baskets | 4 little Fergusons

I had a reader email me, and ask me how I keep my house so tidy. She looked through all our photos and couldn’t see a mess in sight.

After I laughed and told her we definitely have our messes, I explained that the tidiness we DO manage to achieve, comes from being a totally compulsive Pillow-Fluffier, House Picker-Upper. I can’t help myself, I tidy and fluff decorative pillows each and every time I walk past the couch. And, as I walk from one end of the house to another, I gather handfuls of things that are out of place, because I can’t STAND a mess! I have my kids clean up before lunch & naps, again before daddy comes home for supper, then again before bed. They play better when the house isn’t trashed, they really do!

I am a big believer in a place for everything and everything in its place. The kids play closet is full of baskets, each housing a different collection of toys. Baskets are such a great tool for tidiness.

I use canvas baskets inside our coat closet to house miscellaneous things like hats, coats, scarves, sunglasses, sunblock, & Dale’s ball caps.

Thanks to a generous friend, the kids each have a locker for their school stuff.

There is one basket on top for “treasures” and another basket on the bottom for gloves and hats…….which we seem to have bazillions of!

I use the side of the lockers for important school notes and updates.

This is how I control the grown up “treasures” that can totally make my kitchen counters look cluttered:

I have this basket on the kitchen counter right when you first enter the kitchen. This houses box tops to send to school, DVD’s to be returned, things to mail, broken necklaces waiting for repair etc.

Dale has a basket to prevent “Dale Trails”. He’s had his basket 8 years now. It was an old one given to me by my mom, and was the original “Organized Chaos” basket in our home. It lives on the dryer, which is RIGHT inside the back door.

What is a Dale trail you ask?

When we were first married, I’d come in from work and LITERALLY could follow the path Dale had taken as he walked in the door. Thus was dubbed the term: “Dale Trail”.

Picture with me this…..

Keys on the dryer, change on the kitchen counter, wallet on the buffet, cell phone on the living room mantel, receipts on the desk, desk chair pulled out with shoes and socks next to it, a belt on the chair in our bedroom etc. etc.…..

AHHHH! This was NOT OK! My tidy world was being destroyed!!!! The basket has helped a ton, no more Dale trails, but we are working on making it IN the basket, not AROUND the basket. 🙂 Sorta like the toilet. Oh wait, that’s the “little Dale” in my life named Tylan…..never mind.

Yes, I am a little basket-happy, but it totally has worked for us! I even like to use baskets in my pantry, one to house onions and garlic, another for snacks and the big one for a bazillion bags of opened chips and pretzels. (Can someone PLEASE teach my family the “finish one bag before you open another” rule?)

Hope this helps! I got my baskets ages ago at Wal-Mart, some for $3 a piece up to $8 a piece. Not a bad investment if you ask me, but that could just be the Pillow-Fluffier in me talkin’!

The other day, when we were hiding Easter eggs before bed, the kids put their Easter baskets on as hats. I thought they looked terribly adorable and quickly insisted they leave them on for a bit so I could grab my camera and take a quick photo or two. More like 10.

My mind was already thinking ahead to an upcoming Easter post that I could use these in, it was going to be so cute and clever, no?!

Ummmmmm, NO.

Didn’t work AT ALL.

4 tired kids + 4 fuzzy chicky basket hats = CHAOS

Avery sat like this for several minutes, silently contemplating life from below the rim of her “hat”.

Letting it go, and moving on…..

In other news, Spring is officially here. Want to know how I know?

‘Cause my kiddos feet are looking like this every time they knock on the back door to be let in.

Which is why they stop here, in the laundry room, to wash hands AND feet, before setting foot in mom’s clean house.

Good job, buddy!

Oh, and faces too. Did you know……Snot + Sand = Smud?

Springs arrival also means we can have snack time outside each afternoon, and do homework on a blanket in the yard. LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!

Tomorrow I am doing a post on an Easter tradition of ours, making “Resurrection Cookies”. Come back and check it out, they are really neat!

P.S. Guess who started walking today, just a few days after he turned 8 months? This may not be uncommon at your house, but at our house, babies don’t start doing this for a few more months and do not walk until they are a year. (Or if you are Destiny, don’t walk until 18 months old)

Pax grabbed onto this Postal cart and off he went through the kitchen.