Quiet Please!

I'm sick to death of kids slamming doors around here. Lovely, especially, is a professional door slammer and no matter how many times I tell her she doesn't have to shut EVERY door behind her she just can't stop herself.

We have wood doors so I don't know if they shut a lot louder than other doors or if I'm just imagining it but they are LOUD! With a husband and a three year old that sleep during the day and a mother who is pregnant and likes to sleep in (that would be me), we just can't have any more of it.

I tried to get Stranger to buy some little vinyl bumper sticker things (I think that's the technical name) to put in the door frame but he suggested using sticky felt pads which I already had so I cut them up into little pieces and they are working great! Of course I can still hear every door opening and shutting and little feet running up and down the hall every morning but it doesn't make me grumpy like the slamming did.

I love my new quiet house! And I promise not to be so lazy after this baby is born. I will actually start getting up before my children again. In a year or so. I promise.

Thou Shalt Not Overschedule Thyself

A couple years ago I was tired of making bad scheduling decisions and my husband was tired of hearing me complain about it so he finally laid down the Law.

Thou Shalt Consult Thy Husband Before Making Any Plans with Friends and Family

Of course I don't always follow Stranger's Law but I save myself a lot of frustration when I do. Stranger isn't a controlling husband, he just wants my life to be as happy and stress free as possible so here's how it works.

Alice calls and asks if I would like to use her extra tickets to take my kids to the Symphony the next day and by the way could she and her kids catch a ride with us because her car is in the shop? I would love nothing more than to go to the symphony and Alice's life might end if I don't take it upon myself to drive her there so instead of checking my planner to see what I already have scheduled for the next day I say, "Of course!"

But then I looked down at the *tattoo on the top of my right hand that says "Thou Shalt Consult Thy Husband First" and say, "Oh wait a minute Alice, I need to talk to my husband to see if that's going to work for us."

So I call Stranger and he says, "What else do you have planned for tomorrow?"

"Oh, I didn't think of that. (Because that would be too easy.) It looks like I'm having a root canal in the morning and then I'm babysitting the neighbor's two year old triplets for six hours while she has her hair and nails done. I guess I can't really fit the symphony into any of that." Apparently I didn't consult with Stranger when I scheduled babysitting after a root canal. See what I mean?

So I call Alice back and tell her that the symphony isn't going to work for our family tomorrow. (Who can argue with that?) She cries for a minute and I offer to pay for her to rent a car to ease my guilt about not being everything for everybody and then we're both happy again.

Now that's just one scenario. The other one would be where Alice asks me to join her six person team in running 157 miles to raise money for some great cause. After I tell her I need to talk to my husband about it first, I sit and think about all the good that will come from raising money for such a great cause and then I think of all the good that will come from my staying alive to raise my three kids and I don't even have to call Stranger. I just call Alice back and tell her that my premature death isn't going to work for our family this week. She cries for a minute and I offer to pay for the ambulance should anyone need it during the run. This eases my guilt about not being everything for everybody and then we're both happy again.

Discussing and planning my life with my husband works for me. If you don't have a husband to consult I suggest a good friend or buying a **parrot named Bill. "I would love to Alice but I need to talk to Bill about it first." Hey, you'll never know what good advice Bill might have for you if you never ask.

*I don't actually have that tattoo yet but I seriously considering it.
**I'm not suggesting that a parrot is as useful as a husband but in some cases one may be. Don't tell my husband I said that.

More posts on planners and schedules.


If you're here for WFMW you might want to move along now before things get out of hand but if you want to read footage from an actual conversation to see how Stranger's Law really works in our family keep reading.

Stranger - We're going to call that lady to tomorrow.

Lazy - Kay.

Sranger - Are you just saying that?

Lazy - Yes.

Stranger - No you're not. We really going to call that lady tomorrow.

Lazy - Kay.

Stranger - Are you just saying that again?

Me - Yes.

Stranger - Don't get mouthy with me because I'm running the show here and we are calling that lady.

Me - Kay.

Stranger - What?

Me - Kay. You run the show and I'll run the mouth.

Stranger - That's not funny. And you're not blogging about this either.

Me - Kay.

Apparently Stranger's Law is easier made than followed.

The Victor's Organized Closet

Before, I started with an unfinshed closet and dresser.

