Organization: Children's Clothes

We have visited this topic in my blog before. Click here to read the previous entry. I'd like to expand on this topic a bit. When organizing your children's clothes, do you organize by pants and shirts or do you organize by outfits? Since my children are younger, I usually try to organize by outfits. However, I inevitably end up with a stack of T-shirts and then some jeans leftover. I put those in a separate drawer.

It is a matter of preference. Just wondering how other parents handle their children's clothes?

Also another idea in regards to clothes....as I noticed this week, my children seem to have a lot of clothes! I'm still keeping up with the weekly laundry for the kids' laundry. See my previous post. Meaning I still have one day of the week that I do all of the kids's laundry. I've been doing this since I posted about it and it's been working out really well. Anyway, it seems no matter how much I simplify the children's clothes, it seems the clothes continue to multiply. I was thinking about this earlier this week and decided, at my Mom's suggestion, that I would take an outfit out for each of them and just leave it in a canvas bag in the bag of my van. A "just in case" bag of clothes. Inevitably just as their clothes seem to multiply all on their own, there also seems to be a tendency at times to be in need of an extra pair of clothes! Usually it's a visit to the beach, where we don't plan to go in the water (read: we are not in bathing suits) and the kids end up in the water and soaked! An extra outfit in the van would come in handy at these times. Last week, it was during our visit to the zoo. My son went down the slide at the picnic area and there was a puddle at the bottom! We could have used an extra outfit then too.

Plan ahead, if you can relate to my experiences, just pack an extra outfit for each child in a bag and leave it in the back of the van or car. It won't take up much space.

Monthly Meals for December

In following Flylady's suggestion, I have a menu planning day and a food shopping day (not to mention a "clean out the refrigerator" day. I clean out my refrigerator the night before our town's trash pick up. I do the menu planning the day before food shopping.

Now in following Dave Ramsey's advice, I have a monthly budget for food as well. I go food shopping on Mondays with my menu, my food shopping list and my cash! It has worked out really well for me. I love the idea of monthly meal planning and just stumbled on this site. It's Disney's Family Fun site. They offer a month of meals for December! If you click on the item, say fajitas, it will even give you the recipe!

Hope it simplifies you meal planning for you!

Paper Plates

Aaah, one of my favorite simple tips: using paper plates! I am home all day, often making 3 meals and cleaning up after 3 plus meals and snacks per day. Every once in a while, I give myself a rare treat - I buy a stack of paper plates! Not because we are having a gathering. I use them for lunches! It’s one less meal I have to clean up after eating! Just throw the paper plates away, rinse the utensils and place them in the dishwasher. Sounds simple right? That’s what I am in search of! Simple ways to make my life a little easier!

Shopping with the Kids

Simplifying my life has for the most part saved me money. That was an added bonus....or maybe the two work together hand in hand. When I first started simplifying, my children were young and we were on one income. I decided to stay home and raise my children. I evolved to become a Work at Home Mom and a Home Manager!

When my children were really young, we did not go out a lot. I hear other Moms talk about taking the kids out shopping. Shopping really never "worked" for us, at least not on a regular basis. Every once in a while I would meet my Mom halfway with my baby or later with my kids. We'd have lunch and have an errand to run at a store afterwards. That's about it.

So staying out of the stores or malls has saved us money. If I'm not there, the kids can't ask for it and I can't spend any money. Tip I heard long ago, if you are trying to save money, stay out of the stores!

At this point in time, we go shopping once a week. We food shop and pick up any other things we may need at that same store. Is this saving me money? It is for me. It's saving me money and time; it's definitely simplifying things for me. I rarely comparison shop though now. So I may be losing money there. I think in the long run you have to look at what is best for you. Simplifying and saving time are priorities for me

Minimize Paper

Paper, paper, paper! It's always there and it ends up coming into the house. It's bought or mailed and I end up with endless paper! One of the things I've done to simplify is I've gone as paperless as I'm comfortable. I no longer subscribe to the newspaper, I view it online. I've also opted to receive as many bills as I can online. Automatic payments for certain bills is also an option. I've also opted out of many company offers. So the amount of paper marketing I am receiving in the mail is much less. I'm conscious about the amount of paper I am bringing in to my home now. You will really notice a difference when you do this.....there will be a lot less mail! =)

Flylady

When I decided to simplify, I searched for resources....online and in the library. I didn't come up with very many. Wasn't anyone else looking to simplify? I finally found Flylady. You can visit her at http://www.flylady.net/. She is amazing! Her website is absolutely free. If you check on her site at this time of year, she has a section on Back-to-school and getting organized for students and teachers. I love that she includes almost everyone in her teachings. It's not just for teachers but also students.

Two big principles I took away from her website are "blessing others" and use of the timer. By "blessing others" I really took a look at what was in my house and what I actually needed and used. The other things, I got rid of and "blessed" someone else with them. It was very liberating! I also took things out of drawers or closets and USED them. If I couldn't find a use for it, it blessed someone else. No more saving things for special occasions.

The second principle is the use of the timer. What a great concept! In our multi-tasking nation, we are not use to focusing on one activity but doing three things at once. I love the timer! I realized it help me de-mulit-task (is that a word?) and focus on one thing at a time! It also helped me realize how much time it actually takes to do something - a task or a chore. So say I set the timer for 15 minutes and my daughter and I clean up her room. It's amazing to both of us when we finished in 7 minutes. Wow, that's all it took! It's such a simple concept and that's why I like it!

I don't want life to pass by me while I am multi-tasking. I want to take time to focus on one thing and enjoy it. I am finding it takes less time that way and I am happier!