Organizing My Home.

So I'm finally catching up with the cleaning, organizing, and (YES!) laundry. But as I'm working around the house I keep asking myself, "There has to be a better way to organize our family!" This is especially true when I look at the kids' closets.

How do you put all that stuff into a closet without it turning into a mess? How do I separate all the clothes? How do I get the kids to keep their things in order? Ok. So there are many more questions than these 3. But I think the closets and laundry are a good place to start.

First of all, I will introduce a new laundry method we just started using thanks to a friend of mine and expert (can I say expert? She has 6 kids). Use a separate laundry basket for each child. This way there is no sorting or mixing up of clothing. You take it straight from the dryer to that designated child's closet space. So far I've used this method for a couple of weeks and it is working well. I've noticed that it's easier for me to get the kids helping out with laundry too. So I'm giving this a big thumbs up!

I won't go into closet organizing yet, as I really haven't figured it out. I'm working on a system, though. We'll see how it turns out about a month from now.

Going on to homeschooling. This takes up so much of our day that I can't escape writing about it. After using the dining room table to homeschool, I decided that it wasn't working. Papers and materials were everywhere! So I got rid of the dining table and turned to the room into our school room. Here are pictures if you are interested. The week that I spent organizing our school room was well worth it. Everything has a place, which makes it a snap to clean up. There is a bin for everything. Pens, pencils, completed assignments, books, manipulatives, educational toys, library books, markers....you name it! Granted not ALL our supplies are kept in the school room. We also have a playroom in our basement that was originally intended to become our school room. I keep art & crafts supplies down there along with larger schooling items. I'll have to take a picture sometime to show it off!

How about toys? Well, if you have read my blog in the past, you probably know that I went to battle with all the toys in our house. I decluttered the house and moved every toy into the basement playroom. Of course, there wasn't enough room to store it all downstairs, so I did make a large toy donation to Goodwill. My next step was to separate and organize each toy. Barbies in one bin, trains in another...you get the picture. I haven't posted those pictures yet because organizing the playroom is a work in progress. But it will get done!

So maybe this post isn't a big help...yet. But it's a good way for me to think out loud. It also helps me think of all the organizing I have to do around the house. I'll have to get a move on with the closets. The more I think about them, the more I just want to get them done!