Organized Discussion- Giveaway #1
With any family, organization seems to be key in all aspects of life. I am here today to share some of the ways we have found organization key to helping us out in our day to day lives. From getting dressed in the morning, to getting out the door, to cooking dinner, even to creating crafts, organization can be so helpful to keep things running smoothly in a family's day to day life.
Getting dressed. The absolute bane of my existence. There is almost always a fight with what the oldest wants to wear and where to find it. I found that using the IKEA drawer dividers help her find her things quickly. I divided her clothes into short sleeve, long sleeve, tanks and sweaters so she can tell which one is which. Another great tip was finding out about the amazing book "the life-changing magic of tidying up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing " by Marie Kondo. I am sure most of you have heard of this book. Although I have yet to sit down and read through the whole thing, the reviews, blogs and articles that I have read have shown me a lot in the way of how awesome the little book really is. One thing I took from it was the tri-fold of shirts and items in your drawers. By standing them up on end, they aren't all squished. You have to ask if they look happy all squished in the drawer and my answer was "no" they looked pretty sad. I have applied this method to all of our dressers and it has been amazing being able to see every shirt in your drawer all at once and being able to easily grab it instead of digging. It also showed me that I didn't need half of what I had in there and that there were some things that just had to go. If you can't use it, love it or have a special attachment to it, get. rid. of. it. I still have a LONG ways to go but I am definitely on the path to a very easy to clean home. It has already changed so much for me.
What I am REALLY excited about is my soon to launch "Getting Dressed" series of dresser knobs to help your littles find their basics in their dressers. This set includes an underwear, socks, pants, and shirt picture to help a child find what they need to get ready. It has been tested and approved by Ruby and Lila themselves:) I designed them to be subtle, unisex and not too "cartoonish" so to speak. I love their simplicity and ease. I am so happy with them! More on when these will be launching at a later date......
Getting out the door. The biggest battle with getting out the door is getting a pair of socks. "You forgot your socks." "Go get your socks please" were a couple of the constantly repeated phrases that were never really listened to and/or never remembered by the time the girls got to their bedroom to find the socks. I resolved this problem with a sock bin/basket and it is seriously life changing! I have a bin of all of their socks by the door. It has made a massive difference with arguments as well as been a huge time saver when we are on our way out the door to school or day home. One of my favourite pieces we have purchased for the house is a set of 8 lockers. We all have our own lockers for hats, scarves, mittens/gloves as well as an extra couple for the sock bin and out of season foot wear. The girls love it and so do I because it makes life a breeze!
Another getting ready helper is the shoes drawers from IKEA. I chose these ones over the wooden ones for a few reasons.
- They can easily be pulled out and washed. They are made of plastic.
- They were light weight and wider than the other drawers.
- They were cheaper. We were on a budget when we first moved in and I wanted to be cost efficient.
Making Dinner. I really dislike cooking. I mean I don't hate it but I really don't love it. Getting food prepped is annoying. Finding the food that you need to make dinner is also up there with top annoyances. I created a pantry from a closet in our house that we weren't using for coat storage. It's just off of our kitchen and it has really served us well. I ended up buying Martha Stewart chalkboard label stickers and I write out what is in the current jar because it does tend to change. I know you can actually SEE what it is in the jar but who can really tell the difference between spaghetti and spaghettini?? Anyways, here it is.
Crafting. I am crafter in case you didn't know. It has been inherited by my girls and they love to create. I needed a space for ALL of their crafting supplies to sleep and also be locked away when they weren't being used. Markers always end in bad news with my kids so I really enjoy being able to lock 'em up when they aren't in use. I did a furniture exchange with a friend and have never been happier. This extremely heavy easy of solid wood office furniture has been the BEST thing. All the doors and drawers lock and it is so great for housing all of their papers, stickers, markers, crayons, paints, playdoh and so on. Seriously life changing.
Well there is a look into what has made our lives run a little smoother:)
You want to make your lives run smoother too? Enter the giveaway for a set of the Getting dressed Series! A set of 4 including Socks, Undies, Shirt and Pants.
Good Luck. I TRULY hope you win:)
