31 Days to {cheaply} organize your home: Day #1 - Challenge

I am taking on The Nester's challenge with 31 days of change!  This month, I am going to do 31 Days to {Cheaply} Organize Your Home! Yep...that's right! You're going to get 31 days of me - in a ROW!!  So, hang on, here we go!

You are probably here because you want to learn how to organize. Or, you are here because you like to organize. Right? 

Many think that organizing equals expensive - I hear it ALL the time! WRONG! Some think organizing equals boring! WRONG!  So, I'm going to come up with 30+ ways to organize your home using everyday, inexpensive items that you can make look beautiful and pretty! No excuses!

At the end of this 31 day challenge, I will have a link party where you can show off your most creative, cheap, organizing solution.  I certainly won't come up with every single way, but I'm going to try and give you as many ways as possible! Feel free to grab a cute, button at the bottom to post on your blog!

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See all the days HERE






<center><a href="http://organizingmadefun.com " target="_blank"><img border="0" alt="31DaysToCheaplyOrganizeYourHome" src="http://i819.photobucket.com/albums/zz114/beckybarnfather/31%20Days%20to%20organize%20cheaply/125x125.jpg" /> /></a></center>

From Shabby to Cutie!

My cute, little girl had these tiny little nightstands I bought many years ago.  Well, storing her CDs, cassette tapes {yes, old school tapes}, and her other books next to her bed was a mess. So, I told her we needed to find her a set of nightstands for cheap, but were much bigger.  

She has a full sized bed that we use in there, as well, for when company comes to stay. So her room is our "guest room" and would be great to have larger nightstands.

On our vacation this summer to Big Bear {I've told you that mountain town has some GREAT thrift stores} we found a pair of nightstands of pretty solid wood, for $10 each! Pretty ugly, though! Orangey wood color. My plan was to paint them with white semi-gloss I had in the cupboard. But, at the last minute, I just couldn't! So, instead....

Yes, yellow! I was inspired by this little plant container I found for 50 cents at the thrift store. I found some left-over yellow paint from the kids bathroom and painted it yellow!

Then, I took these cute wall decals and decided to use them on the piece, too. I wanted to replace the ugly hardware with pretty crystal handles.  But, the hole openings on the nightstands were in a weird size and I couldn't find anything that would fit and was cheap! So, I found 8 wood knobs for $.50 each at the hardware store - hey, if I only paid $10 for the nightsand, I'm NOT going to pay more for the hardware! I even picked up a can of "berry pink" colored spray paint!

The result?

And from the front!

And I cleared coated it to protect the decals...

Last, here is a before and after! 

She loved it! And it totally matches her personality! What do you think?

 

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How I organize: Kids computer/homework desk

OK...we took the last couple of months off from my regular Wednesday "how I organize" to do a lot of Back to School prepping and organizing. Now we'll dive back into my family room to show you some more areas that I've organized.  The family room is one of those places that everyone congregates in our house.  Our kitchen is actually in the front of our house and the family room is in the middle area.  We have a one-story L-shaped house {about 2400 square feet}. 

I want to show you an area I "created" a few years ago.  I found this great slim, adjustable desk at Overstock.com - it's got adjustable legs which I liked for the kids.  It can have two kids sit at once there.  Our kids' computer is here - out in the open, where everyone can see what they are doing {this is extremely important for parents NOT to have computer/TV in their rooms where you cannot monitor what they see}.  

We DO have them wear headphones cause their websites are not something we all need to hear! They also have a time limit on there, along with safety software {we use a program called Safe Eyes} so they can only go on websites with prior approval and access from the administrator {that would be ME!}.

I have a few dilemmas in this area. But, my main one was the cords! I really do hate cords dangling and a mess.  Isn't it just one of those things you can't stand but seem to have to put up with?

So, I took some of my hubby's cool velcro {remember I did that in our entry dresser?} and started to work on the cords.

Let me just say, cords are AWFUL! AWFUL, AWFUL, AWFUL!  It was one of the hardest things I've ever organized! They were all different lengths, widths, and wanted to go one way or another.  This table is great, but you can't just shove the cables somewhere to hide them!

