Showing posts with label home decor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label home decor. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Organizing the kids room in less than 30 minutes

A Guest Post by Sophia Evans while I cuddle the little patient.

Organize the kids' room in less than 30 minutes

Organizing your children’s room quickly and efficiently is something we all desire. Kids are kids, they make a mess, it is inevitable. They do not have that sense of keeping their environment clean and organized, and sometimes it seems as if they enjoy the chaos, the clutter and the “hundred” of toys splattered all over the room. There is a quick and effective way that you can declutter your children’s room in less than 30 minutes and make it well organized to your liking. A chore that usually takes around an hour or so can be done in half the time if you follow a simple cleaning procedure that isn’t just efficient, but also time-saving and quite satisfying.

You should start off by making the bed. It can serve as an excellent work place to put stuff on and sort them through.

Continue by gathering all the clothes splattered across the room. Stained, dirty or clean just gather them and put them all in the washing machine. Being the number one culprit of clutter, unorganized clothes can give you the feeling of chaotic and cluttered atmosphere. Sort through all the clothes and organize them well in the closets or drawers. It shouldn’t take you a whole lot of time to take them all at once and stuff them into the washing machine.

Consider organizing all of the clothes in a pattern. Arrange a distinct and separate place for every type of clothing. T-shirts with t-shirt, trousers with trousers and so on. It is a good way to organize a closet or a drawer. It is also easier for your child to find whatever piece of clothing he needs, without taking most of them out and making an unnecessary mess.

Try to pick up all the stuff laying on the floor, most of which are probably toys and other unnecessary junk items. Take two boxes and fill them up. One of them fill with toys that are still in one piece, the other with broken ones and other spoiled and wrecked good that should go straight to the trash can.

Always keep a few boxes at hand for situations like this. It is definitely the fastest way of picking up toys and storing them together so that they do not turn into obstacles while trying to organize your kid’s room.

It might be helpful to install additional shelfs, boxes, or other storage places. You can either make them yourself by using items, you have found around the house, or buy them from the store. Additional storage place will definitely increase the organizing process and make it easier for you to declutter, sort out and rearrange.

Once you have decluttered most of the room and you have made space to walk freely without toys and other items getting in the way, you should consider a quick sweep and a vacuuming of the area. Very often while cleaning and dusting off, we tend to move items and place them where they are supposed to be. It is a very effective way to kill two birds with one stone.

A quick organizing scheme (30 minutes) can be as effective and efficient as a whole hour of work or even more. Knowing what to do, following a plan, simple consistency in your actions can result in faster results, but just as effective. Nowhere does it say that you should spend hours organizing, a plan coupled with a little preparation can save you lots of time, once you pick up the pace and get used to the new organizing scheme, you should be alright.


Friday, March 10, 2017

Quick Takes #227: Turning 9 and other milestones



  1. March is keeping us guessing weather wise with snow today after much of the week in the 50's and 60's!!
  2. Elisabeth happily turned 9 and declared that she thinks that her last year in single digits will be a great one!  We celebrate her birthday weekend with cupcakes, the making of a Pikachu cake and a couple dinners.  She also celebrated with friends by going to Build a Bear and then having ice cream from Friendly's.
  3. She is very creative; Legos and modeling clay are favorites and she will spend hours creating and building new and different things.  
  4.  More adventurous with food and while she definitely has favorites now eats a wide variety of things. She still prefers vegetables raw but otherwise no longer require a lot of accommodating in meal planning. Some favorites include cheese, crackers, kielbasa, bacon and fish sticks.
  5. She is  still working her way through all the Magic Treehouse books but is also starting to branch out and try different genres and different authors.  Her favorite subject is Math, though Science is a really close second.  Future career goals still include studying dinosaurs but perhaps working as an illustrator is coming up more and more. 
  6. The other big excitement of the weekend was preparing for the building of the loft bed; hopefully this weekend.  In addition to painting and sanding many boards we also got Elisabeth's new mattress ready.
  7. With Lisbeth getting a new bed we were finally able to pass her youth bed onto Caitlin who much to my surprise has only occasionally complained about still being in a crib and had never tried to get out on her own (her big sister began self-exit attempts at 18 months).  Her first week in her 'big girl' bed has gone very well with only getting a couple of times and always for legit bathroom visits.
Have a  wonderful weekend and please head over to Kelly's for more 7QT's




Wednesday, October 29, 2014

New Home: Caitlin's Room

Next on the mini house tour is Caitlin's Room.

   Since I couldn't consult with her color wise I went with my preference and the color we had painted Lisbeth's 'big girl' room at the old house; Behr's Misty Violet ~ and I haven't heard any complaints.


 Sorry both 'before' shoots are actually mid-painting but hopefully you get a sense of the taupe we were again trying to cover.


The crib we have had since Lisbeth, and the bookcase was my youngest sister's originally but has been mine since my first apartment.

A dresser given to us from family members and a print that has been since hung (promise).

