Laundry Shall Haunt Me No More

I think it was in the last post that I lamented someone coming to terms with messiness and not getting laundry done. It made me mad. Since then I have been determined to find a solution. I went to a friend's house and notice something. Nothing. She didn't have clutter. Yeah, she probably tidied before we came over, but come on.. there really wasn't much there to mess. I think that's a personality type.. to be so void of any clutter or potential for it.  On the other hand, here, we have homeschool supplies, art supplies, musical instruments, journals from the last 20 years for both of us..  we also collect bottles as a family business. We have stuff around. I'm never going to be as clean as that friend of mine. But it sure did make me think.. and as I thought, my kids toys started disappearing, so did some of my old clothes, old books, shoes... things came off of our dresser and went straight into the recycle (sorry honey but if you've had a business card there for a year under a pile of clutter and never looked for it.. ah, well, you probably aren't going to need it any time soon). And so we have somewhat de-cluttered. There is always more because more always comes in. But the laundry. The laundry!! I thought long and hard.. I realized that I liked washing towels because they are easy to fold and they all go in one basket and then they all go in one spot. Easy, easy, easy. So I gave everyone a laundry basket and decided to do only one person's laundry a day. Noah today, Adam tomorrow. Everything in one basket, everything back to one room.....  kids can put their own stuff away.  And guess what, my house was under control. Then came the long weekend where we rushed away and then came home tired and left our bags and suitcase in the garage for 4 days. That sort of challenged the new "system" as do garage sales and 4 tag 50% off sales at MCC.  But we survived. And we are almost back to a sort of clean normal. Then I discovered a closet full of clothes for Zoe for the next 10 years of her life. And someone gave me a bag of clothes at church... and a bag of sand toys. And then someone gave us 22 (literally) boxes of toys in a state of complete disarray. Took 2 days of sorting and had to make an emergency call in to my mom to rescue me. Table was full of boxes. Chairs were full of boxes. Garbage was full of garbage. Garage was full of boxes waiting. It was unbelievable, but as I learn to let go, my house also begins to shine.

So bless that wonderful lady who wrote a nice article about being human and always having too much laundry. I bet her standards are way higher than mine and what she really meant was that her family kept her busy and it would never end. And it won't. That's fine. And I haven't really conquered anything, but I have learned and that was my point. I don't believe life is a lesson in frustration and futility. I am an idealist. There is a possible solution, maybe even more than one. There can be growth. Just to set things straight, here are some photos... check out our mail centre. It explodes.  Our dress up bin is coming apart at the lid and it's green. Yikes. Not nice living room decor. Add to that the beautiful sand toy display in the wonderful plastic bag. Beautiful touch. The laundry room is "cleaner" but... very well lived in with many issues to deal with... 



Point is, yes, of course we are human. We live with our messes, but we don't have to give in to them. They don't have to depress us. Given time, we can grow. Perfection is for when you are a grandma and have a week to recover from the grandkid's visits and you have such a big house that you have a room specifically set up for them to make messes that will not interfere with the environmental balance in the rest of the house, which at this point, is pretty precarious.... I might not be the queen of laundry.. in fact I am clearly not.  But, "grow, learn, try."  That's all the lady who is still in her pajama's is saying.. the lady who wrote a blog instead of completely emptying her dish washer.. who took some pictures instead of making her bed. .. who has a load of Zoe's laundry waiting to be put in the dryer. Yes, it's Zoe's day. Well, Zoe and Adam because they share a room. But that stuff is easy to separate. And while the baby kicks in my belly, yes, number 4 is on the way in September,  I smile because I know my capacity to care for my family has grown and I have changed. That is all.

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