I’ll start with apologies…..I posted the tote pattern last week…..to my drafts. When I looked at my blog today I was so confused! I thought I published it…but I didn’t. Ugh, classic me! Read on for the pattern linky!
On to the the goods…
I’ve been wanting to tell you all about my obsession with bins. I love bins. I go to Target and have to walk through the bin aisle just incase there is some new fangled bin that will miraculously make my house sparkly clean and organized. Alas, I never find it, but I do manage to buy a bin or two each time. Big bins, small bins, I LOVE BINS! DH HATES them. I don’t know why.
In the babies closet there are two large bins on the top shelf, both without lids. The first one is for clothes that they grow out of. If I put something on them, and it doesn’t fit, into the ‘Too Small’ bin it goes. As soon as the bin is full, I dump it, toss what is too soiled (like white tee-shirts) fold what’s left, mark the bin with the size range and put it up in the garage rafters.
There is also a bin that is for them to grow into. This bin is for the ‘just about to fit in’ clothes that will soon be dumped, resorted and put into their closets and dressers. This only works because my kids are close enough together that there isn’t much time between one child growing out of an item and the next child fitting in to it.
Looking for a reason to use bins for your Laundry? Click over to Ann Kroeker’s blog HERE for my new laundry sorting tip! I LOVE IT!
I also use bins for all our crafty supplies. We have a bin for glue, other adhesives and scissors. One bin for crayons, one bin for colored pencils and one for markers. One long bin contains all our coloring books and construction papers. There are bins for playdough and bins for waterpaints. I also have a bin full of workbooks and school-type papers. The most exciting bin contains all the sparkles, glitter and gluable goodies for Rooster and Tootsie who love to scrapbook with Mommy.
The bin system works great for us because only one bin comes out of the cupboard and then must be put away before the next bin can be pulled out. (with the exception of crayons, which is usually always out) It makes for easy clean up, just throw it all in the right bin, put the lid on and stack them back in the cupboard.
Check this out…
This is the mainfloor coat closet that my oh so handy husband begrudgingly built shelves in. Hello, we live in Southern California, we don’t wear coats unless we LEAVE town, so all that coat closet was doing was getting cluttered and messy and possibly growing fungus. I nearly passed out and died the day that DH’s boss came over and opened it up to put his jacket in and there was so much crap piled in there that it nearly spilled out into the hallway. He just threw his jacket in and closed the door. That was the funny part, but the rest…oh horror. I was completely embarrased and that’s the weekend I made DH put those shelves in. They rule! He did a great job! (I love my husband.)
Anyways, at the tippy top, we’ve got games stacked up. Next shelf down, we have kids books on tape/CD, school workbooks, adhesive/scissors, playdough, and watercolors.
Next shelf down, coloring books/papers, puzzles and more puzzles (sorted by age appropriate) and crayons (currently in use on my table) colored pencils and markers. To the right side each kid has a binder for their crafty creations (that will have to be another WFMW entry, it’s a good one).
On the bottom is our bag basket and our preschool musical instruments.
Would you like to know the best part? I didn’t even have to tidy one part of it to take the photo! I’m so proud of how tidy and organized it stays! Plus, I love that the kids can access all the stuff without trashing the place.
Visit Shannon’s site for more Works For Me Wednesday tips!
Since this post is getting loooooong, I’ll start a new section for the Tote Bags. You will love them and they are so easy to make!
Click for the tutorial:
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