Kid’s Room Organization–4 easy steps

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Children’s rooms may be the hardest rooms in the house to organize, because they have their own ideas :).  The best system to use is one you develop with their help and is simple for them to use.

 

I once saw an organized toy room with a bin for Lincoln logs.  Inside the bin, each type of log was separated into it’s own container.  It looked beautiful, but most children would rather eat cooked spinach than separate each log back out into the special containers when it’s time to put it away.  It’s enough just to have one bin for the logs.

 

1. When you are creating a system take stock of what you already have to work with: shelves, containers; baskets; etc.  What would make it easier?  Create a list and set a budget for the supplies you will need and try shopping Dollar Tree first.  I’m sometimes frustrated when I go down an aisle at Dollar Tree and find an item I already paid way too much for elsewhere sitting there gloating at me.

 

Do take colors and overall appearance into consideration when choosing your containers.  If it can’t all match due to budget constraints that’s perfectly ok.  You can start with using what you have and collect additional storage as the budget allows.  Using fabric or paper to wrap cardboard boxes is inexpensive and sometimes looks better than anything ready made.  Think, think, think about what materials are already available in your home that could be modified to suit your needs.

 

2.  Start by dividing all the items into categories.  We just pile things up on the floor :).  As you go, sort out the things that are broken or no longer played with.  I keep a laundry basket in the room to collect these items while we work and offer to “buy” them from the children on the spot of they will let them go. I give them garage sale prices and then donate usable items or save them for the next sale.  That way they get the money whether or not the item sells and get the instant reward of being able to let something go.

3.  Put your piles into bins and then label them.  My favorite labels right now are made from chalkboard contact paper on cereal boxes.  They can be stuck to boxes with double sided tape or hole punched and tied through a handle with a ribbon.  Make sure the bins end up where children can reach them easily. And are labeled in a way they can understand.  For non-readers try taking a photo of the contents before putting it in the pin, then slipping the photo into a name badge that can clip or tie to a basket handle.

 

4.  Maintaining:  With children, daily maintenance and positive reinforcement is a must.  Darren and I divide and conquer before bed.  We each visit a bedroom and inspect how they put their things away during the day.  A fabulous room gets a high 5, an atta-boy, and sometimes a Reeces Pieces or an Ande’s mint.   I like the children to “show me” what they’ve done so they can take ownership of it and feel the pride of a job well done.  If a room isn’t great, we work beside them to make it great.  If there was a treat, they can earn it the next evening if they keep up the good work.  These evening clean-ups are no more than 15 minutes for a tough job and usually just a few minutes.

 

Here’s the important part: If we want them to enjoy keeping a neat room, we have to take scolding and punishment out of the equation.   It’s all about the emotions of it!  Any room, no matter how bad, can be organized one item at a time, but if negative feelings are allowed into the process, we easily become overwhelmed.  It happens to Adults and Kids alike! Keep it happy, keep it fun.  Only punish a defiant or rebellious attitude.

If you are looking for more inspiration check out Houzz.com. It’s like pinterest, but only for decor. I found all the photos above there and they love it when we share their photos on blogs. Do a search for toy organization or kid’s rooms.  You can even search for colors if you are looking for inspiration in a particular pallet.

Bustled Table Cover

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My old buffet was the wrong style for my new dining room.  But with so many projects pulling at our budget, buying a new one didn’t even tempt me.  I found a few yards of white fabric in my stash (That I have been saving for 10 years! gasp.  And that my mother bought many, many years before that.)

I made a simple table cover for the buffet by hemming the fabric into a huge rectangle. (That way I can still use the fabric to sew a gorgeous blouse one day–like I have been meaning to do for 10 years, grin.) The only problem was that the corners pooled on the floor–a tripping hazard and not very attractive either.

Maybe it was the white fabric that inspired me, but I instantly thought of a wedding dress bustle and applied the principle here. Here’s what I did:

1.  Fold the corner in half and find the center of the length.

2.  Bring the center up until the corner end just graces the floor.

4.  Cue the dancing baby while you tack the bustle in place with a needle and thread. (Which is totally removable so you can still make a blouse.)

