Airing My Dirty Laundry

I've done it in the guest bedroom.  In the laundry room.  At night.  Before I go to work.  And especially when I'm really nice and dirty.  What is it....my laundry of course!  My laundry has kicked my butt a million times.  I have used my garden tub for a dirty clothes basket before....for months.  I have piled all of the clean laundry in one room before and locked myself in until everything is folded.  I came out with about 11 dryer sheets representing, you count 'em, 11 loads of laundry...at once. 


People, I have NO shame!!!


I have come up with a trillion little gimmicks to try to keep it under control, but I always fail.  In fact, I would say that for the last 3 weeks, Rusty and I have been more successful than we have ever been about keeping our laundry under control!


What has worked for me?


I keep the lid to the washing machine open to dump in sweaty work out clothes and yard work clothes.  Yep, we strip right beside the washer!  On top of the dryer, I keep a laundry basket that we throw in the nicer, dryer clothes.  When the washer gets full, we start it. When the basket gets full we wash a load.  They normally get full around the same time.  Every three days maybe.  We wear nice work clothes and dirty up a pair of work out clothes each day.  I do a load of towels and sheets every two weeks, maybe.


Here is what I started doing:


I make one huge pile on the floor.  I even have to go through the bedroom and pick up all of the reject outfits that didn't look good that morning and rehang them.

I drape and tops that go on hangers over the back of a chair and all pants over the seat of the chair.  I have one chair for me and one chair for Rusty

I use my dining room table to make neat piles of folded clothes.  Again, my clothes go on the table on the side that my chair is on and Rusty's on the other side.

My little tip is to stack all clean socks in one big pile and match them up at the end.  I leave the extras loose to pair up in future piles.

Why fold at the table?  Because I get to watch the only TV in our house while doing it.  Who can turn down Nate?!  I fold during the shows and run around the house on the commercials.  Hey, it works for me.

It also helps to have your folded artwork on display when the hubs comes home.  He sees how hard you work and immediately feels like he needs to put this away.  It is an undeniable way to show the men they dirty up WAY more clothes than we do.  Plus, no one wants to eat dinner while staring your underwear and socks in the face!


What household chore KOs you every week?  Have you come up with any little gimmicks to show it who's boss?  If so, PLEASE SHARE!!!!  Happy folding :)


I'm linking to The Stories of A to Z.

Breaking it Down: Cleaning 365

After 9 months of living in our home, it is not feeling as new as it did the day we moved in.  I don't know when it happened exactly, but I am a little devastated about the reality.  Things stopped looking as shiny.  Stuff started building up in the corners. BOO!!!!


So.  Since I had Rusty trapped we were blessed with a snow day (3 so far), we divided up what we thought the big maintenance cleaning jobs were into the 12 months of the year.  We are hoping that we can check these items off each month and keep our home feeling move-in-day new.

January

• Change air filter
• Dust ceiling fans
• Run self-cleaning oven
• Scrub outlet plates/light switch plates

February

• Clean air vent covers
• Dust ceiling fans
• Magic eraser doors

March

• Change air filter
• Dust ceiling fans
• Clean front of cabinets

April

• Clean out light fixtures
• Dust ceiling fans
• Have carpets cleaned
• Dust baseboards

May

• Dust ceiling fans
• Dust plantation blinds
• Clean inside of windows and sills

June

• Change air filter
• Dust ceiling fans
• Pressure wash the house, porches/desks and fence
• Run self-cleaning oven

July

• Wash Pottery Barn Slip Covers
• Dust ceiling fans
• Magic Eraser doors
• Touch up all trim with paint

August

• Clean air vent covers
• Dust ceiling fans
• Scrub outlet plates/light switch plates

September

• Change air filter
• Clean out light fixtures
• Dust ceiling fans

October 

• Dust ceiling fans
• Dust plantation blinds

November

• Dust ceiling fans
• Dust baseboards
• Clean front of cabinets

December

• Wash Pottery Barn Slip Covers
• Dust ceiling fans
• Clean inside of window and sills

My mother would be so proud!


Now - the list might look like a random mess, but hear me out.  I run my whole life on a school calendar.  My doctor appointments are always June and December when I am on breaks.  My motto: never take a day when the sun isn't shining, you aren't feeling well or for a doctor's appointment.  Now that I have a house, that list MUST be extended to include cleaning and home projects.  Sick days are made for shopping or going out of town!


So, you can see I am loaded up on tasks during summer, spring break, Thanksgiving break and Christmas break.  I also put things on either a monthly (fans), 4 x a year (air filter), 2x a year (washing slipcovers, etc) or 1x a year (pressure wash, touch up all trim) rotation.  Then I built my schedule around weather (you want clean windows when it gets to be great weather, and you can't pressure wash in the winter) and what fits together (if I am painting trim, I probably want to Magic Eraser the doors to make them all look good together).

So, you veteran homeowners, what all am I leaving out?  Do you have a master plan to keep your house looking new?  Or maybe you just spend a week or two in the spring and summer doing my whole list at once?  I just have to break things down!

These cute calendars can be found here.  Etsy, of course!