home organization

I am simply out of control. We don't have a television and so instead of watching the Olympics the last two weeks, I worked on systematizing and organizing my house. I know, it's all I can talk about. But I want to share a few of the ideas I am trying, ideas I found while reading all of the Pam and Peggy books, articles on organizedhome.com and Fly Lady. Hopefully one or two of these ideas will inspire you to tackle a stressful area in your home too. Because I cannot tell you how sincerely pleased I feel when I walk into my clean kitchen. And it has stayed clean for two weeks now! As in completely company-ready clean! Something huge has been figured out, and I not only feel happy that I have a clean kitchen, I actually feel happy while keeping it clean. For real.

Now they say that when you start something new you should start slow and take baby steps. But I'm all for drinking from a fire hose, so here are a whole lot of ideas that have had a huge impact on helping me keeping my house tidy:

This station is set up on the shelves under our grow lights. From March to May we have little seeds growing on these shelves, but from May to March they are covered in clutter. So even though these plastic bins may not looks super sightly, they are a HUGE improvement from the random possessions that gathered there for ten months of the year. I have a basket for things that need to go Back To The Barn.  I keep my Library Books and bags on this shelf as well as a bin for Kids Art that I want to keep. My favorite bin is for Things To Return. Amazing. There is now a place for tupperware left at my house, things I want to bring back to a store, stuff that needs to be donated, returned to church. It all goes in the bin. And there is a bin for Sentimental Papers. This one is also a favorite. It's used for the nice card I want to keep but don't know where to put. Or the pictures my dad brings over from my childhood (they are sorting all of their pictures this summer). It's stuff I want to keep but have no home for. All in all, I adore this space. It has given a 'home' to many random things and my counter stays clear because of it.

My folks always had cubbies for each person in our family growing up. This is my spin on it. We had lots of room above the microwave so I had Rory cut a board to set on the microwave with two boards drilled in to make three compartments: Rory, Becca and checkbooks. Now anything that I find that Rory might want to look at (mail, handouts, random anything) can go right in his cubby and off the counter. Then we are both responsible to go through the stuff.

The premise of Pam and Peggy is that Sidetracked Home Executives (me!) are easily distracted and basically lack direction. But if given a task, they can get it done. So these are my to do lists for each morning and night. And I love them. I don't do every single thing every single night. But I do a whole lot of them most nights and I love the rhythm this is building. Plus, by doing them every day they're just not that big of a deal. Cleaning daily makes everything more manageable. (That last sentence makes me think I might just be Pam and Peggy's teacher's pet...)

Hold onto your aprons. This one is one of my favorites. They compartmentalize their days. This doesn't mean that every Tuesday for the rest of my life will be errand day. But it does mean that each week I look at my calendar and decide which day will be errand day (groceries, dollar tree, library) and save all the running around town for that day. Also, I'm not actually going to bake on Thursdays, but I do love the idea of a day to prepare food that I eat each week (grain-free granola, hummus, and any other meal prep that will make the week easier.)

Actually, this is my absolute favorite. One of the days they designate is called Desk Day. This day is the day you tackle your paper to-do. Imagine this: I am cleaning off my kitchen counter and find an invitation and I need to rsvp. So I take the invite and walk to my computer where I open my gmail where I find a few more emails that I read. I do rsvp to the invitation, but because I just read an email from Rory, I now need to call the doctor and change an appointment time. So I call and change that appointment, read a few blogs and only later that night do I see that kitchen counter and wonder why I can never get it cleared off.

Aha! Behold the Desk Day folder (or the back of my household binder). This is the place for all the paper that requires an extra thing to do. I need to cancel my Kohl's card. I need to send a gift to a friend having a baby shower I can't attend, I need to write a thank you for a kind letter sent to me. Now these all go into the folder so that on Desk Day I can respond to each of them. Desk Day is also the day you are supposed to make your weekly menu plan and grocery list and errand list (based on the 'things to return' bin.) It's a quiet day to get lots of the relational and planning tasks done. People! Do you love this?!! I love it so much!!!

I spent three hours one night going through every cookbook I own and finding our favorite recipes. Then I googled those recipes, found them online, printed each one (some I took out of their original cook book and washi taped to a piece of paper right in the book), compiled them in this binder and made our own family cook book. The next night I typed up a recipe index and wrote down possible sides for each recipe so I can just look at this index page on Desk Day to pick our menu for the week.

I also typed up a grocery list with our breakfast and lunch staples. It's in the order of the store with plenty of room to add whatever I need for our dinners. This way I can print out the master grocery list and then write in the rest of the items.

This little index card box is the heart of The Sidetracked Home Executives. It's basically your to do list broken up onto individual cards. You'll have to read the book to get the full explanation, but what I love, love, love about these cards is that on each one you are supposed to write only one task, and how long it should take to accomplish. Then, if it is a cleaning day, you can divvy the cards out to your kids and say, "I need you to wipe down the dresser in Hattie's room with a wet wipe. It should only take you three minutes. When you're done, you need to put this card back in my box." It clearly defines what you need done, and sort of makes the cards the bad guys, not the mom that is assigning the jobs. (And do you love this file box?!! Elsie Anderson was the Elsie that our little girl was named after. I love having her signature right there!

And finally, this is my personal work space. I got clever and made it in the laundry room. Rory had put this little counter up for me as a surface for folding clothes after something I saw on pinterest. But lets be honest, I never folded a thing on this counter! So I have made this laundry room my home base. The striped binder with our christmas card on it is my household binder. I love it. And I based it off of this girl's youtube video. (She's a kick!) It's another great place for paper clutter. But I'll spare you a full explanation because I know this is getting long...

So that's it folks! It's all new and I don't suppose all of it will stick. But even if a few of these methods work, I'll be worlds ahead of where I am right now. And I'm hopeful. There is a lot I still need to do by September 7 (our family's first day of school) but I love the thought that some of these other daily and weekly tasks are set into motion to help get us off on the right foot!