Tackling Mt. Neverest
I've been busy working on laundry and ironing today. The last week was full and I was tired, so in turn, the laundry was one area which suffered dreadfully. I'm hoping to be all caught up by tonight so that Jesse doesn't have to look through baskets of clean clothes for a white shirt tomorrow morning! Poor guy. He is so longsuffering with me!
By the way, how do three people go through so much laundry in one week? I have no idea. It seems I am washing just about every article of clothing and every towel we own today! I thought I had kept things pretty pared down, but I think I need to go through the clothes again.
While I'm on the subject: How do you do laundry at your house? Do you do a few loads everyday, or do it a couple times per week, or once a week? Or have no "system" and just do it as needed? Tell us about it.
Normally, I tackle the most laundry on Mondays (Since I don't usually do any laundry on the weekends plus I wash all the bedding on Mondays, I usually have at least 3 loads to do on Mondays, plus all the ironing for the week). Tuesday through Friday I usually do a load every day or every other day. I try to start the laundry first thing in the morning and have it run through and put away by early afternoon. As long as I stick with this, the laundry usually stays well under control. However, every once in a while I'll have a week like last week and things get way off track.
I took a break in the morning to bake up some banana crumb muffins and banana cake cookies for a few things we're hosting later this week. And yes - you guessed correctly - I got some discounted ripe bananas at the store on Saturday!
By the way, how do three people go through so much laundry in one week? I have no idea. It seems I am washing just about every article of clothing and every towel we own today! I thought I had kept things pretty pared down, but I think I need to go through the clothes again.
While I'm on the subject: How do you do laundry at your house? Do you do a few loads everyday, or do it a couple times per week, or once a week? Or have no "system" and just do it as needed? Tell us about it.
Normally, I tackle the most laundry on Mondays (Since I don't usually do any laundry on the weekends plus I wash all the bedding on Mondays, I usually have at least 3 loads to do on Mondays, plus all the ironing for the week). Tuesday through Friday I usually do a load every day or every other day. I try to start the laundry first thing in the morning and have it run through and put away by early afternoon. As long as I stick with this, the laundry usually stays well under control. However, every once in a while I'll have a week like last week and things get way off track.
I took a break in the morning to bake up some banana crumb muffins and banana cake cookies for a few things we're hosting later this week. And yes - you guessed correctly - I got some discounted ripe bananas at the store on Saturday!
posted by Crystal Paine at 9:54 AM
37 Comments:
I've been doing lots of laundry today, too, and downsizing the clothes. It's always an ongoing process.
The banana crumb muffins look yummy. What is the other food with them?
By the way, I love the preggo picture. How precious!!
~ Christina
Oops, thanks for telling me that somehow the link to the cookie recipe had been deleted. Fixed. :)
I soooo know how you feel. I think I am right there with you. I have never in my life noticed so much laundry since I have been pregnant. I do my laundry like you as well . Same days and such. But I still feel overloaded. I think I am really going to be overtaken once baby comes.
Chrissy
P.S. Do you cloth diaper?
I do "regular" laundry on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays (by "regular" I mean clothing, dishtowels, etc). On Tuesdays I wash all the bedding and since we only own 1 set of sheets/bed in our house, I've got good incentive to get the whole process done by early afternoon when the kids go down for naps! Wednesdays I wash all the towels, in addition to clothing. This system works really well for our family of 5 (3 kids 4 and under and 1 on the way) until I am potty-training or the stomach bug is going through the ranks or I am in my first trimester of pregnancy. Those are the days when I try to focus on 2 priorities: clothing and feeding my family-- everything else becomes superfluous!! :)
Your muffins look wonderful! Yum!
I have read for a couple months but now have to post. I love love love this blog!!
Hubby and I have created a great system that works for us. Since at this season of our lives, we both work outside the hoome and the Lord has not yet blessed us with children, I have to come home and face the house. Since Hub wants time to unwind and play a video game while I get dinner, he had me show him how I wanted the wash sorted and treated. Now, every couple of days, when we get home, he grabs the hamper, heads to the basement where his "man room" is and starts a load of wash. He plays his game while I fix dinner and tosses the wash into the drier. By the time dinner is over, he goes down and does a second load if neccessary while I wash the dishes and then we fold together while we watch the news. It all gets done somehow, and in this area we are a perfect team...many hands make light work!!
