organizing

Keeping Up With Schedules

June 15, 2013 By Suzanne

Guess what I did on the beautiful summer day…

Matching Up School / Phone / Home Calendars

We’re taking it easy this weekend because my daughter had eye surgery on Thursday and has to stay pretty low-key. And last week the paperwork & calendar for the 2013-2014 school year arrived. So I took time today to transfer everything from the school district calendar to our home wall calendar and my iPhone calendar that syncs with my work Outlook.

For my wall calendar, I again ordered my favorite Fly Lady wall calendar because I love the size and large spaces. I can fit birthdays, activities, and school closures all in one space!

On my phone, I have my corporate Microsoft Outlook synced with my Google calendar. So on my phone both home and personal appointments show up together in different colors. And if I need it to be on my work calendar (so I’m marked as “busy”) I can do that too.

Don’t Get Caught Off-Guard This School Year!

I do realize that it seems premature to be filling out calendars for next school year. But I’ll admit that it gives me a sense of calm to know that I won’t be scrambling around surprised that the school is closed for in-service day in mid-November! And with my Fly Lady 17-month calendar I don’t have to have 2 calendars to fit it all in. It starts in August 2013 and goes all the way through December 2014. Brilliant!

What did I do with that original copy from the school? I stuffed it in the back pocket of the calendar so that I can still access it, just in case. In case of what, I’m not sure!

How do you keep your family’s schedules in sync? I’d love to hear your tips.

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1 Comment Filed Under: Children, Electronic Organization, Homekeeping, Living Organized, Routines, Stuff, Time, To Buy Tagged With: Back To School, back to school ideas, calendar, electronic organization, organizing, organizing for moms, organizing with kids, preparing for back to school, products, school, seasonal, summer, Time Management

Kids Bathroom Storage

June 6, 2013 By Suzanne

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We moved into a new-to-us home just about 1 year ago. We are very fortunate in this home that we really do have plenty of storage. But just because there is are a lot of place to put things does not mean those places are always where I want to put my things.

The children’s bathroom is a perfect example. Our three children currently occupy 2 bedrooms with the boys sharing. That means they all share a bathroom. We have a spare bedroom with an en suite but we’ve reserved that for our guests (i.e. parents) to visit.

The bathroom set up is with an outer room that has two sinks. These each have a cabinet underneath and there are three decent sized drawers. There is then an inner room with the toilet and bathtub. The truth is there is plenty of room in those cabinets and drawers to store all we need in this room. However, my little guy is not quite 3 years old yet and I’m not comfortable leaving cleaning supplies in his reach just yet. So I had two options. 1. store the cleaning items in another room (ugh!) 2. install cabinet locks (which he’d already mastered opening at our old house) or 3. find a way to store them up high enough to be out of reach.

I installed 2 Ikea EKBY JÄRPEN shelves above the toilet.

On the bottom shelf we keep:

wash cloths
pail for small odds & ends that turn up
basket with tub toys

On the top shelf we keep:

cleaning supplies in baskets
first aid kit

I feel most comfortable with the cleaning & medical supplies up high because they are harder to reach for kids. Not that MY kids would ever do something so adventuresome as to climb on the toilet to reach items on the shelves. Heavens, no! <insert biggest sarcastic look possible>. But visiting children may not be so well behaved.

A few other highlights of the bathroom. Because we are in potty-training mode with 2-year-old J I have a command hook on the wall to hang his potty seat.

In the outer room I hung the picture that used to be in the kids’ bath at our old house – my older two in a tub filling with water fully clothed. Yes, before popularized by Pinterest, I had this adorable tub photo of my kids hanging in the bathroom. And no, it was not staged, in the slightest. P was just 2 at the time and was so excited for bath time that he hopped in fully clothed. A (3 at the time) followed suit as soon as she saw him. I snapped the picture, had it printed as 8×10 and bought a frame and mat that matched the bathroom colors. It’s adorable and they hopefully won’t be too embarrassed when their friends see it since they are clothed!

And one last bit of bathroom fun… we usually don’t use this tub for bath time because we have a large soaker in the master. So it’s not uncommon for a few days to lapse before Mr. Brown or I go into this bathroom. While cleaning a few months ago my husband found a nearly empty carton of melted Blue Bell Rocky Road in the tub – with 2 spoons inside. I didn’t know whether to be mad that they snuck around eating ice cream, impressed at their creativity, or glad to know they were sharing.

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Leave a Comment Filed Under: Bathroom, Children, Homekeeping, Living Organized, Simple Solutions, Storage, Stuff, To Buy Tagged With: Bathroom, cabinet, decorating, organizing, organizing with kids, products, storage

Open The (car) Doors With Confidence

January 1, 2013 By Suzanne

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Happy New Year! I hope that this day finds you excited for a year of possibility.

January is National Get Organized (GO) month. In honor of that, we’re going to spend the next 30 days focusing on decluttering and organizing those spaces of your home and life that you usually just shut the door on. Out of sight, out of mind? Not anymore. Let’s open the drawers, fling open the doors, and expose them to the light! Stop worrying that when your mother-in-law comes to visit that she’ll open the wrong closet and have something fall on her head.

We’re going to start in a place you probably don’t think about often but you see every day – the center console of your car. This space is a challenge because it’s small so it won’t hold much. But if stocked with a little bit of planning it can be extremely helpful!

