Creating Margin in Your Life

I have been working hard to create margin in our lives.  

It's taken a lot of work on my part, but my whole family is starting to see proof around the house.  Many areas around our house are no longer filled to the max.  We have empty spaces on shelves, free space in closets and it feels like our house has breathing room.  I still have a ways to go - I'm talking to my garage, holiday closet and cabinets.  But I wanted to document my progress in the hopes of inspiring you to reorganize, declutter and claim back some free space in your home.

I will never fall into the catergory of a minimalist.  That is not my goal.  I just hope to have a house filled with things we love and use.  Not a storage unit for clutter and chaos.

This cozy corner of our primary bedroom makes me smile.  The two books that I have read this year are on my nightstand and no clutter.  No toy baskets or junk.  Just the prettiest essentials.

Olive mentioned that it would be fun to have a cozy reading spot in her closet.  I worked hard to clear out the clutter and give her a cozy spot to hang out if she wanted to.  Kids and cats really do like cozy little spots to snuggle up in.

When the boys saw that Olive's closet had been cleaned out, they requested the same for their closet.  I spent the weekend reorganizing boy clothes that get passed down from Fletcher to Leo and now they have a cozy spot to enjoy in their closet.  It really is a breath of fresh air to open the kid's closets and have plenty of room to grow.

After adding some shelves in all of our downstairs closets, we have been able to reorganize and get things up off of the floor.  I love seeing the clean and clear pantry floor when I go into our walk in pantry.  I bake a ton and love a good cake plate.  That means my shelves are full of things that I love.

And lastly, this table tends to attract clutter of games and toys on the bottom shelf.  We reorganized a bit and only kept a few games in the baskets.  This space feels much friendly and easier to access for us.  The shelf could hold a lot more, but we tend to avoid using any of the games if we have to dig through layers and layers of clutter.

Disclaimer: I do want to acknowledge that you might find yourself in a season of life where space is tight and every inch of your home is being used.  That's okay.  We lived that way for a lot of years.  We loved our 900 sq ft one bedroom apartment when we lived in Utah, but it was packed to the brim.  There wasn't a lot of breathing room.  It was fine.  We survived.  If I could go back in time, I'd probably try to declutter as much as I could and enjoy my home.  We were just doing our best!

So do what you need to do, and see if there is anything you could donate, sell, consign or gift to free up some space in your home!!  

Let me know if you have any questions about making margin in your home.  

I do have one warning.  Once you start freeing up space, you'll probably be motivated to work on making margin in your whole home! It just feels so good!

Ask for Help with Dinner

I don't know about you, but it is daunting to come up with delicious dinners every night.  It's a lot of extra decisions to cook dinner most nights that your family will enjoy.  It requires grocery shopping, organizing, planning, prepping and preparing and some times that feels like too much work.  We grab dinner out (Door Dash or take out on the weekends) and then I cook most nights.

We started something new in February with our dinner routine and I have loved it so much!

I started asking for help with dinner.

I assigned each person a week and when it is their week, they help me come up with the dinner menu.  We look in the freezer, fridge and pantry to help come up with the menu and then I add new items needed to the grocery list for the week.  So far each person has loved helping me with the menu.  They haven't always loved being my kitchen helper for the week, but I kind of expected that.  When it is their week, they are in charge of setting and helping clear the table, getting drinks, helping me with dishes and helping prepare dinner.  I don't think anyone would call those fun jobs.  They're just absolutely necessary life skills.

My formula is super simple.  

Print out a free monthly calendar online.  Assign each person a week.  Pick a day to work on the menu for the week.  Pencil in dinners & maybe even a special treat for the week.  Penciling everything in allows for you to make changes as things come up during the week.  Shop and prepare like you usually do and ask your kitchen helper for a little extra help on their week.  I hung our menu on the week and the whole family is paying attention to dinner.  They're noticing and getting excited to put their favorite meals on the menu. We have had good conversations about seasonally appropriate foods, not having ground beef every night and meals that would work best for busy nights.

Chicken Quesadillas

Homemade Hibachi

White Chicken Chili

It has been so nice to have extra help in the kitchen!  I have enjoyed this routine and will continue it in the months to come.

How do you do your weekly menu planning?  Would my routine work for your family?

Is it Time to Declutter Your House?

Do you have piles everywhere?

Closets that are filled to the max?

Rooms that you can't really use?

Do you feel stressed about organizing all your stuff?

Do your kids hate helping pick up toys because there are so many?

