30-Minute Martha » 30-Minute Organizer

30DOH: Day 30 – Celebrate!

admin — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 07:22:22 +0000

Welcome to Day 30 of 30 Days to an Organized Home, our 30-day journey to sanity and cleanliness.

On Days 28-29 we created our insurance records via photograph. I also spent some time finishing up a few areas I ran out of time for earlier in the month. I have to admit, I’m impressed! I’m going to post a photo of the pile of giveaway stuff that was purged from our home, and that is now going to head to the Goodwill. It’s crazy that all this stuff was just sitting there in our home, taking up space, gathering dust, etc. etc. It feels good to be free of it.

Your Task: Celebrate

Read through Page 33 about maintaining your home, and please leave a comment to tell me how the month changed your home. I’d love to hear!

Declutter and Organize Your Kids’ Playroom in 30 Minutes (and Live to Tell About It)

admin — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 14:00:09 +0000

Right at the end of this month of organizing, I was asked to write a post about easy ways to declutter and organize your kids’ playroom. Boy, do I have a lot to say on that subject!

Let’s start out by saying that my seven-year-old’s bedroom and playroom are THE MESSIEST ROOMS IN THE HOUSE. Worse than the mudroom. Worse than my teenage son’s bedroom. Worse than my craft room. They’re bad. But because they are consistently messy, I have developed some tips for dealing with the clutter and disorganization. Here they are:

1. Clean with your child. Teach them how to sort and containerize. Contrary to popular belief, these skills must be taught (unless you’re someone like Geralin Thomas, who was probably born sorting and purging!)

2. Declutter when your young child is not home. This suggestion might seem contrary to the tip above, but it’s hard to toss outgrown clothes and toys and broken bits of wood and screws (we have tons of those around here –Callie calls them “quality items”) when your dear child is hanging on your leg and begging you to please not toss her toys. Trust me: Clean WITH them, declutter WITHOUT them (as they get older, you can teach them this skill).

3. Decide on an amount before you start purging. Set the ultimate limit on how many books, games, dolls, cars, etc. you will keep, either by number or space, and stick to it. If you don’t set the limit first, you’ll try to convince yourself that you can keep “just one more.”

4. Know where the stuff is going. Goodwill, a younger friend down the block, the school library… knowing where the items you purge will end up helps with separation anxiety — for you AND your child.

5. Get it all out of site. Put it in a sealed bag or box. When you see the items you’ve decided to let go of, you can start to have second thoughts. But it truly is “out of sight, out of mind.” Hiding them from view helps prevent backsliding.

6. Do it in chunks. Trying to convince your child to spend a few hours cleaning and organizing is tough. But if you say, “let’s spend 15 minutes hanging clothes in your closet,” that seems do-able. Set a timer and go!

7. Make it fun. Have a contest, turn on loud music, race to finish… the more fun you make it, the less your child will whine and cry.

8. Have the right tools. One of the reasons my daughter’s room is such a nightmare is that we don’t have the right infrastructure for her to keep things clean. We need another bookshelf, some bins for her closet, and hooks for her dress-up clothes. We just moved a few months ago, so it’s coming… but I can’t really expect her to keep things neat and tidy if there’s nowhere for the stuff to go!

9. Remember whose room it is. My daughter is never going to be as anal as I am (I HOPE!). So I don’t expect her to keep her spaces as neat as I would like them. But we do have some minimum requirements she needs to adhere to. Come to an agreement what “clean” is, and then let go. Anything beyond that is a bonus.

10. Keep on top of it. 15 minutes every evening is much more do-able than 4 hours once a month. Make picking up a natural part of winding down at the end of the day.

P.S. I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Hot Wheels® blogging program, for a gift card worth $40. For more information on how you can participate, click here.

30DOH: Day 28-29 – Insurance Records

admin — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 07:18:01 +0000

Welcome to Day 12 of 30 Days to an Organized Home, our 30-day journey to sanity and cleanliness.

On Day 27 we put our disaster preparedness kit together. I didn’t call it that, of course! Instead, I told my little one that it was our “snowed-in kit.” I said, “You know how sometimes we get a lot of snow and the power goes out in the winter? This is in case they can’t get the power back on right away.” She understood that, and my bit of a roundabout answer kept the word “disaster” out of the discussion!

Today and tomorrow, we’re preparing some more. And we get to take pictures, too! Wahoo!

Your Task: Insurance Binder

Follow the instructions on pages 31-32 of your book and take photos of your valuables in case you ever need them for insurance purposes (heaven forbid!). You can also do this by videotaping your home and valuables, and storing a hard copy of the video on a DVD, CD, or USB drive in your home safe. You may want to store the photos and/or video online, too, in case your computer is destroyed or your safe is inaccessible. Be prepared, and all that!

Just one day left… does your home look any different than it did 29 days ago?

P.S. Check out AboutOne if you haven’t yet — it’s an easy way to store your data online! Free trial, too.

30DOH: Day 27 – Disaster Kit

admin — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 07:57:28 +0000

Welcome to Day 27 of 30 Days to an Organized Home, our 30-day journey to sanity and cleanliness.

On Days 25-26 we cleaned out the garage. Find any lost treasures? Discover any little critters? There can be some surprises in this decluttering and organizing process!

Good thing we made room out there, because today we are putting something in…

Your Task: The Disaster Kit

Disasters happen. Tornadoes, fires, hurricanes, snowstorms, floods… they seem to be hitting with more and more regularity lately. That’s why I’ll be pulling out the list on Page 30 and gathering the items there. Creating a disaster kit will make me sleep a little easier at night.

30DOH: Days 25-26: The Garage

admin — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 07:53:20 +0000

Welcome to Days 25-26 of 30 Days to an Organized Home, our 30-day journey to sanity and cleanliness.

On Day 24 we finished (or at least got a great start on) the other rooms of our home. As I suspected, I wasn’t able to get it all done. But that’s okay; I’ll keep working on it! I feel great about the progress I’ve made this month, and if I need another day to tackle the guest room, I’m okay with that. Just like today and tomorrow, you can spread it out.

Your Task: The Garage

This may take some of us longer than others, depending on how much stuff is stored in your garage! We recently moved, so our garage isn’t too bad (though I do have a big pile of stuff to give to Goodwill next week). I’ll use some of my spare time to go back and finish up the playroom and basement. Once you’re done, please leave a comment and let me know how it’s going for you! Just a few days left…