UPDATE: Decluttering & Kids - Artwork

*Minimalist Reading - NO time to read this long post? Just read the bold parts and you'll get the summary version! You're welcome!

I previously posted about decluttering, kids and artwork. If you haven't read that post, you could take a look at it HERE. I'm not going to recap everything I covered but I am going to update a bit and maybe streamline the whole process in a more condensed form of 'instructions' on how to make this work for you.

Why an Update?

It's just past the holiday season for us - that means Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the New Year just wrapped up. Now the 5 and 6 year old are ....drum roll.... 6 and 7 years old! (Life is good!) but the art work has increased, not slowed down.

The girls have spent a solid 2 weeks off of school and now they are heading back (As in, this coming Monday!) so what should we do with our weekend but tackle 'The Beast' aka the Art Wall.

Previously, when I talked about managing the art work mess (because, really, that is what it is) I said that I was updating our scrapbook every week. Well...that fell flat quickly! Nobody has time for that!

I've settled for updating only during the girls' school breaks (or when the art wall gets CRAZY! but trust me...we just pile that art work on there if we can! One on top of another, over another, over another!)

I'm going to walk you through the actual step-by-step of what a ONE day digital scrapbook marathon looks like for me.

How often should you do this: Once or Twice a Year

Tools you will Need:

• A Mixbook account (FREE) - Referral link ~ Thank you!
• A Dropbox account (FREE) - Referral link ~ Thank you!
• A Phone with the Dropbox app or a Camera with the ability to download your photos to your computer
• A mountain of artwork that needs to be organized
• If you are using your phone to upload your photos, make sure you are able to use WiFi to upload them or that you won't mess up your phone data plan by uploading a gazillion photos. Wifi = good.

Simplest Steps:

1) In your Free Dropbox account, set up the following file structure

Create a folder called 'Scrapbook' or 'Mixbook'
Inside that folder - Create the folder '2013' (or whatever year the photos were taken)
Inside the folder 2013: Create two folders 'Family' and 'Art'
Inside the folder 'Art': create one folder for each child. Only have one? Skip this step.
Do this for each year.

* Set up your phone to automatically upload your photos to Dropbox whenever it has access to your home/free Wifi. (Otherwise, you can easily go over your data limit)

2) Take photos of ALL the artwork that your child/ren brings home. I do this two or three times a year, not every week as I had said before. Weekly is just too much work.

3) Go through ALL photos after they have been uploaded to Dropbox and delete any that are blurry, out of focus, people are blinking, unflattering, or otherwise not something you would want in your scrapbook. Art work, you just make sure you don't have duplicates.

4) Delete ALL photos off of your phone/camera that you have uploaded to Dropbox.

5) When you have uploaded all of the family/art photos you are going to for the year, your folders are done/full!

6) Upload all the Family photos for the year into one mixbook (labeled correctly) and press 'Mix it' or lay it out manually in the way you want your scrapbook to look. Press save.

7) Upload all the Art photos for each child into separate mixbooks (labeled correctly) and press 'Mix it' or lay it out manually in the way you want your scrapbook to look. Press save.

You are done scrapbooking an entire year's worth of art/family photos in a matter of a few hours.

This is my process for scrapbooking. It's lazy, easy, and saves me a lot of time. I just 'mix' the artwork for the girls and don't bother laying them out. I *DO* put a photo of the girl on the cover of her art book, but that's it for customization.

Do you Print or do you Email?

Personally, I email links to family and friends. It has always been my intention to send these out as Christmas gifts but I never get around to it - because I'm lazy. One of these days, I might get around to it. But I think most people in our family prefer digital.

That's it! I've actually spent more time on this blog post than on doing the scrapbooks today. (I'm waiting patently as all 800 photos upload....*rolling beach ball* so...yeah. I hope this was helpful in tackling your artwork mess! Remember - Work Smarter, Digitally, not Harder!

Gardening - Seed Organization

Sometimes the simplest solutions are the best solutions.

I have a lot of seeds. There are only a few things I 'hoard' - digital books and seeds!

Because knowledge and the ability to grow your own food are pretty darn important.

Storage of my digital book collection is a snap - obviously.

Storage of a seed collection can get a little more complicated... use what you have on hand unless something else better comes along.

Normally I store my seed collection like this...

In a box, thrown in, inside of packets - some open, some sealed, some knocking around in the bottom to create a 'surprise mix' for next spring. I also print out my own seed packets off of the computer to customize with our family name and so I can keep the seeds I save from our own garden and maximize our garden year after year.

But the disorganization...it can become really concerning.
And I kind of like the idea of having my seeds organized by WHEN I'm supposed to plant them! I can't help it if I'm a bit OCD and like to organize with 'tiers' in most cases. I don't just want my seeds organized, I want them organized by expiration date, alphabetically and chronologically by when they should be planted. That should be easy enough, right?

Eight months into my seed collecting - because I hit the bargain sales at the end of the last season - and Im still a mess! Until...today. Today I was picking up clutter I've left around the house - 5 minute or less guarantee- and I had a stack of empty and unused baseball card organizers (for folders).

Why? Coupons of course - I'll save that post for another day.

While I don't *Love* having to fold the seed packets I currently have, I am able to print out my own seed packets and keep them small - so that they fit a baseball card slot. This is perfect! (I'm so OCD I might repackage the seeds I have just so they fit).

Here is a great example - I'll post a photo of mine after I'm done today adding my own collection to my binder.

And that's what I'm sharing with you today. Cost? Very low - I spent no more than $2 on a binder just like the above, and about $10 last year on the baseball card holders. (I bet you could find them cheaper! I didn't shop around!)

I'll continue to refine and update you about my storage ideas - like this one.
Remember - improvise, think outside the box, and work smarter instead of harder if the situation presents itself.

