Our family is in the middle of packing up our house in order to downsize! It is an exciting process but packing can be a chore. It’s best to get started early and be ahead of the game on moving day. This will be my 21st move in 33 years! I have picked up a few tips along the way that I would like to share with you.

1. Start early. We knew we had 30 days to pack it all up and we had a one week vacation in the middle. The day we signed papers I started packing up smaller items like books and decorations.

2. Get a variety of box sizes. We happened to have a friend that moved and they passed on their boxes. Diaper boxes are my favorite size for books!

3. Create a donation pile as you go. I set up several boxes for Goodwill and I am taking an inventory of items for tax deduction purposes. I set up a time and date for Goodwill to come pick up items to give myself a timeline! We are cutting our living space in half, so it is time to be brutal. If w don’t love it or use it, it’s out of here!

4. Label everything. Make each box easily identifiable. Write what is in the box and where it goes.

5. Maximize Space. When packing winter coats I packed picture frames in between. No sense in taking up two boxes when it will all fit into one. The coats provide the padding needed. Do the same between towels or linens.

I truly love the decluttering that happens with a move. Embrace it and use your time wisely. Now is the time to let go and move on!

As a mom of three I am always looking for ways to simplify life with the kids. One way I do that is by color coding. Each child gets their own color and it helps me visually separate each child’s things and activities. My oldest son gets blue, the youngest gets green and of course my daughter gets pink! When I received my very first package of Mabel’s Labels I realized just how easy this color coding would be now! Not only is the child’s name on the label but from afar you can see the color and determine what goes with each child.

Over a year ago, I put labels on my kid’s cups so we can reuse them during the day. This helps tremendously when they are home all day during the summer! And the same labels I originally put on are still going strong!

It just so happens that the socks we buy for our kids have their same “color code” threaded in the toes. This makes sorting laundry a breeze!

When I set up our command central I wanted a place to have the kids school papers that needed attention to be front and center. I hung up a clipboard for each child, in blue, green and pink topped off with a label of course!

Another way you could color code is by hanging your child’s clothes on different color hangers. This could help if their clothing is close in size and hard to tell apart.

Do you use color coding around the home? If so, do you have anything to add to the list?

Last week’s topic on children’s clothes got me thinking about all of those things we save for our kids. Some stuff they might care less about one day but we hold on tight to them now. As an organizer I have seen a few interesting items kept from birth. I’ll spare you form the details here!
I have a small box for each of my children that I will put things into. I kept their first pair of shoes, the blanket from the hospital and a few other keepsakes along the way. The box more or less serves as a landing place and I weed through it once every other year or so to just revisit the idea of holding onto that item. Sometimes we think the idea is great but as time goes by we realize some of this stuff doesn’t really hold much of a significance. First pacifier? I think I’ll let that one go.

My great grandmother crocheted a few blankets for me before I was born. My mother tucked them neatly into the cedar chest and they hardly ever saw the light of day. Now that my daughter plays with dolls I passed these blankets on to her to enjoy. I just never understood keeping something that you cared for out of sight and not in use.  So what, they might get messed up but at least they were loved.

What is the most interesting thing you have seen someone keep? Have you received mementos from your childhood and wondered why your parents chose to hold on to certain things? What are you holding onto for your children?

I remember as my first born grew out of toys and baby paraphernalia I would gladly let them go. I had given up on the notion of doing this “baby thing” again. The clothes however, I held onto for dear life. I loved the tiny little pajamas, onesies and outfits.

I swore I would get a quilt made out of my son’s baby clothes, yet they sat in boxes for years. Eventually I gave into the idea of having another baby and I was glad to still have all of those boy clothes to pass on to my second son.

If you have multiple children it is easy to assume you will pass on clothes and think nothing of it, maybe saving a few of your favorites. But what happens when you are at your last child or deciding to only have one? What do you do about that sentimental attachment to the clothing?

Ask yourself these questions:

1. Do I have a picture of my child in the outfit? Is that enough of a memory to let the physical clothing go?
2. Will I make a quilt out of the clothing? Will the quilt just sit in box or will I love it enough to display or use it?
3. What if I only save one or two of my favorites and let the others go to someone that could use them?

Remember, letting go of the physical item does not mean you have to let go of the memory!

Sometimes organizing is a never ending battle between spouses. I had a client once who was always upset at her husband for throwing things on the back of the chair. His theory was that if it wasn’t dirty he could wear it again but didn’t take the time to hang it back up on a hanger. Does that sound familiar?

Sometimes we have to compromise in order to get organized. We try to fit our spouses or children into our organized boxes. We try to get them to organize the way we would. Sometimes we need to think out of the box! With this particular client all we did was hang some hooks up in the closet so her husband could hang his clothes there. It wasn’t the prettiest option but much better than having clothing draped over the chair. By taking out that one step, having to hang clothes on the hanger, the husband now had a quick place to put his clothes and it worked!

Just like the bathroom counter clutter we talked about before. The things you use most often generally accumulate on the counter and we feel we have to put it away in order to “be organized.” However putting a simple caddy on the counter to corral items worked and looked nice!

What “thinking out of the box” solutions have you been using around the house?