How I started successfully organizing my house without locking any of my children in a closet.

Today will be day 9 of Operation Organization.

I’ve been getting a lot of questions about how I’ve been able to get stuff done while the kids are home. Especially the little ones.

It’s not easy.

But I have found that a few things help.

Here are a few suggestions I have if you have a project of your own.

1. Planning what project to attack first. And when.

My first project was to tackle the dining room. I knew I’d need some help with the kids for that one. I planned to do that on the weekend when my husband would be around.

First, I made sure I talked to my husband at least the day before, so that he knew what I wanted to get done. I let him know that he’d need to be on kid duty for a couple hours. At least.

For a little incentive, I promised him sex that night.

He ran outside with the kids 🙂

Then, strategy.

One issue I have with laundry is that I’ll fold it during nap time, but then the kids are usually still asleep, so the piles don’t get put away.

Then, the kids wake up, you forget about the piles or you are in the midst of something else, you leave them folded, never put them away, and then the kids get to them.

An hour of work undone in about fourteen seconds.

So I did the laundry part of the dining room while my husband took the kids outside to play.

2. Break the job down into steps.

When I attacked this back corner of the office, I knew  there were going to be a couple phases to get to completion.

I knew I needed to separate stuff.

I needed to sort stuff.

I needed to clean out a cabinet.

I needed to figure out where I would put everything once it was cleaned out and sorted.

I knew I could do some when everyone was awake, and when I didn’t have any help. But I would have to rely on the next step.

3. Distraction

You know what your kids like to do that will keep them occupied for a little while.

It helps to have an idea of the distractions you will employ.

The computer will occupy Number 6 for quite a while.

Number 7 has a thing for stickers.

The kids usually last the longest with the first distraction.

So I started with the step that I thought would take the most time where I needed them to be occupied as long as possible.

4. Delegation

If you have older kids, use them.

Number 4 stayed home sick from school on Friday. She probably could have gone to school, but she had a really annoying cough, so I kept her home.

She was actually a pretty big help.

While 6 and 7 were busy with the stickers and computer, she organized pictures.

Then she helped me sort.

5. The Delegation/Distraction Combo

Once Number 4 was done with what she could help me with in the office, I moved her onto laundry.

Number 7 will do just about anything with Number 4. So I took advantage of that.

Number 7 helped Number 4 sort,

and then she helped her put stuff away.

Did they do a perfect job? No, but it’s a start.

And it’s better than the laundry being piled all over the dining room table. Or the dining room floor.

And the only way they’re going to get better at it is to practice.

So I killed a whole bunch of birds with one stone.

6. Use nap time for the things you can’t get done when the kids are conscious.

Like painting. Yesterday I painted the whole upstairs hallway during nap time.

7. Seize unexpected opportunities.

When you are a teacher, you have what they call “teachable moments.” Moments where an unexpected opportunity for learning pops up that’s not in the plan for the day. And you run with it.

Yesterday our neighbor unexpectedly had a bounce house in his yard. He’s very cool about inviting our kids over to play with his kids. So most of the kids were over there playing for over an hour. I took advantage of the opportunity. Carpe diem.

Last week my dad was up to babysit. He comes in the afternoons on Tuesdays and Thursdays. All of the kids were still sleeping, and he likes to keep busy, so I gave him a few jobs to do. Little things, like dusting, fixing a broken trophy, and hanging up 2 pictures. Check those babies off the list!

8. Take any and all help when it is offered to you. And don’t be afraid to ask for help.

If a friend offers to take your kid for the afternoon, jump all over that. Don’t worry about reciprocating. You’ll be able to at some point. You are not taking advantage of a person; you are taking advantage of an opportunity. Of a gift of time or help. If you have friends or relatives who are close by and understanding, let them know ahead of time what you are trying to do. When you are on a mission, you’ll be surprised at the help you will get. When you let people know what you are trying to do, you’ll also be surprised by how eager some people are to lend a hand.

9. Be realistic, stay calm, take a deep breath, and follow through.

Yes, at some point your kids will get in the way.

They will look for trouble.

But when things are put in their place, there is less trouble to find.

My dining room looked like this when I came downstairs this morning:

It’s still clean.

The last time my dining room stayed clean for eight consecutive days was,

um,

never.

But the fact that there’s nothing in there to really make a mess with has stopped anyone from being able to make a mess in the first place.

Yesterday after I painted, I put everything away.

Except for the roller.

I forgot about the roller, left it in a bucket in the office, and then I got involved in a conversation with my husband.

Number 6 and 7 pounced.

Now I could have freaked out.

But at least it was picked up in there.

Do you know how much stuff they would have trashed if that had happened a week ago?

They would have painted pictures and papers and telescopes and vacuums and keepsakes and clothes and all sorts of other shit if that had happened before I cleaned the office.

Cleaning up the floor was actually pretty easy since everything else was put away.

We managed to wash the paint off the floor and the table fairly easily — it hadn’t dried yet.

And I don’t know if you noticed, but I was having disasters, maybe not quite to that extent, but still a total pain in the ass, on a daily basis.

That was the first one I had to take care of in 8 days.

So I went from daily to less-than-weekly.

Organization won’t stop them from being sneaky.

But it sure has cut down on their opportunities for mischief.

They have made other messes.

Their room looks like this right now:

But part of the reason it looks like that is because I had multiple containers of clothes in their room for them to get into.

If I had put them away in their proper spot, they never would have gotten into them in the first place.

So this is one of the next jobs on my list.

Room by room, I am narrowing down the disasters.

Sometimes it’s 2 steps forward, one step back.

But it’s still progress 🙂

It’s up to you to keep me at Number 1!

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