Cut the Clutter: Vintage Paper Trays and Organizing the Kids' Art

One of the most often asked questions I get about my house is how I keep it clutter free.

Let me tell you, it's a battle.

Part of it stems from my own neurosis.

I am kind of a freak about clutter.

Or, according to my mom, I am a total freak about clutter.

But she's a freak about crumbs on the floor, so we all have our own issues.

For me, keeping the clutter to a minimum is one of the ways that helps me happily spend my days in a small house with 4 other people.

We're all here together, all. the. time.

There just isn't room for clutter.

I subscribe to the theory that everything has a place and I try really, really hard to put things back right away. (95% of the problem is not putting things away.)

I encourage (sometimes it sounds more like nagging, but, whatever) my kids to do the same thing.

And my husband.

But, keep in mind that all of my drawers, cupboards and closets are not clean.

I do try to keep them that way.

It's just that there are a couple drawers and closets that are like black holes. 

No matter how hard I try, they are always a freakish mess.  

I try to pretend they don't exist.

And, if the rest of the house is pretty clutter free, I can handle a messy closet here and there.

Kind of.

So, since I get so many questions about clutter, I thought I'd share some of my cutting clutter ideas.

Here's the first one.

I've been trying for a while to come up with a workable solution for organizing the piles of drawings my boys produce on a daily basis. 

I think I finally figured it out.

Best part?

It involves vintage!

Read on.

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I have a soft spot in my heart for vintage office supplies.

I've shared this shop with you before.

It's just a little bit of vintage office supply heaven over there.

I could spend 100s of dollars.

But I don't have 100s of dollars to spend on vintage office supplies.

That's why I was giddy when I found these 3 beauties at a rummage sale for $2.

$2!

A sturdy, well worn stapler, a solid metal 3 hole punch and a perfect paper tray.
True, they aren't fabulous colors ( i dream of finding an orange or red one that isn't priced at a small fortune) and as I said, they're worn.
But you can't even get a crap, plastic stapler from Target for $2, and the one you do buy will break almost immediately.
So, this stapler might be worn, but it will last.
And besides, it has character.
Anyway, as stated, I was giddy.


I brought them home and put them in the office/schoolroom.
And wondered...how will I use that paper tray?

I looked at the boys' side of the desk and inspiration hit.
A place for their art.
Have I mentioned that I hate clutter?
It is my nemesis.
Clutter makes me tense.
Call it a disease if you will, but a clutter free house is balm to my soul.
So looking at this pile of papers every day drives me mad.

My boys draw constantly.
Their desk is always covered with a pile of their drawings.
Every so often I go through it, save a few treasures and toss the rest.
I can't keep it all.
Nor do I want to, because, let's be honest, some of the drawings are not very good.
But I don't want to sort through the pile every day, and sometimes not even every week.
So the pile grows and grows, until it takes over the whole desk, and I get all panicky and frazzled and go through the papers acting like a crazy woman.
Am I the only one who does this?
Please say no.

Enter the vintage paper tray solution.
Each boy gets a tray.
At the end of the day, they sort their own papers, deciding which to keep and which to toss.
At the end of the week, or whenever I get to it, I sort through the keepers, decide which ones we are really keeping, and put those away in a binder.
The desk top is clutter free.
And my sanity is restored.

All that for less than $2.

You gotta love a good rummage sale.

Now I just have to find a try for Lilly and Davy.

Keep your eyes peeled for me.

Love from,

Greta

PS Just to clarify, no one else's clutter bothers me.  

Just my own.  

I don't live with your clutter, and probably would not even notice it when I was at your house.  

So don't get all freaky on me and say, "I could never have Greta over--she'll judge me for my clutter."

I wouldn't.

Although, I did think it was fun to clean my best friend's room when we were little.  

I doubt she thought it was fun.  

But I was cleaning her room for her, so she got something out of it.

I liked organizing things.

What can I say--I've always been abnormal.

Home

Unlike the rest of the world, I am not the biggest fan of fall.

And winter, all that cold, really, really not a fan.

Give me spring and then give me summer.

Lots of summer.

You know this quote?  

Well, I agree 100%.

But.

This weekend it turned cold here. 

(cold for Southern California is a day time temp of 57--we're talking scarves and heavy coats. brrrr.)

And daylight savings time ended.

It was dark at 5 pm.

Tonight, coming in from the cold and dark, my home welcomed me.

There was golden light.

And warm air embraced me.

It felt so good to be home.