During

After!

Thanks to Laura and her awesome Challenge we now have another organized closet! (The Fall Challenge) Don't you just want to sit and stare at it all day? Ok, probably not, but I do!

Some of the features I built into it are (and when I say built, I mean with power tools and my own two hands):

1. A spot for the dirty clothes basket with enough room above it to throw the clothes in.

2. Shelves for toys. I bought the containers before I started so I could get the width and height of the shelves right. There is just enough room to slide them in and out of the closet. My nine year old doesn't play with these toys. He is just storing them for his little sister. Isn't he so sweet?

3. A spot for the dresser. He doesn't need space for long hanging clothes but I made the dresser space a little bit wider and added a bar for company to use since his room is where they always sleep. It made a perfect spot for the guitar to slide next to the dresser. If one of my daughters ever move into this room she can move the dresser out and have more space for hanging clothes.

4. I built around the secret door that leads into his sisters' closet. When he gets too old to use the door and wants more space for clothes then he can use the lower rod.

5. I put a storage container on top of the dresser to put outgrown clothes in. Its empty because we just sent clothes home to his cousin this weekend. Hopefully the container will keep him from piling junk on his dresser.

6. A high shelf for long term storage of clothing and suitcases.

Now for the questions.

1. What was the hardest part of the challenge for you and were you able to overcome it?

The hardest part was just commiting to the design I've had in my head. We've lived in this house for a year without closets and the reason I didn't build them sooner was because I didn't want to make a mistake! I knew I would have to live with it forever so I wanted plenty of time to think about it. I had to get over thinking it would ever be perfect and just do the best I could.

2. Tell us what kind of changes/habits you have put into place in order for your area/room to maintain its new order?

Since this is my nine year old's closet I don't know how well it will stay organized but Victor has been taking time to clean his room every morning as part of his Personal Time. He has a couple containers just for "treasures" so he will need to work on keeping his treasures in the boxes instead of all over his room. And of course I will help him re-organize as its needed.

3. What did you do with the "stuff" you were able to purge out of your newly organized space?

He didn't have a lot of stuff to begin with so we didn't get rid of much but when we went through it he was able to give a lot of out-grown clothes to his younger cousin.

4. What was the biggest lesson you learned from this experience?

That I should have finished this closet sooner so we could enjoy it! Also that I know why it is so hard to do projects like this. I had to neglect my kids for a week to get it done. I'm lucky that my son is a great baby sitter.

5. Now that you have completed the PROCESS, do you think having and keeping your space organized will make a difference in your life?

I know it will make a huge difference in my son's life now that he has a place for everything. It has been frustrating for him to try to keep his room clean when he didn't have anywhere to put anything. I am so happy that I was able to do this for him to relieve some of his stress!

Now his room is almost completely finished. Thanks again for the motivation Laura!!!

I Want Candy

Today did not go exactly as planned. Instead of working on my closet project we went horseback riding and to the local children's museum. I came home so exhausted that I laid on the couch surfing the web for closet ideas. I really hope I am not getting sick!

I have gotten so many questions through the years of how to divide up closet shelves so that stacks of clothes don't tumble into one another. One solution is to use a wooden or plastic crate turned on its side and stack clothing inside. You could even use a cardboard box if you don't want to spend money.

I think this solution is adorable however and you can buy these corbels at home improvement stores for a few bucks. If you had the right tools you could build your own. Click on the photo to follow the link to the story at BHG.com. You can skip most of their closet stories because they are so unrealistic for the average home owner. How many people have an entire dressing room in their home? Its great eye candy though!

I did spend the morning measuring and planning Victor's closet and I stopped by the lumber store to buy the type of rods I wanted that I couldn't find at the big stores last week. I didn't find anything particularly useful on line for my project so I'm going to stick with my original plans. I'm hoping it rains tomorrow so we can skip park day to work on it. The kids think I am just so rude!

30 Day Challenge

I am honored that Laura has asked me to help with the judging of her Spring Organizing Challenge! I'm excited to see so many of you participating. It's going to be fun to watch what you come up with this time. The projects that you tackled last time were amazing and I'm sure we will see even better stuff this time around!

I'm not competing for prizes but her last challenge was so motivating that I have to play along again. I am going to build my son's closet. We've lived in this new house for a year so it's about time don't you think? I've got about four more rooms to go after this one so I'd better get started!

