Kendra-

Thank you for a simple way to keep the paper under control. How do you do toys and clothes? If you have already posted on this, I've forgotten and you can just direct me to that post :) All right, you stuff-tossers, how do you do it? I have five children; the oldest is 5. We are very much a thrift-store family, so their toys/clothes are either 1) something we paid very little for or 2) a gift from someone else. They have SO MANY clothes but I think, "the next one can wear it, too, etc." but it's just ridiculous. The problem with the tossing stuff is ... ME! I know it must be a form of materialism rearing its ugly head, but I'll go through to "purge" and end up saying, "But this was from his grandmother ... but this was such a deal ..." Do you just bite the bullet and do it? Their room is kept clean, but I know they have an overabundance of things. I usually end up rotating toys (putting some in boxes and then putting the boxes out of sight). But I realize I'm not helping their understanding of materialism any by justifying a thrift store purchase or holding on to something that is not earning its real estate space on our shelves! What is your "criteria," if you have any? Do you have a set number of outfits that you keep, or just what will fit in a set number of boxes, or just what you know you couldn't buy easily next time, or... Any Scripture you remind yourself of while you're working? Sorry so long. Thank you! Rachel Dear Rachel- I am certainly no expert in this, but because I hate visual clutter, I find it feels really, really good to purge our home of stuff. Kind of like that clear feeling after a really good nose blow The easiest way for me to address your questions is to go point by point: 1. How do you do toys and clothes? First of all, we don't have a lot of toys. We have tried to keep things to a manageable and realistic amount, and what we do have is stored as neatly as possible. Legos seem to breed on their own, but still we keep them in boxes in the boys' room, which brings me to the next management technique we have implemented: very, very few toys are stored in kids' black holes bedrooms. The boys have Legos in their room and the girls have dolls in theirs, but those are the only toys they have in their bedrooms. The rest are stored either in Rubbermaid containers in the schoolroom or in larger Rubbermaid containers in the garage. Large sets such as Brio trains and Hot Wheels are kept on shelves in the garage because our boys have outgrown them and the girls seldom want to play with them. We've kept them because we often have young visitors and now we have another little guy coming up in the ranks who will doubtless enjoy them in a few short years. And Brios are an investment. Clothes are the bain of my existance. A necessary evil. Someone is always growing out of something and the seasons now change faster than I can keep up. I have had to be judicious; when we learned that this baby (our seventh) was a boy, I decided that it was time to pass along all of the outgrown girl clothes. I've kept a very few things I loved in case there's another little girl to join our family, but the rest has been passed on to a little friend. I also pass along anything the nine-year-old boy is done with because I'll be darned if I'm going to keep his stuff for the next nine years for the baby to grow into. How silly when my best friend has six sons and she can be using his stuff. And the baby's outgrown clothing is going back to her to be stored for either her next boy or ours, or for someone else who can use them. So, what is kept are those things that the older boys pass down to the immediate boy beneath them and same with the girls. I have large Rubbermaid containers clearly marked by size and stored in the linen closet (it's large). 2. The problem with the tossing stuff is ... ME! I know it must be a form of materialism rearing its ugly head, but I'll go through to "purge" and end up saying, "But this was from his grandmother ... but this was such a deal ..." Do you just bite the bullet and do it? Oh, I so get this. My mother was raised by a hardworking father who didn't make an overabundance of money. Things were treasured and waste was anathema. Because of her upbringing, my mom passed along a sensibility to us even though my upbringing was quite privileged. I learned a combination of a disdain for wastefulness and the reality that having stuff (and we had plenty) wasn't ever a worthwhile goal in and of itself. It can be difficult for me to want to toss something that was paid for with good money or given as a gift. I try to communicate this to grandparents, and we often suggest they give the children experiences over material goods. That helps, but there are still items cluttering their closet shelves that I hope the children will eventually realize are just clutter, even if they are from their grandparents. But maybe not, and that's ok. I think you have hit the heart of it- not wanting to get rid of unused items can be a sort of materialism that we don't even realize we're struggling with. Ask God to give you the wisdom to know what you should and should not keep. I've learned that He's very practical that way and will always give me direction and peace. 3. But I realize I'm not helping their understanding of materialism any by justifying a thrift store purchase or holding on to something that is not earning its real estate space on our shelves! True. 4. What is your "criteria," if you have any? Do you have a set number of outfits that you keep, or just what will fit in a set number of boxes, or just what you know you couldn't buy easily next time, or... Like you, I shop secondhand and off-season sales for our kids' clothing. I make lists of what they have for each season coming up so that I don't over-purchase. There was one year when our oldest daughter had eight church dresses because I didn't realize I'd bought so many off ebay They were each such good deals that I just kept buying. Ugh. Now I make sure I know what we have so that I only buy what they need. Anything that needs to be replaced mid-year (woo, those teenage boys can grow out of pants overnight, I tell ya) can be purchased inexpensively at Target or Kohls. Just bought new undies and socks for the girls... 5. Any Scripture you remind yourself of while you're working? Not really, but I think it's a good idea to keep fleshing out the idea you had about this being materialism at it's root. "He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver; Nor he who loves abundance, with increase. This also is vanity. " Ecclesiastes 5:10 ~Kendra

