Organizing Your Home With Baskets

Welcome to our practical Saturday post for large family living. 
This is when and where we share hints and solutions to living with a large family,
things we wish we would have known years ago when I was struggling to adjust to a bigger household,
like around child #5.

This next week I will be speaking to a group of young moms.

One thing they asked me to share was how to keep order in the home, 

so I thought we would talk about that today.

Years ago, a friend went to a women's meeting

where a mother of 10 was speaking. 

My friend came home inspired. 

I asked her what the best advise she learned there was, and she said, "Baskets!" 

I have since taken this thought on to nearly obsessive levels. 

Baskets can gather a collection of anything

and keep it in a small confined space, be handy and still look attractive. 

I use them everywhere, for everything. 

I wonder how I could keep an attractively clean home 

that contains many children and their stuff without them.

I do believe that there is a genuine happiness 

and blessing in keeping an orderly home. 

The wife who would make her home happy and permanently beautiful
must work with her hands at housewifely tasks 

which the days bring to her.

These commonplace necessities are the basis for a peaceful home. 

That may sound very unromantic, but truly, 

follow the logic through and discover it is indeed not.

JR Miller said,

"Bad housekeeping will soon drive the last vestige of romance out of any home." 

Oh my, we would not want that. 

So instead, a wife needs to find joy in the menial mundane tasks

and delight in the fun and creativity of keeping a home.

  I think it is just a matter of perspective,

and it can be done with great enjoyment. 

Baskets are a case in point. 

Using some ingenuity,

one can figure a new purpose for almost any basket she can find. 

We have school books for 7 of our children, 

and a bushel of color books and "how to draw" books to boot.

  I was thrilled when we came up with the idea to gather large baskets

on a bench to organize our school supplies for the year. 

They are now handy, not messy, and at little tike height.

My stairs basket is an essential,

as it is the place where anything that does not belong downstairs can get tossed to go up
next time a reliable sized person goes up 

and can put things away.

How can a mama possibly keep 43 pairs of shoes

plus slippers

maintained in an average coat closet, or even a large entry way?  

Baskets.

So what is a mess at your house? 

Find a basket and toss it in by category: 

papers to be filed, mail, color crayons and pencils,

board books for the little ones, safe toys for babies,

bathroom supplies, and, don't forget,

the everything-I don't- know- what- to- do- with basket. 

Every peaceful, beautiful home must have order. 

The two cannot exist without it.  

Therefore, a wife needs a substantial basis of good housekeeping

for the realization of her dreams of blissful homemaking. 

When everything in your home has an efficient place, 

the order, beauty, peace, and ease of keeping it all up 
will be attainable. 

 Baskets aplenty have really helped me maintain order amongst

lotsa people with their stuff going every which way. 

They have also made a family "5 minute pick up"  

work smoothly in our home,
 since you can toss together a whole menagerie in a basket in but a few seconds.

I hope you are now inspired today as you go about making your home

a lovely place to be. 

Happy housecleaning!