And suddenly, I was so thankful for the things I don't like, because they made me appreciate the things I take for granted.

HOME.

How blessed I am to have a home.

Where I am safe.

Where I am warm.

Where there is food.

Where there is comfort.

Where there is love.

Where there is light.

Where there is laughter.

Where I am happy.

Where I am with the ones I love best of all.

Home.

Oh, how I love my home.

I like the last 2 verses of this poem we all know a part of, Home Sweet Home, by John Howard Payne.

How sweet 'tis to sit 'neath a fond father's smile,
And the caress of a mother to soothe and beguile!
Let others delight mid new pleasures to roam,
But give me, oh, give me, the pleasures of home.
Home, home, sweet, sweet home!
There's no place like home, oh, there's no place like home!

To thee I'll return, overburdened with care;
The heart's dearest solace will smile on me there;
No more from that cottage again will I roam;
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.
Home, home, sweet, sweet, home!
There's no place like home, oh, there's no place like home! 

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November is one of my favorite months--despite it being fall, I still love it.

I love it because many of us remember, more than any other time of year, to be thankful.

I don't know yet what I'm supposed to do with this moment of gratefulness that was thrust upon me.

But I want to remember it.

I want to remember my windows lit up with the glow of warmth and light.

I want to do something with that.

This quote is speaking to me right now.

"At the end of life we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made, how many great things we have done.
We will be judged by "I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat, I was naked and you clothed me. I was homeless, and you took me in."  Mother Teresa

Feeling grateful for so much right now.

And feeling challenged.

Happy November, friends.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Love from,

Greta

A Modern Little Chicken Coop

No, we did not get chickens.

I have enough animals to take care of at this zoo.

I don't think I am up to the challenge of taking on any more.

But I admit, I do dream.

Of chickens.

Well, not the chickens so much as the eggs.

Fresh eggs.

From my chickens.

Every morning.

It sounds pretty good.

Because, boy oh boy, do I love a soft boiled egg for breakfast.

Or lunch.

Or dinner.

On a salad.

With sauteed veggies.

Or on top of ratatouille.

But we're not getting our own chickens any time soon.

So what's a not-quite-ready-to-take-on-farm-animals-herself-girl to do?

Answer: find a friend who has chickens.

Enter my friend Christina and the Modern Little Chicken Coop designed and built by her husband, Jeff.

These are their chickens. (well, only one is in this picture.  they have 2)

Jeff and Christina don't live on a farm.
They live in a suburban neighborhood in the OC.  Near the beach.
Jeff is a surfboard shaper.
But they wanted chickens.
Or maybe eggs--I don't know.
So Jeff built this adorable little coop for the fluffy little chicks they got a few months ago.

It is small--just the right size for 2 chickens.
I like that the footprint does not take up a lot of space.
You could have a couple of chickens of your own, even in a small backyard.
I also like its clean, simple, modern lines.
And the colors--you know I like those!
There are plenty of places for the kiddos to get up close and personal with the chickens.
Which they love to do.

But my favorite part of this coop are these doors.
They were Avery's design input.
Avery is Jeff and Christina's 6 year old daughter.
She has an eye for design.
Those doors are egg shaped.

Get it?
Genius.
Adorable.
I wonder if Christina will let me come over and get some eggs from behind those doors?

Another great thing about this Modern Little Chicken Coop is that Jeff designed and painted it to match the aesthetic of the playhouse that he also designed and built for his kids.

You can see the corner of the playhouse behind the chicken coop.

It's green too--with an orange door.

I like that attention to detail.

They're in the same yard, sharing a space and while they are not exactly the same, they obviously go together.  

That's thinking.

But it's no surprise because both Jeff and Christina have an eye for detail. 

Their whole house is like that; full of well thought out touches so that it all works together perfectly.

So, are you inspired to get some chickens of your own?

They're all the rage these days.

All the cool kids have chickens.

And just to prove that point, I'll be showing you another friend's chicken coop later this week.

Cassie's husband Ross built her an amazing chicken coop too.

(that's Cassie of the amazing urban Pocket Square Farm and backyard dinner extraordinaire)

I can't wait to show you.

I do, after all, have a little farm girl in me.

I raised a rabbit in 4th grade.

I was in 4H and showed my rabbit at the fair.

I also worked at the library.

Man I was awesome back then.

I'm linking up to Life Made Lovely today.  

Go take a look for inspiration to start your week.

Love from,

Greta

PS  Great post over on my other blog about saying YES! to life and some great posters too.  Take a look!

