I officially love my clothesline! I got my electric bill recently and even though we were gone for 2 weeks to the fireworks tent and the boys were left to do their own laundry my bill was decreased by about a hundred dollars from last year in a similar month. I'm sure the boys didn't use the clothesline to dry their laundry but I'm also sure they only did the bare minimum of laundry so the dryer probably didn't run very much. Crazy boys, not wanting to hang their undies out for all to see! :-) Anyway that $100 is a pretty significant difference in my book. And while I'm saving the green I'm being environmentally responsible and reducing my family's carbon footprint. But beyond the money-saving, going green thing I really just <3 a clothesline. I love being outside in the morning hanging up clothes. I love the way clothes smell when they are dried outside. I love watching the clothes flap around in the breeze.
I grew up hanging clothes out to dry. In fact, I grew up washing clothes in a wringer washer! We had a well that ran dry on occasion so the wringer washer saved water. Now I haven't had a clothesline for several years until earlier this summer. I finally convinced hubby that I really would use one. (I have been hanging a lot of clothes out on a rack for a couple of summers!) He bought a few treated 4x4s and some line and eye screws and whalla! I have a clothesline. He's a really good guy! :) (Now I'm trying to convince him to build me a couple of Square Foot Gardens! This has involved a lot of batting of eyelashes and sweetness on my part! Such a chore to flirt and be sweet to that man!)
I have a pretty good system for the laundry but it has taken me a long time to get there. Some might say that it took several chicks leaving the nest! I freely admit that there are times when I have a mountain, and I truly mean "mountain", of laundry to do and fold. That happens when we get really busy (remember my sons all played every sport available and that means a lot of practice and workout clothes!) but for the most part I can stay up with it. The addition of the clothesline has adjusted how I do some things. For instance, I would often put a load of laundry in at night and dry it in the morning, then fold and put away. Sometimes I would forget or get busy and the laundry would sour. YUCK! (My sis-in-law says her husband can smell if she leaves his laundry in the washer for even an hour. Thank goodness nobody has that good a nose in this family!) But, of course, soured laundry always necessitates a rewash and that costs time and money in extra water, energy to heat the water, and detergent.
While I have only had my lovely chothesline for a couple of monthes I have learned a few things through trial and error and through internet research. Here are my tips to keeping the laundry caught up and ending up with clean, fresh smelling, soft, not stiff, line-dried clothes:
1. Do a load a day just to keep the laundry monster at bay!
I wash in the morning and hang it out pretty quickly. (This may have to change when school starts though.) I leave it out on the line for most of the day generally, sometimes bringing it in just before supper time. I have experimented with what to do when school starts but I think I will just have to work that out come August 10! If you have any ideas or experience in handling working full time and using a clothesline, leave me a comment with ideas or suggestions, please!
2. Fluff on an air only cycle in your dryer for just a couple of minutes.
Folks complain that clothes dried on a line are stiff and rough but I found that if they are fluffed in the dryer for just a bit, literally a couple of minutes, they aren't nearly as rough and aren't really stiff at all. I do this on the air only cycle. If I'm doing two loads back to back I only fluff long enough to load the next load in the washer and get it started. I give them a good 'snap' as a I take them out of the dryer to de-wrinkle a bit more. I tried fluffing before hanging them out and after. Before is definitely better!
3. Sort and stack as you remove the clothes from the dryer, t-shirts in one pile, shorts in another, undies in a third, etc.
As I take them out of the dryer I sort and stack them. I stack as I plan to hang them, t-shirts with the hems together, undies with the waists all together, etc. I also put each person's laundry together. This saves time later when I am folding and sorting and putting away.
4. Hang like things together.
They are already sorted so this is easy. It also saves clothespins. You can clip the corner of two towels together on the line and use only one clothespin. It also saves time and bending. If you have all of your washclothes stack together in your basket you can pick them all up at one time and hold one corner with one hand and pin them with the other hand saving yourself from bending over multiple times to pick up the next item. This works with undies, t-shirts, towels, and washclothes and some other things.
5. Hang things so that the heaviest part of the garment is down.
This helps pull out wrinkles as they dry. For example, hang pants with the leg seams together and from the bottom of the legs. For pants like jeans that take a long time to dry due to the bulk of fabric hang one pant leg from one line and one from the line next to the first. (It looks hilarious but it works great!)
6. Use a clothespin apron.
Don't leave your pins on the line. They get dirty and don't last as long. You can buy or make an apron pretty easily and inexpensively and it is so worth it to have one!
