This is a perfectly normal response to a big task.

I’ve been there too — when every room feels like too much, and you can’t even decide which pile to tackle first. But here’s the truth: you don’t have to clean your whole house today. You just have to start with 10 minutes.

I know, you’re thinking this sounds crazy, but I am here to say those first 10 minutes is the key to the rest of your house. Stick with me!

Why You Feel So Stuck

Your brain sees clutter as a never-ending to-do list. Every pile, every counter, every mess is screaming for attention — all at once. That’s exhausting (honestly, just typing that felt exhausting — so, that’s VALID). So you shut down. Your brain is protecting you.

Starting small helps you get out of that freeze mode. The goal isn’t perfection — it’s momentum.

And that timer is often the thing that helps me think — I can do 10 minutes. I can DO that.

I can’t do my whole house — but 10 minutes, that I can do!

The 10-Minute Start That Actually Works

Grab a timer and pick one of these:

• Clear off one kitchen counter.
• Pick up trash or laundry in one room.
• Gather every item that doesn’t belong in your living room.
• Load or unload the dishwasher.
• Wipe down your bathroom sink.

Set your timer, and do as much as you can in just 10 minutes.

Then stop.
You did something. You started.
And that’s everything.

Honestly, or don’t stop — you can make the choice if it’s starting to feel good. Maybe you want to do another 10 minutes, or just one small area. Don’t pull out your entire closet — but maybe your pants? You could maybe do a little bit more? But, your initial promise to yourself is just those 10 minutes!

Why This Matters

Once you move for 10 minutes, your brain starts to calm down. You’ll see small progress — and that gives you hope again.

That’s the same method I use inside The Organized Home — my simple step-by-step system that helps you go from chaos to calm without the pressure to do it all at once.

You’ll get a clear plan for every room, checklists that tell you exactly what to do next, and the mindset tools to help you stay consistent even on busy days.

If you’ve ever felt too overwhelmed to start, The Organized Home gives you the plan you’ve been missing.

Click here to start your Organized Home today.

One Step at a Time

Don’t wait for the perfect day. Don’t wait to “feel ready.”

I hear from far too many people who “don’t know where to start” – and want me to tell them that perfect process to get it done. But, I’m here to tell you….

Start with ten minutes.
Start with one counter.
Start with what you can.

And if you’re ready for someone to walk you through the rest — with grace, structure, and a system that actually fits your real life — join me inside The Organized Home.

You don’t have to do this alone anymore.
You just have to start.

Join The Organized Home →

The post When Your Mess Feels Too Big to Start: The first 10 minutes that changes everything appeared first on Pulling Curls.

Minimalist Isn’t In Your Nature

You may think that minimalists are BORN that way, but I’m here to say that most minimalists are not “made” that way. I sure am not.

Note: Every single child wants to get “more” or have things they don’t have. It clearly comes NATURAL to have things around us that we think we will need.

Which means that you too can declutter like a minimalist — by asking yourself a few things….

This can explode into you needing more of things everywhere you see, or you can tame those thoughts to remind it that there will always be enough and you’re fine with some very basic things. A lot of people call this an abundance mindset — and it’s one that you can work to create as well.

Confession Time: This doesn’t come naturally to me AT ALL. I have to constantly remind myself that I have what I need and I can get what I need when it becomes necessary. But, for many of us — this will be a constant mental fight.

Looking for more organizing info — be sure to check out these posts:

• 5 Reasons You HAVEN’T Started Organizing & How to Fix Them!
• Family-Tested Organizing Tips
• Clever Kitchen Storage: Smart solutions for smaller kitchens
• House Cleaning List {Printable}
• Dish Storage 101: Make Your Cabinets Hold More

SOME things are going to hold the highest value

Many of you might find that “everything” is important to you, but as you start to declutter you will realize that there will be things that are the “most” important. When you do, make a mental note.

The thing is, for everyone they’ll be different. For me, it would be cards and sentiment that important people in my past have written to me. Those take value over anything they have given me (that I don’t use), or reminds me of them.

This may be a mindset thing as well, because those things are fairly small, which also works in my personal values to fit the items I have in the space allotted. That’s something I’ve worked to GROW in myself — that I prefer to only have stuff that fits the space I have. I value that more than having piles of things.

This allows me to let go of things they had that aren’t as important to me personally, because I have those things that I think are the most important.

And yes, this also means I’m working to save every voicemail my dad has ever sent me….

This means that most things hold a lesser value

There have to be categories of items that are the MOST important, and then less important.

You have a home that can only hold a certain amount of things, so these designations will let you realize what can and can not be kept.

That isn’t to say that some things, like a can opener, will be kept because they serve a current function in your life — not because you “love” them (although it is awfully nice if they overlap).

People or Life over Things

Most minimalists have decided that people, or experiences, or just the very fact that their things aren’t encroaching on their lives as a high priority for them.

For everyone this will be different. I tend to put a lot of in a cabinet if I can get it to fit well (and still allow for easy take-out/put away). I don’t mind a small amount of Tetris as long as it isn’t too hard to put away the items.

But, if it takes forever to put something away, or my family just can’t do it the same way I can to make things fit, I need to have a new plan.

I hear a lot that a spouse or partner has more things than an apartment can hold. The sad news is that each person sort of has to become a “minimalist” on their own and we can only control ourselves.

Looking for more organizing info — be sure to check out these posts:

• Want Your House to STAY Organized? Follow these tips!
• 19 Easy Kitchen Organization Tips to Make Life Easier
• Three Things To Help you Declutter & Manage Your Home Easier
• Wrapping Paper Organization
• Maximizing Your Organizing Time – Get Help!

Questions to ask yourself to be a minimalist:

By engaging your brain into the process it may help you be more like a minimalist — here are a few good questions to ask.

When was the last time I used this?

Be VERY realistic when you’re decluttering items. Honestly answer when you last used it. You could also dive into:

• Did it do a good job in it’s intended purpose (if it’s clothes, did you feel good in it)?

Just because we use something doesn’t mean it works well. It also doesn’t mean we should replace it, but it’s important to be honest with what purpose that thing really holds, and is it fulfilling it?

Could I see me needing this in the next year?

This doesn’t mean that the only things we should be keeping are things we use frequently, but it should definitely hold a place.

For instance, I have a Christmas tree…. and it only gets used once a year, but it’s important to me.

However, I have a roasting pan that I use MAYBE every 3 years…. is that worth it to keep? That’s a valid question.

A good question to ask:

• How do I see myself using this in the next year?

If the answer isn’t clear, that’s a good indication that this isn’t a need — it’s filling a “might need” spot — and you can’t keep all the might needs around.

Could something I already have replace the job this does?

I think this happens a LOT with items in the kitchen. We buy something that takes up space, but it something that an instrument we already have could also do the job.

This happens a LOT with “cutters” — and I’m not here to say that all of those are useless, but if you’re looking to save room in your kitchen, it might be better to just use a knife.

You just have to decide if the time you’re saving by having the item makes up for the time you’ll have to use getting it out, putting it away and possibly taking up room that another tool could use and be more helpful.

These are all questions you have to really ask yourself — getting your brain engaged in the process! This class really helped me get my brain engaged into this process.

How hard would it be to get something similar to do the same job?

This is a smart question to ask. If the item is taking up space in your home, you rarely use it and it is easily replaceable — it might be smart to to let it go.

Remember, when items are in your home you’re paying “rent” for them to be there. They are taking up space something else could take up!

However, if it’s not as easily replaceable then that is something to consider.

Doesn’t mean you should keep it — but all of this is information is compiled to help you make a choice.

When I can easily buy the item at a big box store, it might be worth it to get rid of it (aka, a roasting pan — if I only use it once every few years, would it be smart to just get a disposable one should I need it?).

Would I buy this if I saw it in the store?

This is another one — sure, you already have the item — but if you saw it at the store, would you purchase it? Why?

We tend to put value on things we already have, vs getting it new. BUT, this can be good information to have as you choose to keep or give something away.

Getting your brain engaged in the task of organizing is one of the most important things I can do as I get into organizing. I love the things I learned in here that got me going, and I think you’ll find it so helpful as well!

So, how are YOU Going to change how you declutter? Tell us in the comments!

The post Declutter Like a Minimalist appeared first on Pulling Curls.

Grab my printable of it right here — and then we’ll chat about how I made it, and how to make it work for you!

Daily Tasks

I can think of a couple ways to separate jobs that need to get done at your house (although I’m sure there’s lots of ways — one of these might resonate with you to get started though):

Divide by Room: Every day, a room is assigned to it. That way you’re able to concentrate on cleaning that room, organizing it and really digging deep into that ONE room (and mostly ignoring the rest — although we’ll talk about it).

One TYPE of cleaning: Maybe you’re doing floors, or dusting, or cleaning counters and you from room to room just doing this one task. This allows you to basically have the same cleaning products for each of the rooms, which is nice.

For me, I sort of combined these…. and I’ll show you how.

Prior to do this I was trying to do FlyLady (is that even still a thing?) — but I found it REALLY overwhelming. I had small kids, a job and a husband that was gone a LOT… I needed it simple to where I could either do the bare minimum or more depending on how the day was going. If you’re overwhelmed by a system you have right now, this might be helpful!

Looking for more household management tips — be sure to check out these posts:

• 5 Reasons You HAVEN’T Started Organizing & How to Fix Them!
• Family-Tested Organizing Tips
• Baby Proofing 101: Dani Morin’s Mission for Baby Safety Awareness
• Clever Kitchen Storage: Smart solutions for smaller kitchens
• House Cleaning List {Printable}

Weekly Cleaning Schedule Example:

I did a bit of a combination of those two, and I’ll show you how it works for us:

Mondays: Kitchen/Floors

• Clean the counters
• Deep Clean Something
• Organize something
• Clean-out the fridge
• Sweep & mop our tile floors (which includes our main floor — I do all of the tile on that day)

You’ll see that I front-load our week a lot. I’m freshest, and at my best on Mondays, much less so on Fridays — so make it work for you! (I realize this isn’t true for a lot of people)

Tuesdays: Bathrooms

I should say that I don’t feel an urge to clean my ENTIRE bathroom every week — we get to the tubs/showers and hands and knees for the floor on the weekends. I tend to just do what bothers me, and anything that is gross. You do what works for you.

• Counters
• Mirrors
• Toilet
• Floor around toilet
• Organize anything that’s not working in the bathroom

My kids clean their own bathroom — and I start this early as possible. I start with them cleaning the counter, or some of the floor (kids are close to the floor — so that works well) and slowly add things as they get bigger.

Wednesdays: Bedrooms & Vacuuming

• Vacuum all the carpeted areas in the house
• Organize in the bedroom

You can see that my energy for the week has already started to peter out…. this day is lighter, and it will continue to get lighter through the end of the week.

Thursdays: Downstairs Rooms

We have a home office, a guest room/YouTube filming room, and a playroom downstairs.

Because we’re not down here a whole lot I tend to just pick an organizing project down there. I’m slowly going through our old toys to either donate or keep the items.

Fridays: Living Room/Dining Room (which is also my office)

I like to do this on Fridays in case we’re having company over the weekend.

• Dust the room (we have dark furniture)
• Vacuum out the couch/flip cushions every now and then
• Organize anything in that area

Saturday: Family Clean

I detail this in Family Routines, but it is just about 20 minutes where we go through the house and pick stuff up — mostly just tidy it, and then we deep clean an area — all together (because I desperately needed my kids to learn how to clean and I slowly realized I was going to be the example in that process).

Every week of the month is assigned an area to deep clean:

• Week One: Kitchen
• Week Two: Bathrooms (this is when we do showers/floors)
• Week Three: Bedrooms (including window sills, baseboards, etc)
• Week Four: Living Room (this is usually when the couch gets a more thorough look at, and we also dust our ceiling fans)
• If there’s a 5th week we often deep clean the freezer that week.

Does this always go according to the “plan”? No. Not at all. Often we skip the bedroom week if we’re gone or lazy one week, but I try to do the other weeks on Saturday as the main goal is to teach the kids how to do it.

We’re really just aiming for 20 minutes of deep cleaning amongst all of us — and it’s surprising how much can be done in those 20 minutes.

I also like to have some upbeat music on during that time too.

FYI, I also have my kids doing their own areas on this same routine. They have jobs in the kitchen on Monday, bathrooms Tuesdays, etc…. It’s all routine at our house!

I see a lot of hate online for giving kids jobs around the house, but I couldn’t disagree more and having had kids who moved out — I know these skills that I have helped to build will be worthwhile!

Looking for more cleaning tips? — be sure to check out these posts:

• Smelly Fridge – Here’s the Easy Ways to Clean It
• How to Clean Tile Floors
• I love cleaning {I know, I’m Crazy}: Six things to like about cleaning
• Splitting Household Chores in Marriage
• Why I Don’t Have a Cleaning Lady

Do I do nothing else?

I do a 10 minute tidy each morning. Many people call that a “reset” — it’s normally me emptying the drainer, putting dishes in the dishwasher people left out, cleaning off anything that got dumped somewhere. It’s just a quick run-through.

Think that sounds helpful — I have a little challenge right here for you:

When I had little kids I also did 5 minutes in the evening that was often me pushing a battery vacuum around to get what the toddler spilled, but we now have a robot vacuum that does most of that.

If you feel like you want to clean your bathroom counters daily, or sweet up everywhere daily — do that — I just don’t, and that’s OK too.

You Do You

Whenever I type out this list I worry that people will be grossed out that I don’t clean our shower or bathroom floors weekly.

But, we have tile that is basically the color of dirt, and I have tried to schedule it at a timeframe that I think it’s just starting to get gross when we clean it.

It is a level of dirt that I’m OK with.

You might want to go longer, or shorter, and that’s OK. We’re all doing what works for us.

What did the cleaning schedule do for me?

When I started working as a labor nurse I quickly realized my house was getting out of control, and it just made it hard for me to feel “safe” to sit down because ALL of these things felt like they should get done RIGHT NOW.

Instead, I know that the bathroom will get cleaned on Tuesdays, and as long as it’s not grossing me out too much, it can wait.

Also, no area got lost.

I have also edited this through the years, moving houses and kids getting older, what needed to be cleaned changed. BUT, the basic framework has stayed the same and it still works.

Also, when I started to work full time on my content creation/podcasting/courses business and my husband stayed home, we knew what needed to be done, and it made it easier to share chores.

I have all the tasks in a to do list and it really makes it easy!

So, do you think a cleaning schedule will work for you? How do you think you’ll organize it? Tell me in the comments!

And, grab the printable version right here:

The post Home Cleaning Schedule Printable: Make it work for YOU! appeared first on Pulling Curls.

Don’t Know Where to Start

I hear this all. the. time. Hilary, I just don’t know where to start.

Go with me here… let’s pretend you pick a spot to start, and ultimately decide that wasn’t the best place to start…. will that really have “consequences”. Let me give you three options on where to start:

1⃣ If you have a family, I often like to pick a spot that is just mine that I know will stay organized — and will feel good. It reminds me that a good system works and will make a difference for my family.

2⃣ Pick somewhere that is just a mess, and making daily life hard. Something that REALLY needs doing. Follow my 5 word challenge as you make a change with it:

Right now, you’re probably thinking — Hilary — that is insane, why would I do a PROBLEM spot first? That seems overwhelming. The main reason is you’re going to see a benefit from it. Areas I’ve tackled that made me wanted to cry (but ultimately made a BIG difference in me and my family’s life:

• Lunch Snacks
• Medicine Cabinet
• Coat Closet (coats go in, but never seem to leave when we grow out of them)

Note: You’ll notice none of those areas are HUGE. I didn’t organize my entire pantry — I just did the lunch snacks, and it made a difference!

3⃣ Pick somewhere small. If you’re just still overwhelmed by making that choice just pick somewhere small. Be it a:

• Drawer
• A shelf, or even a portion of a shelf in your closet or kitchen
• Just one TYPE of clothes in your closet (aka just the shirts — or even just the SHORT SLEEVE shirts)

Just like working out you don’t want to overdo organizing, or it will hurt a lot, it will be hard to create systems that work and you won’t want to do it again.

When you start small it gives you small victories and you can attack it again the next day!

