Teach me your system for running an organized home

WitchKitty

Tue, Dec 06 2022, 2:41 pm

amother OP wrote:

I work about 10 hours/week. The rest of the time I'm home with 2 kids, 6 months and 2.5. My older kids are in school. I have cleaning help twice a week for 3 hours. She mainly cleans the bathrooms, mops floors, changes linens.

My current laundry system is that I trained my kids to put everything into the washing machine as soon as they take it off. I use a color catcher and wash everything together. When it comes out of the dryer, I sort into each kid's basket that goes to their room. So my kids almost always have everything that they need as far as clean clothes. However, I almost never fold laundry. Some of my kids are really bothered by this and I wish I did it. I just Can never seem to find the time. Maybe there's a better way to run the laundry that will make it easier Idk..

So I don't fold laundry. I do hang what needs to go on a hanger. But everything else has baskets. The shelves and drawers are full of them. Each person has a basket for socks, undershirts, underwear, shirts, pants, sweaters, etc. All I do is sort into the right baskets. No folding. I don't have patience for that.
Each person has one type of socks. No matching. Each sock design goes into the correct basket.

SuperWify

Tue, Dec 06 2022, 4:39 pm

amother Offwhite wrote:

I love your advice. The only six toys blew my mind. What shows and what books did you find most practical?

Thank you. I lived in very tight places so there was no other choice. But after I moved to a bigger place I decided to hold myself back from filling up the space because I know how much easier it is to deal with cleanup. We do have some good games and books as well.

Watching a good organizing show always gives me a boost.
Note: They are not always practical. Fancy containers are expensive and not every pasta needs it’s own container. BUT it will give you a boost to purge. Putting books and clothes rainbow color not always doable when all your Sefarim are brown and your clothes black and you need to organize by Shabbos weekday summer winter wedding… but seeing the organized spaces will give you the drive to want to start cleaning up.
It’s not practical for a frum family to have 100 items or less. Not possible. But is it possible for each family member to have only 100 items? Or at least throw out 100 items even if that means throwing out 100 crayons?

Shows:
Marie Condo- classic
The Home Edit
The Minimalists

Books:
Minimalista
The Home edit life

Frum bloggers I follow on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/simplifized/?hl=en
https://www.instagram.com/thehomesetup1/
https://www.instagram.com/spaceoveruk/ she’s super practical and has a great blog! https://www.spaceover.co.uk/?f.....UGGOw

The best time to organize is when you move. I’ve moved plenty in the last few years so that’s a really good time to reasses and purge. If your moving, pretend that you are. Take everything out and start from the beginning.

I buy plenty. Ask my DH and the Amazon delivery guy. The distance is that I only buy if it will have a home and a definite purpose.

amother

Chestnut

Tue, Dec 06 2022, 5:00 pm

Bnei Berak 10 wrote:

Number six: are you telling me there are table cloths that require dry clean only? Confused

I'm sure there are. I wouldn't have one in my house if you gave it to me for free or if it was the only object left in the world that belonged to my grandmother. No, maybe in that case I'd cut it down to manageable size and have it framed on the wall. Some things are just not worth having and a tablecloth I can't throw into my home washer is one of them.

In fact, someone once bequeathed to me nearly 20 stunning antique linen damask banquet cloths. All but one went to Goodwill immediately. The last one went to Goodwill some months later, when I faced the fact that I would never, ever use it, and even if I did use it once, I would a. have a heart attack the minute a spot of anything fell on it and b. neither have the equipment to maintain it properly nor wish to ~~invest~~ waste the money on having it professionally laundered and pressed.

keym

Tue, Dec 06 2022, 5:03 pm

1) I have a weekly menu so I know what I'm making.
Sunday -leftovers+hot dogs as needed
Monday - fish and potatoes
Tuesday- chicken and rice, grilled chicken and rice rotated
Wednesday- meatballs, hamburgers, meatloaf and pasta rotated
Thursday- pasta, pizza rotated.

2) I Clorox wipe my bathrooms while my kids are in the bath.

3) briefcases packed, homework signed the night before.

4) I did this when my kids were little. Each one had a different color. So "Esti's" clothing was placed on the red chair, her toothbrush was red, her cereal bowl was red. I put tape on the hooks for her coat and briefcase, and I even put a piece of red tape inside each of her shoes, her coat, gloves, etc. It made it easier for me to visually see who owns each thing, and made it easier for the kids to find their stuff.

zaq

Tue, Dec 06 2022, 5:05 pm

SuperWify wrote:

I have 1 more funny rule. If I find a stray piece of Lego on the floor I will throw it out. I can’t be bothered to rerun it to the right place. My son knows this and it motivates him to clean it up most of the time anyway…

I used to have a small box for stray game pieces, playing cards and so on. They all went into this one box, whatever they were and wherever they were found. If someone needed extra "men" for a board game (we never had the tiny Legos, as far as I'm concerned they are a curse and sakkanat nefashot), or was missing a checker or chess piece or six, that box was the place to go. And if you didn't find the piece you wanted for the game you were playing, plastic men from Chutes and Ladders worked just as well for Monopoly.

