I was just in our basement and I'm so stressed out! We have so much stuff! I mean, not really a ton of toys. The older kids play with legos, younger kids play with our wooden blocks, play kitchen, dress up clothes, and puppets but we have tons of clothes, school books, stuff like that. I went through and got rid of a few things but I really don't want to get rid of much b/c I know I'll need it again. Esp. the clothes, shoes, schoolbooks. I have it somewhat organized but still feel completely overwhelmed. Is there any way to have a larger family, save money, and still have small amounts of "stuff"?
HELP! 6 kids, homeschooling, different ages, lots of stuff!
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Oh my! We could be sisters! LOL! I, too, am a Catholic homeschooling mama of six! Mine are ages 1.5 through 15, grades toddler, PreK, 2, 5, 8, and 10 this fall.
No answers. Just sending hugs! I have found that weeding through the stuff regularly helps. Things that are NICE but not played with, I pitch. I no longer save as many clothes, either. As much as I like using hand-me-downs, I find that I forget to get them out regularly, even when they're properly stored/labeled. My two oldest boys can share clothes. I save some for the 3rd boy. Then I have a girl. Just one girl, so when she outgrows stuff, I donate it immediately! Then I have 2 boys. So I do not save things from my third son, for the fifth and sixth children, as the ages are just too far apart. I just save expensive things like dress shoes or clothes, and buy new t's and jeans. Works for us, since I don't buy pricey stuff anyway. I feel better NOT hoarding stuff....I figure someone else will use it, and it's best to share.
Gotta run; bedtime here and chaos is reigning! LOL! Good luck and God bless!
No answers. Just sending hugs! I have found that weeding through the stuff regularly helps. Things that are NICE but not played with, I pitch. I no longer save as many clothes, either. As much as I like using hand-me-downs, I find that I forget to get them out regularly, even when they're properly stored/labeled. My two oldest boys can share clothes. I save some for the 3rd boy. Then I have a girl. Just one girl, so when she outgrows stuff, I donate it immediately! Then I have 2 boys. So I do not save things from my third son, for the fifth and sixth children, as the ages are just too far apart. I just save expensive things like dress shoes or clothes, and buy new t's and jeans. Works for us, since I don't buy pricey stuff anyway. I feel better NOT hoarding stuff....I figure someone else will use it, and it's best to share.
Gotta run; bedtime here and chaos is reigning! LOL! Good luck and God bless!
Post some of it for sale or trade here ! I am sure some of us may be able to use a couple of things...
1. get the kids to help organize a garage sale( helps them learn about money etc.)
2. donate books to local library
3. find local homeschooling group and do a swap or give certain materials away.
I am second generation homeschooler with two boys 4 and 15 months and I would love more posts on Trading Posts for homeschoolers!
Just a few ideas
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1. get the kids to help organize a garage sale( helps them learn about money etc.)
2. donate books to local library
3. find local homeschooling group and do a swap or give certain materials away.
I am second generation homeschooler with two boys 4 and 15 months and I would love more posts on Trading Posts for homeschoolers!
Just a few ideas
I didn't realize anyone responded to me! I'm so excited!
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This weekend I went to our local homeschool conf. I got some great inspiration and that mixed with here prompted me to weed out a ton of children's books which I donated to the library. Tomorrow night is our homeschool "shop and swap" and I've got a box and a rubbermaid full of stuff to take there. I also freecycled some baby toys.
COmamalac - interesting what you said about the clothes. I feel the same way about hand me downs. I mean, my oldest son is 6 yrs older than the next son. Saving them that long is rarely profitable except the Hanna Andersson pj's
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My oldest daughter somehow always scores stuff from neighbors and garage sales and my youngest daughter gets tons of hand me downs from a friend. Anyway, I read the tightwad gazette and her clothing routine was so organized. I just can't seem to get to that point. Don't even get me started on shoes!
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This weekend I went to our local homeschool conf. I got some great inspiration and that mixed with here prompted me to weed out a ton of children's books which I donated to the library. Tomorrow night is our homeschool "shop and swap" and I've got a box and a rubbermaid full of stuff to take there. I also freecycled some baby toys.
COmamalac - interesting what you said about the clothes. I feel the same way about hand me downs. I mean, my oldest son is 6 yrs older than the next son. Saving them that long is rarely profitable except the Hanna Andersson pj's
Urgh! Just sat down here for some encouragement and found this post. I only have three at the moment--that's about to change--but we live in an apartment. Both my boys' birthdays were in the last two weeks and the party with pals on Saturday. We are now officially overrun. Toys galore. I still need to organize the baby clothes, our one huge closet is so packed you risk our life to reach the back, there are stacks of books and art supplies on every clear surface. But I'm so stressd about trying to keep things organized (I am a neatnick, in fact, but also a not-too-out of control shopepr and hoarder when it comes to kids stuff since we livein Russia where good quality toys and English books are hard to come by) that I rarely have time for all those great art projects I have the stuff for.