Looking for more household tips — be sure to check out these posts:

• Family-Tested Organizing Tips
• Clever Kitchen Storage: Smart solutions for smaller kitchens
• Dish Storage 101: Make Your Cabinets Hold More
• Want Your House to STAY Organized? Follow these tips!
• 19 Easy Kitchen Organization Tips to Make Life Easier

You Need The Right Containers

Oh man, I really feel like those Instagram organizers have fed this one to us a LOT. You have to remember they make money when they sell that family the organizers in addition to their fee to help organize — so, of course they’re going to want them to have all the fancy containers.

And I agree, they do look so pretty — but as I look at them I sometimes realize that there is literally ZERO chance my family would be able to use them right.

Or, honestly if they’re safe. There’s been a trend to “decant” your detergents that can lead to unsafe spaces for kids as those pretty containers aren’t safe for little ones!

Let me give you a few options:

Get a few dollar store containers — honestly, they’re very useable and handy! Start with those, and then if you find one that’s working but you’d like a different look you’re not out a bunch of cash from your first option.

Pull the things out, see what you need. See what height your items are and then quickly make a trip to a favorite organizing store (I share my favorite places to shop for organizing supplies in this podcast):

Now, the organizers of the internet will die when they read this, but I think it’s a good option:

Start with Amazon Boxes: I know you’ve had some packages come, and you likely have a few cardboard boxes lying around. Start with those. Similar to Dollar store items you can figure out what works (and what you’d like different) and then upgrade when you’re ready.

I actually used an Amazon box to organize my makeup and never went back!

I try to keep a small variety of these types of boxes on hand in my garage (but don’t overdo it). Don’t overdo it though, those boxes can take over your house!

And while we’re here — getting in a good cleaning routine can help a ton too:

You’re Busy

You may be telling yourself that you’re just too busy to organize your home.

And I am here to tell you that you’re too busy to NOT organize your home.

Organizing doesn’t need to take full days. One of my favorite things is to pick a small spot (I’m talking small here — one drawer, one category, etc) and set a timer for how long I have to pull everything out and sort it, and then set that timer again to put it away.

The timer helps me to make decisions quickly. Too often we labor over decisions that just aren’t worth our time. You can always keep a “maybe” pile where you’re deciding on those items.

Pro Tip: I have a maybe drawer in my closet for clothes I’m just not sure if I’m done with or not — if I check back and I’ve missed those items (and they fit) I bring them back into the rotation

What DOES take a lot of time is….

• Putting things away when things don’t have a designated spot
• Trying to find lost items that didn’t have a home and now you really need (looking at you library books and passports)
• Pulling things out to find what you need and then putting everything back in an area that’s just too full

THAT is keeping you busy. Taking 30 minutes to organize a spot before you flop on the couch for your Netflix time will feel so rewarding, and will start to make your life less busy and honestly, more enjoyable.

Now, if you’re sitting there thinking — easy for you to say, Hilary — want to come help me? Honestly, I do — I can — I can be your organizing buddy (and it costs less than you think)!

You’re Pregnant & Tired

Ok, my pregnant friend (and I have a lot of you since I’m also The Pregnancy Nurse®) I get this. There truly are days that you’re just not feeling up to organizing. I want to acknowledge that. However, you may have days that you feel wildly zesty and really want to make a change.

Take advantage of those days (especially nesting pregnant mammas).

I know it’s not just the pregnant peeps who have this issue. You may have recently had surgery, or have a long term illness that is preventing you from doing everything you’d like to do.

But you will have days that you feel better — and when you do, start small. Make a change and promise yourself to do it again on your next good day!

You’re Overwhelmed

Ok, so it mostly all boils down to this one.

I honestly think a lot of the excuses above are really just the overwhelm.

Which I entirely get.

I recently re-did my sewing cabinet and I’d pulled out all the thread and notions and when the new cabinet was in place I just wanted to burn it ALL DOWN instead of put it back.

But you know what I did instead? Following those 5-word organizing principles I:

• Sorted things into “like” categories
• Got a few dollar tree bins for the drawers so I could contain those categories
• and I made it work.

Was it perfect? No. Did it need to be? Also, no — because everyone knows my sewing is ALSO not perfect (far from it).

Overwhelm is normal. Honestly, just ignoring it can also be very normal, which is how we get shows like hoarders.

However, you can make a change. When I learned the principles in The Organized Home it changed everything for me.

I was able to declutter faster
I was able to know how I wanted to use a space (so my brain was engaged in the process from the start)
I created systems that actually worked and made my life easier.

If you’re tired of feeling like your house controls you rather than the other way around I would 100% recommend joining. I think you’ll enjoy the changes you’re making!

The post 5 Reasons You HAVEN’T Started Organizing & How to Fix Them! appeared first on Pulling Curls.

BTW, want to know more about baby-proofing and safety around the home << check out that podcast episode, so helpful!

Clean It First

Before we get started, just the day to day cleaning is one of the most important things you can do. AND a lot of that is about getting kids to help out more (age-appropriate, obviously). Grab my printable house cleaning checklists to help your kids know what needs to be done in each room and surpass your expectations each time!

And if you’d like to get on a cleaning schedule — grab mine here:

The Right Stuff

One of the keys to rooms functioning well in a family is having the right things in each room. In this post you learn 3 things that you should have to help you declutter and manage your home easier.

Looking to MAXIMIZE the small amount of time that you have to organize << that post has some great tips too!

Counter Clutter

I find that as soon as I start to get some clutter in an area my family immediately thinks that’s where we store all the crap now. Anyone else? Just me.

Working to REALLY clear our counters of stuff has made my kids realize that’s not the spot for their junk. I have a post on 3 weird things I use to clear counter clutter.

Looking for more organizing tips — be sure to check out these posts:

• 5 Things for Easier Organizing
• Decluttering Beauty Supplies with McKenzie Guymon from Girl Loves Glam
• Mistakes You Make When Organizing
• Why Organizing Is Hard
• Motivation to Clean: Find it and use it to clear the mess

Make Cabinets Useable for All

As adults we can lift more, we can reach more and we just tend to be a bit more careful. But, when you stuff a lot of stuff in your cabinets it can make it tricky for kids. I have a post with some tips for easy cabinet organization that will allow them to both set the table and empty the dishwasher a little easier.

I also think “zoning” an area to give kids a general idea where dishes, or pots/pans or baking items go.

I Can’t Put This Away…

If I had a Nickle for every time my kid told me they didn’t know where something that was clean went – I’d be rich. Pots and pants were really tough for my smaller kids to put away, until I learned to store them better. Kids could easily put them away now, and self-sufficiency is something we DEFINITELY aim for.

Looking for more kitchen organizing tips — be sure to check out these posts:

• Clever Kitchen Storage: Smart solutions for smaller kitchens
• 19 Easy Kitchen Organization Tips to Make Life Easier
• 3 Kitchen Sink Hacks You Need
• Zoning Your Kitchen
• How to Clean Your Kitchen: Cleaning in Circles

Clothes!

Kid’s clothes are so hard. Seems like you turn around and suddenly pants that fit yesterday are only falling to their calf. I always tried to make sure that we had clothes in the upcoming sizes, but also an easy system to get rid of what wasn’t fitting anymore (or pack away for the next kid).

Clothes can be an issue for adults and kids >> check out my post with easy ideas to organize your closet.

I have a post on some good tips on getting your kid’s wardrobe ready for school. OR if you’ve got little ones — I have some awesome baby closet organization tips.

I think it’s important to be honest that it’s not always having the family that’s keeping us disorganized. I have whole post on decluttering shoes you ight find helpful.

Toys

Having kids manage their own clutter (like toys) is a BIG win. Not only are you teaching them to be self-sufficient, it sometimes weeds out what’s getting used, and what is not. Check out my post on playroom organization.

I also have some great tips for organizing games.

As I’m editing this post I realize that there are SO many places that families just organize different — and you may just be thinking WHERE DO I START?

I often ask myself that, and I’d spiral into an inability to get started at all — until I found this.

It splits spaces into their own spots. It helps me get my head around what I want a space to be used for, declutter it, and then create a system that actually WORKS for my FAMILY.

I’ve also started to realize that my fantasy of having a professional organizer come to my home would also be a lot of work — so, I just need to get started! I think this will help you do that too!

Laundry

I am so grateful for my washing machine, but I also find it to be a tricky room to organize to use effectively. I have a whole on organizing your laundry room to make it both safe and easy to use!

It can be really tempting to think that you just need more stuff to organize your home better (hello Container Store) — but I have often used Amazon boxes to make very effective organization items.

Food!

When your kids get old enough to take things from the pantry on their own — I have found that I need to go through it every now and then to restock the basics.

I was mostly left over-buying things we didn’t use as much, and somehow out of the things we really needed — my pantry inventory spreadsheet helped that a lot!

Got an older one with a messy locker at school? While that really isn’t “your problem” I do have some locker organization tips.

Family Calendar

As a mom — I love having a paper planner that’s jut for ME — to put my priorities, needs (and sometimes just hopes) in — but I also need to use a digital calendar that everyone can add events to — I have a post on how I use a paper planner along with a digital planner to make it easy for a family.

I have found that I REALLY like the paper aspect of my planner — it’s something I do JUST for myself. It’s off-limits for my kids, and that’s been nice to have a small bit of peace in our family storm.

Emergency Organization

I’m not saying the clutter is particularly an emergency — but what about storing medicine? A well-organized medicine cabinet can really help all of you when the chips are down — and I have a post on how to organize your medicine (even if you don’t have or use a medicine cabinet for it).

And, while we’re here talking about emergency organization — be sure to check out my post on easy steps you can start organizing your estate planning.

The Randomness of it All

I think one of the hardest parts of organizing a home with kids is all the random things you need to organize, and how difficult it can be to get an ideas to use the space you have.

I have a post where I shared some of my favorite organization projects around our house.

That honestly is just a starter pack to all the systems you’ll see at work in The Organized Home. If you’re thinking, I just need a little help — that’s the class for you. Join for just a month or a lifetime, whatever fits your budget… and I think you’ll be organizing like a pro in no time!

What is YOUR hardest place to organize as a family? Tell us in the comments!

The post Family-Tested Organizing Tips appeared first on Pulling Curls.

Find it here on Apple or Spotify Podcasts

Big thanks to our sponsor Family Routines — to make room for important things like baby proofing, having the rest of your life in a routine totally helps!

Today’s guest is Dani Morin. She is a child safety advocate and CPST on social media. Helping parents make informed parenting decisions and providing product research to help moms make the perfect baby registry. Find her here: @Danimorin_ on IG and @danimorin13 on TikTok

Links for you:

Timestamps:

00:00 Necklace strangulation hazard led to tragedy.

03:27 Baltic amber teething necklaces: all risk, no benefit.

09:10 Struggles with safety advice for parent education.

11:24 Desiring family connection and appreciation for moms.

13:12 CPST instructor identified car seat errors.

18:02 Regularly check floor level for baby hazards.

22:01 Overprotective, balancing safety and learning experiences.

25:14 Anchor furniture to prevent tip-over incidents.

26:08 Millennials source furniture anywhere, anchoring optional.

32:11 Avoid outdated plastic; seek modern electrical options.

33:13 Avoid hazards: baby-proof, prevent falls, lock windows.

38:31 Keep detergent pods safe; store, don’t display.

41:21 Share safety tips; be open to feedback.

45:17 Balance mom worries with safety precautions.

48:44 Doctor advises against bedsharing; recommends separate sleeping arrangements.

51:33 AI prioritizes popular articles, not necessarily best.

53:43 Son’s low blood sugar led to NICU.

57:53 Dani moron 13 keeps humble TikTok presence.

59:12 Episode focused on friendship and parenting choices.

Keypoints:

• The episode is focused on baby safety and features Dani Morin, a car seat technician and TikTok influencer.
• Dani shares the tragic event of losing her son Deacon due to a Baltic amber teething necklace, which drives her advocacy.
• Baltic amber teething necklaces are shown to be ineffective and potentially dangerous, with some platforms banning their sale.
• The importance of anchoring furniture to prevent accidents is emphasized, as well as modern safety challenges with slim TVs and high-voltage cords.
• Dani discusses the concept of safe sleep practices and the risks involved with co-sleeping, advocating for strong safety standards.
• Baby-proofing is highlighted as a continuous, evolving process as children grow and develop new abilities.
• Both Hilary and Dani stress the importance of sourcing reliable, professional information over random online articles or AI-generated content.
• Dani uses the “shit sandwich” method to offer safety advice without coming across as judgmental or critical.
• The episode emphasizes creating supportive communities for new mothers to share information and provide emotional support.
• Safe storage of household items like laundry pods and electrical equipment is crucial to prevent accidents, with practical tips provided for parents.

Producer: Drew Erickson

Transcript

[00:00:00.000] – Hilary Erickson

Hey, guys. Welcome back to the Pulling Curls Podcast. Today on episode 254, we are talking about baby safety. Let’s untangle it.

[00:00:09.320] – Hilary Erickson

Hi, I’m Hilary, a serial overcomplicator. I’m also a nurse, mom to three, and the curly head behind Pulling Curls and the Pregnancy Nurse. This podcast aims to help us stop overcomplicating things and remember how much easier it is to keep things simple. Let’s smooth out those snarls with Pregnancy and Parenting Untangled, the Pulling Curls Podcast.

[00:00:29.690] – Hilary Erickson

This episode is sponsored by Family Routines. If you are looking to do things like baby safety, having routines that help you update your baby safety protocols and really be in a routine, Family Routines is going to help you get there. Family Routines is the course for you. Come get on some great routines with me.

[00:00:54.190] – Hilary Erickson

Super excited for today’s guest. She is a CPST, that’s a car seat tech on TikTok. She is great at helping parents make informed choices, especially about their baby registry. I want to introduce my friend, Dani Morin.

[00:01:06.600] – Hilary Erickson

Hey, Dani. Welcome to the Pulling Curls Podcast.

[00:01:08.760] – Dani Morin

Thanks for having me. I’m so excited to be here. I don’t know if people know how we know each other, but we got on TikTok, I think at the same exact time, in 2020, the Wild West of TikTok. But I sat next to you at a brand dinner with Aussie Bubs, and it was one of the funnest times. You are absolutely hilarious. I don’t know if people know how funny you actually are from your videos. You are so funny. It was one of the funnest nights that I had. So when you asked me to be on the podcast, I was like, automatically, we’re going to be talking about baby stuff, but I’m sure we could make it funny.

[00:01:44.090] – Hilary Erickson

And you were taking shots of infant formula, so you know it was a good time.

[00:01:48.230] – Dani Morin

No. That’s how you take shots these days as moms. Formula. It wasn’t bad.

[00:01:53.900] – Hilary Erickson

I could not do it.

[00:01:53.920] – Dani Morin

It wasn’t bad.

[00:01:55.610] – Dani Morin

It was the toddler formula. It wasn’t bad. Anything for the content.

[00:02:00.190] – Hilary Erickson

See, that’s why.

[00:02:02.080] – Dani Morin

Didn’t they bring out a shot ski?

[00:02:04.660] – Hilary Erickson

Yes, they had a flight. Yes. So, Dani, tell me a little bit about your history, why your heart is in children’s safety. I just want people to know just a snippet of why, because I think that’s really important as we go into this.

[00:02:20.930] – Dani Morin

Yeah. So this gets asked a lot, and I will do a little bit of a trigger warning if child loss is involved in here, but it is a huge part of my story. I could talk about the logistics, and I could talk about my son now. It’s been eight years, but my son, Deacon, my first child, he was strangled by a Baltic Amber teething necklace at his childcare.

[00:02:40.560] – Dani Morin

Logistically, I don’t know exactly how it happened. The childcare is watching too many people. Two things are true at the same time. The necklace was a strangulation hazard, and the daycare was not doing their job.

[00:02:52.700] – Dani Morin

And I lost him in October of 2016. Worst, I never thought I’d come out of it. And I decided maybe two years into it that I wanted to open up about my story. And this was a hard decision because I put a Baltic Amber teething necklace around his neck that I thought helped with teething. I was a very crunchy mom at the time. If you asked me what the AAP was, I would have shrugged and said I didn’t know. And these Baltic Amber teething necklaces, we do all these things to help our baby.