5.  Accessorize and admire :).

Here’s a side by side before and after shot:

I can’t decide which part of this makeover is the best.  That it only took 20 minutes or that it was free.  Okay, now that I say that out loud–the free part is the best :).

 

Christmas in My Living Room and the Sky

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Did I ever show you my when my furniture came in and then my new rug? How about my garage sale curtain brackets, finials from the scrapped Queen Anne Setee upholstery projecy, and bargain plain curtain rods from Lowes?  I finally put them all together and hung my Target curtains and love it!

Of course, I still haven’t painted, or done moldings, or found any art for the walls. But with a tree like that to look at, I can wait :).

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Last week we went to Christmas in the sky. It’s a fireworks display choreographed to Christmas carols on a local radio station. We parked nearby and turned up the car speakers. Lots of cousins were there and everyone danced and laughed. But not many children actually looked in the sky.

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Darren laughed that we could have just put a boom box in the yard and had some cousins over and had the same good time without the long drive. And he was right, but somehow stuff like that never seems to happen without scheduling it in like the city did.

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And I would have missed Dub pretending to create the colorful explosions with his arms and fists. That still makes me giggle. But very quietly in case my boy with the fragile ego might hear.

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OOh, did I tell you about my new love of the Dollar Tree? Oh please don’t tell me it’s all from China. La, la, la. I can’t hear you. Everything in this display was off the dollar tree shelves and I love it. Unfortunately Grant does too. He can’t keep his pudgy hands off it.

I also finished my dining room floor. The shiny poly totally makes the streaky finish okay with me. I will move in my
dining room table tonight. But will wait a bit before the big reveal.  I have a bunch of DIY to do still and it’s going to take some time.

So I’ll leave you now with one final shot of my tree. Ah. Isn’t she lovely?

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Envelope Pillow Cover Tutorial

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I’ve had fabric and pillow forms hanging around my house waiting for me to be fabulous with them.  I had dreams of invisible zippers and piping.  But at this stage in my life (you know–6 kids including 2 toddlers and 4 jobs besides taking care of my home and family) fabulous just isn’t in my repertoire. I modified my expectations and got the job done in a few hours.

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This is about as easy as you can get for home decor sewing.  If you don’t feel like sewing you can buy these covers on etsy for around $15. I don’t sell them personally, but have seen the same prints I picked out floating around there.  The pillow forms have no zippers or piping to slow you down, but are still removable and washable and look fantastic thanks to a simple overlap on the back.

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I don’t miss the piping at all–and part of me thinks that piping would have given these an uppity feeling that I wasn’t going for at all. These are so easy that you could sew special covers for every season and switch them out on a whim.

I ordered my fabric from fabric.com with a coupon.  I love that they have great customer service and free shipping on orders over $35.  (They are not a sponsor..I’m just a happy customer.) If you have a piece of fabric that you want to fussy cut so a special part of the motif is centered on your pillow, order twice as much fabric.  (If your motif is very large like the one below.  If it is a small motif you can order less than that–but too much fabric has never been a problem for me :).)

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Pillow Cubes is a great place to save money on pillow forms. I recommend feather pillows, because they fluff up well and never get permanently flatten.

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The other 5 of the pillow forms were repurposed from pillows I had lying around. A few I bought at a garage sale for $.50 and just throw them inside whatever cover strikes my fancy.  I will say that I knew the owner of the sale and trusted her cleanliness.  I don’t think I would buy second hand pillows from just anyone.

Here are the basic sizes to cut your pieces:  Please note that these measurements make a cover  1/2 inch smaller than the corresponding pillow form.  This gives a nice full appearance to the finished item that makes it look more luxurious.  I use 1/4 inch seam allowances since I do this on my serger.  If you don’t have a serger, then stitch with a straight stitch and then zigzag over the raw edges to keep everything from raveling.  These measurements give a 4″ overlap in the back which is enough to keep the overstuffed pillow from gapping but not so much that the pillow form is hard to insert.  All measurements are in inches.

Start by Cutting 3 rectangles.  Match the measurements to the size of your pillow form.

