Friday, April 25, 2014

Organizing Woes @ Home

I run a pretty tight ship at home as for as organization goes.  We've never lived in really spacious places over the course of our married lives so that has forced me to be even more organizationally conscious (that's a thing right??).  
Many areas of my home are nicely organized...
bathroom drawers
toiletries
my pantry
refrigerator
patio
kitchen cabinets
bookshelves
baby's bedroom
my accessories
my car
my desk

BUT I'm always struggling with ways to organize...
Baby TOYS
 I have lots of containers but sometimes feel like they have invaded my home.
My baby is approaching one and our current routine is lots of baskets so that everything has a home and I do the tidying up now.  She's too little to help but I'm excited for her to learn the importance of picking up as she gets older.

My husband's bookshelf 
(where he puts his wallet, keys, contents of his pockets, etc. each day)
 I have containers for him to put his things but it only lasts a day or two then the dumping starts again.  He doesn't mind digging through his rubble to find what he needs in that space.  In the past, I've just cleaned and recleaned it periodically.  I am kind of over it.  So now I've started ignoring this area and using some Love and Logic/natural consequences for him - haha.

Our master closet
is always in need of tidying up and I blame it on the awkward closet
I tend to take off an outfit and toss it into a pile rather than hang it up.  My husband has a hanging rack on the door so he kind of ignores the inside of the closet.  We have our laundry baskets inside the closet, our current clothes for the season are hanging and the other seasons are stored in containers.

Any tips for how I should go about fixing my plan in those areas?
What are your PROBLEM AREAS of organization at home??

7 comments:

  1. Kid toys are always such a problem! I don't really have a solution! But, have you seen those contraptions at Target (probably other places too) that look like a wooden book shelf, but it hold bins instead? Those are great at corralling toys and odds and ends, which is what Henry has! We keep his in his closet to keep his room looking, overall, cleaner. ;) My big problem is paper organization! I have the hardest time throwing away things my kids have made. I've started photographing everything and that helps to toss stuff, but I still need to let more of it go. I would love your thoughts!

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  2. Organizationally conscious- totally a thing! The toys are the bane of my household. I have 5 kids- that's a lot of toys. We finally had to make a rule last year that all toys have to stay in the kid's bedrooms. They can bring the toys downstairs in the daytime to play but they have to take them back upstairs at night or I collect them in a big trash bag. Then they have to do dreaded chores to earn their toys back. So far it's working. As far as organization goes, we bought the bin system from IKEA for the little kid's room to help keep their toys separated and organized. Baskets didn't work for us, there was just too much stuff to keep contained in baskets.

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  3. The kid toys eventually take care of themselves! My babies are now 9 and 13 and I wish I still had the baby toy problem. Enjoy it while it lasts:)! Now it's electronic doodads and huge tennis shoes - haha!

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  4. We went through that at the beginning of the year. I have two kids (5 and 2) and we live in a 2-bedroom apartment. Toy rotation was the solution that worked for us! I wrote about it here.

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  5. For my grandkids room that I have now I have book shelves with heavy duty straw bins and other decorative boc containers to hold small everyday toys like army men, knights, my little ponies etc). Their books, games and DVDs are also housed their. I use rubber maid containers (one for boys and one for girls) to hold dishes, pots and pans, food for their kitchen and larger cars, boats, trains (fisher price little people sets). It Is easy to get in and out off and they can pretty much clean up themselves. My daughter has a similar set up in her kids playroom only on a larger scale. I agree with the previous commentor, it goes so fast and you'll miss the mess soon enough. Until you get grandkids that is.

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  6. Kid toys are the worrrrrrst!! Haha! I got shelves from target for cheap and put fabric bins in the square openings. This is still like having containers but it gives the containers an organized place to be. I found some bins earlier this week that had a clear window on one side so you don't have to guess what's inside.

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  7. I forgot to mention, leave your husband shelve. It probably likes it that way and it will just frustrate you. As far as closets go, I'm trying to figure that one out myself. I'll visit you later to see how you resolved that one. I need all the ideas I can get. Joining you from Kelly's SUYL.

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