[00:03:27.970] – Dani Morin

We’re desperate to do anything to make our babies feel better. Not realizing that some of those things are just pure risk, which we know now. In 2008, a lot of people come to me and be like, Did you read all these studies? No, those studies came out in 2018 due to my son and other children that were strangled.

[00:03:45.240] – Dani Morin

Those studies came out and proved that Baltic Amber teething necklaces serve no purpose. The child’s temperature would have to be 392 degrees Fahrenheit for this acenic acid to even release. Your child would not be alive at 392 degrees Fahrenheit.

[00:04:00.130] – Dani Morin

It’s all risk and no benefit, and that’s where the messaging is. Those studies came out in 2018. These were very popular in 2014-2015. They’re still very popular now, believe it or not. You can’t get them on Etsy anymore. You can’t get them on Amazon anymore. They’re not sold in stores, but there are some boutique owners that will order them from Lithuania and so on.

[00:04:19.710] – Dani Morin

They’re still out there. They’re still being sold. So I try to do my best to warn parents, but I started going on the news. I started getting in parenting magazines and sharing my story, and it wasn’t getting me anywhere.

[00:04:33.740] – Dani Morin

And then TikTok came along, and I started just doing TikToks of my pregnancy. I was going to take it to the grave that I had ever lost a child because I was like, I don’t know. I saw how quickly some of these videos had taken off. And I had posted a video about how I had my son. So I DIYed my son. I ordered sperm from a sperm bank to my home and got pregnant. That’s a podcast on its own, if I’m I’m being honest.

[00:05:00.850] – Hilary Erickson

I really want to do a separate one about that. I really do. Yeah.

[00:05:04.590] – Dani Morin

Yeah. So that’s a podcast on its own. But I was met with three types of things, a bunch of people being like, this is wrong. I can’t believe you’re doing this, the American family. Everyone had so much to say. And I’m like, look, I’ve put so much thought into this.

[00:05:20.310] – Dani Morin

But I also didn’t think that people realized I was a single mom prior. I had been a mom before. And then I also had moms coming out and being like, I am 40 years old. I’m a lawyer. I thought I was going to have to go spend $40,000 on IVF. I didn’t know this was even an option. So I think I opened up a window of opportunity for moms that were… I had messages like, I was literally going to settle for the wrong guy because I wanted to have a baby. I broke up with him. I think I’m going to do this.

[00:05:45.020] – Dani Morin

And I made it very clear in that video, make sure you have the finances, make sure you have the means. I made it very clear.

[00:05:49.940] – Dani Morin

But I was met with a lot of criticism, and I was like, imagine if I come out and tell people that, hey, I was a mom before, I lost… And then the criticism that I would be met with.

[00:05:59.560] – Dani Morin

And I… Actually, there was a little bit of criticism.

[00:06:02.660] – Dani Morin

And now I post things for a certain reason. But there’s a lot of criticism when it comes to, I can’t believe that you put that around your child’s neck. Didn’t you read the studies?

[00:06:15.520] – Dani Morin

Or I got met with, I use this on my child and it’s perfectly fine. All three of my kids have used this and they’re fine. These actually really were. But then I was met with the most comments of, Thank you so much. This is getting removed right now. I would not have known this. How do you not share your story?

[00:06:32.180] – Dani Morin

And I realized then, I will continue to share my story for that third mom. You know what I mean? For those comments of, Thank you so much.

[00:06:41.510] – Dani Morin

Then it got into, well, if I’m talking about child safety and necklaces, what else should I be talking about? So I started sharing more baby proofing tips. I started sharing more on safe sleep, which is also controversial, which I did not realize was controversial.

[00:06:55.320] – Hilary Erickson

You get flamed for the safe sleep.

[00:06:56.740] – Dani Morin

Yeah, the safe sleep. And I think I was going to a TikTok actually this week. I think where it gets dangerous is there’s a lot of providers or sleep consultants and these experts where they do the meet the mom where they’re at mentality.

[00:07:11.390] – Dani Morin

So at some point in their motherhood journey, they have been told, I understand that you’re doing it. Let’s try to do it better. Whereas I would rather a provider come to me and be like, this is the statistic. If you sleep with your baby, this is the risk that you’re putting out there.

[00:07:27.390] – Dani Morin

There will never be a day that I’m going to tell you what doing is okay. I can feel for the lack of sleep. This has to be so difficult for you, and I could feel for that.

[00:07:36.780] – Dani Morin

But there will never be a day that I say this is okay because I’ve seen too many things. I think some providers are coming out and being like, well, let’s just try. They’re like, Okay, I’m being valid. It has to be okay, right? Because they’re like… So the meet the mom mentality, sometimes I… Even with the baby proofing and stuff like, Oh, okay.

[00:07:55.110] – Dani Morin

Well, just watch your kid then around that one if you don’t want to put the hole in the wall. It’s We can’t be doing that. I think the meeting the mom mentality for lactation consultants of really being like, I want you to breastfeed. I want this to be successful for you. We’re having some difficulty and your baby needs to be fed. So let’s meet in the middle here and come up with maybe a solution.

[00:08:15.780] – Dani Morin

But maybe that’s a situation. I’ve breastfed my kids for two years and almost three years, so it worked for me. But sometimes I think with the baby proofing and some of these other topics in the sleep where it’s like, we can’t just give you a couple of options and they’re all okay in some way.

[00:08:32.730] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah, it’s tricky.

[00:08:34.510] – Dani Morin

It gets tricky. But I think validating a mom’s feeling of, yeah, I don’t want to put a hole in my wall either to put up a baby gate. This sucks. Or like, yeah, no, it sucks not sleeping. This stage of parenting sucks. Oh, my gosh. I totally understand where you’re at. You’re doing everything right now to feed your baby. I think validating them, but also giving out facts is also another thing.

[00:08:57.130] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah, and there’s a big difference between how I share information on TikTok and how I talk to my singular patient that had a singular problem, right? Yeah. So it’s tricky. But TikTok is for everyone.

[00:09:10.960] – Dani Morin

And it’s so hard for me to remember that because sometimes I think that I will talk singular on some of my TikToks. When I became a CPST, so then I became a CPST, and I started working with moms in their car seats, we practice a good, better best. It’s what’s taught.

[00:09:28.790] – Dani Morin

And that is not on TikTok. I am like, this is how it is. So I asked them, how would you address this with a safe sleep thing? Like the good, better, best? They’re like, if someone says, oh, I’m doing the safe sleep seven, you could say, yeah, I guess that’s a safer way, but I will never say that it’s safe. It’s never going to be something that I say is safe.

[00:09:49.190] – Dani Morin

But yeah, is it safer than you sleeping on top of your baby? I guess. But I could never say that that is safe.

[00:09:55.150] – Dani Morin

So I’m like, okay, because how do you word that? But with car seats, you have a mom come in and she has her two-year-old forward-facing. And okay, so that’s good, right? And maybe the latches were a little loose, so we tighten those up. Okay, so that’s better.

[00:10:13.160] – Dani Morin

But then maybe the mom decides like, Okay, I heard what you have to say about rear-facing. I’m going to flip my car seat. Okay, that’s the best. But legally, she left maybe forward-facing with a tighter install. So that’s better than how she came.

[00:10:25.850] – Dani Morin

But by doing that, I’ve changed how I talk on TikTok. I think I was coming out like, there’s nothing you could say about teething necklaces that I’m ever going to be okay with. I still feel that way. But I changed. There’s nothing a mom could say to me that I’m not going to be able to have a comeback, especially on the teething necklaces. But I changed the approach, I feel like, or I’m putting in the effort.

[00:10:48.300] – Hilary Erickson

Well, I mean, we are not supporting parents enough in this world, right? I went back to work at six weeks with every single kid. First kid, I went back at five weeks. I was tired, and then I would go be a nurse somewhere. God bless those patients. Yeah.

[00:11:01.500] – Dani Morin

I mean, it’s so crazy.

[00:11:03.580] – Hilary Erickson

So we got to support mothers more. We have to be the village, including new moms. I see a lot of new moms who are like, well, I can’t support other new moms. I’m like, well, that is our village, is we’re all supporting each other. I’m not saying you’re two weeks postpartum taking a meal. I’m saying you have a one year old, you’re now part of the village that’s helping all these new moms. And I am old, so I’m definitely part of the village.

[00:11:24.520] – Dani Morin

Yeah, it’s crazy we don’t really have that. I’ve been blessed to have my mom in my life, but I know a lot of people live so far away from their families? You know what I mean? And I could not imagine that, but maybe it’s a military situation. So they have this great group of women that act as that.

[00:11:43.790] – Dani Morin

So I’ve seen different things like that. But I think really validating to moms, sometimes I just want my fiance to come home and be like, I realize you had a busy day. You did so much today. And I’m like, you know? You just want to be seen.

[00:11:55.560] – Dani Morin

So I understand that moms are like, I just want someone to notice that sleeping is really hard for me right now. And just say, I understand this sucks. You know what I mean? Or the breastfeeding, that is hard. Or just the sleep, and I miss my body. I’m in this awkward phase. And people just want to be validated and like, hey, me too. I’ve been there. You’re going to get through this. Today is hard. Even with grief, when people open up about their grief journeys or child loss and they’re like, hey, I’m having a day.

[00:12:28.810] – Dani Morin

I’m like, today is hard. I’m going to validate you. This has to be so hard. This is a hard day because it’s like, sometimes I think people just want to be validated. Yeah.

[00:12:38.280] – Hilary Erickson

Well, we should definitely say that upfront. There are things Dani is going to say on here that Hilary did not do as a parent because everybody knows my oldest is 24.

[00:12:46.030] – Hilary Erickson

So a lot of these things we didn’t even have or think about. So I’m not shaming you. There is no shame in this episode. This is like, you’re doing a good job. I think everyone that is listening to this podcast is doing a good job. Could we do a little bit better? That’s what we’re finding out today. This isn’t like, oh, I’m never going to make it. Yeah, you can make small changes.

[00:13:03.480] – Dani Morin

Small changes. And also, these are not things even that I’ve done. When I got my CPST certification, I had a CPST instructor check my own car seat and found mistakes.

[00:13:17.120] – Dani Morin

So I could go in here and find things that I didn’t do with my first that now I know better. So I totally… There’s just things that you’re not even going to know. I did a TikTok, yes, a couple of days ago about the kid in Utah that had the kernel that was playing in the pumpkin patch, and he got the kernel. I’m like, okay, here’s two videos of my son also playing in those year after year. I had no idea yet. I’ve made videos about why kids shouldn’t have popcorn. It’s just like, sometimes it takes other people’s stories to realize like, oh, my gosh.

[00:13:50.880] – Dani Morin

And I feel like the best form of parenting is listening to other stories and sometimes mistakes. And I shout out to moms that are willing to admit when they’ve made a mistake to help others because I wouldn’t be the parent I am today if it wasn’t for you guys and sharing your stories. Yeah.

[00:14:05.150] – Hilary Erickson

And shout out to Dani, because I’m sure it was extremely vulnerable to share that you bought the necklace.

[00:14:11.110] – Dani Morin

It was gifted to me, but it was on my registry. It’s something that I wanted. So it was the stamp of approval for the Crunchy Moms. If you didn’t have one, then you were science-based. That was not going to be me back then. Now-

[00:14:24.060] – Hilary Erickson

All my friends know I’m science-based, so they would just…

[00:14:27.000] – Dani Morin

It’s so funny, and I’ve made plenty of TikToks. The drastic change I went from making my own wipes in 2015 with, I think I was using like, grapeseed oil and like, lavender. I mean, I cloth-diapered.

[00:14:43.420] – Dani Morin

People like to throw in the breastfeeding as crunchy. I don’t. You know what I mean? But I did the barefoot thing, the cloth diapering, I did the essential oils. I did all of the the hand-making of everything. And it was so stressful to live that lifestyle, too. But that Baltic Amber teething necklace, that was a stamp of approval where you go in to Target and the other moms are like, yeah, I’m not toxic, too.

[00:15:11.090] – Dani Morin

But no, it’s just to look back. And now I’m so evidence-based, science-based. I follow people like you. I follow people like Dr. Frijes. I follow all the pediatricians, just thank God for them, right?

[00:15:25.680] – Dani Morin

So yeah, no shame here because I was that mom. I’ve done things right and I’ve done things wrong, and I continue to sometimes do things wrong, and I have to learn. So no shame.

[00:15:34.410] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah, and I was the one shoving Highland’s teething tablets, which are no longer high.

[00:15:37.870] – Dani Morin

Yeah, I had no- So we…

[00:15:40.200] – Hilary Erickson

Shout out to everybody that’s just giving it a whirl. Yeah.

[00:15:42.440] – Dani Morin

Someone just did a video on teething and the science behind how teething happens and the discomfort and what it really is for babies. And it was pretty interesting. I’ll have to send it to you. But yeah, it was just-

[00:15:54.990] – Hilary Erickson

I am not sad. Not sad to not have teethers in my house.

[00:15:58.430] – Dani Morin

Yeah. I think the best thing I gave to Brett was a rolled up cloth. I would freeze a rolled up cloth. And that was the best thing. And I had the teethers and that was the best thing, I swear. People did the frozen-

[00:16:11.300] – Hilary Erickson

We did frozen waffles because it would catch the drool.

[00:16:14.360] – Dani Morin

I attempted the frozen waffle. The cloth seemed to work best, but the cloth also gets the drool, right?

[00:16:20.890] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah, that’s true. Okay, so today we’re talking baby proofing. No shame out there if you don’t have these things done. And Dani and I were quickly talking about this before. And even if you have a teenager, there are different things I’m thinking when she was talking, I was like, I need a teen proof, my medicine cabinet, right? There’s a reason I probably shouldn’t have any Oxy anywhere near, right? Because you just never know. Liquor, things like that. So it’s a long range game. So let’s talk baby proofing or kid proofing.

[00:16:50.510] – Dani Morin

Well, I love that you started off with baby proofing for your teens. And the reason I like that is the one thing that I live by is baby proofing is ongoing. Now, I am not baby proofing certified. I work with them, but I’m not baby proofing certified. In order to do that, you actually have to own a baby proofing business.

[00:17:09.860] – Dani Morin

And in California, you have to have a contractor’s license to do that. So I’ll work with them on campaigns, they do like tip over awareness and stuff like that. And I’m involved with the baby proofers, but I’m not a certified baby proofer. I don’t go into people’s homes and baby proof them, but I can provide the information online. That’s what we’ll do today. But I love that you talked about your teens and baby proofing, because the funniest thing is it’s always ongoing.

[00:17:32.100] – Dani Morin

A perfect example of this is things that you would do before you come home from the hospital and things that you would do when your child steps up to that couch and does a little couch surfing for the first time is going to be completely different. A great example of this is you come home with your baby, you’re maybe six weeks in.

[00:17:52.610] – Dani Morin

All baby does is lay there in the bassinet and put baby to bed, mom and dad, grab a glass of wine and some popcorn. And have some time to themselves. But a couple months later, baby starts scooting around. So the best thing you could do is get down to the baby’s level. And what you might find under that couch where your little baby’s hand could fit is a popcorn kernel or something else that got under there that you couldn’t see, you couldn’t really reach. But when you get to their level, you could see that and you could reach that.

[00:18:22.360] – Dani Morin

So it’s one of those things to constantly do. And before you’re a parent, you’re like, maybe you vacuum under that couch when you move. That would be me. Or maybe it’s something you do twice a year. But when you have a scooter and a Crawler, that’s going to be something that you’re constantly doing is putting that vacuum device under there and really making sure that nothing got under there.

[00:18:43.340] – Dani Morin

But with an infant who’s just laying there, that’s probably something that you hadn’t really thought of before. When we get those babies who are couch surfing, if they could surf your couch, they could surf a toilet.

[00:18:55.600] – Dani Morin

And although we promote putting the toilet locks on the before you come home from the hospital, they’re a pain. You got to run to the bathroom. You don’t want to open it, but you want to make sure that those are on at that time. So I just put them on, get used to it. But if they could surf that couch, they could certainly surf your toilet.

[00:19:17.280] – Dani Morin

So it’s constantly ongoing. When they’re getting on their hands and knees, you should also get on their hands and knees. When they’re standing up, you should also stand up. And what are they reaching? What could they get into?

