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Organized Households Support Group - Page 3

post #41 of 120
12/27/05 at 3:25am
I love Montreal Mom. So buying her book if she writes one.

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post #42 of 120
12/27/05 at 8:24pm
jumping in here too. Here's my laundry/clothes question....how do I save, organize, decide WHAT to save from kid to kid? My girls are 16,13,6,and 17mos.
Obviously I dont want to save everything for yrs and yrs, styles, fashions change etc...

I am working on laundry this week with all the kids home from school. Older girls do their own. (hooray) but I'm hoping to keep that washer/dryer cranking so I can see our floors again! Cheer me on.
post #43 of 120
12/27/05 at 10:57pm
I totally stick to the "Monday is washday" thing. I only wash clothes once a week and I only wash 3-4 loads on that day. I can do it all on one day although sometimes there are still shirts hanging on the dryer rack to put away the next day. I can't dry most of my daughter's stuff in the dryer or it will shrink.

I only have two laundry products - soap and bleach. I only have two fitted sheets per bed, one in use and one clean. We use comforters so I wash the comforter covers now and then. Each person has their own color towels and only two of them. I buy only cotton or rayon clothing and I almost never iron. (Used to live for wool but now we live in the desert)

My secret is to simply have less and then I find I wash less. I only own 5 tank tops, 5 t-shirts, 3 turtlenecks, 2 sweaters, a coat, a jacket, 5 pairs jeans, 1 pr shorts, 1 bathing suit, 2 jammies, and a few button-down shirts for different seasons. I also have one nice (office-y) pair of slacks and a couple of cotton dresses. But I almost never wear the slacks or the dresses.
post #44 of 120
12/28/05 at 2:15am
Thread Starter 
OK. So a few days ago I unsubbed from Flylady because I figured insane holiday time wasn't a good time to try and adopt a whole new thing.

Today I re-subbed. The beginning of a new year is a great time to adopt a whole new thing. I think the best part of it is the reminder emails - I waste a lot of time doing nothing on the computer. The biggest challenge for me isn't with keeping up, but rather keeping it at baby steps. I tend to want to do everything all at once - no patience. I'm really focusing-in on the whole baby steps thing, I really think it is a good way to adopt a new system, IF I can get myself to do it.

Is anyone else using some sort of program to get themselves organized? I like the Flylady thing for a lot of reasons, high on that list is the fact that it covers everything - decluttering, cleaning and organizing. I'm curious though what else is out there.

My plan right now is to keep up with my usual household stuff, do the Flylady thing, and take-on one medium sized project per week or so. A few things spring immediately to mind -

-Clearing off top of entertainment center (cluttered mess right in the middle of everything)
-Cleaning out our closet in the bedroom
-Cleaning out the car
-Paring down DS' toys (there's a bunch we got hand-me-down style which I just plain don't like and DS doesn't use anyway)
-And of course, the ever-popular how-the-heck-can-I-get-all-these-clothes-put-away-and-organized question.
post #45 of 120
12/28/05 at 5:05am
Wow... you are speaking another language to me. Organization? laundry Day? huh? What?

My house is so messy it is embarassing. It seems like nothing I do can phase it. I tired Flylady, but she drove me nuts! I really can't stand the same 50 emails in my box everyday. I did pick up a few good suggestions from he though.

Now, I have found motivatedmoms.com, i think I found it through MDC actually, and I got their clandar/planner thing, but I am already slacking on it.

I just can't seem to get it together. I wish my mom would have taught me how to do this stuff instead of doing it all while I was at my dad's house. I have no idea how to keep a house clean, let alone running smoothly! I wasn't even allowed in the kitchen when she was cooking (my DP had to teach me how to cook- thank god for cookbooks or we'd be eating frozen OG pizza everynite!).

Has anyone seen urbanhomemaker.com? Most of it pertains to cooking, but she has all these books about keeping house and being a good wife and teaching your daughter how to do all this "wifey" stuff. But they're all pretty Christain books. I want something like this without the Christian bent...anyone seen something along these lines?

I am subing to this thread. Maybe just having supprot and knowing my house is not the only disaster area will help (at least i won't feel so bad).
post #46 of 120
12/28/05 at 11:10am
Quote:
Originally Posted by swimmin_mama
Is anyone else using some sort of program to get themselves organized? I like the Flylady thing for a lot of reasons, high on that list is the fact that it covers everything - decluttering, cleaning and organizing. I'm curious though what else is out there.
-.
I did flylady a few years back and it got me started real well. But like said, the emails etc is enough to drive anyone insane. I am better at seeing whats out there and taking a bit from here and there and creating my own system which I have, which works for me. Keep in mind it took almost 18 mos to get my house running like a fine oiled machine. Now it runs itself. Once I got organized, it was easy to plan meals and finanaces.
post #47 of 120
12/28/05 at 11:20am
Thread Starter 
Deirdre - is the motivated moms thing just a to-do list or is there more to it? I took a look at the sample page they had, it seems interesting ... though I don't have a dishwasher or a washer/dryer so some of the list items don't apply to me. How has it worked out for you so far?

