School’s Out!

June 25, 2010

larsinnh kid stuff, organizing 1 Comment

Handy Boy brought home a big pile of school papers, notebooks, workbooks and art projects this week.

I just realized, this isn’t even the whole pile! I’ve gone through some of it already. Several papers are repetitive and can be recycled. Some papers will be saved for his school year scrapbook. During the school year, I put the papers I want to save in an accordion-type file; and go through it again at the end of the year. This is the final sort that I do to determine what I’ll save or toss.

Since I scrapbook, I put some papers (and his report cards) into the album. There are other items that I save in a large manilla envelope and label “3rd Grade.” I then put the large envelope into a canvas box I bought at Target:

This way, I don’t feel like I’m overrun with school papers, even though there are several that I want to keep.

One more tip: if your child has a large art project that is difficult to store, take a photo of it and keep the photo.  I don’t toss all of Handy Boy’s bulky art projects, but I just can’t keep them all, either.

Do you have any children’s school papers to deal with?  How do you handle it?

The Boy’s Room is Clean (for the moment)!

May 6, 2010

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So!  It took some time on and off over 3 days, but Handy Boy and I finished cleaning up his room!

This bookcase is from my childhood.  My dad made it for us, and behind the dolls on the top shelf it says “1 2 3″ and “P Q R.”

I guess when I was learning the alphabet, my favorite letters were “P Q R” and I used to repeat that a lot.

The antique desk is something that Handy Man and I bought before we even had Handy Boy.  He loves to sit at the desk and color, draw and play Legos.  Sometimes he does homework on it.  He usually does his homework in the kitchen.

Handy Boy’s closet is a masterpiece inside!  I will show how Handy Man built special shelves in the closet some time, to store all of Handy Boy’s “stuff.”  I just wanted a picture of the floor that will stay clean for about 5 minutes.

No picture of his bed at the moment, because I was washing sheets and blankets.

Oh, and the Wicked Big Lego Project?  That was sort of put on hold for a while, since we’ve all been taking turns being sick and such.  But we do hope to get back to it, eventually.  Handy Boy still loves his Legos, and he’s been good about keeping the sorted ones organized.

Declutter Challenge for a Monday

May 3, 2010

larsinnh kid stuff, organizing 2 Comments

Here’s a project I’ve been working on lately.  I thought it would make a good Monday Decluttering Challenge.  I’ve been going through clothes and cleaning out and organizing some closets.  This is a picture of The Boy’s closet.  He has grown like a WEED lately, and I had to get him all new jeans and pull out some shirts that don’t fit.  There’s not much left!  I left a few long-sleeved shirts, but I will have to buy more of those in the fall.

Don’t worry about Handy Boy, we have stocked up on plenty of shorts and Spongebob t-shirts for the summer.  He is finally able to wear shorts, now that the weather has warmed up.

Over short amounts of time on different days, I went through the Boy’s closet and his dresser.  Each time, I had him try on a few things.  Of course he moaned and groaned, but it was the only way I could be sure of what fits or not, since he’s grown so much lately.  I put several items into bags for donation, and organized what was left.

This was a pretty easy project, since The Boy doesn’t have a lot of clothes.  Do you have a closet you could go through?  I think kids’ closets can either be a nightmare or pretty easy, depending on how many clothes they have!  If you have a large closet cleaning project to do, don’t do it all at once! Just do one section per day, over a week or two.  It will still get done, and you won’t have to devote a whole Saturday to it.  Place two bags near the closet: put donations into one, and put clothes you want to give to a friend’s child in the other bag. Ready, set, GO!

Ye Olde Changing Table

February 12, 2010

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Handy Man and I bought this changing table waaaay back in about 2000, for the impending arrival of Handy Baby.  We found it in a consignment store that sold used and antique furniture and collectibles.  We liked it for several reasons:

- it was cheap

- it was sturdy, not flimsy like the changing tables we had been looking at in department stores

- it had nice, deep drawers for storage of all that baby “stuff”

- it was a project.  Handy Man painted it white, and we bought a nice pad to put on the top of it for baby changing.

- it was cheap.  Seriously, I think we paid less than $70 for it.

The old changing table has now turned into a storage dresser in our guest room upstairs.  I loved the changing table, its so cute and charming…but we’ve decided to put the new/old book case in its place.  We no longer have a baby that needs changing, obviously; and there is another dresser in that room for storage, along with an ample closet.

I’m not sure where the changing table will travel to on its next journey…perhaps we will sell it on Craigslist?  Maybe we’ll find a friend or family member who needs it? Farewell, ye olde changing table…

Wicked Big Lego Project

February 10, 2010

larsinnh kid stuff, organizing 8 Comments

Handy Boy has decided that he’d like help organizing all of his gazillions of Legos.  Impossible, you say?

Perhaps.

This is just a mere portion of all the Legos that Handy Boy has, spread out on a blanket. To explain the excess a bit: Handy Boy asks for Legos for every Birthday and Christmas…he saves up his allowance money to buy sets…Handy Man gave him some Legos saved from when he was a boy…and one of our good friends gave Handy Boy some Legos when he outgrew playing with them. Handy Boy himself swears he will “NEVER, EVER” outgrow Legos, Ha!

