Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Unsolicited Advice

In case you haven't noticed, I've been very hesitant to use this blog as an advice column. Using it to offer observations about my kids? Absolutely. Observations about other people's kids? Not a problem... so long as I don't name names. But trying to tell other people what to do when I myself have absolutely NO IDEA WHAT I'M DOING? Feels misleading.


Truth be told, I have no insight to offer anyone on how to be a better wife, mother, daughter, or follower of Christ, despite the fact these are my current roles in life. I am, however, an obsessively organized person, and it occurs to me that some of you might be interested in an organizational tip or two. Besides, the kids haven't done anything particularly funny in the last 48 hours and I need to earn my gold star. So here goes...


Three of My Most Useful - Albeit Bootlegged - Organizational Tools

1. I HATE having papers scattered all over my house. Drives me slap crazy. The problem is, I have a husband, four kids, and a postal service agent (yes, mailman) who all bring papers into my house faster than I can file, shred, hang, or toss them. After nine years of pulling my hair out, I've finally come up with some solutions that work for me.


The first solution I stole from a friend of a friend when the girls started pre-school. Three days a week I was inundated with stacks of the cutest little art projects you ever did see. But I have low tolerance for clutter, not to mention a tiny fridge that can't possibly display our vast collection of art. The answer was to find unused wall space - our garage - and create an art gallery.





I strung three rows of clothesline along our garage wall, and used clothespins to hang up the girls' art work. It's pretty cool, because each girl has her own row, and can see the work she's been doing at school each time we pull in the garage. When the row gets filled up, I choose two or three of my favorites to keep in the girls' memory boxes, and then (gasp) toss the rest. It's been a fun use of an otherwise boring space, and hopefully it's special to the girls.

Of course, there are plenty of other papers to contend with in addition to schoolwork: mail, fliers, coupons, shopping lists, appointment reminders, pictures, and the wadded up receipts my husband discards daily on my clean and tidy counter top. (Slap crazy, people. Slap crazy.) The only solution I've been able to come up with in that case is a small file station located in husband's dumping ground, otherwise known as my kitchen counter. I have files for everything in that station - from medical receipts and coupons to "papers I don't know what to do with." Every time I find a stack of papers sitting on the counter, I sort through and do one of three things: 1) trash it; 2) file it; or 3) dump it on a tray hidden in my husband's office that I've designated as the new dumping ground. Now he can deal with it at his leisure, and I don't have to look at it.

2. The second organizational tool that has made the clutter in my life bearable once again is something I call my "Laundry Basket System." Again, I totally stole this idea from someone else, because I'm not really one for original thoughts. This little tip was actually passed on to me by the nurse who cared for my twins when they were first born. I was lamenting to her the fact that my house looks like a 24-hour day care center, and her solution was this: Keep a stack of laundry baskets handy!

I keep one at the top of the stairs and one at the bottom of the stairs throughout the day. When I'm cleaning up the toys upstairs, I toss everything that needs to get hauled back downstairs into a basket. I then do the same when I'm cleaning up the downstairs. The benefits are twofold: 1) I don't have to run up and down the stairs 1800 times a day and 2) if company or my husband show up unexpectedly, I can shove my baskets into the laundry room and have the house looking deceptively tidy. If I'm not worried about hiding a mess from someone, then twice a day, I haul the baskets to their respective levels and put everything away. I know it doesn't seem that revolutionary, but it has seriously made clean-up time a whole lot easier for me.

Ironically, the laundry basket system has spilled over into my errands as well. I usually lug Tyler's shirts to the cleaners in a basket and then reload it with my groceries when I finish shopping. Carrying one heavy basket into the house is a lot easier than making 6 trips out the car. Plus, my groceries aren't scattered all over the back of my trunk when I get home.

3. If you're not an organized person, and you could care less about being organized because there is, after all, a life beyond clutter obsession, you're probably going to slap me for this last piece of advice. In fact, don't even read it. I don't want to irritate you. But for those of us who do find it unbearable to live in chaos, you probably already know my motto: "A place for everything and everything in it's place."

I've spent countless hours of my life coming up with a place for everything. A memory box for each child. A storage container for out-grown clothes. A playroom organized into creative stations. Before you call my therapist and ask her to up my meds, you need to understand this: my husband and I can pick up our house in 15 minutes or less, no matter how big the mess. And that is a big deal to us, because it's only once the kids are in bed and the house is picked up that we actually get to do whatever we want to do! You'd better believe we work fast.

Of course, the side benefit to having a spot for everything is that our kids know where it all goes as well. They are slowly but surely (emphasis on slowly) learning how to put things back where they belong. In fact Ella - who, I admit, is a girl after my own heart - is obsessed with keeping her room clean. Of course, so long as her room is clean, she could care less about the rest of the house. During her daily quiet time, she routinely opens her door, throws something out into the hall, and screams, "THAT DOES NOT LIVE IN MY ROOM!" There's usually quite a pile stacked up by the end of her quiet time (a misnomer if ever there was one); I dump it in my laundry basket and haul it downstairs to figure out where it does "live".

And so there you have it - my first and probably only advice column ever. Take it or leave it; makes no difference to me. Just please don't come over to my house for the next few hours. It's a mess. And if you do happen to show up, DON'T OPEN THE LAUNDRY ROOM DOOR.

7 comments:

ermaloff said...

You wouldn't believe how often I laugh out loud at your witticisms. I love the art gallery in the garage - it's so much more expansive than if you could have it anywhere else in the house. Also, I think it's great that you only keep the favorites - kids shouldn't think that every doodle is a masterpiece that will be dipped in bronze - hopefully they'll be artistic and creative as long as they live.

danielle

Jenny said...

I love the clotheslines in the garage, too! Mine is in our laundry room. And I'm so glad to know I'm not the only one who tosses their little masterpieces.

I'm all for a weekly advice column, though. Don't shy away from it. Do you take topic requests? Because if the kitchen counter doesn't count as a good filing system, I'm in need of whatever advice I can find!

Selffamilyblog said...

Ok- I'm so glad I stumbled onto your post. Eric's out of town and I'm going to take the girls to target to get some supplies and start a little clothesline project tonight.... and a couple of extra baskets may save many a twisted ankle on the piles that accumulate at the top and bottom of my stairs!

Emily said...

I am so proud of you (and my sister, mom2drew) for having an art gallery! My poor Austin... I can't stand papers so much, that I have a trashcan sitting right next to my place in the garage. We get out of the car each day, I look at his paper, say, "Oh, baby, you learned the letter N today?" that's wonderful and then toss it directly into the trash! How terrible. Don't worry, I'll save the cute lamb made out of his handprint... but only to send to my mom on mother's day! Ahhhh!!!!

Linda (Nina's Nest) said...

I wish I had those ideas 30 years ago! I especially love the art gallery in the garage. Did you know that I have joined blogland? First electric garage door openers and now my own blog! I'm joining the 21st century!

MindyMac said...

I just wrote the longest comment and lost the whole thing. I can't rewrite, so I'll just say love it all, and amen to to the kitchen counter tops.

Glenda said...

Lady, you've got it "going on". You sound like a person after my own heart. I have even had excess clutter make me sleepwalk, something I hadn't done since I was a child. The last sleepwalking incident was about 32 years ago when DH and I got married and combined two households of belongings. Thankfully I have that situation more under control right now, but I still hate clutter.