Sunday, January 2, 2011

All Good Things Must Come To An End


I am bracing myself for tomorrow, when Jeff goes back to work after being home with us for almost two full weeks. We've really enjoyed our holiday break, and I expect re-entry to reality will be a little rough for all of us.

We made the best of his vacation. We took the kids to do some of the fun things we didn't get to do during Thanksgiving, thanks to the plague that visited our house. And we spent some days at home doing some projects that I'll show off later, and organizing and cleaning out. It was a pretty good balance.

We are nowhere near organized or cleaned out around here, but we sure got a good start. It takes a while to get everything back in order when you've been a little busy with babies for three years! And the kids add to the chaos and the stuff in the house exponentially, so we've got some catching up to do.

Post-Christmas I kicked back one evening with the latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens, which had an article about organizing your home. I laughed out loud at the suggestion that, in order to maintain a cluttter-free home, you should fold and put away one load of laundry before starting the next.

In two days we'd be going naked around here.

I have no trouble getting the laundry done and folded. I usually fold after the kids are in bed while I catch up with Jeff. But getting it all put away is another matter entirely.

If I try to put the clothes away when the kids are up, I inevitably have to run to the playroom multiple times to break up a fight or see what the screaming is about. While that's good exercise, it's just not worth the effort. And I can't put it away when they are asleep or at least trying to sleep in their rooms, which is a decent chunk of the day and evening.

My laundry baskets do double-duty as storage bins. They are the first place I look for kids' clothes and pajamas. As a rule, I'm shocked if I can't find what I need in the laundry basket. Besides, isn't it much more efficient to pull clean clothes straight out of the laundry basket instead of putting it all away only to pull it out of the drawer less than 24 hours later?

Efficiency. It's all about efficiency. Let's just go with that.

© Trippin' Mama 2011

2 comments:

Suzy said...

Oh, good ... I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks it's much more efficient to live out of the laundry basket!!! :) Good luck with Jeff going back to work today ... I know how hard it is to get back in the swing of things after having help for an extended period of time!

Elizabeth said...

I love reading your blog! I, too have a girl (3) and triplet boys (5 months). I have quickly learned that sleep (mine and the babies is so much more important than the laundry being put away!!