Tuesday Tip: Controlling the clutter

We're selling our house.  I don't know where we'll go when someone buys it but, unless someone buys it, well, we'll have no place to go!  That, I suppose, is the the true conundrum of the second time home buyer.  Another is what to do with all the crap (did I say that? I meant "stuff"!) one naturally accumulates as the years pass by; in our case, this "stuff" includes a whole lot of baby gear, preschool paintings, kindergarten homework, naked dolls and trucks without wheels. I thought I'd been good about weeding through it but, the cleaning frenzy of the past week has proven me wrong.  Fortunately, I have some great friends with great ideas for keeping a clutter free home... and, as it turns out, you don't need to be planning a move (or even the Open House that is keeping me up at night!) to get your house in order.  Spring is the perfect time for sprucing up and with these tips in mind, your home just might be neat and tidy all year long.

1. Don't be sentimental about your "stuff."  I have a client who has a real knack for keeping things neat.  We had the pleasure of having lunch a few weeks ago and she shared some of her tips for keeping her home and kids organized.  In a nutshell, don't get emotionally attached -- whether it's Junior's first math homework or that sweater you "just know is coming back", it's time to let it go.  Junior will have many more math assignments and the odds are good that the sweater will never be "in" again... and if it is, well, go splurge on a new one!
2. Have a charity of choice and give generously.  Big Brothers, Big Sisters happens to be one of mine and, since they send a pick up crew if I call in advance, it makes giving a piece of cake.  They visit our humble abode several times a year and are happy to cart away the clothes, toys, books and household items that are gently used and, no longer used. Giving is twice as nice when helping others leads to a clutter-free home. In thinking of your charity of choice, consider local hospitals, women's shelters, daycare centers and even school fundraisers.
3. Have a large supply of trash bags and fill frequently.  I thought we were good at this but the items unearthed in our basement and on our back porch would suggest otherwise.  Broken strollers, games with missing pieces, books with missing pages, stuffed animals that have long been forgotten and are too "loved" to be accepted by any charity of choice.  All of these belong in a trash bag on the curb. And now, that's where they are!
4. Save selectively.  Let's face it, you can't throw it ALL away.  So, create a smart system for saving just a few things each year.  My tough-love pal who encourages routine purging and discourages an emotional attachment to "stuff" admits there are some things you just need to hold onto... report cards, class pictures, those first handprints, a few prized pieces of "art."  Every year, she creates a folder for each of her children and, like the finest of curators, she keeps only the most prime pieces.  When the kids are grown, they will each have about a dozen neatly organized folders full of gems to look back on... and, I suspect they will be feel extremely sentimental when they do!
5. Organize stylishly.  If you must have some clutter (and let's admit it, we all do!), why not make it look good?  I have an array of "Memory Boxes" from Exposures that look great and store easily; there's one for each kid and they are already finding joy in their walks down memory lane.  I also like to use pretty file folders -- somehow putting the bills in a pretty paisley file that says "Pay Me" makes the task slightly less daunting.  For more great ideas on keeping clutter controlled (and possibly even cute!), visit Buttoned Up. I just did and was quite pleased to find an article on getting organized for a move.  So, should we actually sell our house, I will know what to do next!

Tuesday Tip: Spring Cleaning in January

Today it's back to school, back to work, back to reality.  We had a fantastic week full of fun between Christmas and New Year's; we had enough downtime to play with the puzzles and games that Santa so kindly delivered and enough energy to take on a local hike, a trip to the city and a New Year's Eve visit to the Bronx Zoo.  Our week was both busy and relaxing... well, as relaxing as life can be with five kids seven and under.  It was so nice to have a break from the daily stresses of work, school, homework and schedules.  And, in the midst of it all, we found time to get organized and ready for the year ahead.  How?  By starting our spring cleaning in January -- which is a great way to not only clear out your cabinets, but clear your mind for the year ahead.  Here's how we did it.

