40 Days of Organization Update

So, I've gotten this far.....this is my laundry/mudroom.  Every child has a laundry basket and the upper baskets are for other things (a book, baby, girls, and boys basket.)

I thought I'd do a quick little update on my "40 Days of Organizing Challenge." (See my post about 2 weeks ago.) It's going well, well pretty well.  I must admit that I had one week where my husband was out of town and my son was in a tennis tournament, and the others were at a half day tennis camp, and there was a late night swim meet plus swim team practice thrown in there, so no organizing got done.  I blame it on my husband being out of town and the extracurriculars getting way out of hand.  But anyway, I figured that I actually have 9 weeks at home this summer, so I'm still on track.  That means I have 8 weeks of M-F tackling one of my projects on the list.  

So, I printed my list off and hung it up and everyday M-F I try to do one of the things listed.  I'm not doing them in order.  For some reason, that just stressed me out. I like to tackle what I'm motivated to do or what have time for.  Also, I realized that I have the weekends for catching up if life got crazy and I didn't do 5 things in a week.  I have Saturday and Sunday, and my husband home to help with the kids, if need be.  I would encourage you to walk through your house, like I did, and jot down 40 things that need organizing.  (or maybe you don't have that many : ) Summer is a great time to catch up, especially for us homeschool moms.

I was wondering to myself the other day why I should even try to do this.  I mean my life is busy and things will get messed up again and I'm probably just adding more stress.  But then I remembered that this is part of my job as a wife and mother...."to keep my house running smooth, uncluttered and a joy for my husband and children to come home to."  Work is good and the Lord wants us to not just be busy for busy sake but to do our work heartily as unto Him.  In the world we live in, everything goes from clean to dirty, new to old, uncluttered to cluttered, organized to disorganized.  Everyone can admit that, and it does take some effort and work on our part to keep things in order.  This was a good reminder for me and I hope it will motivate y'all too.  So, lets get cleaning, organizing, decluttering, etc!

40 Days of Organization

And this is what Patrick thinks about this!

Well, it's officially summer in our house now.  That means a break from school, a trip to the beach, a trip to family camp in the mountains, swim team, a few summer camps and organizing for me.
I always try to get projects, deep cleaning and organizing done in the 10 weeks of summer that we have.  I have more time because we take a break from homeschooling (of course my kids still read good literature during the summer and do some math drills) but like I've said in previous summer posts, I need a break as much as they do!  So I'm posting my "40 days of organizing" list.  I'm doing this as much to keep me motivated and accountable as I am to help give y'all ideas too.  I figure that I have 8 weeks that I will be home so Mondays thru Fridays I can tackle one task or room.  So here's my list and please ladies, keep me going!

40 Days of Organization

1. Lower kitchen cabinets
2. Upper kitchen cabinets
3. Kitchen drawers
4. My desk
5. Pantry
6. Deep clean fridge
7. School cubbies
8. Laundry room baskets
9. Laundry room cabinets
10.Family room closet
11.School room
12.Video/DVD cabinet
13.Toy box
14.Book shelves in LR
15.Computer desk and basket
16.Dining room
17.Piano room book shelf
18.Back porch
19.Frame and hang pictures
20.Large downstairs closet

21.Linen closet

22.Little boys toys

23.Middle boys shelves

24.Middle boys clothes

25.Little boys closet

26.Middle boys closet 

27.My closet
28.My bedroom dressers
29.My bedroom night stands
30.My bathroom
31.Anna's room
32.Anna's closet
33.Toys in playroom
34.Books in playroom
35.Girls' room
36.Girls'closet
37.Attic
38.Girl bathroom
39.Boy bathroom
40.Girl's toys

OK, so I think I'm starting this 40 day thing tomorrow.....yikes!  Y'all need to hold me accountable.  Hopefully this will motivate you moms our there to join me too : )

Summer Projects

Project #1......relax

So, it's summer!  My kids are all happy (except for my big boys who are working full time at monotonous jobs) and I'm trying to play "catch-up." When you are a homeschool mom you look at summer somewhat differently than the typical mom.  My full time job of homeschooling is on break and I can get some things done around the house that for my sanity I put off during the school year.  I know some homeschooling families just keep going all summer, but I need some time "off" and my kids want a "summer" as well.  We do try and do a little school during the summer months.  I concentrate on areas my children on weak in and do some school work on rainy days.  I also ordered an easy Latin curriculum to do over the summer with them, but so far it's not getting done very much : ) My children love the pool and I have 3 doing swim team.  We're also trying to get together with friends weekly and play a little more tennis.  We've already had our beach trip and we'll be heading up to Penn for our annual camp reunion with my husband's family in July.  So, in the midst of all this, here are my projects I want to get done:

1.  Sew some valances and pillow covers for my living room.

2.  Scrapbook.....baby books, school year books, senior book and the yearly family album.

3.  Update my blog.  I need someone to help me.  Any ideas? 

4.  Organize!  I try to do at least one closet or room a week.  

5.  Clean out homeschool things from last year and order new things for this year. 

Whew, I know that is only 5 but if I get those things done this summer than I will be very happy : ) Happy Summer!

