Hi Emmy, I have been going through a lot of adjusting here too. After the twins and the new baby, 19 mo twins and 7 mo, life has totally changed. I used to be on top of things, now I feel under them. I was healthy and fit, now I have lots to work on. It seems like I’ll never get there, but I know that’s not true. Anyway, what I was actually going to share is that I have been adding gates to places I never though needed. I too closed up the school room. I put up a gate to the bedrooms, and one to the laundry area and toy room and bathroom just past the kitchen. I have had to tweak and find the best spots to put them up. Of course some of my children could take them down if they wanted to but I have given them rules. While the babies nap, I put up the gate to the bedrooms and they know they can’t go that way. If they don’t obey, I have to deal with that, even if exhausted. Next time they’ll do it, really. If not, they’ll keep disobeying. I have found they need my consistency and for me to follow through with discipline.
While I am homeschooling, I actually don’t use the school room now. I love being in there and teaching, but for now the living room floor will have to do. I do school on this huge carpet remnant that we bought and had binded from the carpet store near by. This has also been a huge help. We took the coffee table out of the house, and added this carpet/rug and everyone can play and do school or read together in the same room, and I can keep an eye on everyone and not have to run around the house. I also bought those square baskets/containers that fit into shelves and we added the toys I wanted them to play with and when it’s the end of the day, or when it’s just too much stuff on the floor, we just put them back in to those and bookshelves. Of course my bookshelves are only filled at the top half, since little hands like to pull them down, the bottom now works for these baskets.
And, I bought a bunch of containers from Dollar Tree and gave the pink and whites to my daughters and green and blues to my sons and they keep now their own toys very neatly organized in these in their own rooms and toy room. I was going crazy with the mess until I did this. I didn’t think I wanted a bunch of plastic containers but I do!! It’s been so helpful. We don’t even have that much stuff, but it still gets overwhelming.
Another thing is, there is so much I need to do, like sorting through papers, and stuff to get rid of still. I have always done this but cannot do it now. I just put it all in a box, and started sorting through when I could. Some of it I will most likely only do next year, hopefully. But it’s out of sight and we can live more peacefully this way. I like the attic for this. My husband keeps it organized up there, and those boxes are filled with papers or items I need to go through and get rid of or keep. It’s not as much as it might sound, but it does add up when we just can’t seem to do anything to keep up with the house.
I am still figuring it all out, slowly but surely. These are just some of the things I have found that have helped tremendously, and I thought I’d share.
