For previous entries in this series see here.
Room By Room: Bedrooms.
Tips and Tricks that I've found helpful in curbing the chaos in the bedrooms.
I used to try to tidy my bedroom FIRST THING, but somehow or other I always procrastinated about it. How can I start procrastinating FIRST THING??? Well, I had to go to the bathroom first, Prairie Sonshine II needed to get changed, once I was in the boys room anyway, I would start getting kids dressed and, and, and, things would just happen and by then half of the chicklets would be downstairs and I would feel pressure to get breakfast on the table. Once we were downstairs the upstairs became "out of sight out of mind" and our bedroom was one of those "frequently falling through the cracks" zones. It bothered me. So I set to work tweaking the schedule.
Since I also was not happy about "starting the day off" with a cleaning mentality, here is what I've settled on.
7:30 use the bathroom, call kids to wake up. I change Prairie Sonshine II while the kids use the bathroom and gather on the landing around the window seat.
7:40 Family devotions.
7:50 or when we finish; get dressed.
8:00 we start in the master bedroom ALL TOGETHER and do a 3 minute room clean (make bed, take care of loose laundry, gather up any garbage or things that don't belong. When the first room is done we move on to the next, and so on. Working together like this speeds up the process SO MUCH! We manage to clean 3 bedrooms, the landing and bathroom in 15 minutes! Before heading downstairs I gather up that days load of laundry, pile up anything that belongs downstairs in the laundry basket and carry it all down on our way to breakfast.
3 minutes a room people! And I get to start my day knowing that what is out of sight is not a ghastly sight ;)
Other tricks I have discovered for keeping our bedrooms organized;
I bought $3 cloth zipper "boxes" to store off season clothes under our bed. I had previously tried those long plastic boxes on wheels but found them awkward to deal with. The "boxes" (they are more like bags till you fill them up) I bought are made of soft cloth, with a clear plastic top that has a zipper closure like a suitcase. They are practical for storing under the bed because you can "squish" them places and you can see what is inside. My dream (and the item currently listed as #3 on the indoor projects list) is to have a custom built closet along the full length of one end of our bedroom and do away with dressers completely and have room to store both in and off season clothing. Until then though this system is working for us.
We have a standing coat rack in our room. Prairie Guy usually has about 3 sets of clothes on the go at a time. (Dress clothes for work, casual clothes for home and work clothes for on the farm). I am a frugal laundry woman.... clothes do not go in the laundry merely because they were WORN... and work clothes for on the farm do not get washed at the first smudge either, they need to be DIRTY. But since you don't want to fold up worn clothes and put them back in the drawer with CLEAN clothes, enter the coat rack. I hang his "in use" pants over the lower rungs, and hang his shirts up on the higher rungs above. No more used but not dirty clothes laying around on top of the dresser or trunk... I love it.
Designating bedrooms as "BED Rooms" not "TOY Rooms". We each have a small surface in our rooms for storing the books we are CURRENTLY reading, and each child is allowed to have ONE stuffed animal or doll on their bed. Apart from that, all toys, games, books, crafts, etc have OTHER HOMES. I don't mind if they take something into their rooms to play there, but when the play is over the item must go back to it's home and not be left in their room.
They should school the young women to be affectionate to their husbands and to their children, to be sober-minded, pure in their lives, 5 industrious in their homes, kind, submissive to their husbands, so that the Christian teaching may not be exposed to reproach. Titus 2:4-5 Weymouth New Testament
18 comments:
Yet another great post! I LOVE your ideas! I end up putting everyones out of season clothes in tote boxes and then stacking them in the closet(my bedroom closet). I don't really like it though because my closet looks well cluttered! Where did you find the boxes? You will love the no dresser in bedrooms. When we remodeled and built on to our home we built the kids closets with french doors and made them big enough to walk in and put in closet organizers. MY FAVOURITE part of the house believe it or not. I don't have to have dressers now. I like just bed in rooms and then their few toys. We builty their bedrooms a little bigger than normal because we knew we wouldn't have a toy room(16x20s) but I make them keep their toys organized in their closets(rarely works out that way here!) I am constantly looking for better ways to organize clothes and you have a great way! Any help on the kitchen and laundry room ideas? I let my dad talk me out of a big laundry room(yeah I was CRAZY!)My laundry room is a 10x15 I think. Barely enough room for washer,dryer,freezer,deep sink and shelf. IT is not good! I will send a pic one day! Any suggestions on laundry room? I would love to know about yours! Sorry my comments are so long and full of questions let me know if you don't like it!
