Tips&Tricks~ Thinking Outside the Box... Even with Laundry!

This is a special guest post from a mom of 3 who has some great practical and creative ways of simplifying the daily pain in the you-know-what chores that must get done.  Especially, when we have little ones running around making everything a little more complicated or taking a little more time than it would have sans kiddos. She is a special friend of mine. She likes to think outside the box to come up with creative and resourceful ways of doing even the more mundane things to help make life more practical and simple enabling her to have more focused family time.  Please meet Nicole A! You can find her over at ThingsOnlyParentsSay...

Exaggeration! (not really Nicole's laundry problem,
but obviously somebody's)

My solution to our Laundry problem:

Laundry is not my favorite chore. Yet, I was keeping up with it well enough until I got pregnant with our 3rd child. First, you should know that our laundry room is in the basement, while all of our bedrooms are on the second level of our house. Secondly, I was a new stay at home mom with a 3 1/2 year old, a 4 monthold and PREGNANT! We were shocked to say the least. (I am one of those not-so-lucky ladies that throws up for all 9 months of pregnancy too.) Well, once the sheer shock and slight terror wore off a bit, I took a look at a few things in my life. I realized pretty quickly, that some changes needed to be made in order to accommodate where we were at in life. I needed to simplify and mainstream as many things as possible.  

One of the biggest frustrations I was having was laundry - it felt like it was everywhere. Some was in our closets and dressers, dirty laundry was on the floor in all of our rooms, we had baskets of clean clothes on the floor in our rooms as well.  Of course, we had clothes in the laundry room too - some dirty in piles, others clean but unfolded, etc. Getting myself dressed in the morning was a chore (running up and down the stairs searching for different items) - let alone trying to get the kids all dressed. I was finding myself more & more frustrated by the day. I felt like I could never find ANYTHING! 

So, one day I asked myself why I was continuing the lunacy. What I was doing wasn't working - that much was clear. So, I needed to think outside the box. I finally came up with something that would work for me and my family. I didn't have a name for it for a long time, but over the years, I've come to realize that I am not the only one out there to do this. This crazy thing that I decided to do is called a 'family closet'. 

I decided to have all of our clothes stay in the laundry room. I set up dirty laundry baskets on one side. Then on the other side of the laundry room by the dryer, I set up a series of baskets for our clean laundry - every person in our family got their own basket (or baskets for those of us adults with more clothes). I set these baskets on a table like thing, so the clean clothes stay off the ground & to give the opportunity to utilize the space under the table. We also have a closet for hanging clothes. (I call our set up the ghetto version…if you google 'family closet' you will see some pretty sweet set ups, but you can do it on the cheap & just make it functional too.) I  also decided to hang bags (like grocery bag size) off the outer edge of each basket for everyone's socks & underwear. There are containers you could buy for this kind of stuff too…but mine was built out of desperation, so I used whatever I could find. I also quickly realized that I needed a separate bin for the clothes the kids have grown out of. (I find myself going through that bin about ever 4 to 6 months - to separate out by gender and donation vs. keep, etc.) 

Here's the beauty to this set up: 

1. I can go down to the laundry room and get clothes for myself & all of my children in one fell swoop. 

2. It made it way easier to fold laundry right away & set it in each person's basket and be done with it. 

3. When my hubby wakes up to go to work - he doesn't wake me up by bumping around our room. Now, he can just wake up and go down to the laundry room to get dressed. 

4. He can also just toss his dirty laundry in the appropriate baskets right away. Which makes doing laundry easier because I rarely have to go around to each room gathering huge piles. (I occasionally have to gather socks from rooms, but even that is really is not all that often.)

5. The grow out bin is nice to have right there, because I can toss the freshly laundered & folded clothes right into it, and I don't have to do a grand sorting - I can just do it easily while doing laundry. 

6. Even as our kids get a little bit older, their rooms don't get messy with clothes & dirty laundry. 

Examples from LotsofKids.com

Here's the weaknesses of this set up (full disclosure):

1. Clothes in the baskets can become messed up pretty easily (especially when in a hurry), so I do need to take a little bit of time every once in a while to re-organize each persons area. 

2. When life is really crazy, I sometimes settle for draping each persons clothes in their baskets or areas rather than folding them…not as organized looking, but still functional. 

3. You don't really have room for other seasonal clothing, so when the seasons change, you have to do some swapping out.

Overall, the positives SO far outweigh the negatives. ESPECIALLY early on. Even though, it's not the traditional way…it really is a system that works for us. It instantly lowered my stress level in that department. Now, it's hard to imagine doing anything else. Laundry is just so streamlined, that changing it to be more 'normal' feels like an act of stupidity and making our life more complicated. 

