Your Life. Organized.

5 Simple Steps To Organize Your Child's Room

If your child’s room looks like a tornado went through, take heart. Mine did too when I was young. Using these kid-friendly steps and a bit of time and money, you can transform your child’s bedroom from a disaster area to an organized space.

• Double Up. Increase your child’s hanging clothing space by adding an additional rod underneath the standard closet rod. Children’s clothing is short enough that you can easily fit a double row of clothes without the lower row touching the floor. Kids also locate clothing on hangers faster and easier than when it's stored away in dresser drawers.

• Keep It Moving. Children grow like little weeds, so keep their closets current by regularly cleaning out and packing away what they’ve outgrown. To make it easy, place a large bin on the floor of the closet where your child can toss clothing they’ve outgrown. When the bin is full, donate the items to your favorite charity. Regular purging will ensure that you always have plenty of room to add the next season’s clothing that they’re growing into. 

• Don’t Fence Me In. If your child tends to gravitate toward the same outfits, it may be because his dresser drawers are jam packed or he doesn’t like digging through them to find what he wants. Consider replacing the dresser with open shelving inside the closet, or even a bookcase along the wall. Shelves make clothing more visible, so kids can easily see and get their hands on what they own. Clothing is also easier to put away after laundry day if it lives on open shelving rather than inside cramped dresser drawers.

• Create Activity Zones. To make a “study zone” in your child’s room, provide a desk, a chair of proper height, good lighting, and reference material, as well as places to keep books and papers related to school. To create an art zone for your little Picasso, place a remnant sheet of vinyl flooring under a small craft table. Complete the art zone with a small cart to hold paper, markers, paints and other craft supplies. Little girls love to look pretty, so set up a “grooming zone” for with drawer dividers, a mirror and small containers for storing hair accessories and jewelry.

• Up, Up and Away. If your child has many old keepsakes that she isn’t ready to part with, create a display gallery. Just mount floating shelves a few feet below ceiling level to show off items so they can be seen and your child can still enjoy them, but they're up and out of the way, reducing unwanted clutter.

To make your organizing project more impactful and longer lasting, be sure to include your child in the process. Asking for his input and help with decision-making goes a long way toward getting the space organized and will foster pride of ownership, which will motivate him to keep the room neat going forward.

Quote: Imagination

"Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere."

Carl Sagan
1934-1996
Astrophysicist and Author

 

 

 

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Who Would You Be?

My husband (affectionately known as Christmas Boy) and I held a garage sale recently with a friend of ours. (The awesome mama in the pink shirt.) It was fun, we made a little cash and our local news station came to tape a segment with me about how to declutter and make money at the same time. Now, you might wonder how an organizing expert would even have enough stuff to support a garage sale. Fair enough. I asked myself the same question. That is, until I went under the house into the crawl space.

You see, some years ago, Christmas Boy ran a business complete with office space, guest chairs, white boards, desktop tchotchkes and a business partner named Steve. When he and Steve dissolved their partnership (amicably, I’m pleased to say) a bunch of stuff from their office ended up living in the dungeon below our home. Add to the office detritus, several boxes of sports memorabilia, (and when I say several I mean at least ten) plus nine years of reasonable household accumulation in closets and under beds and we had ourselves a garage sale!

In the weeks leading up to the sale, decked out in my best yoga pants and tank top, I strode bravely through my house, warning everything in sight that its days were numbered. “None of you are safe!” I shouted to the contents of each room. My unhearing friends simply sat there, unfazed. My cat, on the other hand, thought I was nuts.

Room by room, Christmas Boy and I inspected and assessed the value of our respective items. From books to décor to clothing, from office supplies and furniture to unopened Wheaties boxes from the 1980s, we cleaned out, priced and prepared to say goodbye. It was liberating. Freeing. Downright cathartic!

In the midst of all this decision-making, I wondered why detaching from objects is so easy for some people (like me) and so difficult for others. Am I just cold-hearted and ruthless? That could be part of it. Seriously though, there’s no singular reason for it, but I can’t help but think that for some people, losing an object feels like losing a small piece of themselves. And let’s face it, if you get rid of enough small pieces of yourself, what's left? You're gone.

Why do we identify with inanimate objects? What part of SELF do they represent? And even more importantly, WHO WOULD WE BE without them? 

If I lost everything in a fire or a tornado, of course, I’d be really upset and I’d absolutely miss the convenience of having my stuff around me. But I still know who I’d be, because for me, there’s a defined line between where I end and where my stuff begins.

There’s a pecking order among me and my stuff -- a totem pole if you will. At my advanced age, I’m very clear where I sit on that totem pole. Here’s a hint: AT THE TOP! 

My stuff can be replaced. That's why we have insurance. But my spirit, my soul and my humanity can’t be replaced and neither can yours. Ultimately who you are is inside you; it’s with you wherever you go, and it’s not tied up in what you have around you. Your human spirit is stronger, bigger, better, and more important than any object you could ever possess. The challenge is remembering that.

Who would you be if you lost it all?

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Quote: Who Am I?

"If I am what I have, and if I lose what I have, who then am I?"

 Erich Fromm

 

 

 

 

 

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Nobody Puts Baby In A Corner

 
As Johnny Castle, Patrick Swayze uttered what would be one of the most memorable movie lines ever. "Nobody puts Baby in a corner!" (What does that mean, anyway?)

Dirty Dancing aside, corners aren’t usually for keeping babies (or Baby) in. But they do attract all manner of clutter if you’re not careful! However, if you put a little thought into it, corners can be used to your advantage, despite their somewhat limiting triangle shape. I say go WITH it rather than against it, and you can make your corners work for you!

