Ahhh....the wind is blowing...and the sun is shining which means this momma wants to stay home all day and tackle what else....LAUNDRY!! Doug had James carry all of it down to the laundry room this morning and he could see the anxiety rising in me by just looking at me and then so nicely and with a calming voice said "Kim....its just laundry."
Isn't that the truth......that is what it simply is. Laundry. It will always be there. Waiting for me to visit it and spend quality time with it. I would rather sit and listen to the chatter of Delaney.
Okay that sounds all calm and good but truly AHHHHHH!!!!!! It drives me bonkers to fall behind but my silly back/body won't let me do anything for a long time...just short intervals. I look at the laundry and feel like I am failing. Why can't I keep up? I also dislike having to see my kids run downstairs to find a pair of washed socks to wearl
So....my to do for the weekend...laundry and a warm, crackling fire going, and hopefully a nap and some laughs now and then.
Anyone want to share their tips on how you keep up with laundry...organizing and putting away....especially with 7 kids!! Please feel free to give me tip or two.
I know YOU know this, but for anyone else who reads, I have 9 kids with #10 on the way so I know of which I speak. :)
ReplyDeleteI happen to like laundry (which often earns me some pretty strange looks from people!)
We have a laundry/utility room in the basement. Since the older boys (16 & 14) have a bedroom down stairs, they just bring their laundry to the laundry room each day. I have two baskets sitting on top of the dryer--one for lights and one for darks. They put their laundry in the appropriate basket. Towels go in another basket that sits in there, too.
For the "upstairs kids", the two bedrooms each have a laundry hamper and the occupants of each bedroom are responsible for taking the hamper down each day and unloading/sorting it appropriately.
So--that's how I handle getting the dirty laundry TO the laundry room.
THEN, I am really the only one who operates the washing machine...I'm kind of neurotic about the laundry (OCD??) so I don't exactly mind this, except if I've had to be gone for portions of too many days of the week and fall behind.
Anyway, once it's washed and dried (whether hung, as I do for most everything, or dried in the dryer) it gets brought upstairs and each day I sort the clean/dry into a basket for them to fold. The older boys' clothes all go into one basket, and younger boys' goes into another, and girls' yet another. They are responsible for folding and putting away/hanging their own clothes, unless they're too little, like my little girls so my older girl folds theirs.
That's how we do it here! :)
:O) Ahhhh Laundry - I am a little crazy about it. OK, bossy. My W/D is right off the kitchen (which I love since I despise basements) - not even in a closet, so it's a pain that way, because I can't let it pile (and I really like piles). I do my piling in the 'blue room' which is right across the hall where all the laundry lives and dries and seldom get's put away completely. It seems like if I am home the washer is running and there is only 4 of us. When my kids were little we all lived out of the same closet - everything for everyone was in there. No dressers, no hanging in their closets. I controlled it all :O) Now that they are older, they do have dressers, but most of the clothes live in the blue room.
ReplyDeleteHere are some of my laundry beliefs:
1) Air drying is what I like best for everything but towels, socks/undies and bedding. With our allergies, I can't ever hang things outside, so a wall of the blue room is set up with 2 tiers of wire shelving and I use hangers and I have my great-grandma's wooden rack for pants, etc.
2) Tide Free, vinegar and dryer balls can do.it.all.
3) Sock/underwear diving from a community basket is completely acceptable. If they are clean that's all that's counts right!
4) I don't like other people doing my laundry. Joel does his work clothes (in his own washer and space) and towels and Lauryn does alot of her own, but I like to be the boss of laundry.
5) Plastic hangers are my friend
6) if it has to be dry cleaned, ironed or washed a 'fussy' way I probably don't own it.
If I could have a "perfect" life, with a "perfect" system I think it would include
1) labeled baskets in the blue room that I would actually put things in for people so they could find it by themselves
2) decent hampers in every room (we tend to use the floor and laundry baskets randomly)
3) a washer that didn't sound like a helipad on the spin cycle (we have to talk really loud at supper if it happens to spine while we are eating)
4) Aaron would own more than 3 pair of jeans (he's really fussy)
5) a family that laid clothes out the night before so that there wasn't always a panic in the morning and me locating what they need in the 'confusion' in the blue room
Enjoy your day! I LOVE staying home and it's a snow day today :O)
Thanks for the comments.....LOOOOOOVE to read them!! I think my problem is the people pleaser...don't want to anger anyone to tell them to do things. (I know stupid huh? I have issues!!) I tell the boys to put their laundry away...after I have washed and folded...and guess where it sits??? Still in the hamper or on the floor...ideas?
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