Tag Archives: home management

What Works for Us: Paper Filing System

18 Jun

This is the second post in the series What Works for Us. (See my post on our laundry system here.) This post has been seriously delayed because while I can type the content on my phone during naptime in my kids’ room, I have to take the pictures in person, and finding time to do that is hard. These photos are not Pinterest-worthy, but they show what I’m talking about. Anyway.

In this What Works for Us series, I am posting lifestyle and home management tips that are working for us, while homeschooling four kids. And what do kids produce every day, besides laundry?

Paper.

The paper clutter with kids, whether they are in school or homeschooled, is insane! I swear, my kids produce 15 pieces of paper a day, 365 days a year. Besides having a very sizable recycling bin right in the bottom of my pantry for the things that don’t make the cut, here is what I do with these mounds of paper:

School Papers and Artwork

I regularly go through papers created at home or brought home from church. Whatever is worth keeping (even if it’s just the kids saying they want to keep it), I put all of the papers in two bins in an upstairs closet (my two older kids share a bin and so do my two younger ones). Labeling them with the dates and child is helpful (especially when I am not sure who created what), but I sometimes don’t have time or care enough (and often, I can tell who made it by just looking at it, or now that my kids are older, they know who made what). I like this system, because in the craziness of everyday life, it only takes a few minutes to file their papers and get them off the kitchen counter or homeschool table.

Regardless of whether or not I label them, the papers are stacked in relative chronological order. Sometime after the end of the school year and before the beginning of the next, the kids and I go through all their papers at once, weeding out the ones they no longer care about, hole punch the stuff they want to keep, and put all the keepers in a 3-ring 1-inch binder, one per child, per grade. After using a variety of binder sizes that I got for free or at thrift stores, we have found that the 1-inch size is the sweet spot for us.

We also use the pockets in the front and back of the binder, plus some page protectors if needed for things that are weirdly shaped. I keep a 3-ring binder for the artwork my husband and I have created with the kids too, because I plan to give all the kids’ binders to them when they graduate, and then I will still have some things to look at for the memories.

The kids have enjoyed getting their binders back out and looking through their past creations. Having all the stuff in a binder makes it easy to do!

Buying that many binders could get pricey, but people are giving away binders for cheap all the time! Keep your eyes open at thrift stores and garage sales.

Each kid has a tote that will fit all their binders K-12, plus have a little extra room for some art projects. I have these stored in our utility room. It is a little extra effort and space to save things, but I think it will be worth it in the long-run.

As a side note, six or seven years ago, I went through all the things my mom had saved from my childhood. Things I did not want to keep included tests and quizzes (even ones I scored well on), greeting cards that were only signed with a name and no special message, and cookie-cutter art projects. Things I truly valued were things that showed my creativity, imagination, and personality. I try to keep those insights in mind when deciding what to keep of my kids’ papers.

What about those things that the kids bring home, but aren’t done with?

Each kid has a folder in their homeschooling bin for things like this. When they’re wanting something to color while I’m reading aloud for school, they know there are options in their folder. That way, they know where it is and it’s off the kitchen counter.

Bills & Important Documents

My system for adult papers (bills and important documents) is actually not that different from my system for kid papers.

We used to have an old-school, two-drawer filing cabinet downstairs, with a hanging file folder for every different category, but literally years went by without us needing a single piece of paper in it. Meanwhile, I grew lazy and busy with parenting, and didn’t have the time or desire to run papers downstairs to file. So I started putting papers we wanted to keep in one giant accordion file labeled “To File” that I kept in a smaller, cuter file cabinet we have in our dining room (that we also use for electronic cord storage and coloring books).

Not surprisingly, I never got around to actually filing those papers. But we discovered that this system actually kind of worked, so we just kept using it. The beauty of it is that it’s super quick to file things—we open the mail and if there’s something bill-related we need to save*, it goes right into the back of the accordion file. Done.

* We have signed up for electronic billing when and where possible, but some things just don’t qualify. I also don’t include person-specific medical records or important papers such as birth certificate copies in the accordion file — just bills, statements, and such.

Another benefit of this system (if you can call it that) is that when files become obsolete and no longer need saving, you don’t have to comb through a bunch of different file folders. You just take the front of the stack out of the folder (looking at dates), quickly page through it, keep anything still relevant, and shred the rest.

I will admit, it takes longer to find specific things in the big stack than if we had a detailed filing system but I think in the 6-7 years we’ve been doing this, we’ve needed something out of there only a handful of times. Then why do we keep those papers, you may ask? Because you never know. And I do not have time to scan things into digital files.