Amy - there's hope?
post #48 of 120
12/29/05 at 3:25am
I'm so proud of myself! We just got back from a two day trip away, and as soon as I got in the door and got ds settled in bed I tidied away all our bags (as in actually unpacked them and got them away, not just put them out of sight), and put away all the stuff we bought. Usually I would leave it to tomorrow, or the next day . . .

I am in the process of getting things more organized. I've been working on it for about 10 months now, with lots of false starts and bad weeks and months, but my house is basically clean at the end of the day now, and almost to the "people could drop by and it wouldn't be an embarassment" stage. I even finished tidying the basement this week (I hadn't finished getting everything put away from when we moved in a year ago).

I tried Flylady for a week, but it didn't work for me. I just don't respond well to being told what to do.

One thing that really helped me was changing my motto to "Do it Now". So, instead of walking by a sheet of paper that has fallen on the floor I pick it up. And after meals, I clean up right away instead of leaving the dishes until I get around to them. When ds and I move from one room to another (he is 16 mos and a small portable whirlwind), I tidy up before we move on. YOu get the idea.

Another thing was these websites:

mymessyhouse.com
http://cleanhome.savedme.com/ (go to the ADDing Routines)

They both have really good suggestions about starting routines. After searching through them, I had a good idea of what routines I needed to develop. I'm just starting to get to the point where I just have to kick myself in the butt to start the routine, and then it is pretty automatic. I still write my daily task and my weekly area on the calendar to remind myself and I have my daily tasks written down in an easily accessable book.

I also bought a daybook for this next year. I didn't have one last year, which was my first year staying at home. But I was a teacher, and my daybook was my organizational lifeline (and a legal requirement of the job), so I thought I might function better if I had one again. IF I can remember where I put it.

Well, have a good night, all.
post #49 of 120
12/29/05 at 9:06pm
Thanks for the "Do it now" reminder. That's a big one for me most of the time. I try to do something right away as it comes up, but if I can't, I write it on my list.

Once a week I try to assign tasks to days and what I can't or don't need to do immediately, I write them down in the margins. Then if an opportunity arises to do that thing I just get it done and cross it off that sidebar. I carry stuff over until it gets done or somehow goes away and I don't need to do it anymore.

And I wanted to say something about picking up by the end of the day. Since my kids were babies, we've always had the rule that before you play with a different toy, you have to put away the first one. I gave them a shelf in the closet and put plastic shoeboxes that were labelled (you can use pictures) for blocks, dollhouse dolls, little cars, dress-up, etc. When my son was done with one he had to put it away before pulling out the action figures or whatever. Sometimes he would need the blocks and the dollhouse dolls, but that was still manageable. Because they slept in that room it had to stay picked up. And my husband and I slept in the living room on a sleeper couch so toys brought out there had to be put away or we couldn't go to bed. But I almost always helped them clean up their things so they could learn how to sort and have that skill. And then they didn't feel so much like it was a huge daunting chore, but something we could do together.

The main thing was not letting them have so many toys in the first place, and we NEVER allowed them to have a toy box or something where stuff just gets dumped.
post #50 of 120
12/29/05 at 10:40pm
Wow, I'm getting motivated just sitting here. Thanks for the great tips, everyone!

I wholeheartedly agree with the "Do it now" philosophy and it helped me tons when ds was a newborn. Now that I'm a WOHM, things are getting behind at home again and I need to get back to it as well as routines.

Here's another website: organizedhome.com It has TONS of things on it. I think I'll spend all day tomorrow on the website instead of organizing.
post #51 of 120
12/29/05 at 11:59pm
Thread Starter 
yayyyyyyy i did a preliminary clean-out of our closet! and i put away all our clothes!

and i have a use for a lot of the clothes i'm cleaning out. in Alterknits (a knitting book) there's nifty instructions for cutting-up t-shirts into 1/2in. strips and knitting RUGS out of them on size 19 needles! how cool is that? i went through a lot of DH and my own clothes and got rid of a lot. what isn't getting turned into a rug for our kitchen is being given to goodwill. mind you, this is just a preliminary clean-out, so i didn't get everything, but i reduced the bulk of it by about 35% not bad! i also didn't want to get rid of too much of DH's stuff while he's not there ... so i kept anything i wasn't sure about and will revisit it in a week or so w/ DH here. i got rid of so many of his ugly useless t-shirts though! i even made enough room for our towels (which are usually stacked-up somewhere randomly because we don't have a place for them).

so YAY!
post #52 of 120
12/30/05 at 1:13pm
Congrats Swimmin_Mama!!! Job well done! Doesn't it make you feel good? I feel so good when I tackle a project like that. Seems like those endorphins (or whatever) would encourage me to do things like that more often. If you make the rug, PLEASE post a picture. It sounds neat. I really need to learn to sew/knit.