Kendra,

What do you do with all of the paper generated in your household from homeschool? How do you organize it?

Sincerely,

Debbie Hi Debbie- Paper, paper, paper! It's everywhere. And if you've read this blog for any significant amount of time, you'll know that I am a merciless tosser of stuff. I just don't handle clutter well. I felt rather guilty about that for years in regards to school papers until I noticed a gigantic dumpster at the school where our church meets filled with beautiful projects and lengthy type-written papers at the end of the school year last year. Well of course! Where did I think all of my school papers ended up? So the short answer is: I toss a lot. I smile brightly when handed a new drawing (this is a daily occurence) and I praise lavishly for work done well. I maybe display it for a day or two, sometimes a week or more. Then if I don't have another immediate use for it (turning it into wrapping paper or notecards for Grandma), I quietly slip it into the trash. They've yet to notice My system for keeping significant work is probably not the best or most efficient method, but so far it has worked for us. We are part of a cover school that does not require us to keep anything, but I do like the idea of a portfolio for grades K-8. Each year I save just the nicest work or the papers that represent the best work the child has done in each subject. Then when they reach the end of 6th grade, I have a young woman friend who makes it all look organized and neat and then scans and burns everything onto a disc. Voila! A digital portfolio and I can toss the papers to my heart's content. Hope that's helpful-

Hello, I am having my 4th baby in 8 weeks and am realizing how much more organized I would like to be. I know I need master shopping lists for the stores I frequent, meal plans for the month with grocery lists, more routines in our home and more. Do you have any advice for a novice planner as to where to start? What are the routines/organization that are the most helpful to your day? Do you grocery shop every week on the same day? Have a day out a week or use an evening for those trips? Can you just come out to visit me in Indiana Amish country and help me get organized? :) I learn so much from your blog, thank you so much for all you do! Kathy

Hi Kathy-

You must be even closer now to holding that sweet baby in your arms! Hang in there; I know how exhausting those last weeks can be.

My husband and I were just discussing organization and how it comes naturally to some of us while others of us have to learn it from the ground up, so to speak. I was raised by an organized mom and a super tidy dad. All those years growing up in their home I heard things like, “Pick it up, don’t pass it up” and, “It takes more time to contemplate making the bed than to actually make it.” I watched my mom make lists and keep a Daytimer. My tendency toward organization, tidiness, and decluttering might not come naturally but it was certainly learned and is now a habit. If that’s not the case for you, then there are definitely helpful sites and books that can get you started:

Flylady

Organized Home

Organizing Plain and Simple: A Ready Reference Guide With Hundreds of Solutions to Your Everyday Clutter Challenges

Organizing From the Inside Out: The Foolproof System for Organizing Your Home, Your Office. and Your Life

Organizational systems are a great tool for achieving a household that is peaceful. However, I have had to learn to set aside some of my desire for a perfectly orderly home in light of reality. I’d love to have a laundry room that looks like Martha Stewart’s but there is a reason her laundry room looks like that: she does maybe three loads per week. On the rare occasions when all of the laundry is caught up here, it lasts only a few hours. At the end of the day, nine people toss their day’s laundry into the hampers and the cycle begins all over again. All that to say, be sure your expectations match your reality.

