Did you catch my new series ‘steal the look’ last time? It’s all about sharing clever, stylish and useful decor ideas that are easy to replicate. Last week’s was a really cute idea that will delight any kid! For my second idea to steal, it’s this organised peg board which contains one of the best Ikea hacks. Have you spotted the Ikea hack yet?
Continue Reading "Steal the look: Ikea spice rack hack for a kids desk"
My friend and fellow blogger Cristina from across the pond shared a very clever clothes storage idea. I thought the idea was so great that I had to share it here. It’s such a simple idea but then simple ideas are always the best! The idea – store your clothes horizontally instead of stacking them vertically (on top of each other).
Just the other week I did this with Anya’s sweaters and it’s not only helped us find things quicker but there is no after-mess to tidy up. When her sweaters were vertically stacked on top of each other I had to get the whole pile out and by the time I pulled out the one I wanted, the whole pile collapsed – you know how it is. And when Anya tried to get one out, well that meant chaos! Now that I’ve rolled them all up and lined them up – I pull out the one I want and the rest stay undisturbed. It’s also so much easier to see what you want. And the best part is that even when Anya pulls them out herself, there is no mess. With the lighter clothes like t-shirts, I don’t roll but fold and do the same – again so easy to see what’s what and pull out what you need.
Next, I’m going to be re-organising my wardrobe this way. What do you think of this clever clothes storage idea? Great, right? Got any other great tips to be more organised with your or your kids wardrobes?
Are your school mornings a mad dash? We are already three weeks in to the new school term and nothing has changed here – no matter what, we are always running late. Sometimes we make it just in time but often we end up being late and it’s getting embarrassing given we live next door to our school. I had been trying to think of ways to organise our mornings better when Anya suggested a kids morning routine chart. She said it would help her to know what order she has to do things and when.
I decided to give her suggestion a try and I finally made one last week. It’s a very simple DIY kids morning routine chart that outlines exactly what she has to do and when. We’ve only been using it for a week but the chart has helped. One of the best things about it for me is that I don’t feel like a drill sergeant anymore! I’m no longer telling her to brush her teeth 20 times before she actually does it. Or if I left the room, I used to come back and find she had emptied her lego box and started building a mammoth house which was impossible to tear her away from. Now she looks at the chart and she knows exactly what to do when. And the chart is also helping her to be more independent.
We’ve also built in a little treat called ‘golden time’ which falls in the middle of the morning routine. If the first part of the routine is done in time then she gets 5 minutes playtime. This has really encouraged her (more than I imagined) to try and get things done quickly. For us, it was always the first part of the morning that went so leisurely which meant that in the last 5-10 minutes before leaving, we were running around like headless chickens to get out the door on time. Anya doesn’t always manage to get her ‘golden time’ but the incentive is there for her to try. 
I’ve made the kids morning routine chart out of regular printer paper, spelling out the morning routine. I used a teardrop shape because it looks pretty and used some washi tape to add colour but also to keep my walls from peeling! And I intentionally used a stand out colour for golden time so that it can’t be missed or forgotten. You can of course make any kind of chart – it takes just minutes and it could take some of the stress out of the mad morning dash!
Do you have any tips for taking the stress out of the morning madness?
It’s Wednesday and that means the next dose of my photo series. We live in a time where taking photos could not be easier. We click away several times a day creating thousands of memories on our phones, cameras and other devices. On the one hand it’s quite amazing that we can photograph anything, anytime, all the time but on the other, what do you do with all those photo’s? Do you have thousands of memories sitting in one big horrible mess on your phone, on your laptop or even on your facebook? Do you spend hours trying to find photos? Do you wonder what to do with all those thousands of photo’s you’ve taken? If your answer is yes, then todays photography article on how to organise your digital photos will help you get on top of this mess. These tips are easy to follow and with a little effort you will have a very organised photo library. I’ve put these tips together based on what I do (when I’m organised!):
1. Download those photos
This is the easy bit because if you’re anything like me, I can’t wait to see the photo’s I’ve taken after an event or holiday. So whenever I take photos I always download them usually on the same day or within a day or two. Never leave photo’s on your memory card as your card will eventually get full and you may not have room the next time you need to take photo’s. This could leave you furiously trying to scroll through your camera and deleting photo’s in a hurry to free up some space. And besides it’s also possible to accidently delete your entire memory card.