7. Fold things as you take them off the line.
This saves you a ton of time. And your clothes are already sorted so it's easy. I do this if it's pretty outside. If it's hotter than Hades.... I bring 'em in to fold!
Hope this helps any of you that are interested in saving some green and going green! Leave me a comment or copy a link to facebook for me. Thanks for reading.
Serving the Lover of my Soul,
Laurie Jo
Showing posts with label housekeeping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label housekeeping. Show all posts
Monday, July 30, 2012
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Housekeeping (and other curses, er... blessing)
Ladies, I must admit that I used to HATE housework! Let me explain by giving you just a bit more background about me. I have always been a working woman. I am a registered nurse and worked in the nursing field for 16 years. I went back to school 13 years ago and now I am a high school biology teacher. In addition to being a career woman, I have raised 5 sons. My sons were all very active in school playing two or three sports during each school year from fifth grade through high school as well as being involved in other school activities. I still have one son at home and one in college. (The oldest three are married to lovely young women.) In addition to my children I have a darling husband who has worked odd hours as a police detective for our entire 29 years of marriage. In addition to all of this we have tried very hard to be a family that is active in serving the Lord with our local church family. With all of these commitments I have had very little time for housework! Frankly, for many years I didn't even pretend to do much of it. It just seemed like I was fighting a losing battle! But there is value in keeping an orderly home. It saves time and money in the long run to have a reasonably organized and clean home. You spend less time looking for things and you spend less money replacing things that you've lost. If you have children with allergies or other health issues it may keep them healthier and save you money at the doctor's office to keep your home clean. There are benefits to your children in learning to help because they are part of a family and learning to care for their things. Learning to sort toys is a good brain development activity for young children. And let's face it, many of us enjoy attractive surroundings and clutter and dirt just aren't very pretty! A further benefit of keeping your home neat and clean is that you won't be embarrassed to use it in the service of the Lover of Your Soul. You will be able to practice the hospitality that He asks of us. But even given these obvious benefits it still remains that the practice of keeping your home neat and clean is difficult at best!
I have learned a few things in all these years of taking care of my home.
1. Keep things in perspective. If your children have food to eat, clean clothes to wear, and a reasonably clean environment at home then you have the essentials taken care of and the rest is just gravy. In fact, I would encourage you to read a book to your children or play a game with them before you make sure that your floors shine and your mirrors are spot-free. Some of you are obsessing because you can't stand the stuff tracked on the carpet or the few dishes left in the sink from the kid's afternoon snack. I know you have heard it before but I will tell you again... your babies will not remember that you kept a spotless floor, they will remember playing games and reading stories and cuddling at naptime. Don't let the expedient overrule the truly important!
2. Develop a system. Maybe it's a room a day or a room a week. Maybe it's taking care of one task a day like sweeping, or dusting, or laundry. Find one that works for you and stick with it. I have used a couple of different systems in my married life and have developed several of them into something that fits me and my family. One that I can recommend is The Flylady. She is organized and has a reasonable approach. She starts with "baby steps" and helps you develop habits that will keep your housework under control. There are other systems that I'm sure work equally well. The important thing is to have a system and to work the system. Do a search on the Internet and you'll be amazed at the number of different systems you will find.
3. Decide to take joy in making a neat, clean home for your family. I often didn't like housework because I felt like I was being put upon and used by my family. My attitude was often not the attitude of service towards them. I had to learn this attitude of service but the Lover of My Soul has convicted me of this. Jesus had to remind me many times of how He SERVED! He loved people and He served people. Who are the people that you love most on the planet? Your family, of course! Who would you rather serve than the people you love the most? And if we can't serve those that we love most how can we ever hope to serve those that we don't love or who don't love us?!