In our dining room filing cabinet, I do have a few specific files still (as you can see in the photos above). Each family member has their own medical file, and I have school/community/program information in its own folder, plus folders for HSA receipts and current year tax documents. But we shredded all of our old files, got rid of the massive filing cabinet, and haven’t looked back!

These paper systems work for us. Hope you found something helpful in this post!

Up Next: What Works for Us: Kid Chores

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What Works for Us: Laundry System

29 Apr

I haven’t posted on this blog in a majorly hot minute. Probably so hot that people no longer use the saying “a hot minute.” And they might not even read blogs anymore. But I’m posting anyway!

Anyway, it seems that everyone these days is sharing ideas, tips, and hacks, and when I am trying to troubleshoot a challenge in my home or life, I like hearing about other people’s solutions. That’s how I came up with my laundry system, which I’ve been using with success for almost 3 years now.

So in that vein and to get me back into posting regularly, I thought I’d start a new series, called What Works for Us. True to the name, I will be sharing lifestyle and home management tips that work for us, knowing full well that there is more than one way to do things, and my way will not work for everyone.

I will add that even though I have always been a naturally organized person, I have had a terrible time sticking to any kind of routine. Over time, adding kids to our family (now we have four, ages 11 down to 3) and deciding to homeschool have forced me to get better about routine home management. Over the past three or so years, we’ve developed these systems that work for us, building on top of what we were already doing consistently.

With that said, let’s get to the first topic, which inspired this series:

LAUNDRY

I used to wash everyone’s laundry separately. Everyone had their own laundry hamper, and I would wait until their laundry bin was full enough for a “full load.” Which meant that then I had a buttload of laundry to wash all at once (everyone’s basket seemed to get full at the same time, and I am not the type of person to assign each person a day of the week to get their laundry done).

After my fourth child was born, my three older kids were all sharing a bedroom (we change bedroom situations in this house with the seasons, it seems!), so it just happened that I started washing all of their laundry together. (I do not sort laundry based on color… I do sort out towels and jeans, and wash more delicate fabrics together, but that’s it.)

But even when I got the laundry washed, we would have massive piles of clean laundry slung across the floor, waiting to be folded. My kids were always coming to me, wondering where such-and-such article of clothing was. It drove me bonkers.

After researching what other moms do online, and putting out an SOS on Instagram, I came up with the idea for everyone to have their own laundry basket for clean laundry. (Dirty laundry all goes together still.) When a load of laundry is clean and dry, I (or one of the kids) sort the clothes into the individual laundry baskets. These clothes get folded about once a week, but in the meantime, each person knows exactly where to go to find something of theirs.

The beauty of this system is that I no longer get stressed out about laundry, ever! Yes, sometimes the clothes needing to be folded stack up a bit, but clothes are still clean, and each person can find what they need, even if it means dumping the basket out and rummaging through.

Peep all the laundry that needs to be folded 😬

The only drawback to this system is that I have five, sometimes six, laundry baskets lined up against the wall of my living room all the time. We have a very small laundry room (big enough for the washer, dryer, and a utilatub), and our laundry room is upstairs right off the kitchen. It is what it is. I do not plan to keep this system forever, but for this season of life, it has been a lifesaver.

If/when we have company over that we don’t want to see our dirty clean laundry, we can just stack all the laundry baskets together and move to a bedroom for a short time.

Another big thing that has helped me in my laundry game is no longer thinking of laundry as “something to get done” but instead, thinking of it as a daily chore. I do laundry every day except Sunday. I am no longer depressed by seeing more dirty laundry in the hamper when “I just did laundry!” because it’s a daily chore — of course there will be laundry!

The number of loads I do on any given day varies based on our schedule, but I usually do 2-3 loads. I load the washer the night before, and start it right away in the morning. I usually switch it mid-morning, and then again in the afternoon. After dinner, one kids’ chore is to unload the dryer, transfer laundry to the dryer, reload the washer with dirty clothes, and sort the dryer load into bins.

We’ve really enjoyed this system!

Coming next week… What Works for Us: Paper Filing

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Life Lately: Routines Edition

16 Oct

I’ve never been much of an intentional-routine type person. And even when I’ve tried to implement more intentional schedules or routines, they usually fall by the wayside within a week or two because #life and because it just doesn’t come naturally to me or my hubby. We are very spontaneous, game-time-decision kind of people.

But having four kids has forced us to get better about routines. For the past 4-6 months, we have doing a few things that have made a big difference in our home life. We developed these routines over time, based on what we were actually kind of already doing (it has never worked for me to decide on a routine and then try to implement it).