1. Bathroom and linen closet:  One day, while the triplets were in the tub and the other two were busy playing with Christmas presents, I aggressively attacked our medicine cabinet and linen closet.  Out with the old, in with the new.  Out went the expired (and possibly recalled!) bottles of Infant Tylenol and tubes of Neosporin. Out went the old prescriptions -- including some leftover painkillers from when I had the triplets in 2008... if I haven't succumbed to them by now, I think it's safe to say I don't need them! Unfortunately, in my haste, I also threw out one of my husband's current prescriptions but, that's a minor price to pay for the newly cleaned and streamlined shelves.  Next item on the agenda: a visit to drugstore.com for some replacements!
2. Kitchen Cabinets:  I was very lucky to receive a slow cooker for Christmas.  I imagine that this magical device will somehow solve my ongoing dinner dilemmas... and if it does, I promise to share the magic with you!  In the meantime, this hefty new appliance needed a shelf to call home and that precipitated a whirlwind overhaul of our kitchen cabinets.  Out went about 50 bibs.  (I swear we used them all, sometimes in the span of one day;  teething, drooling triplets go through a LOT of bibs!). Out went sippy cups and tupperware with missing lids.  Out went random napkins and forks from takeout dinners in addition to broken crayons, dried up markers and playdough and used up sticker books.  Yes, all of these things were in our kitchen cabinets.  And now they are not.  So, my slow cooker now has a place to call home, I know where everything is and, the kids have a newly organized arts & crafts cabinet where coloring books and crayons live in harmony, rather than battling the salad spinner as they were before.
3. Toys and Bookshelves.  During the fall, it seems like Toys R Us opens a satellite store here in the Lyons Den.  All five kids have birthdays in October and November and the presents really peak in December, with the arrival of Christmas and Santa's annual bounty.  Try as we might to keep things to a minimum, there's still an influx of stuff -- books, toys and puzzles that the kids naturally love but we really don't have the space for.  That's why I also attacked our bookshelves and toy chests to cull the clutter and make room for the shiny new things.  I enlisted the kids in this task, encouraging them to part ways with the things they've outgrown and create piles -- books for the school's used book sale, toys for a local charity and a big trash bag for the motley collection of trucks without wheels, puzzles without pieces, etc.

In all, it was a monster task but, if you bite it off in little pieces - one room at a time --  it can be done.  And I have to say, there is considerable peace of mind that comes with a newly organized linen closet, kitchen and toy chests.  It is my hope that this peace of mind will ease my reentry to the chaos of our busy lives and ideally, bring peace and joy all the year through... or, at least until Spring when we will undoubtedly need to do it again!

Tuesday Tip: Time-saving shopping tactics

One of the things I’m often asked is “with that many kids, how do you keep food in the house?"  Followed quickly by, “and what about diapers?! How many diapers do you go through in a day?!” The short answer to the diaper question is that thankfully, our diaper usage has declined from the infancy peak of about 30-35 diapers a day to a diaper/pull up combo of about a dozen a day… possibly a few more or less depending on the day and the success (or lack thereof!) that we’re having with potty training.
 As for keeping food in the house, well, it’s no easy task – especially for our daily staples like milk, fruit. cereal and yogurt. We easily consume seven gallons of milk a week, a box of cereal a day and last week, went through six pints of blueberries in three day.  So, our burn rate on the food front is substantial, which is why I have some time saving shopping tactics that more often than not, keep our cupboards full and diapers stocked.
 First and foremoest, I like to shop online. It’s quick. it's easy and repeat orders are literally as quick as a click of a button. Some of my frequent go-tos include…

• For Groceries: Peapod.com for heavy staples (e.g. those seven gallons of milk, big bottles of apple juice, etc.) and FreshDirect.com for produce and prepared meals
• For Diapers/Wipes and other assorted kid stuff (baby wash, diaper rash cream, sumblock!), nothing beats diapers.com Their prices are competitive, shipping is free when you spend over $50, and your goods arrive in 48 hours or less. Can’t beat that!
• For kids' birthday gifts, amazon.com works wonders for us. I aspire to keep a closet stocked with gifts for all ages but frankly, our closet space is at a premium so, I let the good folks at amazon take care of the storage until 48-72 hours before the party. With amazonPrime, free shipping is included and for us, it’s well worth it… you name it, they have it and if you don’t know what to get, they have recommendations by age and gender. A little online surfing sure beats an afternoon fighting the masses at Toys R Us if you ask me!  
• For kids clothes, Lands End gets it right every time. Shoes, mittens, winter coats, shorts, they’ve got it all. The quality is good, the prices are right and if you time it right, they’ll offer free shipping too. Gap/Old Navy/PiperLime also experience frequent logins from yours truly; the one-stop shopping can’t be beat and if you get one of those Friends & Family coupons, the deals can’t be beat either! I recently filled my virtual shopping cart with Crocs in several colors and sizes, summer pjs for the triplets, flip flops for Ciara and shorts for Liam. All on sale and all arriving with free shipping and free returns. Check!  A few more things are now crossed of my list!

Here's another tip: avoid the big box stores. I admit it, I enjoy a trip to Target as much as the next gal but I can’t seem to get out of that place without spending hundreds of dollars on items I didn’t have on my list or didn’t know I needed… perhaps because I don’t actually need them! In any case, as tempting as these excursions can be, do your best to just say no… especially if you have your little ones in tow because I’ve found that they just drive up your total expenditure in a big way!

