Hidden Spaces

04/12/2022

Creating more functional spaces brings me a lot of joy! Can’t wait to see how this pantry turns out!

10/02/2021

I should’ve taken a picture of the girls bathroom under the sink before I started cleaning it out. It was bad! Doors wouldn’t close! Stuff was shoved up to the bottom of the sink. 20 minutes. 20 minutes was all it took to remove what didn’t belong, organize what did and put stuff back around the house.

Months of frustration for a 20 minute task. 😂

08/25/2021

ADHD kept me from enjoying my kids sports. Medicine has changed that. The inattentive piece of ADHD keeps us from being fully present in the moment. Without medicine I am super ADHD and so and attentive that two years ago, I was afraid I was getting dementia and went to the doctor to be tested and have that ruled out.

If you have ADHD and struggle to be fully present at your kids activities, your activities, with friends and family, it is a worth the investment of time and money to not only look into the possibility of ADHD, but find the willingness to be treated for it..

08/13/2021

02/21/2021

Ok, another fun info sharing post. I hate hard water stains in my toilet. I found a super simple solution!

always hated the hard water ring! No more! I found an easy to clean solution!

02/13/2021

Click on the picture to see them larger. This room was packed so full that we couldn’t fully open the door. My client and I spent 6.5 hours to complete this room.

Step one: pull everything out and sort into categories.
Not returning to storage room:
- belongs somewhere else in house
- garage
- trash/recycle
- giving to someone else
- rehome
Back into storage:
- travel
- kitchen overflow
- memories/photo albums
- musical stuff
- home decor

Step two:
- return everything to storage organized
- first shelf is China, cookware, kitchen etc
- second shelf is decor, outdated electronics with pictures that need retrieved and historical paperwork.
- third shelf is music and travel
- all top shelves is long term childhood memories and old photo albums that are never looked at.

- the stuff she was getting rid of we posted as a “take it all” lot on Beavercreek Buy Nothing page. The recipient can take what she wants and repost the rest. It filled my car!

- trash out
- stuff
- owners have a few boxes of paperwork to make decisions on in their own time.

02/05/2021

01/31/2021

Parents: sanity saver....take a deep breath. Your child’s ability or inability to be tidy is not necessarily a reflection on you.

I know parents who angrily insist that their children like mine get their act together, but I’m not that parent. I was, but not anymore.

This child is 12. If she wants to have a friend over, she cleans it all up. When she doesn’t have that sort of external motivation, she truly doesn’t care.

My anger or frustration is not a fair motivator. When I’m on her to keep up with this, she literally spends all day laying on her floor in the middle of the floor saying she’s working on it.

She does have unmedicated inattentive ADHD and with ADHD myself, I understand that when your heart isn’t in it, it’s like walking through knee deep mud trying to do what you’re not interested in.

But she can lay in one spot for 5 hours straight and walk out with a masterpiece.....laying on top of piles of junk! It’s how her mind works.

Her mess may NOT spill over into the hall or the rest of the house but as long as her door closes, I’ve made peace with her mess.

01/26/2021

People and spaces thrive with boundaries. What belongs in a given space?

As you’re organizing, take everything that doesn’t belong in that space out of that space. What ends up happening is that eventually you have a space that is full of all the items you didn’t find a home for.

Do you need those things?
How do you imagine you would feel if you let those items go?

01/18/2021

With expired medicine:

Peel the labels that have your personal information on them. Most of them nowadays can be peeled. Some of the older ones need to be soaked. Recycle the bottles. Take your bag of pills to your local pharmacy or police station to dispose of. Do not flush down the toilet or throw in the trash.

01/07/2021

Ladies have you ever heard of Stuffed Animal Beanbags?! WHAT!? These are SOOO great! A client and a friend each shared theirs with me this week and this is such a fabulous idea for stuffed animal storage!

You can buy them for between $20-35 each, depending...or you could make something similar if you're a seamstress and have a bunch of fabric. It's pretty much a zippered bag to store stuffed animals in and lay on.

Unicorn Stuffed Animal Toy Storage Kids Bean Bag Chair Cover Large Size 24x24 Inch Velvet Extra Soft Stuffed Organization Replace Mesh Toy Hammock for Kids Blankets Towels Clothes Home Supplies Pink

01/07/2021

Overwhelmed by the idea of organizing? It's SIMPLE, and anyone can do it! You just have to know where to start. Do you know where to start? I think you'l...

01/05/2021

I am feeling on top of the world my friends!
I get to spend my day transforming peoples homes and tonight I will be transforming minds… At a local MOPS group (Mothers of preschoolers).

