Posts Tagged ‘organize’

Declutter Your Fall/Winter Wardrobe

Wednesday, August 24th, 2022

declutter-boho-capsule-wardrobe

Today I’m going to show you how to declutter your wardrobe to make more space for what you truly wear and love. Getting rid of everything that you don’t wear and don’t like will eliminate so many clothing choices, so that you have fewer clothing choices in the morning, but all of them are your favorites.

I will also give you a glimpse into my clothing style, which is mostly Boho. I discovered that my favorite way to dress is Bohemian style, which includes flowy feminine tops and dresses that may remind you of the 1960’s. When I was in my early 20’s, I loved this style and had forgotten about it when I became a mother and focused all my attention on raising my family. It was not until my kids reached their teen years that I realized that I didn’t like the way I looked in many of my clothes. By going through this process that I’m showing you today, I came to find out that I feel most myself when I wear Boho style.

boho-wardrobe

If you have a different style, go ahead and look up online what clothing styles are out there, and see which ones suit your personality the best. My daughter loves vintage style. She likes, for example, dresses from the 1920’s, along with a variety of hats. She wears these to church, to square dancing, and to any other function where a dress would be appropriate. But then she also wears classic style clothing whenever she is hanging out with friends.

So if you open your closet doors and remove all of your clothing, throw all the hanging clothes onto your bed, and go through each one. I tried on each one, realizing that some were scratchy or didn’t fit any more. I got rid of anything that wasn’t beautiful and comfortable. That left me with about 33 pieces in total, which is what fashion designers call a capsule wardrobe. A capsule wardrobe is the essential pieces that you wear all the time, but for me, they are the only pieces I have, aside from a couple of Christmas sweaters I found later in a cupboard. Whenever I get a new piece of clothing, I get rid of one that has stains or isn’t as nice as the new piece. This way I always have a reasonable amount of clothing.

You don’t have to whittle down to only 33 pieces, but if you go through these steps, you will find that you have clothing that intermatches. Your favorite colors are probaby seen multiple times in your wardrobe. If not, you can build a wardrobe that includes more of the colors that you love.

Look at what your main colors are in your wardrobe, and see what pieces you would like to buy to help you wear what you love more often. You can get clothing inexpensively at resale shops, where I’ve gotten most of my clothing over the years. You will be glad to wear what you love more often with accessories that intermatch what you already have.

Finally, when you hang up everything you love in your wardrobe, you will see that your life is simplified, and you feel better about yourself. Because your style is what makes you feel more yourself, you will feel better about how you look, which will help you to take better care of your body in general.

I hope you enjoy my runway-style video, showing you how you can intermatch your clothing, using basic colors like blue, gray, or black as a blank canvas for your brighter splashes of color. Have fun with it!

Homeschool High School Room Tour

Monday, September 11th, 2017

homeschool-high-school-room-tour

Come on a tour of our homeschool high school room!

When a homeschool family transitions their students into high school, your homeschool space will begin to change. You will need an environment that looks more elegant and suitable for teens, not baby-ish. You want your teens to not be embarrassed to bring their friends over.

Homeschool High School Room Video Tour

We filmed a tour of our updated homeschool room for teens. Take a look at the environment you might want for accomplishing the academics you need for high school:

First of all, you need a computer desk with a computer. If your teens take high school math at a co-op, you might not need this area as much as you would for a computer math program for upper level math. We use Teaching Textbooks for pre-calculus and other higher-level math.

We also use computers for Spanish (Rosetta Stone), typing essays, studying Khan Academy for SAT preparation, etc. Your teens obviously need access to a computer in order to be computer literate. Also, if your teens have not learned basic keyboarding skills, you will want to make sure they know how to type fairly quickly before they go to college.

On the top of the computer desk, you can have a globe, a model of something, or flags stabbed into some sand. Hands-on models for high school science can also be stored on top of the computer desk.

high-school-homeschool

To increase the elegance of the space, you will want to get rid of all the toys that your teens have outgrown. Bold primary colors are for younger kids, so earthy tones look better for teens and adults. You can improve your living space by adding good lighting and plants. If you don’t have sunshine, high quality silk plants can make your homeschool high school room look like a resort.

