food restaurant.  And when your kids really luck out-they come from a giant box at at garage sale for .10 cents each when someone else is unloading them. 

Well, a friend of mine rounds them all up and places them in a “Fun Bucket.”  I thought that was a great idea!  This is a good time of year with spring finally here to find a bright, plastic bucket and turn it into a “Fun Bucket!” 

Have your kids round up all those little “keepsakes” and load up the bucket.  This is a great time for them to decide if there are ones they really don’t want anymore and donate them.  Let them know that in order to add more to the “Fun Bucket” they have to make room by parting with some.

Organize kid’s little toys and goodies so they can find them and maybe part with some too!

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Well, here it is Sunday again, the day of  the week that my kids have to ‘get it together’ in their bedrooms.  If my world were perfect, every room in the house would be neat and tidy at the end of each and every day.  It turns out I’m not the only person who lives here and we aren’t all on the same page.  My kids have a different comfort level when it comes to their beds, floors and clothing, they happen to not really mind it being spread all around.  Now when I was a kid, I would stand at my door and check to make sure my bedspread was even on the edges before I went out to play.  I guess we are wired different that way. 

So, as a mom and a professional organizer, it’s my job to teach them the skills they need in life to be organized and part with items that they are done with and, yes, they have organizing wall units with labeled bins in their rooms.  As a mom and professional organizer, it’s also my job to honor the fact that being neat and organized isn’t as important to them as it is to me and give them a little leeway. 

So the solution in our house for organizing kid’s rooms, is every Sunday order needs to be restored.  It takes some of the pressure off of them and it gives their mom comfort that things won’t get TOO out of control!

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Whether you’re on a long road trip or a short trip around town, you always need supplies on hand to keep your kids busy in the car.  That ’stuff’ usually ends up on the seats, the floor, stepped on and generally makes a mess. 

Well, now you can round it all up and keep supplies neat, tidy and at your child’s fingertips with this High Road Kids Car Organizer from Cargo Gear!  This handy organizer snaps into the middle seatbelt to keep it from moving around and close to the back seat drivers who need it. 

Some key features:

• Surface for playing or drawing on
• Bin lid turns into a tray
• Adjustable dividers inside for storing CD’s, games, snacks and such
• 8 outside pockets to hold hand wipes, bottled water, crayons, games, etc.

Keep your kids busy and your car tidy with this nifty auto organizer!

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 Before baby is even born the cute little outfits start coming from excited grandmas, sales you can’t pass up and of course the baby shower.  Usually you end up with newborn sizes on up so the baby can have something nice to grow into.  It’s great to have such a variety, but how do you keep it organized so you don’t have any cutie outfits slip through the cracks only to be discovered after baby has outgrown it? 

Enter Closet Monkey:  Adorable jungle animals that divide and organize baby’s clothing from newborn to 24 months. 

A great way to organize your baby’s closet but also a great gift to help a  new mom take control of the clothing.  These closet organizers are cute and functional too!

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All parents know there’s a LOT of stuff that comes home from school, especially in the elementary school years.  What to do with all those special treasures of math sheets, cursive writing, art, stories?  Every once in a while you have a teacher who sends home an oversized scrapbook and you feel bad when the edges get beat up. 

First, be careful to really choose the projects that are special.  You can enjoy 3 pages of cursive writing from 3rd grade, you really don’t need 30-put a cap on it.  Don’t make looking at keepsakes an overwhelming job by keeping too much. 

So here’s an awesome product to solve the keepsake storage dilema! Schoolfolio  was created by an elementary teacher and mother of two-say no more.   Schoolfolio can hold projects up to 24″ x 18″ and weight of up to 40 pounds-see that’s still a lot of cursive!  It has 6 removable inserts, 25 preprinted labels as well as blank labels.   You can organize by grade level or content.

You can also purchase the Single in decorative designs.

Keep kid’s keepsakes organized, safe and easy to enjoy!

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Ok, if you’ve got kids, you’ve got stuffed animals.  Lots of them.  And chances are better than good that your kids don’t want to get rid of any of them.  Kids have an uncanny ability to remember exactly who gave them which stuffed animal.  Chances are also good that many if not all of them don’t get played with, they just sit on the floor or cover the entire bed.

Here’s a win-win solution to keep the stuffies, give them a home and even a dual purpose!  With this stuffed animal storage from Boon Inc., your kids can see their beloved stuffies and use them as a comfy chair too!  It’s even machine washable and comes in green as well.

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