I would LOVE to go through dh's clothes. In our bedroom we have a modest walk-in closet. In the office we have a double closet (not walk-in) and in the guest room we have a single closet (also not walk-in). DH uses half of our closet and the closets in the office and guest room. He has SO MANY clothes!!! He also has a large master chest in our bedroom. I have just my dresser and the other half of our closet. I go through my own clothes regularly, but he has things that are 20 years old that he never wears. Every once in a while he will get rid of ONE shirt.
post #53 of 120
12/30/05 at 1:29pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by trini
Seems like those endorphins (or whatever) would encourage me to do things like that more often.
I know. It feels so good, almost like exercise, just to get up and do some manual labor instead of sitting on my butt in front of the computer!

I have been working on the kitchen and the toys because we had new things come into the house over Christmas that fit into those categories. The playroom is finally looking nice. It is hard for me to pack up toys as they become too "babyish" for the kids but I finally did it today. I also removed a lot plastic containers and other things from the kitchen that we don't use regularly.

I have to admit though, that I am doing a "faux" purge because I'm just boxing stuff rather than actually getting rid of it. We'll have a garage/tag sale in the spring.
post #54 of 120
12/30/05 at 2:17pm
I am going to go thru my clothes next. Since I am due in June, all I am wearing is maternity.
But next year I will be wearing nursing shirts so I am going to go thru my shirts that are years old and get rid of them. That way the following year I can get new stuff, more up to date.
post #55 of 120
12/30/05 at 3:46pm
Nice job, swimmin_mama! I love the idea of using the old t-shirts for a rag rug! I know how to crochet but I'd like to know how to knit. I think a knitted rug would be so sweet.
post #56 of 120
12/30/05 at 4:52pm
I have to recommend Totally Organized by Bonnie McCullough. It’s an older book but works for me.

I couldn’t do Flylady. I need to do things my way instead of hers as her just dont work for our family. So I need tips and ideas.

My dh works a 2 weeks schedule so for a long time I have been trying to figure out my schedule of cleaning around his and am finally getting it down thank to this book

I have gotten my organizer ready to go for the New Year. I just love the way she has one planned out. Its nice to just be able to write things down and not have to remember them, like books I want to read,ect. It’s on our desk while at home and then I go out into my purse it goes. Its so nice to write things down in it instead of having scrapes of paper (bulletins ect) laying around that have dates/times of things we want to go to.

I even got a set of pretty pens with colored inks to write in the organizer to keep things nice looking

Anyways, IMO this book has some good tips for taking care of clothes, keeping a car clean, 5 minute pickups, picking uo big things first cause they makes thing look the most messy, using an organizer to its fullest, and just general getting life so I am in control and forgetting nothing. It will be nice to be able to enjoy life!


Swimmin-mama, I love those rugs. I have a friend who makes wool rugs though she braids instead of knitting. I want to make a basket that way, think it would be cool.
post #57 of 120
12/30/05 at 10:20pm
I am totally digging this thread. Thanks for all the wonderful ideas!! I am going to try to catchup with laundry in the next few days...We have a TON!!!
post #58 of 120
12/31/05 at 11:41am
I was actually just going to start a thread on my issues with old t-shirts... I have SO many shirts that have sentimental value for me. Yeah, yeah, I know... I'll list a few of my favorites (so y'all can get a good laugh!) and what they commemorate

1) my high school baseball team's state championship
2) my freshman year in college - the free shirt they give you when you show up the first day
3) band t-shirts from high school and college (probably 8 of those that I LOVE)
4) one just says Dr. Pepper on it - don't know why I'm so attached to it!
5) anything Penn State or TCU
6) church camp in junior high (seriously, haven't worn these in probably 10 years because I always grab the ones from the top of this list)

I am an absolute freak about these shirts. And I don't wear them out and about. They're my sleeping shirts - the shirts I wear when I'm sick and stuck in bed - the shirts that never see other people... So why do I keep them? I need to set a limit for what is reasonable to keep for sleeping and then just turn the rest into rugs. Because then at least I'll know that they are being used rather than sitting in my overstuffed t-shirt drawer!

ANYHOW! Enough about that - I'm off to discover how I can turn the lesser used t-shirts into a rug of some sort...
post #59 of 120
12/31/05 at 11:45am
I understand about t-shirts! However, I do wear mine out and about and wash them tons until they turn into rags. Then I use them for cleaning, so I guess I'm not too attached!

If your t-shirts are really special, you could also make them into a quilt. Better get busy before that babe gets here!
post #60 of 120
12/31/05 at 4:22pm
i agree with trini...make those shirts into a quilt, cut off the front logo part, use a set size 12x12" maybe 8x8", I'm not a quilt maker but it seems like an easy idea. Even sew that square to a larger piece of fabric for the top layer, layer quilt batting then a back piece.

I browsed oraganizedhome.com yesterday~ some good ideas. Anybody else have website recommendations? not flylady, please not flylady.

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