One of the toughest things for me to get used to once all the Littles joined us, was clutter. (Although lack of time and sleepless nights are pretty high up there too…). But my brain goes a little manic with clutter. I have always been able to deal with the craziness of life, if my room or “home base” was picked up and put together.

Yeaaaa, that doesn’t work so well with kids.

But unfortunately, you can’t change the way your brain is wired. So you adapt.

Tip for today is to find creative ways to make your life work for you, instead of driving you nutty.

We have open shelves in our kitchen. Love em. (Though not so much in the photo above when I realized things are a little out of place, but you’ll all look past that, wont you? Thanks!)

Those open shelves might hold a little more than dishes though…medicine, candy, keys. You really never know. And I kinda like it that way!

Take these little butter dishes for instance…

Let’s take a closer look…

Yep, that’s hair bands. I do Addie and Hay’s hair in the kitchen each morning. In fact, they sit right there on that counter since it puts them at a good height for me to wrangle their bowling ball heads, and they can watch cartoons for 2 seconds of distraction. But that also means I need a little brush…wonder where that is??

Oh look! Under the butter dish of hair bands is stamps! Well isn’t that handy? So when we have dinner and reward the girls with a hand stamp for taking bites ~ there are the stamps in the butter dish, perfect!

Speaking of butter dish, what’s behind that antique wooden box (used to shape butter way back when, that hubs says has no purpose now)….

Oh really??!  I think it might be hiding a little brush. And hair detangler, and nail clippers, and Aquaphor, and medicine….Good to know it’s nice and tucked away just where I need it.

And no one else is the wiser. Just the way me and my brain like it!

Where’s your favorite spot to hide everyday things?