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Great Organizing Products for Kids

By Michelle Powell on March 3, 2011

Kids need organization too so why not make it fun?  A few things to remember when you are organizing for your kids are:

  • Keep things low so that they have easy access
  • Use bright colors and repurpose things that you already have, like the green covered crate in the photo that holds American Girl Dolls
  • Create a home for everything so that they can truly put things away
  • Use labels or tags with stickers, photographs or words so that even grandparents, friends and babysitters know where to put things away
  • Start asking your children to clean up their toys when they are little so that they get into the practice
  • Baskets, bins and hooks make it super fast and easy to clean up

Ideas for a few common kids organizing challenges:

Art work:  Display on the wall with an inexpensive collage of frames, best sources are Ikea or Michael’s when the 40% coupons are out.  Rotate often.  Keep the best of the best only and store it under the bed in one long flat plastic box.  Weed out the old at the end of each school year, make sure the name and date is on it.  One box per year is overkill, your children will not thank you for saving it when they are 40!

Sports Equipment:  Galvanized trash cans are great for balls, bats, lacrosse and hockey sticks, skis, poles and more.  Also, look at Home Depot for the Fast Track wall system by Rubbermaid for the garage.  For about $200 you can store bikes, skis, racquets and balls and much more up and off of the floor.

Toys:  For toys, it can be out of site, out of mind.  So if you want your children to find things to do on their own, make it easy.  Keep all supplies for any activity in one place.  I recommend lots of shallow bookshelves that they can reach with fun bins to hold little pieces.  They can be  from Target, Ikea, built in or something you have had for a million years.  (Consider painting in a great color.)  Make sure the bins are not overstuffed with broken and unloved toys.

Clothes:  Make sure that hanging racks are low and that pj’s, socks and underwear are in the bottom drawers.  Don’t overstuff your closets and drawers with clothes they don’t like that don’t fit.  Put a row of cute hooks on the wall or buy a great coat tree.  Google coat tree and you will find ALOT of cute ones.  Great for bathrobes, pj’s, uniforms and more.  Use the back of doors and inside walls of closets if you have room.

School and Art Supplies :  The most important thing is to find the best space in the house and keep all of the items together.  It maybe a kitchen drawer, a closet or bookcase in the office.  Where ever it is, if it is all together, it is easy to see when you run out of things.  Also, kids should be able to set up a craft and get it going on their own if they know where all the items are.  Cleaning baskets are great to keep on the table with markers, rulers, glue, stamps, coloring books and more.  Easy set-up, easy clean-up.  Also, look for fun traysto hold projects that might not get finished before you need the kitchen table.  Pier One always has lots of trays as does Target and Michael’s.

If you have a trouble spot and need some ideas, give me a call at Spruce Organizing.  I have a file of ideas for every room in the house and a basket of current catalogs for everyone from Serena and Lily to CB2.  Pottery Barn and Land of Nod are great but they are not the only source for great kids stuff!

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create a space to create!

By Michelle Powell on February 2, 2011

Art Studio after. Click to view the before :(

It is hard to be creative when you have no room to create.  Or, maybe you have an actual room –  but it is covered with all of the great stuff that you have bought and saved for your big moment of inspiration.  That is what happened with this client.  She had a funky attic room with awesome (depending on your love for chinz) wallpaper.  The problem was that all of her tools and supplies were burried in boxes on the floor.  I loved this project!

We decided to offset the retro wallpaper with bright, contemporary furniture from Ikea and to sort all of the supplies into groups and store them in bins, boxes, gorgeous jars on display and some rolling oversized drawers for unfinished projects and a huge bead collection.  It took us 8 hours to sort supplies, hang curtains, assemble the desk and book shelf and install great containers.  The client used her own time to shop at Ikea based on items that we picked out together.

This is how the client felt a month later…  ”Since your help in my art room, I’ve made some cards, earrings, and Kurt and I did some drawings that we used to make some metal art (not in my space!). So, clearing out and organizing that space made all the difference in my creativity.  Thank you!!  It was also really nice to be able to show that area to friends from work when they came over for the xmas party.”

