Operation De-clutter Flat Surfaces

So in my attempt to gain control of our lives and become more organized, especially in the area of papers, I completed another mini project.  The first part of this was our family memo center which has been utilized (not as much as I would like) as shown below.

A good first step but I still found that the piles of papers, magazines, mail and other miscellaneous items ended up on the kitchen island, counter and table any flat surface.  This becomes very overwhelming and out of control especially when there is no room for the kids to eat.

Okay a very honest moment here - I did clean the piles up a bit before photographing them but you get the idea.

Let's be realistic - even the most organized anal person would have trouble filing things as soon as walking in the door with bags from shopping, backpacks, a baby in an infant carrier and three other kids running through the door.  The easy thing is just toss them down and attend to the immediate needs like the puppy needing to go potty, the baby screaming from hunger, the diaper that needs to be changed, the 3 year old screaming he is hungry yet again and must have a snack RIGHT NOW, and other countless items.  Problem is once all those immediate needs are met I often do not go back to the pile/stack of items tossed on the said flat surface (repeat above paragraph for about a week and you have the actual picture of my kitchen).

SO.....I was in need of a new flat surface that wasn't needed for cooking, eating or other daily activities and could handle a few stacks until I could sit down to sort and organize them.  Luckily our dining area has a large enough recess to hold a table or other storage item.  My very short term fix was of course a table tray and looked something like this.

That worked for oh about a week and then the stacks outgrew the tray and once again spilled into other areas.  My ultimate desire is to find a nice looking console table (possibly with a drawer) that will fit the space and allow me the flat surface I desire but also a place to pull up a chair and do the things I find I am using the kitchen table for - Scholastic orders, school forms, quick mail and other items that I do not want to go downstairs to the office for.  So I set out on an adventure with my girlfriend and 6 kids (we are crazy like that) to find the perfect table.  Well all that we found were either too big for the space or for my budget.  Needing immediate gratification and a place to put things NOW I improvised with a cheap bookshelf and some baskets and media boxes (thanks to my friend for the idea).  Now I have FOUR flat surfaces to stack stuff on and hopefully some places to hide those annoying yet necessary items (pencils, crayons, sight word flashcards, not yet filed coupons, etc).

What do you think?  Looks much  better than the tv tray and will hopefully do the job until I can locate the perfect table.

I've Been Busy...

So now that I am finally starting to feel like I am getting our lives in order I am trying to work on the house.  It continues to be a work in progress and probably will be for quite some time.  We were in the townhouse for 6 years and never did get it just the way we wanted and left with a remaining to-do list.  Sometimes it is the simplest things that bring me the greatest joy.  Like hanging picture frames (this was done months ago) and then actually replacing that attractive family that comes in the frames with photos of OUR family :)  And updating all the frames with recent photos of each child (one frame had not been updated for three years).

Another area that has needed some serious attention is organizing.  In a previous life I was one of the most organized people.  Co-workers would probably say that I can be organized to a fault ;)  I have slacked off on this some but have recently found the motivation to become more organized.  And where do we need that the most?  Well toys, papers, art projects, toys, and did I mention toys?!?!  I found inspiration and great ideas at http://iheartorganizing.blogspot.com/ in addition to some I have been planning for a while.

My first project was to unload the boxes and boxes of DVDs and CDs we had.

On the outside this is a plain looking cabinet (left for us by the previous homeowner).

But on the inside it houses all of our DVDs, CDs, kid movies, and games.

The kids movies remain in their cases (in alphabetical order) in these great storage boxes I picked up way back when at Costco.

And for ours we removed them from the cases and put them in this binder (alphabetical as well).

The CDs are sorted by genre and then alphabetical in the same type of binder.

The next project was toy storage!  I have had these bins for the kids for a while but found that they are always using the excuse "But Mommy, I don't know where it goes".  I LOVE labels and use them for just about everything so of course I used one of my three label makers to label each of the toy bins as soon as we got this storage unit from IKEA at the old house.

I recently realized that this was great for Jay and I to keep things organized but 2 of the 3 kids responsible for cleaning up after themselves cannot read so this old labeling system was replaced by this:

I was so pleased with how the playroom labels turned out I decided to label the kids toy bins in their bedrooms as well.

I am hoping this solves the "I don't know where it goes" problem :)  And while I was in there I went ahead and did the walls in the boys room.  This has been on the project list since we moved in but I never got around to it.

So now that the toys are under control (I hope) I moved onto the next area that causes the most stress - Paper!  As all you parents of school age kids know, the paper can pile up quickly as they bring home art projects, assignments, and all those other paper things from school each day.  Being a closet pack rat I hang onto all of these items.  My system was to display the most recent art and school work and then to file it in a plastic storage tub - one for each child per year.  With just two being in school, I already have four tubs overflowing with stuff.  Then I discovered a post on http://iheartorganizing.blogspot.com/ and I knew I had to do it!  I had all of the items needed for this little project except the file tubs which I found on sale at Office Depot for just $6.99 each.  They even had all of the kids colors (yes our children are color coded to keep items straight).

First I used my new label making ability to personalize each tub.

Then it was time to create a folder for each child for each year of school.

And then put them in hanging folders into the storage tubs just waiting to add all of those school memories.

All the kids have their bins ready and waiting...

That solves part of our paper problem but it seems we still have so much piling up on the kitchen island, table and any other flat surface that I needed something else.  I also wanted to make sure that with two kids in school full time, playing sports, and my volunteer commitments, we were able to keep track of everything.  So the perfect solution was a family message/paper center.  I again turned to http://iheartorganizing.blogspot.com/ for some ideas and my mind starting working overtime.  I had a vision and I didn't stop until I made it come true.  I did have to go out and buy all the items needed and I splurged a bit because it had to be exactly what I had pictured in my head so the entire project cost around $50.

The finished product came out exactly as I wanted and I am so very pleased with it.  Cannot wait to keep our lives organized with this!  We each have a slot for our folders, a place for keys as you enter the house, a post it holder (because we use these all over the place) and a little catch all tray for Jay to drop his change and other small items.

Well that is what I have been doing the past week.  I have a growing list of other projects I want to accomplish so I will share as I complete them :)

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