Christmas Planner!!!

Christmas is only 48 days away! I cannot wait! Christmas is my FAVORITE holiday. I am one that puts up the trees and listens to Christmas music way too early. I just get giddy about the holiday. I am rubbing off on my kids too as they have been singing Christmas songs and keep asking when we can put the tree up.

The holidays get hectic for me. The older the kids get the more holiday events we attend. I need to be organized in order to have a stress free holiday. I have been using a Holiday Planner for 4 years now. My first year I used one from Organized Christmas. They had several different types of planners with several free printables. Year two I used some of my printables from Organized Christmas and made a few of my own. Year three I found several bloggers with free holiday printables and pick various forms that suited me, but I hated that they didn't all match or have a theme. This year I thought I would create my own based on the past three years printables. Well time was getting the best of me so I went in search of a Christmas Planner in blog land.

The angels began to sing when I visited one of my absolute favorite bloggers, A Bowl Full of Lemons!!! Toni has created the most amazing holiday planner with everything you need to stay organized this Christmas! She does charge a minimal fee for her planner but it was worth every penny spent!

My planner set-up

I print all my pages on white card stock because it is more durable then regular paper and I love to use Sharpies! The card stock prevents the bleed thru from the pens. I purchased a three ring binder, printed my cover page, and slapped it in. I was already happy!

The very next thing in my planner is my calendar. I have a calendar for November and December. The calendar helps me plan out when I am decorating, all our holiday events, when the kids are on holiday breaks and more. I downloaded my calendar from Eli Blog. You can get it here.

I just loved how they had that Subway Art feel to them.

The next item in my planner is just a 3 hole punch poly pocket to keep loose items in. I put coupons, Christmas lists, notes and more in there.  I also put two envelopes in the pocket to hold my gift receipts and shopping receipts. I even gave the front of the envelopes a Christmas feel - it makes me smile when I pull them out! I then put tabbed dividers in and used my label maker to label each tab.

Tab One:
My first tab in my planner is my shopping tab. I love how Toni's holiday shopping list is set up. There is are so many more items to purchase then just gifts at Christmas. I now have a place to jot down any new decorations I need to pick up, Christmas card items, wrapping items, and a spot for miscellaneous items to purchase. I then have her Black Friday shopping form. I usually go shopping on black Friday (more for the fun then anything) but I now have a spot to jot down the store, the item I need, the price, and the time frame to get the item. So important to stay on task on that big shopping day! I use her Gift Giving list to keep track of those non-family gifts to give - teachers, neighbors, friends.

Tab Two:
The second tab is my budget for gift buying. My husband and I sit down every Christmas and set our budget for each family member, each other, our kids and non-family gifts. This tab is huge to me. It keeps me on budget and also gives me a place to keep track of gifts bought.

Tab Three:
The third tab is lists. The My Christmas Wish List form is a great way to let people know what your number one item is, things you want versus things you need, sizes, and more. I added a gift card list for stores that I love gift cards from too. I will also punch in the list I get from others for reference.

Tab Four:
The fourth tab is my events tab. Toni has a wonderful way to keep track of all those events to take the kiddos to around the holidays. Whenever I receive an email or find an event that we might want to go to I jot it down. I missed out on a Groupon last year for an event that I would have loved to take the kids to!

Tab Five:
The fifth tab is food! Now I occasionally host a Christmas dinner, but I will be using the Holiday Menu Plan for any event that I will be hosting during the holidays. It breaks the meal down by course and I love that it gives a spot for preparation date. There are so many things you make the day or night before your event that you need to have a plan for. I also love there is a grocery list sheet too!

Tab Six:
The sixth tab is my Christmas card list. In the past I have used a list that you are able to keep track of who you sent/received cards from for 2 to 4 years. The problem I had with that is my list is always changing. I like that Toni's is a one year deal mostly because I am anal and hated messing up my list if someone moved, lost touch, divorced, or whatever the reason may be for not sending a card the next year. You know......I like things to look pretty!!

I am a planner - I always work better when I make a plan! To find out more on Toni's awesome holiday planner or to purchase it click HERE. Happy Holidays!!  

Back To School! Organizing The Homework Area!

Well my "summer blogging break" is officially over tomorrow when my oldest returns to school as a second grader. Where did the summer go?? I feel like the summer went so fast! Our summer here in Chicago started out cool and rainy but we still did a ton of things on our bucket list. 

