Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Organize Multiple Children and School Efficiently

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I am so thrilled to share with you a system that our family has used for several years now that has totally changed how our home runs.
 
 

 
 
I have three school aged children and between them all I lose my marbles halfway through the year with all the paperwork as it is.  If this system was not in place, I truly don't know how things would get done.
 
 
 
Two years ago I shared our Command Center that you can check out here.  Since we recently added 1,000 Sq Ft to our home, I decided to make a much larger and more functional space for our system.
 
 
 
In our family room we have a space that we consider the kids command center.  There are two dry erase calendars that provide a look ahead month for sports as well as school schedules. You can get them here.

It's very nice to know what days they have off of school, or when field trips are and not have to pull out a calendar and flip pages for this info.  When the first month is over, we wipe it clean and rotate the calendar positions on the wall.
 
Below the calendars are hooks for each of the kids to hang their backpacks on. 
 
My kids are dialed into the routine of walking in the door and hanging backpacks up. It is also nice not to search for backpacks in the morning.  And makes it easy when Mom wants to drop sweet notes inside each of them.
 
 
 
To the left of the calendars we have a bucket that holds all of the dry erase and wet erase pens we use on these.  The kids also know that those markers do not ever leave that location and are only to be used on the calendars. 

Just below that we mounted an old school pencil sharpener just so we never have to search the house for those small ones again.
 
 
 
Mounted on the side of the locker are their chore charts.  Head over to The 36th Avenue to find free printable chore charts just like these.
 
 
To the left of the lockers are these fun metal "wall pockets" from Pottery Barn that have each child's name on them, and the bottom one is labeled recycle. You can find similar ones here on Amazon.
 
 
Each Friday the kids clean out their backpacks of school work that has been graded and places it in their wall pocket.  Any promotional fliers or notices that we have read get placed in the recycle pocket.
 
 
Throughout the year I pull their school work from the pockets and place them in storage containers labeled for that school year.  I have done this since our oldest was in pre-school, and will continue all the way through high school.  You can get a 6 pack of these storage totes here really inexpensive!
 
 
 
They each have scrapbooks where report cards, class pictures, sports pictures and awards will eventually end up.  The rest will be there for them to look at as they get older.
 
 
 
Moving over to the other side of the family room we have a small nook that leads to the master bedroom towards the back of the house. 

This is where we have set up a homework station/blogging desk.  Yep that's where I blog.  Not super fancy, but functional and perfect for the time being.
 
 
The kids have art supplies in the storage drawers that they can use anytime they want.
 
 
 
On the shelves are their homework boxes that you may have seen in my previous command center post.  All three of them each have their own.
 
 
Inside you will find supplies that may be needed to complete any homework they are sent home with.  These have been a lifesaver and eliminate a lot of arguing over who took who's supplies.  You can find similar boxes here.
 
 
On the wall opposite of the desk they each have a clipboard with their name on it. 
 
 
This is where they place homework that may need to be done throughout the week.  Our kids are still young and have a reading log that needs to be filled out daily and turned in weekly, so that too lives on the respective clipboard
 
Other things we place on here are picture forms, fundraiser information and anything else that will be completed or turned in in the near future.
 
 
That's it!  Simple yet functional organization!  My kids love having structure and this is what our command center provides.





Thank you to my readers for stopping by today.   Don't forget to follow me on Facebook and Pinterest, and you can find me on Instagram @OneThriftyChick.

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Friday, September 4, 2015

Vintage Military Inspired Boys Bedroom

Welcome back for a quick, fun and cheap bedroom makeover!
 
My 12 year old son is very interested in everything military which is why I decided to direct his room makeover in that direction.  He's also a Nerf gun collector which tied into the military theme nicely.
 
 
 
We only had a couple days to do this project, and it started with his closet makeover you can see here.
 
 
 
For those of you that are new here, this room used to be the master bedroom up until a year ago.  So for a year this boy has been camped out in our old blue room with my white plank wall. Not the worst thing ever,  just not really his style.
 
 
 
The process of this project was pretty basic.  We painted three of the walls white and the plank wall a dark gray color.  On one wall I wanted to create a simple yet classic military design. 
 
 
I started with a level to mark straight lines across the whole wall.  Then using a pencil and a string I found my center point and used it as a compass to create the perfect sized circle.  I used one of my barn stars from my garden fence and traced it for the inside of the circle.
 
 
It was super simple and I did this entire wall in about 1 hour.  I used the perfect ARMY green as an accent color and then painted the center stripe the same gray used on the plank wall and ceiling trim.
 
