Simplifying and Organizing

From the time we got married, how much space we’ve had available for stuff has always been a deterrent for too many piles to develop. One of the keys that I had to learn from necessity was keeping things simplified, or downsized. If I started having a problem with not being able to keep up with the laundry, I allowed that to be the flag that I had TOO MUCH laundry. Although you wouldn’t know it from walking into my house, my tendency is to keep more than I need JUST IN CASE I MIGHT NEED IT. Maybe you’ve seen this with yourself too, but I have a really hard time choosing what I should keep and what I should get rid of. It may sound silly, but sometimes I actually feel overwhelmed when I’m sorting stuff.

When I was younger, and my surroundings were letting me know it was that time again, I would use the 3 basket system every several months. A basket for keeping, a basket for giving away and a basket for throwing away. That just wasn’t a good system for me despite all of my good intentions. The bags of stuff that I ended up packing to take to a Goodwill or a clothes closet would sit somewhere in the house for way too long. So the mess went from sitting in drawers or cabinets to sitting on the floors (in bags)….for weeks or months!

I felt intensely guilty for throwing something away that someone else “might be able to use” even if it were something that had a stain on it and I knew “I” wouldn’t keep it for one of my kids. Also, I would keep clothes that had rips and tears in them because “it really was a nice dress” and I could mend it sometime for one of the kids to wear… This might be hard for some of you to believe, but I had to come to a place of freedom where I was able to take something that I didn’t want or need and to throw it away! Now, if I had something that I knew someone particular could use, something that was in excellent condition, or of value…I certainly would give it to someone…but I’m talking about garbage bags of stuff….It just NEVER has worked for me…..Throwing stuff away was a sort of freedom for me.

Learning how to use all the space available was a key to being able to successfully keep so many people’s belongings organized and easily accessible. For instance….there are so many people in our house that we don’t have enough dresser drawer space for everyone, so in the past we’ve used those flat lidded storage containers under our beds. Painting or writing in pretty script each of the kids names on their box is an easy way for kiddos to remember which box is theirs.

The first step in organizing your home is simplifying things by downsizing. That doesn’t ALWAYS mean getting rid of 2/3 of all your stuff (but it could mean that for some of us). It does mean deciding what you need to be out and available for use, and to store away the rest to bring out at a later date (and get rid of some of it altogether). A good example of this is how we’ve managed toys. When we accumulate too many toys, I separate the toys into amounts that my little children can handle picking up. We’ve never had more toys available to play with than what the little ones could manage (with my help) to clean up after play. If they have more toys than they can manage with help, they have too many toys. In my experience children are overwhelmed with too many toys. They end up just getting thrown around the house or room and left because of disinterest. The other thing is that I don’t keep toys in the bedrooms. This seems to make it harder to manage the toys. I have 1 or 2 areas that we keep a toy basket and that way it is within sight and is more apt to be picked up several times a day. I’ve learned with myself that if more things are kept in open areas within sight I can keep them organized easier.

One of my challenges has been keeping children’s closets looking nice and staying tidy. I had Trevor take the

doors off the kid’s closets and put nice closet organizer kits with plenty of shelving inside. This way it is easy to tell when it was time for them to be tidied. This system works well for me because “out of site is out of mind” and if the problem is hidden in a cabinet or closet I end up with larger messes that take longer to get under control. Closets can look nice and don’t have to be an ugly monster to contend with all the time. A pretty curtain on a spring rod pulled to one side with a pretty bow looks attractive in a girl’s room and a valance across the top of a boy’s closet looks nice.

All of my older children manage their own clothes...but my little children are a different matter. There is a constant struggle to keep their clothes clean, organized and ready to wear. The best system that we've ever found for keeping the kids clothes organized involves keeping the kids clothes out of their bedrooms. Instead, we keep them in canvas covered storage bins, usually on shelves in the laundry room. This system worked beautifully for us for years. The problem with keeping kids clothes in their bedrooms is that they don't stay folded, they don't stay in the dresser...they end up all over the floor, and it's super hard to have a nice "going off" outfit on hand when you need it. With the storage bin system, the kid's clothes are out of their space, out of their reach, and much easier to manage. I can put two stacks of folded clothes into a bin. Each child had 1 bin where only their jeans, shorts, t-shirts, etc. went (we had an extra bin for each childs underwear, pajamas and socks and dressy clothes are hung up in the closets). I would stack the clothes up as far as the bottom of the next shelf above them. This is what I've had to do to stay organized and to give myself a boundry-line so that I know when it's time to get rid of unnecessary clothes. It's something that I miss that I cannot do in the house we live in right now. I don't have a room (thats out of the traffic area) that I can put shelves up in.

So, here's my "compromise system" with the smaller kids clothes for now, and it seems to be working pretty well. Putting together whole sets of clothes, complete with socks, shoes and undies has eliminated a whole ton of stress in our home…..it is so much nicer when I have a kiddo that wants to go along with me to the grocery store and all I have to do is go to my room and open the bottom of the wardrobe to get their outfit-to-go. This has been really nice on a few occasions when we've had an emergency trip (like to the Doctor's office or ER). This may not be a problem you have to tackle, but this is a typical problem for moms of larger families.

Look, I know that you mamas with one, two or three kiddos are really getting a kick out of this post! But when you have as many people living in your home as we do, you really have to learn to limit the amount of "stuff" that each person owns, or there would be no way to keep it organized (or even have a place to walk). These are just a few family-friendly organizational ideas. Small and large families alike can benefit from this.The first step is to simplify! Declutter first and then it will be much easier to keep things organized. Once you get into it and you see things begin to clear out, you'll be amazed at how it will boost your motivation!

What are some of the organizational tips that have worked in your home?

Real Mom. Real Kids. Real Family.