But, you guys, I am a failure. Okay, not really. But I am failING.
Simplify simplify simplify. This will be my motto this Spring season. The bug - the cleaning one - has bitten and it has bitten hard. Last night I gave the laundry room a face lift to help me catch up on laundry. (Going out of town always has a way of making me very behind on that chore.) By this morning I was sorting, folding and hanging SIX loads of fresh laundry and there are at least another four not-so-fresh loads waiting for me tonight. Granted some of these items are sheet and towels. And one load was cloth diapers. But seriously. We have too many clothes. (For the record, I do not feel the need to confess the amount of books that we own at this time. We're going to leave my failure at the issue of clothing for the purpose of this blog entry. ;-) The toys are pretty well under control. Yes! One win.)
So what is the deal with all our clothes? Well, first of all, it has recently come to my attention that women in their childbearing years need a variety of clothing sizes on hand at all times. Mostly for the post-pregnancy progression of weight loss and all strange bodily proportions that accompany such weight loss. (Does anyone else have this issue? Anyone!?) Secondly, I have a problem with limiting generous gift givers. This refers most specifically to my well-dressed daughter...who, as we speak has enough clothes in her wardrobe for the current season, in her current size, to clothe triplets if I did her laundry just once a week. And that's being conservative. Oh. My.
Admittedly, the largest portion of the problem lies within the female realm of the family. I don't even know how to completely solve this issue. My reasoning for excessive clothing options is fairly legitimate at this early point in my childbearing years. And I can't bring myself to suggest that givers of adorable, wonderful, appreciated Bella clothes stop their generosity. Let's be honest. It is ten times more fun to dress my daughter than myself. Ten times! And it is a weakness of mine. And people love to give! And while I'm being honest, her clothes are really very small and do not make up many loads. So, I've just now concluded that it's a lot of little things adding up to create this laundry fiasco. Below is a list of solutions that I'm making up as I go along that I'll be working on in the coming week or two (and congratulations if you have actually read this far. About laundry.):
1. Get rid of extra linens. Three sets of linens per bed in the house is more than sufficient.
2. Box up and store some of our extra towels so that we only have 6 bath towels and 4 hand towels in rotation in the house. When we wear down these towels, they will be donated, and will be replaced by their matching, stored counterparts.
3. Throw away or donate kitchen towels that I do not use or that have become excessively dingy.
4. I will severely limit my changes of clothes in one day. I have been known to change clothes at least once a day, wearing a "house outfit" that I don't mind getting goobered up by messy little hands. Then I wear and "evening outfit" if we go somewhere, including the grocery store. Oh please. If I really care about wearing house clothes to the store, I shouldn't wear them in the first place. No more changing unless completely necessary!
5. Donated clothes that I don't wear for reasons other than aforementioned size fluctuations. Period.
6. Think of what I'm going to do about Bella's clothes.... This part is really hard for me, guys.
Okay, so I guess this was Spring Cleaning, episode #1. Let's see how serious I get. I might come up with oh-so-much-more to bore you with. Isn't it great how women organize their thoughts so much better by talking or writing them out? Ahhh. ;-)
Do you have the Spring bug?
5 comments:
I think God is speaking the same thing to your heart that he has been speaking to mine. I am preparing to do the biggest spring cleaning job of my life. I have 2 crockpots for pete's sake!
My weak spot is books. I love books!!!! We have about 4 large book shelves full plus some laying around. Does Bella have any Snappy books? I have about 10 and my kids have all out grown them. I was just looking at them this morning thinking I should find them a new home. I am attached to them because of the memories of reading them to the kids. I would part with them if someone would take them and love them like we do. They are pop up books. Snappy little colors, snappy little families,snappy little farm animals. Want them?
I am SO with you here. I despise clutter and it creates frustration for me big time. We have been cutting out a lot of things recently just for the purpose of clutter. It seems that when I go through things two months later I am willing to give up more.
My advice- find a purging buddy (you know, like purge the cupboards). It helps to have a voice of reason. And be sure to pick someone who won't keep more than you would.
Little girl clothes...oh how they get you. I know from experience. We limit now that she is older and I did cut down when we went to store some for future siblings. We donated to friends and a family that needed them.
I hear you on the changing body sizes. That just cannot be helped. I hope you can come up with a good rotation of organization for those "mommy" clothes.
Thank you! So glad I have company in the cleaning/organizing/simplifying frenzy.
Amey, I have never heard of Snappy books but they sound amazing! I can think of not one, but three little girls and my house who would love them over and over again. :-) (and my children's book collection is much smaller than MY book collection!) And now that I know about your crockpot collection, it's too bad I didn't blog about mine breaking into two pieces last month. Alas, I already got a replacement. LOL!!!
Pure Mommy Extract, thanks for the ideas and understanding. :-D
Hi Amelia! I found you!...My blog is set to private so I need your email addy to add you....if you want to read my blog that is...:)I love this purging idea. Getting rid of clothes sounds like the perfect way to catch up on laundry...lol...I suppose I should wash it first though....
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