(my new) favourite organising tools #16 - gift bags

Hi all

On Sunday I challenged you to declare in the comments an area of your home that you'd be organising this week.

It's not too late to join in - even if you do just one drawer, the top of your kitchen counters, etc.

I'll be posting on Friday (so we all stay accountable) and I'd love to read your comments where you tell me what you've managed to get done.

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I said that I'd be sorting out the gift wrap and whatnot (just means there's such a lot and I'm too lazy to list it all :)) which I'm still busy working through as I do my project-type stuff between the 11pm and 2am feeds!

Long story but I can stay up easier than I get up so this is my new routine.

BUT I have found a use for some of those gift bags...which have become one of my favourite organising tools.

In the post where I spoke about organising the babies' clothes, Se7en commented and shared how she uses gift bags.

Well, I decided to try her suggestion and look...

see the bottom shelf in this pic

and this shelf, which makes my heart go all aflutter - so neat and organised and PRETTY!!!

How else do you use gift bags for non-gift purposes in your home or office?

Please share in the comments and let's get some good tips going. And Se7en, thanks again!

What's no. 1 on your to-do list?

I never could understand how it was that some women didn't take care of themselves.

Until now.

Because now I've had babies it is a different ball game altogether!

I didn't notice while I was still in the hospital because they wake you so early with coffee/ tea but the day after I was discharged, I realised something is a bit off...what is it???

Oh my word! I'm not hungry.

And that's how it started.

After a few days of being at home, I realised that I wasn't eating breakfast until HOURS after I'd woken. When I was pregnant, I'd wake and literally have to eat something within minutes because I woke up starving.

Not so anymore.

I also realised I'd just grab the first thing available (some biscuits (cookies) or rusks with my tea) which is not good!

at least I'm eating lunch - yum!

Good thing I had the awareness before it got even more out of hand. I decided I had to do something about it because I have to take care of me first before I can take care of the babies.

So now when I do my to-do list every day, my no. 1 item is Eat Breakfast.

What's no. 1 on your to-do list?

Quick tip - organising the babies' cupboards

Organising the babies' clothes is starting to be a minefield.

Especially since I'm not good with seeing what size things are. I always have to look on the label to see the size. Poor kids!

So I thought I'd show you quickly what I've been doing.

I have these storage boxes and I separated the clothes into the various sizes, slapped on a post-it note and voila, organised!

Untidy but organised :)

Project Baby - getting the clothes ready

So the baby showers are over and I finally knew what I could go buy.

People like to buy "outfits", in other words, cute clothes, so I put things like vests, leggings and babygrows (onesies) on my wish list.

Also, I like babies to look like babies, not like three-year-olds :)

We got a lot of what we needed but there being two, we had to go buy some stuff. I still don't know if we have enough but at least we have some clothes.

How many vests does one baby need anyway?

Someone at work gave us a very generous gift voucher so we went and bought the rest of what we needed, at least for the first stage.

And so the laundering commenced.

busy folding the clean laundry

sorting by category...
from the top: girl bibs, boy bibs and caps/ beanies

leggings on the left and vests on the right

their first slippers (they are too cute!), booties and socks

babygrows and knitted leggings and tops

neatly labelled on the shelf

burp cloths on left and blankets on right
(don't worry, I have PLENTY - the rest are still being laundered)

I feel much better now that they at least have clothes to wear!

I've used gift boxes (the purple ones) and plastic drawer dividers because they were falling over in anything bigger and I hate untidy shelves.

Question - anybody have any bright ideas to store all these tiny little clothes?

Baby organising - new guest bedroom

Remember I told you our plan was to move the guest bed into the study for the babies' room?

It's finally done - not perfect but 90% there and the babies' room is now empty except for a chair which has to find a place elsewhere in the house.

This room is long and narrow, so the bed fits nicely at the back and the front will remain my study/ office.

another angle

Doesn't the sun look beautiful streaming in through the windows?

This is a typical Joburg winter's day - are you jealous?

P.S. Yes, my desk is really that tidy - I can't STAND an untidy desk so I do a quick 30-second tidy every day when I've done working.

Project Baby Organising - organising the hospital bag

My hospital gave me a list of things I needed to bring with me so I've been crossing things off the list.

I don't have everything yet as the one thing everybody agrees on is don't buy any clothes until after the baby shower.

Still.

I wanted to tick some things off that list so I laid out what I do have so that at least something is ready.


And here's how I packed the baby toiletries, just because this is me and I love Ziplocs :)

Now, to all the experienced mothers out there, what do they not tell you to bring that I really should know about?

All advice gratefully received!

Big project organising - the babies

Whoever thought you just fall pregnant, have a lovely glow and a bump to show off and 9 months later you have babies is sadly mistaken.

that would be me, by the way

Having babies involves serious project management and LOADS of decisions.

• which pram?
  
• which car seats?
• do we want one cot or two?
• who will deliver them?
• at which hospital?
• what about classes to show us what to do?
• what do we buy?
• can you be a minimalist
• how do you sort out the babies' room?
• etc
• etc

The list seriously goes on and on and I've been threatening to do a master to-do list although it felt a bit...I don't know... cold when you think these are BABIES.