By the way I have 3 children dd 6 ds 4 and dd 15 months. (keeps me on my toes) We are off to the park to enjoy the sunshine whether predicts it to be 80 degrees here today. Hope you have a wonderful and blessed day in the Lord. I look forward to hearing back from you!
Thanks!
Joy
OK, first off, I just have to say how much I love your photography. I have to remind myself..."Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's photography skills." :)
Thanks for the idea about the "in use" clothes. We don't have room for a rack, but I think I could stick some hooks up behind the door. The clothes lying around waiting to get worn again drive me to distraction!
The idea of working on each room together is a winner! Excellent! I struggle with the bedrooms. We have a bungalow so, in our case, what's out of mind really isn't ever out of sight. Working to be more diligent in this area, especially our room as I want it to be a haven for us. Working hard to picture our needs for storage as we are at the starting end of a major basement renovation. Managing our stuff without accumulating/keeping too much. We've made a concious choice to stay in our smallish-by-the-world's-standards-for-a-family-of-six house. Translates into constant need for refining those management skills.
One of our pastors is currently doing a sermon series on Titus. He handled Titus 2 so beautifully this past Sunday in a large church with many women and men who do not value homemaking in the way I do. I was so very encouraged by that.
Renée
Joy, I found my boxes at one of my favourite stores www.peaveymart.com/nav/main.html which unfortunately is exclusive to western Canada. I would think that anywhere that sells those cloth hanging/storage accessories for closets would probably carry these although they will most likely be more costly than my great buys at Peavey Mart.... The closest image I could find online was little zippered bags for sweaters that fit only 2 at a time and cost $11.00 :gasp: Sorry I can't be of more help.
I can't WAIT to get rid of the dressers in our room, CAN'T WAIT!!! I know it's coming "soon" but soon is relative around here. Number three on the indoor project list doesn't take into account that the outdoor project list is going to trump the indoor now that the weather is (or hopefully WILL be- it's BLIZZARDING HERE for crying out loud) turning.
I just about spewed coffee on my monitor when I read your question about the laundry room. I can't stop smiling, this is good. I don't have a laundry room, and never will be able to in this house, so yours sounds down right dreamy to me. Our washer and dryer are located in our main floor half bath which measures (brace yourself) 6.5 X 5.5 feet. There is 1ft 2in space between the dryer and the toilet, 1ft 9in space between the washer and the sink. Thankfully there is a closet in our school room which backs the washer and dryer so we are going to steal those 2.5 feet to give us some "passing room" in the bathroom..... but still.
My only laundry room tip is "a load a day" and keep it movin' down the line (it goes in, it comes out, it gets put away, a load a day) I don't even have room to keep an empty laundry basket in there! (I don't have a front loading washer and I have a change table set up on top of the dryer. So my dear, enjoy your laundry room!!
And DON'T apologise for your comments, I LOVE to interact with people here, heck it would be no fun talking to myself now would it? That's the whole point of this whole blogging experience for me. Meeting up with other women at the (world-wide) well.
And you'll have to wait for kitchen tips... :D
Prairie Chick
Thanks so much for the tips! We also try to put our canned goods in the laundry room! Well I will have to send you a pic because it looks pretty cramped in there. When you open the back door you hit the dryer haha..but it could be worse I am not complaining. I used to do laundry in the kitchen in one of those hide a way cabinets, and well I love the laundry room better. I am getting better on the one a day load, the weekends are horrible though. We ride horses and my kids rodeo so when we go to rodeos the clothes are past dirty so that is 5 outfits on one day then church. I usually acquire(hope I spelled that right. haha)2-3 loads extra on the weekends somehow. Must be my pure LAZINESS! I admit when dh is home on weekends we cling to him and not the house work! It usually all gets behind. Do you do this? Probably not right.
