Cubby Storage

Using Cubby Storage In Your BedRoom

I LOVE cubby storage, as most of you know who have followed me for awhile, so I decided to utilize them in our bedroom. I am in the process of slowly making over our bedroom.

We don’t have the finances to go into a beautiful bedroom set (that happens when you have eight kids right? Everything else like college and food come first! lol) so we do the best we can with what we have.  I also love Ikea, and I found some tall cubby storage units that we could use to help with our clothes storage.

We were storing our jeans, sweaters and sweatshirts on wire shelves in our closet. I tend to be more practical & functional than decorative, so I didn’t have a problem with open clothes storage in our room.

We have three of these cubby storage units in our rooms.  They are five shelves tall, with Dave having two of them and I have one.  This one is on the other side of the room from the top picture.  I got him two baskets also to help out with socks and T-shirts.

We also got two smaller cubbies that are on either side of our bed. We each have two baskets in them.  Yes that is my gun safe if anyone is wondering. You can see my cool pink gun on my pinterest board. (no nasty comments about me having a gun please)

There are plans to paint and also plans to make one of the cool headboards that I found on Evolution of Style  blog. Isn’t this awesome? I pinned it on my DIY pinterest board . This is in her little girl’s bedroom.   I loved it because it is right inbetween two windows which is the exact set up we have in our bedroom. I am still trying to decide on a paint color (not pink, I love it.. but poor Dave) and think my headboard will be the brown/black to match my Ikea pieces. Thoughts?

 

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Organizing clothes for changing seasons

Winter is coming!!  The “Changing of the Clothes”

Do you dread the “changing of the clothes” as much as I do? Getting out the winter clothes and putting away the summer?
I do not look forward to it. In fact, so far this season I have not done it.  I always leave a few warming things in their drawers for the summer, so they aren’t wearing shorts on a 60 degree day)

We do use the “hand me downs”.  How could we not?  The older two have clothes that I have saved (that they liked… we didn’t save everything) for the younger boys.   Since we only have the one girl, we tend to either have one of a couple people give us clothes for her, shop in the resale shops or buy new. (Oh darn….how I hate to buy girls clothes.. Not!!)

Here are the tips that I used in the spring of 2009 when I did a post on transferring clothes from summer to winter.

7 Easy Steps to Transferring The Clothes

1) Get your supplies ready. White (donate) and black (trash) trash bags, sharpie
marker, labels (sticky address labels work great, bins (clear are best).

2) Get out the winter clothes from storage.

3) Start in the kids rooms and pull out one drawer at a time. Determine with each
piece
* Will it fit someone in the family in the future? (If not dontate)
* Is it in any condition to save? (If not then throw away, don’t donate clothes
that are torn, stained or are better for rags)
* Will the next child wear it? Was it worn at all this season? (Do they like it?)

4) Make piles.
* Save for next year
* Donate (white bag)
* Trash (black bag)

5) Go through the new season clothes and do the same thing as you put them away in
the kids drawers. Make sure they will fit your child this year and it is
something they will wear.

6) I prefer you use clear bins. Get ones that fit your space to store and latch closed. They will go from season to season.  Now for really long clothing storage, you might want to look into another form (but I don’t suggest long term clothing store of any one item …usually)

7)) Take the bins you have for next year and be sure to label them.
Put sex, season and size on each label. For instance, Boy – Summer  - Size 10

7) Donate can be taken to friends who can use them, sold at a garage sale or resale
shop or taken to a facility such as Good Will.

The Dreaded Winter from Summer clothes change out

I have to admit that getting all the bins of winter clothes out of the basement and doing that seasonal clothing switch is not my idea of fun. But we did it this last weekend and I am glad it is over for the season. Here are some tips to make it go smoother for you.

Summer Clothes coming out of their drawers and closet:

1) Do you think it will fit next year? (all you can do is guess)
2) Did they ever wear it this year? (if they don’t like it, don’t keep it)
3) Is it in good enough shape to keep for next year?
4) Can you pass it down to another child in your family? (if so, keep it)

Items to keep for next year: Put in a clear plastic bin (ideal) and Label it:  with season of clothes and sizes. I suggest keeping boys and girls separate.

For those things that are in good enough shape to pass on, but you can’t use: DONATE IT
Put these things in a white trash bag so you do not mix them up with the black trash bags.

Winter clothes to Go Into their Drawers and Closets:

Bring out each piece and decide:
1) Will it fit them?
2) Do you both of you like it?
3) Is it in good enough shape to be worn again?

If yes for all of these, then put it in their drawers.
If not, don’t feel bad….just decide if its trash or donate.

Tip: Don’t over load their drawers and closets with too many clothes if you have hand me downs. Items will never get worn that are on the bottom or if they don’t like them.  These are things that other children can be wearing. Pass them on.

Out with the winter – In with the Summer Clothes – 7 Easy Steps to Transferring clothes.

Do you dread the “changing of the clothes” as much as I do? Getting out the summer clothes and putting away the winter ones?
With five children it can be quite the production. I worked on it yesterday most of the day.
I am lucky that my kids can pass down to each other. I still have some clothes from my 20 somethings to pass down to the 15 and 16 year olds. Then the clothes that the 15 and 16 year olds are being saved for the 8 year old triplets boys. With 7 of my 8 being boys, passing down works well. Even works that one of the triplet boys is a size bigger than the other, so we pass down there also!
Such a pity that I have to buy my girl clothes each season isn’t it? I know I just boo hoo all the way to the girl section. (LOL)

7 Easy Steps to Transferring The Clothes

1) Get your supplies ready. White (donate) and black (trash) trash bags, sharpie
marker, labels (sticky address labels work great, bins (clear are best).

2) Get out the summer clothes from storage.

3) Start in the kids rooms and pull out one drawer at a time. Determine with each
piece
* Will it fit someone in the family in the future? (If not dontate)
* Is it in any condition to save? (If not then throw away, don’t donate clothes
that are torn, stained or are better for rags)
* Will the next child wear it? Was it worn at all this season? (Do they like it?)

4) Make piles.
* Save for next year
* Donate (white bag)
* Trash (black bag)

5) Go through the new season clothes and do the same thing as you put them away in
the kids drawers. Make sure they will fit your child this year and it is
something they will wear.

6) Take the bins you have for next year and be sure to label them.
Put sex, season and size on each label. For instance, Boy – Winter – Size 10

7) Donate can be taken to friends who can use them, sold at a garage sale or resale
shop or taken to a facility such as Good Will.

Transformation complete.