Downsize and organize BEFORE the holidays (and all those gifts) hit!

Our family celebrates Christmas and it ends up being a week long holiday by the time we’ve seen family and friends. We do our best to keep things minimal while still being magical, but it’s fun to see your kids be spoiled a little. This inevitably means lots of new things coming into the home (this is just a little of what my boys have already been gratefully gifted).

The next couple of days will be focused on family fun, but once the festivities are over it’s time to figure out where to put everything. The temptation of course is to find more storage and just make it fit, but this year I encourage you to take the time to go through old (and maybe new) toys and take out at least the same amount of what has come in (if not more).

Give your kids the gift of being able to find and enjoy their new toys, without having to endeavor on a treasure hunt through buckets and bins. And consider it a gift for yourself too, because I promise it will equal a happier more peaceful household, and some time all to yourself.
But first it’s time to bake cookies, wrap gifts, turn up the Bing Crosby, and start laundry (because it isn’t all #instalife glam over here).

End your day with a quick play space refresh (your kids will thank you)!

The kids are asleep and you’re ready to turn in too, when you walk past their play space and realize your darling babies did not do a very effective job cleaning up. The temptation of course is to walk past and let them deal with it in the morning, buuuuuut I have another suggestion. Stop and spend the time cleaning up and setting out play invitations for the morning.

  • Don’t just dump things into the nearest basket, but spend the time to sort and put things away in their correct home.
  • Make sure the baskets and shelves are inviting and their play kitchen doesn’t resemble the aftermath of a huge dinner party.
  • Run the vacuum over the floor – guaranteed there are traces of snack and play still afoot.

Because here’s the thing, when your child wakes up in the morning and sees a beautiful clean space with inviting play invitations (think the start of a block tower, or a tea party set up at their little table) they are 1000 times more likely to want to play and engage with the space, which in turn increases your chances of extra sleep and a little time to spend on yourself. #everyonewins

DIY combo light table/train table/coffee table (aka, the furniture dream).

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Light Table

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Train/Play Table

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Coffee Table

I am forever getting these big ideas, so it’s rather lucky that I am married to someone who is willing to make them a reality. Case in point, when our oldest was a baby I decided he had to have a light table, that also doubled as a train/play table, and that we could also use as a coffee table. It needed to be beautiful and affordable to make too. Easy right?

With lots of planning, some tool lending from friends, and lots of tweaking to get the lights just right, my darling wonderful husband built me this! Four years and another baby later, it still gets used daily. The light table element is definitely the most popular layer, but it is used in all its iterations. Don’t you kind of need one now too? 🙂