Creating little messes

Yes, this time I am talking about kids.  But before we start let's think about how being disorganized affects our kids and those around us.  And this would be a good time to reflect on your disorganization.  I know with me when my house is a mess I am instantly in a bad mood.  Everything sets me off.  One of the worst things is how sometimes it can take close to 30 minutes just to find everyone's shoes, not to mention everything else we need to leave the house.  Then, realizing later what we forgot, simple things.  ugh!  Yes Being unorganized makes me crazy, and that can't be fun to live with.  So just simply living with me in a disorganized messy environment has a negative effect on my family.  This may be a good time to just jot down a few things that have happened in the last few days as a result of being disorganized, use these things you write down as encouragement to change your ways.

Now thinking of kids, there are also many studies out there showing disorganization can cause children to be misdiagnosed with learning disabilities, such as ADHD/ADD, which could lead to medicating a child the doesn't really need to be.  And if you have a child who truly is ADD/ADHD or have any other learning disability, being more organized can really help them, possibly keeping them off some of the questionable drugs.  Also when you spend most of your time sorting through messes you have less time to do other things, like fix your family nutritious meals or even just spend some extra family time together.

So now you have read all this and are reflecting and thinking, but my kids are also so disorganized!  And you may be thinking of giving up.  Before you do here is one thing to think about, kids need to be taught, and I am talking about more than just school. They need to be taught everything, right from the very beginning, you smile at your baby to try and "teach" them to smile back, you help your toddler gain confidence while teaching him how to walk by holding his hands, you repeat things over and over helping them learn how to talk.... why wouldn't you help them learn how to clean?  That is something I have seen a lot of parents overlook, for some reason we tend to think it is a inborn trait.  Parents simply assume the child knows how to do a chore, how to clean, or how to organize and put away toys.  Think about this next time you ask your child to do something, have you taught them the ins and outs of the chore they are doing?  Have you taught them about the order of doing things and discussed why you do things this way?  Have you taught them about cleaners and how they are used and what they are used on (and the dangers of cleaners)?

After I am sure that my child knows how to clean I have a few things that I do to help encourage my children.  We have chore charts and star charts we use to help remind and reward the kids.  I always have some small treats or candies near by.  If I catch a child cleaning on their own, I make sure to publicly praise them so other kids can hear how good they were and give them a small candy.  I also usually have a "secret item" somewhere in the house, usually this is something that I have noticed isn't getting put away, when someone finally notices it and puts it away they get a prize.  This helps teach my kids to be aware of things around them and be more attentive.

For younger kids cleaning songs are great, I tend to make mine up as I go along or I encourage one of the other kids to make up a cleaning song which also encourages their creativity and imagination.  You can find a few songs on this site, you can also search www.youtube.com for preschool cleaning songs.  Ipods with parent approved up beat music are great for older children to help them get their chores done.

Now if I could only figure out how to organize all those toys!!!  And lets face it with 8 kids ranging from ages 1 through 16, I have toys for all ages floating around my home.  But, I think I will touch on that in another post.

Extreme Couponing

Or should I say, extremely sensible couponing...

 I watched the TLC show Extreme Couponing and I fell for it, hook line and sinker. I truly believed that you could create this unbelievably huge stockpile for a few dollars a month, and to top it off, I truly believed that for the most part you could live off it. BOY WAS I WRONG!

 Maybe once upon a time you could have at least partially done this, but so many things have changed since this show began. Companies and stores have become a lot more strict about coupons and their policies. Now I still coupon, I have the huge binder of coupons and I spend hours sorting and matching coupons while the rest of my house falls apart and my kids run crazy, lol. But I do it a lot more sensible. One of the first things I do is before I even buy a sunday paper (or multiple papers) is I check out Sunday coupon preview, The site is usually pretty accurate for my area. I make sure I will use at least $2 worth of coupons for each paper I buy (this is the cost of the paper I buy so I know I will at least be getting my money back). Then comes the cutting and sorting, which is usually a lot for me, with the size of my family I will normally get 5 papers if the coupons are good. I sort them in to piles, then file them into my binder while taking out expired ones. I like the crazy coupon lady's binder dividers and simple baseball card pages to hold the coupons. I will talk more about how I organize my binder later.

