Playroom Update

 

Our playroom (a.k.a. loft) gets a lot of my attention. My girls are in this area for a good portion of almost every day. My oldest likes to keep all of his things in his room, but he does end up here from time to time. Usually for the computer or a place to read. I am in here daily with the girls and to use the computer. 

 

This room has a lot of activity, which makes it important to keep organized and functional. Because in the blink of an eye, the room can go from looking kind of cute, to a crazy pile of puzzle pieces, play kitchen toys and books.

 

 

 

 

 

I have made a bunch of updates lately, and I wanted to share some of the little projects and organized spots with all of you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

First, our new computer chair/rocker. I have been eyeing these cradle rocking chairs for almost a year now and wanted one badly. I sold a bunch of old clothes and things we don't need on facebook, so with that money I was able to buy this chair. Yay!

 

 

 

 

 

Quite a few months ago, I happened across these ottomans and after finding out they were only $16, I scooped both of them up. They are perfect for grabbing a quick book and really, you can never go wrong with extra seating.

 

 

 

 

For years we have used storage cubbies to help organize and corral our things. Would you believe we had never once purchased one of the little fold out drawers that can go with them? Seriously. I finally went ahead and picked up four of them when they went on sale and oh my gosh! I have been missing out! Case in point. The photo below. I could never store these without the help of the drawer.

 

 

 

 

The drawers also help give the cubbie a cleaner look, which makes me happy.

 

 

 

 

I have a handful of books I like to keep by the computer for quick referencing. It's nice to have them right on hand, but with our goofy corner desk that we're using right now, they don't always look so great. It took me a while to find a solution, but then one day it dawned on me that I could store the books inside magazine files. I found these for a dollar each and it has been working perfectly for over a year now.

 

 

 

 

 

We have a half wall in this room that we have always kept picture frames on. As much as I loved the photos they displayed, I hated the mismatched look of them along the wall. To unify everything, I spray painted all of the frames white. I absolutely love them now! They are all different shapes and styles, but the white pulls everything together. I added a few accent pieces to break up the frames as well.

 

 

 

 

 

One of the frames I had was really small, 3x5 I think, and I couldn't find any pictures that worked with that size. I decided to create my own little framed art. I used my silhouette cameo to make the cut outs and the images I designed on the computer. I need to re-do the Emily Dickinson quote so that you can easily read it, but other than that I am really happy with how it turned out. It's simple, but it adds a much needed pop of color.

 

I hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween tomorrow! I'll be back on Thursday.

 

For everyone on the East Coast, please stay safe - we're sending our thoughts and prayers your way.

Organization On a Budget - DIY Daily System

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For about the last year or so, I have had my eye on Pottery Barn's Daily System (shown above). Unfortunately for me, I can't quite bring myself to cough up the money for this amazing system. For all the parts - yes, it is purchased in parts - that I want, would have me spending upwards of $200. I'm all for organization that is both attractive and functional - but I'm not down with dropping all my cash for that perk.

Which brings me to my first project to share!

It's not perfect or completely finished - but I couldn't hold back my excitement about my project any longer. I just had to share. So far I have invested a total $23 into my system and I'm pretty excited about that. In all fairness, I did have the giant sized cork board going unused in my basement already - as well as the paint - so I'm not including those in my total spent. You can find a cork board this size at discount stores for around $5-10 - still not a bad deal.

Here is what I did...

I have been wanting to do something with is awkward wall of mine since moving in 8 years ago (true story! Eight years and no ideas on my end). You can't see in the pictures, but there is only about 3 feet of walking space between that wall and another wall as well as the door to our basement. Nothing ever seemed to work. When I fell in love with the Daily System from Pottery Barn, Chris and I agreed that it would be a perfect fit for that wall. But neither one of us had any intention of actually buying the system - again - budget issues. So the wall remained empty and my fridge remained covered in papers.

Until.... A light bulb went off in my head and a realized I could use that old cork board and paint it the color of my walls with our tub of touch up paint! I ran right out into the garage and started painting. I decided to tape off the cork and paint the trim of the board white to add some contrast. Easy peasy. The whole painting part was finished in 30 minutes, start to finish.