Nevertheless, I realised something had to be done because people would ask me things and I'd say "I don't know" or "haven't thought about it yet", which gets old really quickly.

So I caved and used one of my master to-do lists in the Organising Success Pack

And do you know what? It's not as bad as I thought.

There were only 16 items on there.

Which reinforces what I always tell my clients - write it down; it's usually much worse in your head than on paper :)

Do you use master to-do lists? How do you keep tasks on big projects organised in your mind?

This ecourse will take you, step-by-step, from overwhelm to peace and order. There are short lessons and practical steps because I know you already don't have time! You also get a quickstart 60-minute audio to jump-start your progress.

Check it out now

Do you keep your old diaries/ daily planners?

This is all part of Project Baby Organising.

I know this intellectually but every time I see it in practice in my own life I'm reminded anew of how easy it is to declutter once you get started.

What I'm doing is decluttering each of those shelves and clearing up space for some guest linen as this room will be doubling as a guest room on the one or two occasions we have people to stay every year.

Please notice I cropped out the right side of the wardrobe because my husband and I have that agreement.

Anyway, back to the topic.

I came across my old diaries/ daily planners from about 2002. I don't know why exactly I was hanging onto them...but I was.

Now they're all thrown out. Except for last year's one because I may want to access some information in there.


So, do you keep your old diaries/ daily planners? How long?

And by the way, what do you call them in your side of the world? In South Africa we call them diaries and we diarise our appointments :)

Project baby organising (2) - making space

So project baby organising continues.

I had 3 shelves of files that I had to declutter to make way for the guest linen.

The way I see it is that if I haven't even looked at these files once in the last 18 - 24 months, I probably don't need it.

That was mostly true because some things were certificates from courses I'd attended, income tax records, etc.

When I got started, I must tell you I thought I wouldn't be up for it, because I'd forgotten that things always look worse just before they get better.

This is in the midst of the sort.

This was all the paper I decluttered from the files

and these are the lovely empty files and folders afterwards.

End result

• 2 1/2 empty shelves - yayy!
  
• 1/2 shelf of computer software and back-up discs all together in one space, not spread out in 3 different areas of the study
  
• Empty files that will go to a needy school in Johannesburg

No pics of final shelves because my husband's stuff is there and we have a rule - no blogging about his mess :)

Can you be a minimalist with babies?

I'm fast realising that not everybody thinks like me.

Well, I've known that for a long, long time :) but this baby business has made the whole thing glaringly obvious once again.

Let me tell you what's been going on...

1. There's a baby expo happening in Jhb soon (I think it's within the next week or two) ... and the ladies at work have been very keen for me to go because "you get all this FREE STUFF" LOL

I'm really not into getting stuff just because it's free. If I need it and don't have to pay, great. But I don't just take things because they're free.

They looked at me like I was cuckoo :)

Please tell me there are more of us out there!


2. Then my sister (who is so excited) wants to know what we've bought.

Um, nothing.

"but you do know what you want?"

Um, no. Not at all.

"Okay, have a look at all these websites"

No, thanks, that's not our style.

You see, I believe that when you look at too many things, you (1) get overwhelmed and (2) start thinking that you need all those things.

But they're not needs, they're desires.

So my thinking is to first consider carefully what we actually need, and then make a list and go shopping.

Am I crazy, or is there method in my madness?

P.S. We received a baby bag from our medical aid (insurance) and some more free stuff from a Multiples Seminar we attended which is why we have a few things.

P.P.S. We have bought them matching "what happens at Granny's house stays at Granny's house" babygrows (onesies) in green because they were cute and not expensive!

Oh, by the way, am 16 weeks now and at the doctor's on Wed, one baby showed us what we wanted to see ...and one didn't ... so we wait for the 20-week scan. If that one is naughty again, I'm going to "cheat" on my doctor and go see others until I know!

Organising for babies

Today I'm 16 weeks pregnant with twins :)

We are very excited about the babies but with that, we had a bit of an EEEK moment when we realised we'd have to find space in the house not only for the babies, but for all the baby stuff.

We plan to convert the guest bedroom so we need to find space elsewhere for all the guest stuff, extra blankets, etc.

All of these shelves had things on them before I started moving things around (I forgot to take a proper before picture).

The aim is twofold:

1. eventually move all the guest things to our second bedroom/ study
2. have only baby things in this bedroom
   

A tall order!

Things I've realised:

1. I have too many guest items considering we only have guests a couple of times a year
2. We have absolutely no clothes for the babies - will have to do the gift registry thing soon
3. I need to seriously declutter my study and get rid of all my workshop stuff

What I did

• I moved everything baby from other places in the house to this room. Basically there were books, toiletries and some towels.
• Then I started categorising - toiletries and other baby stuff, and baby vs parenting books

Here is part 1 of the organising project

on the left, baby books and on the right, parents' books

starting to sort the toiletries...

Will keep you informed!

In the meanwhile, which baby accessories should I absolutely not get and will be a waste of money? :)

E.g. at a multiples seminar we attended, one of the mothers said you can use a rolled-up towel instead of buying a cot wedge.