Organized Chaos: Kid’s Bookshelves
Kids bookshelf
Our family loves books! It has always been something we have done together. When the girls were little we would read to them everyday. Now we read more chapter books, library books, and special books together as a family. We do a rotation on who gets to pick out the next chapter book we will read as a family. Sometimes if Jake is traveling he may miss a chapter or two otherwise we usually do this activity together.
When the girls were little we barely had any kids books. We started collecting them, the kids got some as gifts, and they have also bought some with their spending money. Over the years these books have accumulated. For one of their gifts a couple years ago Jake made the girls a bookshelf for their room. They LOVE it! For the most part they do keep it pretty neat, but every once in awhile it needs a little cleaning and organizing.
As you can see from the picture above they have books piled on top of the books on the shelf, books leaning all directions, random items that are not books on the bookshelf, and various books out of place. Since they keep it in decent order it doesn’t take long to freshen up the book shelf, put books away, dust, and we had it looking better in no time.
We have their books arranged in specific order. On the top are the kids classics and chapter book series. The 2nd shelf down we have more chapter books or series. On the 3rd shelf from the top we have the Golden Classics and soft cover books. The 4th shelf from the top contains all the kids reference and educational books. On the 5th shelf from the top we have hard cover books. The very bottom shelf contains more hard cover books, including some series.
Bookshelf is all dusted and organized!
The next big bookshelf project I need to do is to go through all the younger kids books. Our kids have outgrown a lot of the smaller books so I need to decide which ones to keep, donate, sell, etc…. I have slowly been starting to do this by giving some of the younger kid books to kids who I know enjoy those types of books. I love looking into the kids rooms and seeing them reading books either on their own or together. It makes my heart happy. The learning to read fluently has been a journey for our family. Part of my hesitation in going through and getting rid of some of their smaller books means I have to admit my little babies are growing up and to a Momma’s heart it kind of makes me sad. Not sure if I will ever be truly ready, but I will eventually go through the books and eliminate some more kids ones so that it will make more room for their more advanced reading books, just not today…
Organized Chaos: 3 Simple Steps When Cleaning Out the Kids Toy Cabinet
White Toy Cabinet
The white toy cabinet may look clean on the outside…however, that is not the case when you open it up and look inside of it. It has items placed randomly all around and is in a bit of a disarray. Today we are going to talk about organizing the toy cabinets. Our kids love playing, but for some reason the items they play with do not always find the correct homes when it is time for them to be put away. Despite the fact that most toys have a specific location where they call home. Whether it is that they are in a hurry, don’t want to take the time, or are not sure where to put it, who knows. Every once in awhile the white toy cabinet, like everything else in the house, needs a good cleaning.
Sometimes when you are cleaning out the kids stuff you find little treasures that the kids have kept for a variety of bizarre reasons, a candy wrapper from a friend, a 1 inch scrap of paper they are saving to do a craft, a piece of ribbon, or some other item that they stuffed in the cabinet for later use. There are times when the cabinet is so full of items and disorganized that it cannot even completely shut. I often wonder why these instances don’t trigger some thought process that says “Hey time to clean me out, please”! Maybe it does, but they don’t want to do it at that particular moment in time! Thankfully, as the kids are getting older I am starting notice more occasions were they will voluntarily notice a mess and clean it up by themselves. These precious moments makes my heart happy!
It’s a mess, not sure where some of that stuff came from in the toy cabinet
Here are 3 Simple Steps I use when cleaning out the kids toy cabinet:
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If it is broken – throw it away
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If they no longer play with it – give it away
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If it is out of place – put it away
Much better! Now they can actually find the toys and items they are looking for in the toy cabinet!
After going through the cabinet and applying the three simple principles as well as wiping down the inside and outside of the cabinet it is pretty much done. Sometimes there are a handful of items I am not sure about or want the kids to make the choice about what they want to do with them, but otherwise it is done.
While these steps sound really easy there have been times especially when the kids were younger and watching me clean out the toy cabinet I hesitated on some items. They may not have played with it this month, but maybe they will again next month. In those cases I usually held onto the toy for a little bit longer and if they hadn’t played with it by the time I cleaned the toy cabinet out again it was time for it to find another home.
I am a sentimental person so I like to keep special items. The problem is no one has a house large enough to keep everything so while I may hang onto things longer than some people eventually I have to admit when it’s time to let it go.
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Organized Chaos: Kid’s Closets
What a mess!
We live in a home with imperfect people. Life has a way of getting messy. Over time the busy messiness of life over spills into other areas such as our closets. It happens to all of us, including our kids.
On this particular day when I opened the closet I noticed several things out of place – clothes out of their specific baskets, shoes not lined up, headbands askew, and the hair accessories organizer not even hung up, hang up clothes in the wrong spots, crafts all out of sorts, and more disorganization.
Thankfully with the system we have in place it usually doesn’t take too long to get everything back in shape and looking good again. The kids are not always “excited” about cleaning out their closets, but they do enjoy it once it is done. It does look much better to Momma too!
