Laundry Anyone?

What a week! Pete is finally feeling better and we got word today that he will be allowed to come home tomorrow. So what does a Mom of five and a Grandma do to celebrate the homecoming of their hero? We pack all five little ones up, walk into a Mexican Restaurant, ask for 2 high chairs and a table for 7 and order 2 beers and a rum and coke. Now that you know what I drank with my dinner and 2 baskets of chips you will understand why I am ready to let you all get to know me better.


This is a common sight around our house, laundry. We go through some clothes. I have 4 girls and all of them go through several outfits a day. I am doing laundry ALL the time. Pete is doing laundry ALL the time. While Pete's mom is here she has been doing laundry ALL the time.




I was getting pretty down about 10 months ago about the amount of laundry I was buried under. Then I met an amazing Mom who changed my life. She introduced me to her laundry system. I wanted to to erect a monument to her in honor of this laundry revelation.




So, here it is. This is how I have a spare hour or two at the end of the day to write on this really fun blog. NOBODY HAS CLOTHES IN THEIR ROOM!! That sentence changed my life. All the clothes for all the children live in a separate room. It is not pretty. In fact it is REALLY not pretty.






All the children have plastic drawers with their name marked on them with a description of what is inside. They are stacked and somewhat in shambles at times, but they are managed mostly by the owner of the drawer.

The beauty of this system is this:
1. The kids can put their own clothes away right from the laundry basket (even Jack at 3).
2. When kids get dressed and undressed it happens in one location, leaving
less running around for me.
3. I have to limit the clothes I buy for everyone because they only have so many drawers .
4. We don't have laundry baskets filled with dry clothes waiting to be put away.
5. Clothes go from the washer,to the dryer, to the drawer ALL IN ONE LOCATION! DONE!!!
6. Anyone can do ALL the laundry, not just MOM!

This draw wall is behind a door so it is not seen unless you come into the room, close the door and look behind you. I DO NOT LOVE THE LOOK! I have to tell you THIS WORKS!

I have an extra note on the "limiting the clothing I buy" comment. This is a VERY hard thing to do especially for me because I really like to match all my kids and I really like clothing. Then I started to realize there were only certain outfits that my kids go to . I had all sorts of clothes that they never wore. Oh yeah, and we had a fire and lost TONS of clothes.

SO, there it is folks! A little housekeeping to wrap up the week. If I ever go out to eat again and have more than 1 beer I will tell you about my shoe management system!!