Wednesday, July 22, 2009

My Sister-in-law is a Genius

Benjamin Franklin once said, "A place for everything, everything in its place." I LOVE order and organization. I get excited every time I walk down the storage aisle at WalMart. When I go to the Container Store, I feel like a kid in a candy shop. (If it wasn't so pricey, I would be their number one customer.) I probably should have bought stock in Sterilite a long time ago because I own enough plastic storage containers to keep the company in business. As you can imagine, with seven kids, my house is definitely not as organized as I want it to be. I am always on the lookout for new and better ways of keeping things organized and for helping my kids to stay organized.

Getting my kids to keep their drawers organized has always been a constant struggle. Every laundry day, I would help them put their clothes away in neat stacks, but within a few days, they would be back to looking like a tornado had passed through. The problem was that they would decide they wanted to wear a shirt or pair of pants that was in the middle of the stack, but pulling it out would mess up the rest of the clothes.


I tried several things, but nothing was working. Then, on my mom's last visit, she told me about something that my brother's wife, Stephanie, does with her kids drawers. Instead of putting the clothes into the drawers in stacks, she turns the folded clothes so they go into the drawer sideways. This way, all of the clothes in the drawer can easily been seen and taking one item out does not mess up all the others. It is BRILLIANT! I have been using this system now for about three months and I love it!

Kaiya's shirt drawer. I fold the shirts into thirds so that they fit vertically in the drawer.


Riley's shorts and jammie drawer. Riley's drawers are not as deep as Kaiya's so I have to fold his shorts into thirds and shirts into fourths so that they fit.



Kaiya's pants drawer. Instead of folding the pants small, I fold them in half and lay them sideways.


Riley with his shirt drawer. Riley got the organizing gene from me, so he is very happy with the new system.




Kaiya did not get the organizing gene, but she is happy that I no longer have to get upset about her drawers!!

THANK YOU STEPHANIE!!!



On a somewhat unrelated note, I was "organizing" my pictures the other day and realized that there were a few good ones taken over the last few months that I never got around to posting, so I thought I would tack them on the end of this post:



Kyndall, Ryder, Kassidy, Rustin and Kaydence. It is soooo difficult to get a decent picture with all five babies. Riley helped me out on this one by acting goofy and pretending to trip, which the babies all thought was hilarious.



My mom and dad (aka "Mimi" and "Papa") were in town for Memorial Day weekend. The babies were not quite as cooperative on this picture---in fact, I think we had to resort to turning on Sesame Street just to get them to stay on the couch (hence the trance-like expressions on their faces!)



Rustin, Kassidy, Kaydence, Ryder and Kyndall at our Memorial Day cook-out.



Kaiya's Kindergarten graduation.



Ryder, Kaydence, Kassidy, Kyndall and Rustin with Kaiya. I think the babies were more interested in the balloons than they were with getting their picture taken.



My sister, Tiare came to help for about 11 days in June. One of our favorite hang-outs is Costco! (from left to right: Kaiya, Kaydence, Kyndall, Kassidy, Riley, Tiare, Rustin and Ryder)



Riley and Kaiya both participated in swim team this summer and really made some big improvements during the season. Riley came in 8th place in breaststroke at the divisional meet, which was a big accomplishment for him.



At the end of June, Kaiya had her first dance recital. We might be a little biased, but we think she stole the show!


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19 comments:

Jeannie said...

I think you just changed my life with the drawer idea. Wowzers. Thank you!!!!!!!!!

Mum2twopreciousgifts said...

Thank you all the way from Australia for such a brilliant idea to store stuff.

p.s. Photos of the children are fabulous. They are gorgeous.

p.p.s. How can a Mum of 7 look so absolutely marvellous??? Rachelle, you are amazing.

Stephanie said...

Ha ha! I'm glad my drawer fetish has come in handy. Really, I got sick of the kids always messing up their drawers when they wanted to wear a particular outfit. This way they can see everything at once. Viola!

carly said...

I spent a good two hours in the container store today... just dreaming of the things I could do.

Your kids are just SO dang cute!

Spence Ohana said...

We're moving into our new house in Kyle in a few weeks, and now I know how I will organize my drawers! Thanks for the tip!

Loved all the extra pics at the end of the post!

Tobi said...

Kaiya is adorable in her dance costume. That's also an amazing shot of Riley swimming!

Love the organized drawers. Must try this with Cora's dresser. Alec just picks whatever is on top and moves on with his day. Cora is more fashion conscious. =)

Unknown said...

wow! I love that system! I may have to reorganize all or my kids' drawers, too! I'm usually the only one and and out of them, but I hate rummaging through them and making a mess of it all!

Arnold Quads said...

Brilliant. Isn't it so funny how one idea can really change your LIFE!!! LOL! Love the idea! Haven't talked to you in a while. HOw are things going?

Capturing Joy with Kristen Duke said...

Rachelle, you are so very photogenic. You've got a great smile. On the organizing note, I wish for such a gene. I try, but don't succeed. You wanna come help me out??? I would think that the kids would pull out one shirt and the rest would all come crumbling down. Will you still be my friend if I tell you we don't fold at our house? Just shove those shirts in!

How do you store Legos??? I love the container store, but I just don't know what to do with everything.

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for sharing your life. I look forward to each posting.
You both are to be congratulated in your calm, upbeat manner with all 7.

Selene said...

Your sister-in-law IS a genius! I've already redone the kids drawers.
Thanks for the tip.

C. Beth said...

The clothes idea is a great one!

Funny that you said you like hanging out at Costco.... I live in your area and saw you there a number of months ago. It took a sec for me to realize who you were since I just know you from the blog! I passed you in the parking lot, and you had two babies with you.

Right about now you should either feel famous in a good way, or famous in a "stay away from me, crazy stalker lady!" way. ;)

The Queen Vee said...

I have not doubts what so ever that Miss Kaiya stole the show I think she's born to be on stage.

The Queen Vee said...

PS
Loved the drawer idea.

awesome person said...

kaiya is so cute in her dance costume i am olny 10 years old and i would to meet you

awesome person said...

kaiya is so cute in her dance costume i am olny 10 years old and i would to meet you

awesome person said...

kaiya is so cute in her dance costume i am olny 10 years old and i would to meet you

Full House said...

this is brilliant!

Anonymous said...

Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!