Attention Mommies: Your best tips for organization for a mommy of 4?

Q. I have four kiddos ages 5 and under, and my house drives me crazy! Any of your best cleaning/organization tips would be great.... and also, I already know about Flylady, but I'm having trouble with her system. Any tips would be great!

A. I hope I can help you, I am a foster Mom and have 12 nieces and nephews and lots of family in and out through out the week, so messes seem to come with the amount of feet in and out the door. I know about Flylady, Home Organization, Cleaning Queen, and who ever else you can think of. I had piles of cleaning, organization and clutter buster books, and the art of feng shie. You name it, chances are I have it or read it or got it at the library. Here are my best tips for getting on top of things, these are the gleaned, condensed and just plain learned the hard way stuff. Get a timer and a box. Set the timer for 10 minutes and grab the box, simply walk through the house grabbing items you hate, do not like, broken, or stuff you already have 10 of. Into the box. When the bell goes off, tape the box shut and A. Throw it in the trash B. Put it in the car and next errand run, drop it at your charity box, C. List it up on Freecycle or Craigslist and give it away or ask for a small amount of money. D. If money is the issue, take pics and put it up on Ebay and sell it, pack it and send it to someone else to dust! Continue doing this, in addition to your "cleaning schedule". After a few days of doing this, you should have just stuff you LOVE LOVE LOVE or NEED NEED NEED. Now look around, do you have items Aunt Selma gave you, and you were gonna re-paint, but never did? GET RID OF IT, give it to a friend, Freecycle or Craigslist it or set aside a time this week to paint it, fix it or whatever to it, otherwise, out it goes! You have 4 kids? Well, even at the tender age of 2, kids can understand a few basic rules. One toy out, one toy in rule. If they get a toy out, they must return it to get another one out. They can pick up stuff from the floor and hand it to you. They can "help Mommy", THEY LOVE HELPING MOMMY do stuff. They can sweep, they can dust, they can pick up. You can have them HELP with laundry, they can learn to fold clothes with you, as you show them how YOU want it done, or if you do not care, they can FOLD THEIR OWN and put it away in THEIR own drawers. You can have them HELP you load the washing machine, maybe put the soap in YOU measured and so on. This is not CHORE, this is fun for them, if you MAKE IT FUN!. The rewards, if you need to use them, can be, "if you help me clean the porch, we can paint some birdhouses", they can help lay out newspaper to protect a surface from paint, get the paper plates, and so on, they can also help throw them out when you are done. Once I got down to things I love love love and need need need, I found I had less to dust, less to fixate and get upset cause it was taking up space and I still had not fixed it painted it or whatever and just got mad at myself for letting it suck up space and walk around it, I found I could get things done a little quicker, cause the space was opening up. I found some things that were important to me, I do NOT dig filth and was not willing to let my standards down for cleanliness for dishes, clothing, floors and MY bedroom. I could however, give two figs about WHAT the kids drawers looked like, as long as the clothes WERE clean in them, their clothes were NOT on the floor and that at least twice a week I could see a clean floor in their rooms and that the kennels.....uh....er....rooms, were swept, hosed (mopped) and in general CLEANED. Same for bedding sheets. I want them washed once a week, I don't care if they slept on TOP of the covers (as one tried to explain to me as her reason for NOT bringing her sheets down once a week) no DEAL! They come down, even if NO ONE slept on them! LOL! Clothes come down daily into the laundry room. We don't do "Can I have my white t-shirt with the little roses in an hour" routine, when you have 10 other little white t-shirts you can wear instead! If you want it done for tomorrow, then it should be here in time for the next load of whites 2 hours ago. Now the kids I have here, family included, now range from 6 to 20, but I have had them from the day they were born. As soon as they can walk, we make with the "helping". We want kids to "help", we encourage, we reward and we make it a rule! Sometimes, the kids get lazy, try to get over, or just plain don't want to do it. No problem! They don't get to do the fun stuff either, no baseball, no movies, no crafts, no library and so on. HEY! I shouldn't have to do all this myself, I had help making the mess. I have learned to SHOW the kids and HELP the kids when I want something done a CERTAIN WAY!. Like I have this thing about towels, so normally, I FOLD THEM MYSELF! Now the kids know, if they are GOING TO HELP, they need to fold the towels in half, then in half and then in