Can you help me organise our new house before we move in? 4 kids, chaos, PND etc..

[accessorizequeen]

We currently live in a 3 bed semi, which is lovely but small bedrooms and kitchen size of closet. So we've bought a 6 bed (eek!) place with a much bigger kitchen which we are due to move into in about a month.
I am struggling hugely with depression, anxiety and panic attacks and having things organised as much as possible helps with this. BUT dc are 7, 4 and dts are 2.7. It's umm, quite chaotic all the time despite my best intentions.
What can I do in new house to make things more organised, peaceful and less chaotic?? In current house we have very little space for storage but in new house there is an extra reception room as well as the bigger kitchen so there should be scope to have more shelving etc. The hall is bigger, 5 of the bedrooms are very big with one box room.

BTW, the vendors of the house we are buying are renting our house (yes, I know, but works for everyone!) so we've agreed to exchange early and they'll give us full access to the house so I can possibly get shelves put up or at least plan it all before we get in there.

The things I struggle with storing/accessing now are:

toys
hats/gloves/scarves
craft materials
dressing up
out of season clothes
kids books as there are hundreds
displaying 'artwork' & family photos
paperwork (esp for kids dr appts etc, upcoming events). I can't even find post from last week at present.

Can you suggest best ways to handle all this stuff? Please pretty please?

I'm a very big fan of big clear plastic storage boxes with lids, especially if you have nice deep cupboards to keep them in. These are really useful for keeping things like craft materials and dressing up clothes in, but should be easy to get out when necessary, and can be stacked. For heavy duty use, not cheap though, my preferred brand is Really Useful Boxes. I find that it is so much more efficient to store things in boxes on shelves than having stuff stacked on shelves. And if they are clear you can easily see what's inside.

When the craft box is full, look through to see if there are any old bits and pieces in there that can be chucked out before buying new paints etc.

Would one of those plastic drawer units with 5 or 6 drawers work for hats, gloves and scarves, with one drawer for each person?

If you have wallspace in your kitchen, put up a great big board for displaying the artwork and photos. When it's full, choose some older works of art to take down and make room for the new masterpieces.

Have a small office corner in the kitchen (or wherever is most suitable for you) where you have a family planner on the wall (with appointments etc marked on it), and underneath a three tier in-tray to store 'current' paperwork. This requires serious self discipline to manage, but can make it easier to keep on top of everything. I find it reduces stress if I know where to find paperwork quickly, and know I am on top of bills to be paid so I don't wake up in the middle of the night in a panic that I haven't paid my credit card bill or missed a medical appointment.
Top tray is paperwork that requires you to do something with it - e.g. bills to be paid, permission forms to send back to school, post to be opened. Get used to looking through this tray everyday, and manage it so that unopened post does not get lost at the bottom (voice of experience speaking here). Aim to empty this tray every evening of jobs that can be done very quickly.
Middle tray is paperwork that doesn't want to be filed away because it will be needed soon, but doesn't need to have something done right away - e.g. dental appointment cards where you have already marked the date on the family planner, but want to keep the original for moment of doubt that you have put the time or date down correctly (or is that just me?), lists of things DC will need for a school thing, info on upcoming events. Look though this tray every week and remove anything that is no longer needed. This tray is your first port of call when looking for some letter!
Bottom tray is paperwork that you have finished with and needs filing away - e.g. bills that have been paid (write paid and the date on the bill when you pay it so you know it has been done). Think about whether something needs to be filed away for future reference just in case, or if it can be thrown away. Set aside twenty minutes every week to empty this tray and file everything away.

Good luck!

First of all, ask a friend to help you throw out as much stuff as you can prior to moving!
Then : toys - I agree the really useful boxes are great and come in loads of sizes.

hats/gloves/scarves - I keep these in a large drawstring laundry bag. Easy to tip it out, find what you want and chuck it all back in again.

craft materials - argos/ikea do stacking drawer sets here

dressing up - Put them on a cheap hanging rail

out of season clothes - buy the plastic bags you can vacuum seal

kids books as there are hundreds - billy shelf from ikea

displaying 'artwork' & family photos - giant notice board /dedicated wall in the kitchen.

paperwork (esp for kids dr appts etc, upcoming events). I can't even find post from last week at present - a drawer each plus a giant noticeboard plus a family planner calendar.

Good luck with the move!

Forgot to add, also get a box file for each child's special pictures, keep on a shelf or in a cupboard.

