Organizing | 3 Boys And A Dog

Top 10 Spring Cleaning and Organizing Tips from ShopRunner

March 2, 2012 By Kelli 1 Comment

The National Association of Professional Organizers claims that we spend a year of our lives looking for lost items. With Spring just around the corner – the ideal time to eliminate clutter and get organized – I’d like to suggest a roundup article on tips and tools to help your readers get rid of the clutter.

Guest article provided by ShopRunner, who is a members-only free shipping service that provides users access to the organizational products they need to quickly tackle their spring cleaning tasks with free two-day shipping from over 90 top retailers, has compiled a list of the top 10 organizational items from a variety of today’s most popular retailers, including Organize.com, drugstore.com and Toys’R’Us.

1. A multi-pocket behind the seat organizer to keep favorite on-the-go items sorted and in one place

2. A spinning stand to store and organize coffee pods

3. An overdoor cap and hat organizer gives users the space to store 24 favorite hats

4. A cosmetic organizer provides three tiers of organization and fits seamlessly into bathroom décor

5. Pick up a new nightstand for kids’ rooms, such as this one from Toys ‘R’ Us

6. A hanging extra closet rod allows for twice the amount of clothes to be hung in given closet space

7. Update the medicine cabinet to include a sorted first aid kit

8. A new jewelry box can stylishly store the best accessories

9. A bamboo bath tissue holder can free up under-the-counter space formerly taken up by bulky toilet paper rolls

10. A cord organizer helps easily identify and separate those wires that so often can tangle

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Filed Under: Guest Blogger, Organizing

Pinterest To Do List: Weekly Favorite Pins

February 4, 2012 By Kelli 2 Comments

Another week of trolling Pinterest for the best goodies. These are things on my to do list. Do you have a whole list of things you want to complete from Pinterest? It is crazy how addicting that website is, isn’t it?

I have teamed up with Susie QT Pies and Crystal and Company to bring you this weekly linky.

Since this post is all about pinning, be sure to pin this post and a few of the posted linkies. Choose your favorite and click to your heart’s content.

So, what can you put in the linky? You can put any or all of the following items:

1. Your Pinterest Board Linky
2. A few of your favorite links
3. A blog post of your own Pinterest Favorites or round up post!

If you aren’t on Pinterest and would like to be, simply email me with your email address in the body and I will send an invite right on over!

So, here is what I am pinning this week… I need to get my life, blogs, house in order. I just have so much going on that what I typically use for organization isn’t cutting it anymore. SO, I have been trolling pinterest for some new ideas and will share some of my faves with you!

1. Four Pocket Organizer from ePatterns Central!

2. 2012 Declutter Calendar from My Simpler Life

3. 40 Bags in 40 Days Challenge from Little Lucy Lu

4. 7 Steps to an Organized Pantry from Family Balance Sheet

Go visit my faves and then, link up below!

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Filed Under: Blogging, Organizing Tagged With: favorites, link up, linky, Organizing, Pinterest

Top 10 Tips to Organize Your Children

January 31, 2012 By Kelli 1 Comment

By Bonnie Joy Dewkett

Children’s artwork is a bittersweet thing. It’s beautiful and can represent a glimpse into the world as seen through a child’s eyes. It can also be a great indicator of your child’s development. However, artwork can add up. Before you know it, artwork can over whelm your counters, refrigerator, and walls. By implementing the following steps you will make sure your memories are kept in tact, and decrease the clutter.

