Organization!

Baby #2's nursery.....almost completed.  We just need to get our rocker.  We are so thankful that Mom and Dad 2 are helping us with that! :)  We are also very thankful that Pappy (my Dad) bought us the crib and changing table.  I like that it is all one piece and the crib is a 3 in 1.

See organization tips below :)

We have been working hard since we got back from AZ!  In 6 days we got it all done though (and on the 7th day we rested)!  See, I made the mistake of just throwing all of Ryan's old clothes, toys, and whatnot into storage bins with absolutely no order! So, after reading the book 20 and Counting by the Duggars, we got a really good idea on how to organize it all.  First we purchased the overhead garage system because our garage is rather small.  Then I went through all of Ryan's clothes and organized them into the smaller beige bins that we purchased (see above).  I grouped it by gender and age.  So, for example, one box is 0-3 mos boys/unisex clothes.  I numbered the box and colored coded the boxes corresponding to the room that the box belongs in.  So, red is nursery.  Then I wrote on an index card the number of the box, the color of the circle and that it is 0-3 mos boys/unisex clothes.  Then I wrote everthing that was in the box in pencil so I can erase later if need be.  So, for example, I would write that box 1 has shorts, shirts, onesies, PJ's, etc.  Then I did the same thing for girls clothes.  We were very blessed and so grateful that one of my friends gave us all of her girl clothes.  We got from NB to 18 months in girls clothes.  Then I did the same thing with other stuff like Boppys, Bumbos, bottles, bibs, socks, shoes, blankets, etc.  Say I needed recieving blankets for a girl.  I could look up in my file box where those are.  Then I could ask the hubby to get box 13 down so I can get out the girl receiving blankets.  I think it is going to make things so much easier.  We also did this with our stuff, like out of season clothes, etc., and with holiday decorations.  Eventually, we will get these littler sized boxes for everything, but for now we have some things in big bins (we ran out of money!).  We also got a non-clear color so that the kids can't see what's in each box, which is especially helpful with toys because I stored all of those in boxes.  That way, they can have some toys in the toybox downstairs and then every once in a while I can switch them out and they will think they are brand new toys.  And it saves us room in our house and keeps it from being so cluttered.  We were able to mostly empty out the 2 kids rooms closets, which helped.  For new baby that meant we could store swings, bouncers, jumpers, etc. in his/her closet.  For Ryan's room that meant we could store some extra special toys in there for him.  Since we moved his toy box downstairs, he has wanted to help clean up his toys befoe naps and bedtime because we tell him to put everything in the box real excitedly and he gets so happy to do it (most of the time, anyway!).  Lastly, since we don't know the gender of the baby, we decided not to bring out any clothes, blankets, socks, hats, shoes, burp clothes, etc. until we get home from the hospital.  But it will be so easy because then we just go to the numbered box and get out all the girl or boy stuff depending on what we have.  Any way, I thought that this might be helpful to others, thus the longwinded explanation!  It takes some time for sure, but it is well worth it and think of how easy it will be when we move next!!!!

We also learned about blanket time from the Duggars' book.  We have started this with Ryan.  At first we have Ry sit on the blanket for 5 mins without getting up or conforming to weird shapes (bottom on blanket).  When we pull out the blanket, we excitedly exclaim that it's blanket time and how much fun it will be and he has no clue what we really mean yet, but he gets super excited.  Then whenever he tries to get off the blanket we correct him.  After 5 mins, we put away the blanket and praise him for doing such a good job and run around the room with him and clap so he can get out some energy.  Next step will be adding a few special toys that will only be used during blanket time.  If he throws the toy off, he will not be able to retrieve it.  Also, we will start increasing time with a goal of 30 mins.  He has to be quiet during blanket time, as well.  Then we will also move further away from where he is and come back in and correct him if need be if he gets up or gets noisy.  We try to practice this throughout the day when we have 5 minutes of uninterrupted time.  The point is for him to have some quiet time on his blanket without worrying about what he's doing, which in turn means that we can get stuff done, have adult conversations, I can sit quietly with new baby and breastfeed, we can do it when we are at friends' houses, etc.  I'm telling you, these Duggars have some experience!  :)