House Tour: Our Living Room

At long last!  The living room tour!

I know you've all been dying for it. Ahem.  Or something like that.

Anyway, to all my new readers and followers, (thank you for following, by the way.  you make my day!) I know there has not been a lot of new content around here.

I've been pretty busy with the wee one and most of my blogging is taking place over at my other blog.

There are so many moments I want to remember in these first few weeks.

You can head over there if you want to see the other side of our life.

But first, hang out here long enough to see our living room.

It's a pretty fun spot.

I like it a lot.

Have I told you that we lived in a 600 square foot house for 8 years?

It was more of a cottage, really.

Or a shack with charm.

But what it was mostly was tiny.  In our living room we had room for a couch and that was about it.

A small couch at that.

So when we bought this house and finally had a real living room, it was really, really fun to decorate.

To our little couch, we added a coffee table and 2 orange arm chairs.

I have dreamt of a coffee table for years!

They're vintage.  No surprise, right?
In fact, the couch is one of the only new things in or living room. (7 years new that is)
Everything else is vintage, garage saled, or gifts to us.
The arm chairs were in the first season of Mad Men.  
I've never seen the show, but maybe you remember them.  
I was not real sure about them at first, but Aaron convinced me.
Now I love them.
That turquoise lamp we found at a garage sale.
It was the first thing we bought for our new living room.
Some people have said, when they first walk into our living room, "wow.  That's a big lamp."
Not sure that's a compliment.  But, whatever.

Our wall unit is from Amsterdam Modern.  They have beautiful furniture.  Check out their site.
They buy vintage furniture from Holland and ship it here.
We waited a while to find just the right piece, for the right price, to fill that big wall.
There is still a lot of empty space on those shelves, but we're filling them as we find the right things.

The trailer painting is by Aaron.  Not everyone has a huge painting of a trailer in their living room.
But not everyone has a giant swordfish hanging in their living room either.
I guess we're different that way.
That Eames chair was the first "grown up", designer piece of furniture we bought as a married couple.
We love the shape of it, the wood and also, it fit perfectly in our tiny house.
Those were the days when we could splurge on a chair like that for a Christmas gift to each other.
But we'll have it forever.

One of my favorite pieces in the living room is the credenza.
Aaron designed it to fit exactly in the one open space in the living room of our first tiny house.

He drew the legs and had them made by someone in Oklahoma who custom makes hairpin legs.
He drew up the plans to the inch to fit our tv inside so we could hide it away when we're not watching it.
Since tv is not important to us at all, we were more interested in hiding it than putting it on the wall.

The other side of the cabinet holds our movies.
Mostly Seinfeld and the Office.  We have to watch them on dvd because we get no tv channels.

Using Aaron's design, a cabinet maker friend built it for us.
He left it unfinished and Aaron attached the legs and then gave it its custom paint job.
I love the way it turned out.
I think my man is amazing.

Besides the furniture you place in your home, it is really all the other things you fill your rooms with that tell your story.
Here are some of the things that fill our living room.


In addition to loving cuckoo clocks, I love other clocks too.
That one hanging in the wall unit was a gift.  It fits so perfectly there, don't you think?

We use our wall unit as our nature table.

It is full of the things we find on our hikes and adventures in the great outdoors: pine cones, acorns, beautiful shells and birds nests.

There are lots of the heart shaped rocks my son William finds for me on every trip we take to the beach.

And yes, even the skulls he finds.  My kids love finding and identifying bones while we're on the trail.  
To find a full skull is considered a treasure.
To be honest, that big one is still staying outside until it gets cleaned off better.
But it will be inside soon.  William wants to display it.
And I'll let home because I'm nice like that.
Or crazy.

In addition to the bird collection, I also like owls.
Here they are.

I love this little guy.  
I found him at an estate sale.  He's made of vinyl and opens up.  We keep a blanket inside for cuddling on the couch and reading a book or watching Seinfeld dvds.
I really like the shape of the legs.

Another clock in some of our favorite colors.
This one was a gift from Aaron's mom and dad.  It's another favorite.

Succulents do well next to our big, sunny window.

And, of course, we have to have a stack of vintage books.
These are some of my favorite field guides.
We also always have a rotating stack of children's books on the coffee table.
I change them out every week or so for reading time throughout the day.
A room without books lacks soul.

So there you go.

I squeezed a lot out of this room didn't I?

The best part of the room, though, isn't the furniture or even all our treasures that fill it.

It's the view of the backyard through those big windows.

