If your cabinet is bursting with board games, you might want to take some time to organize those games. When organizing games in a shallow cupboard, stack all the square games in one stack and the rectangular ones in another stack. Get rid of any games you no longer play.
When organizing board games in a deep cupboard, put the rectangular games length-wise, so that you can see the short edge of the games, instead of blocking the back games with the games in front of them.
Card games can be organized in a drawer, lined up so that you can see their edges to see what game it is. Larger card containers can be stacked at the back of the drawer, along with any card holders.
If you have games that are subject-related, you could store those games in separate bins to use during school time. Math games (like Monopoly, Yahtzee, Payday, Battleship, etc.) could all go in one bin. Language Arts or Reading games (like Scrabble, Boggle, etc.) could go into another bin. Art games (like Masterpiece, Mommy, It’s a Renoir, etc.) and puzzles of famous works of art could go in another bin. Geography games (like Take-Off, Risk, etc.) and puzzles of the U.S.A. or the world could go into another bin. You could stack the bins in your garage or slide them under a large bed, to take out whenever your children have earned some game time for school.
What are some of your favorite games? Do you recognize any of the games in our cupboard? Who remembers Mr. Mouth?
The key to getting a lot done in your day is to do the hardest thing first. You know, the thing you’re dreading. Maybe it’s a quick phone call you need to make, and it’s weighing you down. If you get it done first (just force yourself to do it), then you feel lighter. You will be relieved and energized to do everything else you need to do in your day.
As much as I love filming my homeschooling to upload to my Unit Study Treasure Vault, during the month of December I just wanted to rest. We took the month off from homeschooling, but I still hadn’t filmed a few things to polish the Cell Unit Study. I needed to film how to put together the shadow box of the plant cell. I had all the materials out on the kitchen counter. They stayed on the kitchen counter for days. It was an easy project, but I was tired. I just kept putting it off. After all, the unit study wasn’t due in the vault until the 1st of January.
Well, my husband wanted to put his stuff down on the counter when he got home from work. But the counter was crowded with my cell stuff. This is why the project was weighing down on me. I finally decided I would just do it. We filmed it, and it was super easy. And it was done. I felt so much energy after that. I got more done that day than any other day in December, just because I bit the bullet and forced myself to do the thing that for some reason I had procrastinated.
You will not know what is weighing you down until you make a list of the things you need to get done. Making a list of to-do’s the night before will make you more productive the next day. After you have the list of things weighing you down, you can choose to do the hardest thing first, and force yourself forward to get it done. I’m telling you, this works.
Decorating your daughter’s room can be great fun when you string lights from the ceiling and make a gorgeous vanity. If you want to make your daughter’s room lovely, the first thing you’re going to want to do is to take everything out of the room and paint the walls a beautiful color that your daughter loves. My daughter happens to love the color pink. You might want to coordinate this with a bedspread and pillows that you will choose for the bed.
You will want to make some curtains. Curtains can be super easy to make. I do not like sewing, and I’m not good at it whatsoever. So you can do this, too. Get a piece of gorgeous cloth that goes with the bedspread and wall colors. Hem it all the way around. (Actually, you can iron the edges down, then use fabric glue for no sewing!) Then loop it and sew it across the top (or use more fabric glue.) The curtain rod goes through the tunnel that you’ve created on that one end. As you can see in the video, the colors of the wall and curtains were the exact same colors in the bedspread, even though I got them at different stores on separate days. Take a small pillow with you in the car. Then walk into the fabric store, showing the cashier that the pillow is yours, and you want to match it. They will let you go in and get the precise shade you need.
You can add a sweet canopy over the bed. If you can’t find one inexpensively, you can make one yourself with a hoola hoop and gauzy fabric. Attach it with a hook to the ceiling. Your daughter should be able to see it above her head when she is lying down on her bed.
Now you want to make a unique vanity for your daughter’s room. This is the piece de resistance of the bedroom, and it will help your daughter brush her hair so that it’s not looking stringy all the time. First hang up a mirror. Then screw a long basket under the mirror with two screws. This will hold all the brushes, combs, and hair clips that your daughter has. You can get a pencil holder for containing the brushes and combs. You can get other items from an office supply store that can be used for organizing desk drawers. Small containers help to divide head bands, pony tails, ribbons, and clips. If you have no money, you can spray paint some small boxes (like check book boxes) black. Wait overnight for the box to dry before putting it into the basket. Find a vanity chair, or spray paint a stool to match the mirror and other items in the bedroom. And don’t forget to hang up a string of silk flowers, hooking them around your mirror like a garden bower.
Last but not least, I hung up some Chinese lanterns across the top of my daughter’s room. They were actually two strings of Christmas lights surrounded by tissue paper boxes. I got a white extension cord and ran it behind the doll house and curtain to the ceiling, hooking it into the ceiling at regular intervals. Now her room looks magical, like a beautiful garden party whenever she turns off the light.
For more ways to decorate and organize your home, take a look at how I transformed a woman’s disorganized homeschool room in Homeschool Room Makeover.
How do you share a closet with one or two other people? How do you find enough space to hang everyone’s clothing? And how can you keep track of whose clothing is whose? These simple tips will help transform your closet nightmare into a usable space to store your children’s clothing.
Tips for Organizing a Shared Closet:
Use a different color hanger for each person. When choosing a color, don’t choose light blue and white, because they are too similar. Don’t choose dark blue and black for the same reason. Choose contrasting colors like black and white.
If all you have is boys sharing the closet, there is no reason for the bar to be so high. You can either have two bars, or put shelving underneath the bar for further storage.
Pare down to what you need to hang up. Don’t own a million clothes. Your children will never wear more than 10-20 outfits anyway. All the others will just sit there because they are too scratchy or ugly or ho-hum to your children. Ask your children which clothing they hate, and try to eliminate those to avoid tears when you’re hurrying your children up on Sunday mornings for church. (That’s all you need is for church people to twist their heads to gawk at your children’s tear-stained faces. Avoid this scenario. Get rid of unwanted clothing.)
If you have a suit, hang the pants, the shirt, the vest, the tie, and the jacket on one hanger. Get rid of all ties except for the best one for each suit.
If you get rid of most of your clothing that you never wear, you will have plenty of space to hang up sweaters, which take up way too much space in a drawer. Hang the sweater up with the turtleneck shirt you will wear under it. This makes it easier for your child to pull it out and wear it, rather than trying to hunt down the shirt that needs to go under it.
Put the long-sleeve shirts together, the short-sleeve shirts together, the sweaters together, and so on.
Have all the clothing facing one direction so that you can see the fronts of the shirts as you flick through them.
In this video, I show you tips on organizing a shared closet, so that you can see what I’m talking about:
Hi! I'm Susan Evans. I speak at homeschool conferences about hands-on learning and run a huge unit study membership site. I also speak at women's retreats on the topic of prayer.
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