Here’s an excerpt about decluttering kids’ rooms from one of our Saving with Kids e-books.

De-cluttering Kids Rooms

I just did this for the boys yesterday. It’s funny– kids really do love a clean room!

BJ (13) asked David (7) “Would you please ask mom to help you clean up your stuff!” Not even two seconds later, David came out and said, “Mom can you please help me clean up my room”. After it was cleaned up, they both said “Thank you so much mom!”

Kids love neat and clean areas just as much we do. I know kids need to keep their own stuff picked up but there are times when the cavalry does need to come in and save the day. We’ll be running more posts on this subject over the next few days. Enjoy! Tawra

De-cluttering Toys

Make piles and label boxes according to these categories:

Trash (I bring in the kitchen trash can and just throw it straight in there.)

Sort and put away in room

Yard sale/Give away

Put in another room

Pack and store

Decide

BE RUTHLESS!

I can’t stress enough how important it is to be ruthless in getting rid of your children’s excess toys. As parents, we know we are supposed to protect our children physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Often we worry so much about others harming our children in these areas but, more often than not, we are the ones who do the greatest harm to them. One of the ways that we forget to protect our children emotionally is by allowing them to have so many toys and things that they become overwhelmed and frustrated.

I know this may seem like something trivial compared to what is going on in the world, but you have to realize your child’s room and toys are his world. Children really aren’t interested in anything else but their own spheres, and if that little world of theirs is piled with mounds of toys and other things, it can be overwhelming for them to deal with on a daily basis.

I can’t handle it if I have too many things to choose from, and I’m an adult. What did you feel like the last time you went to buy something new like shampoo or make-up? Were you overwhelmed with so many different kinds to choose from? There’s nothing wrong with any of them. It’s just that there are so many kinds. Put yourself in your child’s place. A child isn’t as emotionally mature as you are. Imagine how he feels.

I just watched an organizing show where the parents (at the advice of the organizer) spent several hundred dollars on shelving and storage containers to store the children’s toys. One container alone held 75 small cars. No child needs 75 or more of any type of toy at all. Do you know how much money could have been saved on shelving and containers if they had just gotten rid of more of those toys? Think of the headaches you have just trying to keep all those toys under control.

Don’t feel guilty or think you are depriving your children when you reduce excess toys. You are doing them a favor, and besides they probably won’t miss them. Have you noticed how children usually play with the same handful of toys over and over? In the same way, we keep 25 different colors of eye shadow, but only use 3-4 favorites over and over. If the rest of them were dumped, we wouldn’t even miss them, and our kids won’t miss the extra toys, either

Of course, this doesn’t mean to be cruel and get rid of their favorite bears or dolls, but I’m talking about all those things buried at the bottom of their toy boxes and closets that haven’t seen the light of day for years.

       -Jill

PS  Since I wrote this I saw a show where these 2 boys had mounds and mounds of toys. For fun they would throw their toys out their bedroom window to watch them break and shatter. The parents didn’t have a clue so they had someone come in to help and the first thing they did was take away all the toys but 10. The interesting thing was the boys took care of the toys better, put them up without a fuss and actually played with the toys. These facts might help some of you parents be more ruthless.

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Folding Fabric

I have struggled for years to figure out a way to keep the fabric on my shelves looking neat. I had big pieces and little pieces and they all looked messy no matter how careful I was. After 30 plus years I discovered something that changed my life. I was so excited that when I got it done I was bringing the neighbors in to see it.

Even better, I couldn’t believe how easy and fast it was to do it. Previously, I had 2 shelving units that had been packed and stuffed with material. Now, after about 2 hours, the material was folded and placed where I could not only see it to use it but where I could get to it easily without mounds of fabric falling on me.

In the first picture (above), the mess on the bottom shelf is what it used to look like every day. The shelf above the “every day” shelf shows what it looked like when I was having a sewing marathon.

You could use this same method for folding anything like linens (that are stored after the holidays).