10″ pillow form:  1 piece 10.5 x 10.5; 2 pieces 10.5 x 7.5

12″ pillow form: 1 piece 12.5 x 12.5; 2 pieces 12.5 x 8.5

14″ pillow form:  1 piece 14.5 x 14.5; 2 pieces 14.5 x 9.5

16″ pillow form: 1 piece 16.5 x 16.5; 2 pieces 16.5 x 10.5

18″ pillow form: 1 piece 18.5 x 18.5; 2 pieces 18.5 x 11.5

20″ pillow form:  1 piece 20.5 x 20.5; 2 pieces 20.5 x 12.5

22″ pillow form: 1 piece 22.5 x 22.5; 2 pieces 22.5 x 13.5

24″ pillow form: 1 piece 24.5 x 24.5; 2 pieces 24.5 x 14.5

Step 1:  On each of the two shorter pieces hem one long edge by pressing under 1/4 of a inch twice and top stitching next to the edge.  Time saving tip:  If you haven’t learned to eyeball a 1/4 inch hem, try sewing a line through a single thickness of fabric 1/4″ from the edge and pressing on the thread line.  After you turn the second time the thread line will be on the inside and completely hidden.

Step 2: Place the larger square face up on a table.  Lay the two smaller pieces face down on top of it.  Lining up the raw edges around the outside and letting the hemmed edges overlap in the middle.  Stitch or serge all the way around the outside of the piece.  If you are serging this, using your regular machine to reinforce the stitching at the overlap, since this area will receive the most stress.  And use fray check on the corners to keep the stitches from unravelling.  If you do not have a serger, stitch with a straight stitch and then zigzag over the raw edges to prevent fraying.

Step 3:  Turn right side out, use a corner tool or chopstick to make crisp corners. Then stuff with your pillow form and fluff.

Linking UP: Skip To My Lou

Bummer–Streaky Floor

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It took me 12 hours to do the floor yesterday. 2 hours alone on just the perimeter. The first swath looks wonderful,just like I want it to. After that I was emtionally done. My back hurt, my knees hurt.  And it shows in the rest of the floor.

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Darren is being so awesome about it. He says, “It’s temorary.  It looks way better than it did before. The table will hide the worst of it.” I decided to believe him.

I will put the first coat of poly on this morning after I take kiddoes to school and then hopefully to the chiropractor. The poly should go much faster!

Let the Floor Begin!

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I’m laying the Faux Leather floor in my dining room today. It is scrubbed and ready to go.  You can see a tutorial for the floor here: Illustrated Guide to Faux Leather Floors

While I work, I’m praying for my young friend Lauren White. She is 13, has cancer and is in the hospital with pneumonia. Today some critical decisions will be made on her behalf. Will you pray too?

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This room is a LOT bigger than the two bathrooms I did two years ago. It has been 4 hours and I’m almost 1/3 of the way across. I’m starting to feel overwhelmed.

Darren comes in every hour or so to give me a pep talk.

In this next shot you can see the strip next to the wall starting to dry and show the veins. I love this part.

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I’m using water based stain this time in coffee. It is working well and has no odor. I love that. And if I get a bit on the baseboard it wipes right off with a baby wipe or cotton swab.

I have 30 minutes before I have to go pick up kids. So it’s back to work for me.

Not a Swimming Pool

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But I’m excited. Here’s a before shot:

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This is actually a picture of the twin closet in the adjoining room. But they were set up the same. I painted it ultra pure white, even the ceiling. It helps reflect the most amount off light in the windowless space, and shows the clothes in their true colors.

And After:

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I’d like to make cute labels for the baskets. But for now I’m just putting things away.  RugsUSA.com is hinting at a nice black friday rug sale and I’m thinking about getting one of these for the closet floor if they go cheap enough. Do you have a favorite?

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Or

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I also plan to look for an affordable large framed mirror for the end of the room. Old Time Pottery usually has somethig fantastic at a good price.

I snagged this one on second discount from Big Lots:

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It’s too girly for them though. I hung it in the Living room already even though I still need to paint. You can see a smidge of the new paint color peeking to the right of the mirror.

