I have such a treat for you all today!  I have invited my dear friend Sarah from She Holds Dearly to come and share her thoughts in regards to organizing and decorating when you have kids – a topic I know many of you would love help with (me included)!  As I’ve grown to love everything Sarah does and stands for, I felt her perspective would be valued here.  She lives a genuine Farmhouse life, and works hard to share with women how we can achieve balance in our lives, and find time to hold dearly the things that matter most to us.  Her course called “Finding Time to Hold Dearly” has impacted my life more than I ever thought possible.  I hope you will all give Sarah a warm and friendly welcome here!  She has much to offer!

Welcome Sarah!!

I remember when that first baby came along, we had to rethink our entire house.

Safety first, folks.

Oh. my. goodness. and then the baby things started creeping into our space. Friends of friends of friends would give us gifts! Everybody wants to celebrate a new baby.

But just because I was now a mom did not mean the interior designer in me was going to just check out for the next 20 years. I had to put my creativity into fifth gear to keep up, but I was determined.

Now, three children later, I have learned some tricks for keeping a house pretty and I am here to say it is possible and well worth the effort for the entire family.

So take heart, mothers and grandmothers, here are 5 very doable tricks to enjoying your space AND your littles at the same time.

One

Teach them to respect certain pieces

I think it’s healthy to have certain things in the house that are not for children. My kids know that mama has “decorative wood” near the wood stove and no one is ever supposed to burn that wood. Its a decoration.

One of the first words I taught my children was “decoration”, I still remember them waving their little hand over something and saying, “No touch, it’s a dec-or-a-tion.” Haha, my poor kids!

Two

Containers. Containers. Containers!

Give them boundaries in the form of containers and a place for everything.

We used to keep all the toys in one huge toy box. . . . big mistake. Just to find one thing required that the entire contents of the trunk would be dumped all over the front room. The day I moved all the toys into bins by category and labeled them, the angels sang. Everything was moved into a closet and the kids had to ask permission to get a bin out.

This “contain the chaos” idea goes for shoes, art supplies, homework . . . everything. We have rubber boots in wine crates, roller blades in picnic baskets and colored pencils in mason jars.

I built this chicken wire bulletin board to corral my sons papers that he was basically wallpapering his room with.

I think most kids, by nature are little collectors and anything can be a treasure. It is such a sweet characteristic of childhood, but it can get out of hand so easily.

When my youngest was a toddler she would go around finding anything pink or purple and hiding her little stashes behind furniture. Just like a little magpie! I wish I had taken a picture of some of those piles, they would always make me smile when I found them.

Eventually, I assigned a desk drawer to each of my girls as their “treasure drawer”. They can put anything in there, but when it gets full they need to purge it.

Three

Buy mostly thrifted decor

When my children break something that cost 50 cents versus $50, I can handle it much better than if I had paid the original price. I can just sigh, instead of cry. Our home is 90% thrifted and DIYed, so its a good place to let life play out with kiddos.

Dishes get broken a lot with kids and so I don’t have a matching set. I just look for white dishes anytime I am out thrifting.

Four

Designate a clean up time 1-3 times a day

We used to have to clean up at every meal, but it has gotten a little easier as time has gone on. Now we just put the day’s projects away and clean the floors right before my husband gets home from work each night.

Five

Carefully select which toys come into your home

My home is very vintage and I strategically decide which toys cross the threshold of my house. Because I know these things will most definitely be laying around, I prefer wooden, fabric, metal and antique style toys to complement our decor.

And speaking of clutter, I have been offering a 10 Week Decluttering Plan for the whole house over my blog.

If you would like to get the details you can click on the pic below.

And if you are really wanting to take your organization to the next level, I have an online course that you might like to be a part of, as well.

Thank you so much for having me today, Cami!

Always know that your readers are welcome anytime over at She Holds Dearly.

Thank you so much Sarah!

I feel motivated to teach my 2 year old the word “dec-or-a-tion”

If you want more help creating an environment at home that can be loved by yourself and your children, you may be interested in my FREE instant download where I walk you through a checklist of each room to create a kid and design friendly home.

Just click the image below!

Thanks for being here today with us!!

XO – Cami and Sarah!

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