Large-ish Home Organization

These type of posts keep coming up on my Pinterest Feed:

Things about how to keep a small house clean in 9 easy steps.  

Or how this family of 14 live comfortably in a 900 square foot house. Or something like that.  

Don't get me wrong.  Good for them. 

But here's my problem...

That's pretty much the furthest thing from my mind. 

I have a honkin' Queen Anne Victorian style home with 5 floors when you count the basement and the attic. 

Small space is the last thing I am thinking of.  

Seriously, sometimes the last thing of the day because I often dream of a smaller space.  

Ah, to be all cozy in a teeny post-stamp home with a tidy little garden...

But my dreams are interrupted by someone paging me on the intercom from the third floor asking if lunch is ready...yet. 

Don't get me wrong I love our home.  I love the freedom we have to go into another room and work on our own thing in our own space when we need that. Or that we have a craft table and a formal dining room table to use for projects, eating, and other things. I love that my children don't have to share a room, that they have a niche of this world to call their own...to escape to when they need.  I think that is important.

 I love having our own classroom away from the rest of the house with an honest to goodness door that I can close when we are done and not have to look at or think about or pick up before we can eat.  I've spent many a time trying to think of creative ways my friends can have a space like that in their own homes so I get it, it's a good thing to have.  

I feel very blessed to have a craft room with a place to store fabric and craft supplies, a place to have our sewing machine set up and open permanently.  

And I am not kidding you, our daughter was 7 before she realized that our home had a balcony.  Like Lucy and the wardrobe containing Narnia, she apparently had to get to that part of the house to discover the fun.  

But sometimes the blessing can feel like a curse.  Especially when I'm in the classroom on the 3rd floor with something that needs to be put away in the basement.  

Great... 

Just great...

So my pinterest searches lately have been to try to discover ways to get things where they need to be efficiently without me having to sprint down and up three flights of stairs to get a roll of duct tape to it's home.  

I mean, seriously, the struggle is real around here...

So here are some things that I have come up with because apparently Pinterest hates you if you have a large home.  Pinterest must live in an apartment or something. 

Some of these may be just general organization ideas but it's my blog so I can put them in there.  These are just works for us with a big house: 

*stair organizers- my Aunt Jan MADE this for us...isn't it just the cutest thing you've ever seen?  I dump all kind of junk in here.  On one step I put Cal's stuff and on another I put Emma's and then they know where to look to find things when I tell them to take their things upstairs.  A friend of mine said she found hers at Pottery Barn.  And Pottery Barn is pretty awesome.  And my friends house looks amazing so you know, two reasons to go get some stair baskets.  

*Tote bags- In our homeschool classroom I keep a bag for each floor (so in our case, a bag for the basement, a bag for the main level, and a bag for the second floor) on the newel post at the top of the stairs and put things in it that need to go down.  When a bag is full-ish I take it down and put the items away.  It certainly makes it more efficient than taking one thing down at a time every time I find something that is a stray. 

*A Home for Everything- I try very hard to go by "a place for everything and everything in it's place".  

Create cleaning supply kits for each floor.  It is so much easier than lugging everything from story to story.  This is what I keep under the sink on the second floor.  I have some more bathroom specific cleaners in there too but I keep this basket so if I am cleaning a bedroom I can just grab this and go there and have everything I need.  Of course I have the bulk of our cleaning supplies in the laundry room and in the kitchen on the first floor.  But even on the third floor I keep clorox wipes, paper towels, and windex to clean.  Think about what you always find yourself having to go back downstairs or upstairs to get and keep those things where you actually need them.

Keep toys on each floor.  A friend had this tip for me and I already do it out of necessity that I don't have a specific spot that is big enough for ALL of their toys.  Because the third floor is our classroom I tend to keep the educational toys, games, and puzzles up there.  That way when I need them to listen but they are distracted I can have them work on a quiet learning toy and still stay engaged.  On the second floor in each of their rooms I have them keep things that they don't like others to play with.  Emma keeps her American Girls, Lalaloopsys, those girly type of things.  Cal keeps legos, circuit boards, swords, those things.  They both keep all of their stuffed animals in their rooms.  In the picture above is where Emma keeps her crochet projects and her stuffed animals.  Downstairs in their playroom (lovingly called "the blue room") we keep toys that they play with together.  Imaginext, blocks, craft supplies, Rokenbocks, etc. 

I find that it is easy to do have all toys in their own area.  It is super hard to know where to find something or where to put it away if you have for example, Barbies, on all three floors of the house.  If Emma keeps them in her bedroom then when I find a stray I know exactly where it should go. 

Okay so those are the meaty ways I've come up with.  But I am dying for more. So please share with me what works, what doesn't what you love and what hurts.  I need some more ideas to get this to work because it's always an up hill or up a flight of stairs battle here.  :)