 
 
 
For some simple artwork (I didn't have much time to pull this room together) I printed some free vintage military graphics from the internet and mod podge to mount them onto some scrap wood left over from craft club that I had painted black.
 
 
I had two matching black frames in my storage that worked perfect to surround my DIY plaques which made this a completely free design.
 
 
 
 
 
Hours before the kids got home I headed to Real Deals Sip and Shop event and grabbed a couple more items to finish off his space. 
 
 
 
I also scored this free desk on craigslist that I knew would be perfect in his room.  I planned to turn it into a night stand and take apart the broken desk part.
 
 
 
With just over an hour left before the kids arrived home, the room was finished! 
 
 
We added the peg board gun storage as seen all over Pinterest, and let me tell you, it's amazing!  He has a vintage military bag that will now be his laundry hamper!
 
 
 He officially has his own teen appropriate space where he can have friends over and enjoy their time in there.  His grandma and grandpa got him this fun convertible couch for his birthday that he can have his guests sleep on when they stay over.  It's been a big hit so far!

 
Well, there you have it!  Quick simple and almost free room makeover!  Visit here to see his 9th Birthday that was Army themed!

Thank you to my readers for stopping by today.   Don't forget to follow me on Facebook and Pinterest, and you can find me on Instagram @OneThriftyChick.

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Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Closet Makeover ~ Built-In Guinea Pig Cage

 
This past weekend all 3 of my children were on a 5 day summer trip with their grandparents and cousins. 
 
Many think that the hubby and I would have taken those 5 days and relaxed and enjoyed some quiet time, however we started a project, that led to another project and ended with a BIG project.
 
 
 
Our kids head back to school in one week and we knew we needed to give their rooms a little TLC to get organized for the next 9 months.  Since we built the addition and our oldest son took over our room, we literally left the space un touched. 
 
His bed was moved in along with random furniture, the walls were still the color from where I did this makeover years ago, and he was pretty much camping in our old space.
 
His closet was nothing but a dysfunctional mess to say the least.  Check out what he had going on.
 
 
Chaos is all I see in that closet.  Last year for Christmas his grandparents got him the most amazing guinea pig cage for his fur babies, the only downside is that it takes up WAY too much room.  This was what his room looked like with the cage in the main space.
 
 
I knew something needed to be done to not only organize his space, but to also free up as much room as possible to maximize the function of his bedroom.
 
I'm going to skip the long narrative and give you a run down on how we created this built-in cage.
 
 
First we took out that awful wire shelving....  never again will I install that!
 
 
Using 1x3's we installed a rail along the walls where we wanted the lower level to rest.
 
 
Using 3/4" plywood, we cut a shelf to fit in the space. 
 
 
We needed the extra 4 inches inside the door jamb, which meant notching out the plywood and installing two extra small supports.
 
 
We then did the same above, leaving enough room for the cage below and enough space to hang a mens shirt above.  The top shelf is only 19" deep, just enough to provide storage for clothing.
 
 
Using whiteboard 1x3's we added faces to both shelves.
 
 
During this reno I found this amazing product.  FastPatch 30 by DAP.  It was amazing, and was perfect for quickly filling all the holes and the grooves where the old shelf supports were.
 
 
While this was drying we installed the closet rod support rails that you can barely see in this photo.
 
 
 
 
Once the joint compound was dry we got right to sanding.  It was a MESS!
 
 
After the wall was sanded we grabbed a can of Homax Spray Wall Texture that dries in 5 minutes and went to town.  Quick and easy!
 
 
Right about the time we started painting, I got a phone call that my sweet grandmother had suffered a heart attack and I needed to get to the hospital, so I left the project for my hubby to take over.  Grandma is doing well, and is expected to make a full recovery.
 
 
I came home to a beautiful white closet that was perfect.
 
 
He took the time to caulk every last bit, not missing a single detail.  He's a keeper!
 
 
 
It was time to move the girls in.  The cage fit perfectly and was exactly what I had wanted.
 
 
We will need to build a set of drawers for the bottom, but we were running against the clock, because this closet project turned into an entire room makeover that I will be sharing with you very soon.
 
 
I am so happy with how this turned out, and look forward to a more spacious and cleaner bedroom.  12 year old boys are not the best at keeping things tidy!
 
 
 
Here is the before and after side by side!  I would say this was a success, and said 12 year old boy agrees.  He loved the surprise when he arrived home from their trip!
 
 

Thank you to my readers for stopping by today.   Don't forget to follow me on Facebook and Pinterest, and you can find me on Instagram @OneThriftyChick.

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