simplicity sake

limiting kids screen time...and mine too

An admission: My husband and I have recently found ourselves with a bad habit. Every morning for the past week, when we all get up in the morning, the kids (having recently learned how to work the remote control) turn on the TV and my husband and I each crack our laptops. You know, just to quickly check email, catch up on the Google Reader feeds, update our Twitter and Facebook statuses (well, that's more me than him. He's not into social networking...yet...). By the time we know it, an hour has passed and we haven't gotten anything done around the house. We still have kids to feed, to dress, to brush teeth, not to mention getting ourselves ready. What's worse, that hour has felt like it was sucked from us. I have no recollection of the time passing. Quality time spent together? Um, no.

So yesterday, while at the Campbell Farmer's Market, I relayed my concern about our developing bad habits to my husband. He was not overly concerned, but then again, he is sort of like a junkie, we both are. And I'm realizing that we need to limit our info-junkie habits, not just for us, but for the kids. Our kids are getting old enough to really need more limits in terms of their screen time - they don't watch too much, but with the addition of the computer and the Leapster, it is becoming more and more available. It is up to us, their parents, to lead by example.

Our new rule - no screen time in the morning. No TV in the morning. No email/Google Reader in the morning. How WILL we survive?!

Now, I'm not saying we are getting rid of our TV, our computers, our screens. I lot of how I view simplfying my life is in terms of using tecnology. But technology has to be used in a way that isn't draining on your Real Life.

tips & tricks: organizing kids toys

What to do with All Those Toys. Ok, so the holidays just happened. New toys were squeeled over with delight. Yay!!!! In addition to the holiday influx, it seems like it is birthday central for all my kids' friends. We seem to be in birthday season, so every weekend...and every week at school...my soon-to-be-5-year-old twins (they turn 5 this Saturday!) are getting little toys as party favors. Seriously, it is a bit crazy. So much little stuff accumulates, seemingly no matter what you do. As a result, I find myself in the midst of reorganizing my kids' toys. Want to see what I'm doing? I'll share some photos soon, but in the meantime...

Here is what I recommend:

* Before you start, gather together the following items:
- ziplock bags
- grocery bags
- pen
- sticky notes

1. Set aside some time. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to get a project done that has to be completed in one sitting or else you have to start all over again. This can be one of those projects. Make sure you have at least a couple of hours available to get this done. You may decide to just do one area at a time (inside, outside, etc.), so that its more manageable with your schedule.

2. Take care of the kids. If you have little ones, say under 3 years old, organize a playdate with some friends or Daddy/Nana/a babysitter to take the kids to the park. It is really tough to sort and organize when the kids are undoing everything you are trying to do! If you have older kids, get them involved in the process. It will be a good learning experience for them and they will be more likely to keep up the system you set up for them if they have some say in the process and help to make it happen.

3. Assess what you have. Get everything into one place, to the extent you can. Go through your house and find all the little items that need matching up and/or sorting. Grab a basket or a bag to collect things and then put them all in one room. It might be better NOT to put all the stuff in the room that the toys will ultimately be stored in (for instance, your kids' rooms). Maybe put it all in your living room or your bedroom, anywhere you will have the space available to spread out and see what you have.

4. Sort. Go through the stuff and sort it into 4 piles: 1) Keep, 2) Sell, 3) Give away and 4) Throw away. 

- Keep: For things that you are keeping, look to see if you already have a good organization solution for that type of toy. If you do, put it away where it goes. If you don't, gather the pieces together and put them in a temporary bag (for instance, a ziplock bag or grocery bag, depending on the size).
- Sell - For toys you want to sell, put these items in your garage or another storage area. Try to gather all the pieces together (including any directions) and put them in ziplock bags. Assess whether you need to clean anything and put a sticky note on those items if you don't have the time to clean it right now. If something is ready to sell, get out your camera and take some photos of it RIGHT NOW. Then when you're ready to list it on Craig's List, eBay, your mom's group or whatever, you'll be ready to go.
- Give away - Simply put these toys in a bag or a box. Make sure they are not really throw away items. No one wants to receive toys that are broken, missing parts, or just plain worn out.
- Throw away - Hooray! This one is easy - toss it in a garbage bag and you're done. Be sure to recycle where you can.

5. Try NOT to go shopping.  Now that you know what you have, you can see what kind of containers you need. Look around the house for baskets, bins, etc. that can be reused for your purposes. If you really find you need some new containers, its ok to go shopping. Look for inexpensive solutions that are not necessarily labeled as "toy storage". For instance, The Container Store has shoe boxes for only $1.99 and up that work great for small toys with lots of pieces - they are clear so you and the kids can easily see what is inside them and they stack nicely on shelves.

6. Put away. Group like items (e.g, doll clothes, cars, train tracks and trains, action figures) and put them each in a box. Ta-da! If you want to make labels for your boxes, this is a great way to remember what goes where...and it helps your kids learn to read too! For example, put a label on the side of your car box that says "CARS" and also has an picture of a toy car. This will be a good visual cue for them and will help them to remember that the idea is not to mix all the stuff back together!

7. Train the kids. Work with your kids on establishing a routine of taking out one thing at a time to play with and to clean it up before moving on to the next thine. Make it a part of your bedtime routine to clean up all the toys before reading books or whatever it is you do right before bed.