Did you know that every single organizing job begins in your mind? Every single restored marriage began in the mind. Every single transformation of any sort begins in your mind.

If there is something in your life that you would like to change, start with the way you think about it!

12/14/2020

We live in a culture of excess. Sometimes we have way too much, sometimes we have what we will need but don’t have it where it belongs.

Having kids changes....everything! We go from keeping track of ourselves, which can be hard enough, to keeping track of little people who are in a constant state of evolution that as a parent, we are responsible to keep up with. That’s a tall order!

When you couple that with post partum depression, things can easily spiral out of control.

What do you do when kids stuff has taken over your universe?

Start by giving yourself grace. Expecting yourself to undo what has taken years to do in an afternoon is an unrealistic expectation.

Sort first, purge later. Start your task by simply sorting into categories. Separate toys from books from stuffed animal from clothes and shoes.

When you have rough categories, one by one, decide what you need to keep and what you can let go of. Donate quickly so it doesn’t find its way back into the mess.

Store what is out of season or incorrect sizes, clearly labeled so when it’s time to switch it up, the process is fairly pain free.

11/24/2020

Have toys taken over your home?
It’s so out of control you don’t know where to start?

1) walk through the WHOLE house and gather EVERY toy, stuffed animal and dress up item in big trash bags.
2) designate boxes, baskets or bins (labeled) for each category. (Legos, Barbies, Happy Meal Toys, cars, stuffed animals, puzzle and game pieces, baby toys, Mr. Potato head, dress up stuff, etc)
3) sort into categories
4) one category at a time, starting with the largest item groups, decide what you will keep and what can go.
5) as you get to the smaller stuff (ie parts for all those larger toys, match them up before donating, selling or sharing.

Christmas is one month away! What better time to let go of the old and make room for the new?!

11/21/2020

Proud day for this mama bear! Gracious came on her first organizing job with me today. She sorted children’s clothing for 8 hours straight!

We both adore the family we’re working for! Such sweethearts, the whole lot of them!

I get asked a lot what to do when clothing sizes/quantities get out of control. Here’s a few tips:

1) Set up baskets or boxes with a piece of paper in front of each to say what size it is.

2) Dump all the clothes in the middle and throw in boxes correctly marked boxes. This includes EVERYTHING from the dresser drawers and closet!

3) When boxes get too full, put in trash bags with a paper on to of clothes to remember the sizes.

4) Once they are sorted into sizes, store the wrong (future) sizes by size in tubs. If you have unreasonable amounts of clothing in any certain size, pare it down.

My rule of thumbs:
1) Have enough outfits for the season that your child could be clothed for 7-10 days. If you’ve got more than that, you probably have a laundry or storage problem.

2) Shoes can be out of control. Think about how many shoes you realistically need. In the summer, some gym shoes, a couple pairs of flip flops or crocks and maybe water shoes or rain boots. In the winter, it doesn’t hurt to have two pairs of warm boots if they tend to get them wet in the snow, gym shoes, and house slippers if they like them.

That’s what you need. Want a couple cute pairs just for fun or need special shoes for a sport? Do it, but if you bring a million shoes home for your kids, don’t be mad if they can’t keep track of them.

3) Backpacks and bags - these can definitely get out of control! They’ve got one they use and love. Have a backup if you want. Use that backup for sleepovers or non-school outings. They don’t need a ton of bags and purses. Less is more.

4) Socks - match them up. If your kids are 2 years old or older, play the matching game. Teach the kids young making it a game and you just might accidentally set good habits for them.

Have a mesh zippered laundry bag next to the hampers. Laundry sorting is much easier if you just pull the zippered bag out and match them back up.

In our culture, we have abundant resources and we want our kids to have everything. Remember that everything is a roof over their heads, a warm bed to sleep in, clothes on their backs, healthy food and clean water in their bellies, an education and the love of a family. That’s everything!

My mom had very few toys and dolls as a child and she TREASURED them! When we have a few very special things, we treasure them. When we have too much, we’re suffocated by them.

As frustrated as you are by your child’s excess, I can almost promise you, they are too.

Happy sorting friends!

11/19/2020

This is my happy place. This is where I feel fulfilled. God gifted me with the ability to organize.

We were not created to simply sustain ourselves although that is our responsibility. A purpose filled life is one where you are using the giftings God gave you to love and serve others.

Where do you feel fulfilled?
What are you passionate about?
What gift do you have that you offer others?