For Nicole

Here are three things that have helped me stay semi-organized:

1. Personal Space for kids
Let me start out by saying that my girls are collectors. They will try to collect every rock, twig, bug (they see all bugs as additions to their already extensive bug collection), picture, etc that they come across. Emily even tried to start a trash collection. She was saving her chocolate milk bottles and candy wrappers for awhile. I nixed that one pretty quick.
Anyway, I found myself cleaning out their room while they were at school. That didn't go over too well. They were angry and felt violated because I threw a lot of their stuff away. So I decided to give them some space that was all theirs. It doesn't matter how big the space is. I guess that all depends on how big your house is. In our house their "space" is their nightstand. I have allowed them to put their jewelry box, night light, alarm clock and maybe one or two more things on top. They can keep whatever they want in the drawer and the space underneath granted it is not alive or smelly. When I help them clean out their room everything but their nightstand is fair game for the trash can. I don't touch the stuff in their nightstand. They have been pretty good about cleaning it out because once they run out of room they have to decide what stays and what goes. 2. Pick up your own dang towel!
I found myself picking towels up all over the house and constantly griping at the kids to hang up their own towel. I mean how hard can it be? What I realized is that it is very hard for a young child to hang a towel over a towel bar. It is easy for an adult but a kid doesn't know how to fold it just right and hang it nicely (Especially when the said towel bar is taken by two other towels already- Gross!). I realized if you want your kids to pick up after themselves you have to make it easy for them. We replaced the towel bar with hooks and I haven't picked up a used towel since.

3. Containers for school stuff:

These baskets hold all their shoes that they usually take off and leave in the middle of the living room floor. They also hold their backpacks so they are easy to find in the morning, a jacket and their umbrellas. I know it never rains in Midland but they get excited the ONE day they get to use them at school. The baskets work wonders and didn't cost much. I bought them at Hobby Lobby for $4 each. They use them for the displays but you can usually find them stacked randomly around the store. The letters were also at Hobby Lobby and were about $1 each. The kids colored them with a brown crayola marker. They had a lot of fun doing it.

I think you would agree although we would all like to have really clean, organized homes, the main objective should be to create a home where the Spirit can be present and an environment that the kids can learn to be independent and responsible. It won't ever look like homes in the magazines so don't stress yourself out. With the exception of a few (a very, very few), no one's home looks good all the time. You are doing great!