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Rachel May
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| Posted: Aug 10 2009 at 2:31pm | IP Logged
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JennGM wrote:
| A tip from a professional organizer was to get matching containers for one area, as the symmetry helps look more organized, than mismatched looks messy and disorganized, even if it's all put away. |
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I just did this with school supplies. I bought a case of wide-mouthed, qt and pint-sized mason jars. Each jar holds colord pencils or crayons (a 64 box fit great) or colored sharpies or pencil top erasers. They are all on the top on my bookshelves to be lifted down as needed. They look lovely. The idea was inspired by Mary Chris who has all her card/scrapbook pens in beautiful apothacary jars.
Organizational tips that saved me:
*use color whenver possible--We use this for everything from towels to cups to magazine files to hold kids' floppy notebooks.
*Command hooks by 3M for bath towels, hand towels, rings holding chore cards, coats--Command hooks hold them up and don't leave a mark when we take them down to move. They are reusable!
Fun thread. I'm dedicating this year to organizing before we move, so my thoughts are running especially to systems which are easy to adapt to a variety of spaces.
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Rachel
Thomas and Anthony (10), Maria (8), Charles (6), Cecilia (5), James (3), and Joseph (1)
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Mary Chris
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HI Rachel!!!!!!
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Blessings, Mary Chris Beardsley
mom to MacKenzie3/95, Carter 12/97 Ronan 3/00 and wife to Jim since 1/92
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: Aug 10 2009 at 2:42pm | IP Logged
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Speaking of color coding..
When you have people sharing closet space.. get hangers that are one color per person.
It's great!
Anyone can look in there and figure out whose clothes are which.. or put something away in the right location.
We each have our own colors
dh - black
me - white
dd12 - purple
ds10 - red
dd9 - light blue
dd7 - yellow
ds6 - green
ds4 - dk blue
dd2 - pink
ds1 - orange
it also makes it easy to put stray hangers away in the right location.
Especially helpful if you have any kids overlapping in size so that it's not obvious from the size of the garment who it belongs to.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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Waverley
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| Posted: Aug 11 2009 at 2:06pm | IP Logged
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JodieLyn wrote:
Speaking of color coding..
When you have people sharing closet space.. get hangers that are one color per person.. |
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This is a great idea!!! We have color coded table napkins and bath towels but hangers is brilliant. I can't afford to go out and buy colored hangers all at once so for now I think I'll just used colored ribbons tied onto the existing hangers to tell them apart.
Thanks for the great idea!
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Waverley
wife to Dh for 19 years, dd (16), dd (11), dd (8), ds (6), dd (4), dd (9-13-1996)
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: Aug 11 2009 at 3:34pm | IP Logged
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Waverley, very often you only have a few choices of colors anyway, at any given time.. if you determine what colors you want.. then as you see them and have a few extra dollars you can start buying them. I've been doing this for years now and bought the orange hangers just last year even though it'll be a while before my 1 yr old needs full sized hangers.. I wasn't going to let them get away 
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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anniemm
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Detachment is the name of the game for me. I try not to have too many extras of anything "just in case." The exception is food and household items (toothpaste, laundry detergent, paper goods, etc.) which I always buy at rock bottom prices and store for when it's needed. What I mean is more like, I only need one set of dishes, not 2 or 3 sets that are not alike. We don't need a kazillion toys. If I have extras of things, I get rid of them - give them away or trash them if they are not in good condition. I like empty space.
The way this really started for me was a suggestion from a blog about how many clothes a child needs. Every season, I make a list of what my girls need for the season and we stick to that. If my 3 year old needs 7 dresses and there are 10 in the box from her older sister, I pick 3 to get rid of and have 7. If my 5 year old needs 2 pairs of jeans, I buy her 2 pairs - not 4 because they're on sale, etc. I really limit how much/many clothes the girls and I have to what we need and what won't overwhelm us. DH is on his own for clothing - I'm not HIS mother!  I also color code the hangers, that's so fun!
I also love the over the door storage! My favorite uses so far have been to hold hair accessories, socks, and undergarments for my girls and in my own bathroom for my girlie "lotions and potions" (as my DH calls them!), flat iron and hair accessories, nail care products (on the very top where my littles can't reach!), and so forth. That way the cabinets and counter tops aren't cluttered. My DH loves that my stuff isn't in his way constantly.
Lastly, my grandmother always kept a clean sponge at every sink. I do this and use it for wiping out the sink (and counter in bathrooms) after use. You can buy a huge pack of imperfect sponges at walgreens for $4. I do that and just throw them away every couple weeks. It keeps the bathroom tidy and prevents me from having to scrub off gross toothpaste on bathroom cleaning day!
I am LOVING this thread! Waverley, I have always struggled with bathing suits, Christmas clothes, shoes, winter gear, etc. I think your idea of storing it all together is brilliant and am going to implement it asap!
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Andrea
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Wife to Charlie (03)
Mama to four little girls (04), (05), (07), (09),& my 1st little guy 11/11
www.hiswillmypeace.com
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4Real Forums : Planning and Ordering our Days
Topic: What Organizing Tip Changed Your Life?