  • The kids do chores after dinner. Emma loads the dishwasher and wipes down the kitchen table, and Annabelle cleans up whatever area of the house or yard is the messiest (usually it’s the upstairs living room). Corbin picks up all the shoes left out and puts them by the front door.
  • The kids each have a calendar where they keep track of checkmarks for following through on their morning and evening routines, and they earn rewards for certain amounts. But we also expect them to do their chores regardless, so if they don’t do their chores, they not only don’t earn a checkmark, they lose one as well. It has helped keep them motivated.
  • Either Travis or I do the hand-wash dishes and set up the coffee maker for the morning after Emma has loaded the dishwasher. Having coffee ready right away in the morning is so amazing! We set it when we’re in the kitchen cleaning up after dinner so that we don’t forget about it.
  • I unload the dishwasher and dish rack every morning while the kids (especially Neola) eats breakfast (otherwise she just wants to play with the clean dishes).
  • I do at least one load of laundry every day. I used to wait until each person’s hamper was full to do their laundry so that I’d have a full load of just their clothes to wash. I kept everyone’s laundry separate because I found it a pain to fold a load of laundry that had a little of everyone’s stuff in it. But then my kids went through a period of time where they all four had their clothes upstairs, and the dirty clothes were getting put in whichever laundry basket was the most convenient, so I was just naturally washing everyone’s laundry together. Once I figured out my system of sorting clean, dry clothes into a separate laundry basket for each person, thus making the folding process much more streamlined, I decided to just always wash everyone’s clothes together. So now I just do the laundry as it gets dirty. Everyone’s dirty laundry from the previous day pretty much makes a full load, and I usually run a load of towels or sheets each day too. I do still get a little behind frequently, but I love loading the washer at night — makes it so easy to start right away in the morning. I fold the kids’ clothes when their laundry baskets get full — usually about once a week (I put Travis’ and my clothes away a little more often). I really like this laundry system for now!
  • Since the fall of 2021, we have had a housecleaner come twice a month for two hours to clean our bathrooms, kitchen floor, and some other odds and ends. It has been a lifesaver! Some day I will go back to cleaning my own house, but that day is not today. However, there are still plenty of other things that need cleaning that our housecleaner doesn’t get to. As often as I can, I try to clean one of those things each day for at least five minutes — even just cleaning one thing here and there makes a difference.
  • I try my hardest to plan out lunches and dinners for the week on either Sunday night or Monday morning. Then I either put in a pickup order for Monday on the way home from the girls’ gymnastics class, or I take Corbin and Neola grocery shopping during gymnastics (their class is an hour long in a small community so it actually works out about perfectly). I used to only plan out dinners (and sometimes not even that…) but having a plan for lunch is so helpful. I don’t have to rack my brain every single day, or end up making the same thing all the time, or decide on something only to discover we don’t have a key ingredient, or buy a different vegetable in the store and forget about it until it has gone bad. I want to start planning breakfasts eventually too, but mornings are rough for me right now (#sleepdeprivation), so that will have to wait. The kids all have their own favorite thing for breakfast too (Corbin — toast, Annabelle — yogurt, Emma — English muffin or oatmeal), so I’m not even sure they’d be amenable to me making one specific thing for breakfast.
  • Corbin just started going to preschool three days a week this fall. On those days, Travis and Neola take him to school (it starts at 8 AM), and I get 45-60 minutes of school in with the girls. Travis has also been taking Neola on a walk during/after lunch so I get another chunk of time to do school with the older girls then. I’m still figuring out which subjects are best to do when, but overall, the routine is working well. Doing school with Neola around is tough — because she’s in a cast/brace for hip dysplasia, she is much needier than normal. I am hoping that things get much easier when she’s done with her treatment!

I think that’s all the routines I can think of. Two areas of life that Travis and I have not been able to figure out a good, consistent routine or system for are Bible study and working out. Probably the biggest challenge with that is Neola’s nighttime sleeping habits. She wakes up 4-6 times a night, so I am beyond sleep deprived. After bedtime is tricky (though not impossible) because usually I am completely dialed, and I am often nursing or holding Neola in the morning before she completely wakes up, so mornings are tricky too. But the long and short of it is that I just don’t want it badly enough.

Just this past week, I did have, and tried out, the idea of me working out for 20-30 minutes right away in the morning when Travis leaves to take Corbin to school (M, W, F). Then I don’t have to wake the girls up to do school either (because they’d be up by the timer I’m done). Travis can work out on Tuesday and Thursday (and sometime on the weekend) when I am out of the house with the kids at Homeschool Group or BSF.

I also am planning to either get up early to do my BSF study or do it on my phone during Neola’s naps. I did it in the app last week, but then the app or internet wasn’t working during BSF so I couldn’t access any of my answers, and it looked like I hadn’t done my lesson. 😬

Anyway, that’s our daily routine with four kids right now!

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