Blog is moving!

I have moved this blog over to my new website. You can reach it by clicking on the link to This Lovely Place in the sidebar. I've already posted Part 3 of Extreme Laundry if you want to take a look.

Since it was so short-lived I will delete it in a few weeks but I wanted to give you a heads up if you're a reader! I really appreciate your interest in our family and home life. I think the new format will work out much better in the long run. See you there!

Extreme Laundry, Part 2

Before I describe our long-standing laundry system, let me tell the tale of life before it.  When my 4th child was born we also had a 1yo, 2yo and 3yo, and someone came to help after the birth. This person worked all day, washing, drying, folding and putting away clothes, and they finished the job with relief and satisfaction.  I didn't have the heart to tell them there was a playpen full of dirty clothes in the closet.  The quantity just multiplied from there.  I remember huge piles of dirty clothes and a couch full of clean unfolded laundry which got wrinkled and dirty from children sitting on it.  True story, folks.

Then we moved from a spacious house to an extremely small one.  I knew I had to get control of the laundry situation.  So I bought lots of laundry baskets and put one (or two, depending on number of occupants) in each bedroom.  The laundry room closet also had one or two for household laundry such as kitchen towels and blankets.  Laundry baskets went into closets and dirty clothes went into baskets if I was lucky.  This cut way down on sorting little almost-the-same-size underwear and socks.  At the time I washed the whole basket together--whites, colored--with few ill effects.  Children who were old enough brought and put away their own basket.

This system has remained virtually unchanged for many years now, with the exception of refinements like specific laundry days for children and different-colored towels for each child.   

The reason this system works is that laundry does not STAY on the couch--it gets folded and put away as we go, or at least within a few hours.

Extreme Sports, I mean Laundry--Part 1

Any mother of a family, and especially a large economy-size family, knows that laundry is an area of home management that can make or break the deal.  It has a way of multiplying when we're not looking, sort of like the 9 baby bunnies we discovered in our rabbit's cage a few weeks ago.  Don't ask. 

First order of business is to make sure that drawers and closets contain only clothing that you actually wear.  That sounds silly, but have you ever opened your child's drawer and discovered that they did, in fact, have nothing to wear, but the drawer contains clothes?

The seasonal clothing switch is a good time to cull out outgrown, stained or un-favorite clothes.  Set a limit on how many clothes each person keeps.  Besides church clothes, a laundry basket full is our limit.

Also set up an ongoing thrift store bag/box for clothing in good condition.  Otherwise *gasp* throw the stuff away.  Clip and save buttons if it makes you feel better.  I only donate nice clothing to the thrift store, and I only buy nice clothing at the thrift store. 

Life is too short to dress ugly, even "at home," so sort and simplify but don't wear anything you don't like.  If you're going to have to wash clothes, make them clothes you love.