November 16, 2011 If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting! 
Laundry. It’s a never-ending chore, isn’t it? Especially in larger-than-average households, it seems that dirty clothes can pile up in the blink of an eye.
In an effort to save time and my sanity, I’ve found a few ways to streamline the laundry process in our home:
Eliminate laundry sorting. I know . . . it’s just not proper. But really, since my kids live in jeans (denim skirts for the girls) and pullover shirts, sorting laundry isn’t absolutely essential. Only “dress-up” clothes, such as white shirts or light-colored dresses, really need to be separated. Training the kiddos to put these special items directly in a designated basket eliminates the need for sorting later.
Keep a laundry basket or hamper in each bedroom. When a hamper gets full, it’s simple to wash that load of laundry and return the clean clothes to the same room–no sorting required.
Teach older children to do their own laundry. I can’t tell you how much easier it is when the older ones are responsible for their own laundry–my older kids do a great job of making sure that their clothing is washed and ready to wear. (No more frustration when that favorite pair of jeans isn’t washed on time!)
Train younger children to help with their own laundry. Younger children can easily fold and put away their own laundry. If you have several little ones close in size, labeling clothing will make it easier for them to find their own clothes.
How do you spend less time doing laundry? I’d love to hear your ideas!
I’m sharing this post at LFO @ Raising Arrows, Works for Me Wednesday, and Weekend Reflections.
November 2, 2011
We have a couple dozen assorted cups and glasses, enough to fill an entire shelf. Plenty for our entire family, and then some. All too often, though, I would reach into the cabinet for a water glass . . . and find none. At the same time, the dishwasher was constantly overflowing with used cups and glasses. Something had to change!
I know some families who use a lot of disposable cups to reduce the amount of dirty dishes, but that isn’t practical for a larger family. I opted instead to label a set of Tupperware cups with a Sharpie marker, so that each child has his own cup. I have no idea why it took me so long to think of this!
Now each child can be responsible for his own cup–putting it back on the counter after meal-time, making sure it is rinsed when necessary, keeping it in its proper place. Of course, all the cups need to go through the dishwasher regularly; I like to aim for washing them once each day.
I have noticed that, on some of the smoother surfaces of newer cups, the marker tends to wash off. That isn’t a huge problem–just keep that Sharpie handy in a kitchen drawer!
How do you keep cups and glasses from disappearing?
I’m sharing my solution at LFO @ Raising Arrows and Works for Me Wednesday.
October 25, 2011
Socks. Just that one word could cause nightmares for moms of larger families.
With nine people in our family, we have plenty of feet that require socks (preferably matching socks) on a daily basis. Unfortunately, sorting and matching socks has never been one of my favorite things to do. A few years ago, I got so frustrated with the never-ending pile of socks waiting to be matched, that I decided it was time to try a new method.
Here’s what works for me:
Buy only one kind of socks for each child. Pick a brand, style, and color–and stick with it! When all the socks are identical, no matching is necessary. Bonus: no “orphan” socks!
Buy socks with different colored stitching for each size. Color-coding makes it a cinch to separate the different sizes of socks: blue stitching for the older boys, green stitching for the younger ones, and so on.
Use a sock basket. Don’t want to take time to sort and distribute all those socks? Keep a laundry basket designated for clean socks, and toss ‘em all in! When all the socks in each size are exactly the same, even younger children can grab their own set of matching socks from the basket.
What works for you?
I’m sharing my solution at LFO @ Raising Arrows and Works for Me Wednesday.
October 21, 2011 
In our family, there are two sets of boys that are not twins, but are close in ages and sizes. This naturally presents a few challenges, one of which is making sure that each boy’s clothing ends up in the right dresser drawers. Maybe you’re thinking that this isn’t a big deal, but to me, sorting clothes was becoming a time-consuming and frustrating chore.
Sometimes the simplest solutions seem to make the biggest differences. All it took was a Sharpie in the laundry room, and a few minutes of my time. I marked one dot (on the tag or inside of the collar) for Boy #1, two dots for Boy #2, and on down the line. Everyone in the family understands the system, and knows how many dots will be marked on his clothing. And the best part is that when I pass the clothing down to the next child, I just have to add another dot!
Much better than adding scratchy labels to my boys’ clothing, or spending precious minutes sorting out clothes–it really works for me!
Find more tips and time-savers at Large-Family Organization @ RaisingArrows.net.
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