First of all, I’m not tall enough to reach most of it let alone root for things. Did you notice all the random plastic bags of things? Also, ask Mom how many times she’s knocked something breakable off the shelf while rooting and it, well, broke.

Since Mom had off this summer, and I am nesting, we decided to tackle the pantry.

We took everything out and tossed a bunch of stuff she didn’t even remember buying. The shelves and floor got a good wipe down.

Then came the shopping. We got a door rack and plenty of resealable, stackable, clear containers.

The coolest purchase was this large plastic tote from Ikea with a removeable tray. It was perfect for organizing individual bags of snacks and snack bars.

We put lesser used items up high and tried to organize items by use or type.  Shoebox-sized containers are keeping small items like food coloring, well, contained.  Cereals were put in resealable dispensers with the bulk stored in the back.  Everything got a basic label thanks to my handy, dandy, label maker.

We also rearranged the shelf spacing.

The spices and some taller bottles were relegated to the door. The finishing touch was a couple battery-operated touch lights.

So much better!

What have you organized this summer?

Phase I: The Front Hallway

Regardless of the big kids coming, this was a problem.

BEFORE

We used to have wall-to-wall white carpet which made it a necessity for the kids to drop their shoes on the ceramic tile before entering the house. Even then, our carpets were gray by the time we pulled them up. The problem was that everyone would come one step into the house and STOP. It created a major bottleneck. Additionally, in winter, there were always kids trying to wrangle coats out of the closet while someone else was trying to load the car–impossible.

BEFORE

On the other side of the hallway wall was our toy storage.

BEFORE

I decided to repurpose the coat closet for something other than coats to free up the door and move the “mudroom” stuff to the other side of the wall. Now that we have wood floors, the mud into the house is less of a problem and now the kids have to walk full into the house and around the corner before they drop to take off their shoes, coats, etc.

AFTER

The closet now has all the upstairs toys, winter accessories, snow clothes, and homeschool filing.

AFTER

I wish we had a real mudroom, but this is the best we can do.

AFTER

This sight just makes me happy inside.

AFTER

Phase II: Bedrooms

Until about 2 weeks ago, all of our kids shared a room.  I forgot to get a picture of that.  Basically it looked like this but with a single crib or bed for Ty where the twin bunks are now.  Mia slept where big brother will sleep now.

I did get a before picture of their closet though.  We never used it well.

BEFORE

With two sets of bunks both with built-in storage and the existing dressers, this room has at least 20 drawers! That meant I had an empty closet to play with.  I ended up turning into a study area for the boys.  The desk and chair both fold up so the closet can close.

AFTER

 Then to tackle the guest room turned girls room.  We have this great Ikea bed that can be a twin daybed or king-sized bed. I wanted to keep that in case we needed guest space.  We just rotated that bed and added a simple twin frame in the opposite corner.  This design allows us to still pull out the guest bed if we need and the twin frame collapses easily if we need to temporarily make more space.  This closet was also never used well and is home to our attic access which means it needs to be easy to empty.

BEFORE

With no dressers in this room (only a bookcase and 3 built in drawers on the pull out), I had to be creative about clothes storage. Mia’s clothes storage is our re-purposed shoe cubby from the front hallway. This is her corner of the room.

AFTER

Kayla will sleep in the old guest bed and her main clothes storage will be under her bed.
AFTER

We’re all ready. Now if big brother would just pass court!

