​If your kids are anything like mine, chances are you have spent more mornings than you care to admit turning your house upside down looking for a permission slip, homework assignment, gym shoes or a plethora of other possible items.  Inevitably, what ends up happening is YOU search frantically for the lost item while your child walks around aimlessly "looking" for it, all the while his/her face has tears of frustration streaming down and anger is beginning to rise and you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that a full-on meltdown is about to cause your day to implode before you've even gotten out the door.  We have finally found what works for us to have (mostly) peaceful mornings, so hopefully it will help you too.  We got a cubed organizer with fabric bins for our living room, which also doubles as storage for books, blue-rays, etc.  These organizers are inexpensive (around $50 and you can get them at Target, Walmart, etc. A lot of times if you wait for Black Friday you can get them even cheaper!) and I like that you buy the bins separately so you can choose what color goes with your decor or you could even get in in different colors for each family member.  We have a bin, or cubby as well call them, for myself and each of the three kids.  (Hubby refuses to use one lol.)   Each night, the kids and I put the things we will need for the following day into our cubby so that everything we need is ready to go in the morning and even if we accidentally oversleep (I mean, not that we EVER do that!) we don't have to make it even worse by not having what we need.

(Sorry for glare from the glass door.  And yes, that is a nutcracker even though it's March.  You might not be able to see, but he is black and gold so I leave him up in support of the Wichita State Shockers #WatchUs)