8. Have a mechanism for failure. There will be times when your kids will get something new that doesn't fit in your system or when your babysitter is over and doesn't know where something goes. Have a small basket in our living room that is available for "I don't know where this goes" toys. Aim to put things that accumulate in it away each night. If you do need to add something additional, you'll at least have a temporary place for it.

9. Play! Now that you have a system for your kids' toys, if you can keep it up, you'll be able to enjoy the relief that comes with not tripping over toys (well, at least constantly!) and you and your kids can JUST PLAY.

Now go have some fun!

Original Simplicity Sake post.

the 3 r's plus 1 = 4 r's: reduce, reuse, recycle...re-think?

The waste hierarchy of reduce, reuse, recycle sometimes gets stuck in our heads from the Jack Johnson "The 3 Rs" song on the Curious George soundtrack. Having kids that are headed to kindergarten next year and are working on pre-reading skills, we are always talking about letters and numbers, pointing them out, trying to spell things, counting things. Is 3 really still the magic number? Well, yes. But maybe there it is a 3+ or a 4, depending on how you look at it. The plus or the 4th R being to "re-think."

In our house, we are...

reducing by simply accumulating less stuff. Call it anti-consumerism if you want to. We aren't stopping spending completely, of course. But we are reducing what we buy in general. Our pantry has less in it, as we are trying to buy more fresh, local food and less packaged junk. We are trying to resist the urge to "keep up with the Joneses"* by not buying the latest and the greatest fad products and clothes. We are trying to focus our spending on things that will be more sustainable and that really matter to us. It is tough sometimes - Christmas got us back into our old spending habits to some degree - but we're definitely doing better.

*although in this economy, will keeping up with the Joneses become a competition to see who can use less and be the most thrifty? 

reusing by finding a new use for something in our own household or in someone else's. We have always traded kid clothes with family and friends as they all grow and new babies are born. We bring our reusable grocery bags to Trader Joe's (raffle tickets - I will win one day!) We are going through our house and garage right now and selling or donating things that we don't use anymore. We are eBay and Craigslist machines!

recycling by not just tossing stuff in the garbage. Apart from the usual sorting of bottles and cardboard and paper from our garbage, we take milk and egg cartons to school for use in school projects. I signed up for our local Freecycle - a great way to both get rid of items and to get items for free in your community.

Now for the re-thinking.  Re-thinking involves thinking about what resources you are using and how this waste can be reduced. For us, we have to think about this some more. Well, we have to re-think.

one chair

Having three kids aged almost 5 and under and living in a very small house (under 1200 square feet for a family of 5) in Silicon Valley, our living room/dining room/kitchen (it is all one room - a"great room" concept, if you will) has been overrun with kid stuff for the last 5 years. First it was a pack-n-play, 2 swings, 2 bouncy seats, an exersaucer, etc. when we had the twins. Then it was less baby equipment, but more toys - blocks and tents and play houses and stuffed animals and.... After that came the coloring table and the train table. Now we're at a place where we're ready to take back our adult space to some degree. Not that the kids won't still have their stuff in the living room - the coloring/activity table will stay. And they have a kids computer table now that will stay. But all the toys are going in their rooms. The toys have been scaled back too - there are just less of them.

And herein lies the joy - for the first time in 5 years, we have one chair that is purely an adult chair. Well, ok, the kids can sit in in too. But it really looks adult. It is meant to be purely a reading area - or maybe to look out the window and just think - an oasis in the great room that can easily be crowded by kids and noise and life.  The chair comes from my parents who don't have the space in their little cottage to use it right now. They bought the chair after making the switch about 10 years ago or so from heavy bulky furniture to lightweight furniture, as they have moved often in their lives. There is a reading lamp and we are in the process of setting up a side table to hold our magazines and a cup of tea or coffee (or wine...). We plan to get a new cushion for the back at some point - or just recover the one that is there. All in all, a very affordable way to completely change this space and establish a little place of our own.

** As aside - the bookcase behind the chair is one of our great finds in organization for the kids stuff. The 3 baskets are for each of our 3 kids. Inside are the shoes they wear most often and their school backpacks. It is an easy way for them to find their stuff (and put it away) and all that random kid stuff that used to sit by the door in piles, or be lost amongst the rest of the house's chaos, is easily disguised. The bookcase and baskets are from IKEA and only cost about $70. Very affordable.

about simplicity sake

Simplicity Sake is about getting it all done, letting some of it go, and focusing on what really matters.

What exactly are we interested in?
A lot: voluntary simplicity, technology, home organization, productivity, sustainability, family life, travel, wellness. We like to enjoy the good things in life. So let go of that stress (deep breath in... and out...), pull up a chair and join us.

Who are we?
Simplicity Sake was founded by twin sisters who live much too far away from each other and their mother. Linsey is a media and technology lawyer, mother of three young kids (including her own set of twins), and recovering "yes-girl" who lives in Silicon Valley, California, USA. You can also find Linsey at: Me Too You, Mad About Multiples, and Silicon Valley Moms Blog. Robin is a software designer, mother of two young kids and recovering perfectionist who lives in St. John's, Newfoundland. Linsey and Robin's mother, Karin, is retreat and workshop leader and long-time practicer of voluntary simplicity.