Kimberly Eagles

Answer Monday

Question: I am looking for some toy storage ideas for our playroom, any suggestions! 

Kids toys can sometimes take over a space and you can sometimes feel that you live in a toy store after a hurricane goes through it.  The important thing to remember when deciding on storage solutions for kids toys is that it has to be easy for the kids to put their things away.  As a former preschool teacher I can tell you that having a dedicated spot for everything and making it easy for the kids to know where that spot is can reduce frustration, time and tears. 

Cubbies and containers work well as long as they are well labelled and the containers are large enough to ‘throw’ things into.  If the kids have to put all their stuff away in a secret order, like putting a puzzle together in order to get the lid to fit, they are doomed to fail.  Look at any reputable daycare center and they are an Organizers DREAM- EVERYTHING has a place of its own and EVERYTHING is labelled, even the scissors have a special stand to go in.  there is a reason for this, kids want and need easy to follow directions, they are empowered when they can do things on their own and by creating a space that makes this easy for them you give them power and self confidence. Much better than the constant nagging and occasional loud voices asking- Why won’t you clean up your toys? 

I am partial to large Rubbermaid containers with the raise lids, they allow the kids to throw their stuff in and the lid will still go on, they also stack nicely.  I have several of these containers, for Barbie stuff, for dress up clothes, for blocks, for Hotwheels, for…well you get my drift.  I encourage my kids to only have one of these out at a time, if they are playing Barbies then the Barbie one is out, if they go on to another activity they are expected to clean up the Barbies, cleaning takes about 2 minutes as all they have to do it put it all in one big container, they do have a few smaller containers to hold the tiny little items like Barbie shoes and accessories. 

Small cubbies work great as well as long as they are labelled or at least the containers on the cubbies are labelled. We have one that houses all my budding artists creative ’stuff’. There are lots of different types of cubbies, ours is a metal mesh one that can be reconfigured as our needs change. We got that one at Costco, IKEA has some great ones as well and one of the best kept secrets to buying great kids toy storage solutions is any School Supply stores like Scholars Choice, they have fantastic stuff as that is their business.

Hope this helps, Remember to not be too hard on yourself or your kids,  mess happens when they play and we should all embrace the mess DURING play time.  By empowering them to be actively involved in the clean up phase you can make it fun and easy so it becomes a natural part of play.  Go visit a daycare center and when it is time to clean up you will hear laughter, singing and cooperation.  The kids love it almost as much as the playing itself.

ANSWER MONDAY

Question:  how do I control all the clutter that accumulates on my kitchen counters?

Wow this is a loaded question, with no simple answer as it depends on what the clutter is.

If it is dirty dishes and leftover  food and such then you need to set up some guidelines for your family to take the time to do the dishes and create expectations for them, in my house whoever cooks does not have to clean, the rest of the family has to do the dishes immediately after supper is done, by working together they get it done fast and it has become a habit for them to not get up and leave the table thinking a maid will come by and clean up for them.  It is not always easy and they do try to get out of it but we stick to our rules of what it takes to run this family and we make it a priority that they be part of the upkeep of the house.  I like to think we are developing habits that will last them a lifetime.

From my experience the most common kitchen clutter is ‘other stuff’ that gets put there ‘for now’  and then never gets moved or put away. Some of the most popular things that clutter up counter tops is incoming mail, school notices, kids gadgets, keys, and newspapers.

My advice is to create a system where this stuff goes, keep the system simple and put it where logically it will be found.  For example if mail is piling up on your counter, is it logical to set up a system in the upstairs office? What are the chances that you will immediately bring the mail up there?  Slim to none would be my guess, so logically you need to set up a location on or near the counter so that when you enter the house with the mail it is EASY to place it where it belongs.  Forming the habit of opening the mail over the garbage as soon as it enters the house works great.  This way you can eliminate the junk and bulky envelops right away, leaving only the mail that requires action or filing.

