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Does Everything Really Happen For a Reason?

December 9, 2019 by

Last time I was at a cafe, I came up with this blog about honesty and our relation with it. Months after, again a cafe trip has inspired another article. While sitting there, blowing my cappuccino so that I could drink it, I watched pigeons from the glass window.

A man who was feeding them stumbled and the coins from his pocket rolled out. He caught himself before he fell, dusted off his jacket, must be the shock of it, and then bent down to pick up his coins.

coffee

One of the coins rolled toward my window, while his shaky hands were trying to pick the coin up from the edge, the coin kept flipping, and then this thought struck me, about coins having two sides.

There are two very different sides to every coin. There are some who feel things don’t happen for a reason, and some say they do, that the universe is deterministic.

I watched a video once about how bangles are made and the condition of the workers. One of the ladies working in those glass bangle factories told the interviewer that people working in these industries were usually devoid of basic necessities and exploited both mentally and physically. 

She herself wanted to learn embroidery and get out of this ugly industry and life. But she had accepted her life as it was, saying, “God probably wanted it to be this way.” She then went on talking about why she believed that everything had a higher purpose to it that humans couldn’t understand.

There was another instance where one of her friends had a terrible breakup. She was heartbroken and kept crying for days. In these tough times, her guy best friend supported her. Eventually, she ended up falling in love with him. Things went so well with them that they even got married. 

After the wedding ceremony, her friend came to her and said, “I am so glad my ex went away from my life, I’m glad I found my best friend instead. Everything happens for a reason”

Things that happen have both causes and consequences. But people have always had a different meaning for the statement “everything happens or a reason.” They believe God predetermined everything according to a divine plan like the woman and her friend from the video.

Now let us suppose a situation. Consider a hard-working person, who has just got promoted to a senior position at his job. Later that evening, while driving back home, he accidentally gets hit by a truck, leaving him crippled for the rest of his life. 

Now the question is did the person deserve to get promoted? Of course, he did, he worked hard enough. But did he deserve to be hit by the truck? This is when people will be unable to give a clear answer.

There are reasons for things to happen. But sometimes they happen just randomly. ‘Everything happens for a reason’ is a good explanation for happy things. When bad things happen, this statement gives hope for a brighter future. As long as things are working out, what is wrong in believing in this?

Maybe not everything is according to the pattern. Maybe not everything in life is fair. Maybe

sometimes the universe decides to go random. Maybe not everything has a reason. Or maybe everything does happen for a reason. Change is the only constant that we can be certain of.

Either way, life is what you make of it. There are some situations where you have choices and some situations where you have none. Do what you can do the best, and the results will follow. Not always because of the grand scheme of things, but sometimes they just might because of it.




Healthy Activities to Do as a Family

December 2, 2019 by

Family time is something that helps us bond with each other and also helps us learn about each other. If we do not spend time together, then we are just strangers living in the same home, tied down by the titles of our relationships. Actually creating a bond is what makes a family.

With our work and other commitments, we often neglect our family and children. I agree that being responsible is hectic, but what is the point of earning things when the people you are doing it for will miss you the most.

Health is another one of the important aspects that are often neglected. Why not combine it both and do activities together that will help you bond with your family and also help you stay fit.

1. Turn Chores into Games

Teaching kids chores is our duty, it helps them transition into fully functional adults. Knowing how to do things around the house is important for surviving independently. Why not turn doing chores into a game that you can all do together.

Who can fold more clothes fast or who can put the CDs back in the covers fastest, etc. can be the little competitions you hold. Cooking food together is another of the activities that will let you bond and gives you enough workout if you are making something from scratch like making pasta.

2. Host a Dance Party

dance party

Dancing is something that the majority of people enjoy. What better way to have fun while also working out. Dancing is my favorite way to get in a workout. Host a family dance party, put on some music, introduce each other to your favorite tunes, teach each other your signature dance moves.

Dancing together will leave you laughing in stitches and will help you work up quite a bit of sweat. It is one of the best exercises that you can do together as a family.

