Mandy asked in a comment on a post last week if I had any tips to organise ribbon.

First, I don’t have that much ribbon, judging by the posts on the internet, but it is a lot for me.

I do like things stored with their friends, so all my ribbon is together.

I used to organise my ribbon like this.

But now, this is the shelf it lives on – those circles are 2-inch punched circles, my writing (I have no patience for finding and printing “the perfect font” and a bit of Prestik.

Coming in closer – those 4 on the top are my most-used ribbon. When I wrap gifts, I use those. When I tie labels to things, I use those – they are all double-sided satin 10 mm. I love them so much I may never go back to thicker ribbon again. They’re just so versatile. And so organising rule number 1 – keep things you use often near you.

this is the rest of my stash. It’s all stored in a spaghetti jar. I have the longer pieces of scrap ribbon rolled around a clothespeg and also thrown in here.

this is that horrible ribbon used for gift wrap. Once this is done I’m never buying anymore. That double satin ribbon will do this to you – I am spoilt forever.

These are scraps from gifts we’ve received. I throw nothing away that can be re-used. And I’ve found that when I make mini books (my latest creative obsession!) I can quite easily use these scraps to decorate the binder rings I use to keep the books together.

So that’s how I organise my ribbon.

Then, while browsing the internet last night, I found two gorgeous posts.

I love this woman’s unique ideas to store ribbon:

Here is post 1 and here is post 2.

How do you organise your ribbon?

Melody says:
My biggest organizng question is how to keep my kid’s rooms organized? I have closet shelves, hanging organizers, baskets, totes, etc. However, still their rooms are a mess75% of the time. I give away toys regularly, but it seems that there is always still too much left behind. The rest of my house stays neat and tidy most of time. I have family members who hoard so I am very aware of too much clutter and actively try to remove and control clutter.

And then a friend, Julia, also emailed me a similar question. She has a hard time getting her 11-year-old son to keep his room clean and asked if I had any ideas.

These are my suggestions:

Agree on what a clean room means
Yours might be vastly different from his definition but come up with a list of about 5 things (clean carpets, dirty clothes in laundry basket, clean clothes folded and in cupboard, books on shelf, toys away, etc)

Make a checklist
You can reprint it if you like but I hate paper (yes, really!) so I’d prefer to laminate it and re-use the same list

Print a monthly calendar to mark off progress
There are tons of cute, free calendars on the internet otherwise don’t get caught in perfectionism – the blank option in Outlook works just as well.

Once you’ve done your daily inspection, tick in the daily block.

Agree on a reward according to the child’s love language
Determine your child’s love language or currency, as Dr Phil calls it and choose an appropriate reward.

Julia’s son’s love language is quality time so I suggested that after every 2 weeks, they have a “date with Mommy” and after the next two weeks, a “date with Daddy”.

Keep decluttering
Please remember to always declutter before birthdays and Christmas.

I sound like a broken record but if you live a simplified life, there is not that much to mess up a room

Those are my suggestions.

What are your tips to keep your kids’ rooms organised?

Meredith says:
How about how to have an organized house as a single parent and not pull all your hair out in the process?????

LOL, great question, Meredith

I have three main suggestions for you:

Declutter and simplify as much as you can

It sounds boring for me to keep repeating it but it’s the truth – the less stuff you have, the less you have to clean and organise, and the easier and more fun your life will be.

Create systems

Make things really easy for you and your kids. Have checklists, do a weekly menu plan, have a morning and evening routine, etc.

One very important system is to have a regular clean-up/ organising session, whether that is daily or weekly is up to you, your lifestyle, the age of the kids, etc.

Enlist help or delegate

You don’t have to do everything. Kids at any age can do something.

A reader shared on a post last week (I think it was Rachel) how her two teenage daughters have permanent chores – one cooks every night for the family and the other does the laundry.

I’ve also shared before on the blog how my twins were putting away their own toys from about 14 months. Granted, sometimes (like this Sunday) it is more of a pain than it would take me to just do it, but I like to think I’m raising independent kids with good life skills.

I would love to hear from you, especially if you’re a single parent or you have a husband who travels a lot.

Please click through from your reader and share your best tips with the rest of us.

 Kimie says:
I use to be on top of everything, a job, a very clean home, social life, did sports and even baby sitted for my older brother. Now, I don’t know where to begin to start organizing anything.

I had to get on disability, I was diagnosed with Lupus, Fibromyalgia, Depression, Diabeties…..etc. And now my kidneys are failing so I really want to get things organized so my husband and I don’t have to worry so much about where things are and have a cleaner home.

Here’s my answer for Kimie

I’m so very sorry to hear about your chronic diseases – really I am.

Practically speaking, I would try to declutter as much as I could and only keep things that I really needed (and not much else) so there’s less to clean and organise.

A simpler life is always easier to maintain.

On another note, though, I had a small taste of what you’re going through when I was pregnant with the twins.

I could barely do a thing. I’d come home from work and that was it for the day. Some days I didn’t even have the energy to wash my hair in the shower (my hairdresser made lots of money off me in those months!).

At that point I really just learnt to do the bare necessities – keep us fed and reasonably clean and organised.

