Do Something that Will Make the Most Difference

Sometimes when my kids want to play computer in the middle of the day, or do something else I would prefer they not do, I ask them to first "clean up something that will make the most difference." That means that if there are blocks, legos, and little animals all over the family room, they can choose the one that will help the family room look the best. Sometimes it might just be putting away a blanket, or putting chairs around the table.

If you are just starting your organizing journey, choosing something that will make the most difference is exactly what you want to choose. Choose your biggest problem spot and go to! When you choose something big, it's easy to feel the difference and then keep going.

Kitchen Cups

We've been wanting individualized cups for a long time, but when the Easter Bunny brought them and people who happened to be at my house started talking about them, I decided they were worth a blog entry.

We are a big water family and have been working very hard to drink enough water. (The amount of water you should drink each day is your body weight, divided by 2, in ounces. For example, if you weighed 100 pounds, you should drink 50 ounces of water a day. This amount is at least. If you exercise, play outside on a nice day, are nursing, or any other number of things you need more).

We are working to drink water because it's healthy and it has been helping a lot with the asthma in our family. (If you're interested in this topic, this is a great book about it - "ABC of Asthma, Allergies and Lupus: Eradicate Asthma - Now!" by F. Batmanghelidj and also "You're Body's Many Cries for Water".)

The problem with all this water drinking is that we never know exactly which cup is ours, and we always get a new one. We don't have a dishwasher, so the cups add up fast and whoever is washing dishes notices.

The solution was to have an original cup for each person. We keep them on the counter all day and wash them at dinner time. It's worked great these past two weeks with some great side benefits - my two year old got an ABC cup and he likes to call it his ABCDEFG cup. My 11 year old is finally drinking most of the water he needs, and everyone is drinking more.

We had adopted this practice with our "excursion" water bottles a few years ago - and we've loved that too. It's always easy to tell who's water bottle is whose (they used to all match, but be different colors, but we've lost a few).

We've also done this with towels. Everyone has their own color so it's easy to know whose is whose. We can use them a few times this way without having to wash them everytime they get used.

72 Hour Kits - A New Menu

We've been planning and shopping to repack our 72 hour kits this week. Since we didn't love our last menu, we've been trying to come up with a better one. In the end, we didn't change it very much, but we decided that we will rotate every year and not wait 18 months like we did last time. We did make a few changes that really simplified things. Here is our new menu:

Day 1 - 1 oatmeal, 1 juice box, 1 Ramen, 1 fruit can, 1 can soup, 2 water bottles, 1 fruit snack, 1 hot chocolate, 1 roll lifesavers, 1 pkg. cookies

Day2 - 1 oatmeal, 1 juice box, 1 Ramen, 1 box raisins, 1 MRE, 2 water bottles, 1 fruit snack, 1 hot chocolate, 2 pkgs. cookies

Day 3 - 1 oatmeal, 1 juice box, 1 Ramen, 1 fruit can, 1 can chili, 2 water bottles, 1 fruit snack, 1 hot chocolate, 1 roll lifesavers, 2 pkgs. cookies

Even though we didn't like any of the MRE's we tried, we decided we still wanted to have one MRE, because if we were truly in an emergency, we might want food that was cooked and ready to eat.

In general, I really love our 72 hour kits. I've tried them several ways and so far I like this way the best. If you are struggling to figure out how to put some together, here are some ideas I really like. Most of them came from a class I went to by Jennifer Goldsberry.

This is one of my kids 72 hour kits:

Each person in our family has a backpack. Inside it are the following:

* Food and water for 72 hours including a menu (in Ziploc bags to contain it if anything leaks)

* Clothing - sweatpants, long sleeve shirt, sweatshirt, underwear, 2 pairs of socks, hat, and work gloves (in a big garbage to bag to keep it all dry) (one great tip is to buy everything too big - then you'll know it will fit when you need it, and when you update your kits, you can pull out the clothes that now fit just right and put in new clothes that are too big)

* Shaking flashlight

*poncho

*dust mask (at least N95)

*handwarmers

*emergency blanket

*whistle

* $20 in small change

*names, phone numbers and addresses of our relatives

My 2 year old also has cloth diapers, pins, and rubber pants.