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It’s a light taupy gray and looks awesome with white trim. I used it in the bottom half of my dining room.

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She’s already to lay the paper floor over the ugly vinyl. I’m so glad I made a detailed tutorial on how to do this a few years ago on my blog. It’s been so long, I need a refresher. Caleb is holding his breath for me to finish it, so he can have his birthday party. He was 11 October 22nd and still hasn’t gotten his cake or presents yet!  Whatever I do for his party, it better be good. The saying goes, “Good things come to those who wait.

New Closet or Swimming Pool?

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Brandon cracks me up.  He’s so tiny and has a little voice, but he thinks grown up–with a dry sense of humor. Today I was painting his closet.  He wanted me to do other things–like get him a stick of gum :).

His room is a disaster and we are hoping a new closet system will help.  Right now the places to put things that he can actually reach are pretty limited.  So things end up in a pile on the floor.  I forget the exact measurements of his room (that he shares with Grant and Warren) but it’s huge.  The bigger the room, the bigger the mess!

The whole time I was painting, I was thinking of how lovely the new closet system is going to be.  And I said to Brandon, “just wait, you are going to be so excited when you see your new closet!”

He replied, “A new closet is going to make me excited?  I don’t think so.  Now if you were in there making a swimming pool, that would be something to get excited about.”   I was on a step ladder cutting in the ceiling, and didn’t say anything.  I was too busy concentrating on staying on the ladder while holding an open bucket of paint and shaking uncontrollably in silent laughter.   He’s too short to get a drink of water.  He still has all his baby teeth.  He wears footie pajamas.  But the boy has logic.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking since the weekend about frugality and making a home.  I’m  in my potential dream home right now, but it needs a LOT of work before I can even feel comfortable having a neighbor drop by for tea. It feels like everything takes money, or time–both things in limited supply.  There was a day when I would drag stuff down the street from the neighbor’s trash and clean it or redo it for the home. But my methods are changing a little this time.  I’m really thinking about what DIY projects will save me the most cash for the least amount of time spent and then saving up to buy the rest.  I still watch and wait for the sale and keep detailed lists of what I’m looking for. I’m no longer looking for “anything” but THE thing that will make the area perfect.

Their closet kit is an example. I spent a lot of time researching all the options. Priced building it out myself and then finally settled on this set from Amazon.  I waited for my swag-bucks to accumulate to cover about half of it and then took the plunge. It sat around for weeks since we did our own demolition of the old closet, mudding, sanding, and painting.  I think that’s the hardest part about frugality–it’s the waiting.  Trying to have patience for the great thing to come while we fit the labor in around our crazy busy lives.  But there’s also a peace that comes from paying cash for things as we go and not having any bills accumulate along the way.

 

A White Dress and a Promise

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“Is that Heather’s wedding dress?” Brandon wanted to know.

I started to laugh…but then stopped.  It sort of  is. It is the dress she will wear to become part of the bride of Christ. It’s her baptism dress.

I put off sewing for awhile. My sewing room has been such a mess since we moved, and I’ve had so many other responsibilities, that I just couldn’t get in the groove. It has been at least 6 months since I attempted anything (except a whale–and that ended a little tragically.)  I wondered if I would remember how?

I thought I would try to buy a dress, but tradition dictates the dress be pure white and fully immersable!  I’ve seen lots of first communion white dresses…but they weren’t meant for the water. And talk about pricey!  Plus white tends to turn clear when wet–so I’m going to need lots of layers.  It’s hard to buysomething like that.

I taught my first sewing class in the new house Monday night–so had to get my sewing studio in order.  I thought I had taken inspiration photos to show you how messy it really was….but I can’t find them.  Convenient..I know. Imagine a room from the TV show hoarders without animals or rotten food.  That will get you close.  I shoved all the stuff to one side of the room so Mark could work.  Here’s before:

After Mark came and built out shelves for the triangular room.

Since then, I’ve been working for a week on folding my fabric onto comic book boards (The economical way to make mini-fabric bolts.  I spent $20 on 2oo boards, saving $400 over buying these.) I have a LOT of fabric.  Caleb’s closet is still full of boxes of fabric waiting to be rolled.  I’m getting rid of a lot as I go.