Oh yeah and you were talking about the tv the other day. WE just got the first series on dvd to Little House on the Prairie my FAVOURITE. One show I am hooked on..but we have to watch the movies then send them back thats the only sad thing.
JOy
Gina, not all of the pictures I post as post headers like the one today are my own. I only *wish* my bedroom looked like that! (my bedroom *will* make an appearance on this blog one day, but only when I have the *after* pictures to post next to the bright canary yellow, beige shag carpet, feature wall with yellow rose striped 60's wallpaper *before* pictures.)
stockxchng http://www.sxc.hu/index.phtml is a great place to quickly search for a nice "decorative" addition to your blog. I love photography, and love to upload my pics on here when they are a pleasure to the eye, but I don't think there is any way I could angle a photo in my bedroom to make it a pleasure to the eye! For those of you who have SEEN my room, you KNOW what I'm talkin' about :D!
Renee, I am just *loving* having you here! So glad you "found" me. I find even though our bedroom is 60's tacky through and through, well besides my beautiful bed handcrafted by Prairie guy, and my beautiful bedding that he bought me, and our slightly dated but not offensive bedroom suite) that it if it is made up and put away, it does feel like a haven, despite the color scheme faux pas....
We also are about to be seven in a small for 7-by-the-worlds-standards house. And like you, I know that once we get our shelves/closets and storage areas set up we will be good to go. It's just living without proper closets that I find very annoying. But like they say, neccessity is the mother of invention (or ingenuity).... :evil grin: and it helps out in the discipline of practing "godliness with contentment is great gain"....
Joy, I have started washing sheets on saturday, but that is all I do. Now that the kids are (read were)playing outside more, I do end up with an "overflowing" load the odd time when it is "their day". I tweaked my laundry system again so that now I do;
Masculine Monday: (boys clothes)
Towel Tuesday: (bathroom & kitchen linens + cleaning cloths)
White Wednesday: (everybody's white clothing and intimates)
moTHer and faTHer Thursday: (that's us)
Feminine Friday: (the girls).
If either the boys or girls have too many clothes for one load on their day, I just keep the "extra's" in a laundry hamper that sits outside the bathroom and whenever that gets full I do the extra load right after the days assigned load.
One saturday I wash our sheets, the other saturday I wash the kids (three single sets and one crib set fit in one load).
I try to keep housework to a bare minimum on weekends so that we can just kick back and play. I don't mind one load of laundry and a quick bit of chores on Saturday morning but then *that's it*. So I commend you for "clinging" rather than cleaning!!! Love that.
Thanks for sharing your homemaking tips, I have found that routines are a great help in keeping things in place and keeping the house "presentable" for unexpected guests. I also love flylady, ever heard of her, she gives lots of practical advice for getting your home and life cleaned up and organized, it's great!
I snuck in a giggle at Joy's mention of your laundry room... it's the only room of the house I don't envy you for... (okay, strike that, it's not envy it's appreciation)
I guess I have a necessity laundry format. Whatever has the fullest bin gets the attention... darks, jeans, lights, sweats, and sheets (towels are in a constant state of multiplying, I will get them under control soon by delegating half to the shop!)
Since we have a small-for-4 house, our boys room has rotating toys (to the garage and back) and if some find the garbage or give-away bin on the transition, so be it. I am looking forward to building a window seat bench with basket storage beneath in their room. Yay for ingenuity!
PS. I sent away our plans this morning for the kitchen!!! See you in the am.
Chris and prairie chick,
How big are your homes?
I find myself throwing away or giving away my childrens toys probably every 2 months(I know I am terrible! I can't stand the clutter). When my dh and I married we live in 400sq feet with no closets or laundry room. Then the first baby came and we remodeled to make it 800sq ft with a second bedroom still no laundry room, then when 3rd baby was on her way well we decided I just couldn't take it anymore.(I had no one single closet at this time that is why I LOVE closets)So we decided to completely gut the "little house" and take it down to the stud walls and add a little over 1000sq feet. Now I am totally blessed to have 1900 sq feet.(but we have a house payment) We were blessed to have my father give us his "little rent house" and land so we didn't have to borrow that much money to remodel. We still didn't finish everything..the landscaping,some shelving but that will come in time. I do know what you mean prairie chick about no closets. Thanks to you both about the laundry tips. For some reason I just always thought I HAD to get it all done TODAY not leave any in the hamper. Thanks!