That's it inside their packs. But on the outside is another one of my favorite things. It's a laminated paper that we tied on to the outside of each pack. On one side is a picture of our family. Apparently, if someone in your family is lost, it's great to have an easily accessible picture to ask people if they've seen them. On the other side is the following information about each person:

*Name, phone number, address (first meeting place)

*Information about the person including hair color, eye color, allergies, medications

*Second meeting place location (somewhere in the neighborhood)

*Third meeting place location (somewhere outside of the neighborhood)

*Out of state contact

*Grandparents phone numbers and addresses

*Things that person should grab besides their backpack if they have time

Last time we put our 72 hour kits together, we did a practice drill to see how long it would take us to get everything into our van. It took us 20 minutes grabbing everything on our big list. We thought that was pretty good, but we think we can do it faster now that we've had a trial run. Our big list includes a bigger "garbage can" 72 hour kit, extra water, all our scrapbooks (about 25 of them), the computer, wallets, cell phones, coats, and more.

Two more notes: (1) My backpack and my husband's backpack have more stuff than our kids. We have first aid kits, rope, can openers, a crank radio, and all sorts of things. But that's a list for another day. There are lists all over the web if you need one soon.

(2) 72 hour kits and other "preparedness" jobs take work and money. But you don't have to start big. Just start with something and then revisit it. Every time we come back to our 72 hour kits or our preparedness, we get a little better at it. It usually doesn't have to be done all at one time. (Although, I really like to do stuff like this for birthdays or Christmas because it gives me a present and a deadline all at the same time!)

Get prepared!

One Room Done

I guess if I'm going to be a blogger, I've got to change the way I take pictures. I don't have any before pictures of what I'm going to talk about today, so you can't really see the change, but hopefully, you can imagine it.

Yesterday was our day to clean the boys bedroom. It was pretty much a disaster (see my previous blog). We started at nine in the morning. After an hour and a half, my 5-year-olds stuff was pretty much done, but my 11-years-olds was just scratching the surface. It was a beautiful day (this is a serious weakness I have), so I told all my younger kids they could be done and go play. My 11-year-old wanted to play too, but he could clearly see that his stuff was not done. So he offered me something I find very hard to resist - I could clean his room. I have mixed feelings about this, but I have been trying for years to limit knicknacks on the dresser, clear stuff off the bulletin board, throw out the little broken toys he never plays with (because he can't), and put stuff the way I want it. So I took the opportunity, and he went outside to play.

It took most of the day. I didn't put the last thing away until 10:00 last night, but I finished and now I love to go in that room. Here are some pictures:







We took out 4 bags of garbage, gave one bag to the DI, and found the lost library book. Here are a few things I noticed:
* Less is more. I love looking in those nearly empty drawers and uncluttered dresser. Having more and showing more does not make you "more". Being able to find and use what you do have is the real "more."
* My 9-year-old came in to help me. I let her go through the stuffed animals and of her own accord, she found a bunch that she wanted to send to the DI. I wouldn't have gone there with the stuffed animals, but I'm happy to be rid of them.
* Finishing is hard. I got the whole room clean except the pile of 25 things I didn't know what to do with. To get rid of that pile, I called my kids in and asked if there was anything they knew we didn't need. That got rid of one thing. Then I looked hard to see if there was anything I did know what to do with. I found 5 things I could put away. Then I decided on some things to throw away - 3 more things gone. Then I just left the pile for awhile. I wanted to finish so I could cross it off, but I didn't know how to get rid of the pile. Then I moved the whole pile to the kitchen counter so I could vacuum the room and have the room done. Finally, right before bed, I looked at the pile, made decisions and found a place for everything.
* I love having one place that is completely clean. It makes my whole house feel better.

Springs Arrival and Caving In

This week has felt like spring. The birds are chirping, the sun is shining, the plants are growing, and it feels like my house is caving in on me. In the winter, I like the close, cozy feeling of stuff, but this week of spring has made me want to throw open the windows and throw out the stuff.

So I did. I went through my books (again) and found a bag to give to the DI. I went through my kids winter clothes and got out their spring clothes and found a bag to give to the DI. We cleaned out our toy and game closet (that has had plenty of use this winter). While my kids returned lost pieces to their correct game boxes, I fixed EVERY breaking game box. (We had a bunch of them, and every time I looked in that closet, I felt like everything was falling apart - now it's not so bad). We also cleaned out CD's and tapes, took down George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and cleaned up birthday decorations. I started walking around my house looking for things I could pick up and move. I threw away papers that had floated to the floor and stayed there. I returned a rock collection to its owner, I picked up a pencil that was stuck at a baseboard, and I filed medical papers.

