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Category Archives: Organizing

The Ball Jar

11 Friday Oct 2013

Posted by jeannerondeau in Organizing

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Anchor Hocking jar, made in USA, Organizing, organizing toys, rubber balls, Target storage, toy storage, vintage cracker jar

BallJar
Our house is full of rubber balls.  The girls love to drop them from the top of the stairs and watch them bounce and roll down the four floors.  It is annoying, not to mention treacherous to step on the remnants of the girls’ physics experiments on the bottom floors.  I decided to designate this Anchor Hocking Cracker Jar the official ‘Ball Jar’.  We got our cracker jar from Target for under $6.  Anchor Hocking still produces their glass products in the United States, as they have since 1905.  The girls are now in charge of rounding up their lost charges after the descent and herding them into the jar on Ada’s mantel.  The rubber balls look pretty and organized staring out of their glass windows.  (Pretty much anything looks beautiful when it is shown in multiples inside of a jar).   And we have hopefully all averted a trip to the emergency room.

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Flea Market Finds: Side Table Bookshelf

03 Tuesday Sep 2013

Posted by jeannerondeau in Organizing

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

book shelf for kids, books for kids, Brooklyn, child's books, flea market finds, home, life with kids, organizing books, organizing kids room, side table bookshelf

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We found this table on the street last week.  I drove past it, and then looped back after a minute of thought.  (I love good street finds- they are one of the best parts about city living.  I also love putting stuff out on the stoop when we are finished with it.  Anything good will be gone in a couple of hours, and everyone is happy).  We recently moved our large bookshelf out of the girls’ room and into the office to make room for their bunk beds.  The girls have made a habit of looking at books in the office, which is great, except for the huge piles they leave on the floor every few hours.  We have been looking for/ designing/ planning to build a small bookshelf for the girls’ room and this little table happened to fit perfectly under the window.  Our new plan includes my filling up their table with fresh books every morning.  When they have read them all they stack the books back onto the table and I rotate new ones off of the big bookshelf.  This way the girls get to read new books each day, and I get to deal with less mess.

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Organizing

15 Thursday Aug 2013

Posted by jeannerondeau in Organizing

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

children's rooms, controlling clutter, how to organize with kids, kids rooms, living with kids, living without clutter, organize children's room, Organizing, storage solution

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I can feel the season starting to change around here. It is cooler at night and the leaves are looking slightly less green.  The change always makes me feel like organizing, moving rooms around and moving out things we aren’t using any more.  The two big girls were at Nan and Pappy’s for the week and I took my time rearranging their room.  I moved toys to a shelf that Ada can reach on her own, and got rid of bags of broken and forgotten things.  (I LOVE that NYC is now recycling all hard plastics!)  Now the room feels more airy and they kids are excited to see toys they hadn’t played with for a while.  Here are a few of the things I try to do when I am organizing:

*Get the ugly out of sight.  I hate looking at ugly things.  It hurts me.  I am not kidding.

*Group like things together (all the blocks in one big box, etc)

*Rotate toys by storing some out of sight, and displaying others.  When the kids get bored with the first batch, rotate.

*Make sure everything has a spot.  If it doesn’t, find a spot or get rid of the thing.  Do not leave something in a place it does not belong.

*Try to have each room back to its organized state at bed time.  There is nothing worse than waking up to yesterday’s mess.  It is a pleasure to start the day with order.

*Do not keep something because you feel guilty about getting rid of it.  Your life will be better when you are not carrying around tons of things out of guilt.

*Leave some space around things.

*Live with only useful and beautiful things.  Get rid of the rest.

*Do not keep something because it may someday be useful.  Aside from really special heirlooms, if you haven’t used something in more than a year you do not need it.

*If it is difficult to clean your space, than your space is too cluttered.

*Do not buy ugly storage containers.  If you don’t want to look at plastic bins on your shelves, don’t come home with them.  If the storage container looks worse than the mess, it is not working.

*Life is too short to use ugly dishes, or cups, or toothbrushes…you get the idea.

*Purge!  It feels great!  I promise.

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Out to Dry

24 Monday Jun 2013

Posted by jeannerondeau in Organizing, Projects

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

chrome clothesline, drying laundry outside, Ebay, housekeeping, life with kids, life without a dryer, retractable clothesline, sheets dry in the sun, vintage clothesline, vintage retractable clothesline

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I have been dreaming of a clothesline for the back yard.  I really love the process of hanging washed clothes outside and bringing in fresh-smelling dry clothes.  (Not to mention the benefits of not running a dryer in the the summer).  I was a bit afraid that Brooklyn laundry would not smell as clean as New Hampshire laundry, but I am happy to report that the sun and wind do a great job here as well.  We found a vintage retractable line on Ebay.  There are some more Ebay examples here.  Technically our line is for indoors, and will likely need some chrome retouching each season and we plan to take it inside for the winters.  I replaced the old cotton rope with nylon to fit across the span of the back fence.  We unwind the rope to dry and attach it a hook on the opposite end of our fence. Every evening we wind the rope back into its shiny metal case.  It is so lovely to sleep on sheets that have spent the day in the sun.