The nightstand and glider have been ours for awhile; the rocking horse I found at a local thrift store that specializes in kid's clothes and toys for Caitlin's first birthday.

The littlest of the bedrooms but hopefully a cozy, fun room for our littlest!
 

Prior Post:
Liam's room

Monday, September 29, 2014

New House: Liam's Room


   Will be sharing over the next month or so some of the fun we had this summer getting the house ready to move in.  All of the bedrooms were painted a dark taupe with a brown carpeting so it was always our plan to repaint the kid's rooms.

   First up Liam's: When asked what color he wanted his room he said "Geen" and with the help of Behr Color Smart and bringing home some paint chips we were able to narrow it down to three which we then bought samples and tried out on the wall.


the before shot...

my assistant posing with our trial patches.
  We settled  on Key Lime and got to painting; given that we were going over a dark color I opted for the fancy Paint&Primer and am very glad I did as it is a good size room and already the two coats it took was quite plenty (especially since I still had two more rooms to paint before moving).

   
We then headed to Tar.get for new sheets. Liam choice was Dinosaur sheets.


We are largely reusing furniture we had except for a Peel&Stick chalkboard and firetruck storage bench both new for his Dinosaur/Fireman room!!

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Theme Thursday: Rooms

Joining again with Cari of Clan Donaldson for Theme Thursday.

We have through the quirk of a roof leak and pressures of necessity updated both our bathrooms in the last year. Fun, nerve wracking but fun!


Downstairs, stayed with a lighthouse wallpaper cause we are stubborn like that.

Most recently, upstairs

And from the archives, Elisabeth at 3 helping to paint before getting transitioned her Big Girl room.

Now please head over to Clan Donaldson for more Theme Thursday, Rooms

Monday, June 17, 2013

New bathroom: The reveal

Old 50's bathroom transformed
 with a new vanity and cabinet above (not pictured, a light above the cabinet),

 a new tub surround done in a cottage-y wainscoating pattern,

 enclosed behind the toilet since dust loved to collect there, things stored on the toilet top loved to fall back there but was never useful storage space.  Still deciding how best to use the shelve space and what sort of doors to put there.  Ideas welcome.


New floor and threshhold; chosen on the spur of the moment and I love it almost as much as the surround we researched and talked about for months.

Now a matter of moving ourselves and our stuff back in and enjoying!!!

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Forty Days ~ Forty Bags: Wrap-up


 
        I'm calling this 40 bags lite; as I've included weekly trash and recycling but I'm also calling it a success as by Tridium 37 bags + a TV and some electronics had found their way out of my home to the trash, recycling center or donation places.  I'm also so motivated to keep purging and see how quickly I can get the count to 40 without including trash.

Here is the weekly breakdown:


Week .5: 1 bag trash, 3 bags recycling (4)
Week 1: 2 bag clothing donated, 2 recycling, 1 bag trash (9)
Week 2: 4 bags recycling, 1 bag trash (14)
Week 3: 4 bags recycling, 4 bags clothes & household items donated, 2 bags trash (24)
Week 4: 2 bags recycling, 2 trash ~ and a TV,  3 computers and electronics to special recycling (28+)
Week 5: 3 bags recycling, 1 bag trash (32+)
Week 6: 2 bags recyling, 2 bags clothes donated, 1 bag trash (37+)



 
Overall it was a great experience and a challenge I'm so glad I decided to meet.

Friday, January 27, 2012

Quick Takes #99


  1. Liam's  walking!! Not all the time but more and more, and so proud of himself!!!
  2. And in the 'when it rains, it pour category' just as we are adjusting to my new work schedule we are simultaneous repairing some water damage from a roof leak, which has three rooms in total disarray (well four if you count the dining room which where a ton of stuff got moved)!
  3. Will try and get a picture post together soon, but so far I'm liking the changes we've made.  An accent wall in our office, and we had to choose a new border for the family room due to the old one being discontinued.
  4. We are currently paused as we wait for some stuff for the bathroom to come in, and I'm enjoying not having workmen (nice as they have been) in my house everyday.
  5. 2-3 inches of snow is wonderful, enough to allow for making snowballs and snow angels yet not too troublesome from the whole shoveling, digging out perspective.
  6. The positive power of bloggers/commenters to keep the record straight!!
  7. When everyone is a little tired and out-of-sorts cause Daddy has been working and away a lot, watching Little Bear can be a lovely way to start an otherwise grey and rainy day.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Please head over to Conversion Diary and enjoy the rest of this week's Quick Takes!

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Wondering Wednesday: A border question

As I wrote about here, we are having to choose a new border for our family room because of water damage from a roof leak; and have it narrowed down to these two:


wallpaper border #1: Closest to what we have now but smaller (7in versus 9 in) 

Wallpaper border: The right size and nautical but lacking the old New England town feel we have now


What do you think?  BTW the room is painted a sort of beige/taupe.