Organized? Me?

Over yonder at the Big Yellow House, Chris is discussing organization and big families. Carmen, the Mom to the Screaming Masses also wrote about this. It got me to thinking about how organized/disorganized we are around here. We have some victories and some clutter, and we can always use more coat hooks.

A very, very, very organized real life friend of mine helped me out with my paper messes about a year ago. She set me up with a system that I love. We have a three ring binder with a section in it for each person in the family. When papers come home and they can't be thrown, they get three-ring punched and filed under who ever's name that paper applies to. Examples: lunch menus, spelling lists, nursery schedules, permission slips. You know, all the semi-important papers that seems to get lost in a pile when you need them most.

Another success is my In-Box. I bought a little shallow wire basket that sits on the counter and when the kids come home from school and empty their backpacks, they put all the papers right into that basket. It keeps them safe until I go through it later. Then I start in with the throwing, the three ring punching, and I save special art work or interesting stories. Those go in an accordion type folder.

Another system that is working for us right now is socks. FINALLY! You don't know how many times I have had to sit down for a room consuming one hour sock sort with my dear friend Dr. Phil. If only he actually helped sort socks! Now, I pair them up as they come out of the dryer and get them right into each person's basket. All loners are tossed into one of those rollie drawer organizer thingies with a drawer for boys socks, girls socks and parent socks. Each time I toss loners in, I check to see if the match is already in there. I think there are some sad old "widowed" socks in there who will never see their mate again.

A recent attempt at organization that turned into a big laugh is my new laundry sorter. I bought one of these attempting to replace the tattered old plastic hampers that are used for climbing on and rolling down the stairs. I only paid about fifteen bucks at Walmart for this new thing, and mine is a little different. Same type of thing though, it's canvas with three sections. Ok, the box said it holds six loads at once. Uuum, they must be doing laundry on some other planet because about four pairs of jeans is all that fits in each section. Is two pairs of jeans a load of laundry? Well, then I am WAAAY over loading my poor washer. Just a side note, one section DOES hold a four year old boy. It's a great place to hide during a game of hide-and-go-seek. Anyway, I laughed when I got the thing assembled. Six loads...grumble grumble.

So that is a glimpse into a couple of my attempts at organization. I'm off to organize myself some lunch.