One Day at a Time...

I consider myself an organized person. However, having an (almost) 2 year old makes everything a little bit more challenging. For example, yesterday we were getting ready to go to playgroup and I went to his shoe basket in his closet--this is where all of his shoes are supposed to be--and I found one navy sandal and one brown leather sandal. One of each. I mean, where did the other two go??? I wound up grabbing some sneakers and throwing them in the diaper bag. I didn't even put shoes on him until after playgroup when we were going into Kroger! Those of you who know me well, know that this lack of organization just drives me nuts. But, the frustrating thing is that we're not messy people. Shane is a neat freak in a LOT of ways, and I love to organize. So--where the heck are those shoes?? Currently, I'm searching for 3 Little People, a Sears receipt, a brown sandal, and a navy sandal. How does this happen when I save every receipt divided by month, have a husband that counts all of the Little People before turning in for the night (no-I'm not kidding,) and have a designated basket for Logan's shoes??

In the spirit of the conversation, I'll share a few things that have helped me to get and stay organized, despite the chaos of a 2 year old. Shane usually brings his lunch to work every day. I always said that I'd pack it for him, but I had a hard time remembering. Or, I would set aside a Tupperware container of leftovers in the fridge for him and it would get buried. He had no idea what I had put in there specifically for him (or even what was in there for that matter) when he was trying to get out the door before 7am every morning. Recently, I bought a small plastic basket from Target to be his lunch basket. This is a visual reminder to me when it's sitting empty in the fridge that I need to fill it for him before the next morning. (I'm never up at 7am unless it's absolutely necessary.) So, while I'm making lunch for Logan on Monday, I can make Shane's lunch for Tuesday and throw it in his basket. Or, when I'm putting away the leftovers from dinner, I can divide it into smaller portions and put one container in there. In the morning, Shane just pulls the basket out of the fridge and puts everything into his lunch cooler, grabs an ice pack, and he's good to go. This has been instrumental in helping me remember to get his lunch together, and helping him remember to grab it in the morning. Not to mention the money that it saves us when he doesn't go out to lunch every day.

Another thing that I LOVE are closet dividers from the container store. They hook over the top of your closet rack and you can stick labels on them. I use these in both mine and Logan's closets to keep the types of clothes separated. When Logan was a newborn, I had them all marked for sizes of clothing. Now, I have L/S shirts, S/S shirts, sleepers, jackets, too big and too small. (All pj's and pants are in his drawers.) When I'm pulling clothes out in the morning, and I see something he's outgrown, I just stick it behind the "too small" tab. This makes cleaning out his closet super easy. Every once in awhile, I'll pull things out from the "too big" tab and wash them to go in with the rest of his clothes. In my closet, I keep all my clothes divided by L/S, S/S, strappy, jackets, pants, capris, etc.

One more silly thing that I do is label all leftovers on the side of the Tupperware containers before putting them in my fridge . I keep a Sharpie and masking tape in my kitchen drawer just for this. Whenever something goes in Tupperware, I label what it is and the date on the side before I put it in the fridge. This makes cleaning it out easy and also helps us to see what is in there quickly without having to pull everything out.

Okay, listing all of these things out has made me feel a little better about the missing shoes...I'm sure they'll turn up eventually.

Posted in: on Wednesday, May 13, 2009 at at 2:31 PM