Laundry Room: Our Dirty Little Secret

Cleaning out the dryer lint trap is second nature to everyone. However, I am not sure when we last cleaned out the dryer vent, but when the dryer was no longer drying clothes we took a look.

Eewww, he is putting his hand in there.

First, we disconnected the vent from the dryer and the wall.. Taking off the vent may not work for everyone but our vent is short so it wasn't hard.

This is where the vent meets the wall.  I can see some light.

This is what we, I mean Jack, took out of the vent. I can't even begin to imagine what this stuff is. I think we will put this into a 6 month cleaning rotation. At least now the dryer works great again :)  

If you haven't cleaned your vents you should. It definitely helps with the efficiency of the dryer, not to mention this the stuff that can catch fire and burn down your house.

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Laundry Chaos: Where do we put our clothes?

There was a time when my kids had hampers in their rooms.  That is until every time I went to do laundry I would find  legoes, stuffed animals and the occasional sneaker.  In one of my "enough is enough moments", I removed the hampers from their rooms and changed to one hamper in the main bathroom.

Well, this is what has been happening.  The dirty clothes makes it to the OUTSIDE of the hamper.  I am not sure if the lid is to heavy or maybe they are not sure how to work the lid, but they always seem to put their clothes here and not INSIDE the hamper.

So I found a new hamper.  It is a little pricey but I waited until it was half price.  You can order one here at 31 bags

This hamper is located in the spot as the old one. ( After all I didn't want to confuse the children. ) 

It doesn't have a lid to lift.

And it is split into two compartments for whites and darks.  

I must say we have had it for two weeks and so far the kids seem to be able to handle it.  They are putting their clothes INSIDE the hamper.  I guess that lid was tricky.

Added bonus: the bag has handles so it is easy to carry down the stairs.  No more transferring into a basket and THEN hauling it downstairs.

Laundry, my arch-nemesis

Nothing drives me crazier than laundry.  My usual routine was to do laundry on Sundays.  Well, THAT does not work.  All that does is leave a HUGE pile of laundry that makes you want to throw every piece of clothing out and start fresh. This, of course, is not a practical solution.

This summer while on vacation, my  mother in law started talking about laundry.  (She knows I have a problem)  She told me that she makes sure she does a load everyday.  She has a daily schedule that she has followed since the kids were kids. (Thes "kids" are my husband, brother -in- laws, and sister-in- law; they are all married now with babies)  So of course the road to a happy marrige is to get along with your MIL, I said "Really? How does it work?"  I wrote it down and vowed to try and follow it when we got home from vacation.

Well we have been home from vacation for about 3 weeks and I must say so far so good.

This is what laundry looked  like on a good day.

Before: believe it or not I had already brought some clothes down to the laundry room.

 This what it looks like since I started the weekly schedule.  Hopefully I'll be able to maintain it.

After;  the kids are happy they can put clothes IN the hamper and out side of it :)

Here is the magic, or at least to me it is magic, list:

It really does help to see it and it is pretty so it makes me smile :)

Now go do some laundry !!!!