3. Plan Scavenger Hunts

You can make a day your treasure hunting day. Hide things around your home, your background, or involve your friendly neighbors in it. Give a list of clues to your kids so that they can reach the final treasure of the treasure hunt or give them a list of items to find. Whoever finds the most item wins. 

The competitive nature of the game makes it fun and makes all the participants go scrambling to find things that will help them win. It gives a great workout because everyone is running around for hours on end, and the adrenaline has us pushing forward to win.

Final Thoughts

No matter what activities you choose, the goal should be having fun and spending time together as a family. If you can work in activities that teach the children new things, helps you learn about them, inculcates good habits in them, etc. then that should be a bonus. Spending time together is the key here because no bond was ever formed merely by being born in the same family.

 

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Families and Addiction: Coping During the Holidays

November 29, 2019 by

Holidays can be a joyous, celebratory time. However, for some, holidays are one of the most difficult times of the year. While the addiction epidemic rages on, there are many families that must cope with an addicted loved one during the holidays.

On top of the usual holiday frenzy and stress, dealing with an addicted family member can be chaotic. It can leave healthy family members feeling frustrated and disappointed. 

If you have a family member who is suffering from addiction, it could mean spending the holiday without him or her. On the other hand, it could mean spending your holiday trying to protect and help your loved one.

Often times, the challenges that come from substance abuse come to a head during the holidays. Despite how hard it may be, there are some steps you can take to bring yourself peace of mind during the season. 

Maintain Realistic Expectations

While you may be hoping for a sober holiday or Christmas miracle, it is important to maintain realistic expectations. Having realistic expectations is important to everyone’s wellness, especially during the holiday season.

After all, addiction is a chronic disease, and people who are in the grips of it will use compulsively. Usually, no amount of consequences will keep them sober. 

Having the whole family around may seem like an opportunity to confront your loved one’s addiction. However, planning an intervention during the holidays may be a bad idea.

Effective interventions require professional consulting and extensive planning. In addition, the holidays are a vulnerable time to attempt to tackle such a serious subject. 

Holding onto expectations that a family member should want to get sober or stay sober for the holidays can be harmful to your wellbeing. The inability of a family member to do so can create high levels of stress, frustration, and even resentment.

As a result, these feelings can take away from the joy of the holiday season. If your expectations are high, it can set you up for disaster.

Instead, you should try to love your addicted loved one right where they are. You can offer your support and be prepared with recovery resources in the event that they ask for help, but keep your mindset realistic. 

Develop New Holiday Traditions

Another way to deal with a loved one’s addiction during the holidays is to create new holiday traditions. If there have been sources of drama or conflict during past holiday get-together, new traditions can help you and your family avoid these triggers.

If your regular holiday traditions consist of spending time at home eating a big meal, playing games, and watching holiday movies, this year could be a time to change things up. Instead of spending idle time in the home, you can book your holiday full of new, exciting activities.

Stay busy to avoid triggers and conflict by viewing a light display, eating at a restaurant, spending time at a local park, going ice skating, or going to a religious service. Find out what local holiday events are happening near you to create a busy, fun-filled day. 

Spending time outside of the regular holiday environment can be a refreshing change. It can also provide the entire family with a chance to break away from past behaviors and avoid emotional triggers that can stir up conflict. 

Set Healthy Boundaries

Enforcing healthy boundaries with an addicted family member is critical year-round, however, it is more important than ever during the holidays. Remember that it is okay to say no and that it isn’t your responsibility to tolerate or fix your loved one’s behaviors.

If their behaviors go against your beliefs to defy what you feel comfortable tolerating, it is important to make your boundaries clear. 

Before the holidays, let your loved one know exactly what is unacceptable. For example, if you don’t want them to come to the gathering drunk, let them know that they will have to leave if they are drunk. When setting these boundaries, you are protecting yourself from potential harm.

Make the boundary and the consequences clear. Most importantly, be ready to stand by your boundaries. 

Learn to Let Go

In some cases, your loved one may not be joining you for the holidays. Whether it is the choice of the addict or of the family, spending the holiday season without your loved one can be difficult. You may be worried about their actions and miss their presence with you. When it comes to addiction, there are only so many things you can do to help your loved one.