Then I went on a search for hanging pocket folders that would mimic the style of the Daily Systems folders. It took a while but I finally found these!

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They were perfect! And at $9 a piece, worth it in my mind. They are heavy duty, match beautifully and work like a charm. I did have to attach them to the cork board with my glue gun because the adhesive backing was not sticky at all. You can also just use the giant push pins that come with it, but they are huge and sharp and I really don't want one of my children to accidentally come in contact with one of those ginormous sharp pins.

I found simple and easy to attach tiny command hooks for a key holder. This came about right when we "lost" our second set of keys. I think that helped drive home the importance of having a place for said keys so that didn't happen again in the future. Thankfully two weeks later the lost set magically appeared inside the pocket of a pink stroller. Hmmmnnn... Did I mention this is out of reach for the smaller people in our house?

This is in a high traffic area of our house, so we decided to drill it to the wall. I just painted over the screws.



When I finally get around to buying more ink for my printer, I will type out the labels to give this a nicer appearance. I'm also on the search for a pretty calendar and a way to hold pens to the board so I don't have to keep walking to the other side of the wall for them.

 All in all, I'm thrilled with this simple little system. My refrigerator is cleared off and looks awesome blank - my mom actually thought we bought a new one! It's amazing what a clear fridge does for the appearance of a kitchen. I also love that now all the paper work I need for each child is easy to find at a moments notice. When Stella starts school, I will just simply attach one more folder to the board.

Have a great day!
-Lisa

Hanger Tags - Easy Organization - Free Printables!

I am always looking for ways to streamline our mornings, especially now that I have three little ones to get up and out the door by 7:10 AM. I have never been much of a morning person. It usually takes me a good 30 minutes of slow-moving and a really hot, strong and large cup of coffee to get me going. Unfortunately, I think my children are following in my footsteps, and they don't get the option of coffee to help them out.

I have found that a little extra prep before bedtime goes a long way in this house. Which brings me to today's free printable. Hanger tags! Labeled with each day of the week, they minimize the amount of time wasted looking for the "right" outfit for each morning and reinforce the days of the week for my oldest two.

My little one loves pink, can you tell?


On Sunday night, we pick out everyone's clothing for the week and put them on hangers. I fold pants on the hanger and then put the tops on over those. Then we just pop on the hanger tags and hang up the outfits in order. This takes about 15 minutes total for all three kids, and I know it saves us loads of time overall during the week.

I may try and streamline this even more by simply adding a new outfit to the empty hanger and putting it in the back of the line. That would eliminate the 15 minute chunk of time on Sunday nights.

If you want to try it out, just click on the link below to a free PDF. There's two sets, blue and purple, in the document. I would suggest printing these out on card stock and using an exacto knife to cut them out. If this continues to work well in our house, I will probably laminate them as well.


Click here to download these for free.

Have a great day!

Saving Schoolwork

When my son started Kindergarten last year, we started getting bombarded with piles and piles of paper. I was honestly taken back by the amount actually - it all seems so wasteful. With that being said, I also found myself stuck in a weird gray area of what to save and what to recycle. On the one hand, I wanted to keep as many pieces of his intellectual and artistic growth as I could. On the other however, I knew I couldn't handle massive piles for all three children...

Then last week, I came across this post! It seemed so simple! Why hadn't I thought of that? I quickly ran out to the store and gathered what I needed to create three matching Schoolwork bins.

I followed the directions on Jen's blog, and she even provides free printables - which I happily used.

And with a little help from my happy assistant, I had three bins all set up and ready to go for each child for pre-K to 12th grade! I'm so stinking happy with this one, really.

I also decided to add cute name tags over the ugly product stickers that I can never get completely off. I just used some scrapbook paper and placed white labels in the center. I wrote each child's name on the card and then laminated them so they will hold up over the years.


So there you have it. If you want to make one of your own, click here.

Take care!

