I love reading anything on organization! I am a firm believer of everything has a place and everything in it’s place.  In my home I up against seven other individuals. Now when I say ‘up against’ I don’t mean that in necessarily a bad way for the most part… I just mean not all members of my household have the same instinct as I do… so I work hard at trying to instill this quality, especially in my children… unfortunately it’s too late for my other half(can’t teach an old dog new tricks, LOL)!  He was not taught this art in anyway shape or form… he does try to some degree, but it’s not his nature. Anyway, some of my children have grabbed hold onto it and some, shall I say are a work in progress! A few things that drive me crazy are when the kitchen cupboard doors are left open… I just cannot understand why they don’t close as easily as they opened… sigh! … or why the dirty clothes land beside the hamper, but not in… sigh!  Well, as my one dear friend always tells me… ‘Line upon line… precept upon precept!’ So I trudge on!  Really I don’t mind it all too much because I do love to get things organized and re-do stuff. Anytime I am in the check out line and there appears a new organizing or storage magazine, they just seem to find there way into my cart! Praise the Lord for constant inspiration!  Last week I spent the morning ‘gutting’ out and cleaning the boys room… unbelievable is all I can say!  I do this about four times a year and it never ceases to amaze me what accumulates in that room!  Anyway, Ryan helped me and we got the job done… again!  He say’s to me, “I just love when you clean our room and it looks so nice!”  I just looked at him and said, “Why don’t you keep it this way?”… of course it was the other brothers fault… sigh!  I am going to touch on room by room organization tips over the next few blogs.  A lot of the info will be taken and adapted from my favorite book, “Sink Reflections”, by Marla Cilley- The FlyLady.  So here are some great tips that I believe can work in any home that has these little blessings (A.K.A. children)or not, along with references on some books that I have repeatedly referenced over the years… and of course some recipes!  Have a great day friends!

Room by Room Organization Tips…. Today we will focus on the Bed & Bath rooms… read on next time for Kitchen and Pantry!  Most of the info will be adapted from Sink Reflections.  The ‘FlyLady” as she likes to be referred to (she is a fly fishing instructor as well as an organizational wizard), has several “buzz” words that she refers to often in the book. I will briefly discuss a few here so when I use them you won’t be wondering what in the world I am talking about. The ones I took hold of primarily were~ Walk Through’s, Hot Spots, as well as her ‘Control Journal’.  I will first discuss the Control Journal… I am sure you are surprised by that!
I have followed this book to a tee and it really works… even with less than willing housemates! 

*The Control Journal… in basic terms allows you to write down just what you want done in each room of the house, list’s your schedules, can be a day planner, can hold inspirational pieces or anything else you want to keep in it.  It can be as basic or complex as you the designer want it to be.  I of course like it right down to the nitty gritty of things.  Marla explains how to take your notebook/journal and walk through or sit in each room and write down everything you ‘see’ that needs to be done as well as the frequency you want the tasks done. You can keep the tasks in a calender format~ for example, some chores get done seasonally- Spring & Fall cleaning- wash walls & ceilings; monthly- washing the curtains; weekly- strip & wash the bedding;  several times in a week- laundry; daily- vacuuming the carpets, taking out the trash; several times in a day- washing dishes or sweeping the floors and so on.  You can make it as detailed or not as you desire.  I found it very helpful for the children to be very detailed… this helped them to completely understand their jobs and what was expected of them.
I loved this aspect of her program because I love to journal and see what is happening!  The journal can give specific details as to what happens in each room.  For instance when cleaning the living room~ dust from the top down~ around ceiling line, pictures on walls, book shelf, lamp shades, finally the furniture, wash windows and dust ledges, pick up under furniture, and finally vacuum. Presto room done! 

*The Walk Through... I use this term every single day!  When I ask one of the children to do a walk through they fully understand that I mean they need to go through the room and pick up everything that is out of place, put it in it’s proper place and then vacuum.  This term has become second nature to all of them and it works well even with little ones.