Buy a shredder! Essential to go through the post and shred weekly.

toys - ikea trofast in bedroom
hats/gloves/scarves - in big gift bag under stairs
craft materials - ikea trofast in conservatory!
dressing up - in pop up laundry basket from pound shop. tried rail but realistically they never get hung up again.
out of season clothes - in wardrobe with everything else. baby clothes for next. have just bought 70p cardboard boxes from ikea and labeled 18-24mths etc
kids books as there are hundreds - get rid of most!! I havent got good solution. some in sideboard in living room, some in drawer in strange fitted wardrobe in ds room. Lots of shelves I guess...
displaying 'artwork' & family photos - artwork on walls in conservatory. anything with date on back gets saved in portfolio case. Kids have 'keep' box but choose what to put in recycling too.
paperwork (esp for kids dr appts etc, upcoming events). I can't even find post from last week at present. - i havent got good plan for this yet. eager to see others solutions. I covet a set of filing drawers, maybe with each month on front?

One thing which has been fantastic for us is a big whiteboard in the kitchen (dh rescued ours from a school skip). we write meal plans/shoppping lists/appointments/reminders to put bins out etc...

Ooh if you have big hall, i'd have a nice bench with storage underneath for hats/gloves etc.

You need a place for everything. That is the key I think.

Absolutely agree Adair, a place for everything, just my systems thus far don't seem to work so well. Thanks, all, not sure whether some of those will work for my lot (e.g. bag of hats/scarves/gloves would leave us in chaos for the whole of winter!) but will definitely look at boxes inside cupboards and giant whiteboard+ corkboard. I have a 3 tray system now, but I don't stick to it, everything gets shoved on top and lost. I missed several medical appts in dec for example & still sorting it all out. I'm not sure whether I can be vigilant with a system like that tbh, I need the simplest approach that takes the smallest amount of time a week esp with ds2 starting school in Sept too thus more paperwork! I really like those useful drawers with a different colour for each child etc, that might work for me but the inbox/action tray needs further thought as I'm just not keeping on top of things (I think is partly exhaustion from PND, anxiety etc plus of course the rather demanding dc!).
I was considering a tallboy in the hall with drawers for everyone plus ones for sat nav and that kind of thing. But a bench would be great for the dc to sit on and get organised. Lots of ideas, thank you :)

i want an apothecary chest. But i don't know what I'd keep in it... Tallboy sounds good idea for everyone.

Seriously, the bag for everything works great - you go 'your gloves are in there' and they ARE. I think that's why it works, because it's easier to chuck it all away than try to find the right drawers for everybody and remember to put it back... no point having complicated systems when it's actually behind the sofa. I guess that's why the shoe basket thing that people go on about here works too. As long as you don't have too much in the first place. That's my big project at moment.

my 'inbox/action tray' is a gift bag (yes, another one. They are pretty. I am cheap) in the kitchen. Immediate letters etc for the next week go on the fridge. Haven't forgotten too much! Oh, and virtual post-its on computer....

Anything dd needs for school - permission slips, tesco vouchers etc, go straight in her bookbag. I try to deal with school paperwork as soon as i get them and put them straight in bag where it gets forgotten about instantly.

What's everybody's key solutions btw? (and yr addresses. joke.)

I am with you on anxiety + demanding newborn and needing easy systems. Don't worry though about getting it perfect before you move in, i think sometimes you have to live somewhere to see how you use it first...

chuck it all in, rather than chuck all away. Though...

I have shoe baskets, they work brilliantly, yay I've got something right! Didn't know that was all over MN.
I have drawers for each child with hat/gloves/scarves in now, it's ok as long as I track everything down ALL day and put it in correct drawer and we have enough spares, I buy gloves in bulk!
I'd like a plan chest. I don't have any plans or maps or anything, I just think they're gorgeous and fed up with buying functional furniture when I'd prefer arts & crafts bureau sigh.
Shredder btw is excellent idea, must get one.
Ikea trip planned and several things on the list, can't believe I forgot about Billy bookcases. Have gone through the books several times this year already, can't bring myself to chuck more as they're all loved. Don't mind storing books, all 4 love them as do I. It's the blinking paperwork I hate. School newsletters/phonics sheets/medical info/recipes urgh.