4. Enlist your family to help you. This may seem a direct contradiction to the previous point but it's not really. You see, part of loving and serving your family includes teaching your little ones to be good stewards of the things that God has entrusted in their care. Even the very little guys can pick up their toys. When they are a bit older they can put away their folded laundry, help set the table, take out the garbage, and feed the dog and cat. Children in the upper elementary grades can begin to take on more responsibility by helping with the meal preparations as well as helping with sweeping and dusting and doing the laundry. I will admit that as my boys grew and got busier with their school work and activities I wasn't very good at expecting them to help me as they should have. Learn from my mistakes! They were capable of helping with far more housework than I expected them of them and my daughter-in-laws would have thanked me for it!!! :)
5. Give your kids a space that is theirs. This space is especially important for teens. Usually it is their bedroom but it doesn't have to be. It could be a room in the basement where they can hangout with their friends or some other area as long as it is someplace that you can close the door to. If the space is shared with siblings you may need to mediate some measure of cooperation and mutual respect but this is often a good and necessary lesson for today's teens. Hopefully, at this point you have taught them to put their things away and this space will not take on the appearance of a natural disaster site but if it does... close the door! Don't let it become a source of contention between you and your teen. As long as it doesn't stink or attract pests, let them deal with it. My boys eventually got tired of being unable to find things and would do a big clean-up. During the summer I usually encouraged them to take a day or two and really clean their rooms. And by encourage, I mean that I helped (remember... service)! I admit that there were almost always long-lost items that were found and became lessons to the boys regarding the value of being organized and neat. :)
Love and serve your family and the Lover of Your Soul by keeping a neat and clean home. It will amke you and your family happy and increase your opportunities for service in other ways.
Loving and serving the Lover of My Soul and Yours!
Laurie Jo
I have learned a few things in all these years of taking care of my home.
1. Keep things in perspective. If your children have food to eat, clean clothes to wear, and a reasonably clean environment at home then you have the essentials taken care of and the rest is just gravy. In fact, I would encourage you to read a book to your children or play a game with them before you make sure that your floors shine and your mirrors are spot-free. Some of you are obsessing because you can't stand the stuff tracked on the carpet or the few dishes left in the sink from the kid's afternoon snack. I know you have heard it before but I will tell you again... your babies will not remember that you kept a spotless floor, they will remember playing games and reading stories and cuddling at naptime. Don't let the expedient overrule the truly important!
2. Develop a system. Maybe it's a room a day or a room a week. Maybe it's taking care of one task a day like sweeping, or dusting, or laundry. Find one that works for you and stick with it. I have used a couple of different systems in my married life and have developed several of them into something that fits me and my family. One that I can recommend is The Flylady. She is organized and has a reasonable approach. She starts with "baby steps" and helps you develop habits that will keep your housework under control. There are other systems that I'm sure work equally well. The important thing is to have a system and to work the system. Do a search on the Internet and you'll be amazed at the number of different systems you will find.
3. Decide to take joy in making a neat, clean home for your family. I often didn't like housework because I felt like I was being put upon and used by my family. My attitude was often not the attitude of service towards them. I had to learn this attitude of service but the Lover of My Soul has convicted me of this. Jesus had to remind me many times of how He SERVED! He loved people and He served people. Who are the people that you love most on the planet? Your family, of course! Who would you rather serve than the people you love the most? And if we can't serve those that we love most how can we ever hope to serve those that we don't love or who don't love us?!
4. Enlist your family to help you. This may seem a direct contradiction to the previous point but it's not really. You see, part of loving and serving your family includes teaching your little ones to be good stewards of the things that God has entrusted in their care. Even the very little guys can pick up their toys. When they are a bit older they can put away their folded laundry, help set the table, take out the garbage, and feed the dog and cat. Children in the upper elementary grades can begin to take on more responsibility by helping with the meal preparations as well as helping with sweeping and dusting and doing the laundry. I will admit that as my boys grew and got busier with their school work and activities I wasn't very good at expecting them to help me as they should have. Learn from my mistakes! They were capable of helping with far more housework than I expected them of them and my daughter-in-laws would have thanked me for it!!! :)
5. Give your kids a space that is theirs. This space is especially important for teens. Usually it is their bedroom but it doesn't have to be. It could be a room in the basement where they can hangout with their friends or some other area as long as it is someplace that you can close the door to. If the space is shared with siblings you may need to mediate some measure of cooperation and mutual respect but this is often a good and necessary lesson for today's teens. Hopefully, at this point you have taught them to put their things away and this space will not take on the appearance of a natural disaster site but if it does... close the door! Don't let it become a source of contention between you and your teen. As long as it doesn't stink or attract pests, let them deal with it. My boys eventually got tired of being unable to find things and would do a big clean-up. During the summer I usually encouraged them to take a day or two and really clean their rooms. And by encourage, I mean that I helped (remember... service)! I admit that there were almost always long-lost items that were found and became lessons to the boys regarding the value of being organized and neat. :)
Love and serve your family and the Lover of Your Soul by keeping a neat and clean home. It will amke you and your family happy and increase your opportunities for service in other ways.
Loving and serving the Lover of My Soul and Yours!
Laurie Jo
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