You will want a desk or other flat space that is empty, so that your student has a place to work on vocabulary cards, tests, or any other written work. If you don’t have a separate homeschool room, you can always use your dining room table. One drawback of using the dining room is that if your teen is taking a timed SAT practice test or other timed test, they will be in a main thoroughfare instead of in an area where they can be alone without distraction.

high-school-white-erase-board

You will also want a white erase board, especially for your high school lab sciences. It doesn’t need to be as fancy as this one, which we picked up at a yard sale. You can probably find one at an office supply store, but a simple white erase board is equally effective.

We used this white erase board especially for chemistry as we wrote out huge equations. We also used it for grammar lessons. A white erase board is versatile and can be used to illustrate any point, even in history or Bible class.

My husband made a small wooden platform for speech class or small skits. We placed a rug on top of the platform, as you can see in the video.

I hope you enjoyed the tour of our homeschool high school room. This should give you some ideas for transitioning your students as they grow into teens!

For hundreds of hands-on high school activities, join the Unit Study Treasure Vault!

Come see more tours of homeschool rooms: Back to Homeschool School Room Week

17 Organization Tips

Monday, January 2nd, 2017

17-organization-tips

Today I’m going to share with you 17 organization tips that will help you to maintain an organized house:

Organization Tip #1: Get rid of as much stuff as possible. Make yourself a goal of filling up 10 boxes to take to Goodwill (or 3 boxes, or whatever).

organization-tips

Organization Tip #2: Use small open boxes to organize art supplies in a drawer.

organize-markers

Organization Tip #3: Changing your cupboard liner can give your cupboard a fresh new look.

cupboard-liner

Organization Tip #4: Making a list of to-do’s the night before will make you more productive the next day.

Organization Tip #5: Do the hardest thing on your list first. Then you will feel relieved and have energy to do the rest.

Organization Tip #6: I saw a shelf on a wall at a bed and breakfast last year, with large hooks underneath. I would love to put one in my bathroom to put towels and bathrobes on. (Great use of wall space!)

organized-robes

Organization Tip #7: Contain toys in bins. My newest bin is the nerf bin.

nerf-bin

Organization Tip #8: Instead of fumbling with mismatched food containers, get a set that stacks. It takes up way less space in your cupboard, and it looks neater in your refrigerator.

organize-with-tupperware

Organization Tip #9: Use a fishing tackle box to organize toys with small parts.

organize-with-tackle-box

Organization Tip #10: Eat protein in the morning. You will be a lot more productive with what you want to accomplish.

great-breakfast

Organization Tip #11: My husband likes collecting Wii games for the kids. Pretty soon Wii stuff was all over the living room. I decided to organize all the games and accessories in a drawer under the TV. You could also store it all in a basket beside the couch.

organizing-wii

Organization Tip #12: Roll up your jeans to fit more in your drawer. Find out more ways to organize your bedroom here.

roll-your-jeans

Organization Tip #13: Always look for furniture with built-in storage space. Find out how to organize a window seat here.

window-storage

Organization Tip #14: If you use something with small drawers for craft supplies, make sure that all your kids are above age 4. Otherwise the buttons (or whatever) will end up all over the floor. For younger children, I recommend a tackle box, which I show you in my “Organizing for a Fun Homeschool” video.

little-drawers

Organization Tip #15: If you place all the mittens and snow caps in a drawer from oldest to youngest in your family, everyone will be able to find theirs when heading out the door for some fun sledding.

mitten-drawer

Organization Tip #16: Go through your DVD’s and only keep the ones you absolutely love. Store the remaining ones in a drawer near the TV.

organize-DVDs

Organization Tip #17: My daughter loves a wooden tool caddie loaded with her favorite art supplies.

art-caddy

For more tips on organizing your house, check out my organization products.

High School Homeschool Curriculum

Friday, September 2nd, 2016

high-school-homeschool-curriculum

If you are wondering what we are doing for our high school homeschool curriculum this year, you have come to the right place. Today I will be sharing what we plan to use this year for our high school students.

