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JayneHB
09-14-2003, 03:41 PM
Hi there-

Not sure if this fits exactly in this category, but thought I'd give it a try.

I am really struggling with the disorganization of my house. I have never been a great housekeeper but I do feel there is an organized one inside just waiting to burst out, just not sure how to get started. So aside from having someone come in and do it for me, I need to make little steps.

The first one that I feel I need to address is the doorway situation. My kids are little (2yrs and 6mths) so it's not even like I have all the school stuff to deal with yet, but I do have tons of bball hats, shoes, jackets, and soon winter coats and mittens to contend with. They have no home and it is making me crazy!! Plus my husband has several bball caps as well. They just litter the doorway area.

Any suggestions for organizing this without spending a ton of money? I have my eye on a storage bench from Pottery Barn but I'm hesitant because I don't know anything about the quality of their furniture and because we are trying to save our pennies so we can move next year.

On another storage note: do you know where I can find the smaller sterilite storage boxes that snap shut just in front. I see them often at kids' offices to store little matchbox cars or the Little People. I have looked at Target. Would I find these more at a craft store?

Sorry for the long post. Just need to get the organizing thing going here.

Thanks for your thought!
Jayne

raynjen
09-14-2003, 06:10 PM
I can't help with our house (we have no boys and my husband keeps his hats in his dresser), but here's what works to corral stuff in my friends's house (5 boys). She has a shelf across one side of her laundry area with hooks underneath and a milkcrate (on it's side) beneath that. She painted stripes on the shelf to differentiate each boy's area. They can only keep, in that area, what will fit on the shelf, on the hook, on top of the milkcrate, and inside the milkcrate. Anything that spills over into the main area or another boy's area gets confiscated for a set period of time (since this usually means a favorite ballcap or their rollerblades they adhere to this rule religiously). In effect they have room for 1 hat (on the shelf), 1 coat (on the hook), 1 backpack (on the crate), and 1 pair of boots/shoes/rollerblades (in the crate). Everything else has to be in their closet. Oh, I almost forgot, she has this long drainboard like thing that runs the whole length of the milkcrates so that any boots that sit in the crates drip into the pan beneath. I'm not sure where she got that, I'll have to ask her.

As for extra hats and jackets (they don't have a coat closet) each boy has one of those extendable peg thingies on his wall for his extra coats. The middle boy is a real hat collector and his mom got him one of those plastic chains with the clips on it (they sell them at toy stores and places like Linens'n'Things for stuffed animals) and he has his favorite hats (about 15 I think) displayed in the corner of his room.

HTH, happy organizing!

Jen in Okinawa
Mom to Noelle (10/25/01)