God Bless, Amy
I'm also tackling our Mt. Neverest today. Ack! We went away for a week winter camping and we're still catching up from that a week later. :)
I went through my clothes the other day and got rid of a whole laundry basket full to start. I've realized being ruthless is key. If I don't wear it, it's gone. If I'm waiting to fit into it "someday" 3 years later, it's gone.
I have always been astounded that our laundry seemed to have at least doubled since the birth of our daughter 2 1/2 years ago!! I'm like you, and have a big wash on a Monday and try to get the wash basket empty. Then by evening I do the ironing, and finish it on Tuesday if there is a lot (usually is!). The rest of the week I often do about 2 washes per day, and then have to catch up on more ironing in the evenings, just to keep on top of it!! It is amazing...all this and only one child!!! I have started washing the vast majority of clothes and sheets on the "quick wash" function, and this seems to help me get through things. The better weather has helped too as we start spring in the UK, and are having lovely sunshine, so I can get everything outside to dry. Winter is a different matter, and I always seem to struggle more, even when using the tumble dryer!!!
Love your pregnancy photo!!
Take care, praying for you and your little ones!
Karen
We use indoor drying racks, so we can't do more than one load per day or every other day (depending on how fast it dries). The racks will only hold one load of laundry from our compact size (24") washer. There is almost always laundry on the racks, so I guess I do laundry pretty regularly. We reuse our clothes a few times unless they are in need of washing. We also reuse our towels. We use cloth training pants (we only have one child), so they get washed once or twice a week with other laundry. I usually just do laundry as the hamper gets full, although it does take some advance planning to work with the drying racks.
One load a day or as needed works well here. I find it too tiring physically to have to catch-up. Some days I don't always feel like it, but I am always grateful when I realize how much energy I am saving myself later on.
Oh, I forgot to add I try and take the weekends off. By Monday it is still not bad and there are occasional days I do 2 loads a day, especially if I am doing sheets for example. Dh is great with putting clothes in the laundry only when they are dirty - that really helps a lot!
Our family of 7 (5 children still home + mom and dad) always had a never-ending pile of laundry until I decided (last fall) that we were wasting too much time, energy and money on laundry. So I came up with a solution. Whereas we once did at LEAST one load of laundry every day, we now only do laundry on Monday and Thursday.
Usually, I will do 4-5 loads on Monday and 2-3 on Thursday. This solution has worked wonders! It has saved much time as well as cutting costs. I have discovered that a lot of laundry that we used to do was unnecessary (It's easier to throw something in the wash than hang it up, right??? :)).
I've been doing laundry today too, but it's all tackled and now I have 2 days of rest to look forward to before tackling it again. :)
-Crystal's sister
Laundry questions--yes. All of them.
There are six of us, so my daughter starts a load every morning as part of her morning chores. If I think about it I'll throw in another load later in the day, but even doing it on weekends too, it piles up so usually Monday is the day I try to catch up, but sometimes it bleeds into Tuesday too.
BTW, keep meaning to tell you that I cut bananas in half and stick a popsicle stick into each half then freeze them for a cool treat. The riper ones are better; frozen, they have a creamy texture like a fudgesicle.
And the tummy shot is adorable. :-)
We are on a very tight budget. I have found that if I let the dirty laundry sit until 'washing day', any stains set and are much more difficult to remove (even if I put Shout! on them). Since we cannot afford to be replacing clothes, it is very important to us that our clothes stay fresh and clean as long as possible.
So, I do laundry every day as necessary. Some days I'll do 4 loads, some days I'll do one. With the exception of a couple of items, everything gets washed together on cold, permanent press cycle. Then dried on low. I've found that this is easier on the clothes and they last longer.
I tried using several different natural detergents but they didn't work for us. The stains did not come out and we lost a lot of money in clothes. I have had great success with using 1/2 the recommended amount of powdered Tide with Bleach and Shout! on any stains.
We try to be very proactive - washable crayons and markers only, bibs for all meals and playclothes only for getting dirty!
I can definitely relate, Crystal. Sometimes, the chores just never seem to end. I try to do a load of laundry every weekday. Then, Thursday is devoted solely to cleaning laundry. On that day, I wash bedding, towels, and any clothes that need to be washed. This system really works for me!Blessings!