It may be impossible not to worry, however, you shouldn’t let it destroy the holiday season. Instead, take some time to practice self-care. Some self-care strategies to keep in mind include getting enough sleep, getting regular exercise, eating a well-balanced diet, and taking time to relax by yourself.

In addition, you can also attend a local support group or al-anon meeting for family members of addicted loved ones. You, too, deserve support, especially during this time of year. 

Cassidy Webb is an avid writer who advocates spreading awareness on the disease of addiction. Her passion in life is to help others by sharing her experience, strength, and hope.

Also Read- Keeping Kids Active and Social During the School Holidays




5 Chores You Can Have Your Teenager Help You Out With

November 25, 2019 by

Doing chores together is a great way to bond, and it also helps make the kids independent. Knowing how to do all their chores is essential for them to live their adult lives without depending on anyone. It is our job to teach them all the things that they are going to need to be fully functioning adults.

As your kids get older, they can take on tougher tasks in all the chores like cooking, cleaning, and maintenance. For example, when they are young, you let them peel and mix things in the kitchen, but as they grow old, they can be allowed to cut, dice, and chop. Tasks that might not be fun but provide a certain amount of satisfaction are the options you need to think about when it comes to teenagers.

To get your teenage kids into the habit of assisting with chores, you have to figure out which ones they have always loved to do and then increase the complexity in the said chores. Also, start assigning them duties that they have always avoided because when they move out, they won’t have the luxury of you helping them with the chores they do not like to do.

Here are some tasks you can let them handle:

1. Prepare a Meal or a Snack

cooking

You can task them with preparing one of the meals like say breakfast, or if they have never been interested in cooking, then start them off with making snacks.

2. Sweep and Mop the Floor

Sweeping the floor should be an easy enough task for them. Tell them to sweep under the furniture and not forget the corners when they do so. After they have done sweeping, they can easily mop the floor. Both tasks are similar and do not require special skills.

3. Vacuum the Carpet

cleaning

After they are done sweeping and moping that leaves the carpeted areas of the house, vacuuming the carpet is one of the easiest things they can do. When they were younger, handling the vacuum cleaner could have been an issue, now they shouldn’t have a problem with it.

4. Dust Surfaces

Dusting the surfaces is an integral part of the cleaning routine. While some people do it daily, others do it once in a week. This depends on the area you live in and the amount of dust that settles in your house. Ask them to dust the furniture, shelves, books on open bookshelves, and windowsills. If the dust is settled for a long time, tell them to wipe it with a damp rag.

5. Rake Leaves

Raking leaves can be tiring but a fun task. Seeing all the leaves in a pile and the yard clean gives them an immediate result and instant satisfaction.

Final Thoughts

Asking them to help around the house lets them know how much work it needs to run a home smoothly. Kids learn gratitude and learn the skill themselves. You also get some help with the chores. It is a win-win!




Being Persuasive and Influential With Your Children

November 18, 2019 by

“Moral persuasion over a period of time makes a difference, but we shouldn’t be naive to think that just because we raise it in a meeting it will make all those problems go away. It won’t and it doesn’t.” -John Key

Persuasion can be used in both good and bad ways – the skill of persuasion comes with a sense of power. Getting someone to do something that you want them to do is known as persuasion. Influence, on the other hand, is a lot different than persuasion. The correct way to influence other people, especially your kids, is by setting an example yourself.

kids career

Kids are generally better persuaded by reasons they think they came up with. It is true for adults too. The art of persuasion includes being a good listener because when you know what people care about, it becomes easier to persuade them. For example, if your kid doesn’t like vegetables but like cartoons who are strong. You can use Popeye’s love for spinach and the strength he got after eating it into persuading your kid to eat spinach or other vegetables.

Your kids might do things because you persuade them to, but they are not always going to like them. While influencing them is something that will make them want to do things with their own accord. Children catch on more to what we do than what we say.

Having both persuasion skills and influential skills is among the most powerful traits of successful leaders. Raising kids is similar to being a leader, you lead them to follow the right part, to have strong morals and develop strong cores, to go for what they dream.

