I will be the first to admit that I’m terrible at certain things when it comes to keeping up with our family’s needs.  One–I am awful at cooking dinner.  Like, not only am I not very good at it, but I’m also a very lazy cooker.  I don’t want to spend a ton of time in the kitchen and I seriously cannot stand the mess it makes and the dishes that you have in the end.  Second–I’d rather hide in a hole than empty the dishwasher.  And third–the laundry.  OH, THE LAUNDRY.  It is by far my weakest area.  The problem is that we have only four people in the house, but two of the people make about four times more laundry than the normal person.  Brayden is very good at wearing something for an hour or two and throwing it in the hamper only to put something else on.  Today, he’s already put in a pair of pajamas.  A shirt and jeans that he wore to MOPS (because he changed to shorts and a t-shirt for school).  And if he gets messy on the playground or after school while playing outside, that outfit will be in the hamper before you know it as well.  James is also a master dirty clothes maker.  Pajamas, school outfit, workout outfit (which sometimes consists of biking shorts, under armor, a running coat, special sleeves for his arms while biking outside, a workout shirt that he wore on top of the under armor, gloves, a hat and socks).  The the outfit that he wears after he’s done working out.  The laundry baskets are full in about two days.  And we have one in our bathroom, one in our bedroom and one in the boy’s room.  One full basket equals two loads.  And well, that’s just a lot of laundry for the week.  Pretty soon, another little human will be residing in the house making even more laundry.  Eeek!  At least the clothes are tiny!

We’re both actually bad at the laundry.  James is mostly good at putting loads in.  Then it takes us about two days to switch the laundry.  Sometimes he folds it, sometimes he doesn’t.  We never put it away.  Then we find ourselves with about twelve loads of clean clothes on the weekend, in random piles everywhere, and piled high in laundry baskets.  It takes me more than an hour to put it all away while also putting more clothes in the wash because we’re piled up again.  Not.  Fun.

So, time for a solution.  I’m testing something out this week.  As soon as I wake up, I fill a laundry basket with just one load of clothes.  Either lights, darks, boy’s clothes or towels.  I put the load in before I even get the kids breakfast.  When I remember to put it in the dryer, I do.  And then I promised myself that I would fold and put away just that one load before bed (I’ve done it by mid-afternoon all this week).  And voila. . . one load for the week, all done and put away.  It’s now Thursday, and I’ve done it four days in a row.  I can’t tell you how much nicer it has been not to watch the laundry hampers be overflowing and spilling all over the floor.  Sure, you say. . . well, it’s only been four days, so of course you’re still going strong.  And that’s true. . . I may forget tomorrow and then I’ll be taking two steps backwards.  But at least I had four days of laundry happiness.