 Now for the sensible part, first I only cut coupons for things that I know we eat or will use. I'm not too picky about some things like body wash and shampoo, so I will cut all of those and buy whatever I can find the best deals on. But for things like laundry detergent, I am very picky about what I use so I only cut those coupons. If there is something I want to try I will cut that coupon too. Then I will gather my ad's. I use to run all over town, store to store, to get the best deals on everything.... while spending a lot in gas. Now I pick the stores that I know I am going by or that are close to me, otherwise I am spending more in gas than I am saving. Now for the facts, You CAN NOT live off the stuff that you coupon for (that is if you want to eat at all healthy and eat a variety of foods), so take advantage of the sales as they come around, even if you don't have a coupon. And if a coupon is about to expire for something you do use, use the coupon even though the item is not on sale. you are still saving money. Yes it would be nice to be able to match everything you buy with both a coupon and a sale at the same time, but reality is, it's not going to happen.

We have a desk?

That is what I told my husband when he asked me to get a pen out of the desk.  I think most of us have some kind of a desk or office area, usually it is hidden under all those piles of mail and paper we tend to accumulate over time.  I remember being told once that computers were suppose to cut down the amount of paper people used, but I think I have more paper now.  It seems like every website I visit has something I want or need to print off.  So what do we do about this paper problem?  If it is very overwhelming it can be broken down into 3 steps.  First throw out and shred, then sort, and finally file.

So lets start with the throw out and shred. I like to start here because it gives me instant gratification that I am getting something done and things are getting cleaner. You are going to start sorting through all the papers and make 2 piles.  One pile is a keep pile, the other is toss or shred.  Due to what seems like a insanely high risk of identity theft, I shred anything that so much as has my name on it.  Maybe I am a little too cautions, but that's better than applying for a home loan and finding out I already bought a house in Maui. If you have a lot of papers then you may want to invest in a good Shredder that will allow you to shred several papers at once.  If you are wondering what to keep and what to to toss the IRS has some good information for all those tax returns and The New York Times also has some information regarding things you should keep.

  

 After you have weeded out the garbage and spent a whole night doing some therapeutic shredding, it is time to take a look at what we have left.  We are going to make more piles and lists (Do you love lists yet?).  Depending on what you have left you will organize everything left into a few piles like "need to do", "bills", "medical", "financial records", etc.. These piles will basically be the way they will go into a filing cabinet.  While you are sorting though all this you will likely come across stuff that needs to get done or you forgot to do.  That is what the list is for, when you come across something like a disconnect notice for you electric, simply put it on your list and add it to the need to do pile.  You may come across stuff you want to keep, but really don't need the original document, make a pile for this stuff.  This is where a scanner can come in handy.  You can simply scan these types of items and save them on a flash drive, you can then toss the original (or shred).

 

Now for the fun part, it is time to pull out the pretty colored file folders and label maker. Start labeling your folders according to the piles you made, put the stuff in the folders, and file them in a cabinet, case, or drawer.  Ahhh, doesn't that feel good to have all those papers under control? Now sit down with that list you made and see if there are any very urgent things on it, if so mark or highlight them to do first, otherwise just start working your way through the list in whatever order you want.

Don't forget to have fun!  Turn on some up beat music and start sorting.

Messy Monsters

No, I'm not talking about my kids!

I'm talking about all those little spots that accumulate messes.  These little mess monsters sneak up and make themselves at home all over the place. You know where I am talking about, the table next to the door, end of the kitchen counter, on top of your desk or dresser, the passenger seat of your car.... admit it, you have places like this.

