Getting ready for baby: Packing the hospital bag

I love planning ahead when there are significant events approaching. When I had Emorie, her hospital bag was packed almost two months early. I also way overpacked- I was a first time mother, and I had no idea exactly what I'd need and what the hospital would provide.

This time around, I'm way more conscious of what we need and don't need, but nowhere near as prepared as last time. My doctors told me last week we had probably about four to six weeks before baby comes, so I realized I'd better get my butt in gear.

I knew I would need to pack bags for me and the baby, Michael, and Emorie. Emorie will be staying with relatives, so she will need an overnight bag. We are also making a "big sister kit" for her (more on that later).

The monogrammed bag is mine, the princess bag is Emorie's, and the pink one in the back is Michael's. Yes, it's pink LOL 

The hospital provides almost everything I'll need for the baby, so I didn't pack a lot for her. The following items are in my hospital bag:

My bag contains a coming home outfit for baby girl, an extra outfit, two extra diapers, a plain onesie, baby socks, prenatal vitamins, lip balm, hair ties, a bag of snacks and vending machine money for Daddy, a huuuuge nursing bra for when my milk comes in (no one said postpartum is fun), three nursing tanks, nonskid socks, comfy jammies, and bathroom toiletries. Not pictured: a comfortable going home outfit for me (black stretchy pants and a comfy shirt), Boppy nursing pillow, and a stack of thank you cards and a pen. 

My hospital provides baby diapers and wipes, Vaseline, maxi pads, disposable undies, and post partum healing/pain management supplies. 

Don't forget about Dad's bag! Michael's bag contains his bath stuff and toothbrush, pajamas, two changes of clothes, unmentionables, and extra vending machine money. I didn't take a picture of his bag, since his doesn't have as much.

And here is what is in Emorie's bag: Two changes of clothes, bath stuff, extra toothbrush, haircare supplies, pajamas, blanket and favorite stuffed animals. Not pictured: animals, blanket, unmentionables.

Here is a free checklist you can download to help you pack your hospital bag. Just right click, save it, and print it :) Have a great day! 

Linking to Stonegable, Worthing Court, Cedar Hill Farmhouse, Confessions of a Plate Addict, and French Country Cottage!

Tuesday: Motherhood and Organization

Getting organized: Organization and Motherhood 

Photo by Hillary Graves Photography 

Motherhood and organization truly do go hand in hand. Well, let me rephrase that. Motherhood is messy, unpredictable, and often, nothing goes the way you'd planned- so the more organized you can be outside of those things, the better off you'll be. There aren't any do all to end all ways or formulas to make life with kids more organized, but as always, there are things I can share that are working for us. 

1. Have a good, well-structured routine. 

Luckily, my kiddo is like me- she craves order and routine. This makes having and sticking to a routine easier. When we get home, we immediately pack Mommy's lunch (E doesn't want to pack a lunch, so she eats daycare foods), lay out clothes for tomorrow, do chores and start dinner. After dinner and some play time, it is bath time, devotions and story reading time, and bed time. The hardest part of our routine to maintain is bath time and bed time- it's not surprising that we all function better when we stick to the bed and bath routine. 

2. Prepare for the next day, on the night before,  as much as you can. 

I've already mentioned that we pack lunches the day before, so all we have to do in the morning is grab the lunch box out of the fridge. We also set our clothes out the night before so we're not struggling in the morning. We make sure bags are by the door, and anything we need to bring with us that we don't usually have, we make sure it goes into the bags. On the weekends, we launder Emorie's daycare blankets and sheets and then put them right back into her bag for Monday. We also put dinner items in the fridge the night before so they'll be thawed and ready. 

3. Teach your kids to pick up and put up.

My kiddo has had the toy bins in her playroom labeled with a word and picture since she's had a playroom. I was initially chided by a family member that the labeling was well-intentioned, but she was far too young at 18 months to know where to put away her toys. She took to it well, and still knows where to find and put things away. Granted, sometimes getting her to put away her things is a battle at times, but she knows she has to do it, and she almost always does. 

4. Kids CAN do chores.

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Have you seen this post on Pinterest about age appropriate chores? Some of these I had never even thought of for my kiddo. Luckily, she is still at the age where it is fun to help Mama clean. I am planning on taking advantage of this as long as I can- I know she is eventually going to think cleaning is not fun and she'll try to get out of it. We don't have her making her bed just yet, but she can dust, help load the dishwasher and sweep. 