Need some Baseball Card sized mini Seed packets? Print them! These are the ones that are my favorite, scaled down to fit baseball card inserts (A bit prettier than the yellow mini-envelope and perfect for saving your own seeds!)

Decluttering - The Craft Room

This is how my craft room mess made me feel....I say ENOUGH!

My craft room is not a dedicated craft room. It is partially my office. But in general, I have lots of 'crafty' stuff in there. When I inherited the craft room (from my mother in law, a long story!) it is/ was a GIANT mess! I'm sure this is like most peoples' craft rooms, full of odds and ends of crafts long ago dead, done or forgotten. I'm a pretty fantastic organizer and it even had me stumped! I spent about two months trying to redesign layouts, find organizers, figure out what should stay, what should go.

Almost always I heard someone in the house saying "But we could use that some day..." and that, my friend, is the crutch of hoarding and clutter! My minimalist extremes kicked in and I said "That is ENOUGH! It has a purpose or it ALL has to go!" and that was about two months ago.

But with renewed determination - I am tackling the craft room with a VENGEANCE! (Hey, I might be able to do an ACTUAL before and after picture! Isn't that something!?!)

My strategy is simple - It is a tool, appliance or in a kit then it stays. And I'm going to do an entire post about kits, don't worry! As far as odd and end pieces, if it doesn't fit in a rather tall and limiting drawer system (I may get rid of that too!) then it has to go.

Now, most of you crafty types (I swear, I'm crafty) are cursing and swearing me off. I'm basically saying 'throw it all away! It can't be organized!' and no, that is not what I'm saying. My approach is geared towards families with children (not you notorious scrapbooking types!) that have wobbly eye things and tongue depressors coming out of your ears.

How do I get rid of everything in my craft room that doesn't have a purpose but still have crafts to do?!

This is the part where you shake me and scream "Make sense!" and I'm getting to that part. It's a whole other post but I'm getting to it.

The problems that goes hand in hand with a 'craft room' or a craft area at all is as follows:

• Everything is a mess - nothing has a place
• Every organizer on the planet but still not organized
• Lots of some craft items, hardly any of others
• The kids raid the craft area and don't always put things back or wastes things
• Clean up is so much work - I'd rather not (Me!)
• You have tons of things pinned on Pinterest but nothing to craft
• Whenever you sit down to do a craft you are always missing at least ONE thing

To me - this sounds like you LOVE to give your kids crafts to do but HATE the clean up, figuring out what you have enough pieces for, and dealing with finding homes for all the pieces. Well, I hear you!

My epiphany moment - Our mall recently got a $5 and Up store (or whatever it is called). In the very back of the store is a wall of craft things. These are those bracelet kits, keychain kits, all those 'kits' with the pictures of teen girls just having SO much fun putting beads onto plastic stretchy bracelets that always say friend forever. You know what I'm talking about? Let me try to find a picture...

Bingo - right on the money! This is one of those kits exactly! Of course, Amazon is listing this at $15 but the kits at this $5 store are roughly $5 which is pretty good! Now, if I have each girl pick one a week, that's about $50 a month in crafts. Why is it worth it to me to do it this way? Because I don't have to think, they get to pick and I will absolutely not feel bad about tossing all the extra pieces afterwards.

But sometimes...you just can't be so reckless. (And we probably won't do that but once or twice). Sometimes you want to try and salvage what you can of what you already have. (Did that make sense?)

My final Solution for the Craft Room:

I am going to take ALL of my craft materials and separate them into planned crafts (enough for each girl). All the rest of the pieces will be thrown out unless it is something I use often for random crafting - like ribbon or fabric or something.

This will get rid of a bulk of the TINY things that are just floating around. If I have extra pieces, I will have to either donate those to a friend, a thrift store, or just toss them. Of course, I could just have a junk bucket with random craft bits but WOW could that get out of hand fast!

You have teachers - you could always donate a bag of crafting goodies to your kids teachers once a month! If you can't organize it - pass the mess on to someone more able to handle craft stuff galore!

Solution Summary - 

• Convert the Craft room into PrePlanned Craft Kits containing all items needed for each child and clear instructions with the craft stuff
• All extra pieces need to fit in a restricted/small area of craft storage or be donated/gifted/thrown away.
• When purchasing craft items in future - purchase for a craft you are planning, get all the pieces all at once, and know how you are going to handle the extra pieces before you bring them home i.e. donate, gift, add to another craft kit.

Tips:

• Sometimes, compartmentalizing a mess just complicates matters instead of making them easier.
• If you are over compartmentalizing your mess and it is still causing you nightmares, it is time to stop trying to find another organizer and face the music - the size of the mess is too big to organize and must shrink.
• Kids love gluing and cutting and beads - if it is just a pile of glue and feathers they will still have fun making a mess. Stick it in a kit and call it a craft monster project and let them destroy until the feathers fly! (And then make them pick up their mess!)
• Need ideas for Craft Kits? Look and see what is for sale. Don't like the price tag? They list what is IN the kit. Make a list and pick it up for a fraction of the cost at the craft store with more personalized options. Now you're ahead of the game! If the kit is on the shelves, it is something your kids will love whether it came prepackaged or mompackaged.

Want to know more about Pre Planned Craft Kits? We've got a post on that!

It all comes down to how much mess you are prepared to deal with. If the clutter starts to get under your skin or you look at it and have to close your eyes because it overwhelms you then that is your cue! 

No time to organize it? Clear out all the craft mess that you don't have a home for and give it to a friend - and go get a $5 craft kit and call it a day! Crafting is about memories - not about headaches and more cleaning. Say no to the extra cleaning - say no to the Craft CraziMess.