“Various influences – our parents, other family members, teachers, books we’ve read, discussions we’ve had, life experiences – all merge together to form our core values.” -Maya Green

More influence should be used than persuasion to teach the kids what we want them to learn. They will follow our actions, which is why setting a good example for your kids is important. There are two parts to influencing correctly. You have to remember both, influence is powerful and it is subtle. 

When you realize that, you will understand how much your bad habits will impact your kids. You might not notice them adapting to the same habits but when it hits, it will hit strong. When kids are influenced onto the right path, it is easier for them to have emotional stability. Emotional stability is the ability of a person to overcome stress and difficult situations without letting themselves get highly affected by it. 

Final Thoughts

Teaching our kids and guiding them is crucial to their development. Parents are their first role-models and have heavy influences on their children’s lives. We need to realize the power both these skills hold and use them to teach the kids to be better people.




4 Animal Face Painting Design Ideas for Your Kids

November 11, 2019 by

Whether it is a birthday party attraction or a costume competition – knowing how to face paint can be really handy. I spent my niece’s last birthday, painting the faces of little children to help them look like the animals they wanted.

I honestly had more fun than I thought I would. Here are some of the popular designs I made and how to make them.

1. Dog Face Paint Design

Dogs are one of the most common animals that kids want to dress up as or want to be associated with. Painting a dog face is an easy task so you have no reason to sweat. Have you seen the dog-face emoji? The one with a white pup with black spots. It is one of the most common interpretations people use.

How to Paint it –

  • Start with white face paint. Cover your child’s face with a white base to help enhance the look and other features.
  • Add basic black eyeliner around one of their eyes to make it look like a spot on the dalmatian.
  • Apply some on the tip of their nose to represent their puppy nose.
  • Use the same eyeliner to draw whiskers.
  • You are done!

2. Bunny Face Paint Design

While adding rabbit ears is enough to often represent a bunny, painting a bunny face isn’t that difficult and will kick the look up a notch.

How to Paint it –

  • Sponge a base coat of grey and white paint on your child’s face like for the dog face.
  • Add rosy cheeks to highlight a bunny’s chubby little cheeks.
  • Add a nose and whiskers.
  • Draw on the two bunny teeth.
  • You are done!

3. Tiger Face Paint Design

Tigers are more a more common demand among children than you would like to think. Tigger from Winnie the Pooh could be an inspiration. The tiger stripes, though very impressive, are actually very easy to make.

How to Paint it –

  • Give a white base coat to your child’s face.
  • Sponge off the face orange leaving an area around their mouth, eyes, and the edge of the face or jaw.
  • Sectioning off parts of the face with areas of orange and white will help you create the muzzle effortlessly.
  • Use black paint to draw stripes.
  • Add black nose and whiskers.
  • You are done!

4. Butterfly Face Paint Design

While the butterfly isn’t technically an animal. You will be surprised at how many kids demand to be painted like a butterfly. The colours surely are the reason for many kids being drawn to them. You don’t need to paint the whole face, the area around the eyes is enough to create a stunning butterfly design on your child’s face.

How to Paint it –

  • Trace out the wings around wither both the eyes or one eye, depending on the wing placement you choose. Both eyes will also give a mask illusion.
  • You have the option of choosing the color here. Choose one, choose many, choose a rainbow – ask your child to choose their favorite. Paint the wings.
  • Add borders and details.
  • You can dot the wings with gems and glitter to make the design look more intricate.



Important Things to Remember While Teaching Your Kids to Cook

November 4, 2019 by

Involving your children in chores is a great way to teach them new skills and spend some time bonding over trials and errors. I have always been an advocate for inculcating positive habits in children from a young age, knowing the basics of cooking is one of them.

Knowing how much effort goes into a certain task can only be learned when you actually do it or are a part of it. As the kids start growing, it is our responsibility to teach them everything they need to be independent. Change is inevitable, we are not going to be there to provide for them all their lives even if we want to.

cooking

Knowing how to cook also makes sure that an individual will have more healthy meals. We should provide them with the knowledge and tools to begin feeding themselves so that later they don’t have to struggle with takeouts and fast foods. Here are a few things you should keep in mind when introducing kids to cooking.