I can watch the kids climb the avocado tree or swing on the swing.

It sold us the moment we walked in that living room.

Even if they do let in a lot of heat on summer mornings.

We put up with it.

I'm not sure if the living room is my favorite room in our house.

I really love our kitchen.  And our schoolroom/office too.

It's hard to say.

If you haven't done so already, check out the more room tours of our house.

The links are on the side bar there.  Just click on one to take a peek.

I love looking at other people's homes and I love sharing ours with you.

As always, thanks for being here.

See you soon.

Love from,

Greta

Getting Ready for Baby Means a Room Redo

We are at 32 days and counting people.

As I have mentioned before, that means frantic cleaning and organizing of closets, drawers and especially the kids' room.

Yes, all 3 of our kids share a room.

That's 2 boys and 1 girl.

And before too much longer, there will be a fourth one in there.

Can you really fit all those kids in one room?

Yep.

Come see.

This was the big addition to the room.  The Malm dresser from IKEA.
We went shopping in Aaron's art studio to get it, which required a lot of rearranging in there for him, but it was his idea so he didn't mind.
I won't lie--not a huge fan of this piece of furniture.
I don't mind how it looks--clean lines and all that.
But the quality is sadly lacking.
It's IKEA and the truth is, $100 furniture just doesn't have the smooth gliding drawers, the heft, the drawer bottoms NOT made our of cardboard, that we all appreciate in well made furniture.
But we're making the most of what we've got and this is it.
Besides, it's big, it fits the space, has 2 drawers for each kid and most importantly, it got the clothes out of the closet and allowed me to re-organize to my crazy pregnant heart's content.


It also allowed for some redecorating.  
I'll give you a tour.


First, the dresser top.
Being that the room is for boys and girls, I have gone with a woodsy, foresty motif in here.
We all love being outdoors and trees and such, so it works.
Observe the vintage books about trees and insects.
Vintage books make great decorating accessories.

I've been collecting these animals for my kids since they were born.  They usually get one in their stocking and sometimes in their Easter basket of for their birthday.  Each one is marked with a date and name on the bottom so that when they have their own babies, I can pass them along.
I am kind of freakishly sentimental about things like that.  
I love the idea of passing things on.
And these are the kind of toys you can save for the next kids and the next and the next.
All the forest animals have been gathered for out dresser top.
And do you see the birds in the picture above?  I love them!

Here is a decoupage homage to the 3 most important men in my life.  

And that red owl is actually a bank, made from wood, from France.  We gave it to Lil for her first birthday.

Another pass-on present.

Except I kind of want to keep it for myself.  Would it be weird to get another one for me?

You can find it here.  (one of my favorite shops btw)

Moving Lilly's kitchen from this spot meant wall space opening up.
I went shopping in our poster collection and found this one we bought on a trip to Chicago about 10 years ago.
Not kidding.
Vintage reproduction of a Chicago railway sign.
Perfect combo of vintage, bright colors and woodsyness for their room.  
When I hung it, William came in and said, "Mommy, that poster looks great!"
And James said, "and I like how you used different color tacks in each corner."
Kids care about their environment--and it doesn't have to be all cartoon Transformers and Dora the Explorer just because they are kids.  Give them real, beautiful things.

There is also some other art that I made for them.
This collage shows more of the woodsy motif and also the color palette I chose for a boy/girl room.
Turquoise, orange, pink and splashes of red.
Bright, cheerful and so us.

The collage is made on part from photocopied pages of a favorite vintage book.
A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson.
It is illustrated by Alice and Marin Provensen and it is one of my TREASURES.  
Found it at a used book sale for like a $1.  (see more of their work here)

Other woodsy "art" around the room.  

A birth announcement from a friend whose seriously talented brothers always make her awesome birth announcements, a vintage Sequoia pendant found at a garage sale, and a framed, vintage, squirrel post card which inspired the woodsy motif in the first place.

You can turn most anything into art as long as it looks good.

(one of my favorite decorating tricks--these colored tacks make hanging things with tacks look waaay cuter.  i use them everywhere)

I also like to display a vintage toy or 2.  Remember this one?
It kind of works still, but mostly I love the colors and the art.

Here's Lilly's corner of the room.

Here's her wall of art.  
Another collage made by me with photocopied art from another favorite children's book and illustrator.  (his books are so amazing)
Her birth announcement framed, red polka dot bird hook and a ceramic cuckoo clock from a garage sale.  She has a lot of bird stuff cause I love to put a bird on it!