Things that have helped me be more organised are:

• Magnetic bulldog clip to hold important paperwork and keep on the front of the fridge where it can't be missed

• "Organised Mum" weekly planner on the kitchen wall, important appointments written straight on and paperwork binned so it doesn't clutter the place up

• have a shared calendar with DH in Outlook or Google so we can keep each other informed of appointments, work trips etc

• plastic storage boxes for out of season clothes etc, I store them under the DS's beds so they can be accessed easily when needed

• online food shopping, easier to budget and meal plan

• Hats, gloves and scarves are stored in the top drawer in my DS's bedroom in ikea drawer organisers, so they are always away but easily accessed when needed. I also have storage in our front porch where all coats are hung as well as all kids shoes

• for keys we have a magnetic key holder each where keys are hung as soon as we come in - lost car keys used to be the bane of our lives [ grin]

HTH

I also have 4 dc's with one set of twins and organisation is a problem for me as well.We have just knocked through our pantry to make a big cloakroom.At the moment each child has a large cardboard box with school stuff/horse-riding stuff/shoes in it and it seems to work really well.I am planning on having two labelled hooks for each child -one for coats and one for book bag and pe kits and a large basket each for shoes and hats/coats/scarves etc.I am going to use the Ikea large recycling plastic bins for shoes that are out of season.One wall is going to be painted with magnetic blackboard paint for notices and messages and bills.I have a 'spike' that i use for bills and important notices so they don't get lost.

Oh yeah, you need strong magnets for the fridge otherwise is annoying when everything gets knocked off... bulldog clip sounds great. Our strong magnets (mummy's ones !) are from Wilkinsons 80p for loads. And I do nick the phonics ones dd has as they are reeeeally strong...

Yes, am thinking now about when I have dd at school and ds and ds 2... eek!

It's really nice to read everybody's ideas. DC1 is expected to put in an appearance soon, and I suspect what's highly organised with just two of us will start coming under serious pressure. :)

I'm worried about books piling up. I can be quite ruthless, but I have a problem with getting rid of books.

Keys: if your car keys are always impossible to find, give yourself a pat on the back for having a secure anti-car-theft system in place. :o If they are too easy to see and close to your front door / letter box somebody can use a stick through the letter box to steal them and your car.

Recipes: I have a ring binder with those cheap clear plastic wallets in it. When I rip out a recipe from a magazine or print one from the BBC Good Food website I slide it into one of the wallets in the ring binder. I started this when I had a stack of the Good Food magazines that I wanted to chuck out, but wanted to keep some of the recipes.

Hope life remains as organised once dc here bizzee, but you know it won't!
I think I am slowly designing in my head the perfect hallway to make my life perfectly calm. And have decided on a desk for me with places to store paperwork including a spike, gosh wouldn't even know where to buy one. I find musing on how to manage the house makes actually managing the brood easier. How old are yours teta?

A really big calendar with a box for each day and see if you can use your phone organiser/calendar function -- but you have to actually write things down or enter them and then check every day for a system like this to work. Keep the calendar near the place you would normally be when you make appointments and write times and places in as you speak on the phone. Open your post beside the bin and dump everything that is not relevant. Keep a file for bills. Or better still do as much as possible by direct debit. School stuff I keep track of with the calendar system and I don't keep individual notices longer than it takes to take down the details.

Toys and the children's personal things like hats -- you should really make a big effort to get the children as invested in keeping track of their stuff as you are. Force them to start a good habit of always putting their important items where they can find them predictably. I used to have a big laundry basket for winter items, in the bottom of the hall closet (first come first served) and will have something similar at my new address when winter comes, and I insist that all shoes be taken off indoors so we don't every have to track down footwear under beds or other unlikely places. It all goes in a big jumbled box near the door. I'd like something like this but I don't have the room right now.

Ikea is great for bookshelves -- you can never have too many books imo but you really do need somewhere to put them all..

Recipes -- I have a huge ring binder too Bizzee! But DS recently suggested I scan all my recipes and I am considering it.

Keys -- I have a basket with an exceedingly strong magnet stuck to the fridge with my keys in it.

Biggest organisation mantra is 'don't put it off' -- do the organising there on the spot and don't leave things to deal with later. Doing it all on the spot takes less time than dealing with a huge pile later, less anxiety, less missed items. You will always have 5 minutes to get some small thing sorted out, but you won't always have the clear half hour or more it can take to sort through a big mystery pile.

I love all of CeliaFate's ideas -- and I just got your MN name too

Love that bench maths, I've been looking at benches and not found anything I like yet. I haven't had the space before even for a bin to put unwanted post into and now I can fit in a bench.
The dc are dreadful and I have been letting them get away with it as I've been so ill with PND really. They are trained up on other things but the shoes go everywhere as do hats, gloves, etc I spend my life tracking them down. am going to try really hard to create an easy system and then train them to use it in new house!
Bought shoe racks today (for dp & I, will stick to the big basket for dc), it's the beginning of storage heaven.