Monday, November 16, 2009

Laundry for 12 and snow

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First, aren't these "wow!"? I love to play around with the macro....
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After working quickly on school, the children begged to go outside to play in the fresh snow.
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I know he is cute, however, he has REALLY been testing me today. Did you hear the strong emphasis on REALLY over the computer? Reread the first sentence if you missed that. (Deep mommy sigh...)

So, this is how our Monday starts...all the laundry from all the bath and bedrooms make it down to our laundry area. It is the "hallway" to the garage and is in a perfect area, since it is right where the action is...school, playroom and close to the kitchen.

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My parents are very creative and talented builders and so I grew up with some kind of construction going on all the time. When we decided to turn our garage into this laundry/school/play room they and my brother and his family came to Colorado to help with the finishing work. We made all the shelves, cabinets, desks, and did the tile work. We came up with the idea of the pull out drawer to hold three sections for sorting laundry. Then my precious friend Audrey had the idea of making the selves on the half wall to hold baskets to sort each persons clothes into. That was one of the greatest things ever that has helped me to organize and keep my sanity. Every one helps to sort and fold. Sunday as we walk in from the garage door, Steve tells them to grab their baskets and he herds them up to their room where every one puts away their clothes; (little ones get some help from bigger ones.)
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So now, here is a confessional; I HATE matching socks; I mean really dislike, can't stand, totally stay away from the job as much a possible. We decided a long time ago to have dark socks for boys and light for girls and that we would keep them all under the utility sink in this room...boy socks in boy baskets, girl socks in girl baskets. I thought this would help, however....
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... you can see that the two baskets are hidden in a pile of socks...not matched, not sorted...
Yes, I could train a child to take care of this, but, well, ummm....
maybe I should try that actually....

14 comments:

  1. I really like your laundry room - very practical!
    I have a basket of unmatched socks - any that don't match in the load go in there. Unfortunately I don't match the basket as often as I should so sometimes the kids run out of socks.
    The snow looks so beautiful there!

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  2. HE HE HE!

    The photos of the snow are breathtaking!

    Thanks for sharing them!

    Love and blessings from a Mom who is being tested by a few that same size and age! Sigh....

    Jill

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  3. My children would love some snow right now....anything to get out of school a little and have some snowball fights!! I love your pictures! I am also so very impressed with your organisation. What a wonderful idea to make the children put away their own laundry. I think I should try it!

    I cannot imagine the excitement in your home right now!!!

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  4. I love the pictures of the snow. I am a snow lover.

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  5. What an awesome laundry room! As for sorting socks...my 4 year old does that for me. I detest that job! Can't say they all get matched properly, but that works itself out later! :)

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  6. I love your laundry room, too! I'm grateful to have mine, but it is very small. I have 1 big hamper for 4 kids to share and it gets so full that really I'm the only one who can carry it! I like your system. I need to think if I couldn't implement something similar where each kid gets their own little basket.

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  7. Love the snow pictures.

    You do have a wonderful laundry/play/school room. Definitely the type of room I will keep in mind if/when we are building or re-modeling a home of our own here on the island.

    We use to have a big cardboard box filled with socks. The kids just dug through until they came up with what they wanted to wear, matching or not.


    Laurel

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  8. The snow pictures were beautiful!!!!

    We recently started a (smaller) system for laundry..but my hubby -the Marine- PREFERS to do all the laundry, so I am not just counting down the days until this deployment is over, but until my laundry duty is over as well :)

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  9. Beautiful pictures! I can't wait for snow!

    Aiden is lucky he's so cute. How can you be mad at that face. lol Maybe he's thinking he doesn't want to be replaced as the baby?

    Love the laundry room. I just don't know how you do SO many peoples laundry...I do 9 and it's my MAX lol. I purchased all the same socks at Target for the boys and it's helped immensely. I have finally got the boys using the shoe and sock bookshelf which is right outside the laundry room and that helps too.

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  10. Who can resist fresh snow? Those are beautiful pictures!

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  11. Wow, that's some organization you got goin' on, girl! I love the snow pictures...I can't wait to follow your journey to Keeshawn...and have another cookie for me :)
    Blessings~
    Connie

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  12. They are some great pictures. I would LOVE to have baskets for each family member - what a great idea.

    I am so with you on the sock thing!!! I had a basket of odd socks when we were in the States. I threw them away when we left - determined never to let that happen again. Here I am 9 months later with a odd sock pile bigger than ever!!!

    Michelle

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  13. Great ideas for a laundry room. I hope someday we are able to make our laundry area a little more practical. But it seems to be low on the priority list right now.

    And about socks.....why can't we just all go bare feet :) and...When are they going to invent washers and dryers that don't eat socks anyway?

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  14. I have just now found the blog of your wonderful family--so you may have already solved the sock dilema--but here's what we do. We sort the clothes into dark and light bins when they are pulled off. Spacce is an issue, so the bin for washcloths and towels has to go in the bathroom closet. On the inside of the door, I put 3M hooks. Each kid has a hook, and a mesh bag ("delicates" size bag). They put their socks and underwear in their bag as they pull them off. Zip up the bag, and toss it in the laundry. After the laundry is done, each kid takes his own bag and puts the undies away, and matches their own socks!

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