Crystal, I can so relate to your busy laundry day! With a little boy who loves going outside and jumping in mud puddles, all my husband's work uniforms, and a new baby in the house, I seem to have about six loads to do every Monday. This is also the day that I strip the beds, so with all the sheets and blankets thrown in I have quite a mountain to deal with.Now that it's spring, I hang laundry out on the clothesline as much as possible. It saves money not having to use our gas dryer, is gentler on the fabrics, and makes everything smell so fresh. So any time there is nice day I wash whatever is on hand and hang it out, though I still seem to do most of it on Monday. With the four of us now, there is no way I could only wash once or twice a week! Although the bulk of it is done Mondays, I also try to wash on Wednesday and Friday and occaisonally have to throw a load in on the weekend if my son has a wet bed, etc.
I hardly do any ironing. It seems like even with having the clothes whipped around in the wind, all it takes is a quick 5 minute fluff in the dryer to get wrinkles out. When I use the dryer exclusively, I take the items prone to wrinkling out when ever so slightly still damp and put them on hangers. It works well, and as a result it is very rare that I need to drag out the iron, perhaps just for a stubborn collar or skirt hem.
At this point I'm not using cloth diapers...but do use wash cloths in place of wipes when we are at home.
By the way, does any one know of a way to brighten the white loads without using bleach? I've tried Borax and that doesn't seem to work as well.
Hi Chrystal,
I've been using this system for 18 years and it seems to have worked for us. Our washer/dryer is located in the bastment. I keep 3 piles of clothes.
(Whites, Darks like jeans, and dressy clothes like permapress )
I never wash a partial load, only a full load to save water and electricity. When a pile is large enough to make a load, I do a load. Yes, I do laundry every day. We change bedding on Monday and if the weather is nice, I hang the clothes outside. This saves on the gas bill for the dryer. When the clothes are in the dryer, I try to stop it as soon as the buzzer goes off. Then I hang the clothes up immediately. This almost eliminates the need for ironing. Only "touch ups."
After I have folded the clothes, I sort them by placing that child's clothes on their bed. Then, they are responisible to put them away. I put mine and hubby's away. (You know, Chrystal, your daughter is not too young to start helping sort, fold, and put away. We used to make a game of it when my boys were little. : )
Ruth, PA
Family of 8 (one still baking) -
It is my 3 oldest children's (12, 9, & 6) job to make sure the laundry is washed, dried, and their clothes folded and put away everyday, 7 days a week before 7:30 each night. Since they do not like the consequences of not having this done on time they almost always get it done before dad gets home. It is about 2 loads a day, 3 if it is one of their bedding days. I fold the youngers clothes and hang up mine and my husbands. We intentionally do not purchase clothing that needs to be ironed - this cuts down on a lot of laundry time and leaves ironing for only a few clothing items. I usually cloth diaper (not right now though) and I do the diaper loads every other day.
I am NOT an organized person and this works VERY well for us and we always have clean clothes. I remember when we started this system my children were amazed that their favorite pajamas were clean every night.
I know this won't help right now but someday... ~:o)
I have one year old twin boys with severe reflux. When I brought them home at 4 weeks old I thought I would flip. There wa so much laundry to be done. I was having to change their bibs and clothes sometimes a dozen times a day and sheets and burp cloths (I used cloth diapers), so on so forth. Now we are still emerged in laundry. I do 2 loads every day. Sunday is my "day off" from laundry, which means come Monday am I have at least 4 loads to do. I also have to do hubby's all separate from the twins and mine. He works hazardous waste and I never know what could be lurking there. So, that in itself makes it difficult. Also one of twins is allergic to bleach, dyes, perfumes and so on so forth.
The pregnancy picture is great Crystal!!!
I love all of your recipes and love those banana sales too!
My husband and I don't have children yet, so obviously we have less laundry to deal with than those of you who are parents. Thursday is my laundry day, and I pretty much do all the laundry and get it all ironed, folded, and put away by the end of the day.
I do an extra load of towels on Mondays, usually, too.
We do a few loads of laundry (2-4) every single day. One Mondays we have the most, since we take a break from laundry on Sundays.
there are 3 of us (me, dh, and 2 yr old). i don't like doing more than 1 load at a time, so that means i usually do laundry every day or every other day. when the laundry basket is full, i wash it. we don't have a lot of fancy white stuff, so i don't have separate loads. we re-wear stuff if it is clean looking and doesn't smell. i wash towels once a week, and bedding as needed.
