Guess what? One of my New Year's resolutions is to make side money. Please to enjoy this sponsored post! I'll put up another one, too, don't worry.
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The question I'm supposed to answer is: How do you keep/maintain your New Year’s Resolutions?
I don't actually make New Year's Resolutions anymore because I feel too guilty when I break them. I can be a little OCD about goals, *cough*. However, I do find that I get crazymaking about organizing and fixing up my house in winter because I stare at the inside of it so much during the cold months. It gets dark early, and I don't want to go outside and do anything and the lawn is dead. Also, the little angel tends to trash the house more in the winter because I lock the door and won't let her in except to pee during summer weekends. (I'm only sort of kidding.)
I hate trashed rooms. I hate piles of itsy bitsy pieces. And worst of all? I hate it when my crying girl realizes she's lost an important part of her favorite toys, which are ALL OF THEM.
When my daughter and her friends spend a lot of time playing indoors, things get lost. My girl is pretty good at organizing things, but she has to be in the right frame of mind to do it. It's far easier to keep her on track if she has completely separate containers for things. In the past year, I've reorganized the clothes in her drawers twice, her bookshelves three times and her playroom twice. I've learned to only put one type of toy in the toybox, because as much as I love that toybox, it is like the bottom of a too-large purse -- it collects broken pieces of stuff we sold in a garage sale three years ago and everything gets coated in that grunge of broken pieces. So now I only put hard plastic toys in there. At least you can wipe them off.
We got separate clear plastic containers for like things:
- Matchbox cars and the little airplanes I always buy in airports
- Any small doll that remotely resembles a Polly Pocket
- Fake food/tea sets, etc.
- One with three drawers holds her American Girl shoes
I repurpose swag from blogging conferences or work events in any way possible.
- Sewing supplies in a swag tote
- Zhu Zhu pets in some little pop-up containers I got last year
- Hexbugs in a little container that used to hold fancy chocolates
- Finger puppets in a box that contained a sinus cleaning tool
- A bag made out of a Hanes t-shirt holds Cabbage Patch clothes (it expands!)
Any time I get a cool container for any reason, I keep it and use it for little stuff:
- Harry and David boxes I got from a co-worker for her hair ties and jewelry
- Cute, sturdy shoebox I got containing a gift now holds Barbie clothes
- A white wicker basket I got with diapers in it at my baby shower now holds dry erase markers for her whiteboard
- A hamper that was too small for her jeggings now holds Barbie furniture
- A hatbox holds American Girl clothes in her closet
- An extra-large clear plastic wine bucket (the kind you'd use outside for a BBQ) holds her bath toys
- Her diaper basket holds magazines in the bathroom
- Glass jars from pasta hold art supplies downstairs, which are also contained in another unused dresser
Furniture can be used for other stuff:
- My daughter's changing table now functions as an additional toybox and holds up the hermit crab twins' aquarium.
- A dresser in the closet keeps Barbies, paper dolls and her collection of Animal Planet safari animals and their rescue center separate.
- An old bookcase holds office supplies in the basement.
- Another old bookcase holds laundry supplies in the laundry room.
- Our former microwave stand is now a table saw holder in the garage.
Sometimes I think I've become too obsessed. Then I look around at everything in its place and realize I know exactly where to find the XYZ when my girl tells me she needs it the next day at school. (Today is Hawaiian Day, I found out last night at dinner -- and Mommy, do I have a lei? She does, and I knew exactly where it was.)
Now, if only I could get that sort of handle on my laptop. I can't find ANYTHING in there.
My tips have focused on getting organized, but here's a list of tips for keeping pretty much any resolution on BlogHer -- check it out and comment if you want to share your own tips.
I love any contest involving giving away a Kindle Fire -- comment on this post about what you want to accomplish in 2012 and you'll be registered to win one!
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