The beginning of a new year seems like an apropos time to reveal some of our current life hacks. None of the links are affiliate. I have no motivation for sharing other than, well, wanting to.

1. Our local YMCA membership. While most may be joining in January to support fitness and weight loss goals, we use our local Y for showers and free babysitting. With 8 people all needing showers after tae kwon do and only one shower at home, it seemed well worth it to pay $80 a month for the ability to all take hot showers at one time. Plus they provide 2 hours of free babysitting a day and soap for our showers! The pool and fitness equipment are a bonus.
2. Audiobooks. Want to know a secret? I hate reading out loud to my kids. I want them to be read to, but I hate doing it. Besides, I fall asleep. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. While reading. No matter what time it is. Enter audiobooks. We listen to them in the car. It’s a win-win. The kids are so captivated that they are quiet, and we’ve taken in dozens of great books. We pretty much only listen to ones that our library stocks, so this hack doesn’t even cost money.
   [bctt tweet=”Want to know a secret? I hate reading out loud to my kids. Check out this #lifehack.”]
3. My TO DO email address. Ever get an email to your phone while you’re out and about and want to remember to respond when you have more time and a real keyboard? Ever need to send yourself an important reminder? I have a separate email account that no one has that I ONLY check at HOME at MY DESK. I forward important emails, websites, and Facebook posts I want to remember for later and notes to myself. I have a daily Todoist task that reminds me to check that special email at the end of the day to make sure I follow up.
4. Disposable email addresses. Do you hate when you have to enter an email just to read a blog article? Or ever want to join a free site but don’t want to reveal your real email address for fear of spam monsters? Check out mailinator.com. It’s a public, disposable email. The inboxes are not password protected so don’t have sensitive information sent to one. We use them to sign up for some homeschool things like Xtramath and ReadTheory.

What are your favorite life hacks?

Who knew 6 kids could fit in 2 bedrooms so well?

 Last year we repurposed our “coat” closet.

We like to stick storage in all the nooks and crannies.

Each bedroom has a fold out desk.

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!