Organizing small spaces

It's no secret that we live in tiny apartment. It was too small for us before we had a kid. Now we have two.

Photo by Natalie Chiles

We haven't moved because we love how close we live to the beach and love the semi-urban beach town we live in. (It doesn't hurt that the landlords haven't raised the rent since we starting renting in 2005!) 

Because we have limited space we've had to get creative on how we use it. Imagine shelves, lots of shelves. Recently we turned the downstairs walk-in shower into our junk closet in order to utilize the kids' closet for their things.

The closet in the kids' room use to be the dumping ground for all kinds of things. Jeff's tools, extra diapers, the vacuum, light bulbs, a tent, board games...just to name a few. We even took off the door, that opened into the closet, to add more shelving to fit all of our stuff.

Here's what the closet looked like before I cleaned it out and organizing it.

Forgot to mention that this photo was taken after Jeff removed all the non-kid related stuff. There was an additional shelving unit on the other wall.  Packed full!

I took EVERYTHING that was left in the closet, pulled it out, and sorted it into piles: Carson, Leila (no-access), Leila (able to access), kid related stuff that I use, and stuff that didn't belong in the kids' closet.

I decided I wanted this closet to be a functioning space, not just one to hold our stuff, so I moved the shelving to the other wall. This allows us to actually walk into our walk-in closet (which is surprisingly bigger than I originally thought!)

We are using a baby gate to limit access to the closet instead of putting the door back on to give us more space.

1. As you can see, the back of the closet has a built in ledge that holds some of Leila's toy bins perfectly.
2. Once the shelf was moved I was able to hang some of Leila's clothes on the actual rod that was made to hold clothes. 
3. Carson's few outfits are hung on a shower rod that we added across the top of the closet (where Leila's clothes use to be hung. His extra diapers and next sized clothing (washed and ready to wear) are on the top shelf.
4. This shelf is still out of Leila's reach so I put the portable booster seat, humidifier, bottle parts, and extra empty baskets on this shelf.
5. We have some toys that are not quite age appropriate for Leila or Carson yet. I don't really care if Leila discovers these, so they are on a lower shelf. Who knows, she may be ready to play Candy Land or do a floor puzzle with my help/
6. On the bottom shelf I am storing larger toys that Leila doesn't need access to daily. I will be using these future toy rotations. (Read about our toy rotation here and here.)
7. The built in shelves at the top of the closet (not pictured) hold large baby items, like the pack and play,   that I don't want in the attic (just in case we have an animal or insect family make a home up there).

It makes me smile every time I see this newly organized space! Have you done any Spring cleaning or organizing lately? Come link up with Mama Dish for their Spring Clean Fling or visit the link up to get some ideas for your own Spring cleaning.

Creating a Time Capsule For Your Kids {Guest Post}

Hi again! It's Heather from Everything Eatherton and Mama Dish. I wrote my first guest post for Jen last summer while I was about to pop with my second son. I figured that she might appreciate some help keeping Leilaland moving while she was busy caring for her newborn, so I'm back for another visit. Thanks for having me!

Since Jen just gave birth (like, less than a week ago), I figured it would be good for her to start thinking about what she might put aside as her little boy grows, for his special keepsakes.

Two of the best gifts we received when we were pregnant with our first son weren't purchased at a store (well, technically they were, 30+ years ago...) They were items that my mother-in-law had saved from my husband's childhood-- his favorite blanket and his baby book. A baby book chock full of useful and entertaining information!

I enjoyed reading through page after page of sleep habits, favorite friends, first foods, first steps and other first milestones. The book contained his birth announcement, birthday party invitations, and magazine clippings about local events from when he was little. It also contained damning information like, when he was potty training he was caught urinating on the radiator (ewwww!)

My Mom started a baby book for me when I was born, so I have a few notes from my first months, but she didn't really keep up with it. And as far as I know, she doesn't have any other keepsakes for me from when I was little. {Tear}

I'm a saver by nature, so I've always known that I wanted to keep a time capsule for my children, with memorabilia from throughout their life. I want them to be able to look through these precious items and ask to hear stories about important milestones in their life, and hopefully share some things with their children one day (nothing warms my heart more than seeing Brady sleeping with my husband's blankie!)

Choosing items for their capsules hasn't been easy. On one hand, I want to save absolutely everything of theirs, but on the other, I just don't have the space! And having a second boy further complicated things, because all of Brady's clothing, shoes, etc. are reusable. I decided a good rule of thumb is to try to collect no more than 3-5 items per year for their capsules, and to shoot for big-themed pieces or items that tell a unique story.

Here are a few things I've collected for the boys so far. Most of these are in Brady's capsule, but I plan to save the same things for Cole as well.

