Taming the Laundry Beast

Now that summer is officially here, it's the perfect time to tackle some tasks that may have been pushed to the side during the hustle and bustle of the school year. Yes, summer can be just as busy as the rest of the year, but to me, it seems to have a more mellow feel to it. While spring cleaning is awesome, I like to take summer as an opportunity to get caught up on additional household projects that I have been neglecting. I know that laundry can be a major pain to stay on top of for any size household, but I've got some tips and tricks to help y'all get it under control!

A household of eleven can generate a ton of laundry! If I don't stay on top of things, the laundry monster can rear it's ugly head and make life mighty difficult. No one likes to have massive amounts of laundry to wash, fold, and put away; which is why I made a commitment a long time ago to keep our family's "laundry beast" tamed! Dirty clothes are just a part of life. There's no sense in complaining about it. It's just something that has to be done. I have found creating a laundry plan and sticking to it, makes keeping everyone in clean clothes a breeze.

Now I know many families, especially large families, assign laundry duty to children; and even require older children to do their own laundry. That just won't work in our household for many reasons. The main ones include: we don't have the space for mountains of laundry waiting for a teen to wash, I only wash FULL loads of laundry and none of my children (or adults) have that many clothes to fill a full load, and when littles 'help' fold clothes by themselves they are hardly folded and typically misplaced; which creates more work for me when I have to hunt for peoples clothing. With all that said I do believe children should learn to do laundry which is why I have daily laundry helpers, who can be closely supervised by me.

My personal laundry plan is super easy and effective. I think all mommies across the board, whether you stay at home or work, will find that this system can easily fit into your busy lifestyle.

1. Designate a location for 3-4 laundry bins. Divide the bins into 'colors', 'lights', 'work', and 'linens'. I typically combine our colors and lights and just sort as I do the wash, therefore only needing 3 bins.
2. Teach all family members to bring dirty clothes to the bin and sort accordingly. This is probably the hardest part of my laundry system. But, I literally teach this system from the time my kids can walk, they bring their dirty clothes to the bins. Just an aside here: There is dire consequences in our family if dirty laundry is not brought to the appropriate bins. My crew has about 4 complete outfits a piece, if they forget after too many days they will be hurting for some clean clothes, and this mama has very little sympathy, especially since I graciously do all the laundry.
3. Do a walk through of the house on your way to start the first load of laundry each morning, especially the bathrooms, to collect any stray dirty laundry.
4. Begin your laundry washing at the start of each day. If there is a bin full, throw it in the wash. Move it to the dryer, and start the next load if there is one. Repeat until all the laundry bins are empty. I don't typically do a load of laundry unless it is a full load; which isn't usually hard to come by with our large crew, lol.
5. I save the folding for all at once, usually towards the end of the day. After the laundry is folded it is past out to those who can put it away while the remaining I put away. THE LAUNDRY IS NOT DONE UNLESS IT IS PUT AWAY!

With this system I usually end up with two days of no laundry, YEAH! And, on the days I do laundry it's rarely more than three loads, typically just two loads.  I know some folks prefer to do all their laundry on one day; this just doesn't work for me because 1. I don't want to spend HOURS folding and putting away laundry on just one day, I'd rather do a little each day. AND 2. We simply don't have that many clothes to wait until one day a week to wash our dirty clothes.

Taming the laundry beast is super easy when you have a plan and stick to it. 'Dirty clothes' doesn't have to be a 'dirty word', lol. Just look at it like you would brushing your teeth or eating; you wouldn't skip doing either of those each day. What you purpose to do daily becomes a habit and second nature. After a while it simply becomes an automatic system which makes your life easier and creates peace within your household. Start today with a laundry plan and no longer stress about keeping your family in clean clothes.

With Love & Hope,
Jennifer

Ditching the Clutter: A Busy Mom's Guide to Home Organization

I truly believe organization is the key to productivity and lets face it wives and mothers are responsible for doing the impossible. Our proverbial plates are often spilling over with things we must get done. Here's a post I wrote for Modern Mommy Mentor for how I try to keep the clutter to a minimum....

For anyone who knows me or who has read any of my blog posts; knows that I have a very type-A personality. I thrive on planning, order, and structure. When I started having children I had to learn a whole new way of living. I’d much rather have my children than the cleanest, most organized home, but there are some bonuses to preferring a systematic way of handling life. I find that life just works so much better when our home is organized.

The scriptures tell us that even God prefers life to be handled with order and decency. Should order be achieved in lieu of serving God and our families, no, but the two should work harmoniously together. When our lives are organized it allow us to think and work more effectively. We must first acknowledge and accept our need for organization and structure. Second, organizing our homes must be a family effort. Mom cannot be the sole proprietor of keeping a home organized. Husbands and children play important roles for maintaining an organized home.

Getting every family member involved as active participants makes organization easily achievable.
After acknowledging a need for an organized home and convincing family members of their vital role in keeping a home organized, the most important key to organization is STOP BUYING! Before I buy something I pray about it and wait for God’s answer, no impulse buying for this family. You might be surprised at how God answers when you start praying about your spending habits. I often find that after a week or two I really didn’t need the stuff I thought was essential. It’s amazing how much of the clutter starts disappearing when you stop buying unnecessary products.

3 Easy Steps to Ditch the Clutter

• Simplify, consolidate, and eliminate: This pertains mostly to the kitchen and bathroom, but it could easily be applied to any room. Many products can be combined to do the same job. Such as using one all-purpose cleaner or using a bar soap to wash and shave with. The mainstream media and marketing gurus have convinced us to use a different product for every task which promotes unnecessary and excessive spending. When in reality many homemade, non-toxic products can be used for multiple jobs and work just as well. Many utensils and tools can be consolidated.
• Baskets, totes, and uniformity: Loose objects go perfect in baskets and totes. My cabinets are organized with baskets holding an assortment of loose items, such as lids, canning supplies, toilet paper, essential oils, medicine, etc. My basket system is purely a time-saving necessity. Everything has a specific location which allows me to spend my time actually doing the tasks at hand as opposed to searching for the tools required. Uniformity works great too. When things are done in a specific yet simple way, children can easily learn to be willing participants in keeping their home organized. For instance, we have an array of different blocks. Each type of block is kept in a tote and all totes are stored in one specific location. Yes, they can play with the blocks, but when they are finished playing, they know where and how to put them away.
• Purge: Before Christmas and all birthdays toys are purged. My reasoning with the children is; "To get new toys they must get rid of some of the old". We cannot keep every toy they receive. Any broken toys are thrown away immediately. Books and homeschooling materials are kept in one location and purged yearly too. As for clothes and shoes, we keep a pretty simple variety. Each child has an average of four sets of 'play clothes', three sets of 'good clothes', 2 pairs of night clothes, and a weeks worth of under clothes. Shoes are kind of iffy, truthfully each chid has one good and one play, but somehow there are always seems to be strays that need to be put away in storage.

Organizing a home should not be a burdensome task, it should be done as an extension from a desire to create a peaceful home environment. From my personal experience our home operates much better when everything is in its place. The heart of organization begins with Christ and ends with families joyfully working together to keep a home running in decency and in order.

With Love and Hope,
Jennifer

This is a picture of the kitchen in the big house we bought and sold. This is not a staged picture, it was exactly what it looked like after each meal. :)