It is time to look at what is in these piles.  Mail? Keys? Your husbands baseball hat? Things that you have no idea what they are or where they came from? I have a screw in one of my piles and I can't help but think something is close to falling apart in my house? Coloring books, Crayons, TOYS! Oh my!  How does one family find so much stuff?

What do you do with all this stuff?  Heck, I don't know, that is usually the reason it is there. Just kidding.  But seriously, usually it is there because it doesn't have a place of its own, or the place it should be isn't that convenient compared to how much you use it.  So first we need to figure out why it gets put there.  Are the keys always on the table next to the door because you use them all the time, but putting them there can result in the 18 month old being able to grab them and run away with them making leaving the house into a hide a seek game?  But could it be that it is a convenient place for them?  Well then, why change it? Because I don't like playing hide and seek with my keys (ok, so I am also trying to clean and organize my house and make it beautiful), so a simple cute hook on the wall right next to, but out of reach of a 18 month old, is a quick solution that will likely be used.  Putting the keys in a nice drawer organizer on the other side of the room, not so convenient and not likely to work long term.  See what I'm trying to do here?  Clean up the mess, but still keep the items that always seem to end up in these messy spots convenient to where they are usually found in a convenient nice place.

Now pick something else in one of those piles and figure out why it is there and try and find it a place where you are more likely to keep it put away.  Don't try and clear all the piles at once, just take it one item at a time and when you are tired move on to something else and come back to it later.  In fact the longer you take at this, the more of a trend in the items you will see, and the easier it will be to figure out solutions to the problem items.  Like after finding several different tool related items on the end of my kitchen counter over a period of time, I figured out that I simply needed a drawer in my kitchen for that sort of stuff.  Now there are no more tools and screws on my counter, they are all placed in a small drawer by where they use to accumulate.

Need To Do

Aren't lists great?  There is something about writing something out, getting it done, then crossing it out that is very satisfying.  It is like erasing the mess, problem, thing to do, whatever, it's closure.  I love it!

Now after feeling like we have completed something from the list of things that annoys us, we can move on.  You can wait a day or dive right in to the next thing, it's up to you, just don't get burnt out, remember there is life outside of cleaning and organizing.  And yes, we are making another list. This one is the "need to do" list. So dig around and find another piece of paper and grab that pen.  It is time to sit down and remember all those thinks you keep saying "I need to...".  You know those things I'm talking about, the ones that need to get done, some may be rather important, but procrastination has taken over.  Go ahead, start listing them all out, and don't worry if you are forgetting some, you can always add more later.

At this point you should have 2 lists, one full of the simple little things that irritate you and are easy to get done, and one full of things that need to get done.  Remember not to put repetitive tasks like dishes on these lists, you are looking for thing that when they are done, for the most part, they stay done.  We will get to goals and repetitive tasks later.

Now we are going to look the list over, but let me warn you, do not sit back and look at both lists at the same time.  If you do you are likely to get a feeling if "Oh my, I have WAY too much stuff to do" that will quickly overwhelm your thoughts.  So just look at one list at a time (but don't loose the other).  I like to put mine on the inside of cupboard doors, so I open one door at a time to look at one list at a time, the other doors stay closed. This also reminds me to stay on task through out the day so I don't forget about the lists, but they aren't sitting out nagging me at the same time.  I can close the cupboard door to shut them up and take a deep breath and open them up when I am ready.  You also shouldn't have too much on your lists so you feel overwhelmed, if you do, take a few of the less important things off, remember you can always add more things later as you get things done.

You may be wondering why we have 2 lists and have yet to address those dishes piling in the sink?  Well, the dishes will eventually get done, wither they are on a list or not.  And if you don't get the dishes done, well, I guess you and your family won't be eating at home much?  You may also be wondering why we aren't working off both lists at the same time.  Well, I have tried many different methods of cleaning, and they always seem to start out the same, with a routine, you start with doing one thing at the same time each day, then add something to the routine every day, until you walk around your house like a scheduled cleaning robot.  I have a life, I have days where I don't know if I am coming or going.  So I have different lists, and depending on what my day looks like and how much time I have, I will have a list that I has something on it I can get done.  Busy days I will pick something from the annoying little things list and days I have more time and patients I will pick from the need to do list.  You can make as many different lists as you want.  Like I said, lists are great.