After too many times of my husband asking where his work pants were, or his socks, or whatever......I decided I needed to do laundry every day. Just one load, all the way to being put away, and I almost stay caught up. Not quite, especially as I just potty-trained a child, and he still has accidents. But it's better. I do bedding on Saturdays, which makes for 2 loads that day, and try not to do one on Sunday. I have a 4yo, 3yo, and 1yo, and sometimes it still seems like we go through too much laundry. But I like the once a day load, instead of spending a whole day on it. Too overwhelming, and having 3 littles ones is overwhelming enough. =)
My biggest problem is actually where to put the clean clothes! I don't have a dresser in the two older kids' bedroom because there is so little space in there, plus I'm afraid of it getting tipped over, since they like to climb on things. So I have under-the-bed boxes, which are constantly getting dumped and all the clean clothes get mingled with the clothes they take off. I don't know what to do! Any suggestions from others who don't have dressers?
I am usually right on top of laundry, but the last couple weeks I have been tired and busy and not doing so well. Today I folded several loads and am trying to catch up! With a family of 6 and 5 of those being male and one bedwetter, I guess laundry does add up easily!
Monday is usually my wash day and it is also the day I change the sheets. Sometimes I get the ironing done on Monday and sometimes it waits until Tuesday. It all depends on what other things I have to do. My mother just spent a whole month with us and I was amazed at the amout of laundry 3 people can generate. lol oh well. It was nice she could come.
On Monday I try to do as much laundry as I can. Then Tuesday through Friday and sometimes Saturday I do one load of clothes and one of diapers. It works well for me.
About diapers--Do I remember right that you use Fuzzi Bunz? I started using Mommy's Touch--they are just like Fuzzi Bunz except they are adjustable one-size. I LOVE them. I have a few FB but dont' like them as well because I can't get them to fit as well.
Jennifer
www.xanga.com/homekeepingheart (since I can't fix my blogger profile!)
An ironing suggestion since this is what works for us: Don't iron. Or at least very rarely. It sounds weird but it works. Here is what you do. Pull any dress shirts or slacks out of the dryer while they are still slightly damp. Hang them up on chairs or on hangers out in the open. As they dry while hanging, any wrinkles will naturally be smoothed out. :)
Also try to buy wrinkle resistant or wrinkle free slacks and shirts. This is what my mom has always done. It saves a bundle in time and the cost is not much more if you buy them on sale. We only iron if something needs it very badly. The two older guys iron their own shirts and slacks when it needs done. The girls iron their own blouses or skirts when they need it. We iron dad's shirts only when they are very wrinkled and in need.
Maybe there is a higher standard for clothing neatness in the law office setting (like starched and such?). It worked fine for us when dad worked retail. Now he can wear jeans or whatever so it doesn't matter at all.
I don't have much advice for washing clothes except buy more clothes. If you have more clothes to choose from and wear, you don't go through your wardrobe selection as quickly in need of a wash. :)
I am soooo not frugal, you can probably tell. :( I have a lot to learn but I am getting better. I enjoy your "Frugal Friday" posts very much and hope to participate, myself, eventually. :)
P.S. We used your info about the eggs on sale at Target and got 15 dozen for free! Thanks very much for that knowledge.
My husband works outside, and I have 3 little ones. Needless to say I am always doing laundry. I try to do 4 loads a day Monday-Thursday,then I fold them during quiet time. Friday I do all the bedding. Please note I said"try", I do get behind sometimes and have to declare a "laundry day". My two older ones help fold and put away, and they love to help!
Wow! What fun to hear everyone's laundry schedule and system and how it works in their family!
About ironing, we do buy wrinkle-free, but Jesse and I both prefer to have most of our shirts pressed. Since Jesse wears suits everyday to work, and I often wear button-down collared shirts, this means I usually have at least 6-8 shirts to iron each week and a few other items. We do wear our clothes more than once whenever possible, but I've not found a way to get a good pressed look and feel without, well, pressing things! I honestly don't mind it (it's a great thing to do while listening to something mind-stimulating!) - I just have to keep on top of it!
