Before we start this task here are a few tips and cautions
that should help the progress. After all, even 3 steps
forward and only 2 back is progress.
Preplan your menu for next week, that gets this job out of
the way, and you won’t have to think about it, just
ready, set, go. For those of you that didn’t get or
save the stuff about menu planning, don’t worry about
it right now, we will save that for another volume. For
now, just grab a calendar and write in a menu plan. (just
like if you were in a restaurant for a week).
Box hint. Before you start or as soon as possible ( within
a day or two) be sure you have at least 1 box for every
member of your household and a couple of spare ones. If you
have a shortage of space, just put them in your yard and
cover them with a tarp till you need them. Don’t
worry, they won’t stay there long.
Make sure you have a good supply of washing stuff, eg.
Tide, Bounce, Bleach etc., what ever you regularly use.
Plan your work space. For HSers you will need to plan your
workspace where you can HS at the same time. Eg. In my
house home schooling is often done in the kitchen at the
table. My work space is the kitchen floor around my chair .
This allows me to work and supervise etc.
Keep kitchen timer handy. Any timer you can set will do,
even an oven timer or old alarm clock.
Be aware of the potential pitfalls such as the
following:
Law Of Gravity
If your house is anything like mine, and you start
cleaning against the flow of gravity, inevitably,
messies will be created behind you. If possible work
the top floor down. If this is not possible, guard
your rear flank! Regularly check that others are not
messing behind you. Remember we will only work in one
direction. Eg. if you start on the main floor and put
stuff on the stairs to go up ( and of course get put
away) you can be assured that someone will knock it
down off the stairs. If, on the other hand, you start
up, and put something on the stairs to go down( to
put away later) when it gets knocked down the stairs
by someone, we call this help! Do you get the idea?
Law Of Frustration
The degree of frustration ( and depression) is equal
to the size of the project undertaken. Therefore view
each task in small 15 minute blocks. For example, one
room , one child, one drawer at a time. This cuts the
enemy down to size, allows for many successes( even
though small), provides for steady encouragement as
you see the completion of each task, and lastly wards
off frustration and depression.
Law Of Commitment
The more obvious the commitment the more persistent
the distraction. If your children know you are
planning to clean up, you can be sure this will be
the time they need your help outside. Make your
commitment privately, between yourself, God and this
group. It will be harder for them to distract you if
they are unaware.
Last but not least, remember this task is about progress.
We are not about to take on everything so don’t view
the messies this way. It will overwhelm you to the point of
Freeze up. We are going to look at everything in 15 minute
pieces. Now that’s progress!! Also, we are not on a
time deadline, we have until eternity to
“finish” the job. We are just going to handle
it “One step at a time”
The 23 Psalm as it applies to my Laundry Room.......
Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of my
Laundry room I will fear no evil.
For Thou art with me. Thy laundry basket and Tide comfort
me.
Thou preparest a folding table before me in the presence of
my enemies.
Thou anointest my soul with songs, my soap measure
overfloweth.
Surly goodness and organization will follow me all the days
of this week,
as I dwell in the House of the Lord, forever.
Here is our prayer and scriptures for this week. One of
my favourites, from the 3rd chapter of Ecclesiastes:
“There is a time for everything, and a season for
every activity under heaven:....... a time to search
and a time to give up........ a time to keep and a time
to throw away........ a time to tear and a time to
mend....... " So I saw that there is nothing better for
a man than to enjoy his work, because that is his lot.
Dear Heavenly Father, How gracious are your mercies. As
we read and ponder these words we realize you are
speaking to us in a very direct way. We commit to you our
willingness to clean and organize our homes. We will
supply the willingness, you promise to supply the power.
We believe it is the time for this activity. We will
diligently search for a resolve and missing articles, and
we will give up this habit of keeping everything, we will
sort for what to keep, and what you would have us throw
away,and we will throw it away, we will tear up old stuff
for our rags and be frugal and mend when reasonable, and
last we pledge to do this with a cheerful heart as you
have commanded. We will sing praises as we work and enjoy
this undertaking. As we pledge this to you we ask for
your blessings and strength, your infinite wisdom and
guidance and mostly you peace that passes all
understanding. Father let our accomplishments ring out
for all to hear how mighty and faithful you are in all of
our lives and tasks regardless of their size. We thank
you for your precious word, and thank you for your great
wisdom in providing these instructions. . You have
instructed us in even the small details of our lives. We
ask all this in Jesus name, Amen.
This is what I refer to clothes wars! Similar to star
wars that is using the sword to cut the pile down to a
managable size. In my house I do this:
(Child by child) Take all clothes and put in one
pile.
Then I match sets eg shirt, pant underwear. I make 7
sets. This goes into the dresser drawer. (No socks) I
weed through and find the best "sets". All other
articles for that season are disgarded (Goodwill, rag
bag etc.) I will also make up to 2 sets of good
clothes. These get put in the closet. Each child has 9
sets of clothes and no more.
All out of season clothes that will fit next year go
into a box marked "Boy winter". Box is sealed (very
important if ADD child) and stored on top of bedroom
closet.
I have a cheap bookcase in all my kid's closets. This
holds one extra set of bedding for the bed as well as
extra blanket.
Each child has a laundry hamper in their room.
