Climbing Mt. Washmore - New & Improved Laundry Plan
Laundry around here had REALLY gotten out of control. Sometimes you just get focused on other things and it just slips away from you. So I decided it was time to take the bull by the horns - figuratively speaking and get things back on track. My plan had three elements:
Part 1 - Tackle Mt. Washmore. My strategy for this was simple - I needed to make the problem VISIBLE. Part of the reason laundry gets out of control is that you can't see the whole extent of the problem. We have multiple laundry hampers in different rooms and ALL of them were overflowing, so my first action was to get it all out of the hampers and pile it up right there in the family room. Yes, I did! Of course, my guys didn't much care, as long as it didn't obstruct the TV, but I cared terribly, and it at least gave them a visual on how out of control the problem had gotten.
And it was truly a Mt. Washmore - probably a dozen loads or more. Then we just started chipping away at it - 3 loads a day, 2 loads a day, whatever I could get my family to go for. Wash it, dry it, fold it, and put it away, people....
Part 2 - Reality check time. Obviously our current process wasn't working - duh! DH and I had a deal, I would wash our portion of the laundry and he would put it away. Problem was that I would wash a bunch of it, but then procrastinate in folding it and he would procrastinate in putting it away. So our hamper was turning into a black hole - you'd put something in there and it wouldn't show back up in your drawer for a couple of weeks.
The boys are supposed to be responsible for their own laundry, but they had two basic strategies - let the laundry pile up and never wash anything until they needed it, or put the washer and forget about it until it was all nasty and had to be rewashed and then leave it lying around until Mom took pity on them and folded it for them. Not good.
Part 3 - Make a better plan. Sometimes it just takes a little communication and a little cooperation between your family members and if everyone is willing to try, you can usually find something that works. One thing that works for us is all about the visibility. Laundry is a quiet problem that slowly piles up while you're busy doing other things. And here are the crazy house, we are busy doing a LOT of other things, so it sneaks up on us. You don't notice until you run out of something you need. So I needed to make the solution very visible.
So I made a laundry schedule and I placed it right on the cupboard door where it would be seen at least 3 times a day! Blake does a load on Mondays, Matt does one on Wednesdays, Tony does one on Fridays, and I do mine plus the towels, sheets & stuff on weekends. I also placed recurring reminders on each of our cell phones (Blake doesn't have one yet, but the rest of us do).
Wish us luck!
Don't forgot to come back on Mondays for my Clutterbugs tips. Click on the Clutterbugs link below to see a complete list of my Clutterbugs posts.
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2 comments:
You are a mind reader. I figured I would just check a few blogs andthen start the laundry. Luckily we are getting ready to move and I am planning on downsizing. It makes me feel so glutanous when I see a GIANT mound of laundry and then I look in the closet and we still have PLENTY of clean clothes. It is out of control. I am going to take a serious look at what we have and get rid of the excess. And I am going back to the one in one out rule for purchases. I have failed at that one.
Good timing on this subject. We just let our two boys choose their chores for the year. Max (12) chose as one task to transport all clean laundry back upstairs. I thought it was a weak choice but went along. It has been GREAT because it is so VISIBLE!!! Everyone came home to SEVEN baskets of clean laundry sitting on our kitchen table waiting for Max. Jaws dropped. Now they know the volume. Max is now the enforcer for anyone who uses too many towels or throws clean in with dirty, etc. He doesn't want to carry it.
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