[00:19:27.400] – Dani Morin

Do you need to protect any corners at this time? Because now they’re hitting the tables or whatever it is. It’s constantly ongoing. So that’s my biggest thing.

[00:19:37.790] – Dani Morin

My second biggest thing is that every mom thinks we can’t fathom something bad happening to our kids. We see things on the news and it’s like, Hey, that could never be me. A kid gets hit on his bike without a helmet or something like that. Oh, my gosh.

[00:19:52.370] – Hilary Erickson

I’m the opposite of that mom.

[00:19:53.750] – Dani Morin

And I’m the opposite.

[00:19:55.450] – Hilary Erickson

I envisioned every single thing I saw bad in the hospital.

[00:19:58.520] – Dani Morin

I’m like, well- Because you have this personal tie to it, right? So for me, I’m like, I was the mom sitting in the comfort of my own home watching the news and being like, that could never happen to me. I feel so bad for that family.

[00:20:08.990] – Dani Morin

And until I was the girl on the news. You know what I mean? And then it’s like, wow. And I just did the Stop the Bleed class, and it was all nurses and doctors in there. It was so funny how desensitized… How- not desensitized, but that, Oh, yeah, we see this all the time. Like, oh, yeah, this happens. Oh, yeah. Then you’ll want to check a bullet wound, and I’m like, Oh, have you seen this before?

[00:20:32.510] – Dani Morin

Because as a normal mom, I can’t fathom. But our nurses and our doctors, when they see this stuff all the time, it is an automatic no-no, or it is an automatic pool gate, or is it automatic no trampoline roll? For our first responders that see this all the time, they understand. So I think for me as also a regular mom, but now I have the same mentality as you is actually, no, these things could happen because something happened to me before it could happen to me again.

[00:20:57.810] – Dani Morin

I try to put that mentality on the moms in TikTok. Please understand that this could happen to you. There are not rules. There’s no ASTM boards. There’s no CPSC for no reason. These things are in place because things have happened bad. Yeah.

[00:21:13.660] – Hilary Erickson

And a quick shout out for the fact that you literally can’t keep every accident from happening.

[00:21:18.500] – Dani Morin

You can’t. Exactly.

[00:21:19.460] – Hilary Erickson

Forever. You have to give your kid a driver’s license and let them drive. There’s parts of parenting where you have to let them try the bars, right?

[00:21:26.330] – Dani Morin

Well, it was funny because I think with my son, Deacon, And I was really this hippie mom and just free. And I think with my son, Rut, I was opposite, where I’ve almost sheltered him too much.

[00:21:41.400] – Dani Morin

I actually had a friend, her son jumped off the sink into a ball pit, and I about had a heart attack. And this is something that happens all the time. And she looked at me and she was like, has he ever in his life worn a bandaid?

[00:21:55.220] – Dani Morin

And I was like, he’s four years old, right? He’s never had a bandaid? I’ve never allowed him to get hurt. I’ve been scared for him to fall off his bike. And I’m like, a little bit, I have to let him inch out a little bit. And I have to let my paranoia like, oh, if my brother wanted to put him up on his shoulders, absolutely not.

[00:22:13.640] – Dani Morin

Because I just foresee all these things happening. So I’m getting myself to a place where I’m like, not let me let him get hurt, but it’s okay so that he can learn to ride a bike that he might get a couple of scrapes.

[00:22:27.850] – Dani Morin

I’m going to prevent it as much as I can, but I like to tell parents that think in my comments a lot of times, oh, just supervise your kid. You can do a teething necklace as long as you supervise your kid. You have to go to the bathroom. You have to. You have to fill up your water bottle. You’re going to have to mix that mac and cheese on the stove top. You have to change out your laundry. All of these things take 15, 20, maybe 1 to 2 to 3 to 5 minutes. And not saying that you’re a bad mom for doing those, you have to do those things.

[00:23:04.390] – Dani Morin

But that is just enough time for a strangulation to occur from a blind string. That’s just enough time for the baby to push over a baby gate because you didn’t want to bolt it into the wall. It’s just enough time for a TV to fall on a kid.

[00:23:19.660] – Dani Morin

So yes, we’re not saying you’re not supervising your kids, but nobody can supervise their child 100 % of the time 24/7. And these kids, they’re quick. They’re quick. So that’s just.. Understand that it’s like, no, we know you’re supervising your kid, but there’s the 15 seconds to a minute of time when you run out and you’re not. Not leaving the house, but run to the laundry room or turn around.

[00:23:51.910] – Hilary Erickson

Well, and I think there’s a lot of joy in parenting to know that you’ve created a safe space for your kids where they can explore every single DVD that I own, because back in the day, my kids wanted to pull out all the DVDs, all the books, right? They can explore that area and you know that you’ve baby proofed it as good as you could, and they can explore and do stuff. And you’re not constantly like, Oh, not that book. Oh, not that DVD.

[00:24:13.370] – Dani Morin

I love that, too. So We had done something in our house that a baby proofer had recommended, where I’m like, he constantly wants to be in the kitchen when I’m in the kitchen and play with the drawers. And she was like, find the furthest cabinet that’s not by the stove or anything and put his plastic plates in there. Let him organize those.

[00:24:31.520] – Dani Morin

So we did that where it’s like we moved up all the cleaning supplies, and that’s the one drawer that’s not locked because it’s baby proofed. He could pull it out. He could help mom put the dishes, his own things away. But Everything else I lock. And then I do like the magnet locks for the alcohol, for the medications and the vitamins, and those should be higher up.

[00:24:56.820] – Dani Morin

I do like the thought of pantry locks, and everyone will find one that they like. They really push those magnet ones, but I have lost the magnet key more times than I can count. No drinking in our house because you can’t even find the magnet key.

[00:25:13.250] – Hilary Erickson

Safety first.

[00:25:14.370] – Dani Morin

Yeah. So there’s little things that you could do in the kitchen. I think a big one that I think we should talk about is tipovers.

[00:25:23.700] – Dani Morin

I mean, the statistics on these tipover deaths and incidences is insane to me. I think it was America’s… It was part of the baby proofing group. They were running a campaign for Furniture of America or something like that.

[00:25:41.810] – Dani Morin

And the one rule, I think this is easy for moms to take with them is if it has a drawer, a door, or a shelf, it should be anchored to the wall. And it took them… So I was on a meeting with the baby proofing group a couple of weeks ago, and they were talking about that it took 20 years for the furniture to get in through, I think, ASTM to have the anchor things on the back of furniture sold.

[00:26:08.800] – Dani Morin

But with that said, a lot of us, if you’re like me, Hey, I didn’t have all this money to be getting new furniture. I got some from my mom. I got some from grandma. I got some from Facebook marketplace, where you’re not going to have those anchor things on there to remind you to anchor that to the wall. I did get a dresser recently that did include that. Now it’s in law, but a lot of us millennials, we’re getting our furniture wherever we can.

[00:26:32.480] – Dani Morin

So it’s still something that… And there’s a ton of different anchoring systems that you could use, you go on Amazon or whatever, that you could use to anchor.

[00:26:41.590] – Dani Morin

Even at Walmart, they have a whole baby proofing section to anchor anything. And this could be your night stand that weighs 20 pounds. 20 pounds and a 10, 11, 12 pound infant, that’s nothing to mess around with.

[00:26:58.110] – Hilary Erickson

Is there a height? Because I didn’t do anything that was below waist height.

[00:27:02.400] – Dani Morin

So they actually do. That was one of my questions, and they actually recommend if it lands with a drawer, door, or shelf that it’s anchored. Now, I was just thinking like, oh, these tall shelves that I have in my room. Like, oh, yeah, I’ll just anchor those.

[00:27:16.290] – Dani Morin

They’re saying there are some incidences with a night stand.

[00:27:22.370] – Hilary Erickson

Kids are crazy out there.

[00:27:25.070] – Dani Morin

So just anchoring them. And people will say, it’s a rental or it’s my new house. I don’t want to put it. You could fix a hole in your wall, but you cannot fix the hole in your heart if something were to happen, especially on your watch. So just anchor them.

[00:27:41.200] – Dani Morin

These anchoring systems are really not that bad in your walls. And they have them for the mirrors. A lot of us girlies on the internet love our mirrors for our selfies. They have them for the mirrors. The TVs are a big one. I know in California, I think last year there was four deaths just from TV tipovers, at least in my state.

[00:27:58.320] – Dani Morin

So I’m a big fan of anchoring your TV to a wall, pay the professional $120. That’s typically what it costs.

[00:28:05.560] – Dani Morin

Get that anchored to your wall if possible. If not, you have to have it stand on some shelving system or whatever, make sure that you anchor that to a wall. There’s different rope anchors and stuff like that.

[00:28:18.450] – Dani Morin

They actually come with the TVs, typically. If you have to do that type of thing, I’m a big fan of anchoring it to the wall or mounting it to the wall if possible. But I believe anchor systems come in the packaging now for people that are going to stand it on a piece of furniture.

[00:28:35.970] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. I will say that even with teens, they just love to roughouse, just anchor it to the wall. It’s never going to get better. For sure.

[00:28:43.760] – Dani Morin

Yeah. So the furniture, working with the-

[00:28:47.130] – Hilary Erickson

And we lived in California, so we were always like, earthquake, too. It’s not just a kid climbing on it. They can tip over in an earthquake, too, like those two ones. So we’ve always been anchor-

[00:28:57.390] – Dani Morin

Yeah, big fan of that. And I think more people are doing that. I think back in the day we had, and this is just why baby proofing is constantly changing, is back in the day, it was those big, bulky TVs.

[00:29:08.990] – Dani Morin

Now we have these skinny, tall TVs that just fall over on top of our babies. And I see it all the time on TikTok and people making jokes about like, Oh, this almost fell on my baby. And I’m like, No, that’s really serious. That could have been really bad. People have died that way. So I’m a big fan of anchoring. I was not a fan of anchoring.

[00:29:30.930] – Hilary Erickson

And if you guys are big question mark over your brain, especially new parents, go to Home Depot and look at these options or Walmart, apparently. We always went to Home Depot.

[00:29:39.980] – Hilary Erickson

Look at the options, see which will work if you’re in a rental or if you’re in a home and you’re planning on being there for a long time, then anchor the heck to the stud, right? Just look at your different options because there are different options out there for anchoring these different things. It’s not just like… I just like to feel them with my hands and see exactly what the hole is going to be or whatever. Yeah.

[00:29:57.850] – Dani Morin

And there’s plenty of options They’re getting more innovative as they come. Another one that I wanted to talk about when we’re talking about how baby proofing has changed is our… Let me pull this out of another computer. Is our cords from our phones… So our phones and our computers, the amount of voltage that is going through these things, right? Think about having to put this into your computer or your phone. The amount of voltage is insane.

[00:30:28.430] – Dani Morin

We’ve never talked about this before. I don’t know if you follow Getty’s mom, but she’s a dentist. And they’ve been seeing, the dentists have been seeing all these kids and babies coming in because they’re chewing on these things. And the voltage, even if it’s unplugged, the voltage is still… shoots through there. So they’re burning the inside of their mouths and stuff. So she actually, she came up with this product called Watch Your Mouth.

[00:30:52.810] – Dani Morin

But it’s basically a product that goes… I have videos on this, but it’s a product that goes over the top of it. So whether it’s unplugged or not, they put this in their mouth, they’re fine.

[00:31:03.860] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. So people that are just listening, it just looks like the top of a travel to fresh cover.

[00:31:06.840] – Dani Morin

It looks like a travel to fresh cover. That’s probably how she figured this out. And it locks over your phone charger. And then when you’re using it, it still stays on. It still stays on there. But then you could put it in. So it’s just a reminder, hey, lock it up. But I guess they were seeing all these injuries. And it’s like, this is one of those things where it’s like, I would have never thought.

[00:31:29.280] – Dani Morin

Because I’ve grown up in this digital age, but this digital age compared to our parents or even 10, 20 years ago, and even the phones now, like the new iPhone 15 takes the same voltage, or whatever one it is, takes the new… I don’t know. Takes the same voltage as a computer.

[00:31:46.830] – Dani Morin

And that’s just one of those things. It could be really dangerous, and we just don’t think about it. Another thing to think about when we’re thinking about baby proofing and the new age is a lot of the new homes are being built with pre existing safety things for the electrical outlets. So they’re built like that, where you have to jiggle the plug in there and it opens it up. But your kid can’t get hurt. They’re built like that.

[00:32:11.990] – Dani Morin

So I’m in a new home build. But with that being said, if I didn’t know that and I went to shove in one of those plastic things, they’re not recommended at all anymore, that could harm me. You know what I mean? So there’s all these new types of electrical options out there that are not the plastic ones. We’re trying to stay away from that.

[00:32:33.010] – Dani Morin

I wouldn’t even know how to explain this one, so I’m not going to try. But there’s a lot of new ones out there that aren’t the plastic ones that are safety covers for outlets just because of things that we’ve learned, how our electricity is set up, what’s safe and what’s not.

[00:32:49.610] – Dani Morin

Something to ask your contractor or when you buy a new home, hey, what outlets are these? What baby proofing electrical things can I use? They should be be able to help you with that if you’re getting a new home, which I think a lot of pregnant moms, what do we get? New cars and new homes when a baby comes? Yeah.

[00:33:09.300] – Hilary Erickson

And your realtor also might have an idea. They know a lot about electricity that I’m always like, I didn’t know about them.

[00:33:14.330] – Dani Morin

So when I got my home, they’re like, make sure with your baby, you do not put in the plastic things. This is already baby proofed. And then I guess another big one is falls. So this is anything from falling downstairs, falling out windows. A couple of things that parents can do to avoid this, even outside of the baby proofing, is don’t put furniture where your kid can climb on it and fall off a banister. Don’t make it easy for them.

[00:33:43.520] – Dani Morin

So think about what would be a fun jungle gym for your kid and avoid that away from places that they could fall or away from the windows where they could climb out windows. I’m always a big fan of the… I don’t have one over here, but the window locks where you could lock the window from above so they can’t open it.

[00:34:01.620] – Dani Morin

But if you quickly needed to get out in a fire or something, that you could push it and slide it open, but your kid wouldn’t be able to do that. There’s a ton of window options, but that’s something we just do not think about. There’s window barriers. That’s a big one where it’s these bar things that they put up so that they can’t…

[00:34:21.390] – Dani Morin

Only you could open the window. You don’t think about window falls, but these things happen. I would say the biggest nuance and the hardest thing where you would almost need a baby proofer to come in, and every single household, for every listener right now, every single person listening, would need a different baby gate for their stairs.

[00:34:39.140] – Dani Morin

Every single house is designed differently. So there is a baby gate for everyone. It is not a one-size-fits-all. I’ll tell you one business I would not want to be in, the baby gate business.

[00:34:50.540] – Dani Morin

Because there’s no universal baby gate. It is so different by houses, by the width of your stairs, by what’s on the other side. It’s so different. But I would say the biggest thing is you really want to bolt those in. Those kids can push them down. So the suction ones, I know people love that, the tension ones, but you really want to get the gates that are bolted into the walls. That’s going to be, I would say, just do that. But this may be a situation you may want to call out a baby proofer or someone that specializes in those gates.

[00:35:27.190] – Dani Morin

If you have a weird house where you’re not going to fit the universal safety first ones at Target. And don’t feel like if you go bring one home and you’re like, wait, this isn’t working for me, don’t call it quits and say, okay, we’re going to have to be careful.

[00:35:39.810] – Dani Morin

There’s one out there for you. You just need to find it. And sometimes it’s, ordering and returning 15 from Amazon. I had to do that. So that’s the hardest part of baby proofing, I would say, is finding the gate, finding the gate that’s right for your home. It is the hardest part, but you’ll figure it out.

[00:35:59.160] – Hilary Erickson

Or maybe just finding a single story home.

[00:36:01.460] – Dani Morin

That’s where I’m at. We’re trying to move right now. I’m like, let’s just single story. That’s where it’s at, right? Yeah. And look, as moms, my hips at the end of the night hurt so bad that I don’t want to be walking upstairs. I’m 37, but I’m acting these days like I’m 67. Yeah, we’re in the market right now for a new house, and I’m like, let’s do this single story. That is where it’s at for a multitude of reasons. Yeah.

