Organizing For an Easy Summer with Julie from The Mom Survival Guide -- Episode 142

Let’s get ORGANIZED to have a great summer. A bit of preparation in advance can totally set your family up for a fun stress-free summer!

Today’s guest is Julie from The Mom Survival Guide. Julie has been doing more than just “surviving” motherhood for the last 15 years, she has been thriving as a stay at home mom. So to help other moms bypass the learning curve, she created The Mom Survival Guide Website to share what she has learned with moms who are just starting out. Her main focus is home management because she believes that with less mess comes less stress and more freedom to do the fun things in life. Check out her Declutter Checklist – https://themomsurvivalguide.com/declutter-checklist/

Big thanks to our sponsor The Organized Home it’s amazing how just some simple organizing systems can make life SO much easier. Get started today!

In this episode

Making a bucket list

Switching out seasonal items

Decluttering

Switching out toys for younger children

Other things that might interest you

Producer: Drew Erickson

Check out my other household tips podcasts:

I love having it all in one spot.... everything is right there.

Transcript

[00:00:00.070] – Hilary Erickson

Hey, guys, welcome back to the Pulling Curls Podcast. Today on episode 142, we’re talking about summertime, summertime, some summertime, summertime, and getting organized so that we can have an awesome time. Let’s untangle it.

[00:00:22.950] – Hilary Erickson

Hi, I’m Hilary Erickson, curly head behind the Pulling Curls Podcast, where we untangle pregnancy, parenting, home, and even travel. We know there’s no right answer for every family, but hopefully we can spark some ideas that will work for yours. Life tangled just like my hair.

[00:00:44.710] – Hilary Erickson

Okay.

[00:00:45.110] – Hilary Erickson

Before we get started, I want to read a recent review that we got. Remember, reviews are like little tiny diamonds that make my day sparkle, and I absolutely love them. I want to thank Emma Hamblin for leaving a review that said great advice and lots of fun. I love Hillary and the Pulling Curls Podcast. She offers helpful advice on pregnancy, life, family and organization skills. She does it with great guests and her amazing sense of humor. I always enjoy listening each week. Thank you so much. Mmhm. I really appreciate it, guys. I love reviews so much. I love them almost as much as a clean house, but not quite. Thank you.

[00:01:14.660] – Hilary Erickson

Today’s guest is the mom behind the Mom Survival Guide, where she teaches moms to thrive, not just survive. She has been a stay at home mom for 15 years and she is helping moms bypass the learning curve. I want to introduce today’s guest, Julie.

[00:01:28.750] – Hilary Erickson

Do you ever just feel like it’s unfair that some people can have company over at a moment’s notice? Their house is just super easy to clean up and they can relax on the couch with Netflix where you feel like you always have things to do around your house that can totally be you. The Organized Home is all new in 2021. We’re talking about decluttering zones, organization systems that actually work. We’ve got assignments and challenges. I hope you’ll join us. You can use coupon code UNTANGLED. Look for the Organized Home link in the show notes.

[00:01:58.690] – Hilary Erickson

Hey, Julie, welcome to the Pulling Curls Podcast.

[00:02:01.110] – Julie

Hilary, thanks for having me.

[00:02:02.870] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah, I am really excited about this. I actually had a guest earlier. We talked about making summer fun for moms, and one of the ways you could do it is organizing, like, just getting prepared for summer.

[00:02:14.240] – Julie

Yeah, definitely. I think that moms want to try to enjoy their summer just as much as they want their kids to. So getting organized beforehand really helps.

[00:02:24.100] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. I will say I’d been really good about organizing before summer. And then when COVID hit and it was like summer had already started, I was like, it’s like summer and I am not prepared at all. And that made it so much worse for me personally. Right.

[00:02:35.980] – Julie

I can’t tell you how many times we get to the end of summer. And I’m thinking, okay, we didn’t do half the stuff that I wanted to do, so I really do like to get organized beforehand.

[00:02:46.760] – Hilary Erickson

All right. Let’s get some tips for these listeners. What are some good tips to organize for summer? Yeah.

[00:02:51.760] – Julie

So one is just like I said, I can’t tell you how many summers I’ve gotten to the end of summer and thought, oh, my gosh, we didn’t do anything that we were planning to do. So before summer hits, I just like to get some things on my calendar and to do that, I brainstorm with the kids beforehand. So that way we are all kind of on the same page. If they’ve heard of a place that’s fun to go and I haven’t heard of it, they can tell me we make a big list, and then I try to schedule that into our week. So we have a few free things. We’ll have a few places that we go that aren’t free, but we kind of try to get all the good stuff in.