1. Get yourself a calendar and use it.  I’ve fully embraced the digital age but I used to carry a student-planner-sized calendar that was my spiral-bound brain.  I’m visual so I used lots of colored pens to categorize goings-ons.  I’m a full-on Microsoft girl.  I love all my Office products and Outlook is my go-to calendar which I have set up to sync seamlessly and wirelessly to my phone and an online Hotmail calendar (just in case I don’t have my computer or my phone…almost never).  Since not everyone has a Microsoft, geeky, software developer for a hubby, I highly recommend Google’s suite of products (all free) which also includes a pretty awesome calendar.   You may also fall in love with Cozi.  I wanted to but Microsoft is holding me hostage as only a great almost-monopoly can.
2. Write it down! I’ve blogged before about Microsoft’s OneNote.  While it’s available for free, some prefer to use the designed-to-be-free Evernote.  Since my OneNote notebooks are synced to the “cloud,” I can access them from all my computers and my phone.  I even write my grocery list here.  I type it as I’m searching for recipes on my desktop and then get to the store and pull it up on my phone…VOILA!  I’ve even taken to jotting down my favorite websites or websites I think I’ll need eventually on OneNote instead of bookmarks because of OneNote’s searchability.
3. Use a timer.  I’m famous for giving my kids “5 more minutes” only to stay around and talk for 50 more.  I also forget clothes in the wash or food in the microwave.  I’ve even <gasp> forgotten to pick the kids up at school.  I started setting my timer or alarm on my watch for everything!  I’m in love with Timex’s Ironman watch.  I go through about one a year.  Over the years I’ve learned they don’t like hot tubs or hitting the water at 40 mph when you fall off a jet ski.
4. Use your kids for chores. My kids help out a lot because I hate chores with a passion.  We love MyJobChart.  We even used it to assign schoolwork last year.  It’s free, cute, motivating, customizeable…if only it actually vacuumed.
5. Goodwill (or any other local charity that will accept your junk). I had a major revelation this year that all those cutsie organizational peeps with perfect sock drawers can do it because they only keep 12 pairs of socks.  I have to admit I have a ridiculous sock collection for a chick who wears flip-flops 8 months out of the year.  Make Goodwill a weekly stop and you’ll be amazed how organized you can actually feel.

Check out the main post at BlogHer for other great resources, and don’t forget to enter the current sweepstakes!

1. Naming and taming your photos.  I’m a photographer, so I take lots of pictures.  I have over 120 gigs of pictures on our server.  Wrangling the pictures can be cumbersome but one trick I love is using an 8-digit date (YYYYMMDD) to name them.  For example, if I took a picture today of the kids flying a kite, I would name it 20120409kite.jpg.  The great thing about the date format is that if you sort them alphabetically, they sort chronologically.  I do use separate folders to sort photos by year but if I didn’t, it would be easy to pick out the ones from each year because of this filename formula.
2. Taking advantage of folders.  Whether organizing documents or photos, don’t be afraid to create new folders and sub folders, and sub sub sub folders. You get the idea.  I have over 33,000 documents and only 164 aren’t in a folder.  The rest are in a hierarchy of 3300 folders.  For example, I have a folder named “Homeschool” that has 28 subfolders titled things like math, penmanship, science, etc. where I store homeschool resources.  If I’m looking for a math test, I know exactly where to go.
3. Taking advantage of tags.  This is probably Windows’ best kept secret.  I think it’s a feature starting in Vista.  Even though folders are great things, sometimes it’s hard to decided which folder it fits into.  For example, I might have a great history resource that is also a great Classical Conversations resource.  I could put it in both folders but that is a waste of space.  OR I could decide which folder it primarily fits and tag it with the other label.  Tags are simply words that are associated with the file that will help you find it later.  You can add a tag when you save it as highlighted below or right click the file at any time and add tags in the Details tab of the Properties dialogue box.  This will work for any file in the Office Suite (e.g., .docx, .xlsx, .pptx) or a .jpg.  To search for files tagged with a specific word, click the START button and type your search term into the field that says “Search programs and files.”  You may have to click “See more results” to see the files with your tag.
   
4. Love OneNote.  It’s like having a digital collection of divided spiral notebooks.  I blogged about how to use it as it applies to lesson planning here, but I also use it for organizing our non-profit, writing myself notes, keeping track of useful websites, and writing grocery lists.
5. Get a Mailinator account.  To keep the clutter out of your inbox, use a Mailinator email (basically a temporary, disposable email address) whenever you have to use an email to subscribe and you (1) don’t plan on ever reading the emails they send you just wanted to access the site and (2) you’re pretty sure they’re going to sell your email to every one who asks nicely.
6. Taming paper.  Scan it and see Tips # 1-4.

Visit the main post to see other tips and don’t forget to enter the current Life Well Lived Sweepstakes.

I have to laugh that I was assigned this particular part of the Getting Organized campaign.  My first thought was, “Spring Cleaning?!?!  What’s that?  Do people still do that?”

