I was incredibly productive today, I got my laundry room re-organized and got a big chunk of laundry done. As you know washing clothes for five people is a never-ending cycle. Just when you catch up on it, someone usually has an accident or gets sick. In our laundry area we had a round table, the purpose of this table was simply for us to fold the clothes and then put it away right away. Clearly that’s not how we were using it, it was just something that was enabling us to not prioritize our time. I would wait until the kids had barely any clean clothes and I would spree wash clothes. I was doing so many load of laundry at a time, that instead of taking it out of the dryer and folding it I just put it on the table. That caused it to pile up, and then the kids needed to get to bed, or I needed to make them something to eat or we would just get busy doing something. Excuse after excuse, it would stay piled up until it was overwhelming and we had no choice but to clear it off. Going downstairs and seeing that table covered in clothes was a daily reminder, that I hadn’t finished what I should have. Since today was K’s last day of school for the summer, I figured it was long overdue. I folded all the clothes that had been on the table, Z and Em helped me put it away in their drawers. Later on my mom and I moved the circular table out of our laundry room, and into our spare storage room taking away the table that was enabling us. I then switched the dirty laundry baskets that were beside the furnace, and put them against the wall away from the furnace.
Now every time we do laundry we have no choice but to fold the clothes and put it away right away. There simply is nowhere to put it. Okay, for argument’s sake we could say we could put a load on top of the dryer, but if you do that then you have no room to fold the clothes the next time you wash a load. Easier to just fold it right away and put it away, now my laundry room won’t be keeping me up at night. Don’t get me started on the towels that we have, I’ve been trying to get those under control for quite a while. I wash them, and I wash them and I wash them. It seems like we always use certain ones and I never see the other ones. SO I figured that enough was enough and I decided that everyone would each get two towels and two face-cloths including guests. That means we have a total of 14 towels and 14 face-cloths, which still seems like a lot to me. Then I counted how many towels I put away in a box to give away roughly 20 towels, and roughly 10 face-cloth. That’s completely ridiculous we don’t use that many, and so I said goodbye to them I feel so much lighter.
I had asked the kids grandpa to come over to cut down a tree that I had in the backyard. The big one that he cut down was dead, making it more of a safety risk then anything. A couple of smaller trees were just blocking a path in our yard to the back gate. For the past two summers, we’ve had more than a dozen wasps in the back yard hanging around the dead tree, it was very annoying considering we have to pass right beside it to get to the back gate to bring our garbage out. It was so bad to the point where I wasn’t comfortable with the kids playing back there, scared they would get stung. Here’s some side by side pictures of what it looked like after the tree was cut down. Please ignore the stupid “deck/raised garden area” that you see there we currently RENT and some idiot built that. Personally I think it was a stupid idea to build whatever it is, the placement is ridiculous and just a pain in my butt. I don’t even think that it’s been built properly as you can see.
We went to pick up miss K at her bus, and to my surprise she was wearing her thick sweater. It was a pretty hot day, I don’t understand my kids sometimes… Upside she was so excited to start summer vacation. On the walk back home K and Z ambushed me asked me if we could have a fire in the backyard to celebrate the last day of school. With a report card that said K’s off to grade two in September (Yipeee) and the hazard tree gone I thought that would a fantastic idea. Bonus: we had some free fire wood from the cut down tree.
What’s something you did to make your day productive? What fun thing did you do with your family to celebrate the last day of school?