 

White Grapevine Corner Cabinet

This sweet little piece of furniture immediately brings to mind visions of a bathroom or guest room with gauzy white curtains blowing in a summer breeze, doesn’t it? It’s adorable and would be great for storing extra rolls of toilet paper, toiletries, or even books in a guest room.

 

 

 

 

Hanging Mesh Organizer

This clever corner-conqueror will corral toys and stuffed animals in your child’s room like nobody’s business. Uses the corner so it’s not in a traffic area and it’s mesh fabric, so if you do accidentally walk into it, no head bumps!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wall Mounted Corner Cabinet With Glass Front

Another attractive corner piece, this would be great in a bathroom for storing things you won’t mind showing off, such as towels, washcloths, or even use it for extra glassware in a dining room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Japanese Style Corner Cabinet

This beautiful, elegant piece would be great in a living room for storing magazines, books, or games. Also try it in the dining room for keeping extra table linens, candles and napkin rings stored and organized out of sight.

 

 

 

 

 

Hanging Corner Storage by 4D Concepts

What a conversation piece this storage unit will be in any room of your home. Perfect for books, toys, antiques or other décor items, this creative corner storage will have people wondering “Why didn’t I think of that?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These next two photos were taken in my house. Nine years ago when we moved in, I thought it would be cool to mount individual corner shelves in different parts of the family room area. One set of shelves nicely displays hand-painted plates, and the other stores and dispays hard-cover books.

How have you been able to make the corners of your home functional and attractive, rather than being catch-all spots for piles of clutter?

 

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Quote: Possessed

"Anything you cannot relinquish when it has outlived its usefulness possesses you, and in this materialistic age a great many of us are possessed by our possessions."

 Peace Pilgrim

 

 

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Lessons From A 9-Year-Old

Kids can teach us so many things if we’re open to learning, and they frequently remind us of life lessons we’ve long since forgotten. Sometimes we receive these gentle, funny or poignant reminders through a child's wild imagination or their innocent candor and other times it’s their adorable, literal perception of language that hit us right upside the head.

Several years ago, my husband and I were babysitting our then 3-year-old niece, Gavin. She was, in typical toddler fashion, stalling to avoid finishing her dinner, and instead of eating, was filling up on milk. In an attempt to re-focus her on her dinner plate, my husband instructed her, “Put your milk up.”

Side note: Understand when you’re down south and you hear someone say they’re going to “put something up,” it means put it away. But our sweet obedient little girl heard "Put your milk up" so she held that sippy cup just as high in the air as her little arms would let her. We couldn’t help but laugh and realize that she was right. Uncle Ed had said to put the milk up, and she did. It made perfect sense to her and we were reminded that people don’t always receive exactly the message you send.

Recently, I was reminded that if you want to create a positive habit, begin it in youth. My friend Vicky (of Vicky and Jen, who produce the fabulous podcast What Really Matters which you really should listen to) has a terrific 9-year-old son named Aidan whom I am rather fond of. He’s a smart, sweet, enterprising young man with a lot of varied interests and a love of all things Lego. During a recent Skype chat, Aidan shared with me his Summer To-Do List. You can see that it's very well thought-out and he has plenty of activities on tap for the rest of the summer.

Now I don’t know about you, but in my hot childhood summers off from elementary school, I never ONCE made a Summer To-Do List! Granted, my mom made daily to-do lists for me, including riveting activities such as weed the garden, stack the firewood, mow the lawn and clean the bathroom. But as for my own personal to-do list, it was non-existent. Each summer day I would first knock out my chores then take the remainder of the day as it came, enjoying my temporary freedom and having no use for advance planning or adhering to a schedule. We'd play in the neighborhood, come in for dinner, then go back outside and play some more until well after dark when we'd be called in for bedtime. Me make a Summer To-Do List? Preposterous!

The fact that Aidan made a Summer To-Do List impressed me for a bunch of reasons.

1. Creating it forced him to clarify what he wanted to do with his summer break.

2. Looking at the unchecked boxes on the list every day will teach him that nothing happens without deliberately carving out time and scheduling it on the calendar.

3. In order to achieve his summer goals, he'll have to gain permission from Mom and Dad, negotiate transportation, perhaps figure out how to pay for some of them himself, and maybe even compromise to get what he wants.

4. Checking off the boxes one by one will give him a sense of accomplishment and teach him the payoff of goal setting.

By the end of the summer, he will have learned to choose and write down goals, schedule activities related to them and check off his completed items. This sweet, soon-to-be fifth grader is using the simplest tool – a task list – to ensure that his summer is exactly what he wants it to be.

Isn’t that a great reminder lesson for grown-ups too? Clarifying your goals and making simple checklists is a good way to keep yourself on track. And whether you’re 9, 29, 49 or 89, as you check things off your list, like Aidan, you'll ensure that not only your summer, but your life is what you want it to be. 

 

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Quote: Liberty

  "None who have always been free can understand the terrible fascinating power of the hope of freedom to those who are not free." 
~ Pearl S. Buck

 

"The Republic was not established by cowards; and cowards will not preserve it ... This will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave." 
~Elmer Davis

 

"The Constitution is not neutral. It was designed to take the government off the backs of people."

"Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us. "  ~ Justice William O. Douglas

 

“For your own good” is a persuasive argument that will eventually make a man agree to his own destruction. ~ Janet Frame

 

"In those wretched countries where a man cannot call his tongue his own, he can scarce call anything his own. Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech."

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." 
~ Benjamin Franklin

 

 

If you are fortunate enough to live in these great United States of America, may you and yours truly revel in, and be grateful for this fine nation and the beacon of liberty she still shines for the rest of the world.

 

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