LOL/LOL: Laundry (and some housekeeping)

Better late than never, right? My LOL/LOL post was supposed to be up yesterday, but I spent all day Monday and Tuesday absolutely kicking butt getting stuff done around the house, with the hope of spending today cooking, baking, and getting out the Christmas decorations. So I thought I would post last night—a little late in the day, but still on the right day… but within a few minutes of getting my kids to bed, I was hit with a nasty stomach bug. Oy vey. So instead of spending today cooking, baking, and decorating, I spent it puking, sleeping, and laying on the couch. Not exactly what I had planned. BUT I am very thankful for my mother-in-law, who took the day off of work and took care of my kiddos all day so that I could just rest and recuperate, and I already feel tons better.

So back to the laundry post. I also wanted to have pictures to show you, but my camera battery is dead… Seriously, this post was just not meant to happen! So you'll have to take my word for it for now, but I really do want to post pictures someday because you just won't believe it until you see it.

Because laundry in this zoo is not your ordinary laundry. Oh no. We have a system. I cannot take credit for this system. If you know me IRL, you know that I often say Mr. Fantastic is borderline OCD and I am a tornado. I am not organized at all. But my laundry is.

Our system is one that Mr. Fantastic invented in his single days, and it has been tweaked over time for changing needs and space. In our current home (which we built, and for which Mr. Fantastic drew all the plans—isn't he wonderful?), our laundry room is on the 2^nd floor, where all of the bedrooms are. It is wonderful. I LOVE that I do not have to trudge down to the basement to do the laundry, that I don't have to remember to take the dirty clothes down or deal with carrying the clean clothes up. It is worth every inch of space that it takes up there. Anyway, our laundry room is small, but one wall is full of 4 shelves, each of which holds 3 laundry baskets. For those of you who weren't math majors, that equals TWELVE laundry baskets. TWELVE. Each basket is for a different "category." Yes, TWELVE of them. I'm not going to give you the run-down right now, but you have to know that the laundry room is one of the most organized rooms in my house.

One of the baskets is actually a catch-all for the kids. They don't have a hamper in their room, so they just run their clothes to the laundry room and put everything in one basket, and then I sort it before I do laundry. This will likely change with time—you know, the time when we don't want our children running around the house naked—but for now it works great. It's also nice for times when I hand them some random kitchen towel or pair of socks that I found downstairs or things like that, so I can just tell them to throw it in the laundry and they have a designated spot to put it.

Anyway, in our zoo, Monday is Laundry Day. We do very little else on Mondays—it used to be nothing else, but Mondays have also become therapy day. Fortunately they come to us, and they don't mind finding me in my sweats, because Laundry Day = Pajama Day. I don't worry about any other housework on Mondays except unloading, reloading, and folding. Now, I feel like I should give a little disclaimer here… This is generally the way things are, but since The Great Breakdown of 2010, my mom has been coming over on Mondays to fold my laundry, so I just keep the machines running and she folds it all for me. It's a lovely luxury.

Also, everyone here except Roo is responsible for putting away their own laundry, at least to a degree. Lamb and Monkey both have things that get hung up—a lot of things for Lamb, actually—and I take care of those, but they do the rest. Monkey is still learning how to put things where they go and how to carry one or two things at a time and keep them folded, instead of just grabbing the biggest pile he can carry and stuffing it all in a drawer. But honestly, in a drawer is better than in the laundry basket, so I'm willing to give some wiggle room there. But yes, Mr. Fantastic puts away his own laundry as well. It's not a matter of me refusing to do it or anything, it's just how we've always done things. I don't really know why.

So… ummmmmm… that's about as interesting as I can make laundry for you, friends. Tune in next week when I tell you how I get the grime out of my shower tiles. No, not really.

LOL/LOL stands for Lots of Littles/Lots of Laughs. It is a blog series by moms who are overrun by small children have 3 or more little kiddos, talking about parenting, marriage, & life. After you read this post, make sure you check out Jamey's take on this same topic at Zehlahlum Family. And then please play along! Tell us what you think in the comments OR blog about it and post a link in the comments.Oh, and if you're wondering where the housekeeping comes in, well… that actually has nothing to do with the LOL/LOL post. I was actually talking about blog housekeeping. First, I am looking for a sponsor or two so that I can do some fun giveaways. Do you have an etsy site or other site where you sell your own goods? Would you be willing to pass along a donation or even a discount for Roo's readers?

Second, thank you for reading, and thank you to the lovely person who nominated us for a bloggy award. If you enjoy hearing about life in the zoo, please click here to vote for our blog! I know this is still a very small blog, but I would love to see how many "likes" we can get! J

Third… ummmm… I'm pretty sure there was a third thing, but it's gone now, so I'll just leave you with…

Happy Thanksgiving!Enjoy your day with family, friends, and thankfulness.