For girls the same principle applies. The only
exception may be an extra dress or skirt.
I keep any extra underwear, swim suit and perhaps a
spare t-shirt or two ( just in case) in a drawer all of
its own.
On the bookshelf each child has a swim towel (this is
the one they take to the pool with their name on it, it
is not used in the bathroom or at home, just for
swimming. In our house they each have two as the kids
are in swim club and swim 4 or 5 days a week).
Next, kid by kid, go through boots, shoes, coats. My
kids have one spring/summer/fall coat for use all the
time, and one good coat. The good coat I keep clean and
hung in the front hall closet. At the back door I have
a bench and three coat hooks. Hook for coat and foot
wear goes under the bench. (I am still trying to
convinence hubby to make me three small lockers--like
school lockers but without door). Also, each has one
pair of shoes also kept in front hall cupboard. As each
season passes I change the footwear they use from under
the bench ( out of season footwear is kept in the front
hall closet in a box. They also each have one knap sac
on their hook.
Each child is color coded. Oldest boy is green (his
laundry basket is green, blankets for his room green,
swim towels green, mitts, hats, etc). Makes for easy
ID. Green was chosen as I had decorated his room in
yellow and green. Next boy is blue, girl is pink,
etc.
I know it can be really hard parting with stuff, but tell
yourself that hording is sinful, someone else might
really need this stuff. That Helps. BE RUTHLESS!!!!!
One other closing thought, should you be able to plan a
day to tackle Clothes wars, make sure you have a plan to
discard extras THAT DAY. Do not just put them in bags or
boxes, remove them from your house. If you don't, I
guarantee the discarded pile will grow legs and make
their way back into the main stream !
If possible, it is best to do all the kids rooms on the
same day when none of them are home, (send them off with
dad for the day).
The effects of this Clothes Wars! system are:
Less laundry to wash as there is a max of 7 sets per
kid.
Helps me stay on task and do laundry regularily
Clothes get worn evenly that is, I dont find 6 months
later that my daughter has outgrown a pair of pants she
never wears.
Forces the kids to keep on task about their clothes and
helps them treat them more responsibily
If they decide to trash their room, it isn't as bad as
when the drawers are full to overflowing.
I can now do all laundry for all 5 of us in 1 day
instead of 3 days per week. Also it is only about 4
loads instead of 10+
I am no longer washing clean clothes ( used to do lots
of this and it drove me nuts as kids put what ever they
didn't feel like wearing into the laundry instead of
back in drawer, or just threw it on the floor thus
getting covered in dog hair etc....)
Super easy to keep track of mending.
A couple of other hints:
I used to keep an old dresser in the laundry room where I
kept all future clothes ( hand me downs that don't fit
yet) but have since disgarded this as I found that it
just caused more work than necessary. Now I just keep one
box in the laundry room and go through it one day at the
start of each new season. Since I have done this with my
family, no one is the least bit worse for wear and life
is much better. Last but not least, I keep one small
laundry hamper on top of the dryer for all the socks.
This has become necessary as my kids hate wearing socks.
This way I can just grab a pair and put them on the kids
before we go out. If they put them on in the a.m. when
they get dressed I can be sure I will find them somewhere
in the house as inevetably they will have taken them off.
Also, as one set gets worn out, I replace it. One set at
a time. This way I don't have a big outlay of money at
any one given time for clothes. Also, it allows me to
keep track of what they may need in the future. This is
important for us as winter clothing here can be the
national debt if I had to outfit all my kids each winter.
Once the snow is gone, I wash and repair any winter wear,
(discard any unusables) and make mental note of what I
will be needing next year. Then I try and catch year-end
sales.
Remember the trademark of ADD coaches O.H.I.O ( only
handle it once!)
I have great organizational stuff around my house. I got
the Calender creator Plus computer program a couple of
years ago, spent a month or so imputting info and now I
just hit a button and out prints my weekly menu plan,
grocery shopping list, chores list ( including annual,
semi-annual and quarterly stuff like clean stove). I do
know that as long as I keep on task, i.e. keep to the
schedule of housework, menus, laundry, etc, life around
here goes really smooth. When I get lazy or just plain
frustrated, everyone really suffers.
How are you doing?
I hope you made some good progress in the clothes
department today. Sit back and see if you can recognize
some accomplishments. Where did you take 3 steps forward
and 2 or less back? This is what it is all about. Even
one drawer down is one less to tackle tomorrow!
Tomorrow, make it your goal to complete at least 2 loads
of wash. Wash, dry, sort, and PUT AWAY this is the most
important. It you only have time to do one load
completely ( to the put away state) then only do one. If
God graces you with more time, try for 3!!
While doing this job, enlist the assistance one at least
one helper for 15 minutes. Set your timer if need be. For
every minute of help given reward them for an equal
minute of "free time" ( or something). This is training
up a child in the way he should go. After all we won't be
visiting his home once a week to put his laundry away
once he has moved out. And don't send him to put it away
unsupervised ( you will find it next day under the bed)
supervise the training. After all when the cats away, the
mouse will play. Don't do it for him, but supervise and
give that needed verbal instructions ( the ones we do
over and over and over...........)
Remember organizing is our goal. Steady as she
goes........