 

I love being able to see all my choices without digging through boxes.  I’m hoping they are far enough away from direct sunlight, not to be faded.

Anyway, a clean room with space to work is very motivating.  I made 3 ballet costumes the next day.

And yesterday I cut out Heather’s dress.  Heather was on the farm visiting her grandparents so couldn’t be fitted. I had to guess. (When she arrived, I had to take 4″ out of the width of the dress!)  I chose a piece of fabric and a pattern from my stash.  The fabric was a remnant of white on white embroidered gauze with woven stripes that I fell in love with years ago, but never found the right purpose for.  It was going to have to be very special.  There’s nothing more special than a baptism!

In our church, we believe baptism is a public declaration of our covenant to follow Christ for the rest of our lives.  The children have to make the decision themselves, but can’t decide until they are at least 8 years old. This gives them time to mature enough to be able to understand how imp0rtant this decision is.  When Heather turned 8, she wasn’t ready yet.  I tried to tell myself it was okay.  That I was glad she was making the decision on her own and not falling to peer pressure.  But mostly I worried.  I worried about the questions she asked…the deep thinking she showed that she was struggling with faith.  And I prayed…a lot.

You wouldn’t believe the deep discussions we had late at night after the rest of the children were asleep.  We would talk about how I knew God was real.  I would tell her my testimonies, about how God sent an angel to comfort me in my deep grief and I actually felt his arms around me, but saw no one.  About how God healed Caleb’s smashed fingers instantly while Heidi prayed and Grandma and I watched.  How I saw Christ in a vision on the cross and He told me that his sacrifice was for ME.  And how his face looked like love.  And that even though I was worthy of his contempt and condemnation only love was in his eyes.

We talked about that if the big bang theory was true—-where did the first life come from?  How we have all the chemicals in the lab that are in living things, but that without life–life cannot come.  Life must come from life.  So where did that first life come from?

And we talked about how fulfilling a Christian life is.  I mean if I live my whole life by Christ’s teachings, I will have a pretty happy life.  Loving, forgiving, serving, holding no malice.  And if I die and I’m wrong, I still had a fanstastic life.  But if a non-believer lives his whole life in sin, he will feel the misery of it his whole life.  And if he dies and is wrong, will continue in his misery.  And after all that, she still wasn’t sure.  She wasn’t ready.

So I stopped talking to her about it.  And just prayed in silence.  Prayed that God would reveal himself to my daughter in a way that would affect her life forever.  Prayed that she would have her own tesimonies and not have to rely on my witness alone. I prayed that fear or anxiety of the water, of germs, of other people watching wouldn’t get in the way of her desire to follow Christ.  I don’t know what happened between Heather and God, but one day a few weeks ago, she said to Daddy, “I’m ready now.”  He smiled; I cried.

So that is why I am making a white dress.  The best reason in the world.  Now I’m off to buy a zipper and then we’ll take pictures of the finished dress.

The Best News!

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The following is not the best news…..that comes at the end, lol. Grant has the chicken pox…I think.  Fever for 2 days, spots starting in the diaper area, spreading all over….  He was pretty miserable before the spots broke out yesterday evening.  But feels a lot better now. This is perfect timing for us.  I hope this doesn’t sound mean, but it would be nice if Brandon and W.D. come down with it soon.  Then the whole family would have life time immunity.

Eating Mulberries from our trees

My Green Beans and Okra are up.

The sweet bell peppers have blossomed–the chili peppers have not.  Maybe they won’t cross-pollinate?

Our house in Kansas City is listed for sale!  4 bedroom 2 full 2 half baths.  All new inside…..you’d love it.  And it’s priced to sell.

And the best news of all:

Mark is coming to build out my office shelves tomorrow.  We’ve been busy all weekend priming and painting the cut boards.

I ordered 200 of these last night to organize all my fabric with. It saved me more than $380 to do it this way than to buy the boards manufactured for organizing fabric. I found the idea from pinterest which took me to Smashed Peas and Carrots.  Check out the inspiring photo below.  Click on the blog title to find out more.