As for all that stuff that gets placed there by others, creating a space for that stuff can work wonders.  It may be a basket system where they each have their own basket and anything that belongs to them goes in it.  In my house we have a Junk Drawer- Oh I know all you organizers out there are cringing as this is sacrilege, but my junk drawer is for other peoples junk that gets left on my counter- Yes this is my house, I do the majority of the cooking and I consider the kitchen counter MY space and clutter drives me crazy. So to preserve my sanity, anything that gets left on the counter gets put in the junk drawer, this helps us all, when someone is looking for their stuff they know to look in the junk drawer. One place to gather all that stuff.  I do have to purge every few months when it gets overflowing, but my theory is that if they have not cleared it out in that long then whatever is in there must not be important to them.  I give them a warning that I am going to clean it out so they all have the chance rescue their stuff.

This system works well for us and keeps my counters neat and tidy most of the time.  We do live in our house and have an active family so I do not go for perfection but for function (and sanity ) .

Do have a system that works for your family to keep your counters clear?  Leave me a comment and share your ideas.

If you have an organizing question for me, send it my way.

Happy Organizing!

I have been watching, helping and praying for the past week for my friends, who have adopted two children from Haiti,  as they try to get these kids home safe after the devastating earthquack that hit on January 12,2010.  Through the past week the community has banded together, we have helped them prepare their home for the earlier than expected arrival of their two children and also spent countless hours on the phone and emails to ANYONE we could think of that could help us get them out.

Throughout the week one thing became very clear-  we cannot do everything alone and sometimes we have to ask for help, and sometimes we have to continue to ask loads of people until we get the help we need.  That is very difficult for a lot of people, myself included.  I watched as my friends came out of their shell and started reaching out, if was difficult,  sometimes they were frustrated by not getting the answers they wanted and sometimes they resisted the help that was offered but in the end they knew they had to do everything they could to get the kids home, they had a passion driven purpose and nothing was going to stop them.  One nervous phone call turned into another, into another and then an army of people dispatched to do whatever they could to get these kids home.  Friends and neighbors descended on their home to organize and prepare their home for two more children.  Friends,   friends of friends, acquaintances and strangers prayed and sent encouraging messages to this family as they waited for any news that would get them closer to rescuing their kids.

It is amazing what can happen when you have a passion driven purpose. I see it all the time in my Organizing Business,  it is when people get disturbed enough by the way they are living that they finally decide that they have to act and that the passion to reclaim their life, their home, their time finally drives them to take action. Once they have made the decision they nervously make that first call or send that first email asking for help, it may be to a friend, family member or a professional like me.  Do you always get the answer or support you need from the first call? no not always.  I know my friends made hundreds of calls, sometimes not getting the answers they wanted but because of their determination and Passion purpose they continued until they found people who could hep. Making the fist call is the first step and the most difficult, but commitment to continue on the path no matter how difficult it gets will find the help you may need and having a passion purpose to the reason why, will effect lasting change in the end.

My hat goes off to all those brave souls who make a commitment and ask for help they need. I believe that with a passion purpose and asking for what you need, that the Universe will send you the help,  but we need to take action, to be open to the help and accept it when it arrives no matter what!

Passion Purpose + Action = Lasting Results

At the time of this writing my friends kids are safe in the Canadian Embassy in Haiti and will be flown home to their parents loving arms in the morning.  This is the lasting result from their Passion purpose plus their action.

What is your Passion Purpose? What action do you need to take towards this purpose?  Who can you ask for help to accomplish this?  are you ready to take the action needed to accomplish this?

Let me know if I can help, all you need to do is ASK!

ANSWER MONDAY

Question:Clothes coming in, clothes Going out. How do we keep track of all that clothing that kids outgrow and the ones they have not grown into yet?

How fast do kids grow? it seems one minute they are one size and literally the next day they outgrow their stuff. then what do you do with the outgrown clothes? Leave it to clutter up your closets?

Hand me downs are great but what do you do with them if they are too big, where do they go until you need them? Do they make closet organizing impossible?

These two questions I get a lot, with a teenage boy that grows like a weed and a niece that sends copious amounts of hand me downs, I deal with these in my own home often. I have come up with a system that works for us. What an organizer with a system you say, I know that is shocking , Not!  The trick with this system is to make it easy for the kids to use so that they can use it too.

