3/14/07

Household Tips

As I was folding laundry today, I thought it might be helpful to share a couple of the household tips that I’ve learned, and see what others have to share.

1) Laundry - a) When folding clothes, separate them by type before you fold. I typically start with undergarments (not including socks), and begin folding them as I go. As I pull out clothes that are not unders, I place them into piles: socks, pants, shirts, ironing. I keep plugging along folding skivvies and sorting the rest until I am done with the pile. Then, I go back and fold shirts, then pants and last I match and fold socks. It just helps me go faster to fold the same type of thing each time. Today I folded about five loads of laundry (I know, I was behind) in 45 minutes. b) I have a friend who has a laundry basket for each person’s room. When she is pulling clothes out of the dryer, she immediately puts them into the appropriate room’s basket. She delivers each basket to the proper door to await folding. When her kids are old enough, they can fold their own clothes. For now, she folds one basket at a time when she has time.

2) Picking up - For me, I can pick up faster if I stay focused. So I pick up one room at a time. Anything that does not belong in that room, is put - rather, tossed, plunked down, dropped off, or piled up - into the next room I’m going to pick up. You just leave it and go back to the room you are currently working in. Typically, I do not go put it into the room it belongs, unless that room is on the way to my next working room. I know that means I move some things a couple times, but it still goes faster. Working this way, I do not get distracted by other things (like deciding I need to dust a piece of furniture or clean out the clothes in my closet) and I systematically get every room clean.

3) Meal planning - You don’t have to be super detailed in your meal planning, but I find that creating some type of plan helps me budget, cook and eat right. I actually have a template for my breakfast, lunch, dinners and snacks (for me and my daughter) that I fill out once a week. I then make my grocery list based upon my meal plan. I don’t always stick exactly to the plan, but it helps to have a guideline. Plus, I find that I eat better throughout the day. I have another friend who come up with all of the dinners for the week, but doesn’t specify the day. She shops according to her plan, and then each night (or a couple nights in advance), she looks at the list and chooses dinner, knowing she already has all the ingredients. However you do it, meal planning can really help.

What other tips do you have?

5 comments:

Llama Momma said...

You fold undergarments and iron?? Wow. I'm impressed. Seriously.

My helpful tip? If you wait long enough to fold a basket of laundry, you won't need to anymore--it'll be dirty again! ;-)

Lara said...

I have my kids unload the dishwasher by stacking things for me to put away (some folks actually rearrange their cupboards to make dishes accessible for kids to get out and put away). With three kids we divide it up into one doing top, other doing bottom and the third putting silverware away (good sorting exercise for toddlers).

My husband doesn't think it's worth it, but I find putting away already stacked dishes is better than doing the whole job. Maybe I'm just lazy.

spaghettipie said...

LM - Yes, I do fold undergarments...but I NEVER said I ironed. I make a stack of ironing. But it ends up going to the cleaners to get ironed when my husband finally runs out of shirts. My mom always ironed my clothes for me (and she blames herself for my poor ironing habits) and - get this - my roommate during college ironed for me. I pulled out the iron the other day to do some surprise ironing for my husband and my daughter freaked out crying at the sight of the iron. Ha ha, I've trained her well.

AMM - that's a good one! my daughter isn't big enough to help with that yet, but I do it myself. I completely unload the dishwasher, sorting and stacking on the counter and the island...and then put away in one fell swoop.

Thanks! Any more ideas?

Llama Momma said...

"but I NEVER said I ironed. I make a stack of ironing."

Ha!! Yes, early in my marriage I TRIED to iron my husband's shirts. I really did. And then I decided that $1 a shirt was a really good deal. And since I was making $30/hour at the time, and it took me 30 minutes to iron each shirt, well, even I can do the math on that one!! I've never looked back.

I am a die-hard menu planner, though. With a husband that travels during the week, I can't run to the store here and there--I need to be ready for the week when it starts! (Or, as ready as I can be!)

L.L. Barkat said...

I also live with a meal plan. 30 days. I love it. Meal-making used to be such a chore and a source of anxiety at the end of the day ("what should we have?")

Anyway, now it's funny... My kids ask, "what's on the plan for tonight?" Makes me feel like a restaurant!