It's been 3 months since I had the baby, and I'm still struggling to get my house in order. Now to be perfectly honest, I don't claim to have EVER had it completely in order. I have a house full of boys for pete's sake, and I'm not particularly a neat freak. But I do like order and I do like a somewhat clean home. I used to be a FlyLady follower, but she's just a bit on the compulsive side, if you ask me. I remember when she wrote, "I often wake up and there's absolutely nothing for me to do." - referencing her perfectly cleaned and organized home. That's when I flew the coop on Flylady. Then I found a book entitled The House That Cleans Itself. Save your money folks. I sat on the couch through a whole episode of Oprah and nothing happened. My house definitely did not clean itself.
I have two main priorities as I work to get back in the swing of homemaking. Number one - I need to engage my boys. I often find myself picking up after them instead of training them to do it themselves. Number two - time management is key, because with a 3 month old, my hands always seem to be full. Planning ahead is a must. I'll work on that.
And finally - my confession - this morning Marcus claimed to have no clean socks. In truth, he didn't have clean socks that he liked. He wanted a particular kind and none of those were clean. I should have simply made him wear what was available, but instead he witnessed the dumping out of my spare sock sack. This is a little (OK - not so little) bag that I shove all the single socks into when I can't find the mate. Periodically, I dump it out and pair up what I can. It's tidy and hidden. What is the alternative? Unless I only wash matched socks, I can't think of what else to do with the mismatched ones. Any ideas are welcome!
I just stuff them all in the drawers, then we can match them up as we go. Marcus could always wear dirty socks :)
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing that most of us are struggling with the same stuff as you, when you figure out a system you should blog about it or write a book.
See - that's my problem. Instead of putting the singles in everyone's drawer and having them help by sorting, I save it and do it all myself. From now on - everyone's on their own re: socks around here! Oooh...how liberating!
ReplyDeletere: Your "number one" goal -- YES! DO IT NOW!" Believe me, they are WAY easier to brainwash at this age! One mothering thing I would like do-overs on is instilling the habit of daily order, and (okay, I guess this is two) indoctrinating the idea that a clean house is everybody's job!
ReplyDeletere: the spare sock sack -- what's wrong with that?! Mine used to be a grocery sack (labeled "the New York Sock Exchange"), but now it's a cute little wicker basket. Everybody knows where to find extra socks. Works for me!
js.