I'd like to think that this taught my kids the value of improvising and making do with what you have, but I have no way to prove anything.

amother

Sienna

Wed, Dec 07 2022, 12:15 am

1. I'm not an organized person by nature but my husband is so he constantly organizes. He likes to purge and throw away what's not needed also so bh I don't have much clutter in that department.

2. I recently it has a few months. Started making myself a basic supper menu in the beginning of the week and going shopping on Sunday for that. I go shopping one more time during the week for stuff I'm missing for shabbos. I find that for years I went shopping once a week and really focused more on shabbos food. But now that I'm focusing on supper and stuff I need for the week more, I'm doing better shopping the long run.
I've also been sticking to the supper menu I've been making and it's been much easier to know what to prepare the night before and supper's been on the table a lot earlier than in the past. Also, my kids are kind of picky and I can tell them the night before we are having and make changes if needed.

3. I recently started having cleaning up two full days a week instead of one day. It's making a world of a difference in the fact that my laundry is actually being folded and put away in drawers.
Before this I would wash the laundry and divide it when it was dry by person. So everyone has their own basket of laundry and either we would find time to fold in and put it away or we just took laundry from that basket.

4. I realized recently that I am going through a lot of plastic tablecloths and counter savers. For years I only used tablecloths that I had to wash in the machine. For some reason. The last few weeks I've been just putting a plastic tablecloth on the table and it's made a world of a difference in cleanup.

5. In my house in order to make Fridays a little easier, I made that into my kids watching day. At this point, my kids know that when they come home from school on Friday they need to do a job or two for shabbos and take a bath or shower and then they get time to watch on the computer or a phone. They have been really good with this and I haven't had a big anybody's take care of baths or showers or help for shabbos.

amother

Broom

Wed, Dec 07 2022, 12:27 am

Another survivor of a chaotic childhood home.

I took an organizing course (that was specifically geared for Jewish women).

what most ppl take for granted and are second nature, are completely unfamiliar to me. Basics like what should be kept where and what a daily morning and eve routine should look like are things most ppl mimic from their childhood homes. I needed to learn that all from scratch.

In hindsight I should've gotten a personal organizer to set up my apt closet by closet... I made sure my younger sibs had that when they got married. It is vital foundations for a kid that hoarding clutter and chaos was all they grew up on.

amother

Wed, Dec 07 2022, 8:58 am

amother Broom wrote:

Hello, sister! You get it!
I literally need basics like what should go where. I keep hearing and reading the advice everything should have a home. But I have no idea how to do even that.

I really appreciate everyone's input on this thread. I'm leaving from everyone. Thank you!

amother

Wed, Dec 07 2022, 9:23 am

amother Broom wrote:

Which organizing course did you take?

sl18

Wed, Dec 07 2022, 9:36 am

I'm not saying I have it all figured out (definitely don't, actually) and my husband helps a lot Baruch Hashem- but here is what helps me:

Figure out what things matter the Most to the people near and dear to me and prioritize that so Im not wasting time and energy do a whole lot of things that nobody cares about- so, for example, my husband prefers tidiness (as opposed to cleanliness) and can live with a disgusting bathroom (I can't but I get to it when I can) so I spend time on tidying every day instead of scrubbing-general tidy up of the living room so when he walks in he's happy to see it and it gives him peace of mind. I only spend a max of ten minutes on this, play music, and set a timer and don't do more than that.

Also you probably already do this but with my toddlers putting a baby gate on the kitchen was a game changer. most of the time only eating in there, and then playing in the living room, so the food mess stays in the kitchen, and the toys mess stays outside.

I really want to get into zone cleaning. Basically you rotate a different room of the house each day (or 'bathrooms' 'outdoor area' and just spend a short amount of time in there WITH a timer.

I actually found doing this for the first time a few weeks ago that the rooms were so clean afterwards I didn't feel the need to do it again the next week lol.

So for me it's : (for example)

Mondays: kids rooms (15 min. each)
Wednesdays:my room (15 min)
Fridays: bathrooms (10 min. each.)

the days in between I can finish up anything I didn't get to, also for a short, specific amount of time (say 5 min).

The kitchen I find needs daily cleaning, I also focus on a smaller zone in there at a time so I am not overwhelmed. So for example, just the kitchen table, just the floor, just the main long counter space.
Like I said my husband helps a lot so he'll do dishes after supper, or wash the floor once or twice a week, thankfully. For general tidiness I do it once a day, I set my timer, do it only for ten minutes. That way it's not on my mind all day, I know how long it will take, and I can focus it on it for that (generally) doable amount of time.

This 'Block Scheduling' video on YouTube has really helped me, here is a link to her blog post:
https://funcheaporfree.com/the.....life/

It's basically about figuring out what times of the day are good for YOU (not for anyone else) to do WHICH things. and focusing on those for a specific period of time, when it works for you. Each person's schedule and temperament is different. A frum book on this topic is "How Does SHE Manage?" By Yael Weisner. Also read that recently and it really drives home the point that different things work for different people.

I also find that scheduling in or somehow making sure I have time for myself each day is ESSENTIAL to being able to take care of everyone else. So I try to prioritize that, write it down on a list, set a timer, treat it just as importantly as all my other "To-do's"

Anyway hope that's helpful, I struggle too in this area, so good luck to us both!!