Help with organization of kid stuff

Iowa caucus for Americans today. I'm really curious about how things will go. [Confession: I am so not paying attention to anyone but the top three contenders on each side, and confused the candidate Ron Paul with rapper Sean Paul (turn down your speakers if you're at work). And every time I saw a "Ron Paul for President" sign I thought it was an ad for a new album coming out. I only figured they're two different people the other day while watching CNN. Duh.]

Can we talk about organization? I am not a great organizer in general, and was barely holding on with the new holiday influx of toys. But yesterday my older son brought home a beautiful little pinch pot from his art class at school. And I realized I was going to have to start really processing 3D art projects and figuring out what to do with them. (I've been putting the drawings and paintings into file folders and saving them.)

Gah!

So I guess what I'm looking for is ideas from those of you who are good at this sort of thing. I could use ideas on processing the unbelievable amounts of clothing we end up with, the toys, the art projects, and the seasonal stuff. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels like it's all getting away from her.

I wish I could just shove it all into an attic or a garage, but I don't have either of those right now. (I'd be willing to bet there are readers who could use tips on organizing basements, attics, and garages, if you've got any ideas for that.) And I watched a show about hoarders that scared the living crap out of me, and now I'm actually afraid I'll get rid of too much stuff in an effort not to end up with stuff that runs my life.

What do you keep and what do you get rid of? How do you manage and store the kid stuff you do want to keep? Will I magically become organized if I buy a labelmaker?

Thank you.

Comments

[Amy]

I should add that my mother is a hoarder, her mother was a hoarder, and my great-grandmother was a hoarder. The thought of giving over my life to stuff scares the beejeezus out of me which makes me more brutal about what I toss than most. As my husband will point out, though, I have a long way to go...

[Marie]

Sorry I haven't had the time to read all the comments. I don't have much to add - there are great ideas here! But as for dealing with child's artwork, my not-at-all-sentimental grandmother had one great idea. She somehow saved (maybe by accident!) a Christmas coloring page done by my father when he was a child. When he was about 50 she framed it and gave it to him for Christmas. I know that I cherish it and look forward to seeing it every Christmas. At the end of the season it gets packed away with all the other seasonal decorations. Now that we're entering the 3D artwork stage with our oldest I'm eyeing her projects to see if any can be easily converted to Christmas tree ornaments or deocrations.

[dawn f]

For the ones with old scout uniforms. My Husbands mom took an 8X10 frame. Used part of the uniform as the backdrop and then put all the badges/medals including his troop number on the shirt but under glass. I thought that was pretty cool & will do it for my daughter when she "flies up" from brownies to Juniors.

And by the way I have one in 6th grade and he brought home 2 pinch pots for Christmas Groan. I have the first piece of finger paint art in a sheet protector with the date in the photo album but beyond that not keeping much. As they outgrow it I purge most of it or it gets used in shadow boxes for school projects polly pocket figures are the perfect size. Grin

[cat]

Just a couple of things to add.
Artwork photos/scanning: As an architecture student in the first couple of years, nobody really knew how to take good photos of our work (which we NEEDED to record for portfolios down the line). Eventually we learned that the easiest way without paying a professional is to take it outside on a sunny day. You need strong shadows to make it look good, and indoor lighting conditions can seriously change the colors. A solid colored cloth underneath helps, too. For 2D, scanning is SO superior to photos- no distortion, and much higher resolution. There are very HQ scanners out there that can do large images lickety-split. IMO, your kids will thank you for taking their work seriously and making it look good.

We used some of my son's first fingerpaintings for giftwrap this Christmas. I am strangely not all that attached to his art yet, and this way I felt like he was somehow participating in the gift-giving.

Regarding toys: my mom, who lives near us and cares for my son and my nephew, saved LOTS of our toys and some of our clothes(giant attic). She complains all the time about it, but how cute is it that my son wore some of the same overalls that I did? From the 70's, no less. And she takes out the toys that are age-appropriate for the grandkids to play with, so now my little guy can cook with my old tupperware set, etc. I think the spanning-generation thing is charming, if you have the space.

[JLynn]

I'm not very organized, but I have a friend who is uber neat and organized, and she has a great technique for getting rid of toys. Any toy she wants to get rid of goes on "death row". Death row is a high shelf in her closet that the kids don't know about. If the kids don't notice the toy is missing or ask about it for a week, the toy is thrown away or donated. She has several toys on death row every week. If the kids ask about a toy on death row, then the toy goes back to the toy box. I tried this myself, but unfortunately my son found my "death row" spot, and he of course the entire stash of hidden toys be returned. So make sure your death row is out of sight!

