The Great Container Crisis

(science chemicals and glassware on a high shelf)

Containers. We love them. We hate them. We have them. We need them. We fill them. The kids empty them. Literally.

Seriously, containers can be wonderful tools to store our stuff. But, how does one make the most efficient use of containers? You already have the most important container for organizing. It’s your trashcan! Come on, admit it, you have way too much stuff. Don’t worry; you’re in good company. Most of us have too much stuff. Before we can even get around to utilizing the fun, cool containers and the labeler, we need to go through all the stuff objectively. One word of caution: don’t do this all at once and don’t do it when you have PMS (oops, that was more than one word). Choose one bookshelf, desktop, toy box, or spot on the floor with which to start. Dump all the stuff on the floor. Get your kids to help with this step; they will love it!

Go through it piece by piece and decide if you really need it. When was the last time you used it? Have your kids outgrown it? Who cares if you spent money on it; if it’s not serving a purpose, trash it or pass it on to someone who really does need it. If it passes the really need test, put it in a laundry basket or larger cardboard box. If it doesn’t belong in that area or room, put it away where it does belong. Yes, right away! If you just have to keep it but you know you’re not going to use it all the time (but be real here!), make yourself a sentimental box or a save-it-for-the-younger-kids box and store it properly. When you’re through with a pile, shelf, or box, then the fun can begin.

You might want to wait until you go through the whole bookshelf, toy box, corner of the room, etc., before moving onto the next step. With all the stuff temporarily out of your storage space, take a good look at your space and your stuff. Do you need large containers? Will large containers fit into your space? Do you need small baskets? Do you have containers already that will fit into your space and hold your stuff? Look around for shoeboxes, unused baskets, and other no-cost storage ideas. Empty (cleaned!) soup cans make great pencil holders. If you are able or need to go buy containers, MEASURE EVERYTHING first! You’d hate to get home with beautiful, large baskets to go on your bookcase only to find that they’re too tall.

Okay, you’ve got your stuff cleaned out and your containers at the ready. The next step is to fill them! Make sure you put only one type of stuff into each container. For instance, math counters do not belong in the same container with presidential flash cards. Mixing spoons should be separate from Rubbermaid containers. There, wasn’t that fun?! The next step is to label your containers. If you don’t have a labeler, that’s fine. I don’t even have one! (That’s my true confession for the day.) I borrowed a friend’s labeler. You can use masking tape, blank address labels, note cards, or a sharpie right on the container (if it’s plastic or cardboard). Make sure your labels are neat, succinct, and facing in such a way that they’ll be visible when you put the containers on the shelf or stack them.

Okay, now for the show and tell portion of this post. Don’t be discouraged because I have lots of shelves and baskets. Please! Trust me, I could find many things in your house that I’d rather have than what’s in my house—the grass is always greener and all that jazz. Anyway, the point is that everyone’s house is different and everyone’s storage needs are different. As your sort through your stuff and look critically at the space you have available, you’ll find your container groove. Here’s my groove:

These built-in cabinets came with the house, and I've got blank CD-Rs, extra o ffice supplies, stationary, and similar items in the labeled containers.

Below are small items such as pencils, paper clips, sticky tack, index cards, rubber bands, etc.

Every type of paper (lined, graph, card stock)
has its own tray. Several related colors of
construction p aper share a tray. Notebooks,
folders, and sheet protectors line up, too.

In these containers are history & geography games and flashcards, science fun stuff (no chemicals), art supplies, math stuff, and the Math-U-See blocks. Of course, each container has only one type of stuff in it.

I can't believe I almost forgot to mention the most important piece of advice! If you (or your kids) take something out of a container to use, PUT IT BACK in the same spot! I know, that's a duh comment, but I figured I'd throw it out there anyway. It's lots easier to put it back right away when you only have one or two things out than when you've got a ton of stuff out from various containers. Just sayin'. Leave me a note with questions about your space or comments about how your container crisis is being solved.