-Lisa

The Coloring Drawer

During part of my pre-holiday organizing craze (which ended almost as quickly as it started - but I'm back at it again now that the holidays are over), I emptied out a few drawers in my kitchen. I chose three that seemed the least daunting. One of those three had been stocked with papers and coloring books for the kids. It was a mess, with crumpled half colored pages, random marker magic sheets (which, by the way, have no business in our house - those things make a monstrous mess when combined with my three year old), and broken crayons. I had colored pencils, crayons and markers tucked away in various other areas of my kitchen. I think my logic behind that was to have something on hand to keep the kids busy while I made dinner or lunch.

It made no sense to have all these items in different places, not to mention the kids couldn't reach any of it on their own.

My solution? Put everything in a drawer that every family member can reach, and have a designated place for each item within. I made sure that the art supplies available could easily be cleaned up in case someone's creative side took a wild streak.

I didn't spend a dime on this project, and just used mason jars I had on hand to corral the different supplies. Almost daily, Hannah will help herself to a coloring book and jar of crayon rocks or colored pencils. When its time to clean up, I just tell her to put all the items back in their home. I never had to elaborate on that, she just automatically knew what to do.

That was definitely an "ah-ha" moment for me. Imagine if I could do that in all the spaces the kids use. No more nagging. Or constantly picking up the toy trail little ones like to leave in their wake.

So that is the game plan for now. Wish me luck, I'll need it!

Kids Clothing Organization - Budget Friendly

Last week, I mentioned that I was starting to try and get more organized. I have only made a handful of minor changes around the house. Those small changes, however, have made a huge impact in the ease of my day. So much so, that I want to make it a personal goal of mine to organize my entire house this year.



I am, and I hate to admit this, probably the most unorganized person I know. Seriously. I am much more of a creative, go-with-the-flow, eh - this works for now, kinda girl. That being said, if I can do it, so can you! I'm going to start a new thread on the blog specifically aimed towards organizing, so be sure to check back for more ideas and tips over the next few months.

Because organizing can seem so overwhelming to me, I tried to really narrow in on what I felt would make the biggest impact on my days. To do this, I wrote down everything I could think of that needing clearing, organizing, and sorting. After that, I highlighted 3 things that I felt would make the biggest impact - yup, just three. Wrote those on a separate sheet of paper and then tossed the old list. Why did I toss the other list? Because if I kept it, it would loom over me mentally, and I know I would get less done.

Fist on my list to tackle? The huge mass of clothing that had been acquired from my three children. We are done having babes. The three we have keep us quite busy. With one boy and two girls, I know that anything my son outgrows can be donated or handed over to a friend. With my girls however, that's a different story. I am lucky enough to have an awesome sister-in-law who gives us the most adorable clothing for Hannah. My niece is seven years older than her though, which means I needed to find a way to keep the clothing organized and stored. Also in a place where I won't forget about them. As my older daughter out-grows her clothing, it needs to be organized and stored for her little sister in the same manner.

So this is what I came up with....



I had no intention of spending money on anything for this, well, at least not much. So, with all the boxes coming in from the holidays lately, I came up with an idea. Wrap them! Yup, what you're looking at are diaper boxes (from years ago - we cloth dipe now), baby wipe boxes, shipping boxes, and so on. All wrapped up in plain brown shipping paper (you can find this for about $2.50 in the mailing area of big box stores, or at your local office supply store) to keep a uniform look. Then, I cut out matching squares of scrapbook paper, and placed a white shipping label (2x3") in the center to write the clothing size on. I made sure to tape the labels the same distance from the bottom of each box, again to help make it more uniform.

Now, all I have to do when I get clothing that doesn't fit either girl right away, is look for the box it needs to go in, pull it down and toss the clothing item in. That's it, I'm done, and I don't have to give it another thought. When my youngest outgrows a box of clothing, it can be donated or given away, and I can simply place a new white label over the one that is already there and use it for another set of clothing.

Since I had everything but the brown shipping paper, this project only set me back about $3.00. I'll take it!

Happy organizing!

Be sure to stop by tomorrow, I'm announcing the Giveaway, which has a $40 value!

Take care,

Lisa