Photo source: Unknown.
Okay bloggy friends, time for me to beg for some inspiration from you creative souls.
Anyone else around here absolutely *buried* under their laundry pile? While I don't even pretend to be caught up with my laundry, I often think I could spend 24 hours a day, 7 days a week washing, drying, sorting, folding, and hanging, and I'd still not be caught up. I have to confess that I really hate doing laundry. I'm a creative person, and there is just very little creativity involved in the old laundry routine. Bummer for the very disorganized Mrs. Smitten.
One of my biggest struggles is that everyone around here has a bad habit of tossing everything
In an effort to tackle the laundry monster (AKA - Mt. Washmore for those of you flybabies out there), I'm looking for a way to personalize the towels in the house to assign two towels to each person that I can then wash at the end of the week. That way, in a perfect world, everyone will grab for their specific hung up towel, use it, hang it back up and... are you ready for this?... use it again, thus cutting my huge laundry monster down to size, at least somewhat. I know, this is probably just wishful thinking but... its worth a shot.
Here's the fun part. Anyone that can offer me an idea or suggestion that I wind up implementing will win a super secret thank-you giveaway prize. You know you love prizes, so bring on those laundry monster tips.
Fine Print: A few things to take into consideration:
- I tried the color-coded thing once before, but no one can ever remember their color and that just fizzled out right quick.
- Several people in our family have names that start with the same letter, so monograms can be tricky.
- I do own a sewing machine and can kinda-sorta use it, but I'm far from a master seamstress, so go easy on me, folks.
Thats it. Let the laundry inspiration begin!
My best advice...your kids are young they will get it. I just saw this nice laundry room here...http://homeandharmony.blogspot.com/ Also, http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ might have some ideas. They have a children's page too. Good luck.
ReplyDeleteAre you gonna hate me if I say that no matter what system you come up with, you have to teach the whole family to do it and stick with it? I know it's hard, especially with little ones. But teaching them now and staying on top of it will make the laundry and lots of other household chores easier in the future.
ReplyDeleteAs for a system, I know you said you've tried it, but we do the colors. But we don't do it just for towels, we use their color for their cups, sheets, plates bowls, etc. They have the same color of everything and it works great for us.
Good luck! :) Lisa~
What if you tired a theme instead of a color. Obviously anything girly for the girls and animals or sports for the boys. You could iron a cute applique and then quickly stitch the edges for durability. You don't need sewing experience for this.
ReplyDeleteGood luck!
I have no help for mountains of laundry, but I do have help for what gets thrown into the laundry. Like you I was re-washing stuff that my kids were throwing onto the ground. See this post for how my life with my darlings changed. I can say that MONTHS later, their drawers still look good, no more re-washing clean shirts!
ReplyDeletehttp://laurieheninger.blogspot.com/2010/02/one-less-battle.html
Instead of having a towel bar hangy thing, use individual hooks, like wall hooks and make a cute sign to put above each of the hooks that has each persons name/theme/color on it. I have found some really cute decorative wall hooks at real deals for pretty cheap. Since you have a cricut it would be a snap to make the signs! :) I am in the process of doing this at my house, but of course I am a procrastinator and haven't finished it yet ;P
ReplyDeleteInstead of having a towel bar hangy thing, use individual hooks, like wall hooks and make a cute sign to put above each of the hooks that has each persons name/theme/color on it. I have found some really cute decorative wall hooks at real deals for pretty cheap. Since you have a cricut it would be a snap to make the signs! :) I am in the process of doing this at my house, but of course I am a procrastinator and haven't finished it yet ;P
ReplyDelete