Laundry

I recently heard a woman lament over her daily tasks, one of which was to throw in a load of laundry--every day.  I was shocked.  I realized that I have a great laundry system.  I learned by example while growing up and have added some of my own ideas.

1. Do laundry only once a week.  Pick a day and set it in stone.  Unless someone has an accident or we make an unusually messy mess, everything goes in our dirty clothes baskets and stays there until Tuesday.  I also keep a smaller basket with large holes all over it for ventilation in the laundry room for wet dirty things to avoid mold in the bedroom baskets.   BENEFITS:  1: Doing laundry only weekly reduces the volume of laundry because doing it more often gives you a chance to go looking for things to clean in order to make a full load.  2: You will also save energy because you are washing full loads rather than daily small loads.  3: More household order because when laundry is a daily event, it is always in some part of the process, which means you always have laundry out, which means a mess.  4: Children learn to economize by not changing clothes multiple times per day or throwing clean clothes in the laundry basket to avoid putting it away when they know they have a whole week before it will be returned to them.
2. Allow your children to fold their own laundry and put it away.  Pick an age when your children are old enough to start folding their own laundry and deliver them a pile of freshly washed laundry.  They need to fold it and put it away.  We started this at age 6 in our family.  Teach them the basics and then let them do it even if it's not 'right' or 'good.'  Be patient.  The goal is not to have picturesque dresser drawers.  The goal is to raise independent children.  BENEFITS:  1: Children learn life skills and gain confidence as they master those skills.  2: Children gain a sense of ownership and pride in their possessions and management of life.  3: Your workload is lightened.
3. Allow your children to wash their own laundry when they are mature enough.  This isn't always an age-based decision.  Some of my children were ready to start doing their own laundry at age 11 and some not until 13.  Just like me, they get one day a week to do their laundry.  BENEFITS:  1: Children learn to use the laundry machines and basic laundry principles.  (My daughter learned this lesson the hard way recently when she washed new jeans with something white and had to figure out how to reverse the damage).  2:  Again, children take ownership.  They learn that there is no laundry fairy.  3:  Again, children learn to economize by not producing more laundry than they are willing to wash and put away.
4. To work up to #3, allow your children to wash a load of something a couple of years before they are ready to do laundry.  We started with the throw rugs and towels.  One child is responsible for washing all the bathroom towels or all the throw rugs once a week and putting them away neatly.  BENEFITS:  1: They learn laundry basics in a simple setting.  It's hard to mess up towels.  2: Your load is lightened. 
5. Develop a system and teach your family to use it.  Have a designated place for dirty clothes, sorting laundry, clean laundry (I have a dirty basket in each bedroom and a 4-bag sorter in the laundry room and two baskets for clean things).  Make policies about how and where laundry is to be folded.  (My pet peeve is laundry in the living room so we have a rule that they have to fold it in their bedrooms or in the laundry room.  My other pet peeve was piles of clothes all over the floor during laundry day, which motivated me to buy the laundry sorter and additional baskets)  BENEFITS:  1: You don't have to wander the house looking for stray laundry on laundry day.  2: Clean and dirty clothes aren't getting mixed up.  3: Regular systems streamline the time you spend on chores because you aren't thinking and solving problems as you go along.  Decide once how it's done and then turn on auto-pilot.

I appreciate my mom's example of laundry once a week.  It makes my laundry day full, but it frees up the rest of the week for other tasks.  One thing I wish she had done was to allow me to do my own laundry.  We had to fold all the household laundry once it was washed, but I had to call her when I went away to college to figure out the washing machine.  One of my favorite things to say to kids when they complain about helping with the laundry (because they will at first) is "You don't have to do it as long as you don't wear clothes."  So far no one's taken me up on that.