I use a 24 x 6 inch ruler. For smaller pieces, you could use a smaller ruler. If you don’t have a ruler, just use a piece of cardboard or something similar to the ruler.

Lay your fabric on the table folded as it comes off of the bolt, with the 2 selvage sides together.

Lay your ruler on the fabric as shown.

Fold the end over the ruler.

Then just start flipping and rolling fabric and ruler over and over until you come to the end.

When you get to the end pull the ruler out and fold fabric in half.

This is what my fabric looks like now. I am going to get some plastic dividing shelves to divide the stacks up even more or adjust the shelving so the stacks won’t be quite so tall but this gives you an ideas of the start I have made. Have you ever seen such perfectly folded fabric? I love it!!! Be still my little beating organizing heart.

       -Jill

PS. If things are really a mess in your sewing room, don’t panic. This really takes less time than you would think. Pick one section and sort through it, tossing what you can and folding the pieces you want to keep as you come across them. It can actually be fun because we love handling and looking at our fabric.

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Fabric Storage

I love the fabric folding idea, however I have a larger problem. I have literally thousands of yards of fabric in bolt amounts. I have gotten cardboard bolts from the local Wal Mart fabric department, but they have since condensed ours to more of a craft store area and no longer have fabric. Any Ideas on where or what to use as fabric bolt storage?….I recently had to move from a home where I had an entire basement as a sewing/craft room to a house where I only have an 8 x 10 room. I have built ceiling to floor shelving on 3 walls but need to find a way to neatly organize everything……Help! – Dee

Dee, you can use this same folding technique with your bolts too and then lay them flat on the shelves you have. Also, if you have a closet you can fold and hang a lot on a sturdy hanger. Then you can hang it on a rod in the closet.

You could make your own cardboard centers. Get some scrap heavy cardboard. (Grocery stores and various other places have a ton. I am forever going in and seeing someone stocking and asking if I can have some of their boxes. They are always tickled to get rid of them.) Then cut the heavy cardboard scraps with a knife to the size that you need. If it helps, the ones that fabric bolts come on are about the same size as a 24×6 plastic ruler.

You don’t need to use that size for your fabric bolts if you don’t want to. If another size might fit better and you could use the shelf space better, then try another size.

Here is a video showing an interesting board they sell. I wouldn’t buy them myself but it gives the measurements on the video so I will probably make something like it out of cardboard. Keep your eyes peeled. After seeing this video, it reminded me of a stack of plastic shoe box lids I once saw at a garage sale for almost nothing and they or something similar would be perfect for this type of thing.

One thing about this board you see on the video: If you use it, you can place the fabric either on a shelf or in totes and store it in such a way that you can easily see everything.

Here’s the video of the fabric boards. You might also search fabric storage on YouTube and get even more ideas.

      -Jill

Photo By: Dyanna

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Happy New Year Everyone!!

Every year on New Year’s I always remember one special New Year’s Day. That is really unusual for me because New Year’s has never been one of my favorite holidays. I can’t remember ever staying up to ring in the New Year and I have only been to one or two New Year’s parties. I left those early and was home about 10:00, so for me to remember a special New Year’s Day is something.

It happened many years ago. I had gone to bed early as usual on New Year’s Eve and woke up about 5:30 the next morning. I was heating the house with our one pot belly stove and we were all sleeping and living in just a couple of rooms at the back of our house.

The kids were still sleeping so I couldn’t do much for fear of waking them. I sat quietly down at the kitchen table, started eating some leftover pecan pie (my breakfast of choice on Christmas and New Year’s morning) and thinking about the past year. That was also unusual for me to do because I never stew over the past year on New Year’s and I never give the next year much thought.

For some reason, out of the blue, I started dwelling on things. I started getting very discouraged and was feeling like having a pity party. I was shocked because I had been through so much the previous year and that whole time I hadn’t given in to self pity but all of a sudden I was wallowing in it.

You have to understand that, to me, having a pity party is as much of a sin as robbing a bank, lying or committing adultery so I started praying that God would help pull me out of it because I could tell it was going to be bad.