I decorated his room in December so all I've got left in there is his closet. You can see the photos here. That is an unfinished dresser that I am going to build into the design and there will be hanging bars and shelves in various places. I guess it's time to rev up the power tools and hit the home improvement stores.

Ready?
Set?
Go!!!!

The Sweetness of the Sweaters

I've been at it with the hooks again. I realized it could take me 10 years to actually finish my closet so I installed some temporary hooks. I'm not even going to paint the boards because they are not staying there. Is that a bit too optomistic of me?

I have always kept my baby's clothes in my closet until they old enough to dress themselves and put their own clothes away. It makes it so much easier to get myself and the baby ready at the same time and in the same place.

I was organizing Lovely's clothes into gallon sized baggies but that was a pain so I gave up on it. I bought all these boxes over the New Year sales and I thought I'd see if I liked them better than bags. So far I do and I also think they're pretty! I have two outfits organized into each one.

The white bin holds her pajamas. Since I like to freeze everyone out at night she wears two pairs to bed. She has more pajamas than regular clothes. It doesn't look like a lot of clothes does it? There might be a few things in the wash but what you see here is about all she owns. I would rather have a few cute things than a closet full of cheap ugly clothes. That doesn't mean I buy expensive clothes. I live for sales! Three out of four of those sweaters hanging up were hand-me-downs from a cousin and I bought the fourth one on sale from Gymboree last year for $3.

I also got tired of throwing Organizing Bags on the floor in the corner of my office/sewing room and installed a few temporary hooks there as well. Thank heaven for power tools!

Click on my Power Tools Label to see more about my hook fetish.

Organize Your Socks

“I KNEW you were wearing my socks!”

“Why do I have to keep telling you I don’t wear your socks?”

“Then how come I can see them on your feet?”

“Well, of course I’m wearing them NOW. I mean, normally I don’t wear your socks.”

“Then why don’t I ever have any socks in my drawer?”

Taking him by the hand and leading him into our bedroom to see at least a dozen pairs of sock littering the floor, “I think I have solved the case of the missing socks.”

A few days later I excitedly show him my new idea, The Sock Basket! He doesn’t seem impressed.

“Look! I put a basket right here next to the bed for you to throw your socks in!”

“That’s just dumb.”

“What do you mean? Now they won’t be all over the floor.”

“Well, it’s dumb that I throw my socks on the floor. You should tell me to stop doing it.”

I’m speechless. That is something I have never considered. If you don’t want your husband to throw his socks on the floor then you should ask him to stop doing it? I think that is going to be my next “This has never worked for me Wednesday but you should definitely try it for yourself.”

The sock basket has worked for me though and you really should try it. And then when your husband walks in the bedroom and sees a pair of your socks laying on the floor next to the bed he can laugh at you and make fun of you for being such a slob.

So I have shown you dirty socks in a basket. Now you are going to see a real treat: stockings in a bag.

You know how I feel about organizing with bags. I put my nylons into their own separate baggies to keep them from getting snagged in my drawer. If you have a larger collection than I do you could label the bags or (and I just thought of this) you could attatch the bag, using a clothes pin, to the outfit you wear the nylons with. I don't know. Now I'm probably just getting too crazy for you.

Here is one last sock tip for you. Instead of keeping your kid's socks in their rooms, find a spot for them by the back door. That way they can grab their socks and shoes and be on their way in a hurry. Not that you would ever be in a hurry. You are too organized for that!

Find more wonderful tips at Works for me Wednesday!

For more of the wonderful world of Organizing Bags click here!

Sleep Training

*Updated

She’s sleeping through the night and let me tell you, it’s about time!!! I know sleep training can be a controversial subject between Mothers but I had to do something. She was cranky and tired all day. Naps helped a little bit, when she took one. If she was able to fall asleep for a nap, everyone had to be perfectly quiet or she would wake up and be even more irritable than before. Night after night of her waking and not being able to put herself back to sleep was really taking its toll on the entire family. I had to do something. I needed some sleep!

Lucky for me, Stranger came home with the perfect cure just a few months ago and it has worked like a charm. Why couldn’t I have discovered it 10 years ago with my first baby? Just think of all the years of sleepless nights that I have suffered. At least there won’t be any more. Thanks to stranger I am finally able to put myself back to sleep when I wake up at night. Um, I mean SHE is.

