The Homeschool Home part 3

In this section of the Homeschool Home, I will focus on bedrooms, laundry, and storage. I will discuss schedules and cleaning in a later post. Keeping your home running smoothly while maintaining your sanity can seem like a major challenge on some days. Having a plan is key. It always seemed as if laundry is/was going to take over my life. I have tried several options, and have found that doing a little each day works the best, setting aside a day to iron as well. We don't do a lot of ironing, so it's not a huge chore. However, it was getting overlooked when I didn't plan for it. I combined bedroom organization with laundry and storage because in my mind, they have to sync. Here is the plan we have for our family:

Bedrooms: children's bedrooms have clothing "boxes" or bins that are labeled with what goes inside. I sort clothing by: tops, bottoms, pjs, socks/underwear. In the winter, I add bins for sweatshirts/sweaters, mittens/hats/gloves. Children are responsible for putting away their laundry once I sort it. Older children will need to help sort laundry as well. Since I refuse to iron children's clothes, and folded laundry just gets "unfolded" we went to the bin system and it has been heaven. My two year old can put away her laundry. Adult laundry is sorted into his and hers laundry baskets and taken upstairs to our bedroom, where my husband and I each put our own laundry away. "Hang up" items are hung up in the basement, right out of the dryer. My husband and I take turns bringing it up to the closet. This helped alleviate the pile of laundry needing to be hung up. This is a good example of what I mean:

Once all of my children are in Middle School, I am seriously considering moving all the bins to the basement (where the washer/dryer is), sorting clothes downstairs, and everyone can pick out clothes from the basement.

Laundry: I do at least one load of laundry a day, and usually a special load for towels, potty accident bedding, or my husband's work clothes, which have to be washed separately. If I wait and try and do a "laundry day" I end up with a mountain of clean clothes piled on my couch for two days. As I mentioned before, I have a day set aside for ironing, and one day a month for mending. I hang up clothes right next to the dryer so they have a better chance of making it to the closet. Clothes are then sorted into piles that match the bins in the kids rooms, and they put their laundry away as part of their chores. Another good example:

My husband and I take our laundry baskets upstairs and put them away. All done.

Storage: Confession: I have more storage bins than anyone I know. When I moved this last time I re-worked my system and I love it. All clothing is swapped out twice a year for spring/summer and winter/fall. I don't have the closet space to store it all. Children's clothing that needs to be stored will go into a bin marked (as an example) "3T-4T tops, Boy" and given a number. I sort the clothes by tops and bottoms because my children seem to be different sizes in each. Dresses., Pjs, and Snowbibs go in the "tops" bin. Anything worn out is recycled into cleaning cloths or discarded, anything usable but not needed or wanted is given to charity or friends. Our budget is tight (like most SAHMs) and we choose to buy one high quality pair of shoes per child per season. Mostly, I buy Keens using a coupon or on sale. They are rugged, wash well, and are easily handed down. If they want flip flops or special dress shoes, they put them on their birthday list for my sister to give them (she loves to buy shoes) or they get hand-me-downs from their cousins. Adult clothing is sorted and then moved into the bins the current season's clothes came out of. Shoes are also sorted this way.
All other storage items (such as party platters, homeschool curriculum I don't use right now, holiday decorations, etc.) are placed in a bin with a number on the front. I keep an inventory on my computer (and on Dropbox for my phone) so I can search and find exactly what I am looking for without opening a million boxes.  Like this:

Having the inventory on my phone is great. When I am down in the basement or in the garage and need something, I don't have to go all the way upstairs/inside to my computer.

I hope these tips give you some food for thought. The next post will be our schedule! I'd love to hear some of your ideas and tips in the comments. Happy organizing!