Since you can’t completely avoid those big box or club stores, go with a plan -- create a detailed list and do your best to stick to it. A critical componet to keeping our cupboards full is a trip to Costco every 6-8 weeks. I have a standard list I use every time so I don’t need to recreate the wheel with each visit. Our Costco family staples include:

• Laundry detergent/stain lifter/fabric softener/dish & dishwasher detergent
• Windex/Cleaning supplies/Ziploc bags, as needed
• Milk, Yogurt, GoGurt, Cheddar Cheese, Goat Cheese, Mozzarella cheese, OJ
• Cereal, Crackers, Goldfish, School Snacks, Bread, English muffins
• Chicken, Fish, Pork, any other decent looking, reasonably priced meat or fish
• Broccoli, spinach, asparagus, baby carrots
• Bananas, berries, apples, pears, kiwi

In case you didn't notice, I organize my list by store sections so I can be super-efficient as I whiz through the aisles with my oversized cart. I do admit to occasionally straying from the plan and arriving home somewhat confused as to how a Hannah Andersson dress, Carter's pajamas or a value-pack of Nutella got in the cart but, for the most part, it’s a predictable trip that I’ve got down to a science.

So, there you go -- a few insights as to how this family of seven keeps our staples in stock. Frequent online shopping across multiple categories minimizes my visits to the supermarket and big box stores while also ensuring that the kids (usually!) have clothes that fit and (almost always!) arrive at birthday parties with gifts in hand. Carefully calculated trips to Costco keep our pantry full and organized lists of staples make ordering, reordering and shopping a snap. Next up: wag.com – a sister site to Diapers.com that will ensure our sweet pup Finnegan never wakes up without food in his bowl or his favorite biscuits in the treat jar… I think he’s wagging his tail at the very thought! Happy Shopping!

A "Pretty Neat" way to get organized and let go of perfection this year

Last Friday was the first official snow day of the year and I have to say, I was as excited to hear the news as the kids were... until I realized the implications for me.  My day began by digging under the (dried out, dead!) Christmas tree, in the closets, basement bins and front hall bench desperately searching for five snow jackets, five pairs of snow pants, five pairs of winter boots and ten water-proof mittens.  You'd think that by January 7th, I would have located all of these items but, since we were visiting my sister in San Francisco and missed the Christmas blizzard, well, I haven't!  It's daunting really, getting five tykes outfitted for a frolic in the snow.  Just as it's daunting to take down our now decrepit tree and get all the Christmas decorations away.  Sometimes I find it easier to ignore these types of tasks until they demand to be tackled.  Like on Friday, thanks to the snow.  Or this weekend, when we finally had to say farewell to Christmas and all of it's merry adornments.

As much as I pride myself on being organized and buttoned-up, the missing gloves and sagging tree reminded me that there's always room for improvement and it was with this in mind that I recently read a great book full of practical, useful tips -- Pretty Neat, the buttoned-up way to get organized & let go of perfection (by Alicia Rockmore and Sarah Welch) is a must-read for any who shares my new year's ambition to be more present for my family -- to spend less time stressing the small stuff and more time enjoying the little things that really matter.  Pretty Neat is full of tactics, tales and tips that will help you (and me!) to do just that. 

Letting go of perfection is a theme that you'll see repeated time and again in Pretty Neat; I have to say, this has always been a challenge for me but, it's yet one more thing that I plan to strive for in 2011.  The book is full of suggestions on how to accept that more often than not, pretty good is good enough and, as I tackled the kids snow gear and packed away the Christmas stuff, I did my best to embrace the chaos and lose my perfectionist tendencies.  For example, when I only found four pairs of snow boots, I sent one little guy out to play in rain boots with two pairs of socks on... good enough!  And, when I found our dog napping on the Christmas tree skirt that I had just washed and folded, well, I decided to just let him snooze and later packed it away with a bit of dog hair on it... I'm sure I can brush it off next Christmas... or, not, as the case may be!

With short chapters devoted to everyday challenges we can all relate to ("Wrangle those family schedules!"; "Temper those toy tsunamis!"), Pretty Neat is an easy read that will surely leave you with some practical ways to live a less-stressful, more buttoned up life.  As for me, well, I've got to go finish packing away the Christmas ornaments but I can tell you this -- unlike last year, I am NOT going to freak out if each ornament isn't perfectly snuggled in it's own box before it's put away for next year.  Come to think of it, with all of the "help" my kids have been giving me, that's never going to happen anyway!  And, that's fine by me.