The New and Improved Laundry Room

Last weekend, while I was out of town, my hubby was secretly building me a whole new laundry room organizing system. 

With the kiddos growing, their clothes also grow.  I was running out of space in my old organizing system and my laundry room was being over-run by clothes.

Old Laundry Room

We had talked about building something but, I have to be honest, what I had envisioned in my head was not a pretty picture.  Because of this, I was so happy that I was not around when he built it (and I'm sure he was equally relieved). 

When the kids excitedly brought me in and opened the doors, I was SHOCKED!  It was perfect, awesome, amazing, huge, and every other great word!

It has taken me about a week to go through everybody's clothes and re-organize everything but I'm officially done and I. LOVE. IT!!!

So, I am so excited to share my NEW LAUNDRY ROOM!

There are 20 HUGE cubbies that can fit clothes for my growing children plus more!

Each cubby is labeled with things such as:

Little P/Little C/Mini C Play Clothes

Little P/Little C/Mini C Outfits

Special Occasions

Seasonal

IRON ME!

Hiking

I am so grateful to be married to a man who is always trying to make my life easier!

Organizing Old Shoes - Help?!

Today, I come to you asking for suggestions.  As we all do, I have a pile of kids shoes that are still in great shape but simply don't fit!  I'd like to hold on to them for hand-me-downs but have yet to successfully come up with a good storage plan that I will remember when the time comes.  All of their old clothes are in bins in the attic but I'd prefer not to put the shoes up there...I'll forget they are there.

So Mama's, what do you do?  How do you store them away but still remember them when the time comes to move new little feet into them?

HELP...PUUHLEEAASE!

Making A Fool-Proof Cleaning Schedule

The other day, a few girlfriends and I were talking about keeping up with chores around the house.  Between kids, meals, errands, cleaning, carpool, laundry, and any other mental or emotional breakdowns that happen throughout the day, it is so easy to get lost!

After having little C, I found myself wandering through my day so overwhelmed with everything that I had to get done.  I felt like everytime I started on laundry, someone needed to be fed, changed, or whatever else goes on with having two babies.  At the time, my husband was working ridiculous hours and while he couldn't always physically help with the work, he helped me come up with a plan to organize myself.

So, this is what we did.  We sat down and made lists of the things that needed to be done daily, weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly.

Don't judge, I know my handwriting is ridiculous... :-)

So, once we came up with these lists, the next step was to put it into calendar form.  For this, I just took a blank piece of paper and wrote out four weeks worth of Monday-Friday. 

First, we added the weekly chores, being conscious of when certain things would get done in conjuntion with any weekly commiments that I had. 

After that, I went to bi-weekly.  I split them up pretty evenly and made sure to take time into consideration (not pairing two time consuming tasts together).

And last, I added monthly chores. 

I had considered putting them on a calendar with dates but after thinking about it realized that dates nor length of the month mattered.  There will always be Monday-Friday.

So, once I got it all settled, I wrote it up on my refrigerator calendar my awesome sister-in-law gave me. 

Now, everyday, I don't have to get overwhelmed with a long list of things to do.  Rather I have 2 or 3 things to do each day and it's pretty simple to keep up with.  Obviously, you will have your times when you miss days and have to catch up but that can be done at your discretion.  Those are the times when it is nice to be your own boss!

Anyways, thats my cleaning schedule.  No matter how organized you are, it all comes down to self-discipline and being flexible to work with the variables around you.  Nothing is ever perfect. 

Happy Cleaning!