Safety First

Kitchens have a lot of potentially dangerous pieces of equipment that your kid can hurt themselves with if not careful. Make your first lesson about safety. Teach them how to hold the knives – from the handle and not the blade even if all they are going to do with it is passing it to you.

Hot stoves, sharp knives and peelers, heavy iron woks, big rolling pins – there are a lot of things that can be considered dangerous if played with. If your kid is too young then you will most likely only include them in mixing stuff, keep them away from the main area then. Have them seated at the dining table. If they are actually going to be helping you in cooking then a thorough lesson is important.

Don’t scare them though. Be vigilant when they start out as your tiny little helpers but don’t make them feel overwhelmed. Use a cheerful voice and smiling eyes to keep the mood light. Because if you are worried, they will sense it and mimic too, they won’t enjoy the experience, and that is the main goal along with learning.

Teach Them the Correct Terminology

Kids usually have their own special name for things, especially for words they cannot pronounce. It is an instinct to dumb things down for children, but you don’t need to. You will be surprised at the ease at which children learn new terminologies.

Use the correct words for tools and techniques so that they pick it up and don’t have to struggle later. If they are learning something new, they might as well learn it correctly. They also feel proud – when they use something they recently learned – correctly. This helps boost their self-confidence and makes them feel proud of themselves.

Use Rewards

baking

If your kid isn’t interested in cooking, use rewards to persuade them. This isn’t just a hobby. Cooking is a skill that they need to learn to be independent. It is one of the basic survival skills. They don’t need to be restaurant quality chefs, they just need to learn how to feed themselves. Learning all the basics is more than enough.

Use their favorite shows or dishes as rewards for them helping you out in the kitchen with food preparation. You can also let them choose the dishes. This makes them more interested in the process. Don’t focus on just the healthy recipes, they will be bored real quick. Sprinkle in a mixture of healthy recipes and treats to keep it interesting.

With cooking, try baking because most children enjoy baking more than cooking. You can alternate the dishes with one being their choice and then the other being your choice.

Remember Your Goal

The above point brings me to this point. It is easy to get caught up in wanting to teach your kids all the dishes you know or experiment with new ones altogether. You should remember that the main goal here is to teach your kids one of the necessary skills that they need to survive and also to boost their confidence and self-esteem.

Knowing things makes an individual feel confident in their ability to do things and learn stuff. Cooking is one of the tasks that kids often relate to adults. Them being included in the process makes them feel important and like an adult.

It isn’t necessary for them to make top-notch dishes. They should just be learning something after each cooking session. Adjust the lessons according to their interests. If they aren’t interested, don’t keep pushing them to learn more complicated stuff. Let them do things at their own pace. Most importantly, have fun together.

Final Thoughts

What you basically need to keep in mind is that the whole idea behind teaching your kids to learn cooking from early on is to teach them an important skill that will help them become independent, boost their self-confidence and self-esteem, and help you bond with them. Just have fun with the process instead of treating it like a chore.




5 Fun DIY Halloween Costume Ideas for Your Kids

October 28, 2019 by
Halloween means getting ready for the trick-or-treat shenanigans. Halloween costumes can get expensive and more often than not finding something that makes you and your kid happy can be difficult. Make your own costume or you’re thinking of a Harry Potter character costume isn’t difficult. Here are some ideas to help your kids make their own costumes.
 
halloween

1. Baby Shark Baby Costume

If you start singing as soon as you listen to Baby Shark, then you are well aware of how the tune had taken over the internet a while back. Dressing your kid up as one of the annoyingly funny Internet meme cultures can be a fun idea. Kids anyway look adorable in shark costumes.

All you need is:

  • Grey hoodie
  • Pink, white, and black felt
  • Hot glue gun and hot glue sticks
  • Grey footie pajamas

2. Donut Costume

Kids love dressing up as desserts. They also look adorable in them and most desserts are easy to replicate at home using felt and basic clothes. You can dress your kids in basic beige overalls and then for the donut – draw a circle on the cardboard, cut to shape, add tan or brown felt for the donut. Add other colors to glaze it to represent your kid’s favorite one. Add velcros to attach the pieces of cardboard donut to your kid and you are done.