The type of vehicle you have will determine how much space you have available. I personally have a minivan. Yes, I know, the ultimate mom-mobile – you either love it or hate it. Let me tell you that as a mother of 3 kids under the age of 6 it is my saving grace in having enough space for easily sitting 3 car seats and getting kids in and out. As a result I have a pretty large center console so what I can fit in mine, you may not be able to in yours.

Yes – I did take mine out of the car to photgraph for you. Another advantage of the van! It was about 15 degrees when I went out to take pictures!

Don’t worry if you don’t have a monster space like mine – just think about what you really need and will use and find the right size for your space. This isn’t the place to keep every piece of paper or stray sock (hey – it happens!) that makes its way into your car.

Here’s what is in each of my 3 compartments:

Hand Sanitizer
Phone charger (not pictured)
Eye Drops – for my contact lenses
Lip Balm for these dry Colorado winters
Coins for parking. I only have a few but if you live in a city where you park at meters a lot or drive toll roads you might want a lot more
Hair rubber bands for myself and my daughter
Band-aids
Pen & Paper (courtesy of my realtor)
Gym/Rec Center Card
Napkins/tissue – usually I have a small package but I’m out right now.
Eye Patches for my daughter. She wears one at school each day for her vision and sometimes in the shuffle of getting out of the house she doesn’t grab one so I keep some in the car.

Below the upper container is a larger bottom section.

Small, long shelf-life snack – comes in handy when the kids or I just can’t wait until we get home and keeps us from making a drive-thru pit stop
Small zip top bag. Kind of random, I know but at least once a month I find myself with my hands full of something that I need somewhere to stash without it getting lost.
Diapers – I still have 1 left in diapers and don’t carry a diaper bag anymore but keeping 1-2 on hand is essential

And the last part is the front opening. This is a deep space where small things can easily get lost so I don’t keep much here.

Glasses/Sunglasses cases
Lotion

A few other things you might want to add:

Small flashlight
Breath mints or gum
Ibuprofen

The key is to keep only things you actually need and to replace them when you use them up. Spending just 5-10 minutes on preparing this space will make a huge difference. Then you can confidently send your passenger in after a stick of gum without worrying what they might encounter.

What do you keep in your car that I don’t have?

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Leave a Comment Filed Under: Closet, Garage, Storage, Vacation and Travel Tagged With: car, garage, minivan, organizing, organizing for moms, organizing with kids, travel

What I’m Working On

July 27, 2011 By Suzanne

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My blogging inspiration has felt a little sparse lately. I blame that on the fact that my creative brain cells are being entirely occupied by something big. I’m attempting to re-make our home office / guest room.

This room has always been a home office. It’s our little 4th bedroom – the one that sits open while our two older children share a bedroom down the hall. I like that they share a room and aside from an occasional request from my daughter for her own space they don’t seem to mind being roommates. But I think if I’m going to leave a bedroom empty than it better be awesome – or at least functional. Once child #2 arrived this room when from being home office to home office / guest room. We don’t have any family in our immediate area so when our family comes to visit we need a place for them to stay.

Now, it’d be fantastic if I could just make this a home office with no need for guest amenities. Let the grandparents stay at a hotel and take the grandkids with them! But, alas, that’s just not going to happen. So dual-purpose room it is.

Many moons ago (aka… before kids) the room looked like this:

The futon (I stained the frame and made the cover and pillows all by myself) has since found a new home. But the rest of the items are still lurking about.

The futon was replaced with a full-size bed to accommodate our parents’ visits. And until recently it was working just fine. Not great, but fine. Then I got the itch to change things up. Working from home more, I wanted a more functional and beautiful space to provide inspiration. So I started moving things around trying to find just the right layout. Today it looks like this:

Why yes, yes that is my disaster of a space. To be fair, this is the “in progress” state. Those piles on the bed are there because I have been sorting things into groups. The massive amounts of kids clothes are getting prepped for consignment next month. But the truth is I still am not totally sure how I want this space to be laid out when I’m done. So it seems like all spare bits of creativity I have are going into this room.

If you have any inspiration you’d like to share with me, I’d be grateful. Anyone else have a guest room that doubles as their home office? How do you make it work?

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Leave a Comment Filed Under: Before and After, Make It Beautiful, Office Tagged With: Before and After, dual purpose rooms, home office, home office guest room, home office organization, organizing, organizing home office, work

Getting Ready for Winter?

July 25, 2011 By Suzanne

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I know it’s like 100 degrees outside but this is important. Really. Retailers have it in their heads that we only need “summer” items from April – July. Any day now they’ll probably put out the Halloween candy. (I’m only sort-of kidding – last year I saw Easter candy while doing hitting some after-Christmas sales!)

With that in mind I want you to do something this week that is going to go against every rational thought you might have. Stock up on summer essentials that you might need in winter. What do I mean exactly?

* Buy a new bathing suit for each family member (at least the kids). Go one size larger than they wear right now. You’ll be glad you did when you are using the indoor pool in January for swim lessons and the suit from this summer is just a smidge too small.

* Stock up on sunscreen. Yes, you can usually find it in a hidden corner of the store all year. But right now it’s everywhere and it’s often on sale. You still need sunscreen in the winter. Especially if you live here in the Mile High City with me. Even if you live in the frozen tundra you may want to take a vacation this winter. And you always need it for your faces.

* If your beach towels are nearing the end of their life, go ahead and pick up new ones. Yes, these will probably last through September but may not make it to those indoor pool days of winter.

Put your new finds in a location where you’ll be able to find them when you need them (read: do not place in a dark corner of the basement you will forget about, instead pick a spot that is your “beach bag” spot.)

Now get out there and enjoy this warm summer weather!