Oh that God would give every mother a vision of the glory and splendor of the work that is given to her when a babe is place in her bosom to be nursed and trained! Could she have but one glimpse in to the future of that life as it reaches on into eternity; could she look into it's soul to see its possibilities; could she be made to understand her own personal responsibility for the training of this child, for the development of its life, and for its destiny,--she would see that in all God's world there is no other work so noble and so worthy of her best powers, and she would commit to no others hands the sacred and holy trust given to her." -JR Miller

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Top Tips Tuesday - Storage

This is an area I am constantly learning in. With 5 children in a 2 bedroom house it is a challenge almost everyday.

I am fast becoming a big believer in DECLUTTERING - now I didn't say I was good at it, just that I believe in it! If you DECLUTTER you don't have as much stuff to store heehee. The main room I have worked on (and it takes me a while) is the childrens bedroom - we have 3 children sharing (we turned half a room downstairs into a bedroom for my eldest daughter and baby still sleeps in our bedroom) so we have a bunk bed with a double bed at the bottom - not sure I really recommend this as it can make bedtime a bit of a problem! My Mum also kindly gave us some drawers and a wardrobe which made a BIG difference - so much easier to store clothes in drawers - and it gave me somewhere to keep all the swimming gear and hats scarves etc.

The other thing I invested in was Ikea Trofast Drawers (from ebay) - I have fallen in love with the Trofast Stroage system - you can get so much in! So 2 of the children have drawers for their toys and when they are full I expect them to choose what to get rid of if they want more!


I would like to say that the bedroom still looks like this but ahem I have "discovered" that tidying and putting things away really needs working on in this house!

The other thing that has made a big difference in our small house is a unit/dresser that was donated to us by a good friend who had no room for it when she moved - up until we got it I had a table in the corner of the room which just had piles all round it - amazing how much better having it all in a unit can make the place look and feel!

It holds our printer, some books I like to refer to regularly, a basket for odds and ends and some papers for school work - probably needs more decluttering but I'lm learning - I also have to admit that I need to learn how to keep things this clean and orderly - it truly is a constant challenge for me!

Well there's a few tips - but here's a blog I found recently from a family who are SO much further on in the decluttering/organised storage journey!

I linked up with The Joyful Keeper for this post!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Sarah! I have no idea how you manage in a 2 bed house.. I hope it is spacious downstairs.. where do you do the school work? I clicked through to the blog you referred to and honestly.. if you and I had that much space I think organising would be a breeze. I think that hardest part of organising is working with a small place. We live in a 3 bed dormer bungalow with 4 children and I struggle with the space I have so I take my hat off to you! xx Tamsyn

Caroline Cordle said...

I have been enjoying her blog, but hadn't seen that post - it's great! Like Tamsyn, we live in a dormer bungalow, but with 6 children. Plus, the bedrooms are not very big! But, hey, challenges are good! :-)

Sarah D said...

hmm thought I'd commented here but it disappeared lol - 2 bedrooms not easy we converted a room downstairs into a bedroom/school room but that leaves us squashed round a table in a kitchen for meal time lol - I'm trying to declutter (a lot) and we are hoping to move - praying for finances and a suitable house to come available! Especially with baby number 6 on the way haven't figured out how we're going to fit yet in case we haven't moved lol - yes challenges are good - I've become quite good at creating space lol and it's a great way to learn to live more simply! Oh and school work happens everywhere (the school room is more for storage at present though working on that) we use the living room, kitchen and my parents house ;-)