Home Organization

It's a fact - kids are messy. Within minutes, it can look like a tornado has followed them around your home.

Its time to focus on getting rid of unused, or broken things as one way to keep kid areas clean. Lets discuss and discover some quick and painless methods to keep the kid mess to a minimum.

Clean their Papers

Set aside some time a few times a week to look through school work and other papers in your son or daughter's room. The spelling tests that they got an A on last year really dont need to be saved. Some items you may want to save, but most can be sent into the circular file cabinet. Spend some time with your son or daughter looking through their old papers, tests, reports etc - remember - then throw em out!

Unused Clothes - Children outgrow their clothes quickly. Drawers and closets can easily get cluttered with clothes that never see the light of day. Once every month or so, check for clothes that are stained, torn, worn out, or seem too small. You can easily do this while you do laundry so it doesn't take extra time. Make somore extra room in your child's closet or drawer by getting rid of teh old pants that are too small or the shirt that may be stained. Instead of throwing them out, look to donate the clothes if they are in good condition so another child will have the opportunity to wear them.

Taking toy inventory

Kids love toys, thats no suprise. Afetr many birthdays and holidays though, their rooms and play areas can be overtaken from an incredible amount of toys and stuffed animals. If home organization is your goal be sure to clean out toys that are over two years old. See what your child plays with. Talk with him and her and ask if you can donate some of his/her toys to kids who need it. Not only will your house become cleaner, your child will learn a great lesson in sharing and giving.

Ok, lets start with saying that my husband jokes around saying that he is the "king". Ill let him have that little title if he wants, but the fact is that the king seems to make quite a mess in the garage.

Like clockwork my husband makes messes in the summer that I have to clean up in the winter. Between lawn stuff, car products, shoes and boots, electrical cables, and the rest of the things that he likes to clutter the garage with - our garage can look like a bomb hit it. Time to get ORGANIZED

Have no fear however. In one hour you can take some of these tips to get your garage back to normal again.

1st - get some racks for storage

Metal racks work very well in the basement. It allows you to make each wall of the garage a certain area for items. One wall can be pool items, one can be holiday items with ornament storage, one can be auto etc. This way, its organized for you - but easily situated for him as he can get all of his favorite stuff quickly.

Tip #2 - Throw out old chemicals

Old bottles of car wax, fertilizers, pool chemicals etc seem to linger around for years. The truth is that these chemicals have probably seen better days. Just throw em out and when needed, either you or yur husband can take a trip to lowes or home depot.

Tip #3 - Clean up the sports gear

Your husband hasnt used that mountain bike in years and those basketball shoes from the 1980's have holes from the critters who have eaten them. In these cases, do a bit of cleaning and use the one year rule. If he has used the sports item in the last year keep it, if not, trash it.