*Hot Spot is another buzz word that Marla discusses… we all have them whether we want to admit it or not.  In layman’s terms these are those spots in our homes that when someone walks in what ever they have in their hands instantly gets dropped on/in that spot.  For us it’s the bar top counter and on the counter right beside the fridge.  For my darling daughter it is MY DESK!  Anything and everything that is paper gets dumped onto my desk! I understand her motivation… she doesn’t know what I want to keep and what I want to pitch… so it goes on mom’s desk and mom can keep or pitch… so I guess that is OK. Anyway, every home has them… and Marla gives great tips on how to get rid of them… although I have to say ours don’t get as bad as they use to, but we still have them!
… so moving on, here are tips from my home to yours!
*Bedroom…  There are a few tricks that I use in all the bedrooms of my home…
~Plastic totes– in one of our boys room they have a built in wall closet, so I don’t really need a dresser for them.  Although to keep things neat & tidy each boy has two totes: one for socks & underwear and one for their church socks, shoes & belt.  On the bottom of the closet they have a little shelf that holds their pants and jammies.  All their shirts and suits are hung on hangers.  When they work with the program, it is very neat & orderly.  Because they don’t have a dresser in their room I keep all their bedding in another dresser. 
~Books, toys and stuff are kept on shelves and in a desk.  The boys have a desk in their room where they can keep pen’s, crayons, scissors and the likes.  I like to use small pencil boxes for these items so they don’t get all over the place.  The boys books and magazines are kept on a shelf for easy access.  They have two drawers on the bottom of their closet where toys are kept along with ball cloves and cleats.
~Off Season  and Grow-Into Clothing are kept in plastic totes under the bed as well as on the shelf above their closet.  This way dust and bugs don’t have access and things can be kept in order of size and season.  I like to use clear totes that I can easily see into; I keep a note inside the tote as to the sizes so I don’t have to unfold and guess as I am looking for the next size of clothing.  This also makes it easier so I don’t have to drag out all of them and go through each one.  If you don’t like clear totes then list the items on a label and then using clear packing tape cover the whole label so it doesn’t get torn off or fade; put one on the top and two sides of the tote.  IF you have other children that will grow into those clothes be sure to mark accordingly who will use next.
~Knick-knacks and Collectables are kept on a small wall shelf and on top of their desk where they can be easily viewed and kept out of reach of the little boys! 
~For bedding I learned a really clever idea from a friend of mine for keeping sheets & matching pillowcases all together.  Simply fold your flat sheet in half lengthwise and then again and again until it is long and narrow… about 18″ wide; next fold the fitted sheet to be a square that will lay on the top sheet without hanging over- place at the one end of folded flat sheet; fold your pillow cases and lay on top of fitted sheet; next roll the fitted sheet and pillow cases up into the flat sheet until you have a nice, neat square… no more searching for matching bedding!  I keep all the bedding in my armoire in our bedroom.

*Bathroom…  The bathroom can be a challenge or a delight… in my opinion what makes the difference is if it a small room with no storage or one that you can do cart wheels in (my personal dream bath…) anyway, I have a smallish bath with no storage other than under the small vanity and one small wall medicine cabinet.  On one of my shopping sprees I found a large floor plant stand at an antique shop and knew exactly what I would do with it… It is now mounted on the one available wall in the bathroom beside the tub and that is where I keep our towels.  I don’t like things to look cluttered, despite what Taylor says, and it has to be cute & neat… so I roll the towels and then put them on the two shelves. On the outside shelves I keep small baskets where extra bottles of shampoo, soap and such can be stored; I fold the smaller hand and wash towels and put those there as well. 
~Smaller toiletries, lotions, contact stuff, extra toothpaste,  and such are kept in the small medicine cabinet on the wall.  I try to keep Neil’s stuff on one, mine on another and other stuff on the third. 
~In the cabinet under the vanity I keep the cleaners in a plastic bucket, roll of paper towel and extra larger toiletries.  There is a space between the vanity and the wall where I keep a basket that holds the extra toilet paper.
~No bathroom would be complete without reading material so that gets put in another basket that sits beside the toilet.

References:
“Sink Reflections”, by Marla Cilley- The FlyLady, Published by Bantam Books, 2002  www.flylady.net
“Sidetracked Home Executives”, by Pam Young and Peggy Jones, Published by Time Warner Books, 1977
“The 15 Minute Organizer”, by Emilie Barnes, Published by Harvest House Publishers

Try these great mixes for grilling!

Summer in her beautiful bounty is giving us lots of wonderful things.  In previous blog’s I have explained how to dry and use herbs that you have grown or bought… Here are some yummy mixes, salts and salt-less recipes!  Enjoy…

Garden Herb Dry Mix
*This dry mix is great sprinkled on burger patties before grilling and really adds something special to ground beef when fried!

Happy Day,
Jean