I don’t know about anyone else out there but school hasn’t even started yet and I’m already starting to shudder at the thought of all that schoolwork flooding in my door and onto the kitchen table and every other flat surface in the house.   I love to see the progress my 3 little geniuses are making in school but that coupled with the mail can quickly become a literal paper mountain.  We have trays set up for the kids to minimize the scatter during the week and it works like a charm.  “Scan-Man” takes us one step closer to spacial bliss

I have decided to start the “Scan-Man” up and get him rockin’ this year.  Each of us will have a folder on the computer for any papers we want to keep around but don’t necessarily need to have a physical copy handy.  Scanners are relatively inexpensive and you may want to pick up a paper shredder while you’re at it since you won’t need to FILE it anymore.  I get all fired up just typing that line   There will be plenty of sales coming up with school starting so keep your eye open for deals.  We’ll certainly post any we find!

Change is good!

Take a moment to think about how much paper storage you have in your house right now…. all of it… even in the attic!  This is 2009…make the change to storing it on the computer and free up some much needed space around the house.  Of course you will need to hang on to some precious items – don’t go scanning and shredding little Johnnie’s kindergarten art project. 

Can you feel the open space? 

TKMom

Space to moooove

Oh how I long for the day when I can have my very own bathroom and have it all to myself.   Not only do I have to share it with my husband who secretly steals my eye cream, but my kids just can’t get enough of me and insist upon doing their “bathroom biz” in my bathroom too!  Everything from tooth scrubbing, hair brushing, whizzing, dressing and undressing happens in MY bathroom…all despite the fact that we have two other bathrooms in perfectly good working order.   Even when I am in the bathroom alone… I can hear them, tracking me… zoning in on my location until WHAM!  Alone time OVER… wah…wah…wahhh (like the sound Pacman makes when you lose) L

With all of this in and out of MY bathroom, we find the bathroom stuff getting all mixed up.  There is nothing creepier than realizing you just brushed your pearly whites with someone else’s tooth brush…EEEWWWW!   It only takes once for that to happen before you go on a serious hunt for a solution.  Here’s what I came up with and it works like a charm…

We each have a bin with our name on it and all of our bathroom paraphernalia goes in the bin and under the sink or on the shelf in the linen closet.  That way there isn’t a bunch of stuff sitting on the sink, etc, etc.  I bought some cool stickers so each of the kids could personalize theirs which really got them interested in the project and I believe it’s what helped make it so successful.  It also makes getting ready a little quicker because no one is running around looking for their stuff.

I suppose I could’ve just kicked everyone out of MY bathroom but then I would have missed the story my 1st grader told me one morning while we were brushing our teeth together – about the boy that told her she was the “beautifullest” girl in class and gave her the thumbs up and a wink – and then she said “Mom, he really meant it, like ya know… meant it.”  Truth is, we have some pretty real conversations doing the “bathroom biz” and I’ll miss it terribly someday.

TKMom                                                                

The "Beautifullest" Girl