Organization Tips - 11/12

Girls Barettes and Hair Bow Holder

I have been wanting to make one of these for a while now and am just getting around to it. No more endless digging through a cluttered, unorganized drawer in search of the right hair acessory. I first saw the idea for making this here and have seen them in a few different styles on several different blogs. Here is another version from a fun and creative blog that was just posted today as well. How funny is that? Here is how I made mine.

I took a picture frame, removed the glass and added some of the sheet metal I had left over from the bulletin board project. I painted the wood frame black.

Then I cut a peice of quilt battting the same size of the metal sheet and a peice of fabric that was an inch larger than the batting on all four side.

Then I took some grossgrain ribbon and cut 5 peices. I measured each peice by cutting them 1 inch longer than the opening of the frame. Does that make sense?

Now, I know this next part is pretty high tech, so I will try to explain it in simple terms. I took some duct tape (out of my hubby’s tool box) and taped the padding to the sheet metal. I know…brilliant! Then while the ribbons are laying where you would like them to be on the top of the upside down frame, place your material over them gently with the right side facing down.

Now, gently place the padded sheet metal into the picture frame. Now take some more duct tape and pull up the material tightly and tape it to the metal all the way around. Now make any adjustments to the ribbons so that they are evenly spaced and then tape them down as well while pulling tightly.

Now you are all finished. If you don’t want anyone to see your high tech finishing methods from the backside, simply cut out a peice of cardboard or cardstock and place into the back section to hide your duct tape!

July 30, 2009 · Filed under: Crafts, Gifts, Girls, Home Decor, Organization Tips, Tutorials Tagged with

Kids Organizing Bulletin Board

38 Comments

With school fast approaching (yikes!) for most of us and a few already back, I am feeling the pressure to get more organized and orderly for the upcoming school year. Two years ago, I designed a bulletin board that would help us be more organized with the kids activities and homework, etc.

I did not take pictures of each individual step of the process because, I was not documenting every little thing I did back then :)! So I will explain it to you as clearly as possible.

My hubby and I bought some two large peices of sheet metal from Home Depot. We measured out how large we wanted the bulletin board to be and actually drew it out on the wall in pencil. We used a wall we had in our laundry room by the side door of our home. The inside of a garage wall would work well for this too.

We screwed the sheet metal to the wall after cutting it to the appropriate size. However, we did not want the seam to show where the two sheets of metal met. We made sure in our measurements that the seam would fall directly below the third peice of wood separating the section for the third and fourth section. Make sense?

We then took some chair rail and cut four appropriate lengths each with a straight edge. Two for the top and bottom of equal lengths and 2 for the sides of equal lengths. We cut them shorter than the actual length of the bulletin board itself so that we could place some decorative corner peices on the four corners of the board. After nailing everything in place with finishing nails, we puttied the nail holes and used painters caulk to fill all the cracks and crevices where the wood met with the corner peices.

Now that the edges of the bulletin board were finished, we added some 1/2 inch wood strips (Home Depot) to separate the board into sections. We attached them using finishing nails after they were laid out so that each section was equal in size. (Remembering to place one of the strips directly over the seam of the sheet metal). We puttied the nail holes and used caulk to fill the cracks here also.

When it was all dried and the puttied holes sanded, we primed and painted the wood. Use painter’s tape to cover any areas that you don’t want painted.

Then we added some coat hooks for the kids coats and backpacks to hang from. Each child’s is directly below their own section. We simply cut out equal sections of a pre-cut baseboard we found at Home Depot. Each square was sanded and painted, and then we screwed the hooks on. That’s all there is too it.

I have loved having this board. I put all the kids individual spelling lists, birthday invitations, flyers, class notes, homework, permission slips, etc. in the proper section. No more confusing who has what when.

I have labeled each section with their names at the top and each have a section where I drew with marker, that comes off with Soft Scrub, for when they have things during the week. I could never remember who had library books due or keyboarding homework or had to have proper PE shoes on any given day. Now with one glance as we are heading out the door (or the night before when they get their back packs ready for the next day) exactly what they will be needing. I typed up the word strips and then laminated them with a magnetic backing so that they stick right to the board.

This has made our mornings and the process of getting out the door to school a much smoother process. The kids also know exactly where there stuff is and where to find it. Now that is a miracle in and of itself!