• Pregnancy journals
• Their (well documented) baby books
• Hats worn in the hospital
• Coming home outfits
• Tiny blue bear given as a newborn gift that says, "It's A Boy"
• Baptism outfits
• First pair of shoes
• First favorite book (Brady's is Big Red Barn, by Margaret Wise Brown)
• First baseball cap
• A piece of wall art from their nursery
•  Lock of hair from first haircut
• Birthday party invitations
• Their Your Birthday Books
• Tickets from his first flight (and wings!), first baseball games, first train rides, etc.
• Photos from each visit with Easter Bunny and Santa
• Family Christmas card from each year
• A piece of paper that chronicle's their signature each year (starting this year with Brady now that he can write his name!)
• Sticky Bellies monthly stickers

Some items I anticipate adding them as they get older are:

• First pair of soccer cleats
• First baseball glove
• T-shirts from their first sports teams
• Blankies (when they outgrow them)
• Special stuffed animals (when they outgrow them)
• First lost tooth (or is that gross??)
• School photos
• Report cards
• Awards/ribbons/trophies from important competitions

So much for keeping the loot under control. It looks like I'm going to need bigger containers....

Have you been saving memorabilia from your little ones' lives? What other key items should we be saving? How did you decide where to draw the line in order to avoid being featured on an episode of Hoarders?!

Toy rotation {How I made it work for us}

I saved my sanity by recently implementing a new toy rotation system for Leila's main play area.  After just one day of less toys and books around our home felt less cluttered, Leila started playing with "new" toys, and I didn't spend all day picking up after her various messes.

In the first post of this series, I shared what I learned about toy rotation from Kim at Little Stories and a fellow mom, Meagan.

With limited storage space and a play kitchen set that is always set-up in the living room, I was worried if I could toy rotation work in our tiny space.

I started by getting rid of the junk.  I tossed broken and junky prize toys, gave away toys with missing pieces, and boxed up toys that were too baby-ish for her.  I did the same with our books on the book shelf.  This left us with way fewer toys and books for the rotation than I had expected.  I couldn't believe how many baby toys I still had out for Leila to play with ignore.

Next, I sorted the toys we were keeping in for the rotation into one of 5 categories.  Instead of pulling all the toys off the shelves (again) I made lists of the toys we have in a notebook.  I figured this would help me when I was ready to switch the toys out in two weeks.  No more thinking required...I already did the most difficult part!

Here's what my list looks like:

Thinking Toys- choose 3

puzzles, bead maze, wooden stacking train, crayons/coloring books, Magna-Doodle, pounding set, blocks (we have 4 different sets), play-dough, magnets, shape sorter, art/crafts 

Moving Toys- choose 3

balls, foam climbing blocks, wagon, baby stroller*, keyboard, musical instruments, vacuum*

Pretending toys- choose 3

kitchen set, play food and dishes, tool set, shopping baskets/bags, dress-up clothes/accessories, baby crib, Little People house, Little People zoo, baby dolls, doll clothes, stuffed animals, baby diaper bag

SCLaNs- choose 1

anything that turns on and has buttons to push

*I realize some of these toys can fit into more than one category.  This is how I chose to do it based upon how many of toys we have for each category and what her current faves are.

See...not nearly as many toys as I thought.  Clearing out the junk and packing up the baby toys really helped.

Choosing toys to have out for the first rotation was easy using my list.  I picked the correct amount of toys from each category, found a tub for them, and set them on the shelf.  Ta-da!

For this rotation-Thinking toys: 1 puzzle, wooden stacking train, MegaBlocks
Moving toys: keyboard, stroller, ball
Pretending toys: kitchen, baby diaper bag/baby doll, Little People house and accessories

I also decided that we had way too much play food and dishes available in the kitchen set.  I put them all into a giant tub for storage and chose two cooking pots with lids, three place settings, and five food items.  The available kitchen toys are neatly in baskets that fit in the kitchen set.

Ahhhh...so much better.

You may have noticed that I left out her GIANT Minnie Mouse and considered her baby diaper bag with the baby doll one pretending toy.  I also left out two shopping buckets in the kitchen area and decided to always keep the crayons and coloring books on the top shelf, out of her reach, until they are officially part of the rotation.

The important thing to remember is that this is your toy rotation system now.  You need to be flexible, bend the rules if necessary, and make it work for you and your child(ren).

Now, what on Earth did I do with all of the toys left out from this first rotation?

Stay tuned for my next post in this series...

Toy rotation {Storage and books}

Toy rotation saved my life!

Seriously though...how may times have you tripped over your child's toy, stepped on a small block, or pulled out your back cleaning up the mess of toys left out by your kid?

This fed-up Momma is begging you to rethink how you organize and store your child's toys. Not only will you feel like it saved your life, your child will secretly thank you too.

Our apartment is small...like teeny-tiny small, without a garage.  I work hard to make sure everything has a place, but sometimes it just gets out of control.

Take our main living area for example; it includes our television, couch, Lazy-boy, kitchen, kitchen table, Leila's toy shelves, her play kitchen, her mini-table, filing cabinets, end tables, and a tall bookcase that holds everything from Leila's books to over-sized kitchen items.  Let's just say we utilize every possible space possible, including the walls, for storage,

Here's some scary BEFORE pictures of the upstairs play areas.  As you can see I had a lot of sorting and organizing to do.  The worst part...I feel like I JUST organized this after her birthday in September and felt good about it.  Yikes.