[Sheryl]

What Jamie said about turning storage boxes into furniture? I totally do that, though I just use them as end tables, night stands, and places to put things like fans in the summer. When you live in a 450 square foot apartment, you have to get creative.

Rubbermaid (or generic Rubbermaid) storage boxes are my friends. They are stacked in corners and against walls all over my apartment. It's the only place I can put stuff since I literally have about two shelves in the kitchen that I can actually reach and no closet space anywhere.

[stacy]

One suggestion - don't buy a labelmaker, set of storage containers, or any other organizational "toy" unless you're certain you will use it. It's you that makes the organization work, not the stuff - but that is the easiest trap to fall into. More stuff will fix my stuff!

If you decide on an organization plan, do the best you can without the labels/bins/whatever. Even if it means using leftover cardboard boxes and writing labels by hand with a Sharpie to simulate the ideal system for a while. If you are able to stick with the system, and you find it actually works, then spend the money on the toys. Once you get an idea of what stuff you really do need, you're less likely to overbuy and just end up cluttering your space more.

[ireps]

so what does it say about me if I just throw or freecycle everything...I just dont seem to have any sort of attachment, first teddy bear that son loved, tossed yesterday because covered with stains that i couldnt get out. is that bad? should i be holding on to more of his baby things? I think I have one baby outfit saved. Lots of pictures though. lots and lots. but he is 18M old and i still havent done any sort of memory book. I hate clutter and even though i'm ruthless we still have random things that I suppose will get tossed in the next move.

[Kelly]

I love the obsessive organizer disorder. My name is Kelly, and I have OOD... we are five living in a 700 square foot house, so I am ruthless. One solution I've found for artwork is to send it to Grandpa and Grandma's art archival services (they're divorced, so I can give twice as much away). I save a couple of choice pieces, and if the rest can fit into a large manilla envelope it gets mailed to my parents. If not, it's in the bin.

[SJ]

850 sq ft condo here, very limited storage...

I keep a folder of "art" that I put into grandparents birthday cards, etc. The rest of it (except a few refrigerator pieces, that cycle up and out) goes directly to the recycling.

For toys, we have gotten a lot of little rubbermaid type bins, so that they fit kind of one category neatly. I also noticed that for a lot of toys once they were put away my son didn't ask about them or notice (I love the "toy death row" idea!) We have the Billy bookcases from Ikea with doors on the bottom half, and the bins are stashed inside the doors.

I keep a bag in my closet for immediate purges - anytime I put on a clothing item and it doesn't fit/I don't like the color anymore, etc, it goes right into the bag for goodwill. It really helped for do this for about six months consistently.

Kid clothes - not too sentimental except for handmade items, so right now all are being passed on to my nephew and I will be getting some back soon for my baby girl - I will have to decide what she can wear (I am planning on her wearing most of her big brother's stuff) and the rest will be given to other friends. Hand-me-downs have been so helpful for us, I want to keep spreading the love :-)

[hedra]

For the death row for toys thing - a week might not be long enough for things that were truly precious. My parents did this with my beloved stuffed alligator. I'd 'outgrown' it, it was ratty and stained from being dragged everywhere, and I was starting to forget where I'd put it. So they put it on death row, and after a week, I hadn't asked for it. So they tossed it. WOO!

And then three days later, I realized it was missing. I was DEVASTATED that it was gone for good. It was the one thing I wanted to keep forever (60% of people who had 'one main lovey' as a kid still have it as an adult, or something like that...). I'm over 40, and I *still* miss that damn thing. So, use some sense with this.

I also have an issue with ownership, and believe that when a child is given something, it becomes THEIR property, not mine. Just as I don't want my DH going through my stuff and chucking what HE thinks I should get rid of, I don't feel comfortable doing that with my kids' stuff. Some items are 'family owned', but if it was given to them (unwrapped, handed over 'for you', etc.), then it is theirs, not mine. My job is not just to keep the house tidy, but to also teach them the skills for tossing what need not be kept. Being too ruthless might be counterproductive, by increasing anxiety over whether something might hurt if it is lost.

Granted, kids aren't generally emotionally/developmentally ready to toss 'stuff' until they're ready to separate from parents subtantially (10-12 years old in general). Before then, it can be sorted, though. (My kids don't have major lovies, but use ANYTHING as a 'transitional object' - which means 'stand-in for mommy/daddy'... which is very flexible, but also means that it's harder to spot which items might be precious in the long run). The boxes in the garage are being very useful by being an extended 'pre-death-row/aka sell on eBay, kids get the cash' option.