All you need is:

  • Round objects to trace
  • Cardboard
  • Pencil
  • Scissors or Craft knife
  • Tan or brown felt
  • Hot glue gun and hot glue sticks
  • Self-adhesive Velcro squares
  • Fabric glue and paintbrush (optional)
  • Any other color paint or felt for the glaze or sprinkles (optional)

3. Dragon Costume

Dragons are somehow one of the favorite toys kids will play with, one of their favorite characters they will draw and want to be. It is actually easy to make a DIY dragon costume if your kid is okay with not going into too much detail. You can get a onesie in the color that your kid wants their costume to be.

Take bubble wrap and roll it into a tapered tail shape, you can also do that with cardboard and then cover it with felt but bubble wrap gives a more realistic feel. Use a duct tape the same color as the onesie and cover the tail with it to match the costume. Make spikes and attach the tails and spikes to the onesie or top and pants that you choose. You can also add face painting if you want.

All you need is:

  • Bubble wrap (or cardboard)
  • Color onesie or top and pants
  • Color Duct tape
  • Scissors
  • Self-adhesive Velcro

4. Unicorn Costume

Unicorn is one of the most popular mythical creatures especially for little girls who are in an all things glitter and sparkles phase. All this costume takes is an all-white outfit and a unicorn horn to make your kid happy. You can DIY the horn with some foam or by making a cardboard cone or felt cone stuffed with cotton and covering it in glittering then attaching it to a headband. Cut two ear shapes and attach them to the headband as well.

All you need is:

  • Off-white outfit
  • Cardboard or felt and stuffing
  • Glitter
  • Headband
  • Hot glue gun and hot glue sticks

5. Medusa Costume

If your kid is going for a costume party or a competition. This is one of the easy ways to make a creative outfit for cheap and with minimal efforts. No fancy crafting is required. Buy tons of plastic snakes and/or rubber snakes depending on how realistic you want it to look. Attach the snakes with zip ties or hot glue gun to the headband to make snake hair. Do the same for the neckpiece. Add some eye makeup and you are done. If you want you can spray paint the headpiece in a uniform color. Pair it with a dark gown and you are done.

All you need is:

  • A dark gown
  • Plastic snacks and/or rubber snakes
  • Zip ties or Hot glue gun and sticks
  • Headbands
  • Scissors

Final Thoughts

Making costumes can be a fun process. Make sure to involve your kids when you make their costumes. This gives them a chance to be creative and to wear their creations. When they are a part of the process, they feel proud of the costume and it makes Halloween more fun for them. Costumes are supposed to make you happy, putting efforts into their own costumes and watching their ideas come to life is sure to make your kids happy.




Why You Should Develop Positive Habits in Kids Early On

October 21, 2019 by

The importance of habits is something that all of us know all too well. Positive habits can make your life while negative can ruin it. Developing positive habits early in your life can help you function better later in life.

Which is why it is important to teach and inculcate good habits in your kids. If your kid is struggling in an area then take steps to help them rectify it. You know what their weak points are, the next step naturally is to start making changes to turn those weaknesses into strengths. One step to doing this is reinforcing good habits without it being a strain on the kids.

Child prepare for school

Introducing good habits in their life needs sheer determination and consistency from your side as well. They are kids, they don’t understand the importance of practice and routine. The kind of habits you inculcate in them since their childhood will dictate the quality of their life. The way you live your life has a huge impact on how you work, so it is obvious that how you work has a huge impact on your success.

“Your beliefs become your thoughts; Your thoughts become your words; Your words become your actions; Your actions become your habits; Your habits become your values; Your values become your destiny.” -Mahatma Gandhi

Our habits have the power to change the narrative of our lives. They directly contribute to the outcome of the work we do, the progress we make. It is crucial to recognize the areas we need to work on and then find ways to make it right.

It is also in your and your child’s best interest to create habits that will help them attain your goals. These habits have to be developed by identifying the various ways which will be used to achieve your end goal – like said before, turn your weaknesses into strengths.

