The Great Family Closet Makeover

One of my very least favorite things to do around the house is laundry. I don't so much mind the process of doing the laundry, but the whole folding-and-putting-away thing always seems like just entirely too much work...especially when you have so many little "helpers."


This weekend, I decided to re-think our current way of storing clothes and I am totally thrilled with the results. I had to create this post and include pictures because my mother said she would never believe it if she didn't see it. ;) haha. Love you, Mom.


In order to explain why I took this approach, you have to know what my struggles were with the current system. In our old system, each child had their clothes in their closet and had their own laundry hamper in their room. This worked out well in theory. Their clothes were easy for them to get to, easy to keep separate, and their laundry didn't get intermingled. I would just go get their hamper, take it downstairs, do the laundry, bring it back up, fold it and put it away. Sounds simple, right? Yes. In theory. But theory and actual life with little ones are often two very different things.


Here were a few of my problems:


I had to dress each child in their own room. Doesn't sound like a big deal, but when you're crunched for time and trying to get everyone ready, it's just far easier to have everyone in one room and get them all ready at once. I'm sure that sounds crazy to those without a bunch of little ones, but those of you who have them know what I mean.


I was having to try to put both boys in one room and the storage space was at a premium. It was virtually impossible to get all of their clothes in their tiny closets along with all of their toys, books, blankets, etc.


My darling daughter had a not-so-darling habit of putting things where they didn't belong. I would find clean clothes taken out of her drawers and put in her trash can, or shoes in the laundry hamper. Trying to find things in her room was a constant challenge.


Because my oldest can dress himself and my daughter can do some of it herself, they often dress whereever I am in case they need help...but that means they also undress whereever I am. Which means their clothes very seldom come off in their rooms near their laundry basket. So they end up getting mixed together anyway. Then, when I have to do laundry and put things away, I would have to try to sort everything out to put in each kid's room. If you have kids that are old enough to reliably do this themselves, I think this might work. But as for me, I would have plenty of "helpers" to take things to the bedrooms, but would then find the clothes in random locations between where I folded them and the bedrooms. Or Kaytie would occassionally take her clean clothes directly to her dirty clothes basket to "put them away."


Which brings me to my other major problem with having everything in their rooms. They sleep in their rooms. And the easiest time for me to fold laundry (once...as opposed to half a dozen times thanks to my "helpers") and put it away, is often when they're sleeping. But if they were sleeping, I couldn't go in and put it away. So I would have to put it elsewhere and half the time it would never get to their rooms.


This was the same problem with packing for trips. Impossible to do while they're awake. But I needed to be in their rooms to pack. This made packing a pretty difficult task.


Now, I had heard of families with several children having a community closet. I always kind of snickered at the idea. First of all, because I don't see us as having a very large family. We have three (ok, four) children. That's no big deal. I certainly didn't see a need to devote a whole room to our laundry. Secondly, we don't have a room we could logically devote to clothing. The only good sized closet was our walk-in in our master bedroom, and that was packed with just Ward and my things. But finally after attempting to pack for our last trip home, I decided it was time to try something new.


So we moved an old dresser out of our basement into our closet and I bought some drawers and bins for storage. I will state again, for the record, that when I started, our closet was already a disaster. It was packed full and had very little in the way of organization. Now, we have a brand new family closet and I am still in shock.

The dresser has the kids' clothes in it. Each kid has two drawers. The ones on the left are for tops, the right for bottoms. Ward and my hanging clothes are above the dresser. Yes, both...on the same side. I'll tell you how I managed that here in a minute.

This is the right side of the closet. We have so much space left over on that side that we're moving a cabinet in to the right of the shoes and I'm still going to have tons of space to spare. Ward made the shelf that our shoes are on awhile back for me. He's going to make one more shelf there. I had put a dowel rod through the top so I could put all the kids' hanging clothes there. Kaytie is super excited that her hangers and pink and the boys' are blue. :)

This is perhaps one of my favorite parts of the closet makeover. Because all of the clothes are in one spot, I can easily get to them all at once. Which means each night I can grab clothing for all the kids and put them in one of these bins. Everything down to the shoes. Then I can just grab the bin in the morning and take it to whereever the first child decided to take off their pjs. :)

The plastic drawers have Ward's clothes in them and each kid has a shoe bin. The space above these things is completely empty, so I have tons more room to store things.

I am totally blown away, first of all that I could even get all of our clothes in one closet, and even more so that I would have so much extra room. It's amazing what a little organization will do. One problem I had with hanging clothes is that I change sizes so frequently. I literally haven't worn the same size for more than four months since 2005. Seriously. I'm either newly pregnant, fairly pregnant, extremely pregnant, nursing, not pregnant but not quite down to prepregnancy size, and back to half-way decent shape just in time to start the cycle again. So although many items in my closet didn't fit currently, it was just too much trouble to pack them all away in totes that I would have to drag back out within a couple of months. So I got one of those cloth "wardrobes" that zips up and put it downstairs. Now I can easily see and get to all my hanging clothes and grab which ones fit way easier! So I only have things in my closet that actually fit me right now. Amazing.

A few of my favorite things about the new system:

I can fold all our clothes and put them all away without ever leaving my room.

I can easily see what everyone has and what they need without having the dig through their rooms.

I can actually find TWO Kaytie shoes that match at any given time.

When it comes time to pack, I can just throw a suitcase on the bed and grab everything I need right there.

My closet is now a place I don't mind being, and I can find everything in it.

I got extra space for storing things that didn't used to have a home.