Now, we are going to pick something on the "need to do" list and get it done.  You can choose what you want to do based on how much time you have, how much energy you have, how important something is, etc. However you want to choose, just pick something..... I'm waiting..... Got it? Great, now get busy with it.

And don't forget to cross it off when you are done.

Getting Started

I always need to feel like I accomplished something when I start a new project, so lets start out with 2 quick and easy things to do.  First make a list, then clean or organize something.

Lets get started with that list, find yourself a pen and paper.  It doesn't have to be anything fancy, or nice, just whatever you can find.  Remember we haven't even started to talk about organizing that paper mess that is on top, around, in, and under that thing we call a desk, so don't worry about that, just grab a paper and pen. Now write down somethings around the house that bug you, like the bathroom sink where no one puts anything away, the books on the floor next to the book case because it is so hard for kids to remember to place the books ON the shelves, the overflowing garbage cans in the bathrooms, toys under the dining room table, sweeping the front porch and putting the chairs in a way they look nice.... You get the idea?  I'm not talking about "clean out the garage" type projects, just the little things that irritate you when you are walking through the house, things that can be cleaned/organized in 5 minutes or less, but not so small that you won't be able to notice it when it is done.  I also try and stay away from repetitive things for this list, like dishes.  You know as soon as you get it done someone will eat or you will have to cook dinner and then you will have to start over, find things that once you clean have a good chance at staying that way for a while.  Now make your list, if you have to walk around the house while doing it. 

Now pick something on the list, if you feel really ambitious pick 2 things.  For me it was cleaning up the front porch.  For some reason when I say take out the trash the kids translate that into "set the bag on the front porch so the cats will tear the bag apart and spread garbage everywhere".  And that's not my only front porch problem, I also have a couple nice rocking chairs that the kids LOVE to rearrange along with some other furniture.  So I swept it and nicely arranged the furniture. 

Now notice, I also stated the problem. Part of getting a clean and organizing your house is figuring out why it got that way to begin with.  Where is the problem?  What isn't working?  Once you figure that out you need to ask yourself, How can I fix it?  My problem, basically my kids were slacking in the chore department (ok, I admit, I have also placed a bag or two out there while feeling way to lazy to walk it all the way to the can).  So, I took my kids on a "field trip" of the front porch, showed them where the furniture belongs, answered all the "why" questions until I finally said "because mom said so! that's why!", then showed them where the garbage cans are at and how to place garbage in the cans (ok, maybe that sounded like a sarcastic overkill, but when I showed them the garbage cans there was a bag laying on the ground NEXT to the can! "like really, seriously?", as my 16 year old daughter would say).  So far, I have only had one bag placed on the porch, and as they were warned a few days earlier, I made sure that the child that placed it there completely cleaned up mess.

Good Luck!

And don't forget the best parts, first stand back and look at what you did, then cross it off your list!

Coming out of the closet

I am coming out of the closet, you know that one closet in your house that when you open the door everything falls out and you just want to crawl into the deep dark back corner of the closet due to overwhelming embarrassment!  Yea, that closet, the unorganized mess that was created when you piled everything on your living room floor in it the last time you saw someone drive up your drive.

Yes I am a organization, cleaning, laundry, and housekeeping failure.  I admit it, now it is your turn.  Take a deep breath, it's ok, we can work through this together.  Here on my NEW blog I will share tips and lessons learned about going from a unorganized crazy lady to a cleaner lifestyle.  I will talk about ways to organize, cleaning tips, frugal ways to get things done, decorating on a budget and I will try and make it fun!

It's possible, you just need to take one day at a time.  And whatever you do, don't expect to change overnight, just take it one day, one mess, at a time.  So, what are we waiting for? Let's get started...