Do you keep buying storage containers for all of your things?

If you said YES to any of those, 

I have an idea that I know will help you.

Start getting rid of things.

Throw things away that are past their expiration, damaged or worn.

Donate items that you know people could use.

Consign or Sell valuable items that could make you a little money like kid's clothes, adult clothes in good condition, shoes, purses, toys, holiday decor and home goods.

Share items that you think a friend or family member might like.

I snapped this picture at the beginning of the year and felt proud.  There weren't baskets everywhere and it felt like our family room was light and airy.

Last year I started feeling like none of the spaces in our home had breathing room.  So many cabinets and closets were filled to the max.  Cleaning became frustrating for me and for the kids.  Organizing felt never ending despite me often organizing our spaces.  I had the urge to buy more containers and then I realized I really just needed to purge items from our home.

I set up an account at a local consignment shop, and this is going to sound nerdy, but last year I made 34 drop consignment drop offs!!  I kept track because the numbers were motivating to me.  I'm setting the same goal for this year - drop off as much as possible to get rid of clutter from our house.

The kids gave gotten good at giving me clothes and toys that they outgrow.  I consign Olive and Leo's clothes and then save Fletcher's clothes for Leo.  Kevin and I are always purging our own belongings.  He'd tell you that he doesn't love doing it, but he appreciates the efforts to tidy up our house and the consignment checks!

I regularly declutter things from all areas of our house - kitchen, office, toys, books, garage, holiday and home decor.  I am trying very hard to only have things we use and things we love in our house.

I loving seeing clear corners, cabinets with free space in them and knowing that our house isn't so full.  I keep a consignment corner in our garage.  That way any time I come across something that needs to go I have a spot for it.  Then I work on filling boxes to drop off during the week. My store has a strict drop off schedule so having a spot in my garage to hold things until it's time to drop them off helps me clear out the house and the clutter.

I also started buying less and being more thoughtful about what I'm adding to our home.  But that's a story for another day.  Little changes to buy less and get rid of things you no longer love will make a big difference!

If any of this sounds familiar or sounds interesting, I think it's time to start decluttering your house!!

You will love having less stuff to manage.

Do you have any decluttering questions for me?  I'd love to help you!

Take Care of the Quick Fixes

Are there things around your house that are problem areas that could be taken care of with a quick fix?

Fix them this month!

I've got a few examples of things that have been problem areas that I have been working to fix in the new year.  They have all been inexpensive and made all the difference.

1. A Stocked Homework Station

Our pencils all needed sharpened and our erasers were all used up.  I would have to grab several pencils just to get one that was sharpened and one that had a good eraser at homework time.  It added stress to our homework routine.  I decided one day to sharpen all the pencils and added a pack of eraser pencil toppers to my grocery pick up order.  Problem solved for under $2.  Homework gets off to a much better start now that the pencils are all ready to go!

2. Valentine Shopping

Fletcher needs class valentines and Olive's class is doing a different project.  I ordered everything we needed on Amazon or grabbed it at the store in January.  This way we're all set up to assemble valentines for school in a few days.  We won't have to scramble at the last minute to get what we need.

3. Towel Hooks

Our primary bathroom only came with one towel rack.  It's not enough, but I haven't found another spot or another towel rack that I love.  I grabbed some towel shower hooks for our glass door.  They're great!  The towels dry and are up off the floor.  I solved the problem myself without drilling any holes in the walls.

They come in several finish options and hold the towels really well with their nonslip grip on the hooks.  They look expensive, but are just under $12. 

 

 

These have all been quick fixes that have made my life easier!  A few other fixes that are on my radar for February are: find some tall, skinny baskets for my pantry floor, print current photos to fix frames we already own and sort out the wall art I have for our house and have Kevin help me hang it.

What quick fixes could you take care of this month?

It's time to START

Do you have drop zones in your house that collect clutter?

Or cabinets that spill out contents when you open them?

Or have drawers that are hard to open or close because they are so full?

 

I have several drop zones that collect clutter - the mud room, the kitchen counter, command center and the laundry room - come to my mind first.

I am always having to keep a close eye on those locations and declutter them often.

My family just seems to drop things there and then I manage the things.  Since my kids are little I do a lot of the organizing with them or for them.  Hopefully they're learning skills to be able to do it on their own eventually.

I write "declutter" on my daily to do list.  I just work on whatever needs it most that day.  This has really helped me to keep close tabs on keeping areas tidy.  If you do a little work every day, it's much easier to keep your home organized.