[00:36:28.060] – Hilary Erickson

I think a lot of people just don’t think about stairs when you’re purchasing the home, how that’s going to end up. Because we had a single story 1,100 square foot house with three kids in California, and then we moved to the double story. But luckily, my kid was old enough that I just supervised.

[00:36:42.770] – Dani Morin

Yeah. No, I supervised. I love when I get the comments on TikTok of like, Yeah, so we do that, but we supervise. And I’m like, Okay. As if I was telling everybody else that they’re a horrible parent. They don’t supervise.

[00:36:59.950] – Dani Morin

Yeah, these things could happen so quick. Another thing is, and this is the American Cleaning Institute. They are doing a lot of work undoing a trend right now, which is very interesting. So On TikTok in the past couple of years, so they are doing a lot…

[00:37:18.950] – Dani Morin

They’re doing like an anti-influenced campaign because of a trend that happened on TikTok. And you might know what I’m talking about, but it’s filling up the glass jars with the pods and filling up the glass jars with all of the laundry detergent things.

[00:37:34.420] – Dani Morin

Those look like candy to kids. And from that trend happening on TikTok… Look at TikTok, we could do TikTok for good all day long. The work that you and I do on TikTok is it’s great. But the work that the fancy influencers with the nice homes in Utah, what they’re doing in their laundry rooms, apparently it caused a little bit of an uptick in calls to the poison control.

[00:37:57.430] – Dani Morin

So it looks great. And I’m one of those moms where I’m like, oh, but it looks so cute to have this esthetically pleasing laundry room. I don’t believe in esthetically pleasing laundry rooms.

[00:38:08.040] – Dani Morin

I believe in… Those are the rooms where everything gets thrown into, right? When you shut the door. But no. So apparently it caused all this uptick and calls to the poison control because these kids were babies, where they look like candy.

[00:38:21.470] – Hilary Erickson

Right. And the Tide Pod thing at the store anymore has a baby proof. Well, and that’s the thing. If my dishwasher detergent, it’s hard to get into. It’s Hilary-proof at this point.

[00:38:30.870] – Dani Morin

Tide and Cascade. They did a lot of work on their own to try to undo this issue, where the pods now, the Tide Pods, if you really were to… It’s hard to break those things. Even if you were to bite on them, it’s pretty hard to break those things, but you never know.

[00:38:48.260] – Dani Morin

And they make safety locks on these products for a reason. And it’s so that you use them, not take the pods out and put them in a nice open glass container where they look like Halloween candy.

[00:39:00.880] – Dani Morin

So they’re trying to undo this issue that our fellow moms caused through a trend that became a thing. So a couple of things is put those pods, store them high. Don’t store them in glass. Store not decor, okay? Store not decor. So store them not in glass. Put them high up. If your kid wants to help with the laundry, take the wet clothes out and let the kid put the wet clothes in the dryer, right? Let them fold the towels. Let them participate. I’m all about letting kids participate in what you’re doing. I think that’s great for growth, but in a safe way.

[00:39:41.640] – Dani Morin

We don’t want them to see those pods either. So keep them stored high. When you get home from the grocery store, so a lot of incidents were happening where mom gets home from the grocery store and leaves everything out for a little bit on the sink and the kids were getting to them and things like that. Just storing them.

[00:39:59.420] – Dani Morin

A dad came came through our county and I was working a car seat event, and he came in with his kids, and he had maybe two and four in his car. And in the middle, he had just gotten some fabric fresheners, some Tide pods, and they were just in the car, and the kids were trying to play with them.

[00:40:22.340] – Dani Morin

So I was just saying, hey, this isn’t something you think of. I throw all this stuff in my car, too. I’m like, hey, these things, don’t put them around the kids. It’s like, they’re so easy. They look fun for them. They want to pop them. They want to eat them. So it’s just I had to do a little education for him, which he’s like, I didn’t even think about that. And I’m like, no, I wouldn’t have thought about it either.

[00:40:40.870] – Dani Morin

But American Cleaning Institute is running a big campaign right now, trying to get the word out that we are no longer storing our pods in glass jars. Yeah.

[00:40:49.120] – Hilary Erickson

And I’m here to say that that doesn’t last forever, right? Because I need my kids to get in and do their laundry. So we don’t make them… If you love that look, there is going to come a point in time where you can then again do that look until you have grandkids, and then you’re totally screwed again. So I don’t know.

[00:41:03.500] – Dani Morin

And if you do have teens and you want them to do their own laundry, just make sure they’re not doing the trends where they eat Tide pods. That was a thing, I think, in 2021. Yeah, that was crazy. But that’s It’s just these little things that we just don’t think. We think, oh, this is cute. We just don’t think about. Yeah.

[00:41:21.850] – Hilary Erickson

And I think the other thing we can think about as moms, when we’re at each other’s houses and we see something, I think we should not be afraid to be like, hey, I just saw on TikTok that they’re encouraging us not to put them in jars because kids are so attracted to that.

[00:41:36.390] – Hilary Erickson

And your friend might not have had zero clue. And hopefully you have friends that are willing to say that, and you’re willing to take that criticism and then decide if that’s something you want to do in your house. But if we share with each other, oh, I just saw that that’s unsafe, maybe we can save a life.

[00:41:51.560] – Dani Morin

So I’m so glad you brought up this topic, and tell me if I’m rambling, because I could stop talking. But how do we talk to our friends about things about safety? This is a question I get all the time. One of my best friends is using a teething necklace, so to speak.

[00:42:05.750] – Dani Morin

How do we talk to our friends? Because as moms, you say one thing that’s opposite than what I’m doing, I’m feeling attacked. Or, Hey, I just wanted to… That voice, even like, I’m feeling I’m attacked. I’m a bad mom. I don’t like that. This is uncomfortable for me. So I tell people to do something called the Shit Sandwich, where you go in and let’s say it’s the Tide pods, right? Oh, my gosh, girl, your laundry room. This is a dream laundry room. This is literally so cute. I cannot believe it. I want to copy everything and then go up to the pods and be like, Oh my gosh, I just saw this video actually of these babies or toddlers, climbed up and ate one. One ended up in the hospital. They’re trying to warn moms about this. And I’ll send it to you because I don’t know if you’ve seen it.

[00:42:53.190] – Dani Morin

Where the mom’s like, you’re kind of just, and oh my God, I didn’t even think about that. That’s what you want to hear, right? Sometimes they’ll be like, Yeah, I supervise. And then you just got to let it go. And then you finish up and being like, where did you get these towels? Are these Nordstrom? These are so cute. Walk away.

[00:43:10.970] – Dani Morin

So the teething necklace, I always tell parents to be like, your kid is so cute. Is her hair naturally that curly? Oh, my gosh, I dream. That’s so cute. I love that. And then, Hey, one of my friends, I always tell people to say, I’m your friend. One of my friends lost her son in one of those teething necklaces. I don’t know if you heard that story? And then, no, what happened? Oh my gosh, I’m going to take this off right now. Or it’s like, I heard it, but it’s like one or two babies died. It’s not… It was probably something else. It was the daycare.

[00:43:39.740] – Dani Morin

You got to move on from there. They know the story, they know the dangers. They’re going to do it anyways. But that’s one way to do it where you’re not coming in and being like, oh, this is your new laundry. Oh, girl. Those are bad. There’s a way to come about it. So you complement, right? So the shit sandwich, complement, criticize, compliment.

[00:43:59.290] – Hilary Erickson

Right. Like in HR, like when you’re a manager.

[00:44:02.300] – Dani Morin

Yeah. Yeah. It’s the same thing. So that has seemed to, I feel, work really well. Is that way of providing information.

[00:44:11.230] – Hilary Erickson

Well, and I always just come at… This is the paranoid nurse in me talking. That’s usually how I start the thing, and then just be like, I think you’re a great mom. I made so many mistakes as a mom.

[00:44:20.580] – Dani Morin

I had a mom with Rhett. She… On TikTok. I was pushing him in the stroller. He was buckled into his car seat, but it was very loose. And she reached out to me. This was the best thing she could have done. She was a CPST, and she was like, Hey, I’m a CPST. I have this little PowerPoint. I just wanted to send it to you and just see if maybe… Go through it and just see if you’re… It’s like a checklist, just like if it’s all the things that you’re doing when you’re putting him into the car seat.

[00:44:48.930] – Dani Morin

I was like, Sure, send it. But in my mind, I’m like, Oh, she’s trying to call me out on something. Send your little PowerPoint, right? I will go through. This is so dumb. People on TikTok are just criticizing me for every little thing. So I’m going through and I get to slide number nine. And I remember one through eight. I’m like, Do that. Do that. This is so stupid. I get to slide number nine, and it’s something called the pinch test, which is what CPSTs check. And if you could pinch that strap, it’s too loose.

[00:45:17.280] – Dani Morin

So I am like, oh, my gosh, I never tighten his straps that tight because I’m worried about his chest. And I was like, oh, my gosh. And I was like, you know what? I was rude. I didn’t thank you for that PowerPoint, but I She was not doing the pinching. She’s like, oh, I was hoping you’d see slide number nine. So you know what I mean?

[00:45:34.070] – Dani Morin

But I’m like, oh, my gosh, we get so worried about doing something wrong, that we’re a bad mom. But I’m like, there’s mom shaming and there’s life saving, and we need to make sure that we could differentiate the two. So you want to go shame a mom because she can’t breastfeed or she’s choosing not… That is shaming. You are shaming a mom. You want to tell a mom, Hey, I notice that you’re maybe not tightening your car seat much, here’s a PowerPoint, oh, my God, you may have just saved my baby’s life.

[00:46:03.980] – Dani Morin

Those are two different things. You shame a mom for going to work or not going to work, that is shaming. So as long as we know the difference between two, and I think when child safety is in a parenting choice, as it should be a parenting mandate for a lot of these things, especially when it comes to car seats.

[00:46:23.060] – Dani Morin

And that’s my personal opinion of what’s a parenting choice. Yeah, a parenting choice is whether we’re going to homeschool or not. That’s a parenting choice.

[00:46:33.510] – Dani Morin

A parenting mandate is like, we’re going to follow the law and make sure that our kid is rear facing till at least two years old. These are things that should be pretty black and white. But I think sometimes we just put into this bucket of, you’re mom shaming. And it’s like, no, we’re just warning because this could be a life saving situation.

[00:46:51.900] – Hilary Erickson

You just never know. And we all got to put down our hackles when people are like, oh, maybe you could do it this way. I get it. You’re You’re already overwhelmed as a parent. You have so much stuff on your plate. Sleep is a huge issue for new moms. You’re just like, I’m just trying to make it work for us, right?

[00:47:09.140] – Hilary Erickson

And just put it into like, okay, that’s some good information. Same for your pediatrician. Pediatricians are not out there to shame parents. They’re just giving information, and then you take it and you use it in your life however you’re going to see it. Because it does look different for everybody, right? Everybody’s baby gate’s different. Everyone, how you’re going to cover your electrical outlets is different. Everyone, how you’re going to tell your kids you shouldn’t do that is different.

[00:47:32.810] – Dani Morin

For sure. And I think with the pediatricians, too. I was thinking about it one day. I was so worried. My son, Brett, was in the lower… He was a nine pound, two ouncer when he was born. Both of my kids were. And I was so worried about… But he lost weight.

[00:47:47.490] – Dani Morin

So he’s always been in… At one point, he was in the third percentile. But I was like, it’s not that she’s shaming me, right? This is his weight. She’s not shaming me. And I I would go and even now I go to his birthday checkups, right? And I’m like, oh, what is she going to say about his weight? And it’s just like, okay, am I feeding him? Am I doing my best to feed him? And I’m giving him the vitamins that I’m being told and I’m doing all the things. I’m doing my best. Whatever his weight is, his weight is.

[00:48:16.010] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah, and maybe she has some great tips that would work.

[00:48:18.900] – Dani Morin

And that’s the thing. So it was like, let me just be open to the cottage cheese and more olive oil. She’s always like, cottage cheese, man. I’m like, we don’t even have dairy in our house because I have a weird dairy allergy.

[00:48:31.620] – Dani Morin

But it’s just things like that where I’m like, I became more open. So the pediatrician is not shaming me as she’s giving me suggestions. But it is hard as a mom.

[00:48:40.960] – Dani Morin

With my first, I had started off co-sleeping because why not. And didn’t know… That’s the natural way. And the doctor was like, there’s never going to be a day I’m going to tell you that that’s safe. And I have a lot of moms that are like, how do I unco-sleep? And I’m like, that is one of the hardest things to do. But the fact that it’s in your mind, you’re going to get this. I had a mom reach out and she’s like, I just came across one of your videos about bed sharing. I was talking about one of my friends who had lost a baby. And she’s like, I don’t even know where to start. I don’t even have a pack and play.

[00:49:14.880] – Dani Morin

I sent her a pack and play. I’m like, Start with a pack and play. Put it by the bed. You don’t need a $500 crib. It’s just one of those things is it’s something like it’s unlearning some of these things where it’s just like you didn’t know. And I was in… The Facebook Mom groups that I was in, the best option was bed sharing. We’re saying co-sleeping, but we mean bed sharing. But the Facebook Mom groups that I’m in, that’s the best option.

[00:49:40.400] – Hilary Erickson

Because people that are safety-minded just don’t hang out there. We’d lose our minds. Yeah.

[00:49:43.940] – Dani Morin

And that’s the I think we have to understand that I could find an article to validate… You could find an article out there to validate anything that you believe in. You want to do meth and breastfeed? There’s an article out there to support that. I am sure of it. And that’s why… That was extreme.

[00:50:00.920] – Dani Morin

But that is why… But I swear, I’ve seen some crazy stuff. And that is why we stick to our pediatricians, the AAP recommendations, we stick to the professionals that are doing the work. You know what I mean? And that are doing the studies, the studies and the numbers. We stick to those people, not we googled, hey, is it okay for me to take four shots of tequila and breastfeed my baby?

[00:50:26.480] – Dani Morin

Because you will find Emily Oyster, she’ll say that’s okay. But you will find somebody out there to say that that’s totally fine. You will find people say, hey, how you feel is how your baby feels. I mean, you probably know more on that than I do. I don’t drink alcohol, so it’s nothing that I’ve come across. But I see this stuff and I’m like, what is the AAP and the professionals saying?

[00:50:48.000] – Hilary Erickson

Well, and the big problem is sometimes I have AI write an article for fun. Drinking in pregnancy, they were like, do it, get in there, drink during pregnancy. So it created the article. I just had it write it for fun. Not the article I used in case it happens on my website. But yeah, it was just like, Drinking is going to be great. It’ll help relax you during your pregnancy.

[00:51:10.510] – Hilary Erickson

And I was like, There is not a single institution, the ACOG, AAP, any of those people that say any amount of alcohol is safe during pregnancy. So AI just was like, sure. And then one time I was like, is sour cream safe in pregnancy? He had it write, and he was like, it will cause miscarriage and your baby will die. Well, and that- The problem is, those articles are getting written out there because that’s how people write articles anymore, is using AI.

[00:51:33.580] – Dani Morin

And AI, I think, is going off of some of these bigger, more searched or read articles. So it’s saying like, oh, these are more viewed. This must be the appropriate information.

[00:51:43.940] – Dani Morin

Where I did a TikTok to show people, if you type in AAP, it’s 10 down on the list on Google. They’re not running ads so that they’re the first thing to pop up.

[00:51:54.920] – Dani Morin

So if we were to type in, I would wish if people were to type in like, baby proofing that the baby proofers of America would pop up. But what’s going to happen is someone that’s coming up with some product that they’re trying to sell that’s maybe not the best.

[00:52:10.170] – Dani Morin

It’s just you really got to know, I think, and you should probably do an article on that, who are the people that I would follow or articles that I would read when it comes to breastfeeding? Where are the articles I would read when it comes to baby proofing? That would be a great article for you to write.

[00:52:25.280] – Hilary Erickson

Trusted people to follow because you really have to find a source that is not going to give you just pure-

[00:52:30.750] – Dani Morin

Yeah, for certain topics. Right now, and maybe I’m just landing on the side of TikTok is the home birth of it all. And I saw a video. I saw a video yesterday, and this was a dead serious video, and everybody agreed with her in the comments. The video was, what happens if my baby is born not breathing? And the doula, big time doula on TikTok was like, we do a meditation over the bait.