We have one closet in our house that has a box or a bag for all the stuff the kids outgrow. the kids know where this closet is and know that when something no longer fits or in the case of a fashionista little girl anything that is no longer deemed ‘Cool’ can go in there. When the pile gets so big the closet door does not want to close it is my reminder that it is time to go through them and decide where they go- boys stuff goes to my nephew, some of the best girls stuff gets kept for my little nieces (even though it will be years until they can wear them I still keep just a few of the better things for them), some get sent to a good friends daughter and the rest gets shipped off to a charity who will distribute them to people in need.

One of the rules we do have is the ‘one in one out’ so when something newer and cooler comes into their closets something has to leave. They have a set amount of hangers and when they are full there is no adding more, they must purge. This may sound hard but believe but they don’t seem to mind, it has become habit that when the hangers are full it is a visual reminder that they have too much stuff cluttering their closet and it is time to organize their closet. I will admit that my daughter is more likely to do this without harping as she has much more interest in what is kept and what goes. For a fun way to get the kids to remember this check out the ‘Closet Hokey Pokey’ we created, it is a fun and silly way to remember how to keep your closet organized.

For all the hand me downs that are too big for my daughter we have a box at the top of her closet that they go in. I make her go through them before they go in the box as she does have a definite opinion on what she does not like and will never wear, these go directly into the donation box. the box is store in a convenient place so when she grows and has NOTHING to wear we can take the box down and go through it.

Alongside the ‘Too Big’ box is also the out of season box, any clothing that is seasonal can go in there when not in use. so sandals, shorts and tees are stored for the winter and pants and long sleeve tees are stored for the summer. makes it easy to find when mother nature surprises up with early snow or early spring!

The box system works for us to keep our closets organized and to keep the kids clothes moving in and out as the grow. Try it and see how it works for you!

Did you see Peter Walsh on Oprah this week? He has started a ‘Stripped Down’ challenge for us all to disconnect from our electronic gadgets and start to connect with each other. One Week to try and change family habits and improve communication.

Could you do it? Get rid of all your electronic gadgets-No Computers, no Ipods, No Cell phones even the microwave was a casualty in this family challenge.

Here are the Rules for the Stripped Down Challenge:

1. No Cell Phones or Texting
2. No Electronics
3. Prepare and Eat Healthy Meals Together
4. Clean and Organize the House
5. You Must Hug and Say ‘I love You’ to each family member at Least Once a Day

This got me thinking about our own family’s habits.

We are not as disconnected as the family on the show, we do have supper together almost every night, we do not turn on the TV in the morning my house is organized (well Duh!!) and we say ‘I Love You’ with hugs several time every day- minimum morning as everyone leaves and every night at bedtime. But the use of electronics does impact our family, I am guilty of turning on my computer first thing in the morning, ignoring my kids when I get immersed in work or facebook (the pitfall of working at home); My kids are glued to their Ipods, Computers, Cell phones and TV- sometimes all at the same time.  I have pictures to prove it:

Okay that is crazy, how can they possibly be texting, msning, Ipoding and watching TV as well, stresses me out just thinking about it. So we have changed our ways a little bit, they have been reduced to only one hour of TV a day Monday to Thursday and only 2 hours on the weekend (this does not include Hockey Games which is considered family time- we are Canadian after all). Cell phones are not allowed at the table, and if we are with other people they have to be engaged with the people that are present not the people that are on their gadgets. I have made a conscious effort to have ‘office’ hours and am more aware of the times I am in my office when the kids are home.

Could you do this Stripped Down Challenge? Does your family need to be more connected to each other instead of the World Wide Web? Try it for yourself and let me know how you do. So far so good for us, after a few withdrawals from the ‘habit’ of turning on the TV the kids are now actually consciously making decisions on what they watch and they remind me when I am lost in my office world that it is ‘family’ time.

Good Luck and Let me know how it goes.

Do you ever have those days where you know there is so much to do, you don’t know where to start?  You sit at your desk and just stare at your calendar and try to figure out how you are going to manage to get it all done. 

You check your email because that is what is expected of you first thing, wouldn’t want someone to wait for a reply too long.

