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Organization

Homeschool Mom Routine: 5 Things To Do Before Bed To Improve Your Mornings

January 22, 2020 by Rebekah 1 Comment

woman in home office-homeschool mom routine from busy parents club

Ah, mornings. The sun gently beams in, you roll over and stretch, smelling the aroma of fresh coffee, welcoming you to your new day.

Just kidding. You are startled awake by that thing you forgot to do last night and the kids have already asked you 10 questions before your eyes are even fully open. And the coffee pot is So. Far. Away. I’m here to help! I can’t make your coffee for you but I can tell you that adding these 5 things to your nightly homeschool mom routine will bring big change.

Shia lebouf meme about parents and coffee
Image credit: The.Nerd.Dad

You can create a better homeschool mom routine!

[Read more…] about Homeschool Mom Routine: 5 Things To Do Before Bed To Improve Your Mornings

Filed Under: Time Management Tagged With: homeschool mom routine, homeschool morning routine, homeshchool mom routines, mom routines, morning routine for moms

Toy Organization Ideas: How To Organize Kids’ Toys

December 18, 2019 by Rebekah Leave a Comment

toy organization ideas

These toy organization ideas will help you organize your kids’ toys and keep them organized.

If you are like me you are probably wondering where you are going to put all.of.these.toys for way too many hours in a day. Today we are going to look at some seriously doable ways to get alllll the toys under control once nad for all.

You can use this organization method in a full playroom or in any cubby style storage unit, or toy closet.

After the toy organization step-by-step instructions, we’ve got some toy organization inspiration for you and more tips and videos to get this project done!

Getting Started With Toy Organization

Your best bet for success is to break this into steps. I gave myself a whole day to do this bc I had my kids help me. If you have a few hours solo you can probably tackle these steps in an afternoon.

Before you begin, look at your closet, cubby, or playroom and see if you have enough storage to fit on all of the shelves, in the cubbies, or in the spots of a room you want to store toys. If you need more or want o get different storage, do this before you begin. Here is our favorite storage for kids’ rooms if you want to add or upgrade your current storage. 

You will also need one or two plastic totes, some garbage bags, and labels for your storage if you want to use them. 

Step 1: Pull everything out.

Definitely get the kids in one this one. Take EVERYTHING out of the area. Now, wipe it down, vacuum it out, dust it, whatever kind of cleaning the spot calls for. At this point I let my kids play in all of their newfound toys for a few. I go and get a tote to get ready for the next step.

Step 2: Remove Toys That Can Be Stored

Work with your kids to place toys that they are not yet ready to get rid of or donate but really aren’t into right now and put these into a tote (or two). Move this tote to your storage area. Grab a garbage bag or box (es) that you are going to use to put garbage and donation toys into in the next step.)

Step 3: Get Rid Of Broken Toys

Go through the pile o’ toys and throw out anything that is broken or is missing pieces. Next, take all of the toys your kids have outgrown or are not into anymore and put them into the donate bag or box (es). 

Step 4: Separate Toys Into Groups

Next, group like with like with the toys that are left. Depending on the kind of storage you are using your groups may be broader or more specific. Add your toys to their designated boxes, bins, chests, or containers.

Step 5: Assess your storage situation

Grab your labels if you are using them, and label your storage containers. For younger kids, we love the idea of taking a photograph of bin contents and using this as a label. This is a great way for pre-readers or even very visual children, to help clean up their toys. 

Try to group like with like as best as you can. Put useful storage back on the shelves in a way that makes sense to you AND your kids. Most used toys should be easy to get to and easy to put away.

And there you have it! A Santa-ready toy closet, playroom, or cubby!

Here are some beautiful and super functional examples of toy organization ideas to get you inspired!

Image: Pop Sugar

Shop This Organization: Wire baskets |Clear storage jars with lids | Stackable clear containers |Letter bookends

Image: Make It and Love It

Shop this organization: Plastic bins | Stackable cubbies | Fabric storage cubes

Image: Maid Bright

Shop this organization: White craft table | Storage bean bag chairs | Wall book storage

Want more toy organization inspiration?

Check out these 30 genius toy organization ideas!