[00:52:57.720] – Hilary Erickson

You didn’t watch the whole thing, Dani. I saw your comment because she  said, just kidding. She said, just kidding.

[00:53:02.360] – Dani Morin

They do use. Oh my gosh, stop. Okay, you can’t… Okay. Oh my God. Literally, I was going to stitch the video because I was like, no, immediately blocked her. Okay. Why are they doing that?

[00:53:16.470] – Hilary Erickson

She did say that they do different things. But then some of the stuff she was saying, I was like, okay, I’ve never seen a baby come in with a UBC from home.

[00:53:24.490] – Dani Morin

Well, I scrolled through a little bit to see if there was a joke. And then I saw she said meditation, and then we have the mom just talk to the baby. And I was like, wait, no, could it never be me?

[00:53:35.590] – Hilary Erickson

Well, let me like, look at it. Let’s talk about trying to get a secure seal on the baby while the mom is like, if the baby’s on, don’t. You can’t.

[00:53:42.920] – Dani Morin

Yeah. Well, I had my son, Deacon, was born with the low blood sugar. At that time, I wanted to do a home… That was going to be the vibe, is a home birth or something. But he was born with a low blood sugar. And I remember the nurse being popping a bottle of formula in his mouth.

[00:54:00.470] – Dani Morin

And I was like, I’m breastfeeding! The pitchforks came out. I have an epidural, and I’m like, I want to fight this lady. And she was like, if we do not give this to him, he will die. Well, he gets taken to the NICU.

[00:54:12.020] – Dani Morin

And I asked the doctor who was stitching me up. I said, what would have happened had I had a home birth? Because how did they test for the blood sugar? He just like stitching me up. He’s like, yeah, I would have probably done.

[00:54:23.970] – Hilary Erickson

There is stuff you can tell. They get jittery and stuff.

[00:54:27.170] – Dani Morin

Yeah. Okay. So I was like, wait, what? Anyways, after that, I was like, I guess there’s just things you wouldn’t know. I have a friend that had the shoulder dystocia thing. I never heard of that before, actually.

[00:54:38.670] – Dani Morin

And so I’m like, wait, what? And there was five nurses pouncing on her or something. Obviously, I wasn’t there. So I was like, what happens if you have one person in the house? How do they get the baby out? So these fears have been instilled in me. And for that reason, I will have the closest room to the NICU. And as many doctors that want to in there as possible.

[00:55:02.180] – Hilary Erickson

That might not be the best room for you. You just never know. What’s the angle trying to get out of that room into the NICU? Sometimes you want a nice large angle.

[00:55:08.860] – Dani Morin

Yeah. I’m going to go and just really, God willing, I’m getting married in a week or so, and then the baby making is happening. So send me all the baby dust. But I’ll have to go to the hospital and just see what’s the quickest route.

[00:55:24.910] – Hilary Erickson

Ask the NICU nurses, which is the easiest one for you to get to?

[00:55:28.100] – Dani Morin

Yeah. I’m going to request. I’m going to put in a request.

[00:55:30.590] – Hilary Erickson

The thing is, most people don’t need that. No. That’s how baby proofing works. That’s how the hospital works. Most patients don’t need this. It’s just when we do need it, that’s why you need all the things. That’s why you need the baby proofing, because you literally cannot watch that baby. You can’t supervise them 24/7.

[00:55:48.450] – Dani Morin

I like to tell people these things are an insurance policy, right? We’d probably be perfectly fine. And not every baby that bed shares dies, right? It’s an insurance policy to to do these things. And maybe you don’t need to use it. We don’t hope to get in a crash. We don’t hope to be in a situation where something bad would happen or our kid would climb on the TV. We don’t hope to get ourselves in those situations.

[00:56:11.890] – Dani Morin

But in the chance we get in a car accident, we have car insurance. And by chance, our baby walks up the TV, like, it was mounted. So it’s just these things are just all insurance policies that we invest into and just in case. That’s how I like to describe it.

[00:56:31.760] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. And somehow we all made it to adulthood, and I was laying on the bottom of the car as a kid. So I have no idea.

[00:56:38.040] – Dani Morin

Oh, yeah. My mom was like, we had these milk boxes and we just put the… My mom had one of eight. She’s like, we had the babies were put in the milk boxes with a little blanket right there, and we put them in the back of the Wagoneer. And we just put all the babies back there in the Wagoneer.

[00:56:54.820] – Dani Morin

And I’m like, okay, we have come a long way. So when people say, well, we’ve been doing this for ages. And I’m like, yeah, and for ages, people were dying. So for ages, we have been improving these things. But yeah, when my mom tells me the ways of how she grew up, I’m like, oh my God, this is crazy to me.

[00:57:15.850] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah, that’s why we put them in the car seat, just in case. All of this car seat is such a normal thing now. I wonder what things were like when they just started using car seats. But yeah, car seat is just one of the baby proofing things we do. Yeah.

[00:57:30.060] – Hilary Erickson

Thank you for coming on, Dani. I think this is going to be super helpful for new parents, pre-existing parents, because a lot of times when you have that baby, that toddler suddenly has access to a lot of stuff because you’re so busy. So it’s a great time to think about, oh, what can the other one get into now that I can’t supervise as well, right?

[00:57:47.810] – Dani Morin

Exactly.

[00:57:48.700] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah.

[00:57:49.060] – Dani Morin

Exactly.

[00:57:49.980] – Hilary Erickson

So find Dani. It’s @DaniMorin, right?

[00:57:52.960] – Dani Morin

Yeah. If you just type in @DaniMorin on TikTok or Instagram, I’ll pop up. You always know when someone started TikTok, not trying to be an influencer, when they got numbers behind their names. So I’m @DaniMorin13, just regular schmegular, whatever TikTok gave me at the time. And I just never changed it because I think it keeps me humble.

[00:58:13.670] – Dani Morin

I’ve come up with all these names that I wanted to name myself, the child advocate and stuff like that. And I’m like, you know what, DaniMorin13, that’s the name TikTok gave me. I’m sticking with it.

[00:58:24.690] – Hilary Erickson

You’re sticking with it.

[00:58:26.390] – Dani Morin

Yeah. So you could find me on the IG. If you have If you have questions, DM me on the IG. I don’t know what’s going on with TikTok. You know this, actually. I am not getting DMs there. So if you have a specific question, you want to send me a link to a baby proofing thing that you’re thinking of using, just shoot it over to me. Via a DM.

[00:58:46.050] – Hilary Erickson

On Instagram, not TikTok.

[00:58:47.300] – Dani Morin

On Instagram. Yes.

[00:58:49.150] – Hilary Erickson

All right. Good luck with your wedding. Good luck keeping us all informed. This doesn’t come out till the spring, so maybe you’ll already be pregnant by then and people can find you stressing out about pregnancy on social media.

[00:59:00.100] – Dani Morin

Yeah, I’ll have you do an update. Yeah.

[00:59:04.120] – Hilary Erickson

All right. Thanks, Dani.

[00:59:05.440] – Dani Morin

Awesome. Thank you so much for letting me come on and do what I do. In my son, Deacon’s name, it means a lot.

[00:59:12.750] – Hilary Erickson

Okay. I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. It was a little longer than our usual one, but since Dani and I are friends, hopefully you guys enjoyed the banter because I hope you’re just thinking, I’m just sitting there with a friend and we’re trying to make good choices for our babies.

[00:59:24.670] – Hilary Erickson

And sometimes we don’t have all the information, but maybe a friend has some of the information. Again, not here to shame anybody. You’re looking at a mom who had baby bumpers, mobile right over the crib, probably cords. Who knows? I’m saying that we can do better than we’re doing today, hopefully, and hopefully that inspired you to do just that.

[00:59:43.120] – Hilary Erickson

Stay tuned. We are talking about taking a hospital tour next week, and then the week after that, we are talking about your smelly fridge, and I’m going to have some tips on making it smell better. So stay tuned.

[00:59:53.800] – Hilary Erickson

Thanks for joining us on the Pulling Curls Podcast today. If you liked today’s episode, please consider reviewing, sharing, subscribing. It really helps our podcast grow.

Keywords:

baby safety, car seat technician, Dani Morin, Hilary Erickson, Pulling Curls podcast, TikTok influencer, baby proofing, CPR for infants, Baltic amber teething necklace, child strangulation, parenting routines, Family Routines course, TikTok safety education, single motherhood by choice, pediatrician advice, NICU facilities, safe sleep practices, furniture anchoring, earthquake safety, kitchen safety, window barriers, bolted baby gates, parenting support community, teething necklaces dangers, anti-influencer campaign, laundry pod safety, childproofing electrical outlets, fall prevention for children, safe room setup for childbirth, validating parents’ struggles, good better best approach.

The post Baby Proofing 101: Dani Morin’s Mission for Baby Safety Awareness appeared first on Pulling Curls.

A note on organization for a small kitchen:

I had a very small kitchen when my kids were small. I knew that I had to use every square inch that kitchen offered (and the space above the cabinets). However, in some of the ways that I stored things I made cooking dinner so hard I wish I had found another spot for less-used items, and had used some of the space I did have more effectively.

It’s always a balance — but I don’t want you to be miserable trying to use the things you need (especially as you cook — that can be unsafe), at the expense of “having more”.

If you’re thinking maybe you could declutter a little — come join me for my free 5 word organization challenge. In just five small words you’ll be feeling more competent as you declutter!

Note: I wish I could show images for these clever options — but there is a pretty strict copyright on the images that companies put out, I don’t want to get in trouble — so I do just put the links in here. Hope you still find that helpful. You can see some of the options in the image above.

Ok, onto some great ways to store things in the kitchen:

Extra Shelf / Drawer

This is one of my favorite cabinet hacks (awesome for pantries too).

You’re going to take a shelf like this one, and then put a bin below it that you can pull-out like a drawer.

Pro Tips:

• Be SURE to measure the depth of your shelf as you don’t want a shelf too deep to fit the cabinet (and some kitchen cabinet areas/pantries are pretty shallow).
• Decide if you could just use the shelf space below easily, or if there are some things you’d like to group together in a bin like a drawer below the shelf.

As I was looking for this shelf I saw some other cool options:

• I liked how this can stack (and they look very sturdy).
• I like how this one can expand (but I don’t love the “legs” coming up higher than the shelf, I sometimes let things “hang off the shelf” a bit — and it’s still stable. However, that can also be helpful if you want to keep things ON the shelf!
• I liked how sturdy this one looked — seemed like a great option for garages too!

Great places to use this:

I use shelves like this for casserole dish stacking — rather than piling them all into one dish, I can use these shelves to keep them easier to manage.

AWESOME for pantry items. On a sturdy shelf like this I keep sauce on the shelf, and stack the pasta below it.

Awesome for snacks for kids — you can put stacks of items on top, and then a pull-out bin below with granola bars or applesauce pouches. Makes it easy for kids to grab what they need, but still allow the space to be what it is.

Pro Tip: If a box from the store will fit below the shelf, don’t feel like you need a bin. I often “break the rules” and use boxes from Costco below shelves like this. Works just fine and I personally find it easier and more environmentally friendly.

Under Shelf Storage

I was hesitant to use these for a long time — I guess I thought they wouldn’t be sturdy enough, but boy-oh-boy have they come in clutch.

Pro Tip: Think about what you want to store there. Some of the cheaper ones are kind of flimsy, but can still be really useable if you’re not looking to store something heavy.

• This one looks VERY sturdy, and I like how it can be expanded!
• These look great for shallow shelving.

Great places to use this:

These come in perfect in areas where you just have a few inches that you could use. For me, they’ve come in best in pantry shelves. I have one that I use to store tiny cans (like sliced olives and peppers) — they can easily get lost on regular shelves, so it’s a great option.

We also use one for some smaller condiment storage in our pantry. Since they’re backstock (and sealed) I feel safe putting them in laying flat. I also use them to hold bags of dried fruit and other snacks in my pantry.

I’ve also seen people use this system for paper plates among their regular plates. Those can be hard to figure out a spot for — so I think that’s smart!

Lazy Susan’s: Easy doesn’t mean LAZY

Ok, while lazy susans built into corner cabinets can be so helpful, I’m talking about using them on kitchen cabinets. Ones like this.

This would be the spot where Hilary with the very tiny kitchen would peace-out from this post. I will say that this is not (by any means) the most strategic way to put more in a cabinet. If you absolutely need to use every square inch of a cabinet — I see you, and you may want to skip this one.

BUT if you think some more usability might be more helpful — let’s talk.

I use lazy susans with my staples. Things like: Peanut Butter, baking soda, baking powder, honey, etc.

These items are reached for frequently, and are a pain if they only fit in one specific spot, etc — being able to spin the lazy susan and grab what we need makes it SO much easier!

Pro Tips: Make sure to get one that fits your cabinet well — I mean, check the depth and get one that fills that. No reason to have a lazy susan that doesn’t fill as much space as possible.

I liked how this one was two-tier (and very sturdy).

I do NOT like these with dividers — I think kitchens are changing storage needs to frequently, although I did see these bins that might be handy on a section of a large one.

It can be really easy to think that your problems can be fixed by a bin or even a lazy susan — but you need to think what your actual issue is and the decide how to fix it. If you’re not sure what your issue is — I’d recommend this. It helps think through your storage needs first!

Great places to use a lazy susan:

I am not, under any circumstances saying that this works everywhere.

Like I said above I use this in my “staples” cabinet that I use a lot for baking. I have two of them, although probably only one is necessary (but they seem to be sold in multiples frequently).

The one I love the most holds baking powder, cocoa, baking soda, cornstarch. Smaller boxes, I reach for frequently, that can get VERY annoying in a cabinet.

I also actually use one in my fridge. Which again — seems like a WILD waste of space, but we have a TON of condiments/bottles we don’t use all that often, but they’re expensive and we want to be able to grab them when we need them. I love it — it keeps it VERY handy and I’m glad we have it. I also think these are cool that fit a more rectangular space (I just haven’t used them myself).

In the fridge I prefer one with a higher edge, but in my cabinets I like just a small lip in case I have something that doesn’t “quite” fit I can still shove it on.

Other Option for Small Kitchens: If you’re thinking I love that idea, but I have no space to waste with a lazy susan — a bin that can hold these items could work similarly as well. Just keep in mind that bins can also waste space. One of my most important things is to pick one with square sides, so you’re not wasting any space with rounded edges.

Stackers

I have three “stackers” in my kitchen that have been game changers for:

• Easier dishwasher emptying (especially for kids)
• Better storage for non-stick pans (so they don’t get scratched
• Easier table-setting

These are often used in places that we could just stack the items (think, teacup plates on top of dinner plates) but it’s hard and can be EXTRA hard for kids.

I use one like this with my dishes (I have two of them to hold plates, and bowls).

I use a pan stacker in my corner cabinet and it has made storage there SO much better!

Make sure to measure what you exactly need (like, how big are your plates, etc) and how tall of an area you have to put it. I like to get one that fills the cabinet shelf pretty well, it makes it less-tippy. Our pan one is wedge in well and that makes it really easy to put pans in and get them out without it moving

Looking for more kitchen cabinet hacks? — be sure to check out these posts:

• Dish Storage 101: Make Your Cabinets Hold More
• 5 Tips for Easy Kitchen Cabinet Organization
• How to Organize Corner Cabinets
• Medicine Storage Ideas: Even without a medicine cabinet
• 19 Easy Kitchen Organization Tips to Make Life Easier

Separators

Again — these don’t work quite as well when you need to use every square inch — but hear me out, I actually find that separators have allowed me to store MORE!

Now, these come in a variety of methods:

Drawer separators can be awesome to place things in categories to put away/grab easily.

Shelf dividers like these can allow you to stack more within that area (think water bottles stored horizontally) without them rolling all around. I actually use some on a wire shelf that allows me to hold backstock of zip locks and foil or saran wrap each in their own spot — I LOVE them and they HAVE allowed me to store MORE and more effectively.

Something like this can also help you hold things like baking tins or cutting boards without them all falling over and taking up ALL The space. Love how that one is adjustable too!

