Laundry Duty

So call me a little bit obsessive if you want, but I really like to organize things. I never would have thought I did and I'll bet if you asked my mom about 20 years ago she would have said "no-way is that girl every going to be organized." Somewhere between hanging Madonna posters on my wall and hanging my kids' artwork on the fridge, I became a sorting, filing, labeling, stacking, and ordering maniac! Sometimes, I wake up at night thinking of just the right way to sort my daughters hair doodles (bows, ribbon, barrettes, etc.) That is no joke!

So today I was thinking of all the chores I need to do (I even organize in my brain!) and laundry seems to always be on the list. I try so hard to stay on top of it and no matter how long I spend washing, folding, ironing, and putting away, there is always a new pile somewhere that needs attention. Now I can't say I have a fool-proof method of staying ahead of laundry, I am still trying to perfect that. Sometimes I do a load every day. Sometimes I do it all on one day. Sometimes I avoid it like the plague. But once I wash, dry, and fold the laundry, I always feel better, like I accomplished something, and then there's that pile of garments Zoe tried on for five minutes before deciding to wear her most "fashionable" outfit that needs to be taken care of. So like it or not I have to do laundry and lots of it. One organizing tip I'd like to share is to keep a bottle of stain remover wherever you put your dirty clothes when you take them off. For my family, this is our closets (we don't have a laundry chute or community hamper, we each have a basket in our closet). I have put a squirt bottle (which I just refill with the giant Shout refill when needed) in everyone's closet so that when we take off our dirty clothes anything that has a stain can immediately be pre-treated so it doesn't sit in the basket until I get the urge to wash clothes. This helps a lot. I have found that most stains do come out fairly easily when pre-treated. By the way, my 4 year old loves to squirt the stains, my 2 year old is also a master squirter, I'm startin' em young. Someday, they'll probably be organizing maniacs too!