Anyone up for GIVING some decluttering/organizing advice ?
Moms View Message Board: Get Organized: Anyone up for GIVING some decluttering/organizing advice ?
Maybe I'm not the only one on here ... maybe we could help each other out, encourage, etc ....
Anyone up for it ?
Name your problem area, maybe we can help each other, if not physically, at least emotionally and maybe mentally come up with some good ideas for each other ....
? ? ? ? ? ? ?
ok, so I'll go first ....
I WAS planning on cleaning out the garage (so we could actually walk in there) during the first couple of days the kiddos have off. But, everybody got sick, Dr's appts, then Christmas, and here we are at New Year's ....
So, now I'm thinking maybe this coming up weekend ....
This is FL, so it won't be totally freezing, I can pull everything out of the garage, onto the driveway (since I don't have to worry about snow), clear out, throw away, give away, and repack ....
What do you think ?
Sounds fabulous.
I gave alway all my eight year olds old clothes instead of saving them. Just the other day. It was so hard to do but I am so happy I did it. I feel lighter and less cluttered.
I am very fruggle so it was hard to just give the clothes away but now I am not going to keep any of his old clothes. I have two people who love to take his clothes. The clothes are really nice because I overbuy.
If I get free shipping or I have to pay shipping I look all over the store and stock up one size up for each child.
I am sick as a dog but when I am better I will do the side closet.
I hired a cleaning crew to deep clean the house. They took all the books off the ledges and dusted everything. 3 people cleaned for about 7 hours. I feel like we can do more decluttering now because we won't disturb the dust. The dust is gone.
OK, I have a problem area...
Kids craft supplies.
I have sheets of felt, cotton balls, play-doh (lots), play foam, paints, tissue paper, crayons, paper bags, cardboard toilet paper rolls, stickers (lots), wooden paintable pieces (bears, santa, snowmen, flowers etc) popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners, paper, colouring books, felts, and basically anything else you can think of!
I have a 4 drawer plastic storage thing on wheels but it can't hold it all and my kids sneek into it and make a MESS... when they are older I would like them to have free access but right now I am tired of cleaning glue and felts off furniture :-)
PLEASE HELP!
I have a rubbermaid large plastic grey closet that keeps the kids out of stuff.
You can try to turn the plastic drawers backwards but the kids might still get into it. Or you can block it somehow. Maybe tape it closed and untape it everytime you use it.
We had a small plastic drawers and the two year old would empty it any time he could.
In anticipation of people coming over for New Year's Eve, much of my stuff (which was cluttering much of the downstairs !) got put away ... I now have a large plastic drawer thing which holds arts & crafts .... I'm leader for both cubscotus (assistant actually) and girlscouts (my assistant told me right off the bat she wasn't "crafty" so it's up to me here !) so hopefully I'll have all of my craft stuff together.
I'm thinking of ANOTHER one for my little people ... in fact I really like those clipboards that open up on the bottom and can hold crayons, markers (personally I only use crayola markers becuase from past experience I KNOW they are washable, some of the other washable brands, just call themselves washable, just say that so it looks nice on their packaging, do I sound like clothes have been ruined thanks to these "other" washable markers ?), scissors (if old enough) and blue sticks.
For your carft supplies, could you put them in a closet and then child-proof the closet ? I'm thinking bungy cord the doors together (hair ties work if the door knobs are close together) or even put them in a bid with some heavy stuff on top, so it's accessible when you WANT it to be, but you have to be there to get to them.
This is coming from someone who has had to cut play-doh out of carpet before, so I know .... my girlfriend doesn't let her kiddos play with playdoh, we use it, but on mats on the table or on mats on the floor (non-carpetted kitchen/dining area) ....
Do you think any of this would work ? If not, we'll come up with other ideas for you !!!! I'm a great "idea man" now putting it into practice myself might be harder (please, no one look at my garage ! hahaha !)
Hi Feona and ~harlena.
The large Rubbermaid closet might work as I don't really have any extra closet space to put stuff into (yes I could probably get rid of some stuff to make room but I'm not ready for that yet).
I have decided I am going to try to turn our basement into our MAIN kidzone as currently our kids toys are on every level of our house and for the most part I don't mind but would really like to NOT have to put toys away all day long. (Kids help but still have to initiate and help them)
Thanks for the input.
MTT
WOW .... what an awesome idea, turning the basement into a kidzone .... I live in FL, where basements don't exist unless you want to go scuba diving ..... that sea level thing gets you every time !
I've given up, I don't put toys away all day long, I DO try to pick up some at the end of the day, but sometimes that's not even worth the effort .... it's just the little guy and myself home during the day, and he goes back to play with the same stuff the very next day .....
Let us know how the garage plan works out !!!
Those toys are exhausting.... I think it improved when ds was about 8 years old.
Ds who is two is a throwing machine with toys.
I buy less and less toys and throw out more and more.
Those toys are exhausting.... I think it improved when ds was about 8 years old.
Ds who is two is a throwing machine with toys.
I buy less and less toys and throw out more and more.
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