[00:03:25.520] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. How early do you try and do that bucket list?

[00:03:28.430] – Julie

I mean, if I’m being really good, then I would say I try to do it around April or May, but sometimes it comes down to, oh, we just got back from vacation and we need to have some things to do. But yeah, I would say definitely try to do it in May so that you’re ready to go.

[00:03:44.550] – Hilary Erickson

When are your kids out for school?

[00:03:46.180] – Julie

They get out the first week of June.

[00:03:48.890] – Hilary Erickson

Okay. Yeah, we get out, like, mid May here.

[00:03:51.210] – Julie

Okay. Yeah, that’s nice.

[00:03:52.700] – Hilary Erickson

But we also go back, like, the very end of July.

[00:03:55.580] – Julie

Oh, really?

[00:03:56.360] – Hilary Erickson

Okay.

[00:03:56.630] – Julie

Yeah, we usually start about the second week of August.

[00:04:00.070] – Hilary Erickson

I like that schedule better. Although it’s so hot in Arizona by the end of July.

[00:04:03.470] – Julie

We’re just done. Yeah, I know. Well, it’s hot here, too. It’s humid. So humid in August.

[00:04:09.070] – Hilary Erickson

I’m not sad that we don’t have humidity. I would probably die. Okay, so make a bucket list. What else should Moms be considering doing?

[00:04:16.480] – Julie

I like to declutter all of my winter stuff out of the house and into storage. So if you still have all of your hats and gloves and coats and all those things in your entryway closet, boots. I even like to take my rugs up off the floor, put away my throw blankets, those things. It just saves me time when we’re trying to leave the house. If our entryway is really streamlined, we just have our flip flops in our pool bag in there. And then for the rugs, I take my rugs up because then it takes me 5 seconds just to sweep the floor or mop the floor. And I don’t have to go around anything. So it really saves me time.

[00:04:54.510] – Hilary Erickson

Oh, that’s such a good idea. I mean, here pools are everything in Arizona, but you definitely have to put the pool bag in the spot where the umbrellas and glasses used to be.

[00:05:04.940] – Julie

Right?

[00:05:06.070] – Hilary Erickson

That’s smart.

[00:05:06.760] – Julie

Otherwise, you’re searching around the house for them.

[00:05:08.800] – Hilary Erickson

And I will say having a pool bag is like a necessity. I don’t know how families just do where they’re just like, let’s go to the pool and they just walk out of the house. I’m like, I missed the sunscreen, the goggles, the things we have.

[00:05:19.380] – Julie

I like having all of it in one spot. All of it’s in the full bag. The sunscreen, the goggles, the flip flops are in the same closet. The towels, everything is right there.

[00:05:29.020] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. It makes it so much less stressful. Good idea.

[00:05:31.850] – Julie

Yes.

[00:05:32.300] – Hilary Erickson

Okay. What else should we be preparing activities for your kids to do while you’re at home?

[00:05:36.750] – Julie

Because I’m pretty sure most moms aren’t going to be running their kids places every day. So I like to get all of my art supplies kind of ready to go. If stuff like the markers are dried out, get rid of them, get the new markers in, organize all that so that they have easy access to it. And they’re not constantly asking me, Mom, Where’s this, where is that they know exactly where everything is. And then the toy room. Obviously, my kids have outgrown the toy room, but when they were younger, I always had my toy room organized and labeled so that it was easy for them to clean up at the end of their play session. And then in the garage, just having the balls and the sports equipment and other things like that. Their bikes are accessible to them. So, again, they’re not constantly coming to you and saying, can you help me do this? Can you get this out for me? And where do I put this when I put it away? So everything’s pretty organized.

[00:06:28.580] – Hilary Erickson

Yes. Aiming for self sufficiency as much as possible. I love that idea. And I know when we lived in California, we just didn’t have room for all the toys. And so we rotated, and I think that was a good time to pare down.

[00:06:40.310] – Julie

Agreed.

[00:06:40.750] – Hilary Erickson

And maybe you have to rotate more frequently, but by having less toys, it’s so much easier to clean it up. Less people getting mad. Yeah.

[00:06:47.690] – Julie

I love the rotating toys idea. I think that is the best idea. It makes it so new for them when you bring those toys back out after a month or whatever.

[00:06:57.090] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. Well, I have so many friends that are like, how do I do it? And I was like, well, I kept them in the garage. Right. But then when we moved to Arizona, I just kept them up high. So I would just swap out a bin, and it made it so easy. Huge fan. Yeah.

[00:07:10.730] – Julie

And using the bins, if you use the bin as just kind of like a toy box, that’s super easy cleaning up for them, too. If you don’t want to get into all the labeling and all that sort of stuff, they just throw it in there. You put the lid on it’s done.

