Having a smaller house is certainly easier to clean! I love that it only takes me 10 minutes compared to the old 45 minutes to vacuum the downstairs. Less stuff equals less mess, who would have thought?

I have noticed one little problem though, the kids rooms are so small that when they make a normal mess it seems so much worse! In the old house you could still see the floor have room to play and honestly, just forget about it until the next day if you really had too. Not anymore! There is no room for a mess and still get around.

To fix this problem,  I got out my trusty timer and put the kids up to a challenge. I gave them 5 minutes. They had to pick up toys and put them back in their designated “home.” Whoever worked diligently the whole time and picked up as much as they could, would get a small treat at the end. Five minutes is just about long enough to get the whole room picked up if they do it without dragging feet. That is where the treat comes in. Nothing wrong with a little bribery, I mean motivation!

This works for us big kids too. Using a timer will help you stay on task for a specified amount of time. Take 5, 10 or 15 minutes and do a sweep through the house putting away out of place items. Pick a time each day to do this and you will be one step closer to taming the clutter monster.

School is back in session for us, so we have been spending some time getting things in order for the new school year. I have one child entering 5th grade, one in st and the other in preschool. I can’t believe how big these kids are getting!
Here is what we do to organize our school shopping experience:

Consolidate Your Lists
With three kids I was done shuffling multiple lists around so we consolidated everything we needed into one big list. Having a master list saved on time dramatically which is a necessity when shopping with the kids in tow!

Shop For Sales
The school supply circulars are starting to come out in the newspapers, so be on the lookout for the best deals.

Sort It All Out
Now sort all the supplies out for each child. To make sorting easier and to coral all of the school supplies I used a separate bin for each child. As we checked the supplies off of the lists we then put them in the designated bin. Now we can tuck them away until school starts and easily add the few extra things we need to pick up.

Label It
Now that you have all of your school supplies neat and orderly, don’t forget the labels! Every school has different rules for what should be labeled. Make sure you label backpacks, lunchboxes, clothing and outerwear too! After you make the investment on all of your back to school gear you don’t want it to end up lost forever!

A few weeks ago I shared four simple tips for school supply shopping. Melanie commented with another important tip to add to that list… Take Inventory! And, I totally agree! Once you’ve had kids in school for a few years you have surely stocked up on some extra supplies around the house. I know my daughter brought home barely used crayons last year and we have several pairs of small scissors!

Before we go on a grocery shopping trip, what do we do? Take inventory of the pantry! We make a list and check it twice! If we do a really good job we get out of the store buying only what we really need.

The same can apply for clothes shopping. Take inventory of your closet and decide what key pieces you could use to complete your wardrobe and keep that list with you. That way when you are out shopping you can avoid shopping on an impulse. Don’t go shopping for school clothes without working through those closets first!

Take Inventory, Be Prepared, Save Money!

Summer is almost over and we have been getting the kids enrolled in their new schools. I am looking forward to spending the next school year in our new house!

With the recent move it happened to work out that my daughter will go to preschool in a different county than her older brothers. Normally this wouldn’t be a big deal however these two particular counties have different schedules. It is a little bit more to keep up with but completely manageable.

In order to prepare for the school year I always sit down with my planner and write in all of the days the kids will have off or early dismissals for each month. That way nothing sneaks up and surprises me. You can do this with any schedule you receive like sports or other activities. If you are afraid things will change and don’t want to make a mess then just pencil the times in and make changes when needed.

Besides labeling school supplies (my favorite!) this is one way we start preparing for a successful school year! Feel free to share some of your favorite back to school tips!

It has been a week since we closed on our new house and we are already 3/4 of the way unpacked and put away. Downsizing has been a great experience but I have to say I am missing our old walk in closets in every room. Yes, EVERY room! We had tons of extra storage available and now we have barely reach in closets in all of the rooms but the master bedroom.

This new smaller house is not only making us get more creative with storage but we are really trying to simplify everything including cleaning. Since everything is more compact I am trying to lessen the amount of products we use and the routine in which we use them.

While I was contemplating my next post here I was putting something away in the bathroom and noticed how grimy the bars of soap were already getting in the showers. I think we will all switch to a body wash instead of bar soap and use shampoo/soap dispensers which take little to no maintenance besides filling them up. Then no soap grime to clean up. One product cuts out two problems, storage and grime!

It’s simple really, whether you are wanting to streamline your cleaning or storage take a walk around your home and see what you can do to make things easier. Chances are you can come up with a few ideas to try out and see what works best for you. Don’t be afraid to try something new!