I want to encourage you today to pick one of those problem areas in your house and tidy it up today!  It's the perfect time to start.  You can set a time for 10-15 minutes and see how much you can get done.  If it's a big mess, it might take you a couple of sessions to tackle it, but I bet you have a lot of spots in your house that you could fix and tidy up in just 15 minutes.

I'll show you the process at my house and hopefully you'll get some ideas for doing the same decluttering at your house.  It's easy - it's free - and you can make it quick!

Command Center: After - it looks so much better & I know exactly what is here.

Command Center: Before.  It was a big mess.  A dumping ground for all the back to school supplies and mail and clutter.  It was hard to find anything.

I decluttered the command center to the left and then realized that I only really use 2 canisters to the right.  I put the 3rd one in my pantry and freed up a little more counter space.  I try hard to keep as little as possible out on my counters.

Our mudroom bench is another drop zone for art supplies, school stuff and just general junk.  This bench was full and hard to use.  I cleared everything off and put it back where it belonged.  Much better!  Each kid has a hook for their backpack and a shoe basket for their shoes.  Their coats go here in the winter.  It works perfectly for us.

Declutter your fridge.  Keep close tabs on your leftovers so you aren't wasting food.  I keep my leftovers in a certain section of my fridge.  I always look there first when I'm figuring out what to eat for lunch or what to reheat for dinners.  Organize your fridge - wipe things down - and it'll be much easier to use up the food you have.

Warning: If you've got little ones around, they might find their own ways to stay busy while you're busy organizing.  Leo gave himself some pretty sweet tattoos :)

You can do it!  I'm here (along with Penny!) to cheer for you as you tackle a problem area or two in your home this week.  If you need some encouragement in this area - comment below or email me (polkadottyplace@hotmail.com) and I would love to touch base with you about organizing!

What areas of your home would you like to work on first?

Road Trip Favorites

Happy Friday!  I hope you've had a great week.  It's been a good week at our house.  It's always good to come home after vacation.  We are all happy to be back in our own beds with our cats.

Naples Fun Part 1

Naples Fun Part 2

Today I'm going to talk to you about all of our road trip favorites.

We just got back from an 18+ hour drive each way from Indiana to Florida.  There were stressful moments, but overall it was great for all of us.  Our kids are 8, 5 and 1.  They all were pretty happy to be along or the ride.

1. Meal Prep and Plan Your Snacks

We always feel better when we travel if I take the time to pack healthy snacks.  It's not hard.  It just takes a little extra planning and a grocery pick up run to make it happen.  I used throw away storage containers, ziploc bags and popped all of this in a cooler in our van.  We snacked on it and had a finger food lunch in the car.  Everyone loved eating their favorite foods on the go.  And it eliminated some stress of finding good food options along the way.

This was a good way for the one year old to eat snacks independently.  He wants no help these days.  I put a few bites of food in a plastic cup for him - apple slices, cheetos, crackers, fries, etc.  He loved having his own food cup.

2 . Driving at Night

This was our second year to head out around bedtime. Kevin slept during the day.  I packed and loaded the car.  We ate dinner, changed the kids into their pjs and got on the road.  Each kid had their own pillow, blanket and favorite animals near their car seats.  

 

3. Restrooms for Everyone

We left around 8:00pm.  Stopped at 10, 2 and 8 for restroom breaks and then breakfast.  If the kids woke up when we stopped, we took them to the restroom or changed their diaper.  These regular stops kept us from having to make any emergency stops.  The kids would wake up at stops and then go right back to sleep when we got on the road.

This sweet moments was 2am at some random gas station.  They were all happy, smiling and so sweet.  They're great little travelers.

4. Plan for stops to stretch your legs.

We got out of the car for breakfast and a few other quick stops to stretch our legs.

5. Flexible seating

This depends on your vehicle, but if you can offer flexible seating, do it!  We had a plan for our kid who gets car sick, a plan for me to sit by the baby if he needed some extra attention, and a plan to rotate the bigger things like the cooler if I needed to move seats to the back.  Leo loved this!

6. Entertainment options

We packed DVDs, fully charged tablets, toys, surprise toys and new toys.  Dum Dums for the baby and favorite snacks for everyone else.  The variety of things helped the kids pass the time.

7. Technology

Create your own Spotify playlist to help pass the time.  I helped the kids make one.  They LOVED listening to their own music on our drive.  It was cute.  I also have a Spotify playlist or two that I made for myself.  Then turn on your BlueTooth on your phone and connect it to the speakers in your car.

