Here is what is waiting for me today

This is only half of the ironing pile...

Mom harvested her grapes and brought them ALL over to our house.

Thanks! I think.

So...ironing and juicing.

And haircuts later.

When do I get a day off? and yes, I am whining.

The Laundry, part deux

I've had some questions regarding my our laundry process so I thought I'd just clear it up. Because I really am a nice person and if I say that enough times it might become true.

I do not have the kids sort and fold their own laundry. We have tried it. It did not work. The end.

So, therefore, I wash/dry/fold or hang up all the clothes. The kids bring the laundry to the laundry room and sort it for me. They also put their own clothes away after they are done.

I do not check any pockets before washing the clothes. I just can't stand the thought of sticking my hands into the great unknown that is their pockets. There could be all manner of funk in there and I'm a wimp.

I will, however, test the weight of the item and gingerly give it a pat down, just to check.

This method does not come without risks. What can I say? Risk taker is my middle name. Or names. Whichever.

That being said, I will pass on a tip: No manner of pretreating, rewashing, crying, begging, pleading, swearing, witchcraft or voodoo magic will undo the path of destruction that a green crayon will pave in a load of whites.

Next topic. I'm trying to forget about the green crayon incident.

I hang up all the shirts, sweaters, sweatshirts, suits, skirts and dresses. The things that go in the drawers are jeans, shorts, play shirts, socks and undies. I used to put all shirts folded up in their dressers, but now they are older their shirts are bigger and everything just won't fit now.

I am an iron-a-holic. I actually enjoy ironing. I'm weird, I know. I even feel compelled to iron my pillowcases and the top part of my top sheet that kinda does this strange curvy-over-thingy that bugs. I do not iron my husband's clothes. Right after we married, I ironed one of his shirts and he informed me that I did not do it right. hmph... Therefore, because I am capable of holding a grudge for 15 years I do not iron any of his clothes.

Socks are an interesting thing, don't ya think? How I can put two socks in the wash and have only one come out is one of the great mysteries of life. I think sometimes they slip into clothes during the wash cycle. One time Joseph was almost through his entire school day when he noticed that he had a washcloth stuck up the sleeve of his sweatshirt. My kids are very observant, apparently.

But it got me wondering if that is what happened to all the socks around here? Maybe we are all walking around with several socks stuck in various pieces of clothing and not noticing? I'm also now sure that I must have 50 pounds of socks stuck inside my clothes. That would definitely explain a lot.

I have a sock basket. I only put socks in there when I can't find the match. And there they wait until I can locate their sole mate. Oh, come on, that was begging to be said.

I don't plan on giving the kids more laundry responsibility then they currently have because I'm territorial. I'd rather assign them other chores. It's not like I can have them do everything. At least that's what we tell people.

Organizing the closets and doing the laundry

My side of the walk in closet. We haven't had our shoe organizers built yet so my 100+ pairs of shoes (I know, I know...no hate mail, please) are in very large tubs, sorted according to season.

Corey's side of the closet, which is astonishingly, at the present time clean and organized. On shelves above the clothing we have tubs of bedding, sorted according to size and set for when all the out in-laws visit.

In one of the spare rooms is a walk-in closet. In here, each kid has their own "Memory Box" which contains mementos, baby clothes, yearbooks, etc...

Also in the walk-in closet are all the spare bigger boys shirts, sweatshirts, sweaters and suits, hung up according to shirt type and size.

The rest of the spare clothes and shoes are sorted by size and boy/girl. All tubs are labeled for easy identification.

Michael and Timothy's closet.

Joshua and Joseph's closet.

Matthew and Levi's closet. Their spare clothes/shoes for the upcoming season are in labeled tubs in their closet.

Hannah's shoes and flower hair clips.

Elizabeth's shoes, belts and purses are sorted into laundry baskets.

The back wall of Elizabeth's and Hannah's walk in closet.

Lillian's bow organizers.

Lillian's closet. Clothes and shoes in the upcoming sizes are kept in here in labeled tubs.

The laundry sorter in the laundry room. Each week a different child is assigned the laundry chore. That person gets the dirty laundry from the downstairs bathroom, brings it upstairs to the laundry room and sorts it. In each bedroom the kids have a small laundry basket for their dirty clothes. The occupants of each room take turns bringing the dirty laundry into the laundry room, sorting it and hanging up extra hangers. I used to have a full-sized hamper in each room but the kids would wait till it was full before unloading it. I would go from having no laundry to a small mountain of laundry overnight. Not fun.

My laundry room.

We have a third set of machines in the garage that I use for really dirty stuff (like camping or mud football clothes) but I only use those machines about once a week.

Each person has their own basket where I put their folded, clean clothes. When that basket becomes full, I will add "Put clothes away" to their daily chore list.

I get asked often about how I keep up with the laundry. I had one of my aunts here at the house and we were showing her around. She asked "Where are all the piles?" I laughed, thinking that she meant piles of bodies, but turns out she was wondering why I didn't have piles and piles of laundry.

I have a system that works. At least it works for us. I have extra large machines and I run them all the time. I have spent so much time with them that they are now considered members of the family. Combined they do over 25 loads a week.

That's my life...

All caught up!

Now the kiddos get to put it all away!!! My favorite part...

After I snapped the "before" pix, I got down to business. Over four hours on my feet resulted in a much cleaner laundry room! Thank goodness I have three sets of machines! Although, I think I ran them so much today that they were getting ready to wave the white flag of surrender!

Making a grown woman weep...

What happens when your dear husband is out of town all week, you are doing childcare and taking care of your own nine kids? The laundry gets way, way behind... When you are doing over 25 loads a week getting behind is not good. It's actually very, very bad.

I have not been this far behind since I got my new laundry room. Before that I was constantly behind. The laundry piles would get so big that my dear hubby would joke about climbing to the top so he could put a flag up there. Funny, yet not so much...

All those empty hangers are never a good sign...