Posted: 02 Sep 2010 09:22 AM PDT

Last year a friend of mine told me about a cool new children's recycled clothes store that just opened up in Santa Clara. I mentioned that my young daughter was outgrowing her clothes faster than I could store them, and

that I didn't know what to do with them or her old toys. My friend tried to explain the store to me, but was so excited, she told me to just go and visit it.

Kid to Kid, located at 2666 Homestead Road in Santa Clara, CA 95051, is a store that you can sell your gently used kids clothes and either walk away with cash in hand, or get store credit. I told my friend this was too good to be true, and went to the store myself. She was not kidding and I now have a new local favorite kid's store.

Kid to Kid is a small store, but not small on the quality of merchandise or service. The staff is wonderful and very knowledgeable of their inventory. You can make an appointment by calling (408) 244-2248, or you can stop by with questions. If you are going to sell clothing, they only allow freshly laundered items, preferably stain free and wrinkle free. (It will go from your hands to the racks if approved, and they like having their stock clean.) They accept sizes birth to kid size 8. They also accept maternity wear, cribs, toddler beds, strollers, high chairs, bouncers and playpens. If you are going to sell toys the little ones have outgrown, then please clean the toy(s) first before bringing them in. The cleaner and better condition, the more you might get for them. They offer great prices for the used goods, and if you opt for store credit, they will give you an extra 20%! I have sold them numerous items that both my kids have outgrown, and have used the money to purchase 'new' clothes, toys, books, shoes and even movies the same day. If you sign up for their newsletter and mention it when you are checking out, you get an additional discount, too. It is always best to call ahead, visit the store, or check their website to see what their current need is as it changes week to week, season to season. To visit that portion of their site, click here.

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How to find the best soccer deal for your kids - Walletpop.com

Posted: 02 Sep 2010 01:04 PM PDT

how to find the best soccer deals for your kids

Forget back-to-school shopping. While last year's lunchboxes and backpacks likely can stretch into another season, soccer shoes tend to last just the one. And so we dutifully made the annual pilgrimage to the Big Three of soccer supplies: Big Five, Sports Authority and Sports Chalet. What did we find? That our local "mom and pop" soccer store had the best prices, not to mention a sales person who actually knew the difference between cleats and shin guards.

Here's the lowdown:

Each of the Big Three, as well as many chains like Target, offer a soccer package that includes soccer cleats (shoes), shin guards and a soccer ball. The packages range from $29 to $59 and make sense if your child is a first-time player and indeed needs all three items in the package. Buying the package will generally save you about 15% off the cost of buying the items separately.

But therein lies the rub. Does your child really need new shoes, shin guards and a ball? Because if he doesn't, you most likely will spend less by just purchasing what you need instead of the package. Don't buy what you don't need.

Most likely you're there because your child needs new soccer shoes, known as cleats. Kids feet grow in a year, so chances are your child has outgrown last year's shoes. Soccer shoes can be purchased separately for anywhere from $15 up to $100. Does your U-6 little girl really need $100 soccer cleats. No, she does not. Does your U-16 club-level player need them? Perhaps, but only if she's tried out the ones that cost half as much first.

Club players have practices three or four times a week and can play as many as four games in a weekend tournament. Better shoes prevent slipping, help the player land kicks and passes more precisely and won't blister your child's feet. Some kids with narrow or wide feet need the more expensive shoes. But for your local AYSO recreation league, it's hard to justify buying the top of the line shoes that they will wear once a week for a 10-week season and outgrow by next year.

Shin guards, while they certainly get scuffed up and stinky on the inside from sweat, basically hold up for a second season's use. I don't find they wash well, or at all, actually. But we do extend their use by putting folded paper towels next to the leg before the shin guard goes on. The towel stays in place firmly and will absorb the sweat. Less sweat, less stinky.

As your child progresses into higher level play, it is recommended that you get more serious (read: better made and more expensive) shin guards. Kicks to the shins hurt. When the shin guard is covered in hard plastic, it will hurt the kicker's toes more than your child's shin. This is a good thing in soccer. Expect to pay about $8 for basic shin guards. The top-of-the-line shin guards are about $20 although we did see a very high-end pair for $49 in our travels. We left them for Beckham.

You should also check with the coach or your league's website to see what size ball your child needs. My family has a bad track record of leaving our soccer balls at games and practices, so I don't mind having a spare, but better organized families might not need this expense. As the age division goes up in most leagues, so does the size of the ball. Balls run about $10 and last until the dog bites them and they puncture. Or until lost. Every child playing needs his or her own soccer ball. And since 90% of them look alike, always good to write your name on them.

Soccer bags? We have bought them dutifully for every all-star team our kids have played on. It's a team pride thing and all that. But in reality, they dress for practice and games at home and the only thing they have in their soccer backpack or bag is their soccer ball, which frankly fits nicely under their arm. A good water bottle, now that's a worthy investment!

