Laundry & a Large Family

You know what's a fact about large families?  With more people wearing clothes each day, the laundry pile is never bare.  As soon as I think I'm all caught up, it's time for eight people to change into jammies and woolie-oop, the washer is full again.

It's a never ending battle I'm telling you! 

But through the years, I've learned some tips and tricks for keeping the laundry monster at bay.  Here are some of them:

*Doing a load of laundry means washing, drying AND putting it away...

I really struggled with that last part for years.  We'd have a large pile of clean clothes (unfolded) that we'd be digging through to find the shirt we wanted.  Our drawers would be nearly empty.  And when I got the urge to put laundry away, it took at least an hour. 

There was a better way.  It involves enlisting in the kids' help in putting away laundry.  It now gets folded immediately after coming out of the dryer, and hangs out in baskets until afternoon chore time. 

This allows all of the laundry for the day to be put away at the same time (avoiding lots of trips upstairs and waking up a sleeping baby or disturbing school time), but keeps the clothes from getting food all over them or something while waiting to be put away. 

During chore time, I put away Simon and Owen's laundry, along with Bryan's and mine, and any towels.  Ellie puts away hers, Jeffrey tackles his and Jayme does hers and Sydney's. 

Having help is wonderful!

*Washers and dryers don't stand up well to abuse....

Our washer has broken several times, especially in this past year.  Thankfully Bryan has gotten really adept at trouble shooting and fixing it! 

But, it helped me to remember that just because I CAN shove so many clothes in the washer doesn't mean I should. 

I also need to give the dryer a break.  It usually runs longer than the washer each cycle, so by spreading loads out a bit, I can give each machine a little break between cycles. 

*Hanging clothes up on a clothesline makes them smell so good! 

I really enjoyed using the line more this summer and early fall, and look forward to using it again next year.  There's nothing like crawling into sheets at night that smell like sunshine! It also kept the dryer from being used, and heating the house.  Money saved on electricity was also nice!

*Limiting the number of clothes used is important

Little kids (especially my little girls) love to change clothes.  Dress up, just trying something new, etc.  All of that can lead to a huge pile of laundry.  We keep clothes changes to a minimum, and try to only wash things when they are dirty. 

That said, we do dress up a lot, and keep our dress up clothes separate so they don't need washed each time!

*Clothes with evidence of farm chores get put in a special place, and washed ASAP!

A fall in chicken poop, clothes that stink like cow poo or socks that discovered a hole in a rubber boot....yeah--those are gross!  Life on a farm can be stinky sometimes.  It's important to not let that smell permeate ALL of the dirty laundry.  We try to keep the washer open during chore time for throwing those stinky things in.  At the very least, we keep an empty basket. 

What tips and tricks have you picked up over the years for tackling laundry.

Legos, Computers and Toys...Oh My!

Do you have any areas of your house that just don't work anymore?  Maybe a space where you avoid because it is so disconnected, so cluttered, or just not functional. 

We sure do.  But now...we have two fewer of those spaces, and I'm excited!

Did you know that playrooms and offices really shouldn't be in the same room?  You think I would have figured this out a few months ago when Sydney was supposed to be playing and I found her standing on Dad's desk trying out all of his highlighters. 

Or the time she emptied the contents of some files on the floor.

Or had the water for her toy kitchen gracefully posed above the computer to pour into the cup she had balanced on the tower.  

Yeah--episodes like those truly should have clued me into the fact that two year olds and unsupervised play time in the office don't go well. But it took a while.  Call me a slow learner.

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Another space that was driving me batty was the girls' closet area.  I know what most of you think of when you hear the word closet.  I assure you that the typical enclosed area with a door is NOT what I'm describing.  Our house is over 100 years old.  These closets are like mini-room with slanted ceilings and are quite large.  But not very functional if you are taller than a ten year old.

When we first moved the girls up there, we decided it was the perfect space for Jayme to play with Legos.  After all, she was the only one using them.  And she fit quite nicely in there.

Fast forward a few years, and Jeffrey and Ellie want to build too.  And Jayme grew up a foot or so.  And no longer comfortably fits in her closet. 

So she brings the Legos out into the main room to play.  And her creations get scattered by her sisters.  And pieces get left out.  And stepped on. (Ouch!)

And now they've reacquainted themselves with our old tub of K'Nex.  So there are K'Nex and Legos for me to dodge each day.  Cleaning their room was a daily struggle for them.  It was taking forever.  

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Are you seeing my ah-ha moment yet?  It hit me this morning!  Bryan and I had been talking about the playroom disaster last night, and really wanting to declutter the house.

The kids and I took action today.

