Ordering Disorder
with Busy Mom
When you have kids, the battle between order and chaos at home can take place on many fronts. Ordering Disorder is about ways to fight domestic entropy with organizing tips, tricks, meal ideas and more.
To learn more about Elizabeth, visit Busy Mom Blog or check out her Work It, Mom! profile.
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Oh internet, the things I do for you. These are photos of my cabinets. I did no cleaning before taking these, obviously.
A few months ago we finally finished installing the cabinets in our mudroom/laundryroom. I couldn’t imagine at the time how I was going to fill all that glorious space. But it is true what people say, the more space you have the more you fill it.
Slowly things just started getting placed into there. Don’t know where to put something? Hey, just stick it in the empty cabinets.
And that is just what we did. With wild abandon. I want to cry every time I open them. And not just because heavy things fall out and hit me on the head.
Exhibit One:
What the heck is all of this stuff and why is it in my cabinet? Specifically diapering products when I no longer have a child in diapers (can I get a Hallelujah? Thanks.), weights, fourth of July sparklers, leftover Christmas cards from last year, and books. Also, why is all of that stuff piled in the corner? Why do other people in my family, cough:: husband::cough, think that making piles is the same thing as cleaning up?
When I repainted this room I removed all the outlet covers and somehow I lost the one that goes here in the corner. It is a “special” one in that it has to have one rectangular opening for the GFI outlet and one regular opening for the other outlets. They are not easy to find at the store.
Exhibit two:
And what do we have here? A box with a pair of shoes from zappos that I still need to send back. They have a 12 month return policy so I still have a couple of months left to procrastinate. The box my camera came in. Over the counter medicines, two baskets fill with random junk that I would never miss if it disappeared. The top shelf is blissfully empty.
Exhibit Three:
These are all empty bins that I have gathered from around the house to organize my stuff. And two things of air freshener that my husband insists on using. I have to keep it up there because my three year old likes to spray it all over the bathroom floor.
This cabinet is probably not all filled up like the other ones because I can’t really reach any of the shelves and the sink makes it harder to just climb up on the counter, which I do daily.
Exhibit Four:
This is where I keep my four year old. It is very convenient because I always know just where to find her.
The problem with the upper cabinets is that they are very deep so it is impossible for short people like me to reach all the way in the back.
My goal this weekend is to re-organize all of these cabinets and think about how I want them to function. What things do I need to keep in this room?
I’ll report back on Tuesday. Wish me luck.
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My husband just installed a shelf that rolls out in my shelf above the wall oven. It is amazing! I’d recommend something like that for your deep, high shelves. good luck!
aimee | January 17th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
Best of luck to you. And also some wine to you too.
She Likes Purple | January 17th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
Remove the very top shelf of the cabinets where you can’t reach (they look removable in the pictures…) and get some taller baskets/bins. Take all those bottles of shampoo, etc, and put them in one tall basket that houses all your hygeine ’stuff’ - unopened shampoo, toothpaste, toothbrushes, sunscreen, etc.
Make another bin for “First Aid” and make this one reachable by the older kids - all the tylenol, throat spray, rubbing alcohol, etc I see.
Once you get all the little bottles hidden into official ‘homes’ it will feel 10x less cluttered.
Also, kick the 4 year old out, and get a small 3ft folding stepladder or a REAL stepstool, one you can use instead of that little kids blue one I see. Use this to reach things instead of climbing on the counters.
Katrina | January 17th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Wow, Katrina! A little rough on the adorable 4 year old, dontcha think? Kidding…
The roll out shelves step stool sound like good ideas. Do check into moving the shelf heights. That has helped this short mom very much! I only put things on the high shelves that I don’t use very often and can usually get my husband to reach. I do climb on the counter when he’s not around.
Crisanne | January 17th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
I would install several doggie-type doors in the upper cabinets, then move the 4 year old up there. She can crawl from cabinet to cabinet and hand you things.
Chris says: So far this is the top idea on my list.
Kathy from NJ | January 17th, 2008 at 11:39 pm
My 3-year-old scolds me when she catches me climbing on the counters.
Brigitte | January 18th, 2008 at 9:32 am
Don’t forget to build a small altar for proper worship of the Dyson. Perhaps the altar could double as a stepstool.
Pamela | January 18th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
May also be good to store like gifts that you’ve pre-bought for people a the top….(assuming you pre-buy gifts when they are cheap and then go “shopping” in your own stash).
What about organizing your wrapping supplies — that stuff is always a mess everywhere.
Leticia | January 18th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
totally confused.Is this your kitchen or your laundry room? if it is your laundry room I hate you.
ps - keep the 4 year old. She’s cute and you could use HER as a stepstool.
kate | January 26th, 2008 at 3:15 am
[...] other, completely unrelated news. My laundry room cabinets still look exactly the same, my daughter is getting a little bored inside there and keeps begging to be let out. But [...]
Work It, Mom! | A Community for Working Moms | January 29th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
Kate: you may not hate Chris unless you also have more than a half dozen kids. My SIL has a laundry room to die for, but it comes with the laundry of a 10 person family attached…no thanks, I’ll keep trudging to the basement, thank you very much.
tiff | January 30th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
Wow! Another person with a husband who “cleans” by making random piles. It’s nice to know I’m not alone.
Lesli | January 30th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
I want to come to your house and organize things for you. Seriously. It is my life goal, to go from house to house, straightening things. There is a clinical name for this, I know, and it’s not stalker disorder.
Although, I have to say, that with 7 kids in your house, you do an amazing job of organization and don’t let anyone tell you differently!
Off to print the corn chowder recipe for Super Bowl Sunday!
Chris says: Pam, you can come over and organize my cabinets and I will cook for you, ok?
Pam | January 31st, 2008 at 1:53 am
Show off!! La-di-da some of us have nice cabinets and nice counters, and nice floors, these people even have a surplus of children to fill up empty closet space. Then there is the rest of the world, we spend out time dragging our butts to the dingy basement to do our laundry, and would dream to have all that storage and a nice spot for our 4 year old. Can I bring my 4 year old over to “store” in the cabinet?
Steph | January 31st, 2008 at 3:15 am
I would have agreed to the altar to the dyson (my husband bought one last year as our old vacuum was trying to eat the carpets–I love the dyson, it really works well), until my husband bought ‘me’ a roomba and a scooba for Christmas. He loves them (they’re robots! technology! so cool!); the kids — especially the 11-year-old following in his father’s footsteps (technology is the way to go!)– love them; the twins love watching them scoot around and run to pick up the floors just so they can watch — and me, I love the fact that - even though I have not yet read the instruction manuals or touched the roomba yet — the floors have been scrubbed or vacuumed several times a week since Christmas.
Colleen | January 31st, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Pam, you sound like me. I LOVE organizing, especially when it’s other people’s crap. My sister has 5 (soon to be 6) kids and is hopeless at organizing (her words). I love helping her figure out how to organize her chaotic household. For some sick people like myself, organizing is more than a hobby–it’s an obsession!
t in hd | February 12th, 2008 at 1:35 pm