2. Delete, delete, delete!
As soon as you download your photos, start deleting. And be ruthless. Blurry shots, duplicate shots, random photos – you know the ones I mean. And then delete some more. Only keep the shots you really love and often you’ll find that more than half can be deleted. This also helps keep more storage space free. My best advice (which I try to follow) is to delete photo’s as soon as you download them. This will make putting them in to folders a much easier job.
3. Create folders
That brings me on to the next point – creating folders. It doesn’t matter what software you use or even if the photos are stored directly on your PC but creating a folder system is essential to getting your photos organised. The simplest way to do this is chronologically – by year, then month, then by the subject or occasion. The best way to stay on top of your system is to place photo’s in to folders as you download and after a while this will become a habit. But if this isn’t possible you can also set aside a little time the end of each month and spend an an hour or two dividing the photos for that month in to folders. If you do this regularly, imagine how organised your photos will be and how easy they will be to find!
None of us have photo’s just on our camera’s anymore. In fact many of us have more photo’s on our phones than anywhere else. We definitely don’t want to forget these so do the same with these – download to your computer (or wherever you store your photos) monthly or weekly (depending on how many you take), delete unwanted ones and put in to folders with the rest of that months photo’s.
4. Mark your favourites
I’ve recently started flagging my favourite photos in each set of photos that I download. This is easily doable in many photo management tools like apple iphoto or windows live photo gallery. This has helped me so much especially when I take photo’s for my blog. Before I’d trawl through 100 or more photo’s to choose the best two or three and then forget which ones I liked so I’d keep going back and forth and wasting far too much time. Now when I download them, I immediately delete the hopeless ones and flag the best. This will also help a lot if later you decide you want to print some or make a photobook – no more spending hours choosing.
5. Storage
If you take a lot of photo’s then keeping these on your laptop can start eating away at your computers storage. So instead you could use an external photo storage site like flickr. There are many such sites that are free to use so it’s just a question of finding the right one for you – here’s a list that will help.
6. Print them!
Seriously, how often do you print your photo’s? I am really bad at this but since starting this photography series I’ve realised that there is no point learning to take fab photos only to have them sitting on a hard drive somewhere. It’s so much nicer to hold a book or album and flick through the pages than it is to stare at a screen. With all the easy printing options available, there really is no excuse not to print photos. And once you’ve spent a bit of time organising your digital photos, choosing ones to print should be easy.
Some ideas on printing – You could print a yearly photobook. I did this when Anya turned one showing the first year of her life and it is such a wonderful memory. I did it again when she turned two but since have given up but plan to re-start. Another idea is to make mini little photobooks of instagram photos or phone photo’s that can literally be done in minutes. Yet another idea is to make real prints and create a gallery wall in your home. You could refresh these every couple of years and older ones can go in to an album. There are so many easy and quick ways to get real copies of your photo’s and once you start, you’ll love the physical memories you are creating and memories that can be handed down for generations to come.
7. Don’t feel overwhelmed
If you have done nothing to organise your photo’s over the years and have thousands upon thousands stored on your laptop and phone, don’t panic! It’s so easy to feel overwhelmed and not know where to start. You can either start with your latest photos and work backwards or the other way around but most importantly, start with bite sized chunks. So consider tackling a months worth of photo’s each week and slowly you will start to see your digital photo library looking very organised.
8. Back it up
You knew this was coming, you know you should do it but are you doing it? Even if you end up doing nothing else to organise your digital photos, at the very least you need to back them up. I use an external hard drive that I plug in to my laptop around once a month and job done! But there are so many ways to create back-ups, the important thing is to do it – not say you will do it, not plan to do it but do it today! Here is a simple article that lists some photo back-up options.
So that’s how I like to keep my photo’s organised. It’s a shame to have so many gorgeous memories lying in a huge mess somewhere. With my tips on how to organise your digital photos and a little consistent effort, you will have the most organised photo library ever. And once you get in the habit of doing this, you will save so much time because you won’t ever have to look through thousands of pics to find the one you want. And don’t forget to print and back-up those amazing memories.
There are lots more handy tips and ideas on photography in my previous articles which you’ll find here:
How to grow your instagram following
How to photograph moving kids
The best photo filter apps
How to photograph kids using an iphone only
A mini photobook
What do you do with all of your kids artworks? Do you find it piles up so quickly that it gets out of hand? The art in our home is produced daily which is fabulous on the one hand but on the other I really don’t know what to do with it all. I’ve always displayed some of it by putting a few pieces on our fridge and blu-tacking others on to a wall (which kept falling off) in the kitchen and then I would change them every couple of months for newer pieces. I save a few others in a folder and the rest go in the bin at night (naughty mama!). But it’s impossible to keep all of your kids artwork so I think you have to be selective.
