Thursday, April 26, 2007

Small Victories!

River's laundry basket. He did all of his clothes earlier.



Isaiah and Levi's laundry basket. It's not their day for laundry yet.








Den and I's laundry hamper is empty...hurray!!









Roman and Abram's hamper is vacant too! I'm so excited, and I just can't hide it!

It's funny how the smallest things can make the biggest difference. Forever, we would just put all of our dirty clothes in the laundry room. This may be great if you have a large utility room, but I sure don't in this house. In my last house the laundry room was also the room to our back door. So all of our guests had to walk past our washer and dryer to come into our home. I despised that. Nevertheless, even though our laundry room, now, is all to itself, its currently quite small.


I had noticed that the room would become so full of laundry that when it would come time to do a load I would have to walk on the dirty apparel to open the washing machine or dryer. This would never work, besides the fact that it made me feel overwhelmed that there were clothes everywhere! I had my hampers in there, but again you couldnt get around the hampers to get to the machines. So we had to make a change and fast.
So what seems like a very basic idea for most, turned into a genius moment for me. My little a-ha moment! I would buy everyone their very own hamper, and they would keep them in their room. No more endless piles of clothes in the laundry room. We also made a schedule of who would do their laundry on what day...*insert deep refreshing sigh*


Once the boys received their hamper they were disbanded to rummage through the dirty clothes piles and find all of their belongings. Then they would take the heavy laden basket to their own little oasis, they call a bedroom. All of a sudden I felt like I could breathe. Quite substantially, the laundry task felt lighter and almost...do I dare say it....enjoyable. Thank goodness for teeny Epiphanies.....hehehe
These extra photos are for La bellina Mammina! LOL
So as you can see Roman has some blankets tucked away in the back. The other side of the quilt.


And voila', my little Christmas quilt that I made a few years ago. Sadly, a mouse bit a large hole in it and it is now almost useless. However, it still makes me smile when Roman drags it about.





















13 comments:

meNmykids said...

I understand the embarrassment of laundry in the entryway, mine is sort of like that too. Do you have your boys do their own laundry? Wow! You are too in order. I do at least 3 loads of laundry a day including weekends. While my older girls help me out sometimes I haven't required them to do their own yet. Maybe I should implement a deeper chore list. Ours is pretty old. Laundry and dishes are the biggest hurdle in housekeeping at our house, having our system improved there would make a world of difference.

meNmykids said...

Notice I am still on homeschoolblogger, I am somewhat of a procrastinator and I'm waiting to the very end of the "sometime this week".

Trina said...

Gale: I do have the three oldest do their own laundry. River has been doing his for over a year, and Isaiah and Levi have been doing theirs for the last few months. It's working great!!

That leaves Den, Abram, Roman and myself. I have Isaiah do the towels once a week, and Levi does the laundry basket in their room. The towels get washed once or twice a week. I keep hooks on the back of the bathroom door for them (designated hook for each child) to hang their towels out to dry. Otherwise, towels alone were all consuming with seven...Im sure you can relate!

LOL...about switiching blogs...who has time, right? Still here to help ya anytime!

michelle said...

Wow ! The idea of the older kids doing their clothes sounds greeat.I think I just might try that when the remodel is finished and everthing is in order.Maybe some of these kids will stop wearing so many clothes in one day.I can only wish...I usually do 2 loads aday .Then I try to have all laundry done friday after noon including clean sheets never know when we will have company on the weekend.Then I try not to do any on the weekend .So as you can figure monday is always about 5 loads. michelle

Trina said...

Michelle: You sound pretty organized to me...hehehe However, my mom had us girls do our own laundry at a certain age. I have no idea how old that was, but it certainly didn't hurt me any.

Mrs.Martin said...

I started having my children do their own laundry since having my 5th child and it workds out great. As long as your child has enough pride to not go out in dirty clothes that is. Trina I love the little boys hamper! So cute.

momto3blessings said...

With a large family you really do have to have some sort of organization especially with Laundry. I think what you all worked out will work awesome.

Lori said...

The organized soul in me LOVES this post! :-)

la bellina mammina said...

wow! you're so organised! Must teach my boys to do the same. mmm, btw, were you hiding your laundry behind your hamper? lol

Trina said...

Sis: Isn't the hamper cute? I think I bought it at IKEA, not sure, but I know it was cheap!

Cheryl: Yes...the lists and stuff have been a chore, but Im finding my way more and more.

Lori: It makes me happy too! Now lets see if we can keep it up. I will keep ya'all posted for sure!

LaBellinaMammina: I am getting more organized as the years are going on. And I would hope that I could do a better job of hiding my dirty clothes when taking a picture, if that were the case. However, I would love to show you a picture of what it is. You see my closet is very long and a great hiding spot of sorts for little boys. Its an old Christmas quilt that is bunched up that Roman was playing with. I will add the photo to show you my little keepsake I made a few years ago!

Michelle said...

Yay for you! And how wonderful that your boys help out with the laundry. Right now the girls help out with the towels they do pretty well folding those up. Laundry is my weakness ! I can never stay on top of it. David took it over for awhile because I was always behind. But I have started doing a couple of loads a day and that has helped out a lot.
Love ya

Michelle

Anonymous said...

Look at that quilt! That's gorgeous! I'm so sorry about the mouse though. What a rat. =)

About those shirts! The 1st two you can get at shadeclothing.com the other (my favorite!) is at a little shop in town. It's a precious little store... I'd pick one up for you and be happy to mail it if they still have some! They are $44.50 though... I know! It was a lot but it was just one of those things I had to have. You know how that goes....hehee!

la bellina mammina said...

that's a nice quilt. Sorry to hear that the mouse made a hole, but doesn't it remind you of that Peanut character who's always dragging his security blanket?
Cute!