Linens and Laundry...

Ok so I'm struggling to tread water with all the laundry I need to do. I haven't been right on it everyday and the house looks like we had a great weekend last week and have been getting back to normal this week. For some time now I have noticed that it is hard to stuff things into our linen closet. Everything has a stack, but it was overcrowded all of a sudden and I knew it was time to hoe out.

I've been busy all week switching out winter for summer clothes and doing laundry here and there. Today I buckled down and went after that linen closet. I can tell you that the mystery of the overcrowding was solved. Care to see the results?

Warning: some of these photos are graphic realities of a house with too much dirty laundry to wash and a house full of homeschooled kids who , well need to be homeschooled so laundry isn't always on top of the list. I'm also beginning to think maybe we have too many clothes. No comments dh.

Not bad...this shelf was stuffed to the brim so that stuff was actually facing out to me rather than being in a pile with the tops to the ceiling.

The bottom half of the of the closet- the top one there isn't finished yet- there are many towels in the wash and I haven't figured out yet where the pile of pool towels will go.

For real? This is what came out of the linen closet that we shouldn't have in there! No wonder I couldn't seem to keep my system anymore. I have never once used most of what is in that pile in the 8 years I've lived here.

I just have to share what else I found in there!

• 20 baby washcloths
• 23 bibs- 6 or so are keepsakes
• 6 tablecloths- none of which fit our table with the leaf in it. The leaf is in.
• 7 top sheets I guess we'll keep for draping if we need it. I'm just sure more painting is in my future
• 6 whole sheet sets that need to go (really old from Dan's childhood)
• 4 really old pillowcases with no other friends
• 1 queen size mattress cover. Why did we keep this knowing we need allergin covers?
• 2 bathing suits that have dry rotted waistbands
• 4 ultimate crib sheets I've cut off he elastic from and will keep for throw up situations
• 9 trivets/potholders
• 5 or so tablerunner/napkin type things
• And guess where the elusive heating pad is??
  

Seriously? This is the pile of laundry upstairs. Below you will see that the baskets are used up in the basement. While I was cleaning out the linen closet, the kids were playing fort with this wall of dirty clothes. Does that ever happen at your house?

Another fun find- how cute is this? I made this lunch bag for Dan when we first got married. Can you tell what those chemical compounds are?

Switching summer and winter clothes-aahhh!

Some of the laundry downstairs- see those missing towels? There's another pile of sheets behind these too.

The folding counter. Here you see three piles and like a well oiled machine, my kids take up their pile to their room and put them away- all the away- finished means all the way done...

This is the stack for Dan and I... why doesn't the well oiled machine take care of these? I'm happy to report that this one is already gone- all of it, but a new one has been started.

I had to add this one in here for all those FIAR decluttering friends- do you see why my playroom needs to be picked up? The younger boys are really enjoying the train these days. By day's end this will improve.

However, check out the school table! Some playdoh fun is going on here today and just for the record all the 3Rs are done and were done early today. After lunch we will do FIAR and BYFIAR and call it a day as far as academics.

I can't say the same for my laundry...