And this toy organizing video by Clutter Bug…

And this post on reducing stimulation in kids’ spaces.

Have toy organizing questions? Hit reply to this email, we love to help and share our ideas with you!

I hope you have a healthy and happy week 🙂

Rebekah from Busy Parents Club

Filed Under: Organization

In a Minute…Carving Out Personal Creative Time

May 2, 2016 by Rebekah Leave a Comment

In a minute. I said this a lot this week to my four year old, and I’m not particularly happy about it.  I reallllly want Just. One. Minute. To write a thought down. To breathe. To sketch something out. But sitting down tonight, at the end of the week, I’m thinking a lot about how cranky it makes him when I constantly answer his requests of playtime or help with a project with in a minute. I’ve thought a lot about how I can say this less in the upcoming week and be more present. Here’s what I’m working with, folks.

I’m at the beginning stages of writing a book, sorry, make that two books. Everything is outlined and I am at that bursting with flavor creative stage. I love this stage, and I have honestly been in it several times since having children. But, as some of you may know, having a burring desire to create and work on personal projects while taking care of small children is not only difficult, 95% of the time it’s downright impossible.

Over the years I’ve learned a few things that work to help things run smoothly while living with small children and a creative fiery monster in my gut.  I’ve also learned a few things that do not work, sabotage my progress, and ruin my days pretty hardcore.

So here goes. Hopefully this can help some of you who are in the same boat.

Major don’t I’ve recently realized: Don’t spend your entire day trying to catch tiny bits of time confetti in which to get just a liiiiitle bit of work done on your project here and there. If you try to shove your work in this way throughout the day you will get interrupted.  ALL DAY LONG. If you spend your whole day waiting for the next tiny snippet of time, you will end up being mentally somewhere else and not in the moment, your kids will be cranky from this and then later in the day or night when you finally do get that time to yourself you will be too burned out from chasing the illusive time snippets to get any creative work done. I also top that off with a little guilty cherry on top because I wasn’t being present for my kids during their time with me.

The alternative: Make an effort to carve a space out in the day where you can work on your project uninterrupted. This is of course not as easy as it sounds, but it can be done. So where to find that space?

Start from your Ideal and work backwards from that. I recently started listening to a podcast called “Sparktending” that talks about ways for moms to honor their need to create and to carve out creative space for themselves in their day. (its a great podcast, recommended by a fellow homeschooling mom, about 5-10 minutes long each, well worth the listen). One of my favorite ideas came in session 2, where she asks that listeners write down their ideal day-a day where you had to compromise for no one and nothing. Once this is written down,(and you have a good chuckle because the likes of this day happening in the next 10 years is slim to none) you can move backwards from that ideal day to a place of compromise. But starting at the Ideal  is the important part. This is how I found my time. I work best early morning. I would technically have more time later in the day, but I would not be at my best then for writing. Instead I chose to try a shorter time in the very early AM. We’ll see how it goes, which leads me to my next point…

Stay Flexible. If at first you don’t succeed, stay flexible, keep hold of that goal, and try something else. Nothing has to be forever, arrangements do not have to be set in stone. Keep trying, keep making your time to work on your project a priority and IT WILL HAPPEN.

Don’t try to do it all in one day. This has always been one of my biggest blocks to completing a project. I go in HARD AND FAST. Must write whole book in one sitting!!! not that bad, but you catch my drift. I go in too hot and burn out. I recently read about the chain method for creative people who are trying to work on large creative projects while still maintaining all of their everyday duties. it goes like this. Get a large wall calendar that has the whole year on one page. Put it somewhere prominent. Get yourself a red sharpie. Everyday that you work on your project you get to put a satisfying red “X” through the day. After a week of consecutive work, you will have a chain on your calendar. Your only job is to not break the chain. It doesn’t matter if you work on your project for 5 minutes or 5 hours, you still get to put the “x” on that day. If you do this for a whole year your project will have moved along SIGNIFICANTLY.