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Housewarming Gift

21 Friday Jun 2013

Posted by jeannerondeau in Likes, Organizing, Shop

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Craftsman bottle opener, horsehair broom, housekeeping, housewarming gifts, Kiosk, Moon River Chattel, new house, Swedish dustpan and broom, traditional housewarming gifts

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Our good friends finally moved into their new house last month, after a long two-year search.  We are so happy for them and wanted to bring over some of our favorite housekeeping supplies as a housewarming gift.  We veered away slightly from the traditional gifts of honey, bread, candles, knives, plants, rice, salt, etc…They have lived together for years now and have most of these supplies on hand.  But we did put in a broom to keep the house “clean and free of evil spirits” (or at least free of dust).

*Swedish Horsehair Broom and Red Dustpan from Kiosk

*Linen Dish Towels from Moon River Chattel 

*A Craftsman Bottle Opener (who doesn’t need an opener to match their screwdrivers?)

*Cards from the Girls

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Family Road Trip: Surviving the Drive

17 Monday Jun 2013

Posted by jeannerondeau in Organizing, Projects

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

car activities for kids, car knitting, family road trip, Instagram, life with kids, road trip, road trip with kids, travel activities for kids, travel packages, Travel with kids

AsBackpack
We were on the road for a total of nine days for a recent road trip.  In order to make it through all of the driving with two little kids, we needed a plan.  I made a trip to the dollar store and stocked up on car activities.  We wrapped up things like stickers, bouncy balls and crayons in brown paper and each day the girls got to open one of the packages.  They unwrapped right before the longest part of the drive for each day, and each girl had her own backpack to keep activities organized.  The packages got us through some long stretches on the road, and let me get on with my knitting and Instagraming in the front seat.

Some of the packages:

*Wikki Stix and Bouncy Balls Day

*Sticker Dolls Day

*Beaded Necklace Day

*Sticker Day

*Activity Book Day

*Pipe Cleaner Doll Day

Balls

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Beads

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Backpacks

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Family Road Trip: Packing

12 Wednesday Jun 2013

Posted by jeannerondeau in Organizing, Projects

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

dressing kids, exploring with kids, family road trip, life with kids, packing for kids, packing tips, picky dresser, road trip, road trip with kids, Travel with kids

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We took a family road trip at the end of May.  We had a great time overall and returned home feeling relaxed and tanned.  There were only a few times when Chris and I got nostalgic for the old days and a quiet drink without the company of two kids.  One of the differences between a family road trip and then ones I remember from college is the need to plan ahead.  Ada is not the most cooperative dresser in the morning.  She tends to be picky and change her mind about a hundred times before we leave the house.  In order to avoid arguments and get us out of the door to explore each morning, I wrapped outfits up for the girls for each day.  Each one was tied up with seam binding and contained socks and underwear as needed.  Every morning they got to pick their own ‘bundle’, but were not allowed to edit the contents.  I wasn’t sure how the whole thing would work, but it ended up making our mornings so much smoother.  Ada and Josie looked forward to making their choice every morning and the four of us started off to breakfast in a good mood.  Phew!

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Flea Market Finds: Vintage Barware

22 Wednesday May 2013

Posted by jeannerondeau in Likes, Organizing, Vintage

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

barware, Brooklyn stoop sale, cocktails, glass stirrers, home, stoop sale, vintage barware, vintage beaker as barware, vintage glassware, vintage ornaments

Stirrers

The neighborhood stoop sales were especially good this past weekend.  We barely made it to Ada’s school festival because we kept returning to the estate sale of a former set designer from New Orleans.  The sale was full of vintage Christmas ornaments, beads and glassware.  I found these stirrers for $.50.  The beaker is from a different sale and has pretty numbers etched into the glass.  It set us back $1.  How I love a good stoop sale!  We have been collecting nicer pieces for our “bar” (a shelf in the kitchen at the moment).  Chris likes to mix up a cocktail in one of his grandparents’ tumblers when we watch Mad Men.  (And he has been making me a virgin ginger beer version).  Everything tastes better when it is sipped out of a fancy glass.

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Back Yard Progress: Before and After

10 Friday May 2013

Posted by jeannerondeau in Organizing, Projects

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

back yard bees, back yard before and after, back yard for kids, back yard gardening, back yard in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn back yard, DIY back yard, home, home improvement, life with kids

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We finally have a back yard!

After one year and nine months of waiting, the girls have finally been allowed to run around in the grass.  We had no idea it would be such a project to get the yard ready, but it is so nice to have a quiet, clean, safe place for them to run around.  These are the steps we went through to clean it up:

1. Chris cut down some of the brush.  There was a huge overgrown shrub in the center of the yard when we moved in, as well as the metal awning, a 300 lb stone sink covered in ugly ceramic tiles, a long cement walkway, chain link fence and rat burrows (!).  We soon discovered that the soil was full of broken glass, metal and trash from the last 100 years.  We were naive about what it would take to get rid of the rats and trash (and hadn’t noticed them when we inspected the house).  We spent many nights wondering what the heck we had gotten ourselves into.