And again, this doesn't work so well for low-storage locations. And I freely admit I have a HUGE issue with the ownership thing (maybe something about being forced to give my NEXT stuffed lovie attachment object to my little brother for Christmas... Oy. If it was given to me, it's MINE.). Um, so, anyway, apply the usual mantra here: Balance and Moderation, Balance and Moderation. Sigh.

[Diane]

I just wanted to echo Hedra's last comment on this. Do be careful about throwing away some of your children's things. My father went on a cleaning rampage in my bedroom one time when I was in middle school. I don't care about 99% of what he threw out, but my very first baby doll that I took ridiculously good care of was in that lot. That was probably 15 years ago, and I'm still not over it.

I'm not advocating keeping every item your child hugged or loved for a few days, just do try to involve your children to some extent. Especially as they get older. I would say if you must do the "death row" thing due to space/clutter issues, please take a picture of the items, even a group picture of everything, and put that away or save it somewhere. If I at least had a picture of my old baby doll, I think I'd feel a lot better about the whole thing.

[Meagan]

Have you considered "going paperless?"

I know this may seem cold, but instead of keeping EVERYTHING paper that your child made and you just can't part with.... scan it. Create an electronic folder. Save the files with the proper dating and naming. Save them to a CD for backup/archival purposes. Your child will have them to "look at" forever. You could even print them out and scrapbook them, and while they may be like "Art prints" it would certainly save you some space, and protect them in case of a disaster/fire.

You can also go paperless with your medical records, receipts, and manuals for household items/appliances. Nearly every company that makes an appliance offers PDF versions of the product manual. Now when I buy a product I go online immediately and download and save a copy of the product manual to my computer, in a specific folder. They can also be archived to a CD.

You can also scan receipts and all kinds of other paperwork to go paperless. I have to admit it helps if you have an expensive scanner with a paper feeder (which I do not) so you aren't constantly lifting the lid to swap papers. It's a thought....

[MemeGRL]

Wow, pinchpots. Yikes. Makes me glad we didn't send the boys to the preschool with the woodshop and ceramics studio.
We tried the art portfolio from H*earthsong, which a friend swears by, and my hyperkinetic Son1 had ripped it apart in less than a week. We switched to "archival" storage boxes from The Container Store, which have a few advantages: They are big, so they hold "large" art, and as a box, they hold somewhat 2D stuff (including full size self portraits rolled up). I get one a year and cull at the end of the year.
Also working for us this year: I made a notebook for the daily detrius from preschool (the "placemat" of the day, which is also letter/number/coloring sheet of the day, etc.) plus 2D projects that are 8.5x11, plus the weekly updates. Son1 is SO PROUD of this and shows it off to every visitor to the house. I figure I won't need to keep it forever (like by next year I'd imagine the "placemats" can go) but it's working for this year. I also have a smallish box for the more 3D items.
As to clothes: I'm also a big fan of the ziplocks, and on the lowest closet shelf, I have a cute series of baskets from T*rget, all with BIG LABELS from sharpies and notepads. Swim gear, right size wrong season, next size up, outgrown. When the last one gets full, I dump it in a ziplock and put it in the attic for the next one. (And now when the next one is outgrowing them, I am returning the handmeovers to the same family who gave them to us originally as--surprise!--they had another boy. I figure the universe provided once, if we have another it will all work out. Though I loathe getting rid of them I am humbled by their generosity in the first place and it's easier to do to think of it as a return.)
Finally, I am a huge fan of the quilts. I have a tshirt quilt of all my mom's tshirts and I love to bundle myself up in that when I miss her (which, ok, is all the time). And I already have a "Mom's favorites" (meaning me) box in the attic with a few baby tshirts and other outfits, some of which will just be there forever, and others that will be made in a quilt when the boys leave home.
And now really final: all those scouting uniforms! My mom, who was an awful hoarder--almost pathological--at least culled a bit for me--she saved my beanie and my sash with all the badges and the guidebooks listing what I had to learn to earn them. Perfect. The rest of it, who cared? But that was exactly the "right stuff" to save--so kitschy and so many memories brought back. But not much of a space waste. Hope that helps someone. I also love her sewing "technique" on the badges, which included never cutting the thread, just barging on to the next badge--so funny--she was a terrible sewer and yet she powered on to do it for me--makes me laugh and love her more every time I think about it.

[Joy]

Okay, this is what we do.
I keep an under-bed bin for each kid, where they deposit their school papers every day. At the end of the year we go through it together and whatever we absolutely cannot part with goes into one of those extra large ziplock bags, and then to the basement.
I also keep clothes that don't fit in those same extra large ziplocks; I've kept one coming home from the hospital outfit from each of my three kids as keepsakes, but we plan to have more kids, so I'll keep all but the most worn ones seperated by gender and size in the ziplocks. (in the basement).