Before you do anything with a piece of artwork, decide what it means to you. Is it the best piece your child has ever done or is it just another piece they drew while waiting for dinner at a restaurant? Be honest with yourself.
Do you have family members that live far away? Have your child sign pieces of artwork, then write a quick note and send the artwork to friends and family who live far away. It may sound silly to you because you have dozens of pieces, but to them it may be the only piece they have!
For three-dimensional pieces of art, the easiest thing to do is take a photo of your child with the piece; keep it for a little while, and then dispose of it. I usually suggest moving it to another area of the house, such as the garage, after a period of time. If its not missed, you can easily get rid of it.
Use frames that are easily changeable to house artwork. Job tickets are small plastic sheaths that are designed to house contractor’s paperwork on dirty and wet job sites. They are inexpensive and easy to hang on your wall. Papers slip in and out quickly and easily. Changing artwork is a snap.
Pizza boxes make great artwork storage. Ask at your local pizza place to give you some unused boxes. Most restaurants will give them away for free. You can group artwork by date, child or academic year.
For artwork that is flat, consider scanning it in and storing it digitally.
Take photos of your child with their artwork. Then you can print them and put them into an album or you can print a digital photo book. This gives you a printed record of your child’s progress. Print multiple books and give them to family members.
Set limits with your child on just how many pieces of artwork you will keep. Stay within these boundaries and it will help them learn to determine which pieces have meaning and which pieces do not.
Combine storage with display. Use a string and clothespins to display a large number of items in a small amount of space.
Make sure you hold yourself accountable to sit down and sort through artwork. It will build up as the school year progresses. Putting a date into your calendar to make those difficult decisions will make sure it gets done and make sure the artwork doesn’t pile up too high. For the pieces you have determined should be kept and are important, take the time to have them laminated and to protect them in clearly labeled plastic containers.

Bonnie Joy Dewkett, CPO^® is an organizing expert, author, and motivational speaker. Her company, The Joyful Organizer®, creates and implements organizational systems for the home or office. These changes allow her Customers to create calm from chaos at work and at home. Bonnie has achieved the prestigious designation of Certified Professional Organizer, CPO^®, fromThe Board of Certification for Professional Organizers.She is a member of The National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) and has published The Joyful Organizer’s Guide to a Joyful Move which is available on her website http://www.thejoyfulorganizer.com.

Image courtesy of Flicker

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Filed Under: Guest Blogger, Just for Kids, Organizing Tagged With: get organized, kids room, Organizing

GIVEAWAY: Holiday Memory Organizer

December 9, 2011 By Tabitha

Well it’s officially only 15 shopping days ’til Christmas! Who’s done all their shopping? I can tell you I have barely started and I have four kids to buy for this year! My time is quickly running out!

Aside from the craziness of shopping and preparing for Christmas, there is one thing I’m sure we all want during the holidays and that’s to make memories that will last a lifetime. Whether you have kids or it’s just you and your spouse or just you, we all want fond memories and we want to remember them and to show others our memories as well.

What a better way to keep track of those memories then putting together a Holiday Memory binder. The Holiday Memory Organizer from CarolinaPad is the perfect place to store all your holiday memories from pics, to recipes, to family traditions and Christmas card lists.

The Holiday Memory Organizer includes 5 decorative tab dividers, 12 pocket pages to hold 48 standard 4”x6” photos, 12 pocket pages to hold 48 standard 5”x7” photos and 12 pocket pages to hold 48 letters, cards, photos or other keepsakes up to 8.5”x11”. At a retail price of only $12.99!

My brain is already working overtime with ideas of what I want to put in my binder! I see favorite recipes, pictures of fun activities, ides for next Christmas, the possibilities are endless. What I like most about this book is that it’s all contained and set up for you all you have to do is drop stuff in. I can’t wait to get started documenting our Christmas memories and traditions in one convenient place. I won’t be hunting for that awesome melt in your mouth shortbread recipe anymore because I’m putting it in my book. I won’t be asking myself each year, “Now what did I bake last year?” now I’ll know!

You can purchase this handy binder and other items direct from their online store, unfortunately they can’t sell to Canadians just yet but they are working on it.

CarolinaPad has given our US readers a discount code for 20% off your next purchase made before January 15th 2012. Here’s the link: http://carolinapadstore.com/index.aspx?dc=3boysandadogdirectly either click it or copy and paste it into your browser window.

Win it!

One of our lucky readers is going to win the Holiday Memory Organizer! The giveaway is open to both US and Canada!!

*Please note that if you win we will need your full name and address and phone number (Sorry FedEx rules) and you cannot have won ANY type of Carolina Pad prize, contest, etc in the past 90 days. (Including Facebook and Twitter.)

