Works For Me Wednesday!

I do most of the housework in our household. Dishes, vacuuming, dusting....you name it. People who have been reading my blog since the beginning know my distaste for one household chore in particular......laundry. It never ends. Once you think you have it done, you turn around and there's an entire basket or three full of laundry again.

I've always done all the laundry for all five people in my family. Recently, I accidentally stained one of my husband's shirts. The reaction I received from him after staining his shirt prompted what I now refer to as "The Laws of Laundry". It's a simple law really. Hubby now does his own laundry. I refuse to touch it. I will no longer be blamed or berated for an inadvertent stain on a shirt. This law accomplishes two things:

1.) I no longer can accidentally stain or ruin any of his clothes. If they are ruined, it is his fault and his fault only. He also can not get on my case if he doesn't have any clean clothes.

2.) It lessens my laundry responsibility exponentially. This man changes his clothes more times a day than my kids AND usually doubles up on shirts. And his socks?! Don't even get me started on his socks.

The Laws of Laundry....it WORKS FOR ME!!

Works For Me Wednesday!

A week or so ago, I desperately needed to mop my kitchen and bathroom floors. I went to get my mop and my bucket and lo and behold....the mop was broken. "What ever shall I do?!", I thought to myself. What a conundrum. I was in no mood to go to the store and buy a new one, but my floors really needed some attention.

After waking up my grumpy husband to see if he could help me fix the mop, and after Feisty gave her little sweet, albeit useless attempt, I realized the mop was shot.

Minutes passed and I came to the realization that I could mop my floors the old fashioned way. I mean, there was a time in life where there was no such thing as a mop, and floors managed to get clean. So I grabbed my bucket, filled it with Pine-Sol, grabbed an old towel, and got on my hands and knees and mopped those floors clean. And I have to say, despite the fact that my linoleum is hideously ugly and in desperate need of being ripped out and replaced, it has never looked cleaner.

So, I may just decide to save my money on one of those new uber-fancy Swiffer mops, and use the hands and knees and old towel to get my floors clean. It Works For Me!
Head on over to Shannon's for more Wednesday fun. (Also, go right below this post where I also posted my "Wordless Wednesday!)

Works For Me Wednesday!

Lo and behold....this week I thought of something that "works for me". To you other extremely creative and efficient moms out there, you may look at this and say, "Well, duh", or "There's a better way to do this." It's a pretty simple and easy thing, really.

I have a serious problem losing socks: my socks, my kids' socks....I don't touch my husband's socks with a ten foot pole. I had heard a suggestion from someone to buy a mesh bag that could be put in the washing machine, throw all the socks in there, and they wouldn't be lost. Instead, I came up with my own solution.

When my kids take their socks off at night, and I take my socks off, I fold them together just like they are folded when they are clean, and then when I'm ready to wash them, they are together and don't get lost in the mountains of other laundry. Then when they are washed and dried, they get put back together again and VOILA....no more missing socks.

It's kind of elementary, but it WORKS FOR ME!

Works For Me Wednesday

I have not yet participated in Shannon's "Works for me Wednesday" because, honestly, I'm not that creative or organized. But I'm getting a lot of great ideas from all you other creative Moms out there. So, today, in the desire to participate, I racked my brain to try and figure out what things I do to make my life easier.

I hate the feeling of chaos. In my house, the most chaotic times seem to be morning and night. My kids (particularly Care Bear) have certain things that they need to have at night time to make the transition to sleep easier for them. Care Bear must have (appropriately) her favorite Care Bear, and her trusted black pillow (a couch pillow that she has adopted as her own and must have whenever it's naptime or bed time). When I put her to bed, I always make sure her black pillow and her Care Bear are there with her should she wake up in the middle of the night. This is in the hopes that she doesn't come and get me and ask for these things when she wakes up. I also have a gate that I put up at the foot of the stairs in case they do wake up and start meandering towards the stairs. I also do this in case they wake up before the hubby and I have gone to bed. I don't want them wandering down the stairs, seeing the lights and TV on, and think it's time to get up and play!! Perish the thought!! This is how I make life easier for myself at night! Works for me!

To make life easier for myself in the morning, I try to get the kids' clothes, lunches, backpacks (if it's the school year) and everything ready for them the night before so that there is not massive craziness in the morning of trying to find socks, underwear, lunch boxes, etc. Sometimes it gets done, sometimes it doesn't. But when it does, it "Works for Me!" :-)

Happy Wednesday, y'all!