I keep a rubbermaid bin on the top shelf of their closets for each kid for cards and keepsakes.

In each kids room, we have a tall bookcase with cheap sterlite ($1-$2 each) bins labeled with a marker- written, taped-on label for different categories of toys. Sometimes this helps the kids keep their own stuff organized, and sometimes not.

Without a basement, I would probably have to rent storage space. Although, I've been through several flooded basements and have lost many items that I was very much attached to emotionally (letters, antiques, photos, family heirlooms, and things from my travels in Spain), most of them I do not miss, and the ones I do miss I'll always have the fond memories. If I forget, then I won't know what I'm missing, will I?

I keep pictures in photo boxes, not albums, and NOT in the basement.

I run a home day care and we just had our daycare room carpeted and had to move everything out. I like the room much better without furniture. We moved only the changing table and low play table with storage drawers underneath back in, and I'll bring the bookcase back in for books, but that's it. Everything else goes.

My mom keeps everything. I also have a tendency to want to keep everything. The more I purge, however, the more I like not having everything anymore. It makes the most precious things seem that much more so.

Sometimes I wish we all still lived in one room huts and our kids had one little wooden doll to play with and were totally happy with that.
Then I curl up in my favorite chair with a cup of cappucino and surf the internet.

Good Luck!

[cris]

Storables has become a close friend lately. I wish they were cheaper, but everytime I buy shelving or some little hook I'm amazed at how buying something and bringing more "stuff" into my house actually reduces the clutter. In our entry space we have 1. a coat rack, 2. hooks on the wall, 3. a bench, and 4. a bamboo shoe shelf that I bought from 1. a thrift store, 2. lowe's, 3. crate and barrel and 4. storables. The area still ends up chaotic but atlest there is a place for all of our shoes to go, coats to hang, and a bench to set ourselves or any random stuff on as it goes in and out of the door. And this is all in a fairly small space.

I like the comment on closet organizers. I might have to make that a 2008 commitment. Under the bed boxes are also a life saver for me.

I just learned about toy storage systems from a company called Via Toy Box. I haven't tried them yet but I'm intrigued.

[Nolan]

Well, I have an infant but a packrat husband and prior to baby, I had to devise several systems over the course of a year or two to get him to unload the stuff and enable our child to actually have a nursery (a room which was full of "stuff" including his office in another room!)I have also been organizing other people's things for a long time too...

1)Decide how much space/bins/shelves you want to allocate and never let it get to more than that. It's hard but worth it. Is there ever a reason to have a house overflowing with memories if it's stressful and impedes function?
2)Keep 1-2 pieces of artwork/schoolwork for each year and put them in an archival quality book or box. Scan the rest into digital format and create a slideshow for yourself and kids so you can all enjoy it on the computer or TV screen if you burn to DVD. You'll actually look at their stuff more than if it was scurried away in a box somewhere collecting dust.
-When a bin is full and something new comes in, something then has to go. Tell yourself and your children that giving to a needy child/person is something you do regularly and as a family you can all get it on it. Keeps your stuff in control and helps someone else. OUR MOTTO is "1 in 1 Out"
-Save a couple of articles of clothing THAT TRULY HAVE MEANING. Give the rest to a needy family or friend. Better it is enjoyed and continues to create memories than sit in a closet. Take photos of your kids in your favorites or of the items themselves if you just can't bear to never see them again.
-Work UP. Use your wallspace for storage, put hooks on your doors and get stuff off the floor.It makes a world of differnce.
-And the old standby once you start going through things, use the "OHIO" Rule ONLY HANDLE IT ONCE.

[karina]

Trying to find a way to reduce my clutter I have been looking into my habits, those that favor clutter. I found a list of Organizing Habits that I intend to make mine (can anyone hear New Year's Resolutions here?), so here goes. So far I have done a good job of the first one, so I'm happy, and slowly getting rid of unnecesary stuff. Regarding 3D kids artwork, the suggestion of taking pictures of whatever you're not ready to get rid of is wonderful. I have even taken pics of clothes I didn't want to throw/give away, and that certainly makes it easier: I'm saving the memory and getting rid of the object. It's totally worth it!

The list:

1. Reduce before organizing
2. Write it down now, always.
3. Have one inbox and process.
4. A place for everything (just bought two clear plastic boxes for my kids' school work, which I intend to maintain).
5. Put it away now.
6. Clean as you go.
7. Develop routines and systems.

God luck!

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