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advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #ZiplocSavesSpace #CollectiveBias
I thought, “It’s a chilly December
evening. We need a snugly blanket.”
That was my last thought before the avalanche.
The avalanche of blankets and hats and
spring jackets that were long past their wearing season.
Our snugly evening on the couch with a
Christmas movie was delayed by putting away the piles of closet paraphernalia. Again.
Big
Family in a Small House Storage Problems
When you’ve got six people living in a
house with small closets, you tend to have closet avalanches.
Now, let me mention: We’ve got four kids. That’s not a ton by some families’
standards. But, we do get the “Are
they all yours?!!?” question daily.
We get the amazed looks of “WOW.”
when my husband and I are out for a dinner date and we casually mention that we
have four little ones at home with the babysitter.
A family with four kids is not HUGE, but
they sure do come with a lot of stuff.
When you have four kids, you need to
organize. There is just no way around
it. Otherwise, you’ve got bathing suits in the winter gloves bin and baseball
equipment leaning on the sleds.
Now, I will be the first to admit: I need
a lot of work in the organizing department.
Hence the closet avalanche that happens every time I open the front
closet. (And the fact that we DO have
baseball equipment smack dab beside the sled.)
More big family-isms:
●
You get asked
every day: Are you done? Are they all yours? You sure do have your hands full!
●
You go through a.
lot. of milk. A lot.
●
The grocery bill
is a large percentage of your paycheck.
●
Younger kids wear
the older kids’ clothes. They love going
through garbage bags of old clothes…garbage bags that are not labelled and
have size 9 months winter clothes mixed with 3T summer stuff. Yeah, I definitely need organizing help.
●
They are all
hungry at the same time. And they are
all hungry at different times.
●
A kitchen full of
kids all talk at the same time…and it is loud.
●
They wake each
other up. Every single day.
●
A big family has
built-in friends. And great argument
practice.
●
A big family has
a lot of socks. That don’t match.
Our house has itty bitty closets. Granted, the folks who lived here before us
raised NINE kids in this house. And
every day I wonder “How????” Our front closet is as wide as three of
my kids standing shoulder to shoulder.
And it’s loaded with four kids worth of winter coats, jackets,
umbrellas, hats, mittens, the vacuum that
MUST-be-on-the-main-living-level-when-you’ve-got kids, bike helmets, backpacks,
a full sized American flag, and all of the other THINGS that accumulate in your
front closet.
Storage
idea for big families
The latest closet avalanche was the final
straw. I HAD to do something about the
organizing. We need more snugly winter
evenings on the couch with our big family and less time spent rearranging.
There is just something about fitting
four kids on a couch under a fuzzy blanket and watching kids Christmas movies
as a family that makes your heart swell in the memory-making kind of way.
A mom gets excited about storage.
I grabbed a giant pile of blankets,
afghans my Grandmother had made, spring jackets, picnic blankets, summery couch
throws…and dumped them on the floor.
Four of the four children jumped in that pile. Of course. A pile of blankets on the floor
just asks for jumping in.
I grabbed a few boxes of Ziploc® Space Bags® that I had found
at Lowe’s.
When we had shopped at Lowes, we were
immediately greeted at the door and shown a car grocery cart. The Lowe’s employee seemed to notice my full
hands, but politely omitted the exclamation of “Wow! Your hands are
full!”
(A mom of a big
family LOVES when a person clearly sees their hands are full and does not point
that fact out, but instead actually helps!)
I had two excited helpers (aged 4 and 1) as we looked
for our Ziploc® Space Bags®. It was easy to find them, right in the
storage department of the store. When we got to the correct aisle, I showed
them an example of the box, and my preschooler had fun searching for them on
the shelves. They were right above their eye level, and with one look up, they
were able to spot them.
Getting that giant pile of stuff into
compact packages was so simple that even a distracted Mom with four little
(loud) voices in her ear could easily package away closet stuff.
I am in love with these Ziploc®Space Bags®. I put a pile of
blankets into one and sealed up the zipper.
I attached the vacuum (which was conveniently in the little closet that
I just emptied), and within seconds, I had an easy to carry/stack/slide package
(*compared to
uncompressed storage volume) that I could put away until
spring. They are waterproof, airtight,
and reusable. And my stack of spring
jackets are out of the front closet!
I packaged away spring blankets, jackets,
and my Grandmother’s gorgeous afghans. And I took a giant sigh of relief at the
clean closet!
A few tips and more information about
Ziploc® Space Bags®:
Protects against bugs, moths, dirt,
mildew, and odors.
Don’t fill past the “do not fill” line.
Keep bags out of reach of children.
Product not for use with food.
They are airtight, waterproof, water
tight, and reusable.
Be sure to choose the right bags for the
right usage occasions. There are storage options for comforters, shirts, and
sweaters. Although you are not limited to those items. The Ziploc® Space Bags®
are perfect for seasonal clothing, pillows, blankets, and many other items.
We now have a cleared out little closet
that is ready for the comings and goings of six people. And, better than that:
we’ve got the snugly blankets we need for cozy winter family nights without
closet avalanches!
. Cut a small square of the glitter felt. Ours were 3″x 3″ and big enough to fit on our bean bags. Cutting the felt is a great proprioception activity for the hands. 
. 
. 
to press the marshmallow fondant sensory dough into candied letters. 
