Organizing

Achieve not the perfectly styled pantry of your Instagram feed, but a realistic one that serves you well, no matter its size, shape, or the kinds of containers you use.

Any guesses?

How busy households set up their entryways!

Hey, Maxwell, I heard that when you were a teacher you kept a box of your students’ artwork for twenty years. Is that true? What happened to it? LukeDear Anon,It is true! Back in January of 2000, I was in my second to last year of teaching elementary school. As my class and I crossed the millennium mark and all the fears of Y2K subsided, I had the idea of asking my class to write down where they would be in 20 years, 2020, when I would call them up to come back to school for a reunion.

I am confronting an empty nest and finally have time to go through all those stashes of art. I’m ready to let go, but HOW? A Viking burial pyre of burning art? We seem to have gone through a heavy phase of paint-your-own pottery, with some hideous results … (but as soon as I think of smashing them, it’s like “Ooh! Then we could make a mosaic with the pieces!” and there’s a whole new thing to not be able to throw away).

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. I don’t know about you, but I could look at before-and-after photos all day. Show me a messy pantry and then — snap! — perfectly labeled containers of cereal and I’m giddy. That’s pretty much what it’s like in the land of #MomHacks on TikTok.

Every parent knows that cleaning up toys is a struggle, but the right organizing system can help make it easier.Leanna Laming, the author of the blog Life by Leanna and a mom of three, acknowledges that her family’s toy closet (above) was better looking than many, but it wasn’t working for her family. Leanne realized there was room for improvement. In particular, while toy types were arranged by bin, those bins were completely opaque and didn’t have labels.

Before I actually had kids, I envisioned their toy collection to be quaint and timeless—mostly wooden, and definitely not derived from the Nickelodeon franchise. But here we are, with an entire stable of miniature Paw Patrol stuffed animals.My boys aren’t the type of kids who drag a stuffed animal with them everywhere, but I frequently find myself turning my house upside down to find these Paw Patrol pups, who are often the main characters in their imaginary games.

Most of the time my house is, shall we say, messier than one would strictly like. With a five-year-old and a three-year-old, c’est la vie. But up until recently there was one room that stood out as weirdly miserable: my family bathroom. This bathroom was the victim of a bad, sad patch job before we bought our home eight years ago. It has drippy plumbing (I have a spot on the living room ceiling to prove this), awkward corners, and a curious lack of storage.

I’ve got two daughters, one in first grade and the other in third, and they are prolific artists. It’s all over the kitchen walls and filling up corners of every room. I love it all, don’t want to throw anything away but I don’t know how to keep up with it all. What should I keep? What’s the best place to store it all? NadiaDear Nadia,I have very firm opinions on this and kids’ clutter in general, which is far less special than their original art. Here we go.

My current life does not cater to my natural HSP (Highly Sensitive Person) tendencies. I’m a mother of five, three of whom are active little boys, and our house is … boisterous. (Of course, I wouldn’t have it any other way.) I’m learning to listen to the sound of sibling scuffles and middle children clamoring to be heard, and doors slamming as kids go outside to rollerblade and then back inside for an urgently needed snack as the soundtrack of the “good old days.

Keeping kids organized is a herculean effort during the best of times, but trying to keep their spaces clutter-free and clean during a quarantine that involves both working from home and virtual learning presents undeniable organizational challenges for parents. Luckily, Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin—the dynamic duo also known as The Home Edit, Instagram’s beloved home organizers—shared their easy, doable tip for helping to keep clutter at bay in shared spaces.

My first nephew’s first word was “Grino.” This is not a variation on green; rather, it is an abbreviation of Pellegrino, the sparkling water that my parents always have stocked in their refrigerator. My other nephews (there are three) and my niece all have a penchant for fancy carbonated water. They drink a lot of it — and they can go through a lot of cups in the process.

A child’s relationship to books is one of the biggest predictors of their success down the road, and exposure to all types of print has a lot to do with early reading ability. So hang on to your well-worn “Calvin & Hobbes” treasuries, go ahead and subscribe to Highlights, and definitely send a book-loving message by keeping a fairly robust library, if that’s your thing.