thirds, otherwise, leave them to me, which, sometimes, they do, and sometimes, they do it and give me the "look what I did!" and for that, I GIVE PRAISE, I resist the urge to NIT PIC, as the towels are folded how I like, so what its not perfect, let it go and move on. The things I do not let go of are CLEAN! The dishes must not have food particles on them, no soap residue, and they must not be holding water. One kid couldn't get the idea of adding PRESSURE to pots and pans and dirty dishes, until after a few weeks of being on dish duty, I offered her the plate of MY CHOICE for her to eat off of. I picked one she claimed was cleaned, I ask if she'd eat off one I picked if she thought they were all clean, sure, she said, ok, HOW ABOUT THIS ONE? Uh....no? Well I said, "I don't want to eat off of it EITHER, so now, you wash it again, and then you will eat off THAT plate, clean or dirty!" Now it may sound a little mean, but she TOTALLY got the point! I didn't yell, I didn't punish, I just offered her to eat off ANY plate I picked, and if she was cleaning them, she should be SURE it was clean enough for her to eat off of it, if she thought I was gonna eat off of it. All the sudden, those dishes were clean! Some is also, getting in there and helping them. Some kids simply don't know and we forget, they haven't learned it yet! A good "How about I "help" you with your room today?" and DO IT, and tell them, this is how I want you to clean this, scrub like this, wash this that way and put this over here and take out your trash in this bag, WHILE THEY ARE DOING IT WITH YOU! It can be fun, I talk about school, friends, an maybe talk about clothes, I may even get a little fashion show of what do you think about this with that? Its quality time together AND a chore getting done completely. Now this isn't something you do EVERY DAY, but here and there, you do it. I have 2 days a week that we are dealing with trash. One is on Wednesday, as the trash goes out Wednesday evening and is picked up on Thursday. I empty the fridge of compost and guess what this Was? That way it isn't stinking up the trash cans all week. Then on Saturday, all the trash cans are emptied again (minus fridge waste) and put in the bins outside while we have our push for clean floors, laundry, kitchen, bedrooms, and bathrooms. Now during the week, daily, we have a dish chore, a floor chore for the kitchen, dining room, butlers pantry and living room. Those floors must be swept, mopped or vacuumed daily. I like the bathrooms cleaned at least twice weekly for the kids, my own, I am picky, so mine is one little chore daily, but on Saturday, anything I missed and a wash down top to bottom. Beds are weekly, clothes and laundry, as a load forms (whites, light colors, dark colors, towels). Hallways are weekly and throw rugs as needed (usually once a week to 2 weeks, depending on how much use and filth shows up, once they LOOK dirty, up they come and on to the laundry). The kitchen is wiped down daily, but a total wash down of counters, stoves and so on is on Saturday. I pick one to two things a week to tackle, such as a closet, organizing a corner of the basement for the gardening, bicycles, tools, Etc. I may wash down the cabinets in the kitchens or a bathroom, empty a linen closet, empty a drawer. Using the timer is a good way to get into this habit. Set the timer for no more than 20 minutes, do not answer the phone, invite no one over. Empty the junk drawer in the kitchen, sort it, throw stuff out, dispose of dead batteries, file it, whatever. Timer goes off, be done! This one worked really good for me, because I would accomplish SOMETHING that was needing to be done and it was something small, but in the end, had a big impact as they added up, one at a time! If you can fit in one afternoon a month, to say, clean out the garage, fine. If not, go corner by corner for 20 minutes at a crack. You can organize one section, one shelf, one drawer in 10-20 minutes. Add it up and at the end of a month, its all done! If you have a zone that gets on your nerves, just give it 10 minutes, grab a box, fill it with stuff that doesn't belong in there, put it where it belongs. Next time, grab the duster, run and dust everything you can in 10 minutes. Next time, empty a drawer and so on. Get a schedule and determine what days you will have free time to say tackle something more extensive, and plan something FUN afterwards. Like cleaning out the garage, a basement, the attic. Spend two hours on it with the family, everyone HELPS! Kids can carry, kids can put this on that shelf, they can be great little gofers and picker uppers. If you have rooms that aren't that important right now, let it go, for now, deal with it when YOU WANT to. I think half of the problem with getting organized and staying clean, is the feeling we must do it all in one day, and the simple fact is, it didn't get dirty overnight and its not going to get DONE overnight either. RELAX! Do it in baby steps, just work on the stuff that giv

