Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Systems

Within the first day of moving into our new home, it was clear we were going to have to devise and implement new systems for getting things done. For example, the morning routine. Back at the old house we had all 3 kids in one room, with 2 of them confined to cribs. The kids would all wait patiently (ha) in their beds until I went in to get them. Here at the new house, everyone is now in a "big kid" bed. We didn't care for the idea of 3 toddlers roaming the house at 6 am, but we also knew we couldn't make them stay in their beds. So we allow them to get up and play, but they have to stay upstairs until I say they can come down. This is what my mom used to do, so I figured it must be good. For the first few days the kids tried to come downstairs before I was ready for them, but now it seems they've finally caught on.

Another system is laundry. I don't do well with laundry. At the old house, I could never seem to conquer the piles of laundry that covered every surface in our tiny laundry room. It would take an entire day just to get caught up. It wasn't until we moved to the new house that the light bulb finally came on. You ready for this? I wash, dry, and fold one load every day! Between the six of us, we dirty up enough clothes/towels/etc. for one load of laundry a day. So that's what I've been doing. It's so ridiculously simple, I don't know why I never figured it out before this.

As far as clothes storage, we decided the simplest solution is to keep the kids' clothes in the laundry room, like this: (thanks for the idea, Sarah!)
Until the kids are old enough to carry their clothes upstairs and put them away themselves, this is what we think will work for us. We don't have dressers for their rooms (except for the baby), but at this point we don't need them. I hang their nicer clothes up in the kids' closets, but everything else goes in the baskets, organized by kid and type of clothing.

You're impressed, aren't you? Well, don't be. 'Cause here's my system for socks:

And I don't see it changing anytime soon!

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