So my advice to you would be to identify your bare necessities (even mine would look different now that we have kids), delegate what you can and just take one day at a time.

I also like to tell my clients to redefine success – if success for you before was a clean and sparkling house, maybe on a bad day, it’s just to have the dishes done or the bed made, and that’s fine.

Are there others out there with chronic conditions who can help Kimie further?

Please chime in and share your words of wisdom.

Jenn Wells says:

I want to know how to organize the kitchen utensils better.

Well, Jenn, in my view, the betterway for anyone is a way that you’ve tried and tested and now works for you and your family

Let me share from my own household though.

I used to use the first two drawers to store the cutlery and the other utensils, like this:

Then my babies (two-year-olds) started “exploring” and since I’m not one for being hampered in my own kitchen, I moved the things out of their reach.

So now we have this situation going on:

The second drawer has all the plastic cutlery for taking food to work, etc, and the utensils are split between my top drawer where I keep the ones I use most often and a repurposed formula can.

The formula can keeps all the sharp items like scissors, can openers, etc.

I did the two formula cans in the same scrapbook paper so they’d look nice and pretty. As you can see, the other one holds all the babies’ plastic cutlery.

Sherry Smith says:

I need help figuring out a home for things.

I look at something, don’t have a clue where it should go, so I end up leaving it where it sat and in my best Scarlett O’Hara say “I will worry about that tomorrow.”.

Sherry, I love your question!

My good friend, Suzanne, used to say something I love, love, LOVE.

“Don’t put it down; put it away”

I have another saying which is indecision = clutter.

I honestly believe it takes about 10 seconds longer to put something away than to just dump it but the benefits are immeasurable.

These are my ideas for you:

For things you don’t yet have in your home, first think about where you will put them before you even allow them access.

Yes, things need to earn the privilege of remaining in your home.

In the store or if someone wants to pass on things to you, if you can’t think of a place where they will go, don’t buy or accept those things.

It’s hard the first couple of times but then becomes easier as you realise that there’s less to clean and organise

For current things, I like to store them where I use them.

• children’s toys in our sun room – that’s where they play
• children’s books in their bedroom – that’s where they read
• phone chargers in a container in the kitchen – I charge phones while cooking
• and so on

Of course ALL of this “finding a home” business is a lot easier if you don’t have an overflow of stuff to start off with.

So if you feel overwhelmed, then step one is to declutter.

Readers, do you agree? Disagree? Any other suggestions for Sherry?

I saw this idea on Pinterest and loved it.

I don’t have a glass spaghetti jar that would work so I made do with two smaller jars, one glass and one plastic.

I love it – pretty and functional.

How do you store your cupcake and muffin cases?

Our kids don’t have a lot of toys by most people’s standards but there was still too much by our standards.

We noticed that they weren’t playing with a lot of their things, I think because they couldn’t even see them.

We used to have some things in the sunroom and others in the lounge but I reclaimed my lounge and moved all their stuff to the sunroom, so it is now decorated in primary colour craziness.

Dion and I got a bee in our bonnets and took away almost all their toys on Sunday.

It got better but like with any organising, the first round is just to warm up.

Once you see how good it looks and feels, you get inspired to do more.

I did a bit more last night after seeing untidiness in the toy area one too many times and cleared out everything except:

• blocks (they love the blocks)
• balls (regular and ones that come apart into about 6 rings)
• tools
• a wooden drum set
• paper and crayons
• books
• trailers
• motorbikes
• Connor’s lawnmower (he loves that thing and so does every kid who visits )

Let’s see if this makes even more of a difference.

If it does, we’ll rotate some toys after a month to keep things fresh.

How do you handle toys at your house? Do you keep them all out or rotate them?

Do your kids play with everything or only the things they can see?

I thought I’d share a quick tip with you that will help you to keep your organised space…well, organised.

Boundaries.

For me, this is one of the best ways to keep things under control.

I have one lever arch file folder for my household filing (phone, bond, water and electricity, insurance, credit card, etc.).

When things get too much, I need to declutter as I’m not prepared to create any more space than just that one file.

As for magazines, this is the container I use.

I allow myself just this one basket for any reading material. Ignore the tangled phone extension cord.

If this basket ever becomes too full, I have to go through and declutter it.

Two questions for you:

Do you have organising boundaries like these in your home?

How many magazines do you allow to flow in before they have to flow out?

This is just a sample of the tips you’ll receive on the virtual Spring into Organising workshop.

First, a confession.

If there is one thing that sends me over the edge, it’s having a jumble of tangled cables/ cords.

Cell phone charger, kindle charger, camera cords, etc.

I used to fold my cords neatly and wrap with an elastic band which works beautifully but takes a couple of seconds longer.

Until I figured this out.

Do you hear the birds chirping? The world is a happy place once again.

This is my Kindle cord and I currently use these binder/ bulldog clips for everything in sight.

I simply use smaller ones for thinner cords and bigger ones for the thicker ones.

I love cheap, easy organising solutions. Don’t you?

How do you keep your cables and cords neat and tidy? Do the messy ones bother you too?

P.S. Don’t forget to add your organising question to the list.