Baby Steps.
When you have babies around, sometimes you have to take baby steps when it comes to accomplishing things around the house, such as cooking dinner, cleaning a bathroom or doing laundry. Running a household of ten can be a daunting task, especially when it comes to laundry. We run the washing machine and dryer no less than three times a day, sometimes more, and, unfortunately, no one has invented a clothes folding and hanging up machine, so that is a task left to real live people. Here's what my laundry looked like from one day's washing...
Tackling this pile may seem overwhelming, even to the most enthusiastic homemaker, and with two babies constantly hanging on my pant legs, some days it's nearly impossible. What I do to make it managable is to take baby steps. Every time I walk by the laundry room, I pause to fold FIVE articles of clothing. This may seem absurd to some, but look what happens when I do it this way...
(DISCLAIMER: You may want to scroll down the page very quickly. I have actually chronicled, through photography, the decrease in pile size with each 5-article folding.)
Okay, here is the previous pile after folding 5 articles. It really helped to get that large, furry animal blanket folded. Definitely instant gratification there...
All right, now the clothes that fell onto the floor are all picked up and folded neatly...
Here you can see that we got another large blanket out of the way, again, making a significant, rewarding dent in the pile...
Here, we've folded 5 more articles...
...and 5 more... (yes, it's dark now)
...and again, 5 more...
Okay, it looks like our basket is empty now, so on to hanging up 5 articles of clothing with each pass-by...
I guess there were only ten articles of clothing to hang up. Sweet...
Now onto putting 5 piles of clothes away with each pass-by... (and yes, it's day again)
...and 5 more...(again, I guess there were only ten piles!)
Now to place the hand soap back where it goes and put away the Scout book and the maraca...
...and...PERFECT!
Looking at THIS sign the 13-year-old girl make for me in shop class makes all of these baby steps worth it...
And guess what? I get to do this all over again the next day!
Maybe if THESE little boys could take a break from hanging on my knees, I could do this pile in one pass-by. Wish me luck!
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15 comments:
Good Idea. I actually like doing laundry but if I had to wash for 10instead of 5 I am sure that would be different. I love your long counter in laundry room so good for folding.
P.S. I like Kyla's MOM art!! Good Job Kyla
Aww but they're so darn cute! I don't mind the sorting and putting in the washer and dryer part but I really don't like folding and putting away. Fortunately my husband seems to like to do laundry so he usually tackles that part!
Manuela
Your cabinets are absolutely FABULOUS!!
You are so incredible that you manage two babies and manage to do sooo much laundry. I can barely handle one baby and laundry for six.
I love it. Your laundry piles grow like mine do. =o)
That is great! :) What a neat idea!
great idea, I so here you on babies hanging or pulling (as mine do) your pants down, lol! They are adorable!
That is a wonderful idea. I hate the folding and putting away part. Please let me know when that machine is invented. Or maybe we could make millions inventing it...
:)
I do different things on different days. Like, yesterday I just folded and put away baby clothes. Tomorrow I will do mine and my husband will do his. BUT By then we will have to start all over again. Oh well :)
I love doing things in baby steps ...
Those are sure two cute babies that keep you distracted!
I had to read this cuz it has LAME in the title. It's a rule.
What a cute laundry room you have!
I just came over from Extraordinary, Ordinary Life. I have to say that I love your green cabinets. On my computer your walls look purple until the last laundry room picture, then they look red. So, what color are they?
Your boys are growing so fast. They are so cute I don't see how you can get anything done.
I don't mind doing laundry. It's the ironing that gets overwhelming.
what a great idea! I can't even tell you how many times I look at the laundry pile and think, "I don't have time to fold all this right now" and then just shut the door (really, having the laundry in a closet can be a curse!). I think if I just committed myself to 5 items each time I walk by, it wouldn't seem so overwhelming and would actually get DONE! Thanks for the tip!
I absolutely LOVE your laundry room! It always feels good to have all the laundry done, but it really is never done...housework is always waiting for us :-)
I have been following your blog off and on...mostly because I was curious about your life in Mexico (we were thinking of moving to Cabo and maybe we still will while our daughter's are young--don't know) I think your house is gorgeous!
I admire you for raising so many kids and making it look so easy...Keep up the good work! I also have enjoyed your posts...hopefully we (Mommy Lounge) can join in on your made from scratch carnival...I'm going to search my archives now :-)
Have a great Saturday!
Kalisha
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