Storing our Summer Essentials

SUMMER BASKETS!

How do you store your seasonal essentials?  

At our house we use baskets that are kept in our kitchen near our garage door which is also where we enter and exit the house.  Our patio door that leads to our backyard is also right off the kitchen so our baskets are kept in an area that we can easily grab and go. For way too long I scrambled to find hats and gloves in winter or sunscreen and swim shoes in summer.  Since we have a very small coat closet I was in need of somewhere else to gather these seasonal must have's!  

We were using a shoe cubby that I no longer needed since I moved our shoes to our coat closet.  A light bulb went off and I thought if we took the 'guts' of the shoe cubby out and just left the 2 shelves I could slide in 2 baskets!!  Yippee, a way to store those things I had always scrambled for!   

 So, with the warm weather finally here I was able to switch out our winter baskets to our summer baskets! Their may not seem like alot here but when you need just one of these things and can't remember where it might be even those few minutes of searching can become frustrating. I'm sure we'll be adding things but for now here are the things my kids will be grabbing for as we head outside.

Once shoe cubby now basket holder!

Everyone's needs will be different so what is considered our summer essentials may not be yours.  What I hope this post will do is give ideas on how to be ready for your outdoor fun! I've learned a few things over past summers and tried to remember those things so that I would be better prepared.  Things like forgetting towels when we were playing in the sprinkler or slip n' slide or when the garden hose just happened to make an appearance. Here's what's in our summer baskets:

1. Hooded towel - (will add one for my son as well)  This way, if I forget to bring the towels outside at least I will only have to run into my kitchen to grab it.

2. Goggles - We don't have a swimming pool but our slip n' slide has a little pool at the end and Tiffany likes to splash around while wearing goggles!  Now we got the goggles covered too!!

3. Sunscreen - Normally we kept sunscreen in our downstairs bathroom cabinet but it made more sense to keep it near all our other outdoor stuff.

4. Sunglasses - Somehow my kids have inherited  way too many pairs of sunglasses!  I included a pair for each so that I don't have to run around the house trying to remember where I seen them last.

5. Swim Shoes - even tho no pool swim shoes are great for protecting those tootsies from bumble bees or when the pavement gets too hot!

6. Sun hat - (will also add one for Jonathan)

I am considering making one basket Tiffany's and the other Jonathan's.

Anything that I felt my kids would use while playing in our yard is what I included.  I am also preparing a beach/pool bag that I will keep stocked with all the essentials needed for heading off to the beach or pool.  Some of the things will be the same as what's in our baskets but duplicates so that I won't have to take from one to put into the other.  Basically, our baskets are meant for when we play outside in our yard.  The bag will be for when we leave the house.

My hope for sharing this post is that it will help give ideas on how you can be better prepared for playing outdoors in the summer. No matter what the activity when one is prepared it's that much more enjoyable!

I hope you'll share in the comments below what your summer essentials are and how you keep them all in one place!

CHEERS TO A HAPPY SUMMER!
Susen