The "S" word and the "F" word

No, I'm not going PG-13 on you.  I heard someone talking about the "F" word recently--FINISH. Finishing a task is sometimes the hardest part.  It is also the most satisfying.  This woman's take on finishing was that we would save ourselves a lot of time and trouble if we just finished.  How many times do we start folding that basket of laundry and go onto something else only to find that half-finished basket still there 2 days later?  A few minutes is all it would take to complete the chore, but for some reason we put it off thinking we don't have the time right now.  When faced with a large project I usually get the bulk of it done and then kind of let the remaining details fall into place gradually.  Take for instance painting a room.  We get the painting done, but how long does it take us to replace the furniture and put all the painting supplies away?  Days or weeks in our house.  I have made an effort lately to finish 100% the projects that I start and the satisfaction of a job well done is so much greater than when I do most of it, vowing to myself to do it later.  Try it.

So, now the "S" word--START.  I usually have several minute tasks at hand...those tasks that aren't significant enough to make it onto my to-do list.  So in consequence they get ignored and forgotten.  But every once in awhile the piles aggravate me and the missing buttons become a problem.  This morning I had a rare window of time in which everyone was at school or asleep.  I decided to tackle some of these mini to-dos.  I straightened the books on my book shelf, put new toilet paper rolls in each bathroom, processed the pile of papers under my purse, returned my reusable bags to the car from the counter where they had been sitting since my last shopping trip, stuck the pile of pins on my dresser in my pin cushion, organized my husband's dresser top, put the stuff on my closet floor away, and emptied the trash even though it wasn't overflowing yet.  Examples of things that don't stop the household from running or even make anyone notice when they're completed.  But small things often add up to a big deal, and I feel like I can start my day now a little less weighed down.  How do you motivate yourself to start and/or finish the things on or off of your to-do list?

Un-simplifying Life

I did something last month that really complicated my life.  Anti-simplification.  Extra work and frustration.  More worry and expense.  This seems to go against everything I believe in.  But I did it anyway.  Actually, we did it: we got a dog.  I swore I'd never have another dog in this lifetime.  I was waiting until the next one, you know, when they are designed without tongues, butts, or fur.  What got into me?

I guess my desire to focus on the family, spend more time doing what the kids are interested in, that kind of thing is what prompted it all.  The kids have been asking for a dog for years.  Our last dog was really out to get me.  Her name wasn't Betsy Bad Dog for no reason.  She had a personal vendetta against me--and I against her as a result.  So it happened I swore off dogs.

And now we have one. 

Result: the laughter, fun, excitement, and cooperation in our house has doubled.  Sometimes you have to do a little bit of work in order to create a happy experience.  Shaun and I were discussing similar things this past weekend and our discussion prompted him to use his Christmas money on games to play as a family.  I was impressed by that and so spent hours of my precious Sunday (my favorite day of the week) putting puzzles together with the kids and reading stories.  And it was the best Sunday I've had in a long time.  I have high hopes for this dog. 

P.S. He doesn't always wear a tie. 

Labeling

Labeling is one way in which I save myself a lot of time and frustration.  I like to use a labeler that prints out little stickers because of the neatness, but you can just as effectively label with a marker, masking tape or other adhesive labels.  Why label?

1. I live with lots of other people.  They don't all share my "a place for everything and everything in its place" philosophy.  When I label it makes the odds that they'll return an object to its place a little more likely because it is obvious where it belongs.

2. I can't count on my hands how many "Mom, where is the...?" questions I receive each day.  It has been even more frequent lately because of our recent move.  I save myself the time of showing someone where something is when I can simply point them toward the right closet and they can do the rest.

3. I really can't remember where I decided to store each and every little thing all the time.  Labeling saves me the time of opening several drawers or boxes to figure out which one contains what I'm trying to put away.  It also saves me the search time when I need it.  I'm more likely to put things away right now when I know exactly where it goes. 

Here is an example of one part of my closet:

I had to make an intial investment of time and money to get my closet organized to my liking, but I know it has saved me more time than I initially spent to set it up.  I'd love to see your ideas or suggestions on keeping your stuff where you want it.