Before: Toy shelves

Before: Kitchen area

Before: Upstairs bookshelf

I came across a pin on Pinterest about toy rotation that sparked my interest. The link ended up leading me to my friend Meagan's blog.  Meagan gave all the credit of her organizational system to Little Stories, an excellent resource focusing on early speech and language development.

At first I was surprised at all the toy and book organization tips on a speech blog, but after reading Kim's posts for newcomers I could see the relevance.  If you are interested in starting from the beginning check out these posts for newcomers.  They are quick reads and you'll be hooked on her blog immediately.

Toy Rotation {What I learned}

I searched Little Stories blog for the posts about toy rotation.  I read them all, then read them again.  Here's what I learned from Kim's posts.

• Get rid of junk!  Broken toys, toys that have missing pieces, toys that are too baby-ish, and toys that are just junk (think freebies from Chuck E. Cheese) need to go.  Donate them, recycle them, or store the baby-ish ones for a future child...just get them out of the play area.

• Categorize and sort toys that are left into one of these five categories (for further descriptions read here):

1. Thinking toys (cognitive and fine motor toys)
2. Moving toys (gross motor toys)
3. Pretending toys (toys that help develop social/emotional skills and language)
4. SCLaNs (Shapes, Colors, Letters, and Numbers electronic button-pushing toys)
5. Books 

• Make sets of ten toys to have out at a time.  Choose 3 thinking toys, 3 moving toys, 3 pretending toys, 1 SCLaN, and 5-10 books depending on your child's age.

• Store the rest of the toys out of the play area, out of sight.

• Rotate the toys in each category every two weeks.

• Watch your child rediscover and take interest in her toys!  Save your life by having less toys to clean up, trip over, or step on!

Stay tuned for my next post in this series...

Toy rotation {How I made it work for us}

What's in your bag?

This is by far my newest favorite diaper bag!

I have a lot of bags and have possibly been mistaken for a bag lady, but when I saw this on Babysteals I just couldn't resist.

I have justified this by calling it a Mothers' Day gift from Leila. She likes her Momma happy!




JJ Cole Swag Bag

I keep all of my diaper bags semi-packed with the ultimate kid essentials:

• Diapers
• Wipes
• Wet Ones
• Onesie or a clean outfit
• Bib

When I'm packing our bag for the day I just grab my phone, water, snacks, and my wallet (which also includes a pen, lip gloss, ponytail holder, and bobby-pins) and toss it into one of the already semi-packed diaper bags.

This way I can choose my bag based on what we are doing and what I am wearing!

After reading the other Toddle Along Tuesday posts from this week I want more bags!

I may have a problem.
Am I alone here?

Check out what I mean...

Organize ME {Earrings}

This October I was inspired to organize our home thanks to Kelly at The Complete Guide to Imperfect Homemaking. I showed you how I used a diaper box to organize my gift wrapping supplies. I know, lame, but that was all I photographed.

In November I got creative with the help of my sister and Pinterest. Neither of us have a lot of dresser space to store our accessories (even though Val has more than double the amount I have). But we have wall space! So we set out to make an earring holder we could hang like this.

When we finished we each had one like this...

Isn't Jeff a beautiful hand model?

December brought adorable toddler art and beautiful packages under the tree.

Now, it is more than half way through January and I've yet to commit to a new project.

Ideas anyone?

Oh wait maybe I should tackle my utensil drawer in the kitchen. It just took me five minutes to find the tongs.

Making myself useful

Projects are my thing. I need to feel like I am useful, especially with my new (maybe temporary) role as a stay-at-home mom.

At the beginning of the month I came across a link on Pinterest that caught my eye.

Living in a miniature two bedroom apartment (with no garage) is a challenge. Everything must have a place and I am determined to not be over-crowded with things. (Those of you that have seem my place know that we are stuffed to the max!)

I decided this would be my new project:


Thanks to Kelly over at The Complete Guide to Imperfect Homemaking I have organized our entry way, the pantry, two closets, my daughter's toy boxes, my creative supplies, Tupperware cabinet, and the gift bag tub/box.

I even got Jeff on board! He worked on organizing the attic, purged some clothes, organized his drawers, and is starting to tackle an outdoor project. I love when he buys into my organizing frenzy.

The only project I photographed was the gift bag tub. (And didn't even take a real "before" picture.)

Before: All the gift bags were in the turquoise tub squished on top of each other and the ribbons were scattered about. When I would look for a gift bag, I stuck my hand in the tub, lid half off (because it was overflowing with gift bags), and grabbed the first non-baby bag I saw. Ribbons...forget about it.


After: I sorted the bags and recycled the overused ones. I placed them in the diaper box so I could easily flip through the bags to find exactly what I was looking for. I wrapped the ribbon around folded index cards and into a plastic baggie.


Simple. Easy. Not super awesome.

What about you...what are your newest projects?