I also use a separator to hold my pan lids. I needed them to be vertical due to a wonky corner cupboard. I love how expandable and customizable that one is! Awesome for renters who might need to use it in a different spot if they move.

Don’t feel like Amazon or a big box store is your only option to find a lot of these. Things like separators can often be found at Goodwill. I’ve also used office-type letter or file separators to separate things like this as well. You’re just looking for something that works. I’ve even used old dish drainers for separators when I had very little cash to use, but lots of needs.

Where to Start?

Maybe you fall in the “overwhelmed” camp where you’re feeling like all of these are great ideas — but you’re not sure where to start.

First off, I want to remind you that this is just your brain in overwhelm. You know that there isn’t a “right” place to start — and just getting going is the key. However, overwhelm is real. I often feel it too.

Then, I learned the methods in here. In The Organized Home you can:

• Get your head wrapped around how you want to use an area
• Declutter it with a buddy reminding you to just keep what can fit or what you need
• Create systems that make life easier

Thousands have been in that course and loved it. I mostly love how you can just use it for a month, and then you’re free to organize again (knowing it’s there to help you out if you need it).

Organizing can feel VERY lonesome — but it doesn’t have to. You can get help at a great price!

Do YOU have any clever storage ideas you think I missed? Tell me in the comments!

The post Clever Kitchen Storage: Smart solutions for smaller kitchens appeared first on Pulling Curls.

Close your eyes. You are entering a room filled with chaos. It might be your kitchen after a big meal (possibly created by your children), or it’s a family room filled with toys and debris. You know what I’m talking about.  It’s that feeling.  The feeling of your skin crawling and not bearing to look.  You just don’t know how to start.  Where to start?  How do you feel?  Is your skin crawling at the very thought of it?  Thinking about laying in the corner sucking your thumb?

I am.

A room filled with chaos makes me want to cry.

But checklists are doable.  They’re often my BEST friend when I feel overwhelmed.

That is why I created my weekly cleaning schedule.  It supports my ability to take small steps towards non-chaos.  I cling to it and it allows me to move through my home and my life peacefully.

In thinking about it — I started to really wanted a house cleaning list.  Small checklists that allow me to take small chunks of a big job.

House Cleaning List: The Benefits

• It takes large tasks into small, doable chunks.  Only have time for one checkmark — do it, and then come back!
• They are awesome if you have kids, that way they don’t have to read your mind about what needs to be done.
• If you keep up on the list, it makes each day a little more doable.
• Available — it’s RIGHT there.  Put it in a cupboard so you can just go to it when you feel overwhelmed.

Want more house cleaning tips, check out these posts:

• Smelly Fridge – Here’s the Easy Ways to Clean It
• How to Clean Tile Floors
• I love cleaning {I know, I’m Crazy}: Six things to like about cleaning
• Splitting Household Chores in Marriage
• Why I Don’t Have a Cleaning Lady

Doable Chunks

I’ve created these awesome house cleaning lists that allow you to have a generic checklist to customize for yourself.  The reality is many rooms you’re just going top to bottom and making sure it’s done.  Most rooms are going to follow the checklists I’ve created.  There’s specific ones for bedrooms, living room, kitchen and bathrooms.

Kids

Having this list makes your expectations clear to kids.   That way they are able to go down the checklist, get the items done and then get on with the work of being a kid.  Instead of you checking 12 times with your expectations never being met.

BTW, want tips to getting your kids to help out more — be sure to check out this course:

Keep Up

By doing this list each time, I feel like it’s easier every time.  It’s like magic.

Right There

I like to put these behind a cupboard door, I would print them at a smaller size (or maybe print 4 to a page) and just have them there.  You could also laminate it or put it in a sheet protector.  That way you can use a dry erase to actually check it off.

Anyway — those are the awesome benefits of a house cleaning list.

And now it’s time to go get it.  Get the small chunks, right there, easy to keep up and a great way to help your kids become responsible individuals.

Just sign up below and get them straight to your inbox!

The post House Cleaning List {Printable} appeared first on Pulling Curls.

Find it here on Apple or Spotify Podcasts

Big thanks to our sponsor Family Routines moving your parents can take havoc on your family and having solid routines can make your life still happen. Couldn’t recommend them any more!

Links for you:

My post on moving to assisted living.

Timestamps:

00:00 Downsize, consider assisted living, wait lists fill.

04:59 Medicare assists short-term home health expenses.

08:40 Reasonable storage for family memories and history.

09:45 Downsize immediately; avoid unnecessary storage or sales.

13:17 Estate sale: necessary for selling the house.

16:53 Find experienced real estate agent for parents.

20:44 Fast decisions helped moving process efficiently.

22:44 Upcoming topics: women’s strength training, birth trauma.

Keypoints:

• Hilary discusses her experience moving her parents into retirement living and the challenges associated with it.
• The importance of planning ahead and considering different living options such as assisted living, nursing homes, and independent living.
• Routines can help maintain normalcy during the transition.
• Financial considerations for different living options, including costs for nursing homes, rehab, and assisted living.
• The process of selecting a suitable retirement facility and the benefits of getting on a waitlist early.
• Downsizing possessions and the emotional impact of sorting through a lifetime of belongings.
• The role of professional movers and considerations for hiring experienced movers.
• The estate sale process, its challenges, and financial implications for clearing out a large home.
• Selling the family home and the benefits of engaging a real estate agent experienced with senior moves.
• Reflecting on the timeline and process highlights the importance of starting early and maintaining less clutter for an easier transition later in life.

Producer: Drew Erickson

Transcript

[00:00:00.000] – Hilary Erickson

Hey, guys. Welcome back to the Pulling Curls Podcast. Today on episode 251, we are talking about moving my parents into retirement living. Let’s untangle it.

[00:00:10.300] – Hilary Erickson

Hi, I’m Hilary, a serial overcomplicator. I’m also a nurse, mom to three, and the curly head behind Pulling Curls and the pregnancy nurse. This podcast aims to help us stop overcomplicating things and remember how much easier it is to keep things simple. Let’s smooth out those snarls with Pregnancy and Parenting Untangled, the Pulling Curls Podcast.

[00:00:38.420] – Hilary Erickson

This episode of the Pulling Curls Podcast is sponsored by Family Routines. Guys, even though I was gone for so long Because we had great routines, somehow life kept going at my house. And I cannot recommend any more getting into awesome routines so that even when mom’s not home or things are just crazy town, you can still manage your life. So come join in family routine, you can join me for just a month and then leave when you’re ready.

[00:01:03.540] – Hilary Erickson

Okay, first off, I want to say that whatever you’re imagining moving your parents into retirement living, you’re right. It’s not fun. It was terrible, horrible, no good, very bad. It’s all the things.

[00:01:14.750] – Hilary Erickson

But I want to give you a few steps that you should be thinking about or going through as you’re thinking about this process. So my parents had been considering moving into assisted living. We honestly thought that that was the only option was assisted living. We’re going to talk more about that. For maybe the past, Probably since COVID, two or three years, they have a very large home. While they mainly live just on the main floor, that doesn’t mean you’d still don’t have upkeep on the other floors because things might flood or whatever.

[00:01:41.640] – Hilary Erickson

It just was too much house for them. Even with a housekeeper and someone doing the yard work, it was just too much. It was more than they needed, and they knew that they needed to downsize.

[00:01:50.200] – Hilary Erickson

So first off, you need to be thinking about where you’re going to go. And honestly, even if your parents are still fully functional, I think it would be a great idea to start thinking about where they want to go because a lot of these places are starting to fill up. We have a lot of, what are they, baby boomers out there who are going to need places like this.

[00:02:06.560] – Hilary Erickson

So getting on an assisted living waitlist is not a bad idea. Most of them, it was either free to get on the waitlist or very low cost, and you can say, I’m not ready. They can keep coming back to you and be like, Okay, there’s a room available, and you can say, I’m not ready, and then they skip to the next one on the list. So I think that’s something to consider. Now, there are a few different places that parents can go when they leave their large home.

[00:02:31.050] – Hilary Erickson

They can go to an apartment, and my grandma did this, and it ended up being great for her. My dad, they considered going to an apartment, but they felt like the apartment probably wouldn’t last long term, and so they probably needed an upgraded level of care. They could go to a nursing home. Now, I worked nursing home right out of college. That was my first job.

[00:02:49.730] – Hilary Erickson

This is for somebody who needs a lot of medical care. It’s expensive. I will say that when we looked into a nursing home, not for both of my parents to go to, my mom had some issues that she needed some for. It was about $250 a day. Now, this is for a Utah nursing home, but I like giving you guys the pricing because I literally had no idea. Now, my mom actually went to a rehab because she had broken her ankle, which you would go to a rehab, and that’s double the price of a nursing home. But you get more rehab care. There’s more nurses per patient to take care of you. So that’s a different option. You need to realize that a nursing home is also called a skilled nursing facility, and then rehab is an upgrade from that, and obviously, it costs more.

[00:03:32.070] – Hilary Erickson

So then we looked at assisted living. An assisted living is a downgrade from a nursing home. There aren’t nurses constantly there, but there are CNAs on staff who can come help you. You have a little button that you wear, like help, I can’t get up a button, and the CNAs can come help you. There are, I believe, LPNs, I’m not sure, RNs who divvy out the meds, and you can decide if you want to take care of your own meds or if you want the nurses to take care of it for you.

[00:03:58.070] – Hilary Erickson

When you’re admitted to an assisted living, apparently, they do an assessment on you and they categorize what level of care you’re going to need, and then you’re priced off of that level of care. So my dad, fully functioning, does his own meds, takes care of him himself. He’s still going to have some a medical charge in association with being there, but it should be low. Although you don’t really have control over that. When I pushed them to find out how many of their people were on the lowest level, I couldn’t really get an answer. So there you go.

[00:04:28.320] – Hilary Erickson

But there’s also something called independent living, which I had not heard of. So I would look at that as an apartment area. This is what my parents ultimately chose. It looks just like a cruise ship or a hotel with larger hallways than a cruise ship. It’s an apartment, but they have to check in every day. They have to push a button in their apartment that they’re up and that they’re going. Otherwise, they’ll come check on them.

[00:04:52.040] – Hilary Erickson

And there is a CNA service that works within the facility. It’s not the same facility, but they can come in and help you. Like when my mom came home from rehab, she had somebody coming in to help her shower through that CNA program, right? She didn’t need help every day, but because of the ankle and the thing that she has, there’s somebody that comes in and helps her shower that they pay through the CNA program, which is ultimately less than assisted living.

[00:05:17.390] – Hilary Erickson

So, assisted living looked to be about $8,000 a month for my parents, whereas the independent living was about $6,000 a month. And I think something that’s important to know is Medicare is paying for the CNA for a certain period of time as home health because of an issue she had.

[00:05:34.710] – Hilary Erickson

They will not pay for it long term, but they will pay for it initially. So if you have a short term issue, like a broken ankle, then Medicare can supplement some of these things versus if you were in an assisted living facility, they would not be paying for that because they don’t pay for assisted living.

[00:05:51.390] – Hilary Erickson

So, with assisted living, my parents would have gotten three meals a day, and with independent living, they got two meals a day, which my parents were happy about because they were hoping to go for some meals. But you’re understanding how many meals are taken care of, how much housekeeping, how much laundry. These are important things to look at as you choose which facility is best for you.

[00:06:09.320] – Hilary Erickson

I don’t know all of these things, but I have a basic idea of how they work, but I think it’s really important that you know that. I think A lot of people think that if they go to a nursing home, their insurance is going to pay for it, and that is not the case unless they have a short term problem.

[00:06:21.800] – Hilary Erickson

Rehab was paid for by Medicare for a certain period of time, but because she ended up having two issues, they ended up having to pay cash for part of it. So it’s just It’s really important that you understand these big finances that you’re going to have to look at.

[00:06:35.580] – Hilary Erickson

Okay, after you pick where you’re going, you’re going to want to put down a deposit or however it works. My parents found a spot that put them pretty close to the dining room, which because of my mom’s mobility issues, was going to be helpful. They just thought it was a good spot, and so they decided on that place. Then you’re going to want to downsize your life and pack. And honestly, my dad had been trying to downsize their life for years. We had been working through giving things away to the goodwill in their area and just working through it. But they had a lot of stuff. As you could imagine, they moved the day I graduated high school, and they left soon after my 30-year reunion. So they had been in this house for 30 years. My mom’s a buyer. I’m not going to say she’s not a buyer, but they had a lot of stuff to go through, and it is super overwhelming. So once they decided they were going, we started just having boxes that we were putting things that we knew were going to the assisted living with them.

[00:07:29.560] – Hilary Erickson

We started in the kitchen because that was an easier area. You’re going to not take as many things as you would if you were going to a straight-up apartment. While you’re looking at packing and putting your things in there, figure out who’s going to help you move. My parents have maybe the world’s heaviest furniture, so I was definitely not going to be moving it. Look into movers. And I got to say that when you’re looking at all this, there’s a lot of balancing how much money you have to devote to this, right? And money wasn’t too much of an issue for my parents. It’s always an issue, my dad is an economics professor, so there was always balancing out how much things were going to cost and things like that.

[00:08:05.610] – Hilary Erickson

But trying to decide how much money you have to devote to this, or if I had six or seven other siblings, maybe they could have come to help, but I only have one brother. So hiring movers was important to us. The independent living place actually had a place that they recommended, and we loved the movers. They were so helpful, so courteous and kind to my parents.

[00:08:24.820] – Hilary Erickson

I think they were more expensive than if I had just hired movers, but I think they were more careful of the stuff and of their feelings. It’s a big deal to be moving out of your house and do an independent living, and the movers were just great. So I would recommend looking for ones that maybe have done this or worked at the facility that you’re going to.

[00:08:40.460] – Hilary Erickson

At the same point in time, we were trying to decide, should we get a storage place, right? I think it would be really easy to think, Well, I’m going to want to go through these things later on. My dad was very reasonable and realized that he wanted to put some memories and family history in the storage facility so that he could go through them, decide he wanted to scan and what could be thrown away or what he just enjoyed looking at and draw a line. So he got one that is just the size of a good size home closet. We stored some things there that my mom wasn’t going to be using because of her broken leg for a little bit. A few hobby type items that they might want to get to, and then family history, and then that was it.

[00:09:19.610] – Hilary Erickson

I think it’s really smart to have one so you’re not throwing away things that you might regret later on, but also important to not have a giant one of things that I I would then end up having to go through later on. I could throw away all the things that are in that storage shed or look at them on my own. That wouldn’t be overwhelming to me. But I think a lot of older adults are thinking, Oh, I might want to save this, or my family might want it later, so let’s get a storage head. And I think it’s so much better to just make the choice and make the cuts right as you’re making the move out rather than having a storage facility that you are likely not going to use.

[00:09:55.600] – Hilary Erickson

Now, my parents were very clear that this was where they were moving, and they weren’t intending to go to a home. If your independent living state is planning to be short term, then this could look different for you. Then what do you do with all the other stuff? So my parents were moving from a 6,000 square foot home to a, I want to say maybe a thousand square foot apartment, maybe 1,100.

[00:10:17.520] – Hilary Erickson

So obviously, there were a lot of things that weren’t going to be coming to that assisted living. And so we looked around, we looked at the possibility of having just a charity come and clean out the house and then getting the tax deduction, and we looked at an estate sale. Now, I’ve got to say, I feel like estate sale people are shady like pawn shops. I think it’s a difficult job to make good money in, and you’re dealing with the subset of the population that’s overly emotional about their items and probably expects to get paid more than what you’re going to end up making them.

[00:10:52.710] – Hilary Erickson

But I didn’t love the person that we went with. I wish that we had interviewed a few more estate sales, but my dad was just ready to go with one that seemed fine. That’s who we went with. How an estate sale works is she took half of the proceeds. So she got half of the… We have a couch. We sell it for $500. She gets $250, we get $250. From when we sign the contract to when she did the sale was about a month, where people were coming in, they categorize things, they display them, they put them on tables, or I don’t know what else they do, because I did not go in that house once the estate sale people were there.

