Once upon a time I could sleep until noon. I could happily step over a mountain of clothes on my way to the kitchen where I would invariable scarf down a piece of last night's pizza whilst simultaneously shaking off rogue pieces of glitter.
And then I had kids and I had to start taking care of shit.
I'm sure plenty of people exist out there that can have children and still not feel the impending doom of organizational needs. I am not one of those people. No one tells you that as soon as those little buggers come out, you will feel the need to organize and purge ALL THE THINGS.
During my last pregnancy (with Finn) I read an article that said your possession count will rise approximately 30% with each additional child. Normally, I would just skim over a statistic like that, but for some reason, that one just sent me into a rabid shame spiral that could only be described as Joan Crawford-esque. Our little family of (now) four manages to share a two bedroom, 1000 square foot space. And believe me, I am a craft supply hoarder so I had every nook and cranny filled to max capacity with frames, yarn, fabric, and washi tape. But after reading that article, I decided to purge the whole house. It's amazing what you hold on to when you feel like space isn't an issue. It's kind of silly when you get right down to it. I mean, I'm 30, do I really need Hello Kitty underwear? Does my 35 year old husband actually need all of the plastic beer pitchers that he accumulated while in the Marines (15 years ago)? Is my 6 year old ever going to miss a three foot Elmo? No. No. And more no.
So I set out to organize my house. Subsequently, this effort was cut short due to impending labor and delivery, and further delayed by the general overwhelming stress of getting used to a newborn again. So, I've only just finished the bulk of the project that I started almost 5 months ago. I'm not sorry for the delay--- you have to enjoy those sweet newborn snuggles while you can...and, man, it never lasts long enough.
Back to the point: organizing the house and getting down to the essentials was my main goal. I found it extremely overwhelming to look at and I couldn't figure out exactly where to start. So, I made a list of all the things I wanted to accomplish. From there, I realized to clean the mess was going to involve making an even bigger mess (shudder), but it would totally be worth it in the end. I prioritized our closets first, because clothes are a daily necessity and keeping up with the laundry has never been my strong suit. This is where I started:
How I Organized Our Closets/Laundry
Phase One
* Purge, Purge, Purge.
I knew that my laundry would only be manageable if I reduced the sheer bulk of it. Laundry day always seemed so daunting because there was just so much of it. Piles would accumulate in each bedroom and then more piles and I would inevitably get so frustrated that I would just pick a pile. And it was never the pile I needed. So that had to change.
I began in Jonah's room because it seemed like less of a mountain to climb. At least I had sorted his clothes into sections of seasons and things that he had outgrown. Then I made two garbage bags available. One was clothes to sell and the other was clothes to donate. I went through all of them and got rid of 60% of the clothes. Then I did it again. And again. I repeated the process until every item we kept was something that was in good condition (except for a small pile of play clothes), that he wore, and was something that would last the first school season. After an intense cleaning, we were able to fit all of Jonah's clothes into the storage built into his bed, which freed up his entire closet.
Second, I purged my clothes. It got easier by the item. I managed to only keep two items that were sentimental to me (my high school sweatshirt and a Mickey Mouse sweatshirt that my Nana bought me when I was in the 6th grade). At the end of three days, and multiple bags of sell/donate items, I ended up with three pairs of jeans, four pairs of pants, four skirts, four dresses, and about 15 tops. You have no idea how much more I have to wear now that I have less! It's amazing how that works, especially when you keep mostly basic pieces.
Now, you'd think that going through my own clothes would be the hard part, right? Because I'm a girl and all...but no. Having my husband purge his clothes was like walking through the third circle of hell. The man had managed to accumulate in excess of 60 tee shirts. SIXTY TEE SHIRTS. Not only was the sheer number of them enough to make me googly eyed, but his reluctance to part with them was a major setback. (You try explaining the mechanics of why it is no longer acceptable for a 35 year old dad of two to wear a Sex Pistols tee shirt in public! [I'm not kidding; it happened and he still has the shirt]). We finally whittled down the tee shirt pile and the 90's jeans, the Marines memorabilia, and the abundance of jerseys. I have to say, even though we managed to go through Josh's stash, he retained about 6x more than Jonah and I. It's a work in progress.
A major source of contention for us was the plethora of mismatched socks. My solution to this was simple: throw them away and buy new ones. Socks are kind of expensive, but it was so worth it. You would be amazed how much easier it is to sort and match socks when there are only three kinds! The new socks are like this: Josh has gray toed ankle socks with green lettering, Jonah has gray toed ankle socks with blue lettering, and mine are black ankle socks. Sorting is now a breeze. I also did the same thing for undies. No more cramming into the sock drawer! And seriously, who really needs more than 10 pairs of undies?
Phase Two
*Organize and Assign Homes
This may seem like a no-brainer, but every set of items needs a consistent home. Every time we cleaned out drawers (which wasn't very often prior to the purge), our clothes would fit in there nicely until the next time we went school shopping or hit up a good sale. Then it was mayhem and we were stuffing the drawers full again and bracing ourselves against them just to shut the drawers. With the purge underway, I gave every set of items a new place and made sure that the drawers still had enough room to close properly. I also made sure that I could see what all was in there by keeping the piles relatively shallow. If my drawers were too full, instead of relegating another drawer for use, I purged the items we liked/used the least. This has been a major contributing factor into my laundry being manageable. I mean, who wants to put away clothes when you have to stuff them into already full drawers?