Clutter-free with kids? Organize it, store it, live the fantasy - Oregonian

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 04:58 AM PDT

Published: Wednesday, September 01, 2010, 5:00 AM

Many times I have walked by the rows of plastic bins at Fred Meyer or Target and been struck by my secret fantasy:

My crayon-littered, clutter-filled home is transformed into a haven of color-coded bins and boxes. Stacked neatly on shelves, each bin sports a clean, typed label, marking the contents. The floor is clear of the stray building blocks and debris that normally trip me up between my mad dash from the boiling pot on the stove to the toddler in the living room trying to open the front door.

Doesn't that just make your heart race?

It doesn't have to be just a fantasy, though.

Danielle Liu, a certified professional organizer (who knew there are such people?) advises that you start with this simple philosophy: Every single thing needs a home.

"Every toy, every piece of clothing, every shoe, every bit of clutter needs to live somewhere," said Liu, who owns Totally Orderly LLC, a home and business organization company in West Linn, and is past president of the Oregon chapter of the National Association of Professional Organizers.

Start by breaking up your house into zones. In a playroom, you might have a kitchen zone, where all the play food and kitchen toys belong; a video-gaming zone, where all the remote controls and video games are stored; a building zone for Legos, blocks, little houses and similar buildings.

"Once you have zones, then it makes more sense where things belong," she said.

After you identify the zones, use "lots and lots of containers" to manage it all. Small containers for small things; big containers for big things. This will help prevent the all-in-one toy box clutter where small things fall to the bottom, never to be seen again.

Label the containers -- with words or pictures if your child doesn't yet read. Labeling is important because your system of organization might not make sense to your child and helps them to buy into the whole system.

Don't make it too complicated. Don't feel the need to over-sort items, she said. For instance, kids don't mind having all their blocks in one big box. They tend to dump it all together anyway.

Still not sure how to tackle it? Look for ideas at your child's preschool or kindergarten class. "They've done this for years and years," Liu notes.

Another key component for organization - Purge regularly.

"We Americans just have too much stuff and our kids have too much stuff," she said.

At least twice a year, work with your kids to weed through their possessions. "It's a great way to introduce them to charity and passing along to siblings or cousins," she said. And you could also encourage them by having garage sales where they can keep the money made from their stuff.

And a key to keeping it all together -- Maintain the space regularly.

There has to be a clean up process in place on a regular basis - daily, for instance, would be great.

Enlist your children in keeping things orderly with a rule that your child may only have one or two toys out at a time. It keeps "toy dumping" - in which your child dumps all his or her toys out and later leaves - at bay.

The rule also helps teach your child to put something away before moving on to something else, "a skill we could use for the rest of our lives."

So what are a professional organizer's secret weapons?

Hooks are great in bathrooms for towels, pajamas and robes; in playrooms for dress-up clothes, capes, halloween costurmes, hats, dresses, purses and jewelry; in mudrooms for backpacks, coats and sports bags.

Shoebox-sized bins are great for small toys, Barbie shoes, Hot Wheels, little accessories. She uses them in the bathroom for hair accessories and little toiletries. She also uses a few of them inside a large dresser drawer where she divvies up socks, underwear and tights for instance into each of the bins.

Open shelves. Place bins on open shelves, versus putting them inside cabinets or closets.

Limit where kids' toys and possessions are allowed to be in the first place.

Go lidless. Lids, like cabinet or closet doors, are "just an extra step and when you add an extra step, kids won't do it."

Go vertical. Got a small house or apartment? Go vertical with tall shelving units, with lesser-used items toward the top. And be extra vigilant about minimizing the stuff you bring into your home. Buy one good set of building blocks instead of ending up with three different ones.

Liu points out that the principle of assigning a home for everything doesn't have to just be for toys. Use this zone-offense for closets too -- there should be a home for pants, shirts and shoes. Same thing for when the children are older and going to school -- where do backpacks, lunch boxes, permission slips for parents to sign, homework all go?

And a note to those ready to head off to buy some bins - it's best to first do your purging and organizing before buying the bins, so that you know which kinds you need.

Check out the Totally Orderly website which includes loads of tipsheets for Back-to-School, organizing your pantry, papers and documents and other tasks.

Here are some more organizing ideas for parents and children from Simple Kids; a website, called Got Family? Get organized! that offers organizing help; and some ideas from Babble.com.

-- Helen Jung

Kids Shoes

Thursday, September 9, 2010

“Kid to Kid: Recycling Kids Clothes in Santa Clara, California - Associated Content” plus 2 more

“Kid to Kid: Recycling Kids Clothes in Santa Clara, California - Associated Content” plus 2 more

Published: Wednesday, September 01, 2010, 5:00 AM

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