Here are some closet organizational systems we already have in place that make the closet clean up easier:
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Organized Chaos: Jewelry Organizer
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Organized Chaos: Hair Accessory Organizer
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Organized Chaos: Kids Shoes
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Organized Chaos: Closet Clothes Baskets
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Organized Chaos: Kids Crafts & Activities
Once all the items listed above are checked, organized, and put back into their proper places there is only one thing left to do. Make sure all the hanging clothes are properly on the hangers and put them in their correct places. For our family we switch out cold and hot weather clothes depending on the season. In South Carolina we typically have a longer warm season then some other places so we are a little heavier on the short sleeve shirts and tank tops than on the heavier winter long sleeves and sweaters.
I used a picture from the colder season (the long sleeves show the different sections better than pictures with tank tops). As you can see her long sleeves / vests are on the left side of her closet with her short sleeve shirts in the middle and her dresses on the right side. In the summer her tank tops would be on the left where her long sleeve shirts / vests are located in this picture. We do pull out the kids winter dresses and replace them with summer dresses as well.
Looks so much better with everything put away and organized nicely!
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Organized Chaos: Kids Crafts & Activities
Kids crafts
Our kids love doing a variety of crafts and fun activities. Anything from artwork to bead work to pottery and so much more! A lot of times for their birthdays or Christmas they will get some neat crafts and activities gifts to do.
We wanted to find a convenient place to store them until they had time to do the craft. Originally, we had all the craft items stored together in one general location, but not in their room(s). As the girls got older we had to start putting names on the boxes or items so each one knew which ones were theirs when they went looking for a craft to do. Since they are twins it is important as parents to make sure that each child has some items that are specifically for them. We felt like this was something easy to do regarding their crafts and it has worked out well for our family.
Once the kids moved into their own rooms we decided to put their individual crafts on one of their higher shelves in their closets. Each kid has their own individual craft or activity shelf so they can pick out their specific item whenever they want to do a craft. Some of the crafts on their shelves are the same while some are completely different. They can easily get a chair or step stool when they want to pick out a craft to do, but with the crafts being on a higher shelf it isn’t as accessible so when we have younger kids visiting the crafts stay in place and don’t get all spread out.
Crafts lined up, visible, and ready to be used.
Can I Take Those Words Back?
A kid activity that teaches about how our words impact others.
We have been working through two devotional books with the girls lately. One of them goes through the Bible in a year and the other one is more of an hands on activity with a lesson called Object Talks for Any Day by Verna L. Kokmeyer. The kids like both of them, however, we only do the Object Talks devotional on days when we have a little more time because they require preparation, an activity, lesson, and conversation about the lesson taught.
This particular lesson was about our words and watching what we say to others. This was a great lesson for the beginning of the school year as well as a great reminder for all of us (both kids and parents) that our words have an impact on those around us.
Objects: A plate and tube of toothpaste.
Applicable Bible Verse: “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” – Psalm 19:14 (ESV)
Activity:
- Ask for a volunteer.
- Have the volunteer squeeze all the toothpaste out of the tube onto the plate.
- Ask for another volunteer.
- Have them try and put all the toothpaste from the plate back into the toothpaste tube.
Lesson to Talk About: Like the toothpaste our words can come out pretty quickly and easily, however, once our words are out we cannot take them back. We have all said something to someone and instantly or later realized it probably wasn’t the best thing to say. Our words can have a powerful impact on those around us. They can make people laugh, cry, hurt others feelings, and much more. Plus when we speak poorly to or about others it makes us look bad as well. It is important that we allow our thoughts and words to be good, encouraging, wholesome, and kind to those we encounter. What we fill our hearts and minds with will often come out our mouth and reveal what we are truly thinking. Much like the impossible task of getting toothpaste back into the tube we cannot take back the words we say to others. The toothpaste in this example was contained to the plate, however, our words can make a big mess and cause hurt to others for a very long time.
We all could spend a little more time focusing our hearts, minds, and thoughts on good things. Life is short and we want to spend our time being an encouragement and blessing to those around us. May we seek God’s wisdom regarding our thoughts and our speech.
We used a sample of Tom’s of Maine toothpaste I received in the mail for this activity. A sample size is big enough to get the point across!
Brina squeezing out all the toothpaste onto the plate! Like the toothpaste, it’s amazing how quickly our words can come out of our mouths.
The toothpaste is out!
Karlie attempting the impossible task of putting all the toothpaste back into the tube! Once our words our spoken we cannot take them back.
She tried a lot of different ways to get the toothpaste back into the tube – fingers, toothpaste cap, toothpick, and more yet it was a messy and impossible to get it all of the toothpaste back into the tube. The girls like these type of devotional lessons because they are interactive, have a creative and visual way to teach the lesson, and they tend to be more memorable for them. All of us could probably use a reminder regarding our words and the impact they have on others.
Craft Activities: Time to Paint
The girls enjoy summer and all the fun activities that come along with it! One of the activities they insisted on doing regularly was painting. They have a blast doing it and I like that it helps them work on their hand eye coordination as well as creativity.
Karlie concentrating on her painting project! Karlie had so much fun coloring her craft that she used up almost all the paint that came with it. She was really good about rinsing out her brush!
Brina carefully painting her craft! She wanted the picture to be perfect! Brina had fun painting her pretty picture.
I am thrilled to see how much the girls enjoy crafts. It is neat seeing them take time to be creative, neat, and make the craft extra special. They are even getting better about not making such a huge mess (which is nice for Mommy too). My babies are growing up so quickly. I am thankful for our time together this summer and will be sad to see them go back to school soon.