Ok, it’s me. Lovely has been sleeping through the night since she was a week old. Well, why shouldn’t she? She doesn’t have to worry about library book fines or how to keep chickens from pooping on the front porch. She’s never built a house and lain awake at night wondering why the builders would put a door where the bathroom window was supposed to be and why the plumbers thought she wanted handicapped toilets.

I used to be a good sleeper. I spent my high school and college years traveling with sports and music. I could fall asleep anywhere and any time; on a bus sitting straight up or on a cold gym floor at the sidelines of a volleyball game. All of that changed when I got pregnant with my first baby. Suddenly my ears developed super human sensitivity to sound. Suddenly my brain refused to turn off for 8 hours in a row. Suddenly the night time hours turned into nights of sleepless horror with every tick of the clock. I dreaded the sun going down because I knew I would have to spend another exhausted night trying to sleep while my body refused to cooperate.

A few months ago Stranger brought home an MP3 player after I had mentioned it might be nice to have one to use at the gym. Of course it was on sale! You didn’t think he would just buy one out of love for me did you? It originally cost $100, it was on sale for $60 and then it came with a $40 rebate bringing the price down to $20. Apparently 80% off is almost as good as free to Bruno who was happy to show me how much he loves me while at the same time getting a good deal.

That is my WFMW. I have used my MP3 player to re-train myself to sleep through the night. I have a play list on it called Sleeping that plays thirty minutes of soft mellow music and I leave it ready and waiting right next to my bed every night. If I wake up in the middle of the night or even just an hour before I want to get up in the morning, I can put the ear phones in without disturbing Stranger, turn it on and fall blissfully back to the land of all you can eat cheesecake and kinder, gentler librarians who are actually delighted to share their sanctified books with you. I can dream can’t I?

My new Sleep Trainer works for naps, sleeping in hotels or visiting the cousins with their crowing roosters and crying lambs. I even took it to my physical therapy appointment today and took a 15 minute nap while I lay on a table undergoing some kind of wonderful shock therapy treatment. So in my usual way of overstating my point, get yourself an MP3 player, if you don’t already have one, and start dreaming again.

*Go visit Ann Kroeker. She has another great tip for using your MP3 player.

Here is another little detail for effective sleep training. If I'm using my player to fall asleep at night or to go back to sleep in the middle of the night then I set it to play through my 30 minute sleeping list once and then it turns off so I don't waste batteries. If I wake up an hour before I want to or if I want to take a nap in the afternoon then I set it to repeat one song over and over until I wake up and turn it off. The reason I do that is because the repetition of the same song keeps me sleeping when lights or other sounds would otherwise wake me up.

Can you tell that sleep is a very valuable resource in my house!

Organized Girls Closet

Were you just dying to find out what exciting thing I was working on last week? I knew it! I needed to get started on another project so I picked the girl's closet. I didn't feel like tackling the entire closet all at once so I began with one wall and lots of my favorite things (hooks) that work with my other favorite things (Organizing Bags).


The entire project took less than three hours. I cut and hung and caulked the boards one night, the next morning I applied two coats of paint and that afternoon I installed the hooks. I put one row down low. Another row up a little higher where Persistence can reach but Lovely can't and then a third row way up there for long term storage. It's still waiting for some hooks.


I added some cork board to hang jewelry on and we made labels so the girls would have a spot for everything.

While I was at it I put up two rows of hooks in our bathroom so we finally have a place to hang our towels by the shower. Ahhh, the small luxuries of life!

See those chrome hooks? Everyone grab your wallets and run to Target because I bought them in the dollar section at four for $2.50. That is cheap!!! Ok, they look a little cheap but they are great if you don't want to spend a lot. I wish I had found them before I put the hooks in Persistence's closet. I paid $2 each for those hooks. I'm going back to Target tomorrow to buy up their entire stock so you had better beat me to it if you want any!

The funnest part of the project was when someone left the bathroom door open and this little twerp found the paint bucket. After dipping my tools and her body in the bucket and flinging paint all over the bathroom, she wandered down the hall to show me how much fun she was having. Do you think it is possible for a one year old covered in paint to walk across the house without touching every single thing she passes? The answer is no.