Mandatory Entry: Head on over to the Carolina Pad store and tell me one other item that you would like to buy.

BONUS #1: Follow @carolinapad and @momof3boys3702 on Twitter and RT this contest. The easiest way to retweet is to simply click the green ReTweet on the top right of this post. YOU MAY TWEET ONCE DAILY

BONUS #2: Like Carolina Pad and 3 Boys and a Dog on FaceBook then share this post by clicking the FaceBook share button at the bottom of this post.

Other bonus entries:

#1. Spread the word about this review by: email, forums, blogging, Digg, or putting the link in a meme. (one entry per thing done)
#2. Sign up for my NEW Weekly Newsletter.
#3. Subscribe to my RSS feed.
#4. Put my button on your blog.
#5. Leave a comment on any other post (excluding giveaways!) Be sure to leave a comment here saying which post.
#6 – Vote for me at Picket Fence by clicking the button on my sidebar. Be sure to leave a comment saying you did! YOU MAY VOTE ONCE DAILY!

CONTEST ENDS: at Midnight CST on Dec 23, 2011

OPEN TO: US and Canada

*DISCLAIMER: I was sent items by Carolina Pad to help facilitate my review. Any opinions stated are strictly my own.*

Filed Under: Crafts & Games, Crafts and Hobbies, Holidays / Seasons, Organizing, Review and Giveaways

Ask Kelli: Finding Time to Do it All

December 9, 2011 By Kelli 1 Comment

In my new weekly newsletter, my readers are encouraged to ask me questions. I will be answering some of them via my blog in the hopes that they will help everyone out. This one came from Rita S.

Who couldn’t want to organize their home? I used to be such an organized person, but since blogging have surely let these things go. How can you have both? Hugs, Rita

Ah yes, the very problematic lack of time! A friend of mine (The Football Wife) said on Twitter, that she was asking Santa for more time for Christmas this year. If only it were that easy. Unfortunately, it is NOT that easy. There really is never enough time for a Woman, especially if she decides to add a job in with the raising of her kids, keeping the home, running the errands, taking time for herself, being their for her friends, etc! Unfortunately, we Work-From-Home Moms find that we actually seem to get less done than our “In the real-world” working Mom counter-parts. Why? Because we don’t have a specific schedule and don’t know how to hang up our “Work Hat”.

That is something that has to be done. Period! You have to decide how much time you can reasonably spend working on your at-home business and try very hard to stick to that. I know that there are going to be times when you just can’t. Maybe you have a project that has a deadline. It is ok, on those occasions, to go over a bit. Just don’t let it become the norm.

Anyway, here is what I have started doing to help myself fit things in.

#1 – I had to change my mindset. I used to work outside the home and complained because I wasn’t home with my kids and felt that I needed to be. Circumstances changed and I came home. Then, after a bit of being home I needed something to do and I started blogging. Before I knew it, I was spending WAY more time blogging and working on my blogs than I was with my children. I had to sit down and really reevaluate what I could do.

#2 – I made myself a pretty specific plan and stick totally to it most of the time. I sat down and thought about all the things I needed to do with my two blogs to keep them running smoothly and growing. Then, I started timing to see how long it ACTUALLY takes me to do certain things and made a plan. I have a list of things that I am supposed to complete by 8 am, by 10 am, by 12 pm, and by 2 pm. Then, my day technically stops.

#3 – As soon as I started making a little money off my blog, I hired an assistant. Granted, most months I don’t actually make anything, because all of my money goes to her. BUT, I am not losing anything either and it is freeing up my time for other things.

#4 – If your blog is bringing in any money (even if it is in the form of products) then it is a business and should be treated as such. How much time do you want to devote to your children, how much to your home and husband, and how much time do you want to devote to your business? Figure it out and stick with it.

That is it. Change your mindset and get up off the computer. I will get into this even more at the beginning of the year when I start my Get Organized Series and my 12 Weeks to a Bigger Blog Series.