I grabbed my Bible because I was so sure that was what I was supposed to do and started reading it hoping it would help me but instead it made matters worse. Every verse I read said something like, “woe to you and your house.” I couldn’t believe it. Of course, by this point I was sure I had a right to feel sorry for myself so I told God, “Look– even when I read your word you tell me how miserable I am.” I was not thinking rationally at all but I still kept praying for help and trying to fight it.

My eyes fell on a pile of library books I had gotten a few days before. One of them was Erma Bombeck’s book, If Life is a Bowl of Cherries Why am I Always in the Pits? I wasn’t sure why I had checked it out because it wasn’t the kind of book that I usually read. I really wasn’t sure I felt like reading it now but I did relate to the always in the pits part. This little voice kept telling me to read it so I finally gave in and did.

Before I was through the first paragraph I started chuckling. The more I read, the harder I laughed. I was trying so hard to keep from laughing out loud so I wouldn’t wake the kids but I was to the point of belly laughing and finally Tawra called to me, “Mom what are you doing in there?!?”

I spent the rest of the day laughing my head off. Gone was the pity party. I had the best New Year’s ever. I also learned a couple of things that day.

First, we have a choice. We can have a pity party or a good laugh. Which do you think is better for us and our families?

Second I wasn’t stretching it when I said I had had a bad year. I had heard a speaker a few months earlier who gave us a list of the ten most stressful things that can happen to someone and he said that if you have 1-2 of those happen within a year’s time that you were probably under a great deal of stress and if you had had 3-4 things happen you needed to seek help.

When I heard that I had to chuckle to myself. I had 9 of those 10 things happen to me, all with in a 5 month period. I really did have something to be discouraged about but I also had something to be excited about.

Every time one of those 9 stressful things happened, God was right there to pull me through. It had gotten to the point where I almost became excited when I came to a road block because I could hardly wait to see how He would work this problem out.

What I had learned that day was, as much as He was there helping me through the “big” things, on this day He was there helping me with my little everyday pity parties too.

We have all had things happen to us this past year and will have more things happen this coming year. Life happens and we have a choice to either stay paralyzed by fear, not even trying, or to face each day with courage and with God’s help to try to figure out how to fix the problem.

Joshua is one of my favorite Bible characters. When he saw the land of giants, he essentially said, “So what if there are giants (problems). God will help us take care of them.”He had a child like faith. He was like a child that says, “My dad can do anything”. The bullies can come and He is there to fight them.

The others wanted to run and go back to their slavery but Joshua didn’t give in to his fear and he succeeded and made it to the promised land. Don’t be like those others, so paralyzed by your fear you can think of nothing to do but to go backwards and return to your slavery, whether that is debt, no job, how much you weigh or living in a messy house. Get up and fearlessly move forward, not back.

God also told Joshua in Joshua 1:9, “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”

You either choose to believe those words or not. It is very simple. If you believe them, then you can step out this year and when the bullies start coming down the path towards you you won’t bat an eye because your Father who is bigger and stronger than you is walking right there beside you and He will take care of them. The battle is His, not yours. Don’t go back into your slavery this year, no matter what it is.

photo by: marufish

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A Better Way to Store Bows!

Yes, we really do save the Christmas bows around here so we can reuse them! Even though saving Christmas bows is a great way to save, I have struggled for years trying to figure out how to store them!

I tried a box, but it fell apart.

I tried a gift bag, but it fell apart.

I tried a plastic sack and the cat tore it up.

You name it– I’ve tried it. The worst part was digging down trying to find the right bow and then having all the bows fall out the top or going in and grabbing a roll of wrapping paper only to have the bow bag tip and dump the bows all over!

Well, I’ve found the PERFECT solution! I got a bag that blankets come in and put all of the Christmas bows in there! They fit perfectly. It zips so they can’t fall out and it’s transparent so I can see exactly which bow I need, grab it and go!

Tawra

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