With a new baby coming, you have some areas that will continue to need your attention (i.e., meals, laundry) and others that can stand a little slack (i.e., school organization). First identify what you want to give your waning energy to right now- you mentioned meals and grocery shopping in your email so let’s start there.

I make a month’s worth of menus and shop once a week. Would that work for you right now? There have been some years when making a week’s menu at a time worked better for me. I can shop during the day because I have older children who can stay at home and work on their academics while I take a few of the younger ones with me. But when that wasn’t my reality, I often shopped at night. I enjoyed getting out by myself and having a quiet hour or two browsing the grocery aisles. If that would work for you in this season of your life, then by all means, do it.

Master lists are indispensable. Take an hour or so this week to make master lists for the stores you frequent, and arrange the lists in the order in which you shop the store. That will save you a ton of time, too.

My systems are always evolving because our lives aren’t static. Just today I was walking the baby out in the cry room during church and noticed a lunch schedule for the school where our church meets. It occurred to me that I need to revamp our breakfasts and lunches to be more scheduled- burritos on Monday, crackers and cheese on Tuesday, etc. so that we can move in and out of those meals without them being a big production each day. There are seasons where this approach might not be desirable for us, but right now I can see how it might be a blessing.

Just when I think we’ve got something all figured out, some aspect of our lives changes and we need to revamp. I have new chore cards to make this week because the seasons have changed and the kids are getting antsy. Without organizational systems in place, however, chaos reigns and peace is hard to come by.

I live by master lists. Back to the old concept of getting things out of my brain and onto paper, thus simplifying my life once the initial work is done. I'll share my master lists with you, and you share yours with us! Costco binders: 1", 2" batteries page protectors printer paper fish roast tri tip ground beef bagels pizza wine fruit avocados grated cheese cheddar jack cheese red cups Anti-Bacterial wipes paper plates TP water bottles dog food cat food frozen chicken breasts butter string cheese tortillas sour cream cream cheese chips pasta spices sugar (brown and white) peanut butter trail mix popcorn syrup yeast mayo ketchup oils Simplify, simplify, simplify. What might take ten minutes to type into a Word document will save hours of thinking and rethinking. Plus, once I have the basics on the list, my brain is free to add seasonal items like gift wrap or swimsuits.

So much of the work of managing a household and educating the children at home is mental. Much like overseeing a large project in the workplace, managing the details of a well-organized home and the lives therein entails a well-thought-out and flexible battle plan.

It might seem like a lot of unnecessary work to write down a month’s worth of meals, particularly if your plans tend to change on a whim. But I have found that just having the thinking done and over with frees me to make spontaneous choices on the days I need to while at the same time not having to think through three meals a day every. single. day.

I begin with a blank calendar page. Organized Home has them free to download, but be forewarned that if you go to their site you might get lost in it for hours

First, I write in the meals that are the same each week- we always have bagels on Sunday mornings and cereal on Wednesdays because we have to get out the door early for lessons. Other breakfast and lunch meals tend to remain pretty unchanging and basic just to keep things simplified. And there are seasonal considerations- in the summer we eat a lot of yogurt and smoothies and in the winter we eat quite a bit of oatmeal and hot breakfasts.

Next I check our calendar and write in special events such as birthdays, guests, and meals away from home. After those considerations, I can begin to think through meals. What’s in the freezer? Is anyone trying to eat lighter? Are we tired of something in particular or craving something else? I also like to ask each child what they would like to see served for dinner this month, and of course my husband gets first pick.

As I finish a week’s menu plan, I then make a corresponding grocery list. The list isn’t comprehensive; it includes only the items necessary to make what I’ve planned for that week. Before actually doing the week’s shopping, I add to the list any other items we might need such as fruit, milk, etc. I number each week to the left and then make the lists on the back of the calendar page under “Week One”, “Week Two”, etc.

The whole process from start to finish might take an hour. More if I am trying to be creative, less if I am simply following the menu from another month, or even year. I like to file the menus away because often I forget about a meal we liked or I can see that we haven’t had something in awhile. And then I move on to the business of feeding my family without the hassle of wondering what’s for dinner.