Laundry piled to the Ceiling

The two chores that frustrate me the most are doing laundry and unloading the dishwasher. These two just seem to be a never-ending battle. The laundry is worse for me than the dishwasher, but they both are jobs that I tend to put off.

I do laundry on Mondays and Thursdays - two days out of my week taken up with standing in the laundry room, folding, hanging up, or tossing (either in the washer or dryer).

Sometimes, I'll let the laundry slide a little and won't get it finished (one or two loads left on the floor) until the next laundry day. But, with this new chore schedule, the children have to take their clean clothes out of the laundry room on Monday and Thursday afternoons and put them away so, if they're not done, they can't complete their chores.

And, it's in MY best interest to have it done, so I have help putting away all the clothes. It's amazing how many dirty clothes a family of five can generate.

When I was single, I'd do one load of laundry each weekend, maybe two, and iron all my suits, skirts, and blouses on Sunday night for the following work week. That seems like such a distant memory. It was wonderful to be able to do laundry whenever it seemed like I was getting low on something and it not be a big deal.

I always cook a big meal for Monday night. We don't have any leftovers, usually, coming off the weekend, and I like to start the week off with a bang, instead of with corndogs or hotdogs, our usual fill-in or "Mommy's been too busy to cook today" meal. Additionally, there's always a ton of housecleaning to be done after the weekend.

For example, I got up this morning with 7 loads of clothes to wash, one load of towels, dinner to make, the dining room to clean since we have a meeting here Wednesday afternoon, the living room to dust, mop, and straighten, the kitchen counters to clean and disinfect and the kitchen floor to mop, the 1/2 bath floor needs scrubbing with Clorox, as does the floor in the children's bathroom. Then I've got the Den floor to vacuum and neaten, the hallways to dust and (deep sigh), Don asked me to run to the Boy Scout office and grocery store for him as well as call the children's Allergist with a question.

I'm always hopeful upon waking, anticipating all I can get done in one day, but this is a little much, interspersed with feeding the children breakfast, going over homework, getting them out the door and to school, making Daelyn's lunch and laying down with him for his nap until he's soundly asleep and I can sneak out, and it's already time for the other two to be home from school.

Sigh (yet again). It looks like I'll be doing well to finish the laundry and, maybe, do the dining room and living room. But dinner's in the crockpot and smells wonderful and I have great hope for tomorrow.

I have to remember that my situation isn't as bad as some. I only have 3 children and they're small. Once, when my sister's washing machine was on the blink, she did laundry over here. Her children are BIG (as are she and her husband) and she could only fit about 4 pairs of blue jeans in a full load. Three days worth of laundry from her house was about 8 loads of wash.

Despite my frustration, I have to keep in mind that I'm happy with my life, content with the choices Don and I have made. I have to say, I'd still rather be doing laundry in my own home with the baby asleep across the hall than working for somebody else with my baby in day care.

There's always a plus side. The trick is remembering it when you can't see over the top of the laundry pile.