Don’t let daily mundane tasks kill Your Soul. Do Own Your To-Do List Like a Boss. Here’s two ideas for tackling this. If you are a person who likes a traditional to-do list, try the 1,3,5 method. maybe you’ve heard of it, if not, here’s a summary. Each day on your to- do list schedule yourself to do 1 large task, 3 medium tasks, and 5 small tasks. I leave 1 medium and 2 smalls empty so I can fill them out last minute. This method keeps your to-dos realistic and helps  you from compiling a to-do list that could only be completed by 10 people if it were to be done in one day. If you are bit anti-to do list, give this a try (this is literally called the anti-to-do list method). Each night before bed, write down three things you need to accomplish the next day on an index card. Throughout the next day, as you accomplish many, many things, write them on the back of the card. That night, before you make the index card for the next day, take a look at all of the things you accomplished on the back of your index card. WOW. Way more than three. Just as you suspected, you’re freakin’ awesome.

Do Try to Stay Present During the Day. I know we hear this a lot. Sometimes I just want to rip my own ears off when I hear it at times when I really just don’t feel like being present. But after this week I realized that drifting off and wishing I could be working on my project all day was no good for anyone. It frustrated me and it frustrated my son. What helped? Sunday afternoon when I finally got my head in the game, made a new plan for carving out my creative time, and got my head back into the present situation. Everyone was much happier, myself included. Once you commit to carving that set time out each day, no matter how long it is or when that time comes, the fact that you know it’s coming  will help you to stay present during your day until your creative time comes. Side note: I do use voice notes on my phone and always have a notebook open and a pen ready to jot things like sudden inspiration or things I need to do during my carved out time slot. Once its recorded I can move on with what I was doing. I also ALWAYS have a notebook by my bed. Just drifting off to sleep= genius idea, without fail. Or a child waking up. Either one.

Don’t Settle. I’ll leave you for now with a little quote from one of my son’s favorite movies, The Little Engine That Could. It goes like this:

“If you think you can, you will. If you think you can’t you won’t. Either way, YOU’RE RIGHT.”

What can I say, my son has good taste.

I hope you find some of these ideas useful as you head into your week. Stay creative, stay committed, stay strong, and here’s to a productive and fun week, cheers xo.

If you have any favorite ways to carve out creative time please share them in the comments section 🙂

(And here’s the link to the Sparktending podcast if you’d like to take a listen)

 

Filed Under: Time Management Tagged With: routines for moms, time management, time management for moms

The Konmari Expirement-Room One

February 6, 2016 by Rebekah 2 Comments

Last Sunday I decided that I hated having  dish rack in my kitchen. The darn thing was always piled with half put together kid’s cups and a random dusty fork.

So I emptied it, took it off the counter, wiped it down, and put it away in a cabinet.

Such a small change made such a big difference. Sounds crazy, but I really disliked it. And now it was gone. refreshing.

Then I remembered The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up that I had read a few months back- “Does it spark joy? or in my slightly less enthusiastic words, “does this make me happy?”

Turned out not many things on my kitchen counters did. When I was done clearing and cleaning I was left with this…

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and this. Clear counters topped only with things that make me happy. Yes, my fancy German knives make me happy.

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Now, before you get all crazy on me about my house being too clean, my living room looks like this by 8 am

IMG_8452-2

But here’s the difference. Usually I would be going all no wire hangers by 10 am bc I can’t stand all the mess.

But now, when it gets all messy (AKA played in, which it  should be), I simply walk into my newly cleared out, happy place kitchen and am all like

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Hell Yes. I am instantly relaxed because there’s a place my eyes can settle that feels like my space, filled only with things that make me happy, that is not covered in kid’s items. My son wins because I am happy to leave his play area the way he wants it which really extends his play, and I win because I have a visually peaceful place to take a break.

There are rules from the book I don’t follow bc I just can’t seem to manage it with two kids. I joined a konmari facebook group and, after I had a good laugh about how freaked out people were about following the RULES I promptly exited that situation. We should all know right now that I cannot follow rules.

But the single principle I did take from the book- the idea of focusing on what makes me happy and what I want to keep rather than what I want to get rid of -the book’s concept has really been transformative. Up next, the master bedroom, then the living room/dining room.

Happy nesting 🙂

Filed Under: Organization Tagged With: declutter, kitchen, konmari, organizing

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