I swear that before Chistmas I thought everything was under control and we were well on our way to a serene life (lol).
Heaven help me, where do I start? I'd like to just move out and leave everything behind.
Back to it while the boys are busy and the baby naps.
How is it all going Amy? Did you find any solutions I could try?
I swear that before Chistmas I thought everything was under control and we were well on our way to a serene life (lol).
Heaven help me, where do I start? I'd like to just move out and leave everything behind.
Back to it while the boys are busy and the baby naps.
How is it all going Amy? Did you find any solutions I could try?
I am constantly battling the Stuff Challenge. 
I hate it. So frustrating. We just have too much STUFF everywhere. I am always bagging up and donating things, and when I turn around, there's more! Eek! Right now we are organizing school things: books, supplies, materials, whatever. Our basement is overflowing w/that stuff. We're getting close. I did finally give away six giant bags of kids' clothes, even though I knew we could use some of them again "someday." I never have time to go through them properly, in time, before the clothes are outgrown for the NEXT kid!
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I used to have a good system of putting them in bins w/sizes marked on the bins. But even that backfired, because some clothes shrink, and so on. One shirt said "4T" but looked like 18 months! Geez.
Anyway, I do sympathize. My best method has been to really whittle down ruthlessly -- to realize someone else can use my stuff if I'm not using it NOW. So it goes OUT.
Hard to do, but feels so good when the closets are neat and tidy, and we can find things again!
Good luck,
I hate it. So frustrating. We just have too much STUFF everywhere. I am always bagging up and donating things, and when I turn around, there's more! Eek! Right now we are organizing school things: books, supplies, materials, whatever. Our basement is overflowing w/that stuff. We're getting close. I did finally give away six giant bags of kids' clothes, even though I knew we could use some of them again "someday." I never have time to go through them properly, in time, before the clothes are outgrown for the NEXT kid!
Anyway, I do sympathize. My best method has been to really whittle down ruthlessly -- to realize someone else can use my stuff if I'm not using it NOW. So it goes OUT.
Hard to do, but feels so good when the closets are neat and tidy, and we can find things again!
Good luck,
I've been working my tail off after hours and during naps and after three days I;ve gotten the worst of it beaten back. Still, there is a general feeling of being overstuffed.
Here are two problem areas about which you might have some advice or encouragement--
In our living room and kitchen we have these wonderful deep window sills, and I like to keep all of them except the one beside my reading chair clear of books and toys. However, I find that when I let things stack up, such as our Muse magazines and a few of dad's fishing magazines and National Geographic or two any one of us is much more likely to find find them and have a read. If the are stacked neatly in the magazine basket or worse in those upright magazine files no one sees them. I have the same issue with crayons/paper/markers/playdo. If they are out and easy to get to the creativity flows. But the mess seems endless. If they are tucked away they'll do something else (also come to think of it creative and fun more than likely). I guess my question is how do you strike a balance between a resource rich environment that the kids can access and a house that neat enough to let the mind (esp. mine) be free?
Second, how do you know what to save--ie what is the right balance between simplyfying and being reasonably frugal. For example, last night when I was getting hte kids clothes out for today, I noticed I have a stack of about a 15 pairs of white underpants that fit my 4 yo. When we are home, I do laundry daily and so need only three or four pairs per child. But then I do need more when we travel, and because we wash and wear the same clothes over and over (Saves folding and putting away ; ) things do wear out. Our next baby is a boy, so it doesn't make sense to give these away because we'll need them again in three years, right? Also, they don't take up much space, that particular closet is fairly organized and the things in it easy to find, so why fret about it, etc.
Any suggestions?
Here are two problem areas about which you might have some advice or encouragement--
In our living room and kitchen we have these wonderful deep window sills, and I like to keep all of them except the one beside my reading chair clear of books and toys. However, I find that when I let things stack up, such as our Muse magazines and a few of dad's fishing magazines and National Geographic or two any one of us is much more likely to find find them and have a read. If the are stacked neatly in the magazine basket or worse in those upright magazine files no one sees them. I have the same issue with crayons/paper/markers/playdo. If they are out and easy to get to the creativity flows. But the mess seems endless. If they are tucked away they'll do something else (also come to think of it creative and fun more than likely). I guess my question is how do you strike a balance between a resource rich environment that the kids can access and a house that neat enough to let the mind (esp. mine) be free?
Second, how do you know what to save--ie what is the right balance between simplyfying and being reasonably frugal. For example, last night when I was getting hte kids clothes out for today, I noticed I have a stack of about a 15 pairs of white underpants that fit my 4 yo. When we are home, I do laundry daily and so need only three or four pairs per child. But then I do need more when we travel, and because we wash and wear the same clothes over and over (Saves folding and putting away ; ) things do wear out. Our next baby is a boy, so it doesn't make sense to give these away because we'll need them again in three years, right? Also, they don't take up much space, that particular closet is fairly organized and the things in it easy to find, so why fret about it, etc.
Any suggestions?
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