Healthy Reinforcement is a great way to make a new habit stick around and also get work done – use rewards as rewards work well with children who cannot yet see the big picture. Rewards are a sure way of getting work done because it gives them something to look forward to at the end of the task, it can be their favorite snack or an extra hour of TV.

It is a sweet driving force. When you can see something for yourself in the end, you feel more motivated to complete the work. Children are no different because they do not understand the importance of habits or the way they shape their lives, it becomes necessary for them to see a gain that they understand.

Incentives or rewards are a great way to motivate yourself to finish the task at hand. When you have something to look forward to, it becomes easier to run the last mile. When you work on developing a habit or learning a new skill, the results aren’t often quick.

No sight of results can dim your mood, and you can feel demotivated, everything can seem pointless. Kids anyway have a shorter attention span. You have to avoid that feeling, and that can be done by setting rewards for your kids for completing a difficult task or achieving a small milestone.

Trust me; it will work like a charm for the things your kid needs that little extra push to the finish. This motivation is the most lucrative one to oneself. You can use the same trick for yourself too. The activity that you usually do to procrastinate can be used as a reward instead – killing two birds with one stone.

“Sow a thought, and you reap and act; Sow an act, and you reap a habit; Sow a habit, and you reap a character; Sow a character, and you reap destiny.” -Samuel Smiles




5 Awesome Shoe Storage Solutions for Small Spaces

October 14, 2019 by

If you are anything like me, you love shoes more than you love clothes. My love for shoes means me outgrowing my shoe closet every once in a while. No matter how many times I purge my shoe collection, I always seem to have more than I know what to do with.

I tend to collect a lot of shoes over the years and kind of hoard them, so, storage can be a bit of a problem sometimes. If you live in a space that isn’t big enough then it definitely can be a problem.

shoe

In such cases, you need to size down on your shoe collection and I know that can make you feel sad because some of them were expensive and some of them have memories attached to them and some of them are your favourites and whatnot – any reason to keep those babies will do – every reason under the sun is used to not donate or throw away the extra pairs that you haven’t worn in years.

While it is important to declutter your space and get rid of things you no longer use or if Marie Kondo is to be followed – the things that do not bring you joy – and you definitely should be putting your energy into that, it still is smart to find storage solutions for the things you have and today I will be sharing with you some very effective hacks for doing so.

1. Under the Bed Shoe Storage

Use the space under your bed to store as much stuff as you can fit. Instead of just throwing your shoes under the bed with no organizational system and letting them take up a lot more space than needed and also letting them collect dirt, use under the bed shoe storage organizers that are available easily.

When we can’t see all the options we have, we tend to forget the existence of some of these shoes, the see-through top of storage boxes will help you fight this problem. This is a great way to store shoes in a compact manner and also protect them from dust.

2. Under the Stairs Shoe Storage

Try to incorporate this when you get a new house or are remodelling and you will have so much neatly tucked away storage space. This is one of the smart storage designs that has been popping up everywhere because it is useful for utilizing spaces that might otherwise go to waste and giving you more storage in small places.

3. Store your shoes in a ottoman

This is a creative storage solution for small spaces. When you do not have a lot of space you need to think out of the box and create extra storage space where there wasn’t. Functional pieces that can serve multiple purposes are always a plus.

Store your shoes in an ottoman that you anyway will be using for additional seating purposes. This way the shoes stay hidden and are also protected from collecting dust.

4. Storage Ottoman bench

The basic ottomans get the deal done but if you have a large collection then you can opt for benches, especially if you have an entryway. This can double as shoe storage and seating.

5. PVC Pipes Shoe Storage

PVC pipe shoe storage racks are easy to make and are inexpensive as well. They add a hip vibe and depending on the style you go for, you can paint them to match the colour palette of your room.

Like a full wall shelf of books, you can have one with shoes, they can look like really cool expensive installations. You can display your beloved shoes in an artsy fashion.

Final Thoughts

Don’t forget them after stowing them away, take care of them and they will serve you well. Similar to loving your space, you need to learn to take care of it as well. While all these hacks are great, decluttering, rearranging periodically, and dusting is important to increase the lifespan of your shoes and to maintain their condition as well. 




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