Joy
Tricia, yes, flylady was instrumental in helping me overcome my post-depression "where do I even begin" mentality. Her philosophy of doing SOMETHING for 15 min's even if it felt there was 15 hours of work just freed me up to start taking baby steps. So true that slow and steady wins the race, huh?
That's about as far as I got with flylady though, I just couldn't stand the emails asking me if I was wearing shoes and telling me to go shine my sink day in and day out. ;)
Hey Chris, looking forward to tomorrow. I need to bake something now, I forgot it was a brunch! Until recently I was doing laundry just like you, but when I did my TOTT laundry post a few mom's of many emailed me and told me that they do laundry by room to facilitate the putting away.
I decided to try it and I just love it. The hamper only has to go to ONE room each day, instead of getting carted around to put laundry away in 3 or 4 different rooms every day. They also recommended teaching the kids to do their own laundry on "their" day, and I guess I will get to that but I am happy with the "other" things my kids are doing and will happily keep the laundry in my domain for now.
Yay about the kitchen plans!!!! I keep dreaming about my kitchen, but I think it is still quite far down the list....
thanks for the pirate pics, those did make me grin from ear to ear.
Joy, I think our house is about 900 square feet on the main not including the sun porch/mud room, and 800 upstairs? Not positive about that, but pretty close anyway. We have a full basement for storage and only for storage, maybe at SOME point we could actually do something down there, but by then the kids will probably be gone and there will be no need :D
I'm happy with the size of our house. We have 4 bedrooms upstairs and one on the main floor that is our schoolroom. It's not that I feel I need more ROOM, just more SHELVES. :D
I really DO love the concept of everyone helping on the rooms. What a great idea!!!
Hi Joy! We've got 640 on the main floor... 108ft of that was reclaimed just this year from uninsulated run-down porch into our kitchen (still in reno-process). On the 1/2 story upstairs I think it's 370ft. Total is 1010 or so... very respectable. Last year we moved from 2670, so this feels much different! :) We're very happy though, and appreciate the extra family time together due to the less time that dh spends working towards payments! PTL! You're welcome to my blog, send an email to prairietide@gmail.com . And closets? They are in process as well... so excited to have places for things soon.
N & others... it's true.It does make a real difference to have everyone working at the same time. Going to one room at a time makes sense when you're gathering and putting away laundry too...
Wow so both you and Chris are remodeling homes. I have been there it let me say I liked it but not loved it and we are still in the process. I bet both of your houses are just beautiful! Prairie Chick: I would LOVE to have a school room(right now its the kitchen table). I had a play room growing up and I wanted one for my children but we just didn't need to spend the extra money so we built comfortable size bedrooms. I just LOVE your library room too...(trying not to covet here!LOL)
I am starting the everyone working at the same time today! And a laundry schedule too.GREAT ideas.
you are such a blessing!
thanks!
Joy
Well Joy, CHRIS and her handy man hubby are remodelling their home, and making GREAT strides I must say. Prairie Guy and I are making LISTS and PLANS for what will probably end up being 20 years of remodelling :D.
I am GOOD with that. I don't like to have our home life consmumed by a desire for better, the house is dry, warm, everything works.... and I am enjoying each little improvement one slow step at a time. Prairie Guy on the other hand would just love to see it all DONE so he could kick back and not have lists running through his head day in and day out.... not quite sure how to make him RELAX about that. He's getting better, I must say.
As for beautiful, well, I SEE this house through the lens of the visions I have for it, which makes it beautiful to me despite ancient cracked plaster walls, tacky 60's kitchen cabinets and very "not me" lino patterns.... truly though, I can say with Dorothy "there's no place like home."
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