With the start of the school year I knew I need to get our homework area organized - it was a mess! Last year I watched my neighbors twins three days in the week. The twins and my older son were in the same class so doing homework together was easy peasy! This year I will be watching the twins again buy they have one teacher and my son has another, so homework might be a bit more challenging, but I will figure out a way to "getter done!" Also, add to it, my youngest son will be in Kindergarten with homework as well. So I knew I needed to get our homework area cleaned up and ready to go for the first day. 

My youngest son is in Kindergarten all day. He qualified for a program where he will be in a regular Kindergarten class in the morning, and then stay with 12 of his friends to continue working on literacy. He is not recognizing all of his letters. My first thought as a mother is complete failure for not working with him more. Come to find out he is blind as a bat and cannot see near. They believe this is a huge factor but still put him in the program to make sure he is up to speed when entering first grade. I dug through my teacher bin and pulled out all my ABC, numbers, flash cards, worksheets, and other fun activities to help him through out the year.

Here is how our area turned out:

Each child has a seat to work, and supplies are in the middle in a caddy. Our calendar is up and will help my youngest with his counting along with our ABC poster. We also have some fun stuff on the board for seasons, weather and to determine today, tomorrow and yesterday. My youngest always says "Remember last year when we....." instead of yesterday. I will also add fun visuals for each month.

Off to the side I have our ABC/Word and Number/Math helpers. The black drawers hold extra supplies, scrap paper, notebook paper and more school goodies. My white TV cabinet I found at the curb. I removed the doors and spray painted it white. Here I house 3 bins that house workbooks and worksheet for ABC, numbers and math, and the last one has fun activities like mazes, hidden objects, connect the dots and coloring for when the kids are bored. All our markers, crayons, colored pencils, dry erase markers, and pencils live in the pencil boxes. On top is our word wall/sight words, and white paper and construction paper in the trays. The magazine holders hold my calendar markers and miscellaneous items I have used in the past when assisting in doing homework. The crate holds all our flash cards (addition, subtraction, ABC, numbers, sight words). It also holds some games and puzzles related to ABC. 

Education is so important to me and having educational items at my finger tips to use in assisting with homework will make it fun for the kids and fun for me!

Happy 1st Day of School to you all! 

Organizing: Project New Home!

I have an obsession with Thirty-One bags! I love them and want so many of them. So when Julie asked me to do a product review for their hang-up home organizer I was beyond excited!!! I could not wait to share with how I used the organizer that I have had my eye on forever. 

When my box arrived at my door I was giddy! After opening it I was amazed at the quality of the fabric and new right away it would be durable and last. At first I thought for sure I would be using it as an addition to my command center (go here to check out my command center). Then the light bulb went on and I knew exactly what its purpose would be for me. 

First I wanted to add a pop of color to it. What better then some chevron pink!!! I trimmed up some scrapbook paper and inserted it in all the clear pockets.

The next thing I did was find some cute mini clothes pin and added some pink washi tape to them. I loved how they turned out and they work great to clip up items to my organizer. 

After I dressed up my organizer (which I had so much fun doing) I then began to set up my organizer. We have recently moved into a brand new home. It is our second brand new home, but boy I forgot about all the things you need to buy for a new home. The paint, window treatments, furniture, lighting and more! Even though we came from a home where we lived for 10 years I still needed some new items for the new home. So this became my project new home organizer!

I use the 4 pockets at the bottom to hold paint and window treatment quotes, information for my son's lego room and a miscellaneous pocket for things I pick up for later projects.

I love that it comes with a dry erase marker to label areas. I used the middle section to write out any appointments I have and a pocket to keep my business cards. 

The top portion of my organizer allows me to write out my to do list. Some items on this to do list are long term as we are working on one area at a time, but I love that it is right in front of my face to keep me motivated.

The other half allows me to clip up items, like swatches, brochures, picture inspiration, and more. 

Here is my finished thirty-one wall organizer

If you loved what I have done with the home organizer and would like to get organized with Thirty-One head on over to Julie personal website and check out the catalog. She will gladly help you get what you need to get organized!

Organizing the Boys Closets - Reveal

I'm so excited to show you how the boys closets turned out! If you saw my before pictures here you know I was working with a mess of items, and in a sea of un-organization! Knowing that I did not have a budget to get my dream organizers for both closets I worked with what I had on hand. I once again used dollar store storage to tidy up both closets.