Original Question

Does anybody have any organizational tips for living in a small home or apartment?

Q. me and my husband live in a 2 bedroom 1.5 bath duplex with very little storage space, no kids, 2 cats, any advice for organization?

A. My mom lives in a 2 bedroom apartment and she uses one for a bedroom and one for her "storage" room. She has lots of cardboard boxes wrapped in contact paper and stacked up on their sides and uses them for cubbie holes. She only keeps stuff sitting out like lamps, ashtrays,little flower arrangments,and stuff like that,so it doesnt look cluttered. She keeps all her stuff in her "storage room". She also only uses half her cabinet space in her kitchen for what few dishes she needs. a few plates, some silverware and about 4 glasses. That keeps down on dishwashing and she uses her cabinets and drawers for other things. Oh she uses alot of stackable bins in her bathroom too. hope I helped.

Original Question

Any tips on organizing a girls bedroom?

Q. I am a teen girl and I need to organize my room easy and nice looking as i can. give any tips, advice or pictures you have. thanks!

A. Start by cleaning your room. Put books on the bookcase, clothes in the closet or dresser, shoes in the closet. Find permanent storage locations for every item. Get rid of things you've outgrown, whether its clothes or old toys or stuffed animals. Once you get it all put away, make sure you tidy up every day.

Take a look at http://keystosimpleliving.com. There is a whole section on organization you might find helpful. There is also a page on kid's bedrooms, although it deals mostly with children, not teenagers.

Original Question

Any organization tips please?

Q. Okay, school starts in exactly two weeks and my office and bedroom are both complete disasters. I'm usually an organized person but with all the new text books and clothes everything's beginning to cram. I've already gotten rid of some stuff I don't need and sold it on eBay.
Any other ideas on how to organize it all?? I'd like to start the new year fresh =)

A. What I have been dying to do in my house, is take it one room at a time. Completely empty everything in the room (except large furnature items that you know will be staying in there). Put it all in another room, and pick through the stuff. Only put back the stuff in the room that is necessary in there. What you have left over, decide if it can go somewhere else in your house. If not, then pitch it, sell it, give it away, whatever.

That's if you actually have time to do that. It could take a few days, but it would be worth it in the end.

As far as school organization...

I bought a cubbie hole furniture piece from walmart for only like 35.00. I use it for my kids toys, but it would be great to organize backpacks, books, school supplies, etc...

My cubbie unit comes with 9 cubes in it. Depending on how many kids you have, give them a certain number of cubes to put their things in.

They also sell great closet organizers that have the days of the week marked on them. I am thinking of getting one for my daughter this year when she starts school. This way, on Sunday, I can put each day's outfit in the slot, and cut down on time in the mornings by picking out clothes. If your kids are old enough to pick out their own clothes to put in the slots, that works even better!

If you start with a clean house, it's easier to keep it organized. So give your house a good cleaning, and encourage your kids to put the things in appropriate places so they know where it is for the next day.

Original Question

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