My hubby does I.T. for a living, so I have DEEP appreciation for him now and for dealing with cords. I told him, too, that I just don't know how he does it! OK...so by the time I got those looking somewhat organized {and sort of pathetic}, then I took the large power strip and strapped it to the table leg. It was previously on the floor and the kids kept kicking it and it would turn off or scrape the wall, so this way seemed like a better idea!

My hubby recently bought the kids a Mini-Mac and so there is not a big box on the floor anymore! Yay! This is much less of a dust collector and just does a perfect job for them to work on. {Yes, Mini-Mac next to a Dell monitor!}

The other problem I had was there are no drawers in the desk to store things and so I bought this cart {years ago} from The Container Store when their Elfa systems were on sale. So, I have them labeled and more access for homework items - paper, pencils, rulers, etc.  

The little tray on top was a quick project I did - on the cheap! I bought the tray at the thrift store on "half-off" day for $1.15! Here is my Pinterest inspiration:

Source: belladia.typepad.com via OrganizingMadeFun on Pinterest

I spray painted it with black paint I had in my paint cupboard, then found some jars left over in my overflow pantry, and sorted out all the coloring pencils, pens and markers. 

Another dilemma I had previously was seating, so I bought these cute stools {at Kmart.com, but I don't think they make this low height anymore, so look at Ikea.com} since having chairs there took up too much space. The stools are fairly comfortable - but not something you'd want to sit on for hours {which is the point!} and slide under the table and out of the way. I can also slide them over to use elsewhere in the room, if needed. 

So there you have it! Our little computer desk area! I didn't do all this at once, but a little bit at a time to come up with the best solution as problems arose! Do you have a computer desk area in a public part of your house for you and/or your kids? What solutions have you come up with? Do you have time limits for them on the computer?

 

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Thankful for messes..

I'd LIKE to tell you that if you keep a nice house, it will maintain itself. I'd like to tell you that, but it's not true! Sometimes you just have to overlook things.  Let me show you this for an example:

You see, if I were a perfectionist this might drive me absolutely insane.  I believe that I have "perfectionist" tendencies, like wanting everything to look good and have things neat and organized.  But, I lack in the "perfectionistic" trait in the fact that I don't care if something isn't perfect - if you missed a spot, oh well! If it's almost clean, that's fine!

I was looking at this other day.  It made me thankful.  Yes, thankful that I have this mess here.  Why would I be thankful?  Because THIS mess means my husband is home and he's working on a project. 

Sometimes this mess means that he just got home from working all day, and he's tired.

Other times it means he is serving me elsewhere. My hubby likes me to make him "lists" of things that need to be done. He picks and chooses off the list what he thinks are of the most importance and what he can practically get done. 

I want it to look like this all the time:

But, it doesn't when he comes home.  And that's OK.  When I'm home alone, it will look like that. I'm thankful for the mess! What messes are you thankful for?

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Silhouettes

I see beautiful silhouettes all over blogland and Pinterest! And, I must admit, I LOVE them! I just think that they bring character and charm to a home.  Our family room is one room that I have tried to make very family minded - afterall, it IS a family room! I have been wanting them for our family room for awhile...

Source

We vacationed earlier this summer in Big Bear.  Let me tell you, it may be a small mountain town, but they have the BEST thrift stores! I seriously can't tell you how many great finds I got there! Good thing I had my van! Anyway...I found these silver trays for $1 a piece.  I am a sucker for trays - LOVE trays - and I use them all the time all over the place. I especially use them for entertaining the many we have over! So, I had no idea what I'd do with them but I figured for $1 a piece it was a great deal and I'd figure it out later. 

I stashed them in my office for a couple of months and completely forgot about them! My husband had piled some things on them and one day I was cleaning up I noticed them.  What does that have to do with silhouettes?

I realized I hadn't thought of anything and that I wanted some silhouettes of the kids on the walls.  So, I painted chalkboard paint on the inside of the tray, leaving the edges revealed.  It was SUPER easy - a couple of coats and I did it on my kitchen table!
 

Then, I took a couple of pictures of the kids' silhouettes and printed them up and cut them out. I grabbed a pencil and traced them and used my chalk ink to draw their silhouettes onto the trays.  Easy peesy!