Her tiny, Snow White and the 7 dwarfs bed is made up with vintage linens: the quilt was an estate sale find for $4 and the pillowcase was made by my great grandma.

I love that.

The boys get the bunk bed.

It's huge but solid and that's good considering all the wrestling that takes place on the bottom bunk.

Wrestling is outlawed on the top bunk.

The orange "packing style" quilts are from IKEA.  I like how clean they look and how easy they are for the boys to tuck into the sides of their bed when they make the bed.

(and yes, we try to make the beds every single morning.  it makes for a saner room and mommy)

I really want more art for their side of the room but have yet to figure out how to hang it along the bottom bunk--due to all the wrestling and feet on the wall all the time.

(do your kids do that?  drives me crrraaaazzzy!)

Laminated posters?

What would a room in my house be without a garland?  
(or bunting or pendants or flags or whatever the heck you want to call them.  i love them and they make me really happy)
Made from paper, not sewn, for all you non sewers out there.  Yes, you too can have a garland.
On Lil's side the garland has more pink papers, on the boys' there is more turquoise.

I also gave the boys a spot to display their Lego creations.
Right now it s makeshift, just the shelves on the top of Lilly's kitchen, but we're going to put up a few more real shelves so they can display their other treasures too: pine wood derby cars, vintage Star Wars glasses etc.

With the addition of the dresser, we had to re-arrange the kitchen pieces.  

The fridge now sits in this little spot.  I admit it's tight, but I think it works.

It is offensive to Aaron's sense of feng shui though, so it might not last.

The main reason for all the moving about and reorganizing was really the closet.
3 kids, all their clothes and most of their toys in one closet was a bit of a disaster.
The clothes especially.
We had them in baskets that were hard for anyone but my oldest to access.
Nothing stayed neat or the least bit orderly.
Thus the dresser.
Now there are just a few hanging clothes and everything else goes in the dresser.  The kids can find their own underwear and jammies, baseball uniforms and play clothes.
It is a better system.


That, I think is the key to having kids share a room.
1.  They can't have a ton of stuff. 
For example, my kids don't have a lot of clothes--I would love to buy them more, but they won't fit and truthfully it's not in the budget.  
And really, they don't need a ton of clothes anyway.

2.  Toys must be organized in some fashion
A lot of those baskets up top are empty.  We still have space for things as we need it.  Others are filled with toys they don;t use often, like the musical instruments.
They know dress up clothes, or weapons go in the baskets on the floor and so they can clean up themselves.
Their massive collection of tiny, Playmobil people and parts are organized by theme into different bins.
They are not supposed to take them all out at the same time.
I know, I'm a toy nazi.
But when you've got knights, pirates, animal trainers and construction workers all strewn across the floor at the same time, you'd turn into a toy nazi too.

3.  Use shelves in the closet for all they're worth.

Aaron retrofitted this closet with lots of extra shelves when we moved in.  By storing almost all their toys in the closet, it frees up space in the room for them to play.

Also, we can close the closet doors and the room is clean!

4.  Get those Legos organized
If you have little boys, chances are you have Legos.
Legos are the bane of my existence.  My boys have a gazillion because their daddy had a gazillion and he saved them all.
In a tribute to my neurosis, I organized them all by color and they are stored in these plastic bins from Target under the bed. (hey, it keeps me off meds.  get off my back)
It actually does work.
When they want to build a fire station, they pull out the red box and build away. 
It's easier for them to clean up by themselves too.
I'm all about helping them do things themselves, have you noticed?

So there you go.

3 kids, 1 room, and a mommy not losing her mind from the chaos that could (and still will) erupt in there.

We are 5, soon to be 6, people living in a not that big house.

We are always looking for ways to make it work without feeling like we are crammed in here.

And most of the time, I don't feel cramped.

Especially when I remember that to much of the rest of the world, we live in a mansion.

It's only here, in the land of the McMansion, that people say things like, "4 kids in a 1950s, 3 bedroom house?  How do you do it?"

I just tell them to read the book, The Color of Water.

Which, incidentally, you should read too.  
No really, I mean it. It's a reality check and it will move you.

Hey, it's almost the weekend!  
Time for me to work on our bedroom and the baby's corner.
The crib is up.  Do you know how hard it is to find turquoise crib sheets?
The hunt is on.

Love from,

Greta


PS.  Forgot to tell you the best part. Money spent on room redo: $0!!!  
Shopped my house.
I didn't spend countless hours at my parent's house last Saturday watching HGTV for nothing.  I learned stuff.