Just a Piece of My Insanity - A Starting Point

The Warden often uses the quote, and I think this is quite fitting for the "Madhouse:"

Did Einstein really say this? See what a skeptic I've become? It's kind of like how #2 credits every possible quote to Mahatma Ghandi. We have a white board in our kitchen; something like this shows up almost daily: 

"Eat your vegetables."

         ~Mahama Ghandi

I guess that's why I've become so cynical about who originally said what. Ahh, the scars of motherhood.

Anyway, back to that quote by some 17-year-old boy who, on his mother's white board, gives all credit to Albert Einstein.....

The Warden has used this quote in various situations for years and years. It's only lately that I've really been pondering on it and its place in my life. 

Clearly, because my home is referred to as a "Madhouse," I am a creature of habit--not all of those habits, as you can imagine, are good....Actually, now that I think of it....very few of them are. I just keep doing things the same way over and over again, hoping for better results each time around. Well...Do I even need to say it? They're not working.

So, I'm thinking, maybe it's time to switch things up a bit. The big question, though: Where to begin?

In the desire not to throw the baby out with the bath water, there is need to analyze just what is working. 

The other day I started in the laundry room. There are a lot of things I can see that are working for our family. We aren't nearly as laundromatically dysfunctional as we used to be. Here's a short list of a few things that work for us:

• Each person middle school age and up has his/her own laundry day.
• Three laundry baskets reside in the laundry room to hold sorted whites, blacks, and colors.
• The ironing tools have a place in the laundry room and our out of the way.
• Extra shampoo, soap, toilet paper, and other toiletries are stored there.
• The washer and dryer are good sizes for our family.
• There is plenty of extra laundry detergent for now.

Here are the things I need to rethink:

Without fail, the laundry ends up in my bedroom to fold. Once it's folded, it ends up staying on my bedroom floor until someone puts it away. In other words, it gets kicked around my bedroom until I fold laundry again.

Here's what I'm thinking will solve these problems:

image: homebunch.com via Kirsten on Pinterest

A counter that runs over the top of the washer, dryer and utility sink, so that there is a surface to fold on without worry of items falling behind or between.

image: delightfulorder.blogspot.com via Kristina on Pinterest

Individualized cubbies so things can be folded and put directly into each person's shelves. The bottom basket is for socks and underwear.

I need to put the hamper or hampers--wouldn't it be great if, when people put their dirty clothes into the laundry room the clothes made it directly into the basket AND, this may be asking WAY too much, but wouldn't it be just fabulous if those clothes were sorted? So, I'm thinking I'm going to put the hampers just inside the laundry room and have them color coded so there is no question where the darks, whites, and colors go.

The only thing yet to be figured out is a place to hang items that need to be hung up. Here's an idea for that, but in order to do this, I'd have to revamp some other things. Not sure if I'm willing to do that. It's a pretty small room I'm working with....

image: en.paperblog.com via angela on Pinterest

This is only one small area of the insanity of this Madhouse. I figure I've got to pick away at these things a little at a time. I didn't want to take something huge and start off with something completely overwhelming.

At this point, the room's stripped down and all of the items that are normally stored there are in boxes. I think we'll start with the counter and move to the cubbies.

I'm so looking forward to having my bedroom floor back and not continually cluttered with unfolded and formerly folded clothes.

So hoping this will bring a bit of sanity. Then I can move on to some of the other things that I do over and over again.