2. Get rid of the rats.  After many calls to 311 to deal with open trash next door (I love NYC!) and many visits by the exterminator on our side, the rats vacated.  At one point Chris and I devised an insane concrete/rebar fence to barricade ourselves from the rats.  Luckily, the other methods worked first.  This felt like a HUGE relief and victory!

3. Chris builds a soil-sifter out of screens, wood and a wheelbarrow and begins to sift through the soil to remove glass and trash.  He uncovers tons of marbles, broken mantles, flagstone, rusty metal, broken and intact bottles and a tiny Frozen Charlotte doll head.

4. In the fall we hire fence builders to clear brush, remove most of the cement path, cut down trees, remove the metal awning and replace the chain link with a white cedar fence.  The change is amazing!  After three days and a big trash truck full of debris removed,  the back yard and fence look so much better!  By removing the metal awning, so much more light came into the kitchen.  The beautiful fence finally gave us a sense of privacy.  The fence has two gates, so we can leave our yard through our neighbors’ yards should we need to, and the cedar smells amazing.

5. Chris continues to remove trash with the soil-sifter.  He and ‘Uncle Frank’ rent a truck and bring 3 more tons (!) of trash to the transfer station.  They come home with a plan to start a scrap metal business.

6. We move the few shrubs we saved to the back corner of the yard, plant bulbs and wait for spring.

7. Our spring bulbs start to come up and we plant our first family tree.

8.  We make and bury our family time capsule in the back corner of the yard.

9. After much deliberation, we decide to hire a company to lay sod down in the back instead of doing it ourselves.  We initially had trouble finding a company that would work with such a small yard, but finally ended up using Kings County Nursery in Brooklyn.  They were right down the road from us and showed up a super-quick 30 minutes after I called for an estimate.  They were very reasonable and did the job in under two hours.  We opted out of using the standard pest control and root stimulators (both chemical) for the sod.  Although our soil looked rich, we are trying to amend it after years of mistreatment and did not want to add any other chemicals to the yard.  The pesticide that sod companies use to control grubs is usually Sevin.  Sevin is known to be dangerous to both children and native insects such as honeybees.  Although the nursery assured us that Sevin would only be used under the sod, we did not feel comfortable adding it to our back yard.  We felt confident that the birds that make daily visits to our back yard, the earthworms in the soil and the rich brown dirt back there would make the sod happy without adding chemicals.

10. We have the heavy stone sink removed.  After much deliberation about whether to try to salvage the sink, we decide to let it go.  It was likely original to the house, but had been left out in the weather and had a strong adhesive on it that we could not remove without further damaging the soft soapstone.

11. We water and water and get an old-fashioned push mower to trim and the grass turns green!  The tulips open, the wisteria blooms and suddenly we like our back yard.  After a torturous two weeks of no foot traffic, the girls are allowed to run on the grass.  Finally, instead of me warning them not to touch anything in the dirt with their hands, they can be barefoot!

*We still have a list of plans for the back yard.  The wooden stands in the far back corner are for our bees which will arrive in June, (late this year due to a chilly spring in Upstate NY).  We will continue to fill in our garden with flowers as we watch and learn and inevitably make lots of first-time gardening mistakes.  I just got my vintage clothes line in the mail from Ebay, (post coming soon).  I cannot wait to hang out our sheets and dry them in the sun.  Chris wants to build a play house for the girls.  We want to eventually replace the remaining concrete patio with flagstone.  We want to re-side the laundry room that juts out into the yard, and turn it into a potting/bee supply shed.  And then we will tackle the inside of the house….

Here are some progress photos:

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Spring Cleaning: Stoop Sale

07 Tuesday May 2013

Posted by jeannerondeau in Organizing, Projects

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Tags

housekeeping, life in Brooklyn, living with kids, magazine recycling, neighborhood, organizing kids rooms, recycling, spring cleaning, stoop sale, yard sale

StoopSale StoopSale2
I spent a few hours while Ada was at school yesterday organizing her room and adding to our yearly stoop sale pile.  It always feels so good to clean out the closets and get rid of unused stuff.  I try to rotate the girls’ toys so they get to play with some they have forgotten, but things they have outgrown can be moved on to another home.  I love living in Brooklyn because we often put magazines and other little things out on our front fence and neighbors take them home within a few hours.  We have gathered lots of our own free books from stoops of our neighbors.  This easy way of recycling and sharing unwanted items always makes me feel good.  (There is nothing better than something that is both free and useful!)  We also organize a larger stoop sale with friends once a year.  (I usually have to send the kids to Nan and Pappy’s so they don’t bring home more than we sell).  Aside from clearing out things that we no longer need and meeting the neighbors, it makes us happy to match items with people who are excited to bring a bargain home.

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