Organize Your Closet

Well Rosie didn’t seem to think my advice was very helpful. Imagine that! Am I here to be helpful or famous?

I guess I’d rather be helpful so if you must know, in my old house I used wash tubs in the kid’s closets that I bought for $1 each at Big Lots. They were a poor solution though as you said. The kids would pull them all out onto the floor looking for what they wanted and never put them back.

In my own closet I stacked jeans in the cubbies. Are yours the right size for that? I liked them for jeans. We didn't have to dig through drawers and they didn't topple over like they would on an expanse of shelf. If you want to stack them on a shelf by the way, you can use boxes tipped on their sides to keep everything separated and neat.

I wonder if something like this would work for your cubbies. You could screw them in so the drawers would stay put. I'll have to look at home depot the next time I'm there. Kind of expensive though. I’d stick with the dollar store myself!

Has anyone else found something that works for them?

This is my dream wardrobe. In my next life I'm only going to buy white and pink and wear everything together. If it looks that good in a closet then it's got to look good on me, right? it doesn't have to be pink either. I could buy only brown or red or blue. Or green. Green is really my favorite color right now so that's what it's going to be. When I walk down the street people will point and say, "There goes that crazy lady who only wears green. Have you seen her house? It's green too." And friends will say, "Yes but she is so organized!" What better compliment could you ask for? Crazy and organized! And green.

If you could only wear one color for the rest of your life, what would it be?

By the way, I stole this photo from Lowes. I started feeling bad about it so I was just going to link to it but then I couldn't find it again! So I used it anyway. Does that make me a criminal? Going to jail could really solve all my wardrobe dilemmas too.

Night Night

I think this one will win some kind of Exciting Blog award so hold on to your seat.

How many times to do you get in bed at night and have to get up again because you forgot to turn the heat down, or take your medicine, or turn the garage light off? I for one am sick to death of it. I’m trying to go to bed, not get my exercise wandering all over the house in the dark.

I’m making another list tonight. It’s my new going to bed list and it doesn’t include getting ready for bed because for some reason I always remember to do that.

1. Close the garage.
2. Lock the doors.
3. Turn the lights off.
4. Turn the heat down.
5. Take my medicine.
6. Fill my water bottle.
7. Cover the angels.
8. Make sure all the food is put away that the kids have snuck in to.
9. Take my planner and cell phone and reading book with me.

I think that covers it but I might have to update it if I think of something else. What is on your list?

Organize Your Quilts

Are you
A. Lazy – you don’t want to fold up your quilts every time you use them. And
B. Organized – you don’t want your quilts to look like a mess every time you use them.

Then this idea is for you. Hang them! And I don’t mean hanging them neatly folded on a quilt rack. I mean taking two seconds to pick up a quilt and throw it over a hook on a peg-board that you made out of a cupboard door that came from an old house that your parents tore down. I just had to throw in that tiny little fact that I can be very handy sometimes. I think I might just give myself an award.

The Organized Bed

Do what you can to make your bed more comfortable. Do you need new sheets, new pillows or a new bed altogether? Some people I know can afford to buy a memory foam bed. If you are like us you may have to go without such a wonderful extravagance. For a fraction of the cost of a new bed we bought a 2" thick, memory foam topper from Sam's Club that is a comfortable addition to our old bed. We're saving our pennies so that some day we can buy the real thing!

I keep our extra sheets tucked into their pillow cases and store them in the rooms they belong in. That way anyone can make a bed without searching for sheets that match and fit. I have extra sheets for all the beds but I rarely use them. I remove the dirty sheets, wash them and put them right back on the beds. This saves me the hassle of folding sheets every week.

I had a couple top sheets that were too short for the beds. They were always coming un-tucked so I sewed a 6" strip of muslin to the bottom of them. Now they stay tucked in nicely and the bed stays neater. To make things easier for my kids I tuck in the bottom of their sheets and quilts. All they have to do is pull them up and their beds are made. Investing in really good mattress pads helps the sheets stay put too. The mattress pad on our bed isn't that great so it, and the sheets are always sliding off the bed. I bought the kid's beds nicer covers so they wouldn't have the same problem.

You spend a lot of time in your bed so make it time cozily spent!