Monday, January 21, 2008

Make Room for Baby

Before you welcome your new bundle of joy home, you need to prepare. This can include baby proofing your house, top to bottom. But it also has its fun points too! Preparing your baby’s nursery can be a lot of fun. If you are inexperienced with creating a nursery that’s user-friendly, then you may need some tips. Everyone will have advice for you. We’re going to discuss the things that you may not have considered about your nursery set up. Don’t fret; just keep these few basic points in mind and you’ll have a wonderfully welcoming, usable nursery for your new baby.

The first thing to think about is your baby’s sleeping situation. You want a modern crib and not too much bedding. Check on current safety standards before you purchase either. When you get your crib and bedding home, it should be the first thing that you put into the room. Consider your placement wisely. Often the place that seems the best isn’t the best at all. Better to consider why you might want the crib in a certain place now rather than finding out later that it wasn’t such a good idea. Then you might end up rearranging the whole room.

The first thing to consider is sunlight. The crib needs to be where the baby isn’t going to get a ray of sunlight or intense heat when the sun comes up in the morning. This is especially important if your windows don’t have UVA/UVB sunlight protection. Little babies can sunburn very easily. The next consideration is noise. A squeaky door can interrupt precious sleeping time. Experiment in the room with your television on. See where the quietest place is. If the nursery is at the end of your hallway, then television noise from the living room can be amplified into the baby’s room.

Many parents choose to put a single bed for a grown-up into the nursery as well. If you have good storage area, then you might want a cot in the baby’s room. This way, if the baby is sick or just needs you in the room, you’ve got somewhere that you can relax and sleep. Just make sure that if you have a cot or other folding bed, that it is where the baby can never get to it. A chain lock up high on a closet door is a good option for keeping the closet off limits.

You can really make space in the room by utilizing an off-limits closet. You can easily install a medicine cabinet up high in the closet to keep all of the essentials close at hand. Use childrens hangers to hang special outfits up high. You might even decide to install shelving for all of your other baby clothes needs. Not having a dresser is a money saving, safe, space saving option for parents looking to maximize space.


About the Author: Ron Maier is the owner of Only Kids Hangers, a leading provider of childrens hangers. The right childrens clothes hangers really make the difference in kid's retail or home organization. For more information, please visit www.onlykidshangers.com.

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Monday, January 14, 2008

My Kid's Cool Closet

Sometimes your kid’s closet can be a nightmare. Kids are notorious for destroying the things that you would like to keep organized. If you’re looking for an interesting kid’s closet idea, then you’ve come to the right place. There are all kinds of organizers out there that can help your kid keep it together.

Start by giving the entire closet a make-over. This can be something that you do with your child. Make it fun! Encourage your child to pull everything out and completely empty the closet. Painting the inside of the closet can make it more interesting for your child to keep things in there. It may sound silly, but personalizing a small space for your child can help them to feel more special and involved. Let them pick the color. Even if it’s something wild, most people will never see it, so let you child be creative. Validating their choices is the first step to developing self esteem.

For children in school, a daily organizer can be fun and encourage them to take care of their things. This also makes things easier on you. You can help your child lay out school clothes for the week. It’s another activity that you can do together on a regular basis. Make sure that socks, underwear, pants and shirts are all in the cubby for the day that you’re planning. You may even check the weather together beforehand and ask your child to make informed decisions about what to wear on what day. Take every opportunity that you can to teach your child and encourage independence.

Another good idea for creating a fun closet is to get a hanging clothes hamper. These are really lightweight and don’t take up any space on the closet floor. Dirty clothes have a special place to go that’s fun and interesting to a child. They come in a lot of colors and some are available with characters. These are great for teaching small children where dirty clothes should go. For girls, you can also install a hair accessory organizer. This is a fun way to keep up with all of those hair ties, bows and barrettes. Most kids like having little special cubbies for each of their things. Shoe pocket organizers can also be used for hats and gloves.

Top it all off with some special interesting hangers that are made just for kids. They’re available in all sorts of interesting shapes, sizes and colors. You can even get glamorous beaded ones! Every little thing that you can include in your child’s closet to make them feel special is going to boost their self esteem and encourage them to stay organized.

Make the whole closet make-over a joint effort. Ask lots of questions and validate your child’s choices as often as possible. Decorating a closet together is a unique way for you to bond. You don’t have to spend a lot of money on the project, just keep encouraging your child to come up with new ideas on how to make the closet special. You’ll have so much fun together and your lives will become more organized in the process!

About the Author: Ron Maier is the owner of Only Kids Hangers, a leading provider of childrens hangers. The right childrens clothes hangers really make the difference in kid's retail or home organization. For more information, please visit www.onlykidshangers.com.

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Motivation for your Kid's Organization

Kid’s closets can be a real challenge. They are usually crammed with toys and clean clothes that have been pulled down off of the hangers and mixed with the dirty ones. Kids are notorious for trying on a few different outfits before they decide on one, leaving a mountain of laundry in their wake. This can be very frustrating for parents that are just trying to keep their household running smoothly. There’s nothing worse than opening your kid’s closet and discovering that everything you hung is now wrinkled up in a heap on the floor, mixed with dirty clothes, and disguising all of those little pointy toys that you are sure to step on in your attempt to fix the mess. Enough is enough already. It’s time to get in there and make a change. Your goal now is to have everything that they need within their reach and create some sort of a system that they’ll be inclined to stick to. This can be a tricky task, but not an impossible one.

Kids thrive on motivation. Keep your child’s personality in mind when tackling their closet. What makes sense to an adult may not be sensible to a child. Simple decorations or signs can motivate them to follow instructions. Try putting signs or pictures that indicate clean or dirty clothes on small laundry baskets near the closet. If they try something on and can’t reach the hanger again, then they should put it in the clean laundry basket. If they wear something for any length of time, it goes in the dirty basket. Be creative by putting a picture of your child covered in chocolate or mud on the dirty basket and an opposing picture of cleanliness, such as a bubble bath photo on the clean basket. If your child thinks that the pictures are funny, then they’re way more likely to stick to the system.

The next step is to put a low bar for hanging clothes down on their level. It’s usually a good idea to keep a high bar for things that you really don’t want them to pull down, such as dresses or suits. Installing a low bar can give them the feeling that it is something special just for them, making them proud of having the responsibility of keeping their clothes on this special bar. Use a plastic shower curtain rod cover to make it a bright color. They’re very inexpensive and can be cut to fit any hanging rod. Dress it up and stress how it’s just for them. You can even get special children’s hangers for their closet. Color coordinated children’s clothes hangers can motivate your child to keep things hung in a color pattern, such as pink, purple, blue, pink, purple, blue. The idea is to make them think that it is fun. Children’s clothes hangers are now available in beaded versions, funky shapes and colors that can make your challenge a little easier. Have fun with it and keep your child involved in the activity. You’ll have a fun project, a little bonding time and maybe make your life a little easier in the process.


About the Author: Ron Maier is the owner of Only Kids Hangers, a leading provider of childrens hangers. The right childrens clothes hangers really make the difference in kid's retail or home organization. For more information, please visit www.onlykidshangers.com.

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