With our new home which we are renovating from scratch I want to be more organised. Our new fridge will be built-in so I won’t be able to display any art on it. And besides I want to make a dedicated and permanent space for Anya’s art, not treat it like an afterthought. So while I was hunting for ways to display kids artwork I came across these slot-in picture frames. They are designed specially for kids art and come in a range of sizes to accommodate one or more pieces of art. The frames themselves are very simple so they really allow the art to stand out and can also be used no matter what your decor. I’m thinking of having an entire wall in a hallway or in the kitchen filled with these frames to make a colourful and fun gallery wall. But what I love most about these kids art frames is how easily you can slot in new pieces of art. No tape, no blu-tack, no constantly falling off the wall, no mess, just drop it in and change as and when you wish. These kids artwork display frames don’t solve the problem of what to do with all the art but they are a fab idea for displaying your favourite pieces easily.
If you have some other ideas for displaying and storing kids artwork, do share in the comments.
P.S. If you want a few more ideas to get organised check out this fab entrance hall storage idea and some ideas on how to store those soft toys.
This is one idea I really wish I had thought of. Especially in the last couple of months as we have been so unsettled. We moved in to our new place in December but we always knew we were there temporarily till the builders arrived and then we would have to move out again which is what we have done recently. Because I didn’t have a permanent space for anything, I stuck lots of pieces of paper and notes on the wall to serve as reminders. But I wish I had created a simple DIY washi tape calendar like this one.
This DIY washi tape calendar is large (you could go even larger) so I love that the whole families appointments, dates, events can be put on the same calendar. I would give each member of the family a different colour stickie so that there’s no confusion. And then everything is visible in one quick glance. Even if you’re not moving around like me, this is still such a great way to keep a track of the months events. It looks good and would work great on a kitchen wall or in any shared family room. Or even in a kids room purely to keep track of their activities. It’s also great for rented accommodation as washi tape leaves no marks. And at the end of each month, you just remove all the stickies and put in new ones for the following month. Simple, practical and so useful to keep track of everything in one place. When we move back to our home permanently I’m definitely making one of these.
I came across this fun entrance hall storage idea a while ago and have been meaning to share ever since. This is such a colourful and fun way to get your kids organised. Everyone has stuff they need to pick up on the way out or dump on the way in so instead of messily piling everything up on a bench or table you can make these really easy storage spaces simply separated by blocks of colour. Of course you don’t have to stop at the kids but each person in your home could have their own space.
In this entrance hall created by small fry, I love the bold colours they’ve used and the painted stools that match the walls. But if stools don’t provide enough storage for you then you could do the same with shelves or small storage cabinets. And you can of course choose colours according to each persons favourite. It looks so striking and will encourage the kids and even you to be neat! This simple idea can also work in a shared kids room or any room where each person needs their own little space. You’ll find all the how to’s over at small fry.
This year I’ve decided to be more organised with work and managing home life. In the past, I’ve always relied on writing things down on scraps of paper that I can of course never find when I need. Or I’ve always got 4-5 notebooks on the go, each of which has a specific subject at the start of the year but come mid-year I’ve got random notes in all and end up looking through each one to find what I want. Such a waste of time. So this year, I’ve started the year with a weekly planner – one sheet for each week with lots of notes for the whole week. That plus a whole year planner with key dates highlighted so I always know what is happening at a glance.
While looking for planners and calendars I came across some gorgeous free printable ones so I thought I would share them here. They are so pretty that they may inspire you to use them, even if you don’t normally. Or at the very least, they’ll make lovely wall decorations even if you never write on them. I’ve picked a selection – some that are better for kids and others more for adults. I’ll be printing one for Anya too as she has learned about days and dates in school so it’s a great way for her to get more familiar with the whole idea. And besides, she’s told me she wants to countdown to Christmas (in January!!!).
Many of the calendars are released monthly so you’ll have to visit the site each month to print the latest one. I quite like that as you never know what’s coming next. The top one is probably my favourite (it’s so cute) but not the most practical to write on, however I still love it just to pin it up in a kids room and I can’t wait to see the new ones each month. A couple are in French but of course not hard to understand. Here’s where you’ll be able to print all these gorgeous free 2015 calendars:
1. January bear calendar | 2. Animals monthly calendar | 3. Hand drawn font calendar | 4. colourful and cute calendar | 5. February dots calendar | 6. January dotty bird calendar
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