Make a Wall Timeline Without a Wall

You’ve all seen them. Many of you have drooled over them. What are they? They’re large timelines covering an entire wall or walls—or even an entire schoolroom. You know the ones I mean: they’re the really cool timelines around the perimeter of the really cool, official schoolrooms (as opposed to the kitchen where many of you do school). You know the rooms I mean: the beautiful, organized, separate schoolrooms with a desk for each child, file cabinets, and bookshelves filled to the brim with books, manipulatives, binders, and tools to make learning and teaching easy. Yep, we’ve all drooled over those rooms at one time or another. But, what if you don’t have a room like that? What if you don’t have enough wall space, either on one wall or around the perimeter, in order to do a wall timeline? What if your husband (or you!) objects to having the timeline in the kitchen or in the living room?

The answer is to put your timeline on a door. Click here to read the rest of my article in today's Heart of the Matter Online. You'll find a complete how-to, helpful links, and another detailed picture.

What's on a Shelf?

Have you ever wondered what kinds of resources a writer or an editor uses? Have you been wanting to kick your blog up to the next level? If you've aspired to that lofty-sounding title of published author, I'm going to give you a peek onto my reference shelf to give you a boost along the way.

The most important book to have on any reference shelf is a good dictionary. I know, that's a let down for those of you expecting a great secret! Seriously, you'd be surprised by how many times I reach for it while I'm writing and editing. The gold standard is Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition. The next most important resource I have on my shelf is Roget's International Thesaurus, Revised & Updated Sixth Edition. Just so you know, it's about the same thickness as the dictionary. Think how boring your writing would be if you used the same words over and over again. A sufficient thesaurus will expand your vocabulary and make your writing much more interesting. Another must have for a writer and an editor is a good grammar handbook. I have several, but one of the more accessible options is The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation by Jane Straus. Strunk and White's The Elements of Style is another necessity on every writer's (and editor's) shelf.

Here is where the road divides between the author and the editor. Let's go on the author road first and take a look at those books. Both The Christian Writer's Manual of Style and Christian Writers' Market Guide (2009 edition) are indispensable for not only appropriate style guidelines in the Christian genre, but also for where to send your writings in order to get published. Both books contain helpful tips and articles for newbies as well as seasoned pros. Since I'm fairly new to writing for publishing, I've invested in a few helpful tools. I'm currently working my way through Ethel Herr's An Introduction to Christian Writing. It has not only helpful ideas, but also exercises to work through that reinforce the concepts introduced. For the Write Reason by Marybeth Whalen (of Proverbs 31 Ministries) provides a month's worth of encouraging devotionals in the form of stories of the journeys that thirty-one published, Christian authors took on their path to the printed world.

On the editor's shelf are several more style books, even though every publication usually has its own specialized style sheet. For general books outside of the academic realm, The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th Edition is the mainstay. Newspapers and magazines tend to follow the guidelines set forth in Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, otherwise known as the APA style guide. (I do not actually own this one.) Colleges tend to use the MLA Handbook. Many of the differences between these style guides are formatting and citations, so you will find that rules for things such as hyphenation are the same throughout all styles. If you're editing for academic theology, you'll need The SBL Handbook of Style as it pertains especially to quoting and using ancient (biblical) texts.

There you have it: the main reference books I use to edit and to write. Oops, I almost forgot the most important book: The Bible. While I'm not trying to toot my own horn, I will list my credits here just so you know I've got a few of them. I write about once a month for Heart of the Matter Online, a wonderful resource for Christian homeschooling parents. I've had a few articles show up in Currclick's weekly newsletter, and I write the bi-weekly newsletter for Codex Publishing. As far as editing goes, I'm a professional, freelance editor, and I mostly edit books for publishers, although I have edited some other projects. Before you go putting me on a pedestal, just let me mention that I also have an email box full of rejection letters from magazine editors. I have definitely NOT arrived yet (where ever there may be!), and am still a sojourner on the path to being a published author. Please let me know if you've found this list helpful and what steps you're taking on your journey towards getting your writing published.