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Organizing: Children’s Clothing – Part 2 of 5

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Going to the closet in the morning only to find clothing that is too small, too short, or in the wrong season does not help in using time wisely. Instead of getting my daughter dressed, I am taking time to sort through her clothes searching for something in the right season that will fit.

After finally recovering the last clean suitable outfit, I get her dressed and sent down to breakfast. When I arrive downstairs, I find that spilled milk soaked her top and bottom, and I am back to finding another outfit. Been there? I have more than once. Staying a step ahead of my children’s growths spurts is an ongoing battle, but a great use of my time.

Though I cannot control their growth spurts, I can plan to change their clothing at least twice a year. I prefer spring and fall before the heat and cold arrive. With fall upon us, I am in the process of organizing my children’s clothing. Last week, I shared STEP ONE of my 5-step process. Today, I will take you along as I purge my youngest daughter’s clothes.

STEP TWO: Purge

In my daughter’s nursery, her clothes are housed in the closet and dresser. There are also items in the coat closet, diaper bag, and car. In switching out her clothing, I began with the largest supply found in her closet.

Closet

As I checked each label for the size, I took out any 12-18 month clothing and most of the summer items. As I went item by item, I folded the clothing and set them in piles by size and type (winter or summer).

If I never dressed my daughter in an item of clothing, then I placed it in a donation pile. I would rather someone use the item than to save it for the off chance that I might use it someday.

After purging one rack and placing those items in piles, I went to the next. When the closet was complete, I moved to the dresser.

Dresser

In checking these labels, I kept her 18 month bottoms since my daughter has just outgrown her 12-month pants. As I pulled out items too small for her, I rearranged the piles of clothing in the drawers to allow more room for larger sizes.

Each out-grown item was folded and added to the correct sized clothing pile. Going drawer by drawer, I quickly purged the entire dresser. Then I searched the rest of the house for her clothes.

Coat Closet

In the coat closet, I purged the winter hats, mittens, and coats. These items were added to the appropriate piles in her room.

Diaper Bag

Since I keep a change of clothing in her diaper bag, I needed to take out the smaller size and replace it with a larger size when I get to STEP FOUR. For now, I just removed the smaller sized items.

Car

The last place I checked for her clothing was in the car. My children have a tendency to get dirty, so I keep a spare set of clothing in the car. These items were now too small for my daughter, so I added those items to the piles in her room.

Whew! With lots of clothing piles waiting to be packed away in STEP THREE, I am left with a bare closet and a semi-empty dresser. Though my process is still underway, the progress is moving forward. In using time wisely, I will soon have the correct sized clothing in place making the morning routine less eventful. Happy organizing!

Question: Do you consign your clothing or give it away? Please add your answer to the comments.

Organizing: Children’s Clothing – Part 1 of 5

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It’s official. My kids have grown. As I went to my daughter’s closet for a long-sleeved outfit, I found one dress that was long enough for her to wear to church this morning. Besides sending up a red flag that it is time to reorganize my kids’ clothes, the smaller clothes reminded me that my little ones are growing up.

Though I cannot keep them little, I can add larger clothing for them to wear. In keeping my children’s clothes organized, I have a developed a system that works for us. My process occurs in 5-steps:

Step One: Prepare – gather all the supplies

Step Two: Purge – unload out-grown clothing from closets and dressers

Step Three: Pack – put folded clothes insides totes

Step Four: Place – unpack larger sized clothing into closets and dressers

Step Five: Preserve – place all the totes in storage

As I work through my process, I will take you along with me. In the first step, I need to gather my supplies.

STEP ONE: Prepare

Gather from Storage

All our children’s clothes are stored in large totes in our upstairs storage closets. To help me, my fabulous hubby brought out the clothing totes and placed them in our upstairs hallway.

Place clothes near bedrooms

Having the totes near their bedrooms helps me in using time wisely. I can unload and reload without wasting energy or time in transporting the clothes to another room.

Place shoes in bonus room

Paul continued to help by bringing the totes of shoes into our bonus room. Besides keeping them separated from the clothes, my girls enjoy playing with the shoes. (It is amazing how both of my daughters love shoes. My son could care less. :-))

Stack labeled storage totes

Having all the totes labeled with “girls or boys,” “clothes or shoes,” “winter or summer,” and the “size,” I can easily find the totes needed for each child.

For my youngest daughter, I will need totes from 12 months to 2T. I will be putting away her 12 month to 2T summer clothes and getting out her 18 month – 2T winter clothing.

With all the totes gathered from our storage area, I am ready to start Step Two: purge. Next week, I will bring you along on my journey as I purge my children’s closets and dressers of summer clothing and articles that are now too small. In using time wisely, I will soon have more than one option for my daughter’s Sunday wardrobe. Happy organizing!

Question: What type of storage system do you use for clothing? Please add your answer to the comments.

Breaking Out of my Organizational Funk

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Photograph Credit: Flickr (Anne Stauf)

Fluctuating between high energy and low energy days this week, I struggled! My motivation was non-existent, and I was in a funk.

I wanted to get things done, but I really did not feel like cleaning, organizing, or making progress on any of my To Do list items. Coming off a sick week, I really needed to get motivated, but my energy level was not there.

My Problem

After operating in survival mode while I was recovering from my cold, I needed to change my thinking. As I began to envision a clean, organized household, my motivation slowing recovered. In “seeing” where the clothes needed to go and wanting that space clean, I found myself wanting to pick up the clothing and put it away.

My Current Solution

As I walked to the cleanest room first, I tidied it up – just needed to add pajamas to the hamper and pick up two toys. Now I had one room picked up. Momentum was beginning.