Even though we are on tank water,I do at least one load of laundry nearly every day.I don't like to leave it any longer, as with young children you are always getting food spills or urine on something & I don't like it all sitting wet in a pile.Mondays I have extra, with church clothes & play clothes from being out all day Sunday.Most of us line dry here in Australia.We don't own a dryer.When we "cloth diapered" as you call it in the U.S.,I did an extra separate load of terry towelling nappies every day.
As for ironing,with 2 little girls who adore dresses & hubby & I prefering to wear dress-up type clothes, I've had to turn our laundry basket into my ironing basket!
Claire
PS Your pregnancy shot is lovely!
I do a load about twice a week; one for whites, and one for colored. But then again, we're a small family, and there are no children in the house.
HI Crystal, both your links to the recipes go to the same recipe "Banana Cake Cookies." Can you fix that please? Thank you! Ruth Ann
Hi Crystal! I just love your blog. I feel like I tackle Mt. Neverest everyday! I have to real system yet but am working on some! I have been on bedrest for over a month and just had my third baby on St. Patricks day so I am trying desperately to get back into the swing of things...reworking my routines! I can't wait to read what works for everyone else and maybe get some ideas for my family of now 5.
JOYfully in Him,
Kelli
Here is a little funny trick that my husband came up with when we were first married, and he still does it to this day.Since he has short hair, he realized that it doesn't take a whole bath towel to dry himself off after a shower, so he uses hand towels. Now isn't that sweet of him? And he doesn't mind at all. Seven hand towels vs. seven bath towels a week sure makes a difference on the amount of laundry loads. Hey, could this be considered frugal also?
Also,to help cut down on laundry we try to wear our clothes two times if at all possible. If it's not dirty, why clean it?
I also wear button down shirts and like to have them pressed, but if it's cold outside... I just love a warm sweater and if you let your sweaters dry for just a few minutes in the dryer before laying them flat to dry, they don't have to be pressed! Also, if I'm just going to be home for the day, I wear a pair of jeans and a pull over shirt which I don't mind so much if it's not pressed. Tada. Nothing special, just my little tricks.
Adrienne
I do one load of laundry every weekday - we are a five person household - on Saturdays, I do two additonal loads, one of bed linens and one of towels and scatter rugs. I have a strict policy that towels can (most of the time) be used several times before they need to be laundered. I don't do laundry on Sundays, unless there's an emergency, like a child getting sick on the bed linens.
I start a load first thing in the morning and by lunchtime, it's usually dried and put away.
Saturday is also the day I iron all Hubby's work clothes for the week and church clothes for the entire family.
Our building (a three story home that has three separate apartments) has a coin-op washer and dryer in the basement. It costs $3 for a load (wash and dry). Up the road is a laundry place that washes, dries, sorts, and folds for 65 cents a pound. This works out to about the same cost to us, and it's even better because it saves us the time. At first I felt dreadful paying to have our laundry done by someone else, but it really is smarter for us to do this! They even sort our socks. And they use their detergent and fabric softener, and everything comes back wrinkle-free. I take a big load once a week and pick it up the next day.
We don't have little blessings yet, but I still do about one load every day from Monday to Thursday, hanging each load out to dry - outdoors in good weather, indoors in rainy/cold weather.
Monday - linens
Tuesday - jeans, heavy towels
Wednesday - colors
Thursday - whites
Hang drying leaves the clothes almost wrinkle-free and they smell SO good! It saves much on the gas bill, too.
Growing up in a 14-member family, we had the washer running constantly! Since we all shared rooms, Mom had us organized to do the laundry for one bedroom each day. Towels and diapers were done as needed - which was ALL the time! Ha!
- Mrs. Marks
As FLYlady.com suggests, I do at least one load of laundry a day. I have a 7 week old darling baby, boy (Jackson Lee) and I do a load of his dirty cloth diapers every other day (Fuzzi Bunz!). So, I do about two loads a day! :-D With this method, I'm never behind on laundry. Also, we live in a house built in 1919 and we don't have a dishwasher- I've complained about this for a year- but now I've found the solution- (another Flylady suggestion) ALWAYS KEEP a Clean, empty & shiny sink! So, now I hand wash my dish/ glass right after I use it! So simple and yet revolutionary! :-D
Crystal, I Love your Blog, you are an inspiration!
~Karen~
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