[00:07:23.130] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. That is so much easier when there’s little people, though.

[00:07:26.030] – Julie

Yes.

[00:07:33.710] – Hilary Erickson

I really like the idea of promoting self sufficiency and maybe even just taking like ten minutes and think what your kid’s snags usually are and how you can help them because we had a snag that my kid couldn’t get his bike out of the garage very easily. Yeah, we just put in a garage opener. Oh, yeah.

[00:07:50.410] – Julie

Great.

[00:07:50.830] – Hilary Erickson

I mean, obviously that is excessive, but it was an everyday, like trying to put his bike away issue and putting in an opener made everything easier.

[00:07:59.610] – Julie

Right. When I do my art supplies during the year, they’re kind of put away because the kids don’t use them as often because they’re at school. But in the summer, I like to pull them out and put them in like one of those roller carts or something like that just so it’s easily accessible for them to get to and put away.

[00:08:14.860] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah, I love those carts. They make it so easy.

[00:08:18.750] – Julie

Right.

[00:08:19.400] – Hilary Erickson

And I’ve seen so many cool, like, magnetic things to hang off the sides.

[00:08:22.670] – Julie

Right?

[00:08:23.140] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah, I love a cart. All right. Any other tips?

[00:08:26.840] – Julie

One more tip. And I think this is huge. I always recommend having a mom bag because we just talked about how having the pool bag and having all of your stuff ready to go to the pool is great. Also having a bag where you have a few water bottles and snacks, a first aid kit, things like that. Because in the summer we are running errands. We’re kind of out all day with our kids. And so if something happens and you don’t want to have to come home, then having a mom bag is just essential. If your kids are little, you’d want to have a few extra pairs of clothes, maybe in case there’s an accident, things like that. And in your car, even an old towel. If you go to the Creek and everybody gets muddy, having a towel in your car is a good idea. Things like that.

[00:09:08.520] – Hilary Erickson

That’s a great idea for summer. We carry 72 hours kits in our car, but they’re not super accessible and the clothes may not fit. We change it every couple of years. They are basically an emergency. But I love the idea of having just like a summer bin with towels, maybe some bubbles in there, just stuff that you can haul out to the park and everything is more fun. It’s like a Mary Poppins bin, right?

[00:09:29.470] – Julie

Yeah. Frisbees soccer ball, things like that. So you have a free day at the park and just hang out for a while. Picnic blanket.

[00:09:37.100] – Hilary Erickson

I love that idea. Well, these are awesome. Hopefully it’s given people some ideas. I love the idea of decluttering. And Julie, you have a decluttering checklist on your website. We’re going to put that link in the show notes. I do.

[00:09:48.960] – Julie

And your website is the Momsurvival guide.com. Okay.

[00:09:52.290] – Hilary Erickson

So you just go straight there and you guys can download that I think decluttering your house in general. Yes. Just feels real good before.

[00:09:59.230] – Julie

Yeah, it definitely streamlines things.

[00:10:01.990] – Hilary Erickson

I had an impending sense of doom. It would be like the last week of school and you’re like I need to get every single thing done I ever wanted to do. Almost like when you’re having a baby. Yeah.

[00:10:10.470] – Julie

Or when I go on vacation I do that. I want to clean the house from top to bottom before I go on vacation. So when I come home it’s clean. Same thing and you exhaust yourself.

[00:10:18.280] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. So think about what would help you the most. I know those ideas probably don’t help everybody but think about what could help you and make the summer more enjoyable for you because I think you can really organize and target for that and then it’s just better for everyone.

[00:10:32.120] – Julie

Yeah, it is less work for mom is always good and then go on a girl’s trip. Yeah, go on a girl’s trip. That’s great. I love it. All right.

[00:10:39.160] – Hilary Erickson

Thanks for coming on, Julie.

[00:10:40.390] – Julie

All right. Thank you so much.

[00:10:41.720] – Hilary Erickson

Okay. I hope you guys enjoyed that episode. I think planning at least gives us a little bit more attention into what our plan is going to be even if things don’t go according to plan because kids…. Right?

[00:10:51.240] – Hilary Erickson

Be sure and stay tuned to next week’s episode where I’m talking to my good friend Melissa about being optimistic and especially being optimistic when we’re talking about travel so it’s a good add on to this episode. Do not miss it. See you then.

[00:11:03.140] – Hilary Erickson

Thanks so much for joining us on today’s episode. We know you have lots of options for your ears and we are glad that you chose us. We drop episodes weekly and until next time we hope you have a tangle free day.

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