Then I walked to the next room, I picked up a book, made a bed, and fixed a rug. Two rooms down, and then I just kept going. Before I knew it, the entire upstairs was uncluttered. After running the vacuum, I felt so much better. By now my momentum was in full swing.

With the added motivation, I picked up the downstairs, and my energy level did not drop. I was thankful to have the mess under control, and my house back together. With my surroundings organized, my thoughts became organized. I finished a menu plan for the week based on what I had at home, created my grocery and drugstore lists, paid bills, and filed insurance paperwork.

My Evaluation

Though my week was full of ups and downs, I was thrilled with my week’s progress. Most of the progress took place on the weekend, but I did not feel behind starting a new week.

If you find you are in a funk with your household items piling up, then try cleaning or organizing a small task. Once that task is complete, work on another small to medium task. As you gain motivation, you will be tackling that monster project with gusto.

Keep using time wisely to accomplish the goals you have set for today. Think about the final project, envision a nice clean space, and work to that end. You may not master success today, but moving forward is better than standing still. Happy organizing!

Question: How do you get out of an organizing funk? Please add your answer to the comments.

Organizing: Garage Cabinet

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Photograph Credit: Target

My garage is the dumping area for items to be donated, seldom used items, and the extension of my pantry. I also happen to park one of our vehicles in our 2-car garage, keep tools, lawn equipments, and our freezer.

To return the garage to an organized state, my husband cleans out the garage about every 6 months. This project involves taking everything but the shelving out of the garage, sweeping it out, and replacing similar items together. Every time the garage gets cleaned, we have more space and more items to trash, donate, and sell.

Before my husband cleaned the garage this summer, I decided to organize the large cabinet in the garage that holds items I use periodically. On the day of this project, I prepared to work.

Preparing to Organize

1. Opened the garage door

2. Backed out the car

3. Brought out all the bicycles and outdoor toys for the kids to play

4. Assisted my children in play

5. Set up a card table for my workspace

Organizing the 5-shelf Cabinet

With the children playing, I began working from top to bottom.

1. Took all items off shelf #1

    • Sent trash to the garbage can
    • Placed donated items in cardboard box
    • Added items for garage sale to designated box
    • Items to keep where placed on the card table in piles of similar items

2. Dusted shelf

3. Replaced items back onto shelf

4. Repeated steps 1-3 with shelf #2

5. Repeated steps 1-3 with shelf #3

Took a break to refill drinks, assist with bikes, and play with my children

6. Repeated steps 1-3 with shelf #4

Received help and advice from oldest daughter on my progress 🙂

7. Repeated steps 1-3 with shelf #5

Completing the Project

1. Placed all trash in the garbage can

2. Put the donated items box in the car for drop off

3. Slid garage sale items to the left side of the garage with the other garage sale items

4. Returned card table to the closet inside the house

5. Put away the bikes and outdoor toys

6. Ushered children inside the house

7. Pulled the car into the garage

8. Closed the garage door

Project complete!

My garage cabinet was transformed from “stashing items wherever I found space” to clean, neat shelves that hold items for easy access. In using time wisely, I decluttered my garage cabinet resulting in no more trash (or broken items), more items to sell at a garage sale, and similar items placed together for easy retrieval. I also found a nice bake ware set, that I forgot I had, which has been a nice addition to my kitchen. This organizational project was worth my time and energy!

Question: What organizational projects are you plugging through that is worth your time and energy? Please add your answer to the comments!

Growing Pains of an Organizational System

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Do you have an organizational system in place that is practical but has some flaws? I do. I am finding that just because an organizational system once worked does not mean that it will continue to work with my growing family.

In learning to recognize problem areas from my family’s reactions, I can better fix the problem. Consider the growing pains of my organizational system for our beach balls.

The Need for Beach Balls

My children love to play with balls. At the age of 6 months, my son took a Weeble and tossed it across the room nailing my husband. Yes, it hurt! After that incident, we substituted a beach ball for the Weebles, who were put away until our son learned not to throw them.

The beach balls have offered many hours of fun without pain or broken items. All three of our children have enjoyed rolling, kicking, tossing, hitting, serving, and bouncing these balls around our house. I love the variety of games we can play with the beach balls, but what I don’t like is how big they are to store.

The Problem with Beach Balls

In the entryway of our home, we keep all the toy balls in a large tote. However, the 3 large beach balls (one for each child) continue to roll off the pile of balls into the hallway.

Besides the frustration of having them out of place, the beach balls have become a hazard when they come to rest at the bottom of the stairs. In coming downstairs in the dark one night, my husband tripped over a beach ball. Though he did not get hurt, I had to find another solution for storing these balls.

The New Solution for Beach Balls

With limited space due to all the other toys our family has accumulated, I needed to work within the boundaries of the ball tote. Since the problem is keeping them in the tote, I have chosen to deflate 2 of the 3 beach balls.

When all of my children need their ball, I can easily blow up the other 2 balls. After play, I can deflate 2 of them and place them in the ball box. There is room for one inflated beach ball, and now all the toy balls fit in the tote.

As I identify frustrating systems that are in place, I am learning to find another solution. What worked last year with two active children and an infant is not necessarily working this year with three very active children.

While on my motherhood journey, I am becoming more aware of my family’s preferences and working through the growing pains of the current organizational system to another organized system that works for us all. Whether it is reorganizing plastic food storage containers or beach balls, I hope to keep my home a clean, organized haven for lots of fun and laughter.

Question: What organizational system in your household has become a frustration rather than a help? Please click the Leave your Comment button to add your answer.