Other moms: How do you stay organized...?

Question

in a house that is only about 900 square feet, has one bathroom, 2 bedrooms and you have 2 kids. Please don't say get a bigger house. We are going to add on, but right now we can not financially afford it. There just doesn't seem to be enough room for everything to be neat and in its place. Are there organiational shelfs or tubs that are useful and don't take up much space?

Answer 1

Even with kids, you can always elimintate "stuff".

Try cutting down the number of toys each child has by half and giving the other half to charity. Depending on how old they are, the kids can even help with this so that they buy into it.

Now, cut out some clothes. Unless you're planning on having any more children, get rid of ALL the clothes they've already outgrown. You might even make some money doing this. Get rid of some of your and your hubbies clothes too.

Then, take a look around and see what else you can eliminate. Do you have a lot of kitchen "stuff" that you never use? What about electronic "stuff"? Items that are only collecting dust?

My rule of thumb is this: Unless it's something seasonal (like Christmas decorations), if I haven't used it in 2 months, I will likely never use it again, so I can get rid of it. Also, whenever I buy something new (anything - clothes, toys, etc.) I always dispose of something similar that is old. So, I buy myself a new blouse and I get rid of an old blouse. I buy my daughter a new toy and I dispose of an old toy. And so on.

Then, you'll find it a LOT easier to keep the house clean and organized and you'll be able to spend more time with your kids.

Answer 2

Oh God, I know what you are going through. It is impossible to keep a small house clean because at least a big house may be a little messy but it atleast has more closet space where if someone was coming over you can just throw things in the storage closets and the house appears clean.
Our house is a little smaller than yours and we literally have 2 teeny weeny closets!
Well our linen closet is our son's 3 drawer in his dresser and our pantry is basically one of the cabinets.
My husband added two medicine cabinets to the abthroom from lowe's (about $100 each) and that helped. Other things we did was get a lot of corner shelving for the bedrooms that would hold decor or books or clocks so as to free up the floor space. We also got a lot of totes and kept rotating our seasonal clothes quickly and labelling the totes clearly and putting them in the attic.

We are starting an addition, adding a level next week, so I can't wait. I'll be so happy, I won't even believe it when it is done.

Answer 3

bunkbeds leave more floor space. under-bed storage bins work great. You know those over-the-door shoe racks that have pockets? they are great for toys. If you can sew, make a hammock to hang on the wall and put stuffen animals in it that the kids dont play with. I have also sewn those pocket-style shoeracks myself but with bigger pockets for toys and hung those on the wall (use a dowel or even an old broomstick in the top & bottom to keep their shape well).
The key is too keep it all off of the floor!

Answer 4

well you could get those storage binand put up some toys for a while, and keep swiching them out, dont leave them all out at once, and also, go through and do a spring cleaning and trash anything you hevent used in a year, Dont be a pack rat like my husband, I have o throw things away when hes not home and tie up the trash and throw it outside to b picked up, !

Hope this helps!

Answer 5

My house was smaller and there were 4 of us in it. I have found that the smaller the house, the more work it is to keep it up.

Best advice to you is to throw stuff away that you haven't used in a year. Keep your mail from piling up by going through it everyday and getting rid of the junk (I was bad at that!).

Overall, just keep the tables and corners free from junk. In a small house, just one tiny pile of crap makes the entire house look unorganized. In a small house, keeping it clutter free seems to open the rooms up and makes them appear larger.

Good luck!

Answer 6

Under the bed storage bags or tubs are great for storing lots of things.

Answer 7

A few tips I have learned is:

Get extra laundry baskets for the laundry room and have everyone sort their laundry themselves(ex. one for whites, one for dark colors, one for light colors and one for towels), which saves time for you to do other things.

Throw away junk mail, flyers, grocery adds(unless you shop with them) and credit card offers as soon as they come in, it cuts down on a ton of clutter.

Pay your bills and file them away ASAP after they come in, again, cuts down on clutter.

Buy one of those little plastic folders at walmart that have sections in them for you to file away bills, photographs, whatever.

They have these shelves with bins in them at walmart that would be great for your kids room, so they can sort their toys and put them away, but they'll still be in plain view to be played with.

If your bathroom is cluttered get a little set of wire shelves(again, walmart) that roll, so they can be moved around and put everything in them, soap, shampoo, etc...

Try http://www.flylady.com and if you're not xtian(i'm not either) just ignore the godly references.

Also those tubs that fit under the bed are good for storing winter clothes, and extra blanktes/sheets/pillows

Answer 8

I found it easier to accept that I'll just never be organized. A bigger house isn't necessarily the answer - it just means more stuff.

Answer 9

Yes, there are tons. Don't be a packrat, give stuff away to Goodwill or Salvation, and make sure to have a system as to where things go.

Answer 10

first of all declutter. Anything you don't use give away to charity. Second IKEA a great place for storage ideas.