Getting Rid of Piles

I always envied my officemate--she was so organized and her desk was so clean. Mine, on the other hand, was a disaster, with files from last year sitting in piles. I'm not in the office anymore, but my desk is still a mess. Right now there are 7 sorted piles in front of me and 2 unsorted (and I'm not going to count the ones in the surrounding area). I'm working on cleaning it up, but I still don't have a good system for new stuff coming in. I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that I can clean all I want, but until I know what I'm going to do with new things I'll still have piles.

I saw the title of this thread, and the first thing I thought of was "Getting rid of hemmoroids". Thought maybe Lynn had some homeopathic remedy

Even though I am not working in the medical field.

I thought it was referring to a problem of the medical variety too!
Glad it's an external issue

Huh. Didn't know that that meant something else in medicalese.

Anhata
www.familynaturally.com
Your Family's General Store, Naturally

I am medically ignorant but I confess bodily ailment was my first thought! Hey, this is an earthy group, why not?

No need to hide these little problems

Zillah

I am having a heck of a time making sure my kids rooms are clean. Does anybody have any ideas of how to keep them a little more organized?

Depends on their ages. Are they toddlers,schoolage, or teens? Let me know that first then I'll give you some tips

Heidi

First of all I would sort through their things and discard anything that is broken. Then,if there aren't any more children in your future,donate things that your son no longer uses and that you wouldn't pass down to your daughter. Doing those 2 things could eliminate alot so you have a good starting point.

Your sons small things can be grouped by category(all action figures in their own clear plastic shoeboxes). The same for cars. My son has alot of HotWheel size cars and they actually make cases with slots for each car and hold about 30 or so cars per case and stack on top of each other. We got ours in the toy dept. of WalMart.
Since your daughter can't read,taping pictures or actual photos of toys on the outside of clear plastic shoeboxes will help her know where her things go. Example: tape a photo or drawing of blocks to the outside end and she knows to put only blocks in that box) That will help with any of her small toys. The larger toys can be rotated. If you have a basement or garage or attic,etc store them there and only have a couple out for 2-3 weeks then rotate them. Most kids only play with 20% of their toys about 80% of the time anyway. If you live where it is warm,can some of the big toys go outdoors on a deck or driveway or shed? She doesn't need all her dollhouses out at once,rotate those as well. It keeps the selection like new when she gets a different dollhouse after 2-3 weeks of having it out of sight.

Hope these tips help. If you think of anything more specific let me know.

they are absolute lifesavers in kids' rooms. I used to have two low bookshelves with lodas of tubs and drawer units on which worked brilliantly. Can't do that now unfortunately but at least I managed to sort out decades of inherited Lego into a 4 drawer unit - that alone made a HUGE difference. It's on wheels too so they can move it from one room to another, which is a bonus since it's a shared resource and they used to share their room.

I confess to being a little disappointed that this was just organisational piles... Funny how we all seem to have thought in the same way. Apparently we now have a community brain!!

Oh yes, and labels for all containers. Words for odler kids, pictures for younger kids. DD9 actually made the labels for the Lego drawers without me even suggesting it. Nice to know she's learned something useful from me!

Kerri.

Lynn, I have TONS of piles. So does DH. Don't mess with my piles, man! LOL! But I'm working on them today. Sticking to the flylady zones, I'm working on the master bedroom and bath today.

I have friends who used their digi cams to take a photo of the contents of the container. You can print out a cheap copy and tape it on.

My DD6 drew picture to go along with the words a few years ago. (Those bins have now been donated to a neighbor.)

I use tons of bins and baskets. I like them closed -- it's more fun to see what's inside, like opening a little present every time. And it works for rotating toys. Now trains are in the LR, little people in the basement. Horses were in the BR, now in the LR -- it's like new toys!