Homeschool Math

We are using Teaching Textbooks, and my oldest two sons (16 and 14) are taking Pre-Calculus. My third son (13) is taking Algebra 2, and my 11-year-old daughter is taking Pre-Algebra. I love this program because I don’t have anything to grade, and I don’t have to teach the material. This is especially important with Pre-Calculus, since I have never taken it in my life!

Homeschool Language Arts

homeschool-language-artsThis post contains affiliate links.

We are focusing on SAT preparation this year, so we are pulling material from these three sources:

I will not be doing every page from the above books, but I will pull the most helpful bits out to strengthen any weaknesses uncovered by the practice SAT tests. We will be doing a lot of essay writing as well, to make sure they are fully prepared for college.

I’m planning to teach Logic to my oldest two sons, to help them in answering questions from the Reading and Writing sections of the test. I will probably do it after finishing Economics, since both Logic and Economics are half-year courses. (Introductory Logic by Douglas Wilson with videos by James B. Nance.)

Homeschool Economics

homeschool-economics

Instead of history this year, we will be learning about Economics. Here are the books and materials we will be using:

We will also be watching John Stossel DVD’s, which I ordered for free from his website. You can also watch episodes from his program (which used to air on 20/20) straight from his website.

For 12 weeks: We will be watching the 20-min. video of Economics for Everybody on Monday nights, followed by discussion questions. Then we will read one chapter from the Basic Economics textbook and answer those discussion questions. Wednesday night we will read another chapter and answer the discussion questions. I wanted my husband to be a part of the class because he is more in touch with current events and how they relate to economics.

There are 12 segments on Economics for Everybody, and each week we cover two chapters from the textbook. The kids will read Honest Money on their own during reading time.

Homeschool Science

My oldest two sons have already taken Biology, Chemistry, and Human Anatomy, and we filmed everything we did. These videos are inside the Unit Study Treasure Vault and are well worth the low cost of joining the site just for those high school science videos. Next year we will be doing Marine Biology and filming everything.

My youngest two have not taken Biology yet, so they will be taking it this year. It is a prerequisite for Marine Biology next year, which all four of my kids will be taking.

My older two will graduate next year with a phenomenal education including Shakespeare, great works of literature, theology of the Old and New Testaments, creative writing, classical art, etc. Because we do not do Junior High, we do six years of high school, so that we have school days that end by lunch–and we actually enjoy our lives!

Homeschool Spanish

We did a year of Rosetta Stone during the summer. This coming school year we will do Years 2 & 3, and the following year we will do Years 4 & 5. I am fluent in Spanish, so I plan to do some fun field trips and activities to go along with our study. I would love to visit Guatemala where I grew up to show my kids what it’s like to live in a third-world country.

Homeschool Art

homeschool-art

We have been doing a class called Mixing with the Masters, and we will complete the class this fall. There are six famous artists with three art projects per artist for a grand total of 18 finished art projects. We are using this class for high school art credit, and we are learning a lot about the techniques of the great artists.

Homeschool Bible

Every year we read through the entire Bible on audio while eating breakfast. Earlier in 2016, we filmed unit studies of I & II Thessalonians all the way to Revelation. These included skits and other hands-on activities that brought the books to life. They are all accessible in the Bible section of the Vault.

Over the summer I read the following books:

  • Because the Time is Near: John MacArthur explains the Book of Revelation (We compared his pre-trib stance with John Piper’s post-trib stance and saw that there were LOTS of Scriptures that go against pre-tribulation rapture.)
  • Foxe’s Book of Martyrs (This is gory, but I am preparing my children to be martyrs. I am teaching them to stand for their faith in the face of the persecution that is coming.)
  • Heaven by Joni Erickson Tada (because all that butchery and death from Foxe’s Book of Martyrs is too much to bear without the clear vision of heaven, which is where all wrongs will be made right and there will be no more suffering or sorrow.)

We also learned note-taking skills at church. Because of reading the three books listed above, we are behind in our yearly Bible reading and will need to boogy to get it done by the end of December!

Oh, and my kids are watching this series for Bible class as well: The Bible Project. These videos are the books of the Bible explained in chart form in about 10 minutes with drawings. Phenomenal.

PE is hiking and swimming and bicycling.

That’s it.

Linking up to Curriculum Week at iHomeschool Network.