5. Regularly clean, organize and assess all kids' spaces

We have a bin in both girls' closets for outgrown clothing. We toss the clothes into the bins and either pack away Emorie's outgrown clothes for Aubrey to use, or we donate them. I have a similar bin in mine and the hubs' closet so we can do the same. We utilize consignment shops so we can get a little bit of money out of our donations. This cuts down on having outgrown items to take up spaces in closets. The same goes for toys- pack away outgrown toys and throw away the broken ones. 

6. Create an "emergency car kit" and keep it stocked at all times. 

We created a kit to keep in our van- we have a plastic "toolbox," filled with necessities such as baby wipes, tissues, hand sanitizer, bandaids, trash bags, extra feminine supplies, pen and paper, safety pins,  nonperishable snacks, cleaning wipes, and, now that we are having another baby, there is also an extra diaper or two. There is also a bin with CDs and DVDs, and one with books and toys for my kiddo on long car trips. Of course, you do need to keep an eye on the kit in case you are running low on something. 

What are some of the ways you keep your family and your kiddos organized? 

Linking to Stonegable, Worthing Court, Cedar Hill Farmhouse, Confessions of a Plate Addict, and French Country Cottage!

Four Days, Four Drawers: a recap

Last week, I participated in a mini organizing challenge with Jen Jones of I Heart Organizing. She challenged her readers to organize a drawer a day for four days. I had recently reorganized several drawers around here, but there were certainly some that needed a little tune up. The first drawer I tackled was the top drawer of our nursery changing table. It wasn't that bad, but there was too much in it, and I figured that would make those late night diaper changes simpler.

Before 

After

My next project was my husband's sock drawer. Once again, it could have been much worse, but it needed a bit of straightening.

Before

                                                                             After

Next, I straightened my daughter's bottom drawer of her dresser. It wasn't bad, either, but it needed a bit of straightening up.

Before 

After

My last drawer was also in my kiddo's room- her nightstand drawer was basically a glorified junk drawer. It contained a plastic pinwheel, a birthday card, a flashlight, a bookmark and some bottle labels. She's four.

                                                                                 

Before 

The book and flashlight made it back in there, but that's it. 

After

Thanks for taking the time to read about #4days4drawers! I hope you have a good week.

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Linking to Stonegable, Worthing Court, Cedar Hill Farmhouse, Confessions of a Plate Addict, and French Country Cottage!

Organizing tools of the trade: Time management

I can organize a drawer with the best of them, but time management and organizing my time are not always my strong suits. Like many people, I'm very good at wasting time or just simply doing a poor job of managing my time. I've gotten significantly better at this in recent months, and I'll happily share some of the things that helped me become better at managing my time. As always, I'm not an expert. I've still got a lot to learn. If you have things that have worked well for you, please feel free to share them.

1. The Home Binder-

Getting organized: A new series

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Hello and happy Tuesday! I am debuting a new blog series this week, simply titled "Getting organized." This series is going to take a look at some organizing tools that I use and some that have been recommended to me. Here are some of the posts you will see in this new series:

1. Best organizing apps for your smart phone
2. The home binder
3. Keeping your closets organized
4. Command centers
5. Motherhood + organizing
6. Organizing finances

Once again, I am NOT a professional organizer. I'm not an expert. I'm just a human who craves order and has learned a few tricks to help me be more organized. I am only passing along that which I've already learned. I'm still looking to learn more, so please, if you have any ideas or tricks of your own, I'd love for you to contribute.

Linking to Stonegable, Worthing Court, Cedar Hill Farmhouse, Confessions of a Plate Addict, and French Country Cottage!

Back to school...back to school...

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A week from this Friday, this girl is headed back to work. I have to say I'm not completely ready to give up my summer vacation yet. It just seems like summer goes by A LOT faster than it did when I was a kid.

We've had a great summer and we've surely accomplished a lot. Our daughter "graduated from" pre-school level swim lessons. She attended Vacation Bible School for the second year. We went to WV to visit my grandparents, did a lot of swimming, and she participated in our local library's summer reading program- she read 76 books! *proud English teacher mother moment* Around the house, we painted and started working on our nursery, we finally got a dining room table, and we finally got our closets organized. No wonder I am so tired!

