Solutions

I just thought I'd do another organizing post. I was just talking with a friend about how living in a small house has forced us to be careful about not accumulating too much stuff and also to be creative with our storage. Our little bungalow was built in 1936, and other than one very small closet per bedroom (3), we have no closets. We do a big clothing purge at every season change, and we give away at least one giant box of toys before every Christmas. I'd want to do that even if we had unlimited closet space!

But with soon to be four kids, we really needed a solution for coats, hats, gloves, rain boots, etc. We had some room at the end of a hallway - there's a door there, but we never use it, because on the other side is a door in Henry's room that we have blocked off. So a few weeks ago, my sister in law and I headed to my favorite antique store, in search of a wardrobe.

I ended up getting this rustic cabinet - it was super cheap, and exactly the dimensions of the hallway (it took a little taking apart and putting back together to get it in the spot).

Behind the mirror is a tall cabinet. Davis hung a rod, and that's where everyone's jackets and coats are. On the floor of the cabinet are everyone's rain boots. The top cabinet on the right had a very rickety mirror that kept falling out, so I replaced it with some fabric - that cabinet is the perfect spot for bags (kids' little overnight bags/backpacks, extra diaper bags, library bag, etc. - it's surprisingly deep). And the drawers are just perfect - one for umbrellas, one for gloves, one for hats, one for scarves, and one that's still EMPTY!

One of the things that's hard about having the kids in school and me working, is that Davis picks them up from school at 3 o'clock, and I don't get home until a couple of hours later. Last year, we kept having issues with important school papers getting lost during those two hours! It seemed like I was always searching for permission slips under the car seats. When Sophia was taking dance, Davis and I were always having frantic phone conversations 30 minutes before her lesson about where her tights or ballet shoes or leotard were.

So, now the rule is that when the girls get in the car at school, they throw their backpacks (or in Amelia's case, the little canvas bag the school provides for pre-K kids) in the front passenger seat (so they're not tempted to open them in the back seat on the way home!) And when they get home, they hang them on hooks underneath their initials on the big bulletin board

When I get home, I know everything will still be there for me. Usually Sophia sits down with me at 5 and does homework at the dining room table while I start dinner and look through their folders.

Underneath their school bags, on their hooks, they each have a sports bag. Sophia's soccer bag has her ball, cleats, shin guards, uniform, sunscreen, and water bottle in it.

Amelia's dance bag has her tap and ballet shoes, tights, and leotards in it.

Sunday nights, I wash their uniforms and stick them back in the bags, where they stay until practice/class/games. No more searching!

Henry's hook has his diaper bag on it. I have always kept my diaper bag stocked, so that it's ready to go - when we get back from an outing, I clean it out/re-stock it as needed, which works so much better than trying to throw stuff together when you need to run out the door. Of course the contents change based on the age of my kids... right now it contains 3 cloth diapers, a wetbag, a travel package of disposable wipes, an extra shirt for Henry, an empty sippy cup, a little bag with raisins and Cheerios, a few matchbox cars, a bag of crayons and a little notepad, hand sanitizer, and sunscreen.

One the side of the pantry cabinet, to the left of the bulletin board, I hung a wire basket. That is where library books live. The girls are free to get them out and read them anytime, but as soon as they are done, the books go back in the basket rather than on their bookshelf (or anywhere else). This makes it easy to find them when they are due, and is also a good reminder to me to return them!

Speaking of books - see Sophia's reading caterpillar on the top of the bulletin board? He gets a circle for every book she reads on her own. When he gets to the end, we're having a party!

One more easy solution... I got this from my friend Holly, and I think it's just brilliant! When the weather is nice, we go to the zoo all the time - it is close to our house, and we have a membership so we can go however many times we want and often go for just an hour or two. But I never seem to have tokens (or dollar bills for buying tokens) for riding the train, and Davis can never find his zoo card... So I got this cute little wallet, and in it I put our zoo card, a bunch of zoo tokens, a few dollar bills (for lemonade!), and coupons I have for free stuff at the zoo that we get when we renew our membership. Now when Davis or I head to the zoo - we just grab the zoo wallet off the bulletin board and have everything we need!

There are days that I spend hours on Pinterest, looking at amazing mud rooms and beautiful big houses with lots of storage space, thinking about how nice it would be to have more space than stuff... but really, I am content with our little space for now, and it works.