I really want to go through the whole house. On Monday, we are going to tackle my boys room for our Monday project. We're cleaning off dressers, going through drawers, looking under beds, and cleaning out closets. (We're also throwing out candy garbage and hoping to find the missing library book).

I am also working on figuring out how to change our 72 hour kit menu. It's a fairly high priority, because right now they are all sitting in the living room. I don't want to put them away, until they can be packed again. I'll post whatever we decide to do. Until then, off to more spring organization!

Eating Our 72 Hour Kits

Eighteen months ago, we put together our 72 hour kits including packets of food. I had just been to a meeting that talked about 72 hour kits and was encouraged by what I learned about the food to put in. This was our menu:

Day 1
1 cereal bar, 1 juice box, 2 cracker pkgs., 1 fruit cup, stew, 1 water bottle, 1 trail mix, 1 fruit snack, 1 hot chocolate, 1 lifesaver package, 2 packages cookies

Day 2
1 oatmeal, 1 juice box, 1 ramen, 1 fruit cup, 1 MRE (meal ready to eat), 1 water bottle, 1 trail mix, 1 fruit snack, 1 hot chocolate, 1 lifesaver package, 2 packages cookies

Day 3
1 pkg poptarts, 1 juice box, 2 cracker pgks., 1 box raisins, can of chicken, 1 water bottle, 1 trail mix, 1 fruit snack, 1 hot chocolate, 1 lifesaver package, 2 packages cookies

When we put our food packets together, we were all excited to eat them. We all thought they looked great and had a good variety of foods that we would actually eat.

This weekend we took out our 72 hour kits and decided to eat them. The plan was to only eat the 72 hour kit food for 2 days (Saturday and Sunday). As it turned out, we were invited out to dinner both those days, so we only ate our kit food for breakfast and lunch each of those days.

I'm going to tell you how it went, but need to put a few disclaimers. First, food should be rotated more than every 18 months. The original plan was to eat it once a year, but the year came so fast, I thought pushing it off 6 more months would be fine. Second, eating all the food for 9 meals in 4 meals isn't really a true representation of how your food would work for 72 hours, but it was eye opening anyway.

Here's how it went. Most of the food was old and stale. The crackers and trail mix weren't very good at all. We each had different MRE's. None of us had eaten them before, so we cooked each of them, put them on the counter and had everyone try them and rank each of them. The ranking system was don't like, ok-, ok, ok+, and good. No MRE got better than an ok from anyone and most were in the ok- or don't like category. The lifesavers were going soft, the fruit cups looked old, but tasted good, the raisins had dried out, the juice tasted like it had fermented. My kids loved the fruit snacks and the oatmeal was a good choice for breakfast. Ramen was the favorite choice for lunch, although everyone wished for some cheese to put in it. Some of the cookies were lemon sandwich cookies and they were a good choice because the lemon taste was stronger than the stale cookie taste. I ended the first day starving and with a headache, and I ended the second day with a stomach ache.

It was a very eye opening experience. We are in the process of reworking our 72 hour kit food and I"ll let you know when I figure out how it will change.

It was a good thing for us to experience this before we actually need to use our 72 hour kits. We're happy we could try it out in a situation that wasn't too extreme.

Be A Finisher

I was swimming laps this week with my 9-year-old for the first time since I hurt my ankle. I haven't been moving much for the last 3 weeks because of my ankle, so about half way through her laps, I started to get tired. I (slyly) suggested we take a break and come back to finish the rest later. She said, "No mom, I just want to get them finished."

Learning to be a finisher is a great step toward getting organized. What would happen if you always swept the floor AND got the stuff you swept into the garbage can? What would happen if you cleaned out the closet AND put away the loose ends that don't really go back in that closet? What would happen if you shopped for food storage AND got it put away? Finishing empowers you. You can be done with something and move on to something else.

I love to have a list of the things I'm doing AND I love to cross them off when I'm done. The hitch is, I can't cross them off until I'm ALL THE WAY DONE. I love to cross things off my list and it motivates me to finish all the way. But something else happens when I finish all the way - I'm done. I don't have straggly, undone, incomplete, half-way done, everything hanging around me. I'm done.

And something else happens. I start to see what really is important to me. If it's not worth finishing, maybe it's not worth starting.

Try it. Let me know if you finish something and how it works for you.