I can put the kids' clothes in bins at night and it even if Ward or one of their grandparents, etc. is getting them dressed in the morning, everything they need is right there and they don't have to try to figure out where things are.

The kids have EMPTY dressers and closets which can now be used to house their toys and books and other goodies, which makes their rooms more clean and organized.

The list goes on and on...

And so, my journey into the land of the "community closet" is a startling success! And now that I know I can fit so much into such a small space with a little thought and organization, heck...what's a few more kids? ;-) hehe.

A Mommy Must Have

Wow, it's hard to believe but I just realized that the last post was my 100th on this blog. Weird. Feels like I should do a little dance or something.

Instead I'll give all you moms an little insider tip. ;) I love lists. I'm actually quite addicted to them. But, I have trouble remembering to put thing ON my list. Yes, I have a planner for appointments, school scheduling, Cubbies, etc. But I love being able to check things I do each day off my list.

Last year, there was a sale on a downloadable planner for moms. It's called the Motivated Mom and it is amazing. Every day you have a checklist of things to accomplish. There's a section for things that don't need done every day (cleaning a shelf in the refrigerator, clipping coupons, cleaning out you purse, clipping the kids finger nails- I tell ya this lady thought of everything.) Then there's a section for things that need to be done daily. (Think FlyLady routines) You can even get one that gives you Bible passages to read each day to read through the Bible in a year.

Last year I got the downloadable one and printed it off each week. This year, they made an iPad app. I can't express my excitement. This thing is PERFECT for a busy momma. Best thing yet, it doesn't cost much. The downloadable version is only $8 and if you're getting that version I suggest you head HERE to get a coupon code for $1 off. All versions are available HERE.

Hooray for an organized New Year!

Easy menu planning

So for the past couple of weeks we've been using e-mealz. I am honestly soooo skeptical about things like this because my family is insanely picky. I always liked the idea of having a ready made "menu plan" but it just didn't seem realistic. However, this one is different and here's why.

When you sign up, you receive several options of menu plans. You can choose ones for families or couples. You also can choose certain kinds of menus such as Weight Watchers compatible and menus for those who can't have certain kinds of foods. You can also choose your meal plan based on which store you typically shop at.

They then make a menu for you based on what deals are going on at your store that week. You get a dinner menu for each night of the week with a list of ingredients and recipes for each item you'll make. Then you also get a grocery list, with items grouped by category for easy shopping and the approximate prices so you can see how it will work for your budget. For my family (four eating table food) the approximate cost according to them is $75/ week for your groceries.

Now, let me tell you why this one works for my family. I am a couponer. I do most of my shopping with coupons and stock up when things are on sale. So to be completely honest, I don't need to spend the $75 that they plan for because I already have many of the items needed which I purchased at a discounted price. Also, they only include dinner which gives me so much flexability because we can have leftovers for lunch or sandwiches and we usually have simple breakfasts. So I don't have to follow a rigorous schedule to stay in my budget.

Now, about the pickiness. No, we do not eat every meal that they recommend. BUT, this is another area that e-mealz is amazing in! On your grocery list, they list which meal each item belongs to. So if you aren't going to use a certain meal, you don't have to go through and try to figure out which things you don't need. You just scratch off anything that has the number of the meal you aren't using. So easy!

And I've found that although my family wouldn't eat a dish exactly as they would have me prepare it, I can tweak the recipe a tiny bit and make it something my family would love. Best of all, I didn't have to worry with the menu for the week, or the grocery list. I know I have something planned for each night. I know I have all that I need to make each meal. AND I have freed up my time used for grocery planning to get better deals with my coupons. ;-)

Best of all, it's only a $1.25 per week. SOOOO worth it when you figure that not only are you not having to really think about what to buy, but you know you're only buying what you're going to use and your food isn't going to waste because something looked good, but you never got around to cooking it. Frugal indeed.

If you're interested in seeing what e-mealz is all about click on the button below. (yes, I get moolah if you do- full disclosure here.) But honestly, I'd recommend it even if I didn't. One less thing for the mommy brain to worry about. Because quite frankly, you've got better things to do and let's face it, mac n cheese is only good so many nights in a row. :)

The verdict is in...

So, today I cleaned my house using my new Norwex Envirocloths...and...

I LOVE them! REALLY love them. I cleaned my entire house using just them and water! Now this is exciting for a couple of reasons! One, the obvious, not having to buy more cleaning products. (of course you still have to use something to clean the toilet bowl. HAHA) Two, you use WAY less paper towels AND you don't have to risk cross contamination because bacteria can't survive in the cloth so you can just keep cleaning without having to switch it up. Three, I have a TON of windows in my house...seriously, like a million bajillion. And I cleaned at least the reachable parts of all of them with NO smudges, streaks, or lint left behind. All with one cloth! I also cleaned the mirrors, tv, computer monitor, stainless steel items, my kitchen counters, did all the dusting, cleaned my leather furniture, cleaned the bathroom sinks and tub and even used it on my sunroom floor! And the very very VERY best part??? My little darlin's LOVE to help mommy clean and now they REALLY CAN! I can give them a wet cloth and they can clean just like I do without me having to worry about them being exposed to chemicals!
So, this is one satisfied customer. Money well spent!

Ah, the things that thrill me...

Is it sad that I'm totally excited about getting my new Norwex cloths in the mail? I can't wait to start cleaning! Yeah...sad. Anyone else use them? They contain silver particles and are supposed to be antibacterial, so you can clean your whole house (including washing windows/mirrors/etc) with only water. I'll let you know how they worked when I get done. Here's hoping I can stop making or buying cleaning products! Woohoo.