Bring along a WiFi Hotspot.  Our local library is wonderful and has WiFi hotspots you can check out for 10 days at a time.  I checked out one for our trip and it worked in our car and our condo.  It holds a charge so you don't always have to have it plugged in.  It's free and it allowed the kids to play on their tablets on the go.

 

8. Pack the Gear

Pack the baby gear that you'll need on your trip to keep your baby happy and safe.  High chair, Pack N Play, Stroller, Puddle Jumper, etc.

9. Surprises

Pack surprises - little toys, treats and activities - for your kids.  Pass them out randomly to add a little fun to your drive.  My kids really loves these Cats Vs Pickles stuffed creatures.  They also love PEZ dispensers.  I bought a new carseat toy or two for the baby and then everyone had new things to play with on the drive.  In the past, I've surprised the kids with a new DVD.

10. Be the Sunshine

It's your job to set the tone for your trip.  If you're negative, doom and gloom or dramatic, it will be contagious.  So enjoy the beautiful sunset after a stressful drive through traffic and heavy rain.

Or look for coins at a midnight gas station stop where you have to change everyone into their pjs and keep driving because there are no hotels available along the interstate in all of Georgia.  Be positive.  Have the mindset that you can do anything as long as you're together.  And remind your kids that you're out on an adventure!

I'll link our Amazon Road Trip Must Haves below (affiliate links):

We own all of these things and would buy them again!

Car sick bags - they contain the mess and seal closed after they're used.  They are a game changer if you have a kid that gets car sick.

Claw grabber - it helps you easily grab and pass things to the 2nd and 3rd rows of your vehicle.  It's great for passing snacks.

Cats VS Pickles - my kids love collecting these little cats and pickles stuffed animals.

Baby toys- the bird & the Leap Frog Tablet

Soft Sided Cooler 

 

Linking up with Momfessionals

and Prime Purchases

Organize with Me: Jars

I'm starting a new series on Wednesdays called Organize with Me

I love organizing.  I love decluttering spaces, getting rid of things that you don't use and using pretty containers that won't break the bank.  I wish I could show up at all of your houses to help you organize.  Since that's impossible, I hope my organizing blog posts will inspire you to organize.

An organized space is a happy space.

I can't wait to give you a tour around my house of spaces and items I've organized in the hopes that you'll be able to use my ideas at your house.  They'll be easy enough to implement that anyone can join in.  My goal is to share 1-2 organizing posts with you a month.

Let's talk about jars today!

I've been collecting jars over the past year or so to build up my collection.  I am a big advocate of repurposing jars, picking up jars for a great deal at TJ Maxx, Wal-Mart or finding thrifted jars.  I have found some really great jars at Goodwill.  

Organizing doesn't have to be expensive despite what The Container Store says!

 

I love keeping pantry items in jars!  It really helps me to keep tabs on my ingredients and alerts me when they need to be refilled.  I picked up the two hobnail jars in Florida as a vacation souvenir and the middle jar came from TJ Maxx.  I smile every time I use the hobnail jars because they remind me of Florida!  These jars always hold chocolate chips, brown sugar and mini M&Ms.  I keep them on my baking shelf in my pantry.

Jars like this area also great for storing granola.  I have never had much luck making homemade granola.  We love the Aldi granola so I buy a bag and fill up my jar with store bought granola.  It's prettier than the plastic bag and keeps the granola really fresh.  An added bonus, my family always knows where to look for the granola.  It's always in this jar.

These little jars are so handy in my kitchen!  I keep holiday candy in them, baking soda, chia seeds and yeast.  I always measure baking soda with a teaspoon and yeast with a 1/4 a teaspoon so I leave those measuring spoons inside the jars.  It saves me time when I'm baking because I don't have to go looking for the right spoon.  It's already paired with the dry ingredient.

The little jars are free because I reuse them.  They come from these Great Value Manzanilla olives from Walmart.  They come in all sizes, but the 10oz is my favorite.  These jars meet all the right criteria for being reused - the label comes off really easily, the lid is plain - no print or text on it and the size is really handy.  I just wash them well and they are ready to reuse.

I also love these square Atlas jars that come with the Classico marinara sauce in them.  The jars are the perfect size for drinking glasses or vases for flowers.  I don't care to use the lid because of all the print on it.  It's distracting and doesn't look as clean as a plain lid.  I throw away the lids and add these cute square jars to my drinking glass section of my cabinet.

 

 

What would you put in a pretty jar??