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Originally Posted by Delicateflower  If you're shopping for a month at a time and having difficulty getting your kids through the long trips and difficulty putting it all away, and have no space in your cupboards, why not shop once a week. You'll have shorter trips, less to put away and more room to put appliances in the kitchen cupboards. Win-win all around! And since you're probably at the supermarket once a week getting fruit and vegetables, it's not that much more work.
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I have lots of pantry space that holds canned goods and stuff but not big enough to hold appliances. I got those stand alone pantry things from Target a few years ago when I had an even smaller kitchen and they work great. I go shopping once a month because I go into the city (hr away) and get the bulk of my monthly shopping and stockpiling done because on average I save $300+ a month that way and we have major diet issues between gluten/dairy free and allergy issues. You can't even buy rice milk in this town much less GF flours or items. Its pretty expensive to shop here, you can easily spend $50 and walk out with 1 bag of groceries, in the city I can get a cart full for that (unless I'm at the health food store). I can hit places like Winco and the ethnic markets which save a ton and Trader Joes saves me a ton too. Literally I pay 1/2 to 1/6th of what I pay here in the city. I'm putting in a decent sized garden this summer so with luck that will eliminate the weekly produce run for the most part.
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Originally Posted by stik Have you considered having the groceries delivered? You'd still have to put them away, but you wouldn't exhaust yourself and your children going to the store. There's usually a fee, but it's probably less then the loss to spoilage and crushing of the food left in front of the washer.
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ahh, to live in a big city.. no such creature here. Thankfully nothing gets spoiled or crushed. Stuff that goes in the fridge/freezer gets put away immediately (I have a huge freezerless fridge and upright stand alone freezer so its easy to just throw things in and organize later). Its the canned/boxed stuff that causes problems. I'm thinking maybe I can get one of those huge plastic totes or something and just throw it all in there to keep it out of the way while I put things away. Usually I only get to one bag at a time when I have 30 seconds.
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Originally Posted by cappuccinosmom Kitchen--most kitchens have at least one cupboard that you can fit larger objects in. Do you just have super small cupboards, or are the larger spaces taken up with smaller stuff. A crockpot can be about 2 inches shorter if you put it away with the lid upside down.  Otherwise, put everything else away in the cupboards and line the appliences up along one counter wall. On our counter right now we have a toaster, coffee machine, mixer, and tea kettle. Those are fixtures. We also have a large basket in which bread and fruit goes. Other than that everything has a place in a cupboard or drawer, and if it's not food related, it doesn't come into the kitchen. The only exception is a mug with pens in it and some note paper by the phone. Usually every couple of months, someone will pull out everything from one cupboard and re-organize it because they do get messy with use. |
I don't have much storage space period and there smaller shelves thats really designed for food storage and dishes. I have a well equipped kitchen as a cook, I just don't have the space to put it all (we cook almost everything from scratch and GF kitchen requires a lot more equipment if you want an easier life in the kitchen). It just occurred to me that at my smallest place which had virtually no storage space I still had a place for everything and the reason why I don't now even even with more space is I don't have my big stand alone closet! It was like $100 at Home Depot if I remember right. Probably a bit more now but it was awesome and held everything from kitchen stuff to blankets to the vacuum (had lots of shelves/compartments). So thats going to the top of my list for next month to buy, that will solve the space issue and clear pretty much the entire counter. I even had space for baskets to hold stuff and keep it organized. I don't know why I didn't think about replacing it a long time ago. It was destroyed when we moved from the tiny 1 bedroom we were in. That will seriously clear the clutter problem
So... counter problem solved, I think anyway.