Independent Dressers, ie Keeping 10 Kids Properly Clothed

So, MK comes down stairs in this "original" outfit the other morning, and I actually let her out of the house in it.  I thought it was pretty creative : )

     You know the point when your kids are old enough to dress themselves?  For my children, it's usually around 3 and it's like, "whew, one less job in the morning!"  But then there is the age when they can really pick out their outfit and actually look "put together" that's not until about 5 or so.  I try to keep my children's clothes simple so that it's easy for them to dress themselves.  I don't have any "off limit" clothes.  I know some families do this, but I just have everyday clothes that are in good condition and somewhat stylish.  They don't have "play clothes" and then "nice clothes."  The girls have nicer dresses for church and fancy events in the closet and same for the boys, except dress pants and nice shirts.  So, my kids don't bother those unless I say so.  They all have one drawer for shirts, one for bottoms and casual dresses for the girls, and one for underwear-PJ's-swim suits.  This way I can just tell them what the weather is going to be like for the day and send them up to get dressed.  None of the things are really too nice to wear in the mud or creek or paint in, etc.  Resolve stain spray does wonders if need be.  I just think this keeps things simple.

     As far as shopping for them, I love sales and hand-me-downs.  I actually enjoy dressing my kids and think of it as a sort of hobby : ) I shop consignment sales and shops.  I also keep most of the out-grown things from my children in big bins or those really large ziploc bags.  I label them the age and sex and keep them in storage.  When having a large family, it definitely helps to buy more classic styles and good quality. If I know that another child below is going to be wearing it, then I dont' buy cheap stuff.  If it's just for one child, then it will last, but usually not for 2 or more.  I have baby things all my children have worn and actually I just put a shirt on Patrick that I remember buying for my second son Ben who is now 19.  It was still in great shape!

My cutey pie 9 year old.  Classic rain boots in bright colors last and can be either boy or girl.  Since Caroline is the oldest of the younger 3 girls, she usually gets new things so they will hold up for the younger girls.  And buying lots of solids I think really helps on the matching factor : )

Summer Schedule

Summer has begun!  I've been taking a vacation from blogging, homeschooling and exercising.  I needed a break to rest and recover from being sick and just to kind of gain some perspective.  I'm not much of a summer person, but I know I need a break from schooling and some change in our routine.  I do love the beach too and traveling up north every summer for a reunion with my husband's family.  Anyway, this is what I like to do different in the summer......

Pool!
Aerobics!
Organizing!
Hopefully Scrapbooking!

We take an 11 week summer.  Two of those weeks we are traveling, one week at the beach in June and one week in the Poconos at a Christian camp with extended family.  That leaves 9 weeks at home.  So I divide the house into 9 sections and each week focus on one section.  I deep clean, declutter and organize that section.  So by the end of the summer my house is pretty cleaned and organized.  This is like my spring or fall cleaning, which I don't have time to do in the spring or fall. 


So I guess I need to get started since last summer I had yucky morning sickness and my house never got organized and cleaned out like I wanted it to.


Anyway, just realized I posted this without actually writing down my "summer schedule."  Sorry : )  So here it is:


Monday and Thursdays :  I have a great college age girl coming to help me this summer since I have 2 nonwalkers and can't imagine going to the pool with both of them unless I have my husband with me.  So she will come and take the kids to the pool.  I will go to aerobics while she is home with all of them and then when I get back she will take them to the pool, minus the baby.  The baby and and I will do grocery shopping (regular grocery on Mon and either Whole Foods or BJ's on Thurs.) Then we will come home and unload and do some orgainzing around the house before everyone gets back from the pool and goes down for naps.


Tuesday and Friday:  I will drop the baby off at my mom's and take the kids to the pool myselft.  BTW, Matt just loves the water!


Wednesdays:  This wil be our "special" day where we will have friends over and go to the park, just stay home and do some crafts or go on a field trip.


I did buy my kids some workbooks to do over the summer so they don't forget too much school stuff, but we don't take too much time off I never worry about it too much.
I'll do some orgainizng in the afternoons and tennis lesons will be thrown in there as well as a week of  swim lessons for 3 of them.   Yes, I think I'm looking forward to a summer of no morning sickness and am glad God provided a great girl to help me some this summer and she loves to orgainize too!

Chores Revisited

Well, I have to confess.  While I learned a lot from my old chore system and I still highly recommend the book, I have now switched to yet another system.  The funny thing is, it is the one I used about 10 years ago when I had only 4 kids.  We had this same chart hanging in our laundry room two houses ago.  It's a great chart and comes with a little system that is explained in the kit that comes with it.  I ordered it from Doorpost.com and it is really user friendly, especially if you have more than 2 children and lots of daily/weekly jobs.  Here is a picture of the chart that you fill out and then cut/color the little pictures that come with it.  After I filled it out, I had it laminated and hung it up.  Since I had already organized my cleaning with the other system into daily, weekly and monthly jobs, it wasn't hard to put them all on the chart. What was making it hard with the other system, was taking the time every morning to divvy up the jobs.  With morning sickness and summer craziness, it just wasn't working.  Also, since I was changing the jobs daily, it would take me a while to figure out who wasn't doing their job.  Like, if I see that the dog hasn't been fed or the living room not straightened, then I would have to go to the folders and find who was supposed to be doing it.  What I do now to keep things "new", is I change the jobs monthly. So, at the beginning of the month I rotate jobs.  Each child gets one daily job and one or two weekly job rows (there are a few jobs on each row) that have to be done by Saturday afternoon.  For monthly jobs, I am going to put them in a jar and when someone gets in trouble, they have to do a monthly job.  Does this make sense?  Check out the Doorpost website.  They have some cool stuff.  So, this is my current system. Let's see how long this last :o)