I guess more than anything - this is me encouraging you to give yourself permission to think outside of the box and do what works for you and your family. :-)

~~~~

Thank You Nicole for sharing with us one of your tips & tricks! If this inspired you, or you have a tip that has simplified your life with kids (if it's short go ahead and leave it in the comments, but if it's longer submit it for a post similar to this one), please share it with us.

Enjoy your weekend,

MamaToots! 

Tips For Your Little Toots...

Tips For Your Little Toots... LICE! (itch, itch, itch)

I know you're itching because I am too, but here's the thing: this is a REAL issue especially for school age kids who tend to pass these little "guys" around like everything else.  A fellow mom of 3, recently went through this and she has some GREAT TIPS...

ADVICE ON LICE 

I know the pavlovian response that we all have to the mere mention of lice - so go ahead and itch. 

Now that we've gotten that out of the way - I wanted to pass on some REALLY helpful information about this nasty topic. First, it happens to the very best of us. It sucks and has been known to drive this mother to tears and question whether it might just be easier to burn the house down than freakishly clean every crevice of the house. 

This is one topic that 'What to Expect When You're Expecting' and all the other parent preparation books fail to mention. So, while I always have loads of bandaids, neosporin, cough syrup, tylenol and vicks vapor rub on hand…I was still left utterly unprepared to deal with lice. 

SO, the following is a lice crash course of sorts. My hope is that it will help someone else NOT have to go through the absolute hell that we did. 

This is an important tool for your parenting backpack that I highly recommend: 

http://www.amazon.com/Terminator-Professional-Stainless-Treatment-Removes/dp/B000HIBPV8

If you don't already have one - buy one today! It's less than $10.

To check your child (or yourself) for lice:

1. Boil some water & pour into a white bowl.

2. Wet the hair down completely & comb/brush it out so completely untangled. 

2. Section your hair off into 4 to 6 sections

3. Take the lice comb starting at the scalp & comb through the hair shaft all the way to the end.

4. After each swipe through the hair - rinse the lice comb in the boiling water. This is the easiest way to see the lice at all stages & distinguish between dandruff & nits. Dandruff is white or clear in the water & will float at the top of the water (it also will flake right off of dry hair while nits do NOT.) Rinsing the lice comb in the boiling water is also to ensure that you don't comb any lice right back into the hair. 

5. Comb each section of hair: North to south, East to west, south to north, and west to east…especially if you DO find lice - you want to be extremely thorough in combing out as much as possible asap.

If you DO find lice - here are some things to know:

1. The lice shampoos don't work anymore. The lice are becoming immune, so don't bother wasting your money on it. 

2. Let people know that you have discovered it…it is the only way to try to end the cycle. 

3. There are 3 methods that I know work (from personal experience): 

a. The 21 day comb out program: http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/theliceprogram/theprogram.html

b. A treatment by the Lice Clinic (if you are so lucky to have this service available in your area): http://www.theliceclinic.net

c. Shaving your head...if you have no hair - the lice have no where to live. End of problem. I was not willing to do this (though I DID actually consider it heavily for a few minutes). This was a no-brainer with our boys though...thankfully. It cut our lice problem instantly in half. 

4. 35 minutes in the dryer will kill lice - so throw all blankets, pillows, coats, hats, scarves, stuffed animals, etc in the dryer. You can throw all combs or hair things into a bowl & pour boiling water over them & soak for at least 5 minutes. 

5. LIce want to live on the head…they cannot live off of the head for longer than 48 hours - so if you have cloth covered couches - vacuum them. Then I recommend you cover them with a sheet for a few days (just in case) and call it good. 

6. We created a quarantine area in our house for things like throw pillows, etc. Once we dried them, we kept them in the quarantined area until we were sure that we were lice free. That way I didn't have to keep cleaning the same things over & over & over again.

Lice Prevention:

1. We have our daughter wear her hair up while she's at school.

2. No sharing combs or brushes - even in the family.

3. We do a lice comb comb-out after every bath time…so that we can catch anything early before it's a problem. And most of all - for peace of mind. :-)

By Nicole A.

Wow! Thank You Nicole for sharing such great advice.  I know people don't like to talk about this stuff and can even be embarrassed by it, but this is part of REAL life and REAL things we have to deal with.  If you have any questions for Nicole or anything helpful you would like to add, please leave it in the comments below.

Also, if you have tips on anything you have found helpful regarding your little ones, please submit them!


MamaToots!