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By folding tee shirts and then rolling them, you can see everything that's in the drawer, so you don't forget about anything. Plus, it gives you extra room. I can actually fit about 15 shirts in this drawer without being crowded (but let's not do that).
The closets weren't so much of an issue. Josh and I always keep our things on our respective sides of the closet. What I did to streamline this, because our current closet is pretty small in available space, is to incorporate three shallow Rubbermaid tubs for out of season clothes. They just sit in a stack at the back of the closet. That way the clothes that are hanging are the ones that we will actually be wearing. It just helps to simplify even more....and I'm all about simplifying these days.
Phase Three
*Label ALL THE THINGS
This point is where I started to get neurotic about it. I surmised that I had already put so many man hours and sweat into the organization of the laundry monster, I should develop a system so that it stays that way FOREVER. Ok, maybe not forever, but for the majority of the time anyway.
I had already divided everything into drawers and gone over the new arrangement with Jonah (6) and Josh (husband). I may or may not have threatened them if the drawers became askew. As for the closets, it seemed appropriate to go ahead and label the sections that I'd already divided. That way, the boys would have no excuses to get things out of order. I'm telling you, I was a lunatic about keeping the order. This was my solution (thank you, Pinterest!) for hanging dividers:
I greatly apologize for the poor lighting in my closet. The helpful little dividers were made by tracing a CD onto a cardboard cutout, covering with scrapbook paper, then labeling with letter stickers. I cut a slit in the side so that it would just slide onto my tension rod; I also 'laminated' them with packing tape to make them last longer.
Boot hack: if you can see, my boots are hung with pant hangers, which has been a tremendous help in getting the clutter off the floor. Thanks again, Pinterest!
If your husband has a plethora of ties (now, most of these are mine because I LOVE a good vintage tie) you may want to try a simple tie holder. I made this one out of a dowel rod that I cut to size and popped up there on two nails (each). It is on a panel inside my closet and I think it is incredibly functional. Josh had no idea that we had so many ties until I put it up there. Being able to see things is amazing!
Additional Concerns
Baby Finn and I spend our time divided between upstairs and downstairs. Inevitably we end up strewing things all over the place from numerous outfit changes (yay reflux!), toys, and bottles. My solution to this was to cram it all in a "Go" basket. It is a cute basket from a baby shower gift that I simply fill with our necessities and I can take it upstairs and downstairs easily when needed. Here's what I have in mine:
* 2-3 onesies/rompers
* extra bottle
* 2-3 cloth diapers
* extra diaper cover
* recieving blanket
* favorite toy
* diaper rash cream
* wipes
I also use it for a baby catch-all. Whenever he spits up on his outfit and we're downstairs, I just throw it in the basket, that way clothes don't pile up and I can just unload the dirty items from the basket the next time we venture upstairs. It also fits under his bassinet so it's out of the way in the living room. This may be the most functional move I've made.
Note the precious sleeping baby.
Laundry Hacks
DIY Detergent
This little life skill has reduced our detergent expenditure by about 75%.
My Recipe:
(1 box) Washing Soda
(1 box - large) Baking Soda
(3 bars) Fels Naptha (grate these with a cheese grater)
(1 container - large) Oxi-Clean or similar
(1 container) Purex Crystals
(1 box) Borax
All of the ingredients together (without coupons) will run you in the neighborhood of $30 but it will last about six months if you do laundry for 2-3 people, 2 times per week. I go through a batch about every three months now...but still it's roughly $10 per month! That's pretty good considering that I do two loads of cloth diapers each day.
Whitener/Brightener
This is the best quick fix I've ever used! My husband wears white tanks under his postal uniforms and white socks. So I make this brightener on Sundays and soak his week's worth of tanks/socks to preserve their brightness.
In a tub of hot water, mix 1/2 cup Hydrogen Peroxide with 1/4 cup Dawn Dishwashing Soap. Mix. Add 1 tbsp Baking Soda. Mix. Soak for 2-3 hours, then wash like normal.
Make Your Clothes Smell Delicious
I love the smell of my homemade laundry detergent, but it never comes out of the dryer smelling as strong. So, after several attempts to add scent in different ways, I came up with this AWESOME hack. Take an old sock, fill with about 1-2 tbsp Purex Crystals (NOT DOWNY UNSTOPPABLES! They will melt!), tie sock tightly in the middle, dampen the toe of the sock where the crystals are, then throw it in the dryer with your wet clothes. They will smell amazing when you take them out. You'll have to change out the crystals every 2-3 times you dry clothes, depending on your load capacity.
So, I think it goes without saying that my laundry experiences have improved drastically since we implemented the organization efforts. No longer does it make me ill to think of having to wash and dry clothes, or even to sort and fold them. I'm always scouring Pinterest for new laundry hacks to make it even more efficient. If you have any laundry and clothes organizations tips, feel free to share in the comments below!
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