Now, though, comes the hard part. It's time to get back on schedule. Time to get back in routine. After examining our usual school year routine, I found that we are not only rushed and strapped for time, but we do not get enough sleep. Here is what a typical day during this school year will look like for our family: (*Note: We have church on Wednesday evenings and gymnastics on Thursday evenings, so there is a little variation on those days).

DIY Friday/Monthly organizing project

Hi all! If you follow me on Instagram, you probably saw this post on Wednesday:

That is my baby's closet, or what I liked to refer to as "organized chaos." Just like all the closets in our house, this one was a nice size but very poorly laid out. Lots of wasted space!

Organizing: My home office

Remember yesterday when I showed you this mess in my office?

We had several systems in our office that worked quite nicely for managing our finances and schedule, but lately, we have gotten lazy. What you see here is a pile of things that includes mail, owners manuals, and balloons from my daughter's birthday party. 

Today, while my kiddo slept, I made sure to tackle this mess. I started out by separating out the pile. What needed to be shredded? What needed to put away in its rightful place? What needed to be thrown away? 

I shredded some things, thrown some things away, and put away the balloons. I then put the owner's manuals back into our handy dandy file box where we store them all. 

By the way, this is just a plastic file box with some scrapbook paper modge podged onto it and an ornate book plate. 

This is my sewing machine (which I use for a desk often) with a now much neater top. The polka dot binder is actually our home management binder. 

I took the opportunity to neaten up our command center as well. 

I shredded some things, filed some things, and threw some things away. The letter bins house these items, from left to right: bills that are due, bills we have paid and are waiting to clear, and things that need to be filed. The picture frames serve these functions: weekly cleaning checklist, things to remember (usually which bills need to be paid and when they are due), weekly schedule for the current week, and weekly menu. 

This is how we structure our command center calendar: important events (often birthdays) are written in black. Anything having to do with hubby is red, anything having to do with me is green, and anything having to do with our kids is green. As you can see, our daughter is the busiest member of our house! 

Our desktop still could be a little more clean, but for now, it is much neater than it was yesterday. 

Next year, this room is going to change drastically. There will be hardwood floors and floor to ceiling built in shelves. We are hoping to make it more of a sitting room and less of an office. 

Organized and Simplified: Traveling organized

My family has traveled a lot over the years, mostly to visit family, and not necessarily on vacations. I have a lot of out of state family members and going to see them over the years has taught me a lot. Vacation or not, a well-packed and organized suitcase will make your trip so much better. I'm not an expert by any means, but I'll happily share some tricks we have learned to make our travels easier.

One of the first things my husband and I have learned is to keep a stocked bathroom bag. We keep a bathroom and toiletry bag that has small bottles of soap, shampoo, conditioner, a hairbrush, lotion,  hairspray, toothbrushes for the three of us, razors and shave cream for both me and the hubs, a small sewing kit, a small first aid kid, a small manicure set, and some medicines. The only thing we have to add in to the bag the day we leave is my makeup and flat iron. A day or two before we're set to leave, we double check the bag and determine whether any of these items are running low and need replacing. The small chevron bag always contains all these items:

We also use a checklist to make sure our suitcase is packed. We frequently forget things, so after forgetting to pack pajamas two trips in a row, I decided a checklist was in order. I laminated that thing and popped it into my suitcase.

Our checklist might look a little different, as we have a preschooler and will soon have a new baby, but this is a Word document you can download and edit to your heart's content.

Click here to download my travel checklist!


What travel tricks do you use to stay organized?

Purse and Diaper bag organization

Today I'd like to share my organization tips for diaper bags and purses. My daughter is now potty trained and we don't really need a full-blown diaper bag anymore, but we do still carry a bag with changes of clothes, medications, and a few other just in case items. Her diaper bag is a 31 string bag. 

Linen closet overhaul- DIY

My linen closet was a source of great frustration in our home. It was built, I suspect, as an overflow space for the two master bedroom closets. I believe this because it contained two main shelves, two removable rods and a tall cubby shelf off to one side. Usable space was plentiful, but the way the closet was installed, most of that space was generously wasted. I had only two shelves to stack my towels, which were constantly falling into the floor each time you opened the door...which meant more washing for me. Something had to be done.

I honestly wish I'd thought to take a before picture, but I honestly forgot. This picture was taken shortly after the shelves were installed, but pre-paint. You can't see the cubby shelves from this angle.
Semi-before: