Airing Our Dirty Laundry

I've been searching for a hamper for our bedroom. We don't have one. We never have. We keep three laundry baskets on our bedroom floor. Occasionally clothes end up in them, but it's really just hit or miss. I realize there are some really snazzy hamper systems out there with three separate side-by-side compartments, but they aren't for us. They take up too much floor space.  We have a tiny bedroom, made even smaller by our king-size bed (necessary for the 130+lb and 50+lb dogs that sleep there). Also, I don't like the idea of having to transfer clothes from a hamper to a laundry basket when it's laundry time. It's an extra step, and who needs that? And then you still need to find a place to store the laundry baskets. You can tell I've been thinking about this way too much.

I've checked out the options at Target.  I even brought one home the other night, hoping that it was larger than it appeared on the box.  I bought a Michael Graves vertical laundry sorter.  It's now back at Target.  It was too small, poorly constructed despite the design award prominently featured on the box (it was impossible to disassemble and even broke while trying to do so), and a hassle.  The fabric baskets velcroed (sp?) into position and required two hands to attach and detach.  I think it's also a bad sign that this product does not seem to exist in the virtual world.  I've spent 5 minutes trying to find it so I could link to it, but no luck.  How is that possible?  I bought it at Target!  It has won some stupid award!  Oh well, take my word for it and don't buy it.

I have since found a near-perfect solution to our hamper problem. It's the Rubbermaid Stack'n Sort laundry basket. I sent my husband to The Container Store to pick up three, and they are now stacked vertically taking up very little room on our bedroom floor. It's not a pretty solution, but notice there is no transferring of clothes at laundry time, and it takes up the same amount of floor space as a single laundry basket.  It was hubby's first experience at The Container Store, and he has since said something to the effect of "when we need more storage stuff, we should go back there." Another success!  The only complaint I have is that it takes a little maneuvering to get them into place, and of course you have to disassemble your stack to get to the bottom baskets. That said, this is the best solution I've found.  If I were designing my own vertical laundry basket hamper system (why not?), I'd have a frame with the baskets hanging in place and the ability to slide them in and out individually...and I'd make it look cute. Think laundry basket file cabinet. Feel free to make that happen for me.  Again, I've thought about this way too much.

So that's it.  No excuse for clothes on the floor anymore.  I've had the baskets for 24 hours now and I see my husband hasn't actually used them yet.  We'll see if a gentle reminder will help.  By the way, he said to me the other day, "You know, with this blog thing you're going to have to stick with it you know--keeping the house clean."  And he's right...I'm counting on it!

Clothes. Clothes. Clothes.

Image Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mysza/ / CC BY 2.0

It's the beginning of week 2 and the project is well under way in the bedroom.  We've gone through our closet and thrown out heaps of clothes (a garbage bag full) and have 2 more bags to give away.  It was a freeing experience, but I'm beginning to think I have a regretfully close relationship with greasy food.  I think I threw out at least 8! shirts with grease stains.  They were some of my favorite shirts.  Ones I've been wearing around the house (because really, who cares?) or with a strategically placed cardigan.  But I decided I'm done with all of that.  Besides, how will my husband ever believe me when I tell him I have nothing to wear if I have a closet full of grease-stained clothes?  What's worse is they were some of my favorite shirts.  So now the clothes that are left in my closet are not so cute and definitely not so flattering.  Luckily, my birthday is coming up, and I'm hoping to replenish my wardrobe--I've been hinting to my hubby for weeks.

I've gone through the same process in my dresser.  I've thrown out lots of holey, unattractive underwear and pjs.  Again, I think this project could have a positive effect on our marriage.  And I even went through the old sock drawer.  A few months ago I threw out all my white socks and replaced them with two new large packs.  My old socks really were old--probably at least 6 years.  And since socks are cheap, I chucked them all. My husband has yet to do this.  His sock drawer is so full it literally cannot be closed.  Who needs that many socks!?!

On a completely unrelated note, I've had the joy of allergic pink eye for the last 2 days.  It's the kind of pink eye you get from raging allergies.  This is my first year with raging allergies.  I don't recommend it. 

To the very few of you who have kept reading to this point, stick with me.  It will get more interesting than underwear, socks, and pink eye--I promise!

And if anyone knows how to get grease stains out of clothes, please TELL ME NOW!

The Beginning: Or How I Saved My Countertops and Marriage (Week 1)

SOURCE:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/djbrady/ / CC BY 2.0

OK, so I've finally made the leap into blog world. It was only a matter of time. Recently I've been a little obsessed with with my blogger dashboard. And perhaps guilt has crept in a little. I mean, other people are entertaining me on a daily basis. Isn't it selfish to read multiple blogs every day and not actually blog myself? Yes, I have guilt issues. I've been thinking about blogging for a while now. I've mentally composed countless blog posts. Revised and edited them into my Facebook status. But something has finally pushed me over the edge. I've started a project. And as everyone (OK, maybe not everyone) knows, a project = a blog.

What is this project, you ask! Drumroll, please....It's housekeeping. Whoop hoodoo! No, seriously. That's it. What is blog-worthy about housekeeping? Not much. But in my house, it's a miracle. And miracles are blog-worthy. Get it? This all started 6 days ago. I cleaned my kitchen. Well, technically I cleaned off the countertops in my kitchen. I even got rid of all those piles of paper and random electronic devices.  Why would anyone need three memory cards, a cellphone battery, and some sort of microchip device on my kitchen counter at all times?  After said cleaning, I mentioned to my husband that (I'll use exact wording here, in case you want to try it on your significant other) "I'm really going to try to focus on keeping the counters clean. I mean every time I get something out, I'm going to put it away; anytime I spill something, it will get wiped up; anytime I dirty a dish, it will go in the dishwasher." And he said "OK." But something happened that I hadn't expected. I'd wished for it and prayed for it for YEARS. Somehow, for some reason, my husband heard all of this this as "We're really going to try to focus on keeping the counters clean. Every time we get something out, we're going to put it away, anytime we spill something, we're going to wipe it up. Anytime we dirty a dish, we'll put it in the dishwasher. Six days later, our counters are still spotless.  And I've spent less time and energy cleaning them than I've ever spent in my life.

So we now have a new standard in this house...for the kitchen countertops. And it didn't take nagging, whining, a 5-minute nightly cleanup (which inevitably turns into 40 minutes), or anything. It just took a conscious effort and about 10 seconds here and there. I love my clean countertops. They're beautiful! I realize most of you out there are saying, "Duh!" This is common sense. And you're right. But it's been lacking in this household for 8 years.

My goal is to implement this strategy throughout the rest of the house. Slowly. Next up is our bedroom. The plan works like this:

1. purge

2. sort

3. assess

4. organize

5. clean

6. don't screw it up!

In my mind this is so incredibly brilliant. I envision a continually clean house with seemingly little effort. A general lack of extra junk.  And energy I've previously spent picking up, putting away, etc. will be spent on deeper cleaning (like vacuuming and dusting)--chores that were mostly saved for company before. I'm planning on getting a room done every week or two until the entire house is finished. It won't be easy. I can only hope my husband doesn't give up along the way. And with a two-year-old, a three-month-old, and two big dogs, I've got my hands full. But I have very high hopes!