Showing posts with label proverbs 31 wife. Show all posts
Showing posts with label proverbs 31 wife. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Laundry

It has been three days since I started the journey to conquer the laundry clutter. And it is working. I place the designated load (today is darks--I choose based on what I have the most of) into the washing machine in the morning (after I gather up all the laundry) and magically by mid-afternoon I have enough to start the washing machine. I immediately switch it, fold it, and have the children put the laundry away. This is key: immediately put away each load after it is folded. If I wait around, the laundry sits in baskets, gets thrown around by a few kids and ends up-- back into the dirty pile without ever being worn. The children aren't the most happy about having to lug several trips of laundry up the stairs but the small piles seem to mean they actually get in the drawers. The previous scenario was they would leave the basket in their room (note the previous statement about being thrown around and back into dirty pile unworn). So, my tip: Do a load a day. Wash, fold and put it away immediately. This seems to be a happier home (although I still get the occasional: "I don't have any clean shorts!").

Monday, June 27, 2011

Every morning, I stare at the washing loads I have to do. I have a family of six. Every morning it is guaranteed that I will have laundry. And piles of it. I read years ago that if you chose a day to do laundry then it will help you focus. Not me. I am dysfunctional. I chose two days. Tuesday and Thursdays. What happens is the pile grows, flows out of their baskets, into the hallway. I used to stuff it in C's office so he'd climb over the mountain and be locked up in the dirty laundry room. It was miserable for him. Our cats loved it. It became a litter box. So, I now had piles of stinky laundry to do. Plus, after two days my laundry piles were so massive that even one day wouldn't work. Thursday turned into Friday. And the massiveness of it, left baskets untouched of clean clothes. My cats saw to help with that--they loved the feel of the cloth under their paws as they relieved themselves. So, I had a rotating pile of laundry--cats and kids--every day. Nothing seemed accomplished.


I must admit I hate laundry. I hate folding it. I hate separating them. Of all the chores, laundry is daunting.


But it must be done.


I dreamed of laundry facilities where I could jump dump it off all in several machines and come back to it. Hey, maybe a laundry service that'll just wash it all for me.


As those do not exist in my small town--and I really would never be able to afford it--doing laundry myself is necessary.


At the dentist, I read a common sense article about time management. Item number 1 or 2 or 3 (okay, I was hoping to sound intelligent but doing mindless chores like laundry has sucked away all forms of being able to memorize what exact number the common sense article addressed, massive heaps of oozing laundry) on the list read that being on top of laundry loads is important. The article did not mean to climb the piles of the laundry and meditate. On top in this case means doing a load a day.


As they get dirty, toss in the laundry and when the lad is full then start it.


Makes sense.


Ummmm....then we come to the reason why I banned my husband from doing laundry. Laundry does not discriminate by colors, shapes, sizes, etc. I certainly would not recommend placing my daughter's red soccer shorts in with her white soccer shirt. Not unless we want a lesson on color wheels and how to mix the colors to make her favorite color pink. And yes since pink is her favorite color she'd love that. But then what happens when they play the pink team? Is she on their side or the whites. See the confusion?


So, here's my solution, make the whole family match. Every wonder why the RLDS church members all have matching family colors. Yep. It's to save loads of laundry by being able to wash it all at once. I am positive of it.


As my children would resent me somehow if we had to be the family who always matches, my new solution is: assign a color a day to wash. I know we always have denim/dark in this family so that's my assignment for today.


Oops, the laundry bell has dinged. Time to switch my load of laundry!

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Quiet Time

With four kids, quiet time is rare. When Chris presented me with the idea of my having quiet time, I was excited. Now, I have little time to myself. But, I am home alone, quiet surrounding me, and cannot function. My heart is racing because it is too quiet. The point of this quiet time is to try to clean up the house. Things have gotten back out of hand.


The other day we dragged all the toys into the living room (yes, how silly of me!) and started to sort and clean them. We finished the sorting and the cleaning the other day. The living room, sadly is now overrun in containers and clean folded laundry. Chris warned me that it would be a bad idea to do the sorting in the living room but I like noise and the tv makes noise. I thought having it in the one room would motivate me enough to get it done fast. It didn't. It just made me feel depressed to see my beautiful finished room looking like a tornado hit it again. Next time I better listen to Chris (but, don't tell him I said that).