Organizing Kid Projects

Posted in Blog on 12/07/2011 10:38 am by Sarah

If your kids are anything like mine, they go through stages of what they are really into. Right now my kids are into three things: origami, coloring cards for Christmas, and homework. Well they probably don’t want to be “into” homework but they have to be. So rather than putting all of those supplies back in the office every day, and also to respect my husband’s space as he works in the office, we are making little stations for those activities in the living room, where the kids hang out.

 

I have been a little puzzled as to how to implement this properly over the last few weeks, because each project takes up so much space. Finally I looked at the entertainment cabinet, which is not really full at all, and realized that I could use the space where all of our millions of movies and CDs would be if we had millions. There’s big shelves under there, it’s easily accessible to the kids, and there are doors so the clutter can hide.

 

So this morning I will be rearranging the movies and CDs to make room for my kids’ projects, and hopefully all of us will win in this situation.

 

Call us if you need new eyes to look at your frustrating areas and brainstorm new ideas!

 

Elementary School’s Attic

Posted in Blog on 01/04/2011 09:01 am by Sarah

Today we tackled a school attic that was in dire need of cleaning out. According to fire code there are supposed to be three pathways clear across the room. There were no pathways. Two teachers were hoping to find room to store some of their supplies, and there was no space.

We spent three hours organizing 3/5 of the 80 by 20 foot area (the other 2/5 was already fairly well organized).  We had three teachers in addition to myself, and three custodians hauling off all the trash.

Art/PE Area Before

Art/PE Area After

The end result was so encouraging and fresh looking! We found some items that had been lost in the shuffle that teachers wanted to use. We found a lot of items that were old, broken, or obsolete. We found about 12 boxes of blocks (evidently blocks are out of fashion this year but still valuable). We found very sturdy and well-made carnival games that hadn’t been used in years. And we found some awesome Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles wooden cutouts.

Kinder/PreK Area Before

Kinder/PreK Area After

Serene Spaces was very proud of the teachers and principal we worked with. They were all ready and motivated to get rid of all the things that were broken or unnecessary, and they were very happy to have the space organized. We were so thankful for the custodians who helped us carry all the trash to the dumpster.

Trash Pile 2

Trash Pile 1

As you can see from the pictures, we were able to make very large pathways for the fire code, and we will paint the paths so that no one stores things in those areas anymore.

Files Area After

It was a really great day!

 

Lucy’s Kitchen

Posted in Blog on 10/18/2010 09:25 am by Sarah

The client:

Lucy is a lovely lady who doesn’t have a natural talent for organizing. She decided to learn more about how to make her house work better for her. She has a nice big kitchen with lots of cupboard space. She was also ready to sell some things at a garage sale.

The problem:

Lucy had not sat down and thought about which cupboard would work best for different items. She also had some items that she wasn’t using which were taking up space.

We found some extra empty bins in her house that we could use to help sort the items, and we also went through and found some things to sell at a garage sale. It’s amazing what you can do in just a few minutes with a few dollars. The biggest challenge in Lucy’s kitchen was deciding where everything should go and what would work best for her family. Once we decided that it was a matter of just moving things to their new places.

Before, both sides

After

After, right side

Our box of garage sale items was full!

After a long day of sorting we were ready to have a break.

 

Mary’s Cupboard

Posted in Blog on 10/10/2010 12:43 pm by Sarah

The client:

Mary is a lovely elderly lady who lives in a small apartment. Her cupboards and furniture are full of beautiful mementos of her life. It is a joy to hear her relate stories about each piece of ceramic or vase. She truly has a full and rich life.

The problem:

Mary’s cupboard had never had an organizational plan or much done; things were just set in there any which way. We could see that this would not be a long job but the results would help Mary for a long time.

Before- Everything has been jumbled into the cupboard

After- everything has its place

The solution:

We rearranged her cupboard to make it more functional. This whole project only took about 15 minutes. Sometimes it is hard to even start a project for fear of it taking too long or too many resources to fix. We would like to dispel that notion. With a determined organizer at your side you can tackle all projects and finish them quickly with great results.