You  see there is a comment on your facebook post from yesterday so you open facebook, 

you look at the comment, reply then go to your home page and check to see what it happening. 

You read all your friends status, comment on a few,

You decide to check your twitter and again  get lost in your friends and acquaintances lives. 

You have conversations about whatever, laugh at a joke and maybe even watch a youtube video. 

Oh wait look at this great link from @whoever, lets read this blog post it looks interesting…

Oh great site, let’s see what else they have…

You read more… Oh look at this link…

And so it goes on and on and on… 

The next thing you know it has been two hours, you still have a pile of stuff ‘to do’ to accomplish and you still have no idea how to get it done.

Does this sound familiar? I admit I get caught in this trap more often than I want to admit, but I have made a pact with myself this year to be focused with my time.  In order to do that I have to work on Organizing my time better.  Yes even Professional Organizers are not perfect, but shhh don’t tell my hubby! 

What am I doing to get organized? There are several steps that I have taken but today I am going to start with step one:

The DREAM: The first step was to know what I wanted my ideal week to look like, I work for myself so being disciplined in creating work time is important but also to make sure I take time for family, friends and myself as well; when your office is in your house these items can sometimes take a backseat.

So I gave myself some time to set my yearly goals and determine what I wanted my life to look like this year. 

Here are the questions I asked myself:

• What are my main goals both personal and professional?
• How many hours will I work?
• What is missing in my life that I always say I have ‘no’ time for but want to make time this year for?
• What personal commitments do I have that needs to be considered?
• It is important to add all the important things into this dream including work, family, friends, travel, learning etc. 

By looking at the whole picture I can organized my priorities and make time for all the things I want to do.

One thing that got lost in the chaos of my life last year was spending time with other business people at the numerous networking events that are held each month, they always seemed to be on the wrong night, wrong day and just not a priority.  By the end of the year I realized how much I had missed this social interaction, working from home behind a computer I got lost in my own little world and forgot to venture out into the world once in awhile. (aren’t jammies everyones normal work attire?)  As part of my dream this year I will make time to attend at least 2 networking events a month.  By making it part of the dream, I am more likely to make it come true and add it to my monthly agenda. By giving myself a number, I can measure my follow through and 2 seems like a doable number- maybe I will do more some months but 2 is what I think is doable on a regular basis.

Adding time for social networking is important to me but I know I need to limit my times and by having a clear picture of what else I want to accomplish will help me move to the next step of planning my week.

I leave you with this quote from Stephen covey:

“Most people struggle with life balance simply because they haven’t paid the price to decide what is really important to them”

Take the time to dream about your ideal week and write down your dream. The power of the written word is incredible.

Hello World Indeed! I want to welcome you all to my new blog and hope that through this blog I can help you all regain control of your space and time through the insights, tips and tricks that I will share with you.

Who am I you may ask? Well there is no simple answer to that question, I am a combination of many different life experiences and roles and I continue to evolve and change as my life progresses. Here is a short list to start: I am a mom of two wonderful children, a wife, a sister, a daughter, a granddaughter, a Professional Organizers by trade, a business owner, a work at home mom, an entrepreneur, in my past I was a preschool teacher, a fundraiser for charities, chair of board of directors for several non profit organizations, involved in children’s camps, and many more things as you will learn through my posts.

The goal of this blog is to share any ideas that may help you in your struggles to keep your home, life and work functioning smoothly so you can free up as much time as possible to do the things you love to do, whatever that may be. Maybe it is spending more time with your family, maybe you want to take up a hobby, or maybe it is just time relaxing with a good book. Through the process of getting organized and clearing the clutter in your life you will gain valuable time, allowing you more time to spend doing the things your love.

If at any time you are in need of help, have comments about what I say or have any ideas that work for you that you would love to share, please feel free to share them with me and the readers. I love to learn new things and I know there are so many great ideas out there just waiting to be shared.

Thanks for reading,

Chat soon,

Kim Eagles
Chronic Disorganization Specialist- NSGCD
Professional Organizer- POC member since 2005
Owner of Kaos Solutions and Co-Owner of OrganizingConnection.com