I used some Command "damage-free" hanging strips and put on the backs of the trays - which are very lite-weight. 

I hung them amongst our gallery of pictures on the wall in our family room. It's so cute!  I love it.
  

And, I can always erase them and use for something else later on! Or not!

Do you have any silhouttes of yourself or kids in your home? Aren't they so fun?

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Going back to {home} school Part 2

I may not have mentioned this last week in part 1 of my interview with Lisa Pennington, but that girl can seriously build stuff! She's is a go-getter.  If it doesn't exist, she'll make it! She is truly inspiring and amazing.  Here are a few samples {just to make her blush}:

This is Lisa's utility room and the shelf she built, there's also the water heater cover she did, too!

She does incredible embroidery personalization in her Etsy shop:

Here she is making a pillow.

She even built this bench on her deck and made all the fabric elements and such - for SUPER cheap!

You can not believe how she made all this!

She planned a beautiful 25th anniversary party this summer for she and her husband's 25th!

I think she gets a little help from her kids, but she is truly amazing and really does get a lot done! Those naps must REALLY help! So, here goes a few more of my questions, and several from YOU!

1. Do you require your kids to get dressed every day for school? Casual or dressed up?

That’s a really good question! I do require them to be dressed, shoed, hair and teeth brushed, etc. before school.  I guess most people would think we are dressed up because my girls and I always wear dresses and we like to look nice every day.  Also, I do require the girls to fix their hair and not just in a quick pony tail at the base of the neck.  The boys are usually dressed as something from a superhero to a movie character (not Jacob, of course, at 19 he rarely dresses like Batman anymore).  I don’t care if the boys do that as long as it isn’t distracting from the school work.  I can often be heard saying something like, “Adam, take off that mask until school is over.”  If the boys are in normal clothes they have to at least have their shirts tucked in. 

To give you an idea, just today while I was writing this I called whoever wasn't busy to come to the front porch and I took their picture.  This is basically what we look like every day. (Hope and Elijah were working for my husband, so they didn't make it into the photo)

2. Do your kids ever do any other extra-curricular activities or sports or music lessons?

We measure time away from home very carefully and it is hard to convince us to do anything that separates us as a family or causes us to spend much time out of the house.

I should also point out that my husband isn’t into sports and we aren’t very athletic (a huge understatement), so sports have never been a draw for us.  That being said, there have been other things….girls’ clubs, debate groups, etc. that we have considered.  The way we make that decision is when one of the children asks to join one of these types of activities we look at everything (money, time, energy, benefit to the child) and decide if it fits into the vision we have for that child and our vision for our family.  Sometimes we do it, but more often we don’t.  It has been several years since we participated in any of those types of activities.

Music has been in and out of our life.  It became difficult to find a teacher that would work with us since we didn't want to do recitals or one that worked with our schedule.  Two years ago we found a music teacher who was excited to help us play at a local nursing home instead of doing recitals and she comes to my house for the lessons.  This was a perfect fit for our family, so I have four taking piano and one learning guitar right now.

Other things we have done over the years (but never all at once) would be horse riding lessons, community choir, homeschool co-op, film academy, scouts and local student orchestra.

3. a) How does she teach different grade levels at the same time? b) How does she organize homeschool stuff? How does she have the energy to do so much in 1 day ;-) c) What about homeschooling w/newborn? {I think you covered the energy part already}.

a) I use a lot of unit studies.  These allow us to all learn the same thing together.  I can just adapt it to the different age levels.  Right now we are studying world history.  I will read the lesson with everyone and we’ll all discuss it.  Then I will give assignments to each child, making it more advanced for the older ones.  Sometimes I will just have the littler ones draw a picture then do a simple oral report on it the next day.  They do math everyday, which of course we can’t all do together.  But I combine as much as possible.  All of the teens do the same writing course, the three younger boys and I do the same Apologia science, etc.

b) I organize my school stuff by going through it all at the beginning of the year and getting rid of anything we are not using.  I keep what I will use again in a few years, but it goes into our storage building.  What we are currently using I put in baskets and shelves.  Also, I bought a set of lockers a few years ago at a flea market and the kids actually use them like they would at school.  They each have their own locker and keep all of their own books and papers in there.  Every Friday we straighten the lockers, otherwise a few of my kids would never clean them and could face injury from the mess….not injury from the things falling out….injury by Mommy having a meltdown. 