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3 easy tips to get started organizing

By Michelle Powell on January 22, 2011

I wish that I had a dollar for every time that I have heard this term in the past week!  By now, hopefully the guests are gone, the tree is down and the wrapping paper is long gone to recycling.  Even with that done, there is still potential for a great deal to remain.  Do you have too many toys, messy offices, stacks of return labels from received Christmas cards and winter sports equipment covering the landscape?  If so, don’t panic, it won’t take as long to straighten up as you think, here are a few simple tips:

  1. Tackle the mess in small steps. Find hidden minutes in your day and tackle one stack/drawer/pile at a time.  If you spend 30 minutes each day focused on one area, at the end of the year you will have completed 182.5 hours of organizing.  (The average home office takes between 12 – 20 hours to complete.)  So, while the pasta is boiling, clean out a utencil drawer.  While you are on-hold, sort through a stack of papers, before you hit the grocery store, clean out the fridge.  You get the picture!
  2. Filter what comes into your space. If you arrive home or at the office with an armload of stuff, set it down and sort it out.  Immediately, recycle the junk mail.  Kids stuff to kids rooms, homework to backpacks, boots to ski boot bags, laptop to charge station.  If it is something you don’t want/love/need, slip it into the donate bag or put it onto KSL.com to sell.  The first step to getting organized is to purge what you don’t want.
  3. One in, one out. If you buy new slippers, get rid of an old pair.  If you get a new camera, recycle the old one.  Or two.  Clutter happens when we have too much stuff that we no longer use taking up space.

Like anything, getting started is the hardest part SO, start small, work steadily and minimize what comes into your very valuable space.

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New!!! Vacation Home Organizing

By Michelle Powell on November 15, 2010

Spruce Organizing is happy to announce that we have put together 2 new packages to help those visiting Park City to begin to enjoy their vacation the moment they open the door  to their lodging destination.

Imagine coming to Park City for a week of fun.  Before the fun begins you typically have to run to the grocery, liquor and drug store.  Then unpack, and hopefully not have to wait for your missing luggage to arrive.  Finally, you need to look at all of the restaurant guides and figure out where to eat and what to do.  By calling Spruce first, we can help you figure all of that out before your plane lands.  See the Vacation Home tab at www.spruceorganizing.com for all of the exciting details.

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7 Holiday Organizing Tips

By Michelle Powell on October 29, 2010

Walk into any grocery or retail store today and you will likely be hit with the carols and holiday displays.  The orange and black candy was replaced overnight with red and green!  With that said, consider these planning tips to make your holiday season fun instead of stressful:

  1. Start shopping.  Create a list of the people you buy for, set your budget, jot down gift ideas as people mention items and keep it with you.  Keep all of your coupons and gift cards in your handbag/car with your list so that as you run around town for the next 60 days, you can take advantage of small blocks of time and great deals.
  2. Order or design your holiday card.  Choose your card, compile your addresses or emails and be ready to send the day after Thanksgiving.  (I love snapfish.com and costco for photo cards and smilebox.com for electronic cards with photos and music.)
  3. Review your outdoor wear and gear.  Make sure that each person in the house has their winter sports equipment and boots, coat, hat, gloves etc.  Also, buy your sleds and kids boots now.  Theses sell out quickly and winter could come early.  Like at Halloween!
  4. Shop for the killer outfit.  There is nothing worse than spending the day of an event frantically searching for the right outfit.  Or, paying top dollar for one that that “will due for now”.  Get out early and outfit yourself head to toe, Nordstroms and WhiteHouse/Black Market are great for outfits from jewelry to shoes.  Ditto for the kids and men.
  5. Make reservations.  If you know that you have a holiday party to plan, set your dates, choose your invitation method and make your reservations.  The Chamber of Commerce puts out a great guide for ideas and details on all of the great restaurants and activities in town.  To shake it up, try a private room at one of the local spas or Jupiter Bowl!
  6. Have several hostess gifts on hand. Wine, chocolates, holiday plants and jumbo jars of nuts are great because they are consumable, in 2 months, they will be gone.  Paisley Pomegranate and Ward and Child in SLC are great for unique gifts and Costo is always good for the nuts and chocolates.  Make sure that you have ribbon and cards.
  7. Wrap it up.  Purchase wrap, bags, tape and gift cards together.  (Unless you have plenty from years past.  In that case, use up what you have this year and hit the stores on Dec. 26 to restock for next year!)



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Three life organizing professionals you need

By Michelle Powell on June 10, 2010

Is this how your files look right now?


As I spend more time in peoples drawers (haha) I see a great need to make sure that personal paperwork is in order.  I am confident that I can answer your paperwork retention questions easily.  However, I am no substitute for a professional in the field of law, accounting or finance.  If you have been thinking about putting your paperwork in order, there is no time like the present.  The benefit of hiring a professional is that once you determine your needs, most of the work is left to them.

Continue reading “Three life organizing professionals you need”

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