[00:11:28.120] – Hilary Erickson

I did look at the estate sale online, and even that was extremely painful. It’s like all of your things just out there needing to be sold. The initial sale, I get the feeling that it did not go very well, that not very many things sold at an estate sale. And as someone who garage sales shopped a lot. Whenever I went to estate sales, I felt like things were super overpriced. So after the estate sale, then she must have a list of people who are interested in couches or interested in yarn.

[00:11:57.370] – Hilary Erickson

My mom had a lot of yarn, things like that. And they come in and they probably either just bulk purchase all the couches and take them out, or she gives them a discount if they’re buying a bulk amount of these items, and they take them out. Now, when you sign an estate sale contract, you sign for the estate sale, But then there’s a separate contract for a cleanout. So she said that we could pay something like $650 per truckload that goes out either to charity or to the dump, or you could just pay $3,000 and they would do the cleanout fee.

[00:12:28.490] – Hilary Erickson

I literally had I had no idea what we would make from this estate sale. Initially, after reports of the initial sale and how much was left in the house, I was like, Wow, are we even going to make the 3,000? But he ultimately… Think of this. This is a house that is full of stuff, furniture, all those different kinds of things. He ultimately made $8,000 and paid her $3,000. So he netted about $5,000 in total from the estate sale.

[00:12:53.730] – Hilary Erickson

I could tell that it was painful to my dad. He had bought really high-quality furniture that was probably not sold for a lot. And I think we sometimes have this feeling like, Oh, well, someday I’ll be able to sell this and I’ll make some money off of it. And we need to just love the items that we have, not plan on them making money. That was something that I really learned from the estate sales. Remember that the big money came when they sold the house. We’re going to talk more about that in a minute. But you got to clear out the house in order to be able to sell it. And so the estate sale is almost just a means to an end.

[00:13:24.760] – Hilary Erickson

So you’re looking for people that will be helpful in the process, will help your items go to a good home, because I think my dad It would have been fine if they had all just gone to charity and he could have gotten a giant tax deduction. But also he needed it to be easy. So trying to balance all those different things. And I would encourage you to look for a few estate sale companies in your area and be aware that they’re all a little bit weird, and hopefully you can find somebody good. I did not enjoy the estate sale process, but it was a necessary evil just for how it was going to work.

[00:13:53.370] – Hilary Erickson

Could my nieces have maybe sold some of the stuff on Facebook marketplace ahead of time? Maybe they could have made a little cash on the side. But would it have really been worth it overall for my dad to do something like that? Absolutely not. So, yeah.

[00:14:06.730] – Hilary Erickson

Side note, you start the estate sale after all of your things are out of the house, which I didn’t know that either. Once you sign the contract for the estate sale, she owns all of the things in the house, and she was real adamant about all that.

[00:14:20.050] – Hilary Erickson

So you got to get everything that you want out of the house ahead of time. Or you mark the things that shouldn’t be sold. There were a few things that my dad didn’t want to be sold. I will say that there are a few things we didn’t think about, like his thing to turn off the sprinkler heads. Didn’t mark that, still got sold. So it’s a process.

[00:14:37.810] – Hilary Erickson

Okay, so back to moving into the apartment. There is a reality that was very similar to moving my kids into the dorms, right? When you were moving in, you realize that what seemed to look very big when no furniture was in there is much smaller than you thought. We had a blueprint of the apartment that they were moving into, and we had measured all the furniture. And then a few days before the move in, we realized that the Blue Parents number of inches was based on the outside of the room. So when you took off the drywall and the boards or something, we lost three or four inches, which was a big deal. We ultimately had tried to move in a bookshelf and had to take it back home because it wouldn’t fit.

[00:15:18.920] – Hilary Erickson

Measure, but also just be prepared for the reality of things are not going to fit exactly how you want. Hopefully, they can maybe downsize some furniture as they keep downsizing the things that they have. It’s tricky. There were a lot of emotions that day, and I felt like I hadn’t done enough, and he was frustrated. It was a lot.

[00:15:38.850] – Hilary Erickson

Okay, so once you’ve picked where you want, you’ve moved your stuff, you started the estate sale or the charity coming through. I didn’t talk about this, but there is a really nice benefit of being able to go through a room and just decide what you want to keep, and then you literally leave the rest. When we were going through my parents’ office, I literally just had a corner. I was chucking things that were supposed to go to the estate sale. That was probably one of my favorite parts of being able to do it this way because the estate sale just took care of that. So you really just had to focus on what was important. I, of course, had a lot of anxiety that we would somehow miss something that was important. But we, honestly, I feel like we did pretty well.

[00:16:16.630] – Hilary Erickson

Are there some boxes we probably should have labeled better? Yes. But you have the estate sale, you’ve moved into the assisted living, now you’re looking to sell the home. I know a lot of people might look to sell the home on their own, and my dad, I think, considered that because of the savings. But ultimately, having a realtor was super helpful because he didn’t live at the home at that point in time. He really didn’t want to deal with the buyers. They did not want to fix anything. They just wanted to be done with the house. And so we got a great real estate agent that actually happened to live in their neighborhood and was super helpful and got the closing at the assisted living with them and just really helpful. So I would say look for a prime real estate agent who is good at doing all of the things and maybe has done this type of sale before with older parents.

[00:17:03.320] – Hilary Erickson

As a side note, so my mom was living in the rehab for her broken ankles, not drug rehab, physical therapy rehab, at the same time that we were doing all this.

[00:17:13.040] – Hilary Erickson

And I felt for her, right? We were moving her out of her home, that they built this home. It was a custom home, and she had no control over it. So I tried to do everything that I could to give her as much control as I could. There was a lot of FaceTiming, going through her clothes, going through the memorabilia in the house, so that she could have an opportunity to have some control in this. However, I feel like I didn’t have very good boundaries during this process. There were times that I was overworked, just crying while I was working. So I think you have to balance those two different things. It was difficult, but I would encourage you to try and give if there’s a parent who can’t be there as much control as you can while also setting your own boundaries, which I did not do a great job at. Not unusual for me, though. Let me give you guys just an idea of the timeline and then share a few mistakes that I feel like we made. So on July first, my mom fell and my dad realized that it was really time to look at assisted living.

[00:18:13.340] – Hilary Erickson

But they went through a period with lots of surgeries. It was just too much for my dad to really look in a place to go. And I actually happened to be there at the beginning of July. And so by the end of July, he had picked the spot where he wanted to live. He had put down the deposit. And then August 1st-ish, I came and we started that initial move out.

[00:18:31.660] – Hilary Erickson

So we were just going room to room, picking out what needed to go to the assisted living that they weren’t using at that period of time. That’s when we started. I don’t live in the same state as my parents, so I was flying in to help do this.

[00:18:44.920] – Hilary Erickson

So I was there for probably five days that first time, and then the second time I came for, I think about a week, around August 10th. And that is when we were real serious about packing stuff up. About five days into that stay, we had the movers come, we got him into the assisted living and all those different things. On August 17th, he signed for the estate sale. I think he moved about the 15th.

[00:19:07.730] – Hilary Erickson

He signed for the estate sale on the 17th because remember, you got to have everything out before you sign for the estate sale. The estate sale started about September 19th, and by September 27th, the house was cleaned out and ready to be put on the market. The house was put on the market by October seventh because she had to finish cleaning the house and stage it for sale. And then October 12th, they accepted offer on the house, and I am recording this early November. They should sign really soon for the final sale of the house, and then they will be done with it. I always want to know a specific timeline, so if that helps you guys, maybe that would help you.

[00:19:43.340] – Hilary Erickson

Okay, what would I do differently Or what am I thinking that I should do? I’ve got another few years before I’m having to do this, but I am thinking about it. Less stuff, guys. We all need less stuff. There’s so many things that we’re not using. There’s so much stuff that we buy that we don’t actually need. And so I I am definitely, what is it, Swedish death cleaning? I feel like I am doing that as we move through stuff.

[00:20:05.920] – Hilary Erickson

But having less stuff is definitely a priority after I did this. Also, I personally always look, I try and get three quotes for everything. And trying to find the best people to help you in this process is so important because your parents are vulnerable, you’re vulnerable. There’s so many emotions for having somebody that is really good in this field, I think would be nice.

[00:20:28.320] – Hilary Erickson

I would also start early. So while your parents are still with it, no problems. You would say, What are your plans once things start to go downhill health-wise? Is there anything I can do? Is there stuff we can be thinking about? Have you looked at places around? Have you talked with friends? Just mention this. They probably have. But if you have an idea and they know that you’re thinking about it, it just opens up the communication lines.

[00:20:51.390] – Hilary Erickson

Obviously, you’re not trying to send them to an assisted living while they’re still doing great living at home, but it’s something to think about. In my head, if you look back at that, I was like, Oh, my gosh, this is going so fast. We probably should have taken more time to do it.

[00:21:04.720] – Hilary Erickson

But ultimately, I was not sad that it was done quickly. When you’re going through rooms just looking for the things that you actually need, it was nice to have it done speedily because we weren’t having to take up the time to box up the items we weren’t going to use or trying to haul them down the stairs. We were just looking at what we needed for the new apartment.

[00:21:25.980] – Hilary Erickson

Ultimately, I liked the timeline, even though when it was happening, I was like, Is this going to work out? It seems so fast, right? So a lot of people go, Oh, are your parents happy now that they’re settled in the apartment? Maybe. They love that life is simpler. They love that somebody can haul them to appointments if they want. My dad still drives very safely. They love not having to deal with a giant house, but there’s a lot of things they miss. They miss not having some of the stuff that they left behind. It’s a small space, so they can’t have a lot of people in their apartment, although at the assisted living, there is large other places you can request and do family parties in.

[00:22:03.220] – Hilary Erickson

And as we’re heading back this Christmas for a family wedding, we are having to get a hotel, and all of that is just weird because we can’t stay at my parents’ house anymore, obviously. So there’s just changes, things that are different. There’s a lot of things that are better. I think the idea that that part is done is a huge relief because they knew that it needed to happen, and that was difficult for them. So there’s always pros and cons of different things. But hopefully this gave you guys an idea of what to expect or some things I wish different or some finances stuff. If you guys have questions, come find me over on Instagram. I also have a whole post about it with tons more information on Pulling Curls, and I’ll put that link in the show notes.

[00:22:44.800] – Hilary Erickson

Stay tuned. Next week, we are talking about strength training for women, which is so important in this whole process of moving my parents. I realized that I really needed to build bone and muscle better, so I’m working on that. And then the week after that, we are talking about avoiding birth trauma, so stay tuned.

[00:23:01.520] – Hilary Erickson

Thanks for joining us on the Pulling Curls Podcast today. If you like today’s episode, please consider reviewing, sharing, subscribing. It really helps our podcast grow. Thank you.

Keywords:

moving parents to retirement living, assisted living, retirement living options, downsizing home, moving into assisted living, independent living, nursing home costs, Utah nursing home, rehab care, skilled nursing facility, CNA services, independent living costs, Medicare coverage for seniors, estate sale process, choosing an estate sale company, selling family home, storage facilities for downsizing, hiring movers, downsizing furniture, realtor for senior home sale, financial planning for senior care, managing parent’s move, Swedish death cleaning, simplifying life for seniors, retirement community, emotional aspects of moving seniors, family involvement in senior move, senior meal plans, home health services for seniors, balancing finances for senior care

The post Moving Mom and Dad: Tips for a Smooth Transition appeared first on Pulling Curls.

Before we get started — decluttering your dish pile (LOOKING AT YOU MUGS) is SO important to this process. Be sure to join my totally free 5-word challenge to declutter easily at your house:

Ok, onto the dishes!

Dish Stackers

I know a lot of organizers out there will encourage you to make extra shelves at somewhere like Home depot to give you more shelf space.

First off, those can be expensive (and frankly, I’m not even sure what to buy for something like this) — but also, I need some spots in my cupboard to be tall, while some need to be thinner — and in, walks the dish stacker. I found mine at Walmart, but you can also find them here.

Now, we’re going to talk more about extra shelves in general — but what I love about this is that it’s specifically for these ROUND objects — plates (of all sizes), bowls, etc. I have this to the side of my very tiny cupboard, and then I stack cups next to it — it works really well! You can see it in this post about zoning your kitchen.

Extra Shelves

Here is the moment when some of you guys are going to say — but Hilary, I can stack my plates, and then salad plates, and then teacup plates and then bowls all on top of each other.

Yes, you 100% can.

But, it’s SO hard to get out a specific dish with that, and it’s almost going to be entirely impossible for your kids to empty the dishwasher if you have that set-up.

BTW, wishing your kids did more (boy oh boy, was that me until I implemented the things in here) — check out Family Routines.

You can find extra shelves in lots of sizes. I would encourage you to find them that are pretty sturdy. Some have a pretty small weight limit and will bend which isn’t a safe situation when we’re talking about a family’s cupboards.

I’ve tended to get my shelves at Costco, HomeGoods, Ross or Walmart — but you can also find some great ones here.

The dollar tree sells them, but they are NOT sturdy. They have worked OK in my pantry where I’m just storing a basket of snacks on top, but they can’t be used for anything moderately heavy.

Beyond the study-ness of the shelf it’s good to take some measurements:

1. What do you want to store underneath? I it’s casserole pans make sure that it can fit below the shelf
2. What is the depth of your shelves? Some shelves are really shallow, so be sure that the shelf fits the width. Remember, items can hang off the front/back of the shelf a little bit — as long as they feel secure and you can shut the door.

I LOVE to use these as a shelf, and then use a basket or bin underneath like a drawer when I use them in my pantry — but that works less good when you’re working with dishes (might be good for tupperware lids though)

Hey, if you’re loving ideas that are sort of “out of the norm” I’d recommend checking out The Organized Home. It’s created to easily help you:

• Declutter
• Understand how you want to use the area
• Create a system that allows you to use the area easily.

I love that there’s just a monthly option where you can jump in just for a month (at a great price) and then use those systems to make your house more useable!

Size Matters

One of the smarter things we did to hold more dishes was to get thinner plates.

We had a lot of random plate sets for our wedding, but we moved mid-life and got rid of all of those, and decided to buy Corelle dishes. They are SO MUCH THINNER. This honestly has a lot of benefits I hadn’t considered prior to getting them:

• They clean better in the dishwasher because there’s more room for the water to move
• Less room in the cabinets
• Easier for kids to set the table because they’re not as heavy.

I’ve built-up my set of Corelle over time by adding some pieces I found at Goodwill — but you can also find them at Walmart or at Amazon.

The other good news is how easy it is to add onto your sets. Mine don’t exactly all match, but they are all the same size — which is awesome for storage.

And no, they honestly don’t seem to be any stronger than other plates. Part of why I’ve had to buy some at Goodwill is because when my kids (or me) drop them on the tile floor, they do break. But, so do other dishes — so, it is what it is.

The Under Shelf

While we’re here talking about extra shelves, I often see people who have just a few inches of space above their items in their cabinet — which can feel hard to use.

In comes, the under shelf. And yes — you can find them at Walmart or Amazon.

Pro Tip: I REALLY like this expandable option for larger cabinets (fits the space you have).

A few things to keep in mind:

Be mindful of any weight limit. I tend to use these for smaller items (great for things like tiny bowls for dips or saucers).

These CAN be a little bit tippy (there is some space in the area it clips into your shelf).

It’s important to think about how your whole family is going to use the shelves when you create a system. That’s why I love the tested systems in here.

Lower Shelves: Pull-Out Organizer

Sometimes you only have lower shelves in order to store your dishes.

These pull-out dish organizers can be a great option. The dishes store vertically and make it much easier to pull what you need out, and put it away.

OR if you have drawers, you can always use a dish organizer if you have a deeper drawer.

With those you have to figure out if you’re willing/ok to put screws into your shelving. There are some that don’t require screws, but that makes me nervous, especially if you have kids pulling stuff out.

I LOVE storing things vertically, and it’s something I always forget about. Obviously, dishes that are so breakable need a contraption to allow you do this.

The good news is that these products aren’t that expensive and can make your kitchen SO much more useable. When we initially moved into our house we didn’t have any extra shelves and we had SO much just stacked in that cabinet.

Once we got the extra shelves, for like $20 it made a HUGE difference!

Do you have any other ideas about how you store dishes at YOUR house? Tell us in the comments. When we have something that works we gotta share it with others!

The post Dish Storage 101: Make Your Cabinets Hold More appeared first on Pulling Curls.