Anyway, since Handy Boy is nearly 9 years old and asked me for help, I thought it was time to start organizing the Legos. Handy Man maintains that we will never get this all organized, so now I have to show him! ;-)

We’ve started with some easy pieces first, the “guys”. We put them into these plastic containers.

The rest of the Legos, we are sorting by type into large and small Ziploc bags, for now:

We’ve been sorting for a few 15-30 minute sessions, so far. For those of you who laugh and say this will never work, a few thoughts:

- Handy Boy is a pretty organized, methodical child. He does like to sort things and keep his room fairly organized. He has gotten to the age where he wants to play with Legos almost constantly, but is frustrated with trying to find specific pieces. He is very excited by the few Lego sets he has put together more easily with the Legos that have been sorted.

- We don’t have any pets who will trample on the Legos, and Handy Boy doesn’t have any siblings. He does have a toddler cousin. I figure it will be easier to put the Legos away before she comes over, if they organized into containers, so I won’t have to hear complaints about “how hard it is to pick up Legos!”

- It could be hard to maintain order when Handy Boy has other friends over…but his friends are pretty good kids, and respectful, so we will see how it will work out.

Stay tuned to see just how long it takes to sort these, and what sort of containers we use for it. Handy Man and I have already looked at various inexpensive storage container at Lowe’s. I want to sort them into the baggies first, to get an idea of the amount and size of storage containers we will need.

Does anyone else have Legos around? How do you sort them…or not?

Friend Moving? Just Replace Them

January 17, 2010

larsinnh kid stuff 2 Comments

Here is another letter that Handy Boy, age 8, wrote in school.  I had to post it here, it just cracked me up. I abbreviated the names for privacy. 

Dear Mom and Dad,

At recess I played tag with my friends and then played football.  I had a lot of fun doing that stuff.  The friends I played with were B, T, M, R and ummmm….K and C. 

T is moving on Tuesday and I will miss him alot!!!  But…I could replace him with someone when he moves away.  Luckily he will come to my birthday party!! Yay!!!

Letter From Handy Boy

December 19, 2009

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At school, Handy Boy has to write letters to us to practice writing and spelling. I thought this one was wicked funny, so I’m posting it here. Remember, he’s 8. I’m typing it like he spells it, although his spelling was very good in this one:

Dear Mom and Dad,

When I got my report card on last Monday I got lots of A’s and B’s. My parents were proud of me and I was also proud of myself. A’s and B’s are good and I like those letters. This is also the first grade where I can get A’s, B’s, C’s, D’s and F’s. F is the worst grade you could ever get! If I ever get an F on my report card……….I WOULD BE GROUNDED FOR LIFE!!! so thats why I try to work hard.

I will post some more letters from Handy Boy once in a while, some of them are hilarious.  He’s a funny little creature…

Coming soon: Recipe for the BEST Christmas cookies evah!

Winter Gear for Handy Boy (on the Cheap)

November 13, 2009

larsinnh kid stuff, thrift 1 Comment

Since the weather is turning cold, I’ve been looking for some outerwear for Handy Boy for the upcoming winter. Handy Boy is 8 now, but ever since he was a baby, I’ve been shopping at consignment stores for his snowsuits. One year, I found a really nice, almost brand-new LL Bean snowsuit for him at a consignment store for about $18! Brand new snowsuits from LL Bean can cost $50 and UP! I decided that there is no way I’m paying $60ish for a snowsuit that he MIGHT wear for one winter.

Handy Man and I did some Goodwill shopping recently, and we bought the following items:

- snow pants, a hat, and some really warm gloves (the hat and gloves were brand new at Goodwill, but very inexpensive) for $19.99 total!

2008 Nov 182

- and these really nice, barely-used, LL Bean snow boots for $6! 
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Handy Boy has a nice winter jacket from last year (another Goodwill purchase for about $10!) that he will wear again this winter, but next year I’ll  need to get him a new jacket, since he is growing so much.

Here in New England, it can get pretty expensive to outfit a child (or children!) with winter gear for playing outside.  You can shop sales, especially at the end of winter, but don’t rule out shopping at Goodwill, children’s consignment stores, or even yard sales, to find these things.

Happy Halloween!

October 31, 2009

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Happy Halloween from Handy Man, Crafty Woman and Handy Boy.

2008 Nov 287

Pumpkin Massacre

October 29, 2009

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Every year, Handy Man and Handy Boy carve a pumpkin to put out on the steps for Trick-or-Treaters to see. This year, my photos came out terrible…(I’m usually pretty good with the camera, but I blew it this time!), so I looked back to October 2007…when we had a pumpkin massacre!

The pumpkin that we picked out that year was very, VERY hard. Rob couldn’t cut into it with a regular knife, no matter how hard he tried. Handy Boy was getting a bit upset about it, thinking that we wouldn’t be able to get into it.

So Rob did the typical Handy Man thing.

He got out his reciprocating saw, and cut into it that way:

2007 October 004

Problem solved!  Handy Man 1, bizarrely dense pumpkin, 0.

Actually, I found the only decent photo I took of this year’s pumpkin carving, it happens to be the pumpkin itself!

2008 Nov 285

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