**The bulletin board looks really shiny and weird in these photos. I had to use a flash so my pictures where not blurry since there in not the greatest light in that room. The baby really has no pressing schedules yet, therefore that is where we hang the school lunch menu. Gonna have to figure out where to put that in a few years!

July 29, 2009 · Filed under: Home Decor, Organization Tips, Parenting Help Tagged with

Kids Check Book Registers

34 Comments

**Updated as of 7/3/09. Now you can download documents to make your kids their very own checkbook registers!

My husband and I have tried for a while to determine the best way to teach the basics of money to our children. Personally, we do not believe in giving our kids a weekly or monthly allowance. We want our kids to realize that when they are older, someone will not just hand them a sum of money each week for doing nothing. I want them to grasp the concept that if they want money, then THEY are going to have to EARN it!

So at our house the kids are each expected to do chores they are assigned to every day without pay. For example every day they are expected to have their rooms clean and their beds made and complete a couple of additional chores that need to be done that day. Although we do not pay them for this, we have a point reward system to motivate them and to reward them for their obedience.

Then we have compiled a list of other chores and jobs that they may do to allow them to earn their “allowance”. Each job has a set price based on the difficulty and the type of chore they choose to complete. They are only paid when the job has been completed to mom and dad’s standards.

Then we ran into the problem of having the proper amount of change on hand sometimes to pay them when they were finished. So we decided to give each of them a checkbook register to record their earnings every time they earned some money. We record what they did and the amount we have deposited into their “bank account”.

Then if the kids want to spend some money from their bank account they get their checkbook registers out and make a withdrawl. Then we as the bank actually hand them the actual amount in cash. They are allowed to take that money with them too the store and spend it on what they choose to spend it on. I always let them pay for their purchase separately so they see how it feels to hand over their hard earned money for what they have chosen to buy.

We set 50 percent of their earnings for them to spend in any manner they please. We have seen some interesting differences in our children’s spending habits. One of our children saves and hordes every penny and was able to buy himself a Wii when his parents would not. It took him over 1.5 years of a lot of hard work and saving to do so, but he felt a great sense of satisfaction when he was able to walk out of the store with it in his hand.

Then another one of our children made a withdrawl almost every time I went to the store and he would raid the dollar aisle at Target. His money burned a hole in his pocket. Then one day he discovered Webkinz. But he could never save enough money to buy himself one. Finally one day he declared that he was not going to spend any more money until he had enough for a Webkinz. On the day that he had finally saved up enough money, he was so excited. Unfortunately I could not make it to the store that day or the next. He was finally able to go to store and make his purchase, and he has enjoyed his Webkin much longer than the other smaller items which were usually broken or lost shortly after buying.

We have also tried to teach the kids about saving a certain amount of their money in a long term bank account to be used later for college or for serving as a missionary for our church (at age 19). As thier savings account grows, my hubby and I will periodically take the amount they have saved in this untouchable savings account and actually place that exact sum into a real live bank account we have set up for them at our actual bank. We have decided that 40 percent of all our kids earnings will go into this untouchable account.

Our checkbook registers have a section labeled “tithing”, where the kids save 10 percent of their earnings to for charitable donations to our church. This may be something you may not need and can therefore add the 10 percent to some other area that may fit your family and/or change the amounts you save or allow them to spend.

We have found that this breakout of percentages has worked well for our family. It has given our kids sufficient money to spend on things they have wanted and helped them realize how much the things they want cost. Maybe something like this will work for you and your family. It has sure made keeping track of our kids money a lot easier around here.

If you would like to download a copy to make your own checkbook registers, click here.

There are two files you will need to download. I think I have finally gotten all the kinks worked out. Some of you had no trouble downloading the files, but for those of you who did, I changed the files to a later version of Office (thanks to a reader’s smart suggestion, thank you!), and so it should now work for the rest of you. If you still have trouble downloading them, email me and I can send you them.

You can then print them out for your use. You should need only one copy of the 2 paged document which includes the front page and the middle pages of the register. Then as needed you can print as many of page two (the middle pages) as needed.

June 30, 2009 · Filed under: Free Downloads, Organization Tips, Parenting Help Tagged with