Guest Post - Essential Tips for Renovating with Kids

Essential Tips for Renovating with Kids

It is hard enough to renovate a room in the house, but if you are the proud parents of a couple of kids, it can quickly escalate to nightmare proportions, depending, of course, on their ages. The fact that the little darlings are present means you are unable to fully focus on what you are doing, and with things like wallpaper paste and paint rollers lying around, it could be a recipe for a disaster of epic proportions, and with that in mind, here are some innovative ideas to ensure the renovations are completed without incident.

Segregate the Waste – Once you have all the old wallpaper and other debris away from the work area, there is less chance of a mishap with the children. Hiring a skip (dumpster) is the ideal solution for this scenario, and an online search will land you on the website of a local skip provider, and you can make the booking online. They have a range of sizes to suit, and once it is full, simply call them and it will be removed.

A Surprise Outing – This would involve the help of your parents or good friends, and involves a day at a fun park or somewhere exciting. Once the children are safely off on a day trip, you can relax and get on with the renovating, just make sure you are prepared for their homecoming!

Age Related Assistance – If your kids are old enough to be able to carry out basic tasks, then set them some simple things to do that will help you. If they are teenagers, then they can ferry out the rubbish to the skip and clean up when things have been finished. Getting the kids involved instils a level of responsibility, we just have to ensure that the tasks are suitable for their abilities.

Stage the Work – By doing the work over several weekends, you can focus on one thing at a time, and there will be less disturbance, and with some cartoon DVDs and a delivered pizza, the kids will be suitably entertained for the afternoon. You might want to flip a coin with your partner and the winner whisks the kids off to watch a movie in town, while the loser gets the decorating done.

Preparation – Assuming you are planning for a weekend of renovating, make sure you have all the cleaning materials and essential supplies, and anything else you think you might require. If the children are at home, make sure they have something suitable to keep them busy, which could include helping out.

Home renovation is not an easy task, and with children running around, a much higher level of planning is needed. The best solution is to have them shipped off to the grandparents, but if that isn’t an option, find another avenue to ensure they are well looked after and entertained. With the skip in place and all the materials in the hallway, you are ready to attack that decorating and make the home a nicer place to be.

Author Jodie Leather works for All Metro Bins - a skip hire and waste disposal company based in Perth, Western Australia.

Bins: Not Necessarily What It’s All Stacked Up To Be

We partnered with a home improvement company. for this post. The opinions in the post are honest. All reviews and opinions expressed in this post are based on our personal views. We are excited because we know you will love it.

Storage bins are great for organizing, but sometimes they aren't all they are stacked up to be. If an organizing system isn't easy you simply aren't going to use it and in that regard bins can give with one hand and take with the other.

Pack'em, Stack'em and Rack'em

Bins provided a great storage solution for household items especially for those you don't use very often. They make sense for items like holiday decorations, keepsakes, and recreational equipment. During the winter/summer swap of jackets for bathing suits bins are perfect. However, the danger of bin use can be seen in the stack. When it comes to bins when they get stacked the ones on the bottom become a black hole. If you have to take down five bins to get something you just won't.

Bigger Isn't Better

You think you solved all your problems by finding the biggest bin in existence, however the big bin often creates more problems than it solves. Big bins get heavy quick and one person can't lift them and they'll usually need a wheelie bin tipper in order to move them. Often a giant bin will sit covered and unmoved for decades. Another challenge of the giant bin is finding anything inside easily.

Solid as a Rock

Clear bins make for the best bins for obvious reasons, but solid colored bins aren't necessarily bad if it doesn't matter what you need to grab. Think Christmas or Halloween bins in Red/Green or Orange/Black. If you are taking the whole bin down from the attic and using everything inside than the benefits of the clear bin aren't necessary. The danger lies in a non-clear mystery bin not properly labelled.

Easy in, Easy Out

While bins are ideal for a many items, drawers make for an easier system for those things you use frequently. Drawers are perfect for art and office supplies since they not only keep a limit on supplies but allow items to go in easy and also come out easy. Imagine a child having to un-stack four bins to get to paper or stickers. Batteries and toiletries also benefit from being in easy access drawers and not stacked bins.

Expired and in Search of a Final Destination

Expired Prescription Medication

While everyone's home is different often the items inside are the same. In that regard one question that we get asked a lot is, what to do with expired medication? Medication that has expired or you are no longer taking should generally never be flushed down the sink or toilet. While this method was popular for years and the debate is still out, some feel that it hasn't been great for local sewage treatment systems or waterways. The FDA sill advises opioids to be flushed, but there are other options. The FDA recommends removing the medication from the container and mixing with food garage and sealing in Ziploc bag or similar sealing bag before tossing in the trash. You can rip or cross out your name on the label before recycling the plastic container.  The challenge for those who are trying not to add to landfills is to find a workable alternative. The DEA offers a annual drug take back program and many local police stations and health departments have safe medication disposal boxes.  We encourage people not to put up too many barriers to getting rid of unwanted items in their home. We tend to see collections of medication to be disposed of sit for years in the back of a closet. Focus on the action and move to the car or reward yourself with a treat for dropping of in a proper receptacle. One of the key motivating factors for properly disposing of medications is to keep it away from curious children and so removing it from the house in a timely manner should determine your preferred disposal method. Lastly, these same suggestions apply to pet medication. Anyone who has a dog at home that eats everything in site knows the dangers expired drugs can pose. 

Expired Vitamins and Supplements

For old vitamins the same rules as prescriptions medication apply and you can follow the disposal steps above. Additionally, some people feel that they don't really expire and if not that old may still have some potency left, but from an organizing point of view it is more about clutter removal, so ask yourself why you weren't able to take the vitamins before they expired. There is also a debate about whether you can compost vitamins and minerals or use them on in houseplant soil. Others make facial or bath scrubs out of them. Again, these options feel best explored for those with a schedule featuring a lot of free time. 

Misconceptions

The Comedian

A few nights ago I was scrolling through Netflix and saw that comedian Todd Barry had a new special. The title was Spicy Honey which seemed interesting enough to click. About eight minutes in, my casual paying attention turned hyper-focused. He said he hired a professional organizer. I spend a lot of time explaining my occupation to people, so to hear mention of my industry in a comedy special was exciting. Once I got over the initial shock I waited to see where he was going with this. Without spoiling the joke, the premise had to do with throwing things out. When people think professional organizing they think throwing things out. So much so that a popular comedian knew that everyone would get the reference immediately. 

The Setup

Organizing is not about throwing things out. Tossing leads to regret. Throwing things out is what your parents did to your stuff when you went off to camp or college. Throwing things out is what your spouse does when fed up with messy bedroom. Throwing things out is what you do in a panic on closing day when the buyer's lawyer is staring at you.

The Punchline

Organizing is all about what we are keeping. Where should items live and how can one find them when needed. Linda, Kathleen and I build relationships with our clients based on trust. In fact we can't organizing a space without our clients because their goals are all that matter.  We use our philosophy, experience, patience and humor to decide what should be kept and the best system to store and find it.  Additionally, any system we create has to work for everyone in the family (and be easy to use). Organizing is about time. Setting aside specific time to finish what we start through motivation and having a plan of action. Organizing is about control, not regret. We never want anxiety, so if you feel like it, the next time you overhear someone say, throw it out, tell them the joke's on them.