We moved the toy kitchen and accessories upstairs to the closet.  Sydney and Ellie both fit comfortably in there and can play independently with no computers to fry.  We got rid of broken and not played with toys from the rest of the playroom, and toys went back into bedrooms. 

The Legos and K'Nex got moved downstairs, along with a couple of small tables for building on.  We brought a bookshelf and the building pieces are now housed neatly in containers instead of on the floor of the upstairs closet.  One of those place for everything kind of moments for us.

The Lego/K'Nex storage area and one play table.

The kids who are old enough to play with Legos know better than to mess with the office stuff.  And they fit a lot better in the larger area. 

Sydney is being trained currently to leave this room alone unless she has been invited in by an older sibling or parent--who will be supervising her.  We do have blocks and Lincoln Logs in there as well, as I want to encourage siblings to play together.  But she can't be in here by herself anymore.   

The other play table, and the blocks and Lincoln Log storage.

Clean-up this afternoon was so much easier!  No cramming into small closets.  No water by a computer. 

And Ellie was excited to unpack her kitchen area during quiet time. 

We'll tackle the rest of the girls' room tomorrow, and another drive me batty area will be taken care of.

How exciting!

Getting It All Done: Table Chores

Without chores, complete chaos would overtake our lives.  From dishes to cleaning, milking to giving fresh animal bedding, see how my family manages to get it all done!

Our chores fall into a variety of categories.  Farm chores.  Table Chores.  Morning Chores.  Weekly Chores.  Afternoon Chores.  You can see on our schedule how we fit chore time into each day.  This post focuses on our procedure for table chores.

Table chores take place at least three times a day.  They are completed after each meal.  Sometimes we need to do them after snacks too, but I try hard to pick easy snacks that don't require much prep or cleanup.

Since my family is littles heavy, I keep my expectations realistic.  I expect my children to do their jobs to the best of their abilities.  But, my 11 year old does a better job than my 3 year old. I keep persevering with chores. I keep teaching.  And it's paying off.  My kids may be young, but they are good workers. 

Without further ado...our table chore assignments for this school year:

Simon (3 months)
Lay in playpen and make encouraging goos and gaas for the rest of us :) And blow spit bubbles.  That's important!

Sydney (Almost 2)...
Clean the booster chairs.

She uses a wet rag to wipe all the food off both boosters.  If they need a deeper cleaning, I tackle it after she has removed the food.

I start my kids with this chore because it is so visual.  Do you see food?  No--then you're done!  Yes?  Then wipe more.

It's an easy first chore.  By the time they are 3, they are usually wiping the whole chair and not just the food chunks. 

Ellie (3.5)
 Wipe the table.  Wipe off the food.  Wipe off the sticky.

The food part she has down.  The sticky,...she is getting better!  One of my weekly chores is to scrub the table down, so at least once a week it gets completely cleaned.

Jeffrey (5)
Unload the dishwasher as needed (Due to his size, I put away stuff in the upper cupboards--he stacks it on the counter for me.)

Sweep the kitchen floor--again it's a work in progress. We have two brooms, so I often sweep with him.  He's great at getting piles into the dustpan now.

Owen (7)
Due to Owen's disability, he lacks the motor skills needed to do chores.  To help keep him involved, I'll often give him a wet rag.  He usually chews on it! Or he decides to eat the food off the floor before it gets swept.  Yuck!

Jayme (11)
Put food away (out of the pans, into the right sized container, covered, neatly in fridge). 
Sweep dining room floor, including under table and chairs

Mom
Wipe counters and chairs
Load dishwasher
Wash by hand

We all do our chores at the same time.  It typically takes 15-20 minutes to clean up after a meal.  I make sure and clean as I cook, which keeps the kitchen from becoming terrible. Singing helps the time go faster, so we'll often sing as we work.

How do table chores get accomplished at your house?

Linked up to: Raising Arrows

The Case of the Missing Magnets

The kids love playing with magnets. We have a variety of them. Or at least we did.  Until recently when we realized that we were missing a ton of them.  Like almost a whole alphabet...all of our season magnets...and more. 

Yesterday I was cleaning the kitchen and pulled out the stove, hoping to find magnets.  I didn't.  Until I pulled the drawer out.  Did you realize that magnets can stick to the bottom of that thing?  I sure didn't.  But, we went from having 10 letters of our alphabet to having 23.  Wow--that is huge! 

Today, with Jeffrey and Ellie's help, we pulled out the fridge and started using a stick to hit the magnets down from under there.  Yup--that's magnetic too.  We found most of our missing ones.  Just need the letter U.  Not sure where that went.

So if you are missing magnet, try looking up under your fridge, and on the bottom of your oven drawer.