Creative Organization

It's 2011 and we all want to be more organized then we were in 2010...at least I do.  My wonderful mom is hosting a "Creative Organization" link party over at her blog Decorating my Tin Shack.  Come join us in getting organized and have fun doing it.

This is the entryway at our house...Yes that is a baker's rack, no room in the kitchen or dinette for it!  I have 2 baskets on the bottom for my boys (a third one is on waiting for me at Hobby Lobby).  I got decorative luggage tags and put stickers with their first initial on it. 

So now when I find they're things laying around the house, instead of yelling at them to pick it up, I put it in their basket and when they're looking for it they can look in their basket...when it is full I have them take it to their room and empty it!

Next is our laundry room...I think this is a key room to keep organized as it can get VERY out of control fast!!  As a mom I feel it is my responsibility to teach my children (especially because they're boys) that mom is not their maid!!!  So we also have totes in the laundry room...one for each boy!  I do their laundry, fold it and put it in their basket then they can come get their basket and put their clothes away!!  Most weeks I have to remind them to return their baskets to the laundry room!!

When I was scrapbooking I wanted to keep my stickers organized so that I knew exactly where to go to find what I was looking for...my stickers are still organized even though I don't scrapbook anymore but we still use the stickers for other projects!  I took the expandable accordion files, labeled them and then placed my stickers in them.  They're SO full that I can't close them however I bent the cover back and hooked it with the tie to keep it open!  Then I set them in an open crate to keep them upright!

As with EVERY mom you get tired of constantly telling your children what they need to do EVERY morning and EVERY night...Well I created a "To Do list".  I broke down their responsibilities by morning, afternoon and night, I also added bonus chores in which they can choose to do or not.  Then I put rewards at the bottom of the page IF ALL they're to do's are done!!

I expanded on this by creating a weekly chores list for each one of my boys...I listed ALL the chores that they need to do for the week.  I divided the chores between the 2 of them so if it's not their week to do the chore it is blacked out!

It is always hard to organize open shelving...well I decided that any organization was better then no organization!!  So I got closed and open totes to hold the items we needed stored!

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my organization...some of it isn't very creative but....I hope it will help inspire everyone!!  REMEMBER TO STOP BY Decorating my Tin Shack AND LINK UP TO THE CREATIVE ORGANIZATION PARTY!!!!

Feel free to leave comments or suggestions...I love hearing from you all!!!