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| Laundry--could you get unstructured laundry bags? One for each kid maybe. When it's full, then they can chuck it down the stairs, and then you can use it to "tie up" their clean/folded laundry and just return it to their bed for them to put away. If you fold a laundry bag lengthwise into thirds, it should wrap pretty well around a load of folded laundry, and you can use the pull-string to hold it in place (and if there's no string, an jumbo rubber band or something. Having things in the bags would keep the laundry pile from becoming an overwhelming, undefined monster. |
BTDT, I can't even get them to throw laundry into a basket when they take it off, well I can't get the older one to do it anyway and I have to go searching her room. I have tried several things from baskets to behind the door hangers to attached to the wall. She just doesn't care and letting her run out of laundry just punishes the rest of the family (goes back to her mental health issues)
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Originally Posted by fullofgrace
You actually already have a laundry organization system built in to that area -- your washer and dryer. Stuff the clothes, etc into each one, give yourself permission to ignore them, and then just deal with sorting on laundry day. Done. |
That would work, never occurred to me to do that
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And the bolded part? Kids do that. Hee.  But much more seriously, as special kids (especially those with emotional issues - have that here, too), that is a very very very healthy and safe outlet for them to use to express whatever out-of-control emotion they may be feeling at the time. Dumping laundry is far less damaging physically and psychologically. Honestly? You've found something they enjoy. USE THAT. I say encourage dumping something when the day gets bad vs anyone yelling, etc. It's all about choosing battles and finding and using what works to our advantage to make the most of our days.  |
oh I know, just makes me mad/sad that I make the attempt to make things organized and they just destroy it and makes me even more mad that they rip apart something I spent money on in the first place when we didn't even have enough to pay basic bills (we just started getting SSI which helps big time and we have money to pay bills now and get what we need/want).
I know, I know, we tend to stay at yellow with frequent red alerts. The only time we have green days is when one of them is gone from the house. I've been happily sending little one to day care 2 days a week to more or less give me a break and get things done since I'm not spending 99% of my energy breaking up constant fights. Yesterday I took the day off, got little one out the door at 7am (nurse picks her up and transports her to the nursing facility for the day), did like 1 load of laundry, loaded and ran the dish washer, pulled a few weeds and called it a day and spent the rest of the day in bed reading while older one happily watched cartoons all day, ok, forgot, did her SCIG infusion but thats all of 10 minutes work and the pump does the rest. Didn't even bother doing school work with the older one, just plain ol took the day OFF
It was nice
I can live with childhood clutter, its bipolar child chaos that upsets me.
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Originally Posted by honeybunmom
I WOH full time. When I get home, it's a jam packed evening of nursing the baby, making dinner, serving dinner, and bed time routines. I'm pooped. Then, if I need to do something else, I knit for awhile first. It's rejuvenating for me. Do you have any personal hobby that feeds your soul? I truly find that once I start knitting, I am refreshed and then I am re-energized to tackle something I need to do. This may be a way for you to get your groceries put away the same day.
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hobby? I can't even pee without a fight breaking out or someone getting into trouble. Forget sitting down for a hobby
Yesterday was my first break in I don't know how long.
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| Also, do you get up before your children do? I would think that if you do, you could put your groceries away the next morning. |
No way! One is an early riser (like 5-6am some days) and the other wakes up if I so much as roll over in bed at night, forget sneaking out of bed. Plus the few times I have pulled it off any noise (like making my coffee/tea) wakes at least one of them who then precedes to wake up the other and I have yet to make it more then 15 minutes before little one realizes the boob is gone and starts throwing an all out tantrum. I soooo can not wait to wean! One more year, one more year...
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| I'm no help on the kitchen counters. I've got 14 feet of counter space and have managed to clutter most of it up. And I've got 2 junk drawers! |
14? Wow! I think I have 6 not counting the space for the microwave and computer/stereo (I watch movies/TV while cooking if I can, I HATE cooking, makes it tolerable to be able to watch stuff while doing prep work). The computer area isn't accessible anyway to use since there's a full sized portable dishwasher in front of it (I LOVEEEEE my dish washer!) Its got a counter top on top of it so I use that space for prep work and stuff which makes it easier to ignore the actual counters.
If no one is getting attacked by the laundry or the laundry basket (hey - it's happened! lol) then give yourself permission to let some of these things goooo and then let them go. It really is ok to just embrace the clutter that comes with having children and run with it. 