c) It is definitely harder to do school when there’s a new baby.  First I would say to give yourself a break.  If you only get a little bit done or nothing at all…it’s OK.  Your kids will be fine.  Ask your husband to help at night with 15 minutes of something simple if you are feeling like a useless lump of baby poop and spit up (I still feel like that sometimes and my baby has been out of diapers for a year!).  A new baby grow so quickly…..I’d rather hold baby and catch up with school later when the baby isn't a newborn anymore (OK, now I’m sad).

4. How does you organize keeping the child who eats all day full? Or deal with the kid who takes an hour to eat a half a sandwich?

I haven’t had this specific issue, but I don’t know if that is because my children don’t struggle with it or if I haven’t allowed it.  I do have some that seem hungry all day, but they know that they aren’t permitted to eat until it is meal/snack time.  Even an especially hungry kid needs to know that there are boundaries and they cannot just graze all day.  That isn’t healthy.  I would be considerate of their need (if it was need and not just a bad habit) by offering them an extra snack of fruit or yogurt during the day.  If they didn’t want to eat that then they can wait until the next meal.  

I often get the question about the child that takes a long time to eat.  In our home there is a set time to finish your meal.  When meal time is over you are finished and you must immediately carry your plate to the sink (without eating while walking to the kitchen, you are finished when you stand up from the table).  If you didn’t eat quickly enough then hopefully you will remember that the next time.  If you didn’t eat it because you don’t like that particular food and are happy to skip it and wait for dinner, you would be having that meal again for dinner.  I wouldn’t give them any attention or pity.  I wouldn’t show concern (even though my mother’s heart might occasionally hurt to see them suffer).  I’d just be cheerful and let them figure out that they better eat when it’s in front of them or they will be hungry.  I’d let them know I care, but I wouldn’t bend.  I know it sounds hard, but the reality is that they need to learn to take care of themselves and be respectful of others and it is your job to teach that to them.

5. What kinds of extra activities, if any, do you and your kids do? Does she have to say no to a lot of extra things, or helping other people?

I love this question!  I would say that the outside activity we love the most is helping others.  I say no to a lot of requests for parties or play dates, but if we can help someone we will make sacrifices for that.  It is so much more worthwhile than soccer or violin.  I mean no disrespect to soccer and violin, just measuring it against serving others and the time we can spend away from home.  Our family serves in our community in many ways and we love to help a friend in need.  If it’s a meal for a sick neighbor or cleaning someone’s house after a loss, helping a friend paint their house or baking cupcakes for a bake sale to raise money for someone….we try to do all we can.  I would say that we do something unplanned in service about twice a month.  

6. Do you have things/places to go during the day and how do you deal with that and home-school? { i.e., doctor’s appointments, shopping for groceries, etc.}

We never have doctor appointments, but we do have several of the children in orthodontics.  I schedule those appointments as close to noon as possible so I can, hopefully, have school finished and we can come home, eat lunch then go right into rest time.  

My grocery schedule changes.  I shop once a week.  When the kids were little I would go when James got home from work.  I’d feed everyone then go alone while he stayed with the children.  Now that I can leave during the day, I go on Monday at lunch time and I take one of the children with me to help (varying which child gets to go).  It is a nice time to spend alone with one child and I can use the help because we almost always fill 2 carts. 

Thanks so much Becky, for having me here these past two weeks!  I love talking about organizing and homeschooling.  I just want to add that I am a mess and have hard days and easy days,  But the thing that keeps me going is just stopping and taking a breath.  With two adult children I can now say as an official "older" woman that it passes so quickly and you will regret not just enjoying your family.  I want to encourage you all to spend a few minutes each day straightening your world, don't be afraid to say no and most of all....slow down and appreciate what you have.  Thanks again!

Isn't Lisa amazing? She did a lot to be able to be interviewed here. Was this helpful to any of you? Let her know...leave a comment telling what you thought was the most encouraging, informative, or fun thing you read!

 

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