Here’s my two-cents:

1. Do a daily 10-minute declutter (read: fill the trash can) every day of spring break.  I don’t completely understand the psychology behind it, but clutter induces stress.  Additionally, clutter hinders our cleaning.  It’s much easier to clean a surface if you can actually see it.
2. Take all that money you saved from giving up Starbucks for Lent and hire a maid service.  Seriously.  I used to be categorically against paying money for something I could theoretically do myself.  Then we won a silent auction item last year for a whole-house cleaning.  It was amazing.  It indeed took some pre- work (i.e., straightening up) so they could do  a deeper clean in the allotted time, but it was well worth it.  They even scrubbed my drip pans under my burners clean.  If you go this route, make sure to get a recommendation from someone and find a service that will leave a check list of all completed tasks.  Not all cleaning services are created equal.

Anything you have to add to “the list?” If so, head here to contribute to the conversation and don’t forget to enter the new sweepstakes.

1. Lower your standards.  I know…much easier said than done.  But let’s be honest.  When was the last time you stepped into a friend’s house and judge her for the half-finished train track on her floor or the breakfast dishes in her sink?  If you can remember, remind me not to let you into my house.
2. Simplify.  For us, this meant get rid of lots of stuff.  I know this isn’t rocket science but it’s so much easier to have an organized house when there’s less stuff to organize.  Have you ever noticed all those cute Pinterest ideas for organizing your wardrobe only work if you can fit all of your clothes into a single closet or dresser?  My flip flops would look great too if there were only 5 pairs.  We are working toward downsizing so that everything has a comfy home.  It means that all the trains will fit comfortably into their plastic box with no stuffing needed.  It can also mean simplifying meal ideas.
3. Always be ready.  This is not nearly as stressful as it may sound if your embrace #1 and #2.  In our house, we try to maintain the best we can.  This might mean a 10 minute power clean up of toys (which pretty much all have homes now).  It might mean wiping down your toilet and sink on a regular basis so their never overly grody.  We also keep our freezer stocked with frozen pizzas and chicken nuggets so we can always offer lunch if necessary.  Remember, low, simple standards.  No gourmet meals for guests here but we are quick to invite friends over…even if it’s last minute.
4. Make guests feel at home. As long as you can make your guests feel comfortable, they’ll come no matter what.  We’ve found that often coming to a home that feels “lived in” is comforting and makes them more comfortable to return the invite because you’ve set the bar at a reachable level.
5. Get to know your crock pot.  For dinner gatherings, we have a couple go to meals that are great for large groups.  Taco and pasta bars are two of our favorites, but you can also make awesome, large dinners in a crock pot.  Ours is a 6-quarter so it holds a ton.  My favorite recipe site is http://crockpot365.blogspot.com. 
6. Employ your kids.  And by employ, I might mean enlist.  Our kids love hosting, and we’ve helped them have ownership in the process.  It can be helping straighten up, helping with simple kitchen tasks, setting the table, greeting guests and taking coats, playing graciously with guest kids no matter the age or gender, and cleaning up after it’s all over.
7. Recover as you go.  I hate that moment when you see the tail lights fade down the driveway and look around your house at a toy-strewn living room, a sink full of dishes, and crumbs on the dining room table.  I try to have a mostly empty dishwasher that my kids can load as they help clear the meal’s dishes.  I’ve found that clearing the table and putting away food can help conversation flow better because your have something to slightly distract you.  It only take a couple minutes and then you can retire to a more comfortable setting with a glass of wine knowing that there’s only minor work to be finished on the kitchen front.

If you’ve mastered the stress-free gathering (or even if you haven’t), what are your best tips?

Stop by BlogHer to read other Life-Well Lived tips on stress free gatherings.  Also, don’t forget to enter the current Life Well Lived Sweepstakes.

Enter Exhibit A: The Before Pictures

The biggest culprit was the Legos.  I decided it was time to make use of the train table which had only ever collected toys without homes since we’d moved four years ago.  I purged some books to make room for the puzzles that were stored in the train table.

Then we purged some train stuff and moved it to an empty plastic storage box that we gained from the last dress up purge.

To create a Lego building surface, we flipped the train table top.

Now both drawers are designated for Legos and they allow PJ to spread his stuff out a little more to see them.  Plus he has a surface for works in progress that hopefully be more contained than just the space on the basement floor.

We removed a larger gaming table and moved the train table to a more accessible spot.  Then we straightened up in the other areas.

Enter Exhibit B: After Pictures