I created, using some old Ikea wicker baskets I had laying around, a basket for clothes that are too big and one for clothes that are two small.

I love the tags I made. Green for one son and Red for the other! I printed out the paper, and text. Trimmed and inked the edges of the text paper just to make it pop out a bit. Then matted and laminated. Then tied it off with some matching ribbon.

I had some left over dollars on my Office Depot gift card so I picked up two green file bins as I knew they would be the perfect size to house all the boys friends. When do boys out grow stuffed animals? The boys stood their ground about not wanting to give away their friends!

My younger son gets all the hand-me-downs including shoes. 13 is too big for him right now so I keep them in the buckets for when he will fit into them. They were previously in a diaper box and I had no idea what type of shoes or size were in there. Now I can easily see I have a few pairs for him when his feet grow.

Since our house is brand new and we are waiting to paint after our year patching is done by the builder, I created a decor bin. Our younger son continued with his train room theme that he had in his old house, so the items in his bin are ones that will go up after we paint. My older son wants a lego room, so as I find items for his theme I have been placing them in his decor bin. I also put baseball pants, shirts and socks in their hats for an easy grab at game time.

Both boys closets are now color coded which makes it easy for them to pick out a shirt that matches their pants or shorts.

Now when I am hanging up their laundry I am happy to do so. Before I would go into their closets to hang up their laundry and want to quickly shut the door again. Now I can't help but have a smile on my face when I open the door. Silly how the simple things like an organized closet make me happy!!

Organizing the Boys Closet - Preview

This week I am focusing on organizing the kids closets! 

They were a mess and I needed to get them back in control. The boys were just throwing stuff in there, my husband and I were stacking clothes on the top shelf that were either to big or to small. Here is my 5 year old's closet:

 

Let's play a game called what's wrong with this picture. I need to have my boys and my clothes organized by sleeve length and color. For example my closet  runs: no sleeves, short sleeves, 3/4 sleeves and long sleeves and then by the rainbow (red, orange, yellow...). I usually set up the kids the same way. My 5 year old never follows it! Look at the pampers box - ha my kid has been out of diapers for so long. There is a bazillion shoes in there. I also love the swim stuff mixed in with the sweaters - same season right?? 

Hmmmm......animals, shoes and clothes - seems organized to me NOT!! The bin holds clothes that are too small for my son but the bin wasn't big enough to hold all the clothes so the solution: stack it on top so your 5 year old can knock it down! 

I have some work to do in this closet!! Here is my older son who is 7, he carries some of my characteristic in organization - he keep his closet color coded!

Ready for round two of what's wrong with this picture! Basically his whole top self is full of clothes - clothes from summer that never got put away, clothes that are too big, jeans that he has put a hole in the knee (that I swear I am going to fix but by the time I get around to it they are too small for him) and a bunch of socks that my son wore for months and then said they are too big and keep falling down! 

Both boys just chuck stuff on the floor!

Hmmm.....something seems familiar here - animals, shoes, and if we just throw some clothes on the floor it will look just like my 5 year old's closet!

As much as I would love to put up an organization system for them (we had them in our previous house and it worked great for them) we have so many "new home projects" that I have to put that on hold for now. However, if I don't find a way to organize the closet in a functional way for the boys it will continue to end up like this, and only get worse. So off to the Dollar Store I go to find fun, colorful, storage for the boys!

Organizing the Boy Bathroom - Reveal

Wow this week is went by fast but I made great progress in the boys bathroom. You can see my before pictures here. I had a mess to deal with but after sorting out everything and getting rid of items I didn't need, I was ready to start. I found some liner for the boys drawers because my boys are messy. I love the Chevron look right now!

I then added organizers and made tags to help the boys put items back were they belong. 

Under one sink I used a storage drawer and baskets that I picked up at the Dollar Store to organized items.

Under the second sink the boys share some space with me. I have neatly tucked away my curling irons and created a space to store extra toilet paper.

The boys are very into laundry right now so I am riding that wave! I have labeled their linen closet to help them put towels and linens where they belong. I then used zip ties to hold them in place.

At the bottom of the